Early Dawn - Without A Break

The morning has come. The sky is clear with only a few clouds. The golden sun rises above the clouds, illuminating the canopies of trees in the Larkspur Woods. Despite summer’s approach, it is chilly in the morning. In the tree's shade, several bunnies wake up and begin nibbling on grass. The morning air is fresh; filled with dew and earthy smell.

Stumbling through the woods, a young woman makes her way to the capital. Her skin is a shade of warm brown, her stare serious. She is wearing a reddish-brown woolen tunic and over her shoulder, a linen bag with recently picked herbs and flowers. Her bag was full of elderberries, rosehips, calendula, comfrey, yarrow and other herbs. Each herb had its own unique properties that herbalists used to help treat patients.

As she passes by the river stream, carefully hopping over the rocks stuck in the water, she comes towards the end of the Larkspur Woods. Walking out of the forest, she can feel the sun's heat on her back. The meadow was flat, and full of bright colors from flowers. Continuing past the meadow and towards the capital, she starts to approach fields of barley and wheat. 

The Cornflower Village was home to the majority of the working class. Looked down upon from the residents inside the walls, peasants lived in unison. As the young woman walks through the town square, she sees an older woman drawing water from a well and looking back at her.

"Hey! Short one! Mind giving an older lady a hand?"

The young woman shrugs slightly, and moves near the well, pulling on the rope to get the bucket full of water back to the top of the well.

"Where do you need this? I'll carry it."

"Oh dear, there's no need for that. Go on, return to where you were going."

"Come. Show me where."

The older woman hesitates, but in the end, lets the young woman follow her in the direction of her home. Once they arrive, the young woman leaves the bucket of water on the ground and says goodbye to the elderly woman; leaving before she could thank her.

Cornflower Village has been here for a long time, even before the walls of the capital were built. Despite the middle and upper class traditions of calling the capital "the Kingdom", it was just the capital city of the large Kingdom of Rosaria. The village has always been a settlement for the lower class, people specializing in mainly agriculture during the warmer months; and weaving, sowing or butchering during the colder months. All residents of the village have to pay to the Kingdom with their yields, to maintain a roof over their head. For generations and generations, the townspeople have known each other, and everyone is included in the community. The working class has never been in an upstanding relationship with the royal family. Decades of neglect, abuse and lack of respect have become the standard.

The young woman returns to the dirt road, passing by the timber houses of the village, she walks alongside horse carriages carrying all sorts of goods to the capital; including leather products, pottery, woodworking and various harvests. In the barley and wheat fields, she can see men and women attending the crops.

Inside the capital's walls, peasants are very rare, as they are heavily looked down upon, and described as dirty or impure. This is just the way things are. Inside the cities' walls, workers in the Soil District aren't peasants; but commoners instead. The only time a peasant could be seen with a job inside the capital was for jobs that were labelled as "cheap" or "unskilled" labor.

At this moment, the young woman finally reaches the northern gate of the Kingdom's capital. A middle-aged guard stopped her, and shouted at her:

"Stop right there. What sort of business do you have inside the Kingdom? I can't imagine it being much."

The guard seemed to not be in the greatest mood upon seeing the young woman. She took the linen bag off her shoulder, and rummaged through it. With haste, she gave a piece of cotton textured paper to the guard, with some writing on it. The guard inspects the paper, chuckling to himself, before looking towards the young woman with raised eyebrows.

"Let's see what we got here. Another dirty child entering the Kingdom...Chara Kring. Mind letting me know the purpose of your visit, while I confirm you are on the peasant list."

"I'm returning home. I live here with my mother and sister on the Moon District, Aloe Street. We live under tenant Drake's roof."

"Seems to be correct, peasant. Halt while I inspect your bag."

Chara takes a step back and gives her bag to the guard, looking to the side, away from him, as he begins scrabbling about through the herbs, she rolls her eyes discreetly. The guard notices her gesture, dropping the bag violently on the floor, spilling all the flowers and herbs to the ground. He moves near her and hits her shoulder with his fist, knocking Chara to the ground.

"What do you think you are? Get up and clean up. You may enter the Kingdom. You are lucky if you don't cross into me again, Kring."

She slowly begins to get up, swiping dust off of her tunic, and steadily picks up the herbs off the ground and puts them back into her bag. Entering the capital, she walks swiftly to get home as soon as possible, while holding her left shoulder with her right arm.

The sun is high in the sky. It is noon. Walking through the Moon District, Chara passes by several restaurants and shops along her way home. The only way peasants could live inside the walls was by living under a tenant; and paying the tenant rent on top of the peasant tax they were already paying. This relationship between tenant and peasant wasn't very uncommon, however the lack of respect was still in the air and many wouldn't have an opportunity to live this lifestyle.

After reaching Aloe Street, Chara turns left and before her, stands a half-timbered three-story house, with a few glass windows and a tall brick chimney. Chara raises one of the potted plants that sat on the porch, revealing the house key. Upon unlocking the door, she walks inside.

"Sir Drake? I have returned."

Inside, the white wooden walls and the dark wooden floor were shining. Must have been cleaned recently. A big snow-white rug lies in the center of the room, and another one falls over the wooden stairs to the right of the hallway. On her left, a wooden door with a glass frame; this was Sir Drake's abode. Past the door and until the end of the short hallway was a small drawer and a mirror. With no response echoing through the first floor, Chara assumed Drake wasn't inside at the moment, and made her way to the stairs, passing by two giant windows and an unlit candle on the wall. She climbed the stairs up until the third floor.

A similar decorated hallway was on the third floor, and Chara approached the door to her left, opening and heading inside. In the dimly lit room, sitting at the long wooden table was Chara's sister. She had a surprised look on her face when somebody entered the room, but after seeing who it was, she started smiling happily. She raised both of her arms and spoke:

"Chara!! You're already back... was it fun out?"

"Oh, Carly. It's always fun waking up at the crack of dawn and foraging in the forest an hour away from here."

Chara came closer to her sister and hugged her. She put her bag on the table, and went towards the shared wardrobe.

"Mom said I will soon be old enough to go with you! I want to see the little bugs and animals in the forests! Why are you so dirty, Chara... Did you get attacked by wolves??"

With a worried expression, Caroline stood still, gripping onto the chair, almost out of breath. At that moment Chara pulled a dark black cape out of the wardrobe, and put it on to hide the dirty marks on her tunic, she looked at Carly and replied in a comforting tone:

"No, no...There are no wolves in the Larkspur Forest...It's nothing, really. I just fell. Where is mom? I got the herbs she wanted me to get, and yet she's not even here.."

"Oh! That's good then! You are soooo clumsy..." she smiled brightly, "Mom just went downstairs, she said she was going to open the store earlier today. I can bring her the herbs if you'd like!"

"That would be great, thanks Carly. I think I'll go out a bit...I will be back in the evening."

As Chara waved goodbye to her sister, she left the room and went outside. She started strolling towards the Town Market, to see if there was anything of interest today. As she got to the Town Market, a sudden crowd was forming on the streets, and cheers could be heard. 

It was the royal family, on a horse carriage. Noticing all the merchants left their stalls, Chara used this moment to see if there was anything to steal. She found a big bowl of apples, left unattended. She began to pick one by one, hiding them in a secret pouch she had on her. Just as she was starting to steal, Chara heard a loud voice coming from the streets:

"A thief, Father! A thief!"

Upon the princess' notice of her stealing, Chara started sprinting into the alleyway between buildings, exiting the Town Market. Realizing she messed up really badly, she began to worry. She could hear footsteps and shouting behind, her heart sinking to her stomach.

To be continued.