The Forgotten (Saviors #1) (#Wattys2016)

7 - Larissa

The carriage jumped this way and that along the rocky road to the festival castle. We basically had a castle for anything: sports, festivals and weddings. One Sunday each month was sports day where we gathered at that castle to watch the men and boys play a series of entertaining games and gather a winning team.

One Tuesday every 3 months was festival day where we went to that castle and celebrated some kind of holiday or just that a new harvest had started with exquisite meals and fantastic music.

Then, a Thursday every month a wedding was held for a new happy couple waiting to exchange their rings and make it final. Every eligible rich family came and enjoyed the dancing, food, drinks and good memories that each one brought.

Finally, our last ceremony was to say goodbye to those who died the last day of the year. After the ceremony, we enjoy a nice dinner while bands play solemn music that couples usually just slow dance too. No one really stays for them anyway.

My parents, who I was stuck in the carriage with, whispered in each others ears the whole time ignoring me fully. Rochelle had been put in the other carriage to babysit my two younger brothers: Lucas, Joseph and Elijah. I guess things could have been worse for me.

I didn't bother to try to start up a conversation with our socially awkward footman Damien, because it would have gone nowhere. He had just started last month and was only 2 years older than me. He was pretty cute I guess with his dirty blond hair and brown eyes, but he would never even look at me. I would walk by and politely say hello but he always gave me the cold shoulder. I always thought that maybe I smelled bad or something, but our baker Sara told me that he was just as serious with everyone else downstairs. So, I left it at that.

The forest blurred past in mixtures of different greens along with the occasional bird. We had no deer, my father claimed there were none left along with the rabbits and the squirrels. Even the birds seemed to be running out!

Apparently some hapless people (they're from the poor country) had gone into the forest which is illegal, and then decided to take some of our precious animals because they didn't have enough which is also illegal. Father, being the way he is, grabbed three random hapless people and killed them on the spot to show what happens when you disobey.

I had screamed at him for hours that day telling him that he needed to look at the evidence first. Like the king he was though, he told me that someone had to teach those monstrous people a lesson for stealing what didn't belong to them. I had stormed out, not caring how much I would have gotten in trouble. It's unbelievable how someone could be so selfish while watching people suffer from hunger, sickness and unwholesome living grounds. The hapless lived in straw huts which usually took two days to make. With only a witty bottomless toilet, two thin mattresses and a cabinet to hold their food for the cooking pot outside. The place was as horrid as anything. Cries of agony could be heard far over the 20 Ft. fence along with the screams of guards dragging people away from their families to their own doom.

I only wished that one day that I could send them all to their own freedom. A place where they didn't have to worry about sickness or working towards their deathbeds. They didn't deserve it, no one did really. Life would only get worse for them as it went on, so someone would have to stop him. The King, my father.

But who? I had no idea.

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The air was too warm. I almost felt as if the sun was only a couple meters above me. I took out my fan waving myself frantically. It was only 5:30, how could it be this hot already? My parents had decided to hitch a ride with the Smith's since they were right behind us, leaving me alone. Damien had gone up to the front. I had thought about joining Rochelle but that would leave a blank carriage and my brothers were complete monsters.