Silent Souls

Chapter 1: Goose chase

I get tapped on the shoulder, I wake to find the laundry I was folding last night covered in my drool. Great, I'm gonna have to wash that again. I look up to find my mother, she has her pointer  finger and thumb together and as she pulls them away from her head they come apart and her eyes become wide. She then signs my name.

Wake up Sera

I am,  I sign back, tiredly. 

She leaves my room to let me get dressed. I get off my twin bed and pull off my nightgown and replace it. I smooth out my light brown dress, trying to make myself at least a little presentable. I sigh put the clothes from last night in the wicker basket in the corner of my room and start making my bed. I fluff my pillow and find it to be hard and pointy. I open the pillow and find my tool belt I had stole a few weeks ago for my gadget making. I keep it inside and quickly walk to my doorway and check to make sure no one is coming. Thankfully the hallway is empty. I run back over to my bed and reach underneath it to my shoebox of special things. Inside it is my most secret things. It has a piece of coal, a feather, sewing kit, a piece of light blue ribbon and my favorite thing in my box, a shard from a broken mirror. I smile as I take it out and I look at myself. 

My eyes are a deep blue and my freakishly pale face has little brown dots under my eyes and over my nose, the rest of my face; harsh and pointed. I see a shadow on my wall, crap . I quickly put it back in the box and shove it under my bed. I turn around, preparing to be yelled at and hit but it's just my best friend, Suzy. I sigh in relief.

What are you doing her Suzy? My hands go to my hips. Suzy compared to me has chocolate brown skin with soft features compared to my harsh stare. Her eyes that glow like gold, well I've never seen gold but I'd like to think it is as pretty as her eyes. She looks as if she was sculpted, like a goddess.

Making sure your not late again, she grabs my hands and pulls me up from the ground, let me guess up late making a new thing for me to try for you? 

Surprisingly, no. I was up folding laundry, but then I feel asleep. Why would I be late? Nothing is going on except our usual work. Suzy is my tester. She tests all my new makings, even if they are stupid and don't work. But at least it keeps her and I busy and happy for a few hours. 

The prince has a guest coming tomorrow and we must prepare. I roll my eyes, he always seems to have guests here.

Ugh okay, I sign to her and we start walking out of our sleeping house.

I heard that she might be the one. Maybe we will have a new royal, she signs. As she does this, her eyebrows go down as she concentrates. She's always had trouble with signing longer sentences.

Why do people even care about that stuff, it's stupid, I say annoyed

They care becuase jt distracts from the reality, a broken kingdom,built on the servitude of others. We've been doomed to fall to the Kaul for years. Kaul is a country north of us. They've been thriving, and building an army for years. Sometimes late at night I think about what would happen if they took over. Would I be dead? Or would I be free to do as I wish? To spend my days creating new things and spending time with someone who would listen to my crazy ideas in the middle of the night. I like to think of the latter. We continue walking through the long hallway to the courtyard. We reach the door and as we exit my mother is signing so frantically I can barely following what she's saying.

They're checking again, there's another inspection, she repeats this twice as if I did hear her. Huh irony. Suzy looks to me confused and then back at my mother.

Didnt they already check twice?  They only check twice. My mother nods.

They are doing it again, somthing must of happened. We can't continue talking about this, go bring you things to the Tree. We both nods and run back the way we can came to our rooms. As I run the wooden floor creaks. I swing into my room and quickly reach under my bed and grab the shoe box and quickly go over what's inside. Everything seems to be there. I then close my door and take the extra dress off it's hook and stuff it frantically into the shoe box. I open my door again and run to the opposite end of the hall, everyone else in the sleeping house is standing there. 

My mother is in front takes a stone from the wall and places on the ground. Behind that brink is the hollow inside of a tree, hence the name. Everyone starts handing her their own contraband and she puts it inside the tree. Suzy goes next, she hands my mother a wrapped piece of meat and her strand of light blue ribbon that I gave her for the Koleche festival last summer. More people hand her things and I hand her mine. Soon the stone brick is back in the wall and we all line up faces towards our rooms. 

The head guard comes in, boots clunking on the floor. Everyone's eyes seem to draw to him. His shoulders are almost as wide as the hallway, his arms, chest and legs are plated with copper, showing his rank amount the guards behind him, wearing silver plates. The head guard says somthing to the others and points to the rooms, probably telling them to search the rooms.  

As his minions do his biding he walks down the line, staring into the eyes of my fellow housemates, looking for guilt, for a culprits to punish. Someone of the guards exit the rooms and move towards the middle, almost two away from mine. The copper guard continues liking st my mother now. I notice his demeanor change, now soft looking. I now look at my mother, she seems less nervous. What is going on there? Before I have to think into this a guard comes out of my room holding- oh no... it's my tool belt, the one I stole from the blacksmith. My heart races, my hands cramp for me squeezing them too hard. How stupid could I have been? How could've I forgot about that? I look Suzy. She has the same worried look as me. She knows what's about to happen and signs me a quick I love you. I look to the head guard eyes wide. His stern face becomes even angrier. Well there's only one thing I can do.

Run.

I bolt out of line and run towards the end of the hallway. I come to a quick stop and jump into the room. The window is open my long frame barely fits through it. I sprit away from them, across the courtyard. There's some many people outside today but I don't bother avoiding them. Maybe I can lose the guard easier. I continue running, my breath ragged, my legs starting to hurt. I'm getting close to the woods at the courtyards end. I turn my head to find the guards still chasing me. I turn back and run face first into someone. I fall to my feet and scamper back up. I try to run again but I find a sword to my neck;  it's the guard. I feel him nod. I look to man I had bumped into.

It's King Lorany.