Roma's Sacrifice

Chapter One - Roma

It is the fifteenth of May and the sixteenth birthday of Roma. She was named after her great grandmother, and grandmother because they share the same birthday. As the sun flowed through her window she awakened and began to dress for the upcoming day. As she finished dressing her father called her down and she went immediately. Her father's name is Ammon and her mother's name is Ammora.

She left her bedroom and walked down the old stairs her father built nearly thirty years ago. At the bottom of the stairs was the living room. She walked through the living room into the kitchen and her mother was cooking breakfast.

Ammon asked Roma, "Would you like to come on a hunt with me today?"

"I would love to dad! What time do you want to leave?"

"Right away if that is okay with the birthday girl."

"Okay, then let's go! Am I going to use mother's horse?"

"Most likely meaning to say you don't have one." As Ammon said this, Ammora smiled at him behind Roma.

Ammon and Roma headed out to the barn. The doors were nearly fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide. They opened the doors and went in to get the horses. Ammon went to the stall he kept his in and Roma to the one her mother's was kept in. When she got to the stall there was some other horse in the stall instead of her mother's. The horse was a beautiful, dark black in color.

Roma yelled, "Dad, there is another horse in mother's stall! Do you know who's it is?"

"Well there is one person in this family that doesn't have a horse yet, and I was thinking that they would like one."

She ran and threw her arms around him and said, "I love you father!"

"Hurry and saddle up for the hunt I also got you a sword and bow for hunting."

As Roma and Ammon rode through their fields of corn Gammit, Roma's horse, bolted as fast as he could.

"Slow down Roma," yelled Ammon

"It isn't me it is all Gammit, he doesn't know what slow down means." As Roma finished talking Gammit dropped to a slow trott, nearly throwing Roma off.

"It looks like he only answers to words right now, but we will teach him to follow actions as well. Make sure and let me go into the forest first, because I know the trails a lot better than you do."

"I will gladly do anything that you want!"

As they were headed through the forest Ammon spotted a deer. They both stopped and were as quiet as can be, until Ammon spoke up "If you want then you can take the first shot because it is your birthday, but I will be ready to shoot if you miss."

"Okay."

Roma proped the arrow in the bow and pulled back. She aimed at the chest of the deer. She released smoothly, how her father had taught her to. The arrow flew through the air with a loud wistle, alarming the deer. Just then another loud wistle came from her side. Roma looked over quickly to see that her father had shot an arrow just after she had. Her arrow hit the tail end of the deer and Ammon's hit the front end.

"Do you want to carry the deer back to the village too?"

"I think it would be better if you did so i didn't get blood all over my new horse, if that is okay with you that is?"

"I wouldn't mind, Baxter, is a very strong horse, and We done it many times already."

They headed over to the deer and loaded it onto Baxter together. They were about a mile away from the village when a thief's net caught Baxter's left rear foot. The net flipped him over and Ammon hit his head on a rock, knocking him out. Roma settled Baxter so that he wouldn't do anymore harm to anyone. She broke two long, but thin, branches off of a tree. She pulled the saddle blanket (a blanket placed on the back of a horse under the saddle) off of Baxter, after removing the saddle, and tied the corners to the ends of the branches. She laid her father on the cot she just made. She removed a rope from her father's saddle bag and tied the front of the cot to the back of her saddle, and the back of the cot to Baxter's saddle. She led Baxter back to the village and to the house, when she arrived to the house she yelled, "Mom come quick dad hit his head and is hurt badly!"

Ammora came running out quickly saying, "Help me bring him inside. Then I want you to go get your grandmother, because she is the best doctor in the village."

Roma rode Gammit to her grandmother's house as fast as she could. She ran inside saying, "Grandma, Dad needs you now!"

"Now Roma calm down and explain to me what happens"

As they climbed onto their horses and trotted slowly to Ammon's house she explained what happened on the way,

"It isn't the first time he has hit his head, but last time his father had to go find him. At least you were there."

They arrived at the house and Ammon was sitting up, and Ammora was chopping up the deer they had gotten. Roma and her grandmother went to him and gave him a hug, both saying at the same time, "I am glad you are okay."

Ammora and the other women from the village cooked the entire deer for the feast that night. It took almost four hours to cook it all because it was such a large deer.

Please let me know what you think!