Purple Feather

Prologue

Lia Elikira Rouge. That's me. Sometimes I have to remind myself; I am Lia Elikira Rouge, I have red hair and green eyes. I have a sister, but she isn't really my sister. She is named Kora. Kora Natalia Rouge. When she found me, I was eleven. I had no name. She named me Lia. The fact that I survived more than half my life surprised her. She, in fact, was thirteen when she found me. She was also a street girl, so we teamed up. We were safer in numbers. She has black hair and brown eyes along with tan skin. Many called us 'Unfis', which was the word for street kids.

Seven years later and not much has changed. We are still 'Unfis'... Or I am. She is just a homeless adult now. We had not even a single Jovek to our name. But sometimes the people of the town gave us their old clothes.

"Kora! I'm hungry..." I whined and held my stomach. "I know... But we have nothing." She said quietly as we sat against the wall of a bakery, hoping someone would spare SOMETHING. ANYTHING.

But as usual; The heartless rich just passed us by and the humble poor had nothing to give. Though sometimes the bakery's owner, a woman by the name of Sephia would give us bread she couldn't sell. Either it was over-cooked or just wasn't wanted, but we didn't mind. Anything to keep us alive.

I stood up and pushed my messy, matted hair out of my face. "I'm going to beg at the market. Meet back here at 16:30." I said before she could protest about my safety and such.

I soon arrived at the market to see the people gathered at the sides of the road. Probably just guards passing as usual. I paid no attention to the crowd and stepped straight into the middle of the cobble street, gasps erupting from the crowd. I brushed it off. It wasn't a big deal for 'Unfis' to disrespect guards. The fact that they cared so much amazed me. The only thing that would have been such a big deal was disrespecting the king; and I wasn't doing that. Was I?

I straightened my once gray, muddy, tattered dress and took a step forward. "Child..." An elderly voice said. Probably not me. "Girl. In the gray dress..." The voice said. Yup definitely me... I turned around slowly and glanced at the man. The king. King Evan. I gasped and began to run to the sidewalk. "No, no child. Come." He said and gestured me to come to him. I nodded and ran up to him, then quickly kneeled down before him out of respect.

He whispered something almost inaudible to the guard beside him, and the guard, or knight, I couldn't tell the difference, nodded. "...Very well. Your name?" He said, facing me. "Oh! Um... Lia Elikira Rouge." I said quietly as I stood. "Unfi, correct?" He asked and I just nodded silently, looking down at my depressing excuse for clothes. "Mhm... Mathias, take her to the castle. Get a meal into this poor girl." The elderly king said, and the guard simply nodded and grabbed my arm rather roughly and walked towards the castle in the center of the kingdom.

As we walked it began snowing, covering the buildings in a thin sheet of the frozen crystal. I shivered lightly and the guard loosened his grip on my arm, allowing me to step away from him slightly, but I still followed him. The idea of warmth and food was the only thing stopping me from running away from the guard. Running far, far away. Back to Kora... Kora... She doesn't know where I am....

Oh well... They'll release me after they feed me... Right?

Wrong. I thought. Wrong, they're probably going to make me a slave for the Knights... And not the working slave...