His story begins in the streets of Grey town, named after the lack of colours with the expection of a few scattered trees. The walls, the signs, even the fences were dyed to match the name. It was the colour associated with the peasants.
Peasants were the rank of people who had to work day after day in a low paying job, if they didn't work under someone wealthy. In one of the houses lived the Reed family. The family consisted of Darya Reed - a loving mother with a thin, short physique, blonde, shoulder-length hair and eyes green as emeralds; Sebastian Reed, the strict, but caring and protective father, with red, greying hair and brown eyes; lastly, Zephyr Reed, the son, who had eyes like his mother and hair like his father. He wasn't remarkable in any way. He spoke very little but had a fascination with animals, especially the family dog, called Snackey, he was an old golden retriever.
They had a maid, called Rose Smith, who was short, she wasn't very thin, had black curly hair, and brown eyes. She was also a peasant, she didn't ask for a lot of money from the Reeds, because she was a family friend. She would take Zephyr on trips, cook for him, and look after him whenever the family was out of town working. It would not be a rare occurrence, because they had to work a lot, especially during the week leading up to their son's birthday. They worked as gardeners for an untouchable family, the Ainsworths.
Untouchable is the rank of people who are in the top 10 percent. Their prestigious houses were covered in a wide range of colors, embedded with precious materials such as gold, ruby, sapphire and the sort, in order to show how well off they were. Sebastian and Darya both found them to be an eyesore, but they carried on working for them, as it was a well enough paying job, to keep a roof over their heads, food on their table, and every now and then they would be able to pay for a vacation, when the garden didn't get messed up by the children of the Ainsworth family.
It was a usual day at the Reed house, Sebastian read the newspaper, scoffed at the hypocrisy of the untouchables. They were painted as saints, but he would disagree very much. He threw the piece of paper into the fireplace, as he so liked to do, when he disagreed with it, so this didn't surprise his family very much. He had a suspicion that the untouchables had something to do with the bureau, as he heard the family discuss political matters when he was tidying up the roses around the Ainsworth's family house. He didn't understand the matter at hand too well, as he wasn't interested in politics, he had a job that he did well, but couldn't be bothered about politics, as peasants were the last to ask, and had the least amount of representation when it came to making laws.
Two days were left until the sixth birthday of their son, they had an idea, to surprise him, and thought it would be a good time for Zephyr, to see the new animals that were brought into the zoo.
They both went upstairs to Zephyr's room, where the boy was currently sleeping. They knocked on the door, to see if he was awake or not.
Zephyr, are you awake? - asked Darya softly.
He gave no response, he was still asleep.
Zephyr! Wake up, we have a surprise for you. -Said Sebastian in his raspy voice slightly louder than his wife's.
Zephyr awoke, he rubbed his eyes, and put on his slippers, barely awake, and he opened the door to see his excited parents.
Morning mum, morning dad - He said halfway asleep.
Good morning Zephyr - They responded together cheerily.
He looked up to his parents.
So... what is the surprise, mum? - He asked indifferently, he didn't like surprises all that much.
We are heading to the zoo - She said with a smile on her face.
Zephyr's indifference went away quickly, his eyes widened and so did his smile, as the nearby zoo was his favourite place to visit.
Awesome! - He said as he leapt back into his room, to change from his pyjamas to his barely used fancy clothes, which they bought for occasions like these.
For him to get into his fancy clothes wasn't a challenge, because they were always too big for him. He was usually wearing second hand items of clothing, because that's what they could afford.
Zephyr hoped to see a new snake or two, as it was his favourite animal. He ran down to the breakfast table, he almost tripped over a faulty step, there was a slice of buttered bread, he ate it so quickly as if it was never there. His parents were looking at him with a smile, it was always a heart-warming moment to see him this excited, as he was usually collected, calm, and quiet.
When are we going there? - He asked rather impatiently with a smile wider than his parents had ever seen.
As soon as it opens. We didn't expect you to be done this quickly, we have an hour before it does - Responded the father as he threw another newspaper from a different agency into the fireplace.
What was the matter this time, Seb? - Asked the mother looking at the half-burnt paper with her eyebrow raised.
Oh, nothing... bad mouthing and saint painting... nothing new there really - He said like it was just another boring Sunday.
Zephyr didn't understand much from the conversation because he was too young and wasn't let in on the topic at hand. There was only one thing occupying his head at the moment, seeing some animals.
He sat back down to the table, and had his tea. His stomach started hurting after eating the food so fast, but it wasn't noticeable from the outside, he acted like his usual self, and waited to go.
