"Beware of Dark Clouds"
This is a fantastical tale about magical creatures, a beast, a girl who is searching for herself, a maniacal king and an evil warlock's son. The story takes place several hundred years ago in an old cottage town where it was believed concepts like magic and fairy tales did not exist. This magic had occurred before in the town's past, but it been buried in the current day. Societal improvements like technology and cell phones were prominent in the town because they were brought over by the kings and queens that ruled the land in the centuries before. That had made the people in the town knowledgeable about the latest clothes or transportation that was coming out that year, but it drove them away from the intrinsic, important values. Important values like family togetherness, and the spirit of the old ways. The aforementioned people of the town had their own businesses. Businesses like the latest eatery and hip trends were selling like hot cakes. Most people loved these advances the city was making. Approval for the King was at an all- time high according the town records. The King's name was King Herold. He had inherited the throne through family deeds and through a lot of favors from the higher up. And because it was what everyone did.
The elite never questioned what mistakes the King made or questioned why things were the way things were. But there would soon be someone that would. The people living on modicum allowances did not like some efforts of the king and his elitist acquaintances to "put things right". The King's Court would give the people food and allow their families to buy clothes and things they needed but only for a fee. That fee included swearing loyalty to the King, kissing his feet and a penalty of 1000 gold doves. Gold doves were not actually doves but coins worth more than an average citizen would make in a year. Most who were not in the King's Court could not afford the technology and luxury that the King was handing out to the elitist society. Some had day to day jobs in corner food and clothing shops in and around the outer skirts of town.
Meanwhile, the education of the citizens was put on strict notice. The elite had the finest of education, private schooling in the upper hills of the Kingdom. Schooling there meant apprenticeship in the finest jobs that the elite could get. But even then, there was a limit to how far you could go. The King would stop any person who demonstrated they knew more than the King did. If they did, they were given a series of tests. They were usually a series of difficult arduous tasks. Generally, no one had completed them all. And that was enough to limit people's curiosity as to why they could not advance. The King basically had to get an excellent rapport with the person to accept them as one of the King's Confidants. As for the citizens, there was one person that did not care for what the King was doing. This person was at first glance no one in particular. No more than anyone else. But her curiosity, her thirst for knowledge set her apart from everyone else.
This girl, being young, had an intuitive nature about her. She was curious, all too curious. But she knew when it proved not beneficial. Being in the kingdom it was imperative that she understand that. There were places that people were forbidden to go. The King had placed soldiers at certain places to make sure no one got out of place. This girl loved to seek out adventure. She now happened to be out traversing in the unknowable mysterious forest just beyond prying eyes.
Every night she would sit by her mother and father, right near the fire right after dinner and read. After dinner, her mother would brush her curly, brown frizzy hair straight. Her mother would have a difficult time getting her to sit still until her curls were straightened. No matter what her mother did her curls never did stay straight. There would always be a flourish to them. But Little 'Resa loved her mother, as she did her curls, so she sat patiently, as her mother brushed, and twisted her into braids. As her father read, she followed along with her fingers and eyes touching the pages. It seemed like a whole world she was embarking on for the first time. She would be amazed at the words on the pages of the books her father would present to her. Her father would read to her every night before bed. He would also show her pictures of events happening in the town, in the local Chonicler, pictures of the latest science and architecture being built in the world at the time.
The girl being curious about the world would venture out from time to time without her parents knowing. During this time reading was at an all-time low in the town, so much so that in one instance the girl one day had to run and hide for fear that a "King's Court" official marching in the street would notice her and reprimand her and her family. This encounter was scary to her because this was the first time she realized she wasn't able to freely read like she thought she could. This action threatened her way of living. So, her family had to do everything they could to cover the fact that they knew how to read. When her father would come home every night, he would lock the basement door and cover and hide every book they had in their house save for the furniture books. They put unused books under the table, so it could not wobble.
Checks would be diligent and intrusive. The King's men did an intrusive look into the local townspeople homes to make sure they only had books that were not "educational and learning." Her family complied like everyone else in the town, but they didn't like it. The King went so far as to have his generals spread propaganda and rumors to keep the citizens afraid to venture out. One such rumor was that if they were to read and gain knowledge that it had upset the balance of the natural order of things. That the gods wouldn't bless them if they did. And that reading about stuff that they weren't supposed to put horrible things in people's heads. And most of the town believed that. The King's Court had been thorough in their sweep. For those that got caught with those books they got burned. And the families were put in display of shame in front of the whole town. They were stripped of their possessions and everything but their base clothes and rags for defying the King.
But her father was different. Her father knew better because he had seen the world as it was and told her of the adventures that he had gone on. They were fantastic. They were adventures of pirates and men and creatures that she had only seen in books. Places he said he had been, she had only seen in pictures when she was young. Therefore, she wasn't sure she had believed it. She been eager to experience those places for herself however, her mother was sick and had needed her dearly, so she couldn't venture out like she had wanted to. But because of that her father made sure he brought home one exciting book that she liked to read every week. This week she read about a dwarf that had a crew of raiders that would sail the seas in the cold and rough waters for conquest. That excited her because she never knew what adventures would come next for the merry band of dwarves. And just as much were the words, she loved reading. She would have to ask him some questions about these stories almost every night.
In this town there weren't that many influential people. It was a suburb of the grand city. The people were sheltered on themselves. And the king did not allow for multi-cultural intermingling of races. They were separated early in the regime. This separation forced some families to adapt. It forced many families to suffer through the separation of their lives.
On the other side of the rich elite and sophisticated, the poor and middle class, it wasn't a drink at high tea for them. Every morning mothers had cook and clean, and wash clothes, and sometimes had to teach their young ones. It was away from the prying eyes of the King's Court. While fathers had to work and farm for the King. Even when it was the hottest of days. Sweat trickling down on their bare shoulders and chests while they drove and manually tilled the land in even swaths for him. Ultimately so they could earn a tenth of what the King gave out so generously to his loyal subjects. In doing so this why the town wasn't so merry. The king put a high tariff and an early curfew for defiance of the king's law. If you were not in bed by the sun's dip, 3 times, you paid a penalty of no shoes no socks for your children. It would seem surprising that there were many children in the town with no shoes or socks. Even though those were the rules, that did not stop her from reading in her bed when lights were out. Even if it was by candlelight.
Sometimes when all was quiet, she would sneak out at night and run towards the outskirts of the city and sit under the light of the stars. She'd sit on the green grass just marveling at the many twinkling stars. And she'd dream that she was on a boat looking out amongst the crew of the boat. She'd be the one to captain the boat traversing the open seas. That thought sent joyous waves through her. As she dreamt, things were moving about around her. Suddenly, a noise startled her. She heard a wolf's howl. It was strange in that she had never heard one before, but they were fairly common in the outskirts of the Kingdom. The howl started in low but then became louder.