The Destitute Queen || h.s. au

1. Milena

October 23rd, 1549

"Milena, wait up!"

I ignore my best friend, he was always much slower at running than I was.

"Milena, I'm serious! I can't keep up!" Niall yells.

"I don't think you understand what a race is, Niall!" I yell back, laughing. We're racing through the town square to see who can reach the forest first, and I'm winning. People are staring at us as we run by, but I don't pay attention to him.

Niall and I race from his house to the forest almost every day, and I beat him almost every time. We've been doing that ever since I can remember. Mama doesn't like it when I run around the town square, she says it's dangerous to be out there on my own. Our house is at the edge of the town, so we don't go to the town square often. Our town is really big, so it's easy to get lost, but I know my way around.

I get to the edge of our town, where my house is, but I don't stop there. I keep running until I get to the forest. Well, it's not really a forest. It's more like a wide, stone road with huge trees on each side that have pink flowers covering the sky above us that leads to the actual forest. I've never been into the actual forest. I stop running when I step onto the road and wait for Niall to catch up.

Eventually, he runs up to me, out of breath. "It's not fair, you always get here first!"

I laugh. "So, what do you wanna do now? Maybe we should finally go into the forest."

"No way!" Niall exclaims. "I'm not going in there, who knows what kinds of killer animals live there!" He points down the road, where we see the entrance of the forest. "Let's just play hide and seek around here."

I sigh, but close my eyes and begin counting to twenty. I can hear him running around, looking for a place to hide, and I giggle. Once I'm done counting, I open my eyes. I look around and spot him immediately. He's hiding behind the nearest tree. I run up to it and grab his arm sleeve, which was sticking out a bit.

"Found you!" I yell. He laughs and shakes his head, messing up his blonde hair.

"My turn, go hide," he says, closing his eyes and counting. I quickly look around, and run to the other side of the road. I slip past the trees and hide in a nearby bush, being careful that no branches get stuck on my dress. Mama made it for me for my birthday last month, it's the only thing I can wear that isn't torn up or has holes in it. Soon, I hear running footsteps, and I'm afraid Niall has figured out my hiding spot. The footsteps get louder and louder, and eventually I peek out of the bush to see a boy I don't know running towards me. He's about seven years old, like me and Niall, except he's wearing much nicer clothes than us. I scoot back a few steps as he runs into the bush as well. He doesn't notice me, he's too busy looking out of the bush.

"Who are you?" I ask, causing him to turn around in shock.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know someone else was in here," he says. "I'm just hiding from my brother. What are you doing in here?"

"Well, I'm playing hide and seek with my friend," I reply. "What's your name?"

"My name's Harry, what's yours?" He asks.

"Milena," I smile. "Why are you hiding from your brother, Harry?"

He scratches his head, "He was chasing after me because I didn't want to see what my father came here for. I don't want to know what my father does, I'd rather stay out of his business. My brother's probably going to find me soon, though."

Suddenly, Niall pushes aside the leaves and branches of the bush and smiles. "Found you!" Then, he turns to Harry and his smile goes away. "Who are you?"