The sun streamed down onto the beautiful village of NorthGrove. The birds singing their scheduled morning versus and the faint sound of the Sun River trickling down stream. And yet that calm feeling would be torn away with the feeling of grief as the eye of the storm would be awakened. But I must not get ahead of myself. Let me tell you some background information before I start talking about the present.

North Grove is my home sweet home. I love how war is not common and our food is plentiful. We need not worry of traitors because our military is always in training and ready for any situation that may become of our kingdom. Some may say that I only love my village because it is the capital of Feely but that is simply not true. I love my village because of our welcoming community. I have traveled in the view years that I have lived, not as far as to say other kingdoms, But I have traveled to many different villages like SunCreek and WillowBirch, each village having their own aura. Some auras giving off welcoming vibes and some giving off hostile. Despite their differences they all had one thing in common, they all gave their life to the king. 

You could say the king is like a farmer, the villages like a garden of flowers. Each of the gardener’s flowers are unique, some came in different colors and some that came with thorns. No matter how the flower came the gardener loved each and everyone equally. One day the gardener had to show off his garden to some other nearby gardeners. He had to make a hard decision, what flower he would show to the other gardeners as his prized flower. He loved each of his flowers and told them no matter who he chose that he will always love each and every flower equally. In the end he chose the strongest most beautiful flower of them all. Some of the flowers took this news with anger while the rest welcomed it with open arms. This special flower was, us, NorthGrove. The king has proved his worth to the other kingdoms and has kept his promise to his villages. We are proud to be chosen as the capital and will forever stand at our Kings side. 

My village is overthrown with Hibiscuses and wild creatures that roam through the forests.  Visitors come from far and wide to see our beautiful sculptures and art. As well as the wonderful nature surrounding us. Every morning people can smell the sweet sent of the flowers and sometimes if you are passing by the bakery you can even smell the fresh bread. I often smell the fresh bread in the morning sense my father is one of many bakers in our town. I usually run away from it though sense all my problems are in town. I run tell I reach the Bloomington Sea, that is the sea that hides me from everything that I have ever wanted. But yet it seems like that is the only place where I can go to just let my problems free, like leaves in the wind on a autumn evening. I usually wake up early to watch the sunrise come up from the sea, it is one of the most magnificent things you’ll ever see. I stand their listening to the waves lap across the shore. That is what brings me peace and that is what makes me love this village so much. 

And that is what bring us to the present. I sit along the sandy shores my bare feet touching the warm sand. My long black hair whips in the morning breeze. My vision starts to blur as tears start forming and rolling down my cheeks. The sunrise looks like a messy painting, like it was painted by a young child, nothing seemed quit visible. I had fought with my father earlier that morning. Sometimes I wish I could keep my mouth shut but my stubbornness and pride were to big to do so. 

If I haven’t told you yet I am not on good terms with my father. Ever sense I was born he has looked at me with discussed. I was supposed to be a boy but instead I was a girl. He was very disappointed and even locked me up in my room because he couldn’t look at me any more. No matter how hard I tried he never loved me. After four girls later and one miscarriage which was a boy, my mom gave birth to a boy. Teddy is his name and he is my fathers prized joy.  I can’t help but hate him. All the love that I have ever wanted was given to my little brother. My dad had finally had a son that could take care of the bakery when he is to old to do it himself.  My sisters and I are like trophies. Father was never pleased with his second place trophies until he finally got his first place trophy. He had totally forgotten about us which wasn’t a surprise sense  he never loved us anyway.

I had gone out to do my morning chores that day before I went to go watch the sunrise. My family never bothered me about my morning errands to the sea. They knew that it was my serenity. I had finished my chores and was about to walk out towards the road when my father called out to me before I could even walk out the doors. 

“ Holly we need to talk.”

“Can this wait father, I’ll miss the sunrise.”

“Missing one sunrise won’t hurt anyone, and what I have to say concerns your future.”

“Well I know it is clearly important sense you are pulling me away from something very important to me.”i day with sarcasm. My father didn’t seem to notice.

“That is true, so please join me by the fireplace.”

“I will but you make this quick I really could care less what you say to me I just want to get to my sunrise.”

 I wish I had not said that. My father rushes over to me and slaps me right across the face. My face burned like fires straight from hell and my heart beat so fast that It felt like it would come out of my chest. I was so scared of what my father might do to me next. He grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the fire place and pushed my straight down onto one of the wooden chairs that my brother had built when he was younger. He took my face in his big right hand. His anger flowed through his body ending at his hand making him squeeze my face with no mercy.

“Listen to me you little brat!” Shouted my father with pure hatred. “You shall never speak to me like that or any man in fact. You will listen to me, your just a weak little girl and can’t do anything. Men power over women so listen carefully, you will stay here until I tell you,you can go. If you miss your stupid sunrise then so be it. Got it!?”

“Un..understood.”

“Good.”

My father gives me one last glare and then stands up. He grins at me and turns around walking closer to the fireplace. He places his large hand on the fireplace mantle and his other hand on his hip. He doesn’t even look at me as he speaks, instead he looks like he is talking to the fire. The flames reflect off of his evil black eyes. What a scary man he is.

“It is really hard to find a rich men these days that are willing to take such an ugly girl as you as their wife. But I have finally found a man who was willing to take you. His name is Lord Daniel. He is young, rich, and very handsome.  So maybe your children won’t be hideous after all. I have made arrangements for you to meet him at dinner tonight so then you can get acquainted before the wedding . Of course the wedding plans will come soon after.” 

“I will not marry Lord Daniel.”

“Of course you will.”

“No I will not I do not love him, true love...”

“True love?!”

My father bursts into laughter it lasted a couple of minutes until he stopped. He looked at me and shook his head.

“True love doesn’t exist. Your foolish for thinking so. There is no happy ending to life. So wake up from your stupid fairytale dream, this is the real world and you better start adjusting to it or it will eat you up alive.”

“No.”

“No?” 

“I will not let you do this to me or my sisters any longer. We decide what we want our future to hold. I won’t let you intervene with my life and keep destroying what precious time I have on earth. Lord Daniel will have to find another lady for his wife because it won’t be me!”

“Oh yes it will be you who is marries! I won’t let you embarrass me any longer.” 

“What did I ever do to deserve this? Your the one here that is the bad guy! You treat me and my sisters like crap, but the real person who is crap...is...is you!”

“How dare you! You little pest! You know if you weren’t loved by your mother so much I would have put you in the streets a long time ago. You are unwanted and will never be excepted into society you little piece of crap. If you don’t marry Lord Daniel you’ll be stuck in the dirty streets with the peasants, and that I guess is where you truly  belong! If you walk out this door you will never be welcomed back home and one of your other sisters will get Lord Daniel.

I wanted to cry then but I didn’t. I couldn’t show him that I was weak. I heard someone get up. I mean I couldn’t blame the person, with all the shouting that was going on I bet the whole village heard us. The person that awoke started running down the hall and down our old wooden staircase. It was my mother her long black hair was braided to the side and her soft brown eyes looking right towards me. She wore a purple robe with white patterns sewed into it and green slippers on her feet. She started walking towards me but my dad grabbed her and told her to stay back and leave this to him. She squirmed and pushed trying to get out of his tight grasp and yelling at him to let her go but it was to late, once she was free I was already outside the house  headed towards the sea.

“Holly come back I’ll talk to your father, please stay!”

“Mom I love you, but this isn’t the life for me. I am a burden to you and my siblings. It is better if I leave. Tell them I love them. You’ll be happy. You won’t have to hear me scream from dads beatings and you won’t have to cry about me any more. And you can finally live a peaceful life.”

“I can’t live that life without you.”

“You can and will. I’ll miss you mother.”

“I guess this is your decision. I’ll miss you. Good luck my sweet sun flower. May you prosper and be healthy. You’ll always be in my heart and prayer.”

“Bye...mother.”

 She rushed over to me and hugged me for minutes but it felt like seconds. I knew she wanted the last moments to count. Her sweet pine sent filling my nose. She kissed my forehead. Her tears ruling down onto my face. Here eyes met mine. Those dear like eyes. Oh how I wanted to just cry into to her arms like I always did and stay here with her forever. I couldn’t stay, not any longer. I know she loved me and will always love me.

“Bye sweet heart.”

And with that I was gone. Gone from my troubles or so I thought.

Here I am now sitting on the shore my heart broken and no idea where I will go next. I had lost two things that day. The only person I knew that loved me and a home. If you can even call it a home. But I gained something that I have always wanted. Freedom! It felt good. I felt like a puppet who had finally gotten its strings cute of of his body. My body was extremely tired so I let my body fall onto the soft sand and dream. As I began to drift to sleep my dreams where awoken by a loud BOOOM! BOOOOM! BANG! I turn around to see a huge fire coming from the village. My heart said not to go back to the village but my body was saying a different thing. I quickly stood up and started running straight towards the fire.