A/N – I have edited this, not many changes, but tell me what you think now. I tried to make the mother seem like less of a robot when she talked. xP
Leave me a review, please, I like them.
Prologue: Mother
A small girl of about five years with cascading red hair followed her mother through the fields, occasionally picking a carrot and munching on it to curb her incessant hunger.
"Darling, you shouldn't be eating those, the master will be angry with you if he finds out." Her mother smiled down, her beautiful face highlighted by the rays of the setting sun.
"He doesn't even know where his carrot fields are, mamma, so how will he know that I ate a few? Besides, he never feeds us, so if I eat carrots out here, I won't be hungry later, and you can have all the food the nice cook lady gives us. The baby needs all it can get, he isn't getting very big, you know. I want a strong little brother, so he can help me take care of you when you get older! Won't that be wonderful, mamma?" The gleeful child skipped on ahead of her mother, not waiting for a response from her mother, or even noticing the way she was starting to cry.
"My little angel, what did I do to deserve you?" A hot tear raced down her cheek as she held her hand against her growing stomach, speaking to the child growing there, "You will have to protect her someday, you know that, don't you? How am I supposed to tell her that I will not be seeing her after tonight? The poor child… Please, my son, come back for her, save her from this place for me." The woman silently wept as she followed her daughter back to the home of her master.
By the time the woman had reached the house, her daughter was no longer in sight. She dropped off the basket of carrots she carried in the kitchen, taking the small satchel of food that the cook handed her and hiding it in her apron as she headed up the back staircases to their room in the attic. Upon opening the door, she was graced with the sight of her small child sprawled on the singe small cot in the tiny room. The cot was long enough that a young boy would be content, but a grown man would be cramped, and it took up almost half of the room
She rocked her child to sleep, and lay her tiny body on the cot before crossing to the chair, and opening the satchel to see what she was able to eat tonight. She almost cried when she saw what it contained. The cook had risked her life to give her a real meal on her last night here. Inside the bag there was a cut of dried meat, a sizeable chunk of bread, and a fresh apple. She ate it all, grateful that her unborn child would be able to finally have some form of real nourishment.
She slept in the chair that night, knowing that she would be unable to leave if she woke up with her daughter clinging to her. Before dawn, she rose, and simply stared at her small child, tears running down her face. She couldn't think about what she was about to do. Without making noise, she left a kiss on her daughter's forehead and left, silently making her way down the stairs to meet her new owner.