Autumn's Fire

Autumn's Fire: Chapter 7

I woke up that morning with a scream tearing itself from my throat. My heart racing, I panicked at first, trying to piece together my thoughts. But I soon realized that it was just the nightmare again. About the time I realized this, I also heard Mum's rapid footsteps in the distance, and I quickly yelled out to let her know I was fine.

"False alarm!" I croaked, my voice hoarse from the previous scream. Thankfully, Mum heard me, and her footsteps slowly retreated back towards the kitchen. I sighed, and laid back down with a plop, letting my brain slowly wake up. Having gone three nights without the nightmare waking me up, I had been lulled into a false sense of security, and I sleepily cursed at my pounding head.

I accidentally fell asleep for what felt like a few seconds but what was more likely a few minutes, and when I awoke the second time, I dragged myself from the sheets. At first, I didn't have the energy to stand, so I simply sat on the ground next to my bed for a few minutes, as my brain teetered between sleep and wakefulness. After falling asleep for a few more seconds, and awaking to the feeling of my chin hitting chest, I begrudgingly stood up. Feeling like I was still likely to fall back asleep any minute, I forced myself through getting dressed and wandered out to the kitchen. I plopped down in the chair next to Mum, who was reading over some documents and drinking tea, and set my head down on table.

Mum chuckled at me. "Do you want some tea and an apple?"

I groaned in reply, not lifting my head.

"I'll take that as a yes," she replied far too cheery for how early it was. A few moments later I was served a breakfast for a king, and slowly started to wake up.

After finishing my apple, I blinked several times, looking around the room. "Where's Dad?" I asked confused as to where he was on his day off.

"Oh, the representative from Bellenai ordered a rush on transport, so he went with two workers from the shop so they could travel non-stop." Mum answered, still focusing most of her attention on the document in front of her.

"Right," I said, thinking over what she had said. "Wait, so that makes sense for them, but what about the horse? They can't just run it into the ground," I wondered, mystified.

Mum looked up from her document at me, concerned. "You should know on rush jobs we switch horses at every city on the way- Are you alright, love? Did you really get enough sleep?" she leaned towards me to touch my face.

I gently pushed away her hand and grumbled an excuse. That made sense since on the way back from said trips, they'd switch horses back again, so every city got their original horse. Though they hadn't done it in a while, I still shouldn't have forgotten it, and I pondered momentarily going back to sleep. But I was already awake, and I knew if I laid down now, my mind would just swirl with anxiety and depression from the hell that was the day before. If I wanted to avoid that, I'd need to get my mind off of things, and I had five new books with my name on them that I figured would do the trick. But I also wasn't in any rush, so before heading out, I took the time to pack myself lunch and a snack. Then, I gave Mum a quick hug goodbye and went out the door.

It didn't take long to get to the willow, and I made a point to walk extra quickly so I could limit the chances of running into anyone. Once there, I immediately climbed into it as another measure; I was intent on spending my day reading without any interruptions. So, I settled into the tree and fished a random book from my satchel. It was an in-depth history book of Aethos, and though I had read several history books on my province and on world history, but never on Aethos specifically, so I was ecstatic when I realized what it was.

The book started by discussing the establishment of Aethos as a country back in Gratiae 982. Aethos and the rest of the world used a year system that was based on the Gods, and each increment of 1000 years was named after a name of a God. The years went in alphabetical order, so while Aethos was established in the God Year Gratiae (8,000), the current God Year Moira (13,000). This meant that Aethos had been an established country for over 5,000 years. This surprised me, because while I knew we were the oldest country in the world, I had never thought it was over 3,000. The book then established the creation of the 10 provinces which were previously the 10 countries that made up the continent. The first Emperor of Aethos had convinced the countries to merge based on the fact that they would maintain separate provinces and that Kings and Queens would retain their titles and overall control of their land. The Emperor then convinced the people of the countries by promising them the abolition of slavery, law-based racial inequality, and the death penalty. Originally, there was some opposition, but eventually, through both diplomacy and intimidating military prowess, he merged the countries into one.