The Werewolves Of Syadi Peak

Chapter 2

Estrella is past sixteen namedays, and has grown apart from Caspian. She started her work as a cleaning maid, the ones responsible for keeping the castle clean. Caspian's mother has given Caspian two new siblings, twins. They're a girl and a boy. They're only five namedays old, and still cause trouble for Estrella.

       "ESTY!! There's a huge mess in the lounge!! Go clean!" Thea yelled, pushing me. Ugh, I thought, here we go again. Dragging my bucket of water and my shabby mop, I walked over to the lounge. There was some bags of seeds open on the floor, spilling their contents across the rug. Joseph sat nearby, trying to hide a smirk. I left my mop and bucket, as they wouldn't be needed.

    "Stupid kids..." I mumbled, swiping the seeds into the bags. I grabbed them and walked out of the room. I headed toward the garden shed, almost dropping the bags. Creaking open the door, I threw the bags into the shelf. The dust flew around, getting in my face. After the dust settled, I opened the door again, and it slammed behind me. The wind was getting stronger.

    "Hey! You! Get inside, there's going to be a nasty storm!" yelled someone from across the garden. I couldn't make out their figure, but I took their advice. I went inside the nearest door, shutting it behind me. Loud thunks filled my ears. It seemed that Thea and Joseph were nailing wood planks to the garden door, the one I had used to get out of the castle. Sneaking past them was easy, their loud hammers silencing my footsteps.

     "We lost six of our men trying to take back Syadi Peak," a voice stated from the room that I happened to be beside. It must be the throne room, where the king gets his prisoners punished and his soldiers knighted. Sighing, I walked past the door, not even daring to glimpse inside. The king was very paranoid, and if anyone who was not permitted to be in a room was, they were sent to the stocks. Poor them, or, better yet, poor me. Every once in a while I would be sent to clean up a cell after the prisoner was executed or tortured to death. Blood stains and writing on the walls were things that held no hope for the dungeon to ever be clean.

    "Hey! Estrella, do you by any chance know where the twins are?" Hopper asked as I almost ran into him. He was the children's caretaker —not the one who controlled their actions, but the one who put them to bed every night and made sure they were bathed. He looked like he was shaking, his toes darting side to side. Hopper always had trouble finding the twins when they played pranks and cruel jokes on others. 

  "Yeah, they're by the garden door," I responded, watching his form bound towards the twins. Poor lad... his head would probably explode from the twins' antics. I stepped into the the broom closet and grabbed a mop. Someone's trial was being held, and, lucky me, I got to clean it after whoever it was had died a gruesome death. Mostly witches were being burned, and the occasional lad who went to shout some treasonous words after swinging by the pub and having a tad too much.

  "Estrella, you are freed of your cleaning duties. Only if you come to the execution tomorrow!" I whirled around to find, no surprise here, Thea and Joseph. I sighed and nodded, not planning to watch someone being pushed of the Blood Cliff, where most people were simply shoved to their deaths after they confessed their sins. On some days you could hear the crunch of their body as it landed onto the ocean and was swept away.

 The next day, the trip to the cliff was uneventful, and for some reason it was more crowded. I even saw some of the commoners from other kingdoms in the crowd. Who would have thought a prisoner would be so popular? What kind of crime was it? I made my way through the crowd, trying to see over all the heads. I caught a glimpse of the offender. A male, rough black hair, pale skin, ragged clothes, and oh.... the markings of an alpha. The king was sitting in a throne not close to the cliff's edge, and he was surrounded by guards. 

     "Welcome, people of Golden City, and welcome to those outside! Except for those filthy mutts, of course. Today we will be executing this... leader of a tribe. He refuses to tell us anything, so we got to work!" the king chuckled, and a ripple of laughter tore through the audience. I found my way to a front spot, and saw red gash lines and scars along the skin of the werewolf, along with chains surrounding his body. The prison keeper must have used his whip against the alpha's skin. Why did the alpha not have his tail? Or his ears? Was there something wrong with him? If the king had chopped off his ears and tail, he would display them on a mantel and boast about for a fortnight. 

                   "The accusations have been said: trespassing, murder, and being a werewolf in our clean world. Our perfect world." A knight stepped out of the king's circle, and strutted up to the werewolf. Murder? Who? I looked away, knowing most of these lines that were presented from the knight. The knight was no other than Sir Leo, a notorious knight known for murdering or making traitors 'mysteriously disappear'.     

           "Guilty," the werewolf spat, before Sir Leo could continue monologging about the history of werewolves and the kingdom. The knight kicked the werewolf in the ribs. He groaned. Laughter rang out from the audience. I couldn't tell if it was genuine or forced. But that didn't matter. 

         "Get this over with," the king roared. The crowd went silent as Sir Leo picked up the werewolf by the chains. Suddenly, I was shoved back by someone who wanted to see. The crowd moved forward as the knight dragged the alpha up to the cliff. The groans of the werewolf dissapated as the crowd roared. It all went silent, for a second. The body was flung over the cliff, which means I get to go back to my job of cleaning. Hooray.