The Necklace

The landscape was painted a cold, muted grey in the poor neighborhood, and the people were getting ready for a new day to hustle for a promise of a better day.

In this monochromic neighborhood there was the Smith family who had a little daughter barely nine years old, she would help her family by sell little souvenirs or red roses, while the girl had both alive and loving parents, their money ran thin, their clothes were second hand often having patches and they didn’t have matching cups in the cabinet, the cabinet would crack a lot, her father was a weak man who has worn out under the nature cruelty of his job, and the mother was a tailor, but even with all these hardships, the sun in this house never left, the Smith family were always happy and grateful, ever-increasing with the hope and happiness their daughter bring to their life.

One fateful time when the girl was wandering around selling roses, she came across a beautiful noble and generous lady who had the softest grey eyes although, the color of her eyes were cold but they held the warmth of fire similar to the sun, contrasting with her ebony hair, and her skin was a sun-kissed hue, like the silk threads of the sun brushed against her skin.

The little girl had never seen a noble like her. She excitedly ran towards that woman, but the guards that surrounded her stood like walls between her and the noble woman, but the noble woman had ordered her subjects to make way for the little girl, the woman smile and gave the girl her necklace a necklace which had forget-me-not flowers design, this the flowers were made by sapphire and the whole necklace was gold, then the noble lady ordered one of the Knights to accompany the girl home for the sake of keeping the little girl safe.

The girl would get so happy every time she looked at the necklace, dreaming of a life of nobility.

One day, after selling all the roses he had, she came back home to see that the door of her house was wildly opened and there was a loud noise coming out. She could hear her fathers faint voice saying,“please don't”.

She quickly ran inside to see the view of armoured men that seemed to belong to another place, demanding to take the necklace. They had pushed her mother to the floor and were going to push her father while the rest of the men made a complete mess out of the rooms.

The girl, ever so scared, screamed, “STOP!!”.

She cried while demanding everyone to stop, as she marched towards the general, trying to defend her father.

The general's heart weakened; she resembled his little sister back home. He crouched and patted her head.

“Sorry, kid,” his voice soothing, trying to regain her trust.

“I am here on a mission,”.

The kid was still crying. The general puffed. He carried the little girl up and asked the mother to come with them, while also ordering the soldier to clean the mess and to look after the father. The general took the little girl with her mother to a candy shop and bought her some hard candy, the girl was ecstatic, she took the candies merrily, then they went back home.

The general crouched to be on eye level with the little girl and asked her to give him the necklace and that it was important to his mission, the girl was hesitant but eventually agreed and gave it to him, and the soldiers finally left.

On the other side, Seren with her subjects continued their trip finally reaching the borders between her land and the imperial lands.

When they entered the town, which bordered Seren's land. The town was so poor, the kind of poverty that made your eyes socket sink, and your finger knuckles more prominent.

Seren tried swallowing, but she couldn't. She can only see literal sick bodies,

“Is this what a peasant's life is? Inferior, minor casualty? Is this the kind of life I thought was freedom? No. There were other neighbourhoods where they flourished, even poor ones. Is this really what peasantry is…” Seren thought.

“What a pity,” she said, putting her hand over her mouth, “who did this, ignoring them like this!”.

Owen looked at her, speechless, searching for the right words, carefully crafting one, but failing in doing so, since there was no better way to paint an ugly truth“… My lady….”

“This town is governed by your father…”

Seren giggled a sharp giggle and smiled, “Owen, haha, you are funny actually!”

“Haha…we have the same way of joking,”

“I don't know if you know, your mum joke?… hahaha,”

“I am not joking…” Owen said silently.

Seren's eyes opened wide while blinking rapidly, her smile had vanished, and she felt as if his words were a straight slap on her face, but her smile remained.

She looked outside the window of the carriage, focusing on the destruction, questions, and thoughts fulling her mind.

“That's her country. No. Her father was a great marquis, he took great care of his people. She used to walk around comfortably between them. There is no way this could be part of her monarchy, no way she remembered clearly when her father would give an abundance of food, there is no way.. Right!… Right?…”

The remaining trip resumed in chill silence till they had to make one last stop in the woods.

They started a camp, Seren remained silent, just troubled in thoughts, how could it have been like that, was it always?

Seren wandered in the woods a bit till she discovered a small lake. Standing, watching the lake, she pondered.

“I miss my home,” she said, with a trembling tone in her voice.

A loud quorked interrupted her streaming of thoughts, and a shadow was casted ubove her head it was a huge raven that passed above her which seem to have something clinging on it's leg.

After the passing of the big bird, a sound of rapid stomping on the ground was heard. It was Bala who was running towards Seren with a message.