Little Winged One

Little Winged One

Written by

Brian

and

Aaron Reale-Key

Chapter 1:

Elita awoke to the sound of knocking on the front door. She sat up on her bed and pushed her long, brown hair back behind her head.

“Who could that be?” she asked herself. The basic stone house her parents had bought of the King was creaking in wind. She peered down the hall towards the front door.

“No, I’m sorry,” she heard her father say, “I can’t repay you at the moment. I need another week to get the funds.”

“No, we’re sorry,” she didn’t recognize the voice of the man at the door, “We can no longer wait for you to repay you debt. You should expect another visit shortly.”

The door closed quietly.

“Verdammt! Warum sehe ich immer das tun?“ Her father was blaming himself for some sort of mess.

She went back to bed and tried to put it out of her mind. She hoped everything would be alright.

***

“Elita, what are you doing?”

Elita looked around at her father standing there watching her.

“I’m trying to get these lentils to cook,” she said, “The water won’t boil properly.”

“Let me do it.” Her father bent over the pot hanging in the fireplace as she moved away. She noticed that her father looked a bit stressed.

Elita moved over to the table and sat down. She let her father cook the breakfast as she thought about her plans for the day. She would go into the fields and pull up the vegetables for the next few days’ dinner and then maybe find Beata, her friend, and walk to the forest.

Her father set down the meal in front of her. They ate in silence for a while.

“Father,” Elita said.

“Yes?” he replied, not looking up.

“What are your plans for the day?”

“Why?” He looked up, “What are you planning to do?”

“I thought that, after pulling the vegetables, I could go and spend time with Beata for a bit?” she asked.

“I don’t see why not,” her father replied, “As long as you don’t go near the forest.”

Elita took another spoonful of her breakfast, so as to not make eye-contact with her father.

“Of course we won’t.”

“OK. I have no problem with it.”

Elita took her last spoonful of lentils, stood up and went outside. She grabbed the bucket from the side of the house and went to the vegetable field. As she pulled the vegetables out of the ground she thought about her mother. She had died in a so-called ‘accident’ with the big city guards when Elita was four years of age. It was a tough time then, and it was still tough now.

Elita finished collecting the vegetables and brought them inside.

“Here you are, father. Is this enough for the next few days?”

“Yes,” her father said, “You can do what you wish until sundown.”

“Okay. See you tonight father,” Elita said, giving her father a quick hug before heading outside.

She headed towards Beata’s family’s house. When she arrived at the from door Beata came out.

“Oh. Hello Elita. How are you?” Beata, asked. Beata wasn’t pretty at all. She had spots on her face, red hair, and was quite large for her age. She usually was a bit conscious about it, but Elita didn’t care and enjoyed hanging out with her.

“Good Beata. You want to spend time with me today?” Elita asked.

“Oh. Sure. I just have to collect some water first. Wait here.” Beata bounced off to collect the water from the local well.

After she had come back and brought the water inside her house, she and Elita headed off in the direction of the forest.