There, in a small hut at the side of the village, lay a boy on a stack of hay. Morning came, and the sun’s rays shone upon him. He groaned at the sudden feeling of heat on his body. He slowly opened his eyes, trying to adjust himself to the now sunlight that seemed to be well, there. As he looked up, he slightly drew his hand closer to his forehead. He didn’t want to get up today. He wanted to sleep in for once, not caring about anything in the world. He sighed, covering his eyes, before hearing a familiar high screech from outside his comfy little room.
“Ignei! Come on!”
The boy let out an annoyed grunt before forcing himself up in the middle. He picked himself off the ground from the uncomfortable haystack that he slept on the entire night. Ignei stretched himself before walking outside to help with the harvesting. He noticed that outside waiting for him, was a short plump woman tapping her bare feet on the dirt. Her clothes were grayed and tattered, and her hair was disheveled. Her face were covered with wrinkles, and her lips curved downward as her eyebrows were arched.
The elderly woman smacked his head with an old wooden stick. “Boy! How many times have I told you to get out of bed!”
He didn’t want to answer, as he knew how she would react. His mother wasn’t the type to be patient with her kids, especially the ones that slept in, thinking they didn’t have to do any work. She tapped her foot lightly, her wrinkles creasing as her lips curved downwards in a tight frown. She cleared her throat, still waiting for a response from him. The woman crossed her arms, squinting at him, giving off a scary yet slightly funny glare.
“Sorry ma, I was just so tired,” he simply stated, not saying anything else. His mother rolled her eyes as she smacked him with the stick again. He clenched his teeth at the slight sting it gave him, but he said nothing of it. She simply turned away, adjusting her light beige cloth headband.
Ever since he was a child, he learned to deal with her temper over the years. She was a hardheaded woman, and everyone in the village knew it.
She cleared her throat again before thrusting a woven basket in his hands. “Now, go join your brothers and actually help us with collecting the corn!” she sighed, trying to widen her eyes then squinted them again due to the sunlight. She shook her head as she sluggishly left him to his own doings. Ignei glared at the old woman as she reentered their little house. He disappeared into the fields, his arm reaching out, tirelessly collecting the crop that they would sell later this afternoon.
He remembered those nights when his father used to tell him of his adventures out there, past the little villages, as the royal guard of the family that ruled over the kingdom and protected it from its city borders. All of his tellings brought a spark in his eyes and a smile on his face. He always looked out there, a sense of longing seeming to creep on his face. He wondered how the outside world was like, the main city, the kingdom, the sights and the people.
Unfortunately, instead of lifelong thrills, he was stuck in the fields, working an eternity trying to make ends meet, paying the taxpayers some of the crop that they had a hard time growing, and stuck in this forgotten village. He didn’t want this boring, repetitive life. Of course, like any boy, he wanted more.
Ignei pondered a bit as he harvested the corn. He looked at the endless amount of stocks that he had to finish. His brothers were most likely hard at work, as he didn’t see them the entire time. Ignei groaned as he looked at the numbers. He just wanted the day, like all other days, to be over and done with.
He returned from the fields, carrying a basket overflowing with corn. He set it down next to the other many stacks of corn on the ground. His brothers must’ve done all of them while he slept through most of the morning.
“Ignei!” his mother called from behind, with a hint of unpleasantness in her voice. Ignei turned around to face his mother, who was looking at him with an unusual glare in her eye. He gulped. He was in the field all afternoon, or at least, all the hour, so why did she look at him like that?
Ignei snapped out of his trance. “Yes mother?” he quickly responded. He waited for her to say something, anything. She didn’t. Instead she crouched down and picked up a cornstalk that he didn’t see before.
She looked up at him as she regained her stance and eyed him in a questioning manner. She held up the corn and he quickly ran to her, taking the cornstalk in one smooth motion, before running back and taking it to the rest of the cornstalks.
“Ignei…” she began, before turning her head away from her son. She was soft, quiet even, and waited for a response from him. He only stared at her, wondering what caused her uncharacteristic behavior. “Never mind. Just, go back to the field. Your brothers need your help.”
He noticed the increased creases on her already wrinkled face. “Are you going to the temple tonight ma?” he asked. She nodded her head and smiled at him, but it didn’t seem to reach her eyes. “I’ll be back my son. Now, what are you doing standing there? Get back to work boy!” She hobbled away from him and he shook his head, smiling at his mother.
He returned to his field and his work. The sun was coming down, it would be another day of work done. Ignei returned, bringing in another flooding basket of cornstalks and dropped it off before once again arriving at his family’s little hut. He groaned, panting a bit, stretching himself out as he tried to keep himself up and energetic.
As Ignei was doing so, he noticed that there was a strange spark that emitted from outside, somehow still glowing in the dark. Out of curiosity, he checked inside, and he checked his surroundings, making sure no one would be able to see his silhouette as he disappeared into the darkness. Perhaps this would be the beginnings of a new change in his life.
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