To Serve the Queen

Hatana: Dainty Work

Hatana had lived in one of the most remote places on Jazera, which only meant that the shade that fell upon the ground came from actual clouds instead of floating cities.  Her whole life had revolved around her family's farm and the countless days of hard work under the sun had made her undeniably strong and made her soft skin glow.  Being the middle child of a large family, she was a natural-born crowd pleaser and had a way of calming even the most chaotic situations.  Because of all this, she was given the more responsible tasks.

One day, her grandmother sent her to the outskirts of town to deliver a large load of milk and butter to be taken to the Royal City.  She did so gleefully, eager to take the chance to explore one of the only forest left in the world after she'd finished her job and was on the return trip home.  

She set off early in the morning and moved as quickly as she could, pausing only in front of the forest to smile and promise that she would come back and play in it after she'd completed her task, then dutifully continued to pull the produce behind her.  She got to the delivery place in half the time.  Sadly, the people who were meant to meet her there hadn't arrived, so after an hour of patiently waiting and sitting, Hatana decided there wouldn't be any harm in leaving her cart for a few minutes to explore the artisan stores farther along the road.  She skipped over to the bustling stalls to admire the little trinkets and toys.  She was fascinated by people who had the skill and patience to work on such little things for hours and hours.  She wasn't built for that kind of dainty work.

Suddenly, a large tour group plowed around her and her sight was blocked so that she couldn't see her cart and couldn't make it out of the crowd.  Out of the corner of her plum-colored eyes, she saw a sharp flash of blue and she was hit with an excruciating headache.  She knelt down and fought to stay conscious, but within seconds her world had faded to black.

***

Hatana woke with her head still buzzing and in a tiny cell barely large enough to fit her shoulders one way and lacking even the room to extend her legs out when she laid down on the crumbling floor.  She reached for the pocket of her dress to use the pale purple crystal she used to contact her mom, only to find that she neither had the crystal nor her dress.  Instead, she was clothed in an itchy sack with a fraying neckline and armholes carelessly cut from the sides.  Her shoes were also gone and her even her long, smooth, garnet hair had been chopped off into an uneven chin-length bob.  Tears began to well up in her eyes and she clutched her knees close to her chest.

"Mom?" she whispered through sobs, "where are you, mom?"

She heard clunky footsteps from somewhere outside her cell and she held her breath in fear of the footsteps hearing her and stopping at her cell.  When she heard them growing quieter, she released her breath and buried her head in her arms.  Why her?  How could she become one of the disappearances?  Would she ever see her family again?  Would she ever see the sun again?  Fear and despair overcame her and she began openly crying.  Let the footsteps come back, she thought, I have nothing to hold onto anymore.

What seemed like hours passed with no sign of life other than the footsteps she'd heard when she'd first awoken.  She desperately needed to use the restroom and her stomach growled and her legs had long since gone numb.

Suddenly, she heard the footsteps drawing nearer again.  This time, they stopped right outside her cell.  She heard the loud clanking of a metal key and the heavy door shrieked in outrage at being opened.  A bulky bald man stood looking down at her.

"Hatana, age twelve.  Is that you?" he droned.

Hatana nodded, not knowing how they got her name or age, but she was too afraid to ask.

"Come," he grunted forcefully and stepped to the side of the door to let her pass.  Hatana tried to stand and her legs screamed in defiance, but she walked forward through the pain.  The bulky man grunted in approval.

"Strong girl," he commented, and even though she didn't know if that was good for her or not, she had to smile knowing that she still had some sort of gifts from home, like her strength.  She followed Bulky Man down a dimly lit passageway that smelled of mold and looked like an abandoned bomb shelter.  Suddenly, the suffocating moldy smell started fading away and the faint scent of flowers drifted past her nose.

They turned a corner and Hatana was nearly blinded by the light of the sun.  She blinked and shielded her eyes with her arms.  As her eyes began to adjust, she stared around in awe at the endless expanses of flower fields around her.  As far as she could tell, the structure she'd just come out of was the only building in sight.  There was no place like this on Jazera.  How far had she been taken?  She looked around for Bulky Man and saw him talking to a younger, thinner man with dark, wavy chestnut hair that was pulled back into a short ponytail and out of the way of his tarnished pink eyes.  The young man handed over a few odd looking coins and walked towards Hatana as Bulky Man walked back into the dark, crumbly structure.

"Hello, Hatana," the young man greeted with a small bow and a soft smile, "My name is Astyr, I will be your fellow slave for this year."

Hatana blinked, not quite comprehending what Astyr had just said.

"Slave?" she repeated weekly.  The friendly face Astyr had greeted her with faded into a somber one.

"Yes, slave.  This might sound harsh, but it will be best to forget everything you know from Jazera.  Now, you're in Reimec, and now, you're a slave.  If you want freedom, you have to prove you're the best until you make your way to being the Queen's slave, then you can ask to be set free," he sighed.

"So, you're from Jazera, too?  How long have you been here?  What did you do before?" she pried.

"Well, in order, yes, six years, and I was a butler and a chef," he counted off on his fingers, "Is that all?"

"One more for now, what will I have to do as a slave?"

"Oh, not too much.  I'll take the majority of the work.  You'll just have to do little things, set the table, organize and clean up the mansion, dainty work."

"Oh," Hatana squeaked.  Now she knew she'd wouldn't make it back home if that's what she had to do to earn freedom.  "I- I have to go the restroom!" she rattled and dashed behind a cluster of trees to cry.