Red

Chapter 1 - Sophia♥

Sophia was slowly making her way to the small brick building in front of the palace with her sack of vegetables on her back, just as she did any other day. While she made her way through the crowds of people, many walked around her and some even bumped into her as if she wasn’t even there. Being used to it, Sophia kept her eyes trained on the ground and continued to walk slowly. When she finally reached the building, Sophia raised her head for the first time since she entered the palace walls and locked eyes with one of the palace guards. 

“What do you have and how much?,” the guard questioned gruffly as he snatched the bag out of Sophia’s outstretched hand.

“The same as everyday,” Sophia quietly replied.

The guard grumbled with resentment as he took in Sophia‘s normal attire of male trousers that were two sizes too big, a holey button-up shirt that was no longer white, and a tattered old cap that she used to keep her hair out of her way.

“If you‘re finished staring, I would appreciate my payment sir,” Sophia interrupted as the guard’s eyes turned into a hard glare as they met hers.

Instead of placing the money in Sophia’s hand, the guard rudely threw her few pence done on the dusty ground and looked away. Without any expression at all, Sophia bent down and picked up her payment, placed it in her worn trouser pocket, and turned to make her journey back home.

As she was walking through the still crowded street, Sophia’s eyes were once again trained on the ground intently. When she finally got to the palace walls, she walked through the gate and finally lifted her head once she was out of the sight of nosey villagers. While she was walking alone with no one around, Sophia strutted with her head held high and proud. There was no shame or shyness, but then again there was neither shame nor shyness when she walked inside the palace walls either, she just chose not to  interact with the people of the village. She loathed people who had nothing better to do with their day than to talk behind other’s back, which consisted of most if not all of the villagers whom lived inside the palace walls.

As she was lost in her thoughts, Sophia shook her head and looked up once again just in time to see that her home was in sight. A feeling of relief and homeliness came over Sophia as she neared the small, rundown home that she lived in with her grandmother.

Even though she was over eighty years old, Sophia’s grandmother tried to have food fixed for Sophia whenever she came from working in the fields since was now too old to help Sophia gather the food to take inside the palace walls. Unsurprisingly, her grandmother was standing over a fire and cauldron cooking when Sophia stepped inside their small dwelling. As she neared the small area that they called their kitchen, Sophia sniffed the air and thought she smelled herbal soup coming from inside the cauldron. 

Her grandmother turned to her with a wooden spoon still in her hand, and smiled warmly at her only granddaughter. 

“Welcome home, child. How was your day?,” Sophia’s grandmother asked as she laid the spoon on their makeshift table. 

“It was good, grandmother,” Sophia replied as she took off the cap that concealed her waist length black hair.

“He did it again, didn‘t he?,” her grandmother asked as she once again picked up the wooden spoon and started filling a bowl with soup.

Sophia sighed, but nodded her head anyway. “Yes… He did.”

As her grandmother sat the bowl down on their kitchen table, she scrunched up her face, and muttered, “Guards shouldn‘t treat field hands like they‘re slaves! He could at least put your payment in your hand instead of throwing it on the ground! After all, you‘re not a dog!”

Sophia once again sighed as she sat down at the table where the bowl of soup was placed, and replied, “I‘m just a mere field hand, grandmother. No more, no less. That is the treatment I will receive the rest of my life, I presume.”

Sophia’s grandmother shook her head in protest once again but did not object verbally, instead she chose to keep her thoughts to herself for her granddaughter’s sake.

After Sophia finished her bowl of soup, she refilled the bowl and placed it in front of her grandmother and looked at her expectantly. “Eat, grandmother.”

“I‘m not hungry, child,” Sophia’s grandmother said as she nudged the bowl away.

Sophia looked at her grandmother wearily and pushed the bowl closer to the elderly woman. “Please grandmother. You need to eat something.”

Being over eighty and having raised Sophia since the death of her parents, the older woman knew that Sophia would not rest until she ate at least a bit of something. Sighing, her grandmother gave in, and slowly started to eat the no lukewarm herbal soup.

A slight smile crossed Sophia’s face at the fact that she got her way, and she happily bent down and kissed her grandmother on the cheek. 

“Thank you,” Sophia whispered in her grandmother’s ear as she moved away slowly and made her way towards her room so she could change out of her work clothes.