°The Princess and The Peasant° Leo X Calypso

°Leo°

Leo's POV

I panted as I finished grinding grain. Its really tiring, plus it hurts after even a few minutes. Not to mention, me and the rest of us have been working for hours.

Alright.

Crops: Check.
Grains: Check.
Wood Chopping: Chec-- Wait nevermind.

Onto wood chopping! I grab my basket of grain and my basket of crops and steadily carry them over to the next station. 

I pick up the axe, and immideantly drop it in pain. That axe weighs about 10 pounds, and after a total of 10 hours of straight work, I'm not prepared to hold that thing.

I sit down and groan for one second, before loud stomping comes over.

"No taking breaks, peasant." A guard comes over, and kicks my basket of grains over. "Oops. Guess you'll have to grind some more!" He smirks, and walks away.

I falls to the ground and groan. It took me 6 hours to grind that whole basket! Whatever. Ill do it later. I steadily pick up the axe, even though it hurts a whole lot, and chop some wood. After about an hour, I have a good amount and stop. I look over to my left, and see my best friend struggling to lift the axe. I walk over to her.

"You okay, Beauty Queen?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Does it look like it, repair boy?" She growls, annoyed.

Thats my best friend, Piper. I call her Beauty Queen because for some reason, shes really pretty. I don't like her though, I'm more like her annoying little brother.

"Nah. Need help?" I ask, taking the axe and wincing in pain.

"C'mon Leo, you've been working way longer than me. I can clearly see you're in pain." She frowns.

For some reason, they make me work from 4 AM to 2 AM. Only 2 hours of sleep, and thats it. In that time, I can also eat. Not that I eat much, if anything. Where I live, my aunt hates me. Anyways, the girls work from 6 AM to 8 PM. They get 10 hours to do whatever.

All the other boys work from 4 AM to 9 PM. They make me work 5 extra hours because they especially hate me. Don't know why.

"They hate you because you talk back all the time." Piper crosses her arms.

"Was I talking out loud again?" I question, fully taking the axe. I begin to chop wood. After a few minutes she stops me.

"Okay, you've done enough, repair boy." She takes the axe, struggling.

"Pipes, its 10 pounds. A 10 year old could lift that." I smirk.

"Shut up! Im only 18 still." She begans to chop wood.

"Excuses.. Well anyways, I should head back to my station. Talk to you later!" I walk back to my station. I carry all my wood to my location and go back to grinding grain. 4 and a 1/2 hours later and I'm done! By now its about 5 PM. Ive finished 14 hours, just 8 more to go!..

Hurray.

~~~

About 30 minutes later I have my crops, my grain, and my wood all together. Lets check the checklist.

Crops - Check.
Grain - Check. (Again!)
Wood - Check.
Feed the cows - Check.
Milk the cows - Check
Feed the pigs - Check.
Feed the chickens - Check.
Feed the horses - Check.
Clean the horses. - Check.
Groom the horses. - Check.

---

That should be all of it. I still have 8 hours left, meaning I do all of that again. Great. Even if you finish everything, you do it again. No breaks.

They're easier on everyone else. They get a 10 minute break every 5 hours; buy again, they're harder on me.

I start to grain more grains, when everyone around me gasps and looks toward the castle doors. I do the same, and meet the eyes of the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen. (No offense, Pipes.)

"Hello, uhm.. Guys. I'm here to collect all of your work." She fiddles her fingers. I watch as everyone brings up some wood, grains, and crops. Its a good amount, but no where near how much I have. What can I say? I work fast.

Finally, its my turn. I grabs my baskets full of grains and crops, and somehow managed to carry all the wood without dropping any. I do stumble quite a lot.

Everyone gapes at me as I bring up so much.

"H-how.. How did he get so much?!" I hear voices mumble and shout. Then one particular voice I hate, says something.

"He probably stole from someone." A guy named Dylan crosses his arms.

I swiftly turn around and put my hands on my hips.

"Sorry to burst your bubble there, buddy, but I do my own work. If you steal from someone else, it just means your too pathetic to actually do anything useful. So yeah," I walk over to him and put my hand out. "I'd like my figurine back."

His eyes widen. "How did you--"

"None of your buisness, Dylan. Give it back." I narrow my eyes.

He stares then bursts into laughter.

"Y-you think I'm scared of you? You look like a freaking elf!" He laughs.

I fume in anger. "I do not!" My cheeks red.

The gorgeous girl steps up beside me and nods.

"You do look like an elf, won't lie. I mean, you're short and have pointy ears." She looks at me. I'm about the same height as her, which isnt a good thing considering she's only around 5"6.

"But, give him his thing back." She orders to Matt.

"Oh yeah? Now what'll you do if I don't?--"

"I am Princess Calypso, heir to The Nightshade Family." She says loudly. "It'd be smart to listen to your future queen." She narrows her eyes.

He quickly nods, handing me my figurine back. Its a small wooden carving of a dragon.

"Whatever! Its worthless anyways.." He mumbles.

"Excuse me?! This is NOT worthless!" I growl.

"Not really. Its worth like 2 dollars."

"Oh, well at least its worth more than you!" I narrow my eyes.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!--"

"STOP!" Calypso says. "Both of you!" She crosses her arms.

"Yes ma'am!" I clear my throat and do a soldier salute to her. She glares at me, but I can tell she's holding back a smile.

"Anyways, aren't you tired?" She gestures to all my work.

"Definitely." I nod.

"Why dont you take a break like everyone else?" She looks around at everyone else just sitting around talking and/or eating a small snack.

"I'm not allowed. They hate me more than anyone, so while the girls work from 6 AM to 8 PM, Boys work 4 AM to 10 PM, im the only one who works from. 4 AM to 2 AM."

"What?! Thats only 2 hours of sleep!" She shouts.

"I know."

"So, do you get breaks??" She asks quickly.

"No--"

"WHAT?!" She screams, running towards the door. "Ill be talking to father about this! See you later, uh.." She stops running and turns around

"Leo. Leo Valdez." I nod my head.

"Okay, Leo! My name is Calypso. Calypso Nightshade." She runs inside. "Talk to you later!" She slams the door.

....

....

....

She didn't even take the things.