It should have been dark out considering that it was night, but the flames made the sky look as if the sun had just set. I grabbed onto my father's hand as we escaped towards a forest. I glanced behind me with tentative eyes; all I saw was smoke. I couldn't see the death I knew was behind the gray curtain, but I could hear it. Men young and old screamed in anger, pain, and victory.

My father grabbed my head and turned it away. "Don't look," he rasped. The next thing I knew, I was pushed into a prickly bush. "Stay here, I'll come back," he promised and ran back into the gray.

I bit my nails nervously but obeyed my father and kept silent. The bush seemed to puncture every part of my body as I crouched in it. Men surrounded me, their numbers increasing by the minutes. I heard a grunt come from above. I looked up to see a man take his final breath as he fell into the brush beside me. Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth and his unseeing eyes stared blankly into my own.
"Father!" I screeched, and ran out of my hiding place. He said that he was going to come back. Where was he? "Father!" I hollered. "FATHER," I screamed once again as I entered the gray cloud.

I gasped and sat up in my bed, panting. The memory had haunted me for years. The only problem was, it was the only memory I had. I don't know what happened before I woke up in this hut eight years ago.

A man had stood above me as I had looked around at my surroundings. I was in a small room made of wood and mud. Confused, I asked where I was.

He had with a question, "Who are you?"

I didn't know.

The man took me in, even though he had his own daughters, and his own family. They accepted me gracefully, and I was now part of their family.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and looked lovingly at my family, who were sleeping around me. My dear sister Annabelle had taken the longest time to accept the fact that she would have another older sister besides Rose. Rose and Annabelle were ten years apart in age. But, Annabelle wasn't the youngest.

Three years ago, my city of Marynor waged war upon our long-time enemy, Noran. The purpose of the war was unclear to me, but in my experience, fighting Noran needed no reason. We had been doing it for the past hundred years. My dad had been forced to fight, even though he was a peasant. Marynor gave him a sad excuse for a sword and no shield. He never came back.

The war came to a bitter end when Noran's army made it to the fields of Marynor. They massacred us. My family found sanctuary in the nearby woods, but not before my youngest siblings Grant and Grace were taken from us. The two empty cots lying next to mine haunted me as I sat transfixed on them.

The loss of Dad, Grant and Grace shook my family greatly. I had never seen Mama cry before that incident, but for months after not a day went by when she didn't break down. Annabelle was just as bad. Rose didn't cry once, but became uneasily quiet. I was upset, and three years later I knew that I was not yet over the tragedy.

After a few months of fighting, it suddenly stopped. We were at 'peace' with Noran, but everyone knew that the peace would not last long. It was only a matter of time before everyone was sent off to fight once more, and hundreds of men's lives would be wasted again.

"Is something wrong?"

I sat up and hit my head on Annabelle's cot to see Rose kneeling next to me.

"No, go back to sleep. I'm fine." I put my head down.

"You might as well get up. Mama's already outside working."

I groaned and looked out the door. The sun was barely peaking over the horizon. We had to get up before the sun, and work until it went down.

I got up and looked at Annabelle, who slept above me. She was still sound asleep. "Do you reckon we should wake her?" I asked Rose.

She shrugged and said, "She has to get up sometime."

I took that as permission to throw a garment at Annabelle's face.

She jolted awake, breathing heavily, obviously startled by the attack. She saw me snickering and glared at me.

"That was completely uncalled for," she snapped, slowly getting down from her bunk.

"It was called for. I was in need of entertainment," I responded, putting my dirty dress over my undergarments.

"Well, next time I'm in need of entertainment I'll come looking for you," Annabelle threatened.

"I'm terrified," I laughed as I put on my shoes and headed out the door. I breathed in the late summer air. I looked out over the fields. The plants should not have been growing brown this early. Only a few peasants were already out. I spotted my mother in our garden, bending over, trying to find fresh vegetation to pick after the harsh season. I walked up to her. "Good morning, Mama."

"Oh, hello dear," she said, a twinge of frustration in her voice. There must not have been a lot of food to pick.

I kissed her cheek.

She looked around and asked, "Where are Rose and Annabelle?"

"They'll be out soon," I informed her

"Why don't you pick weeds over there?" she told me and pointed towards the edge of the fields, by the road.

I nodded and set off to where I was most likely going to be spending my day. I bent down in the soil—no wonder my wardrobe was so dirty—and started picking weeds and throwing them onto the dirt road.

Within the hour, one of my neighbors joined me in the same area. His name was Joshua. He lived in the hut next to mine. Joshua was around my mother's age, and was married to a woman named Joan. Together they had six girls, all of which were younger than Annabelle.

I smiled at Joshua as he neared me. "Good morning," I said.

"Good morning to you too, miss," he answered in a warm voice. "What are you up to today?" I appreciated his attempt at conversation, for without it, the fields were a boring and lonely place.

"Picking weeds," I answered, as I threw one onto the road. I saw him try to hide a smile.

"I think I shall join you in that," he said and threw a weed onto the road next to my growing pile. A long silence followed as we created a mountain of weeds. "Women ought to not do this sort of thing," Joshua said as he looked over at his children and wife not too far away. "Slaving in mud and all."

"I agree with you there." I said and Joshua chuckled.

"Knights talk about chivalry, yet they make women work in mud and weeds. And then there's the Lord Siniad," Joshua scoffed. We spoke of Lord Siniad of Marynor. I had never met him in person, for I was not worthy enough, but he was a cocky, selfish man who needed to think about someone other than himself. No peasants could leave Marynor without his permission. Sometimes not even traveling merchants could leave without his permission. Guards covered the outer areas of the city and the land beyond.

As much as I wanted to get out of here, I had to admit that Marynor was a beautiful place. The grass surrounding the fields was green and trees sprouted up in the places where the serfs didn't farm. Birds played symphonies for us while we worked, making the work that much more interesting. It was peaceful in town, and usually quiet. Nothing much ever happened here.

But nonetheless, I was stuck here. I felt like I was being imprisoned for something that I didn't do. I looked out down the road that would eventually lead out of Marynor. The road disappeared into the green of treetops, into a world unknown. I looked in the opposite direction and saw the keep which stood at the foot of the mountain. The tower loomed over the town, almost laughing at the people below. I wanted to escape this place and find out where I was from. I was mostly at peace at life, but I didn't know who I was.

A shadow suddenly blocked out the sun. I looked up to see a knight on horseback glaring down at Joshua. The knight sat stiffly on his brown steed. "What is this?" he asked pointing to our pile of weeds.

"I was weeding, sir," Joshua said in an even voice.

"And you thought that it would be nice if you covered the road in them, is that so?"

"The road's dirt anyway," I muttered, and the knight turned to me.

"What was that, lady?"

"I said that you have a very nice horse, sir." I tried to hide my smirk.

"Is that how you raised your child to speak to me?" The knight roared at Joshua.

"He's not—" I butted in.

"Don't speak," the knight snapped. "Did you teach your child to talk that way with men with higher social status?" Joshua did not reply only stared at the ground.

"Answer me, God damn it!" The knight got off of his horse, took the pommel of his sword and knocked Joshua in the head. Joshua fell to the ground. A small stream of blood flowed from the top of his head.

I yelped and stood up, facing the knight. "Stop that!"

"So now you're telling me how to do my job?" He pulled out a whip from his belt, and hit Joshua, who was about to get up. He fell to the ground, groaning in pain. Blood splattered the road.

"Stop it!" I screamed, but the knight did not listen. I looked around me. The peasants had paused and were watching. I caught a glimpse of Joshua's family. His little girls clung onto his wife, sobbing. "Stop it!" I told the knight again, but he grabbed my arm and hurled me to the ground.

He hit Joshua once again. Joshua's shirt was ripped on his back and blood seeped through the remaining cloth.

The knight went to strike once more, but I stood in front of my friend and got hit instead. I winced at the sharp pain. "I said, stop it!" I screamed right in the knight's face. The knight made a disgusted noise and mounted his horse, shocking everyone by actually listening to my command.

"Lord Siniad shall hear of this," he yelled as he rode away.

I stared after him as did everyone around me, silent. I looked back down at Joshua who was slowly making his way up off of the ground.

His wife ran over to him, but their children stayed frozen in place. "What was all that about?" she asked as she helped her husband up.

"I don't know," Joshua stated as he looked confused at the knight off in the distance. "Don't worry, it's fine."

"Fine?" his wife said. "You're bleeding."

"It's nothing." At this Joshua winced.

"It's nothing?"

"Joan, go back to your work, don't worry about me."

"Let's go get you washed up." She helped her husband stand.

I knelt down to also continue working. There was a burning sensation on my arm and I looked down to see it bleeding. I gritted my teeth, but then looked at Joshua who was undoubtedly suffering more than I.

"I am sorry; I should not have talked back," I told Joshua.

He shrugged, but we both knew that it was my fault he had been beaten.

"Come, let's go. Can you help me?" Joan asked and I nodded.

"It was not your fault." Joshua reassured me, lying of course as he started to pour water on his back.

Joan went over to him, and wiped off the blood.

I lifted up the sleeves of my dress and wiped water on my wound. I winced as it stung me. Bits of dirt had made its may into my wound.

"It's not completely your fault," Joshua stated, and his wife handed me a piece of cloth. I wrapped it around my wound.

I looked at him quizzically.

"All of the knights in this town have been strangely uptight about something lately. About something they aren't willing to tell us." He went silent and left me in thought.

If they were hiding something, what would it be? Of course, it was only a theory of Joshua's, but I understood what he was talking about. I had heard that just yesterday an artisan was arrested for making the town smell of smoke and iron, and he was a blacksmith. The knights and nobles were definitely hiding something, and taking it out on the lower civilians.

"What do you suppose they are hiding?" I asked Joshua.

"I do not know, but I wish to find out, preferably soon, for I do not wish to be in the dark."

That night I sat with my family, eating dinner which consisted of a piece of hard bread for each of us. In the past weeks, our food supply had gone down dramatically, and it was making us all weary. We ate silently, which was unusual for us. My family had seen of the happenings of the morning, no doubt, but they had not brought the subject up. I was desperately waiting for them to, so I could get my mother's unavoidable scrutiny over with. Finally, I grew impatient and brought the subject up myself. "Did you hear about what happened to Joshua?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, I did," my mother said sternly, "but I also heard what happened to you." "What is wrong Mama?" I asked.

"You got yourself hurt."

"It's nothing." I looked down at my arm which didn't hurt as badly as it originally had.

"Carla said you provoked the knight." Carla was another peasant, one of mother's friends. I was silent. "Is that true Emma?"

I looked down at my bread. "I might've said something," I muttered.

Rose snorted, and my mother gave her a stern look.

"You need to learn how to control your tongue in situations of that kind, Emma."I looked up to protest.

"It's for your own good, dear. Trust me."

Rose giggled at the sight of me being lectured.

"And Rose needs to learn to hold her tongue as well."

I echoed Rose's laugher.

"Oh, shut it," Rose stated.

Annabelle suddenly spoke, "Mother, why do we need to keep what we want to say in our mind?" she asked.

"Well, it's expected of us, Annie. Peasants should not say something that would disagree with the knights. It's just the way things are."

"Oh." That seemed like a good enough explanation for my little sister, for she happily bit into her food.

Rose and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

Annabelle finished her bread and looked at mother. "Mama, I'm still hungry," she complained.

"As are we all." She patted Annabelle on the back and my sister went to lie down on her bed.

I finished my bread and sighed.

A/N: A big thanks to Kissing Concrete, Mumbling Sage and Griffinknight77 for all of their help, and fantastic editing skills!