Moon Child

Dark Times Emerging part 1

Sapphira awoke from her worn down mattress on the worn down sand floor of her worn down tent. She stretches in attempt to work out the kinks in her back, and does a series of yawns and head scratches. She wasn't particularly a morning person. She peaks at the sky through a hole in her tan cloth tent and tries to see the beauty in the drab village she calls home. Vatora is basically just a plethora of tan tents (resembling Native Indian teepees), tan sand, tan people in tan clothes, and tan, leafless trees. Tan, tan, tan. How could anyone want to live here?

Sapphira groans. Her best friend Nathaniel told her to look at the sky instead of looking at the village. "How can you ever feel sad when you always have something as consistently beautiful as the sky to look at?" She smiled at the thought of her slightly more positive friend. Her thoughts are interrupted by a whistling noise outside her tent door. Sapphira groans again, but quieter this time, as giving attitude to the royals results in a night in the stocks. She hestitantly pulled her door open and was greeted by a scrawny, bearded man in red robes; the robes of a messenger.

"The Royals request that every citizen of Vatora meets in the Town Center in 30 minutes to discuss the new reals instilled by the new King, King Salvorus Hensley". He immediately walked off to the next tent without another word. Manners were very uncommon in this village. Finally somewhat awake and ready to make herself look presentable, Sapphira prepares for the day. She brushes through her tangled mop of long white blonde hair (An extremely uncommon feature for a Vatoran girl) and throws on her midnight blue robes. She had always found herself drawn to the color midnight blue.

Another whistle sounds at the front of her tent. This is how Vatorans "ring the doorbell". Common people have low, smooth sounding whistles that they blow on, whereas the Royals have high pitch and annoying whistles, to make sure their entrance is heard and has everyone's full attention. Luckily, this whistle is lower pitch. She already knows who it is; the only person who bothers talking to her in Vatora since her parents died. People usually avoid her for her weird appearance. Every single person in Vatora has dark hair and green or brown eyes, whereas Sapphira has almost white hair and dark blue eyes. When she was born, her concerned parents took her to the hospital and she was pronounced with an unknown birth defect that changes the pigment of her eyes and hair. Her parents were given a death sentence for producing such an abomination of a child. Luckily, Sapphira got to live since it goes against the Royals small morals to kill an innocent child. Unluckily, she lives a life of isolation and ridicule.

She opened the tent door to meet the familiar muddy green eyes of her best friend, squinting from laughter.

"What's so fuh-fuh-funny?" Sapphira managed to choke out through a yawn.

"You clearly didn't sleep well. That, or you turned into an unhygienic vampire."

She looks at her reflection in a shard of glass she keeps on her bedside table and found severe dark circles under her droopy eyes, her hair was still a mess and she had dirt smeared on her cheek. She shrugged. "Everyone thinks i'm weird looking anyway. Some dirt won't make much of a difference, would it?"

"Maybe some people will find it endearing, like I do." He winked playfully and Sapphira replied with an eye roll. They began their walk to the Village Center, which wouldn't be a long walk, considering the fact that Vatora is quite small. It should be a ten minute walk, maybe longer since Sapphira is notorious for being a slow walker during the day.

"Why are you so lethargic all the time? You're a goddamn sloth." Nathaniel teased.

"I seem to have no energy all day, but at night when I try to sleep I have all of the energy in the world. I'm afraid I've become nocturnal."

"So.. back to what I said about you being a vampire."

They laughed until they got to the Village Center, where their facial expressions changed to match those of the people around them; frowning mouths and sad eyes. Vatora is irrevocably cruel and cold, and village meetings never fail to bring bad news for the villagers. It's either a new set of unfair rules, a public lashing, or a feast. Not the usual feast though. The Vatoran feast occurs on holidays. The villagers gather in the royals pallice, where the royals have a delicious 8 course gourmet meal prepared, which they will eat obnoxiously in front of all of the people. Sapphira never showed up for those. She often ran away during that time and hid in a tree near her tent. Surprisingly, she hasn't gotten caught for it yet. Or if she did, she'd surely be lashed a few times.

The Village Center was the only building that wasn't a tent, but that didn't stop it from being tan. It was made entirely of tan, mud bricks. The interior was dark and weakly furnished with a couple of fake trees and no more than 10 wooden chairs. It was crowded with the population of Vatora, which currently was about 3,344 people. Considering the fact that there was three thousand people in the room, it was still eerily quiet.