Smile

“Alright, ginger-”

“Please, for once! Can you just call me Kyrie!” She turned away from me with a humpf.

I blinked with my best “she's-an-idiot” stare. She had her back turned to me so all I could see was her frizzy red hair that bobbed whenever the cart hit a bump in the gravel. I was able to rent a cart from the bird station and now only a day left till we got back to the Northern Kingdom castle town.

“Kyrie.”

“Huh?” her head turned slightly in confusion.

“Good, as I was saying before ginger-”

She let out a growl in frustration and fell backwards on the dirty cart floor to look up to me. The cart jumped again and a chicken ferret chattered in anger. The cart was all I could get for cheap. The man driving us, was also driving his produce to the castle town and was thankfully kind enough to let the two of us on with the few gold pieces I had left. The road we were taking would lead right into the castle town. It will take a day on the back of a cart with a bunch of smelly animals, but thankfully this meant that we wouldn't be stopping for anything the ginger or her mutt finds.

“What do you know about this world?”

She sighed putting up four fingers in the air.

“There are four main kingdoms of the world consisting of the Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, Eastern Kingdom, and Western Kingdom-”

“Wrong.”

She looked up confused. I placed out six fingers. The four were the main ones, but there were also two other “Kingdoms” out there, plus plenty of providences and governed lands throughout the Kingdoms.

“The central kingdom is a no mans land between all kingdoms. The Southern Kingdom has tried to take it over many times, but with no avail.”

“Oh, yeah, they have fairies in the central kingdom too right?”

“Elves. Get your facts straight!”

The mutt growled at me for my harsh words to the ginger. I ignored the mutt and continued.

“Then there's the Dark Islands that are tucked away high up in the North Western waters. Those islands consist of a kingdom of traitors who were thought to have been born from dark magic itself.”

The ginger sat up scratching her head confused with all the trivia that her grandpa neglected to tell her. After we left from the ruins, the ginger asked about the man sitting next to the woman. She heard me say his name and wouldn't stop begging me about who the man was and how I knew him.

“So... this “Tobias” is from those islands?”

“He was of high nobility in the islands, and a very wicked evil man,” I couldn't help to grit my teeth in the thought of the man that I knew well, “he actually is the head of an assassin group who were formed to rid the world of the main Kingdoms royals. The last I heard was that he only succeeded in ridding royals in smaller providences, but was no where near close to touch the main Kingdoms.”

“So he's a very evil man.”

“Yes.”

Then she looked back to where we came from. Her lips had an expression unique to her that showed her that she was thinking. She then wondered aloud why Tobias was at those ruins. I wondered how time was even possible to stop in a place like that. Tobias, coming from the Dark Islands naturally had magic abilities that we wouldn't have, but not even the fairies entered those ruins. It was as if it was haunted... just the ghosts were from the future than the past.

“If I may ask...” the ginger looked back at me with her big eyes, “what are you to the prince of the Northern Kingdom?”

I looked down to my hands where part of the tattoo stuck out a bit from my sleeve. I of course couldn't tell her the truth, truth... but I could tell her at least so much. She would only pester me till I tell her anyway. So to skip over the annoying poking and arguing, I let out a sigh. I placed my hands behind me and leaned back on my hands while looking to the blue sky.

“I'm the prince's right hand servant. I have been ever since he was a child.”

The ginger's eyes changed as she suddenly grew close to me pushing away my blonde hair out of my forehead.

“But you don't have the marks of a slave.”

“I'm not a slave! Servant.”

“Grandpa said-”

“Well, he's wrong.”

I turned away from the ginger and fell to my side. I crossed my arms pretending to want some sleep. She sounded like she wanted to say something, but crawled away leaving me alone. I moved my hand to my forehead touching to where the “brand of the servant” would go. The tradition went back to the foundation of the Northern Kingdom that the more servants a family owned, the richer they were. The brand made it sure that a servant wouldn't be taken by anyone else but their master. I did not have this brand. I tried to be busy whenever someone mentioned the process.

I didn't want to be owned like that. Sure, I could run to the other kingdoms, but being such an important servant, I wouldn’t be able to get far. I moved my hand to my chest. The brand for the royal family was worse than any other brands in pain and symbolism. I can't let Hunter know what I am doing. Crap I never thought of that before! How would I explain to him when I get back to the castle with the ginger and her flower?! He already warned me many times before about my place and if he notices that the prince is cured before he gets back-

I moved my hand towards my forehead again. He probably would want to kill me... but he would want me to suffer. No, he probably would brand me then blind me! I scratched at my arm trying to calm down my nerves. I looked strange enough with a straight face, but my nerves forced me to let out stress in a different way. What was I going to do?!

“Did it hurt?”

I looked behind me to see the ginger sitting cross legged with her knees touching my back. She rolled up my sleeve to see the tattoo that was slightly discolored from where I scratched my arm. Her eyes drooped a little bit as she traced the design with her blue eyes. Her attention was on the design and the shade of blue in her eyes kept mine. Then she started to trace the design with her finger. It started to tickle so I pulled my arm away. She looked into my eyes apologizing for wondering.

We looked away from each other for a little bit, listening to the chatter of the caged animals.

“Yes...”

“Huh...?” the ginger looked over to me but I kept my focus on a chicken ferret.

“You asked if it hurt,” I looked to the wooden cart floor, “yes it did.”

We were silent the rest of the trip down the gravel road. The road widened and lead to a grand bridge just as the sun started to dip in the sky. The driver of the cart hollered back to us in a loud voice waking the ginger up. We stood up on the moving cart to see the grand Northern Kingdom outer walls. The ginger was mesmerized with the height of the walls, and gawked at the stone work and all the guards. A few guards snickered at her expressions and let the cart through the gates. If she was mesmerized with the outer wall, she probably peed her shorts at the mighty Northern Kingdom castle town.

Fields and the mighty irrigation system filled the space between the walls and the town and hundreds of tall buildings filled the town. The stone, brick, and wooden structures were mighty and carefully sculpted to what the Northern Kingdom stood for. The Past. The historical past of mages and magic. The buildings were architecturally built to be like the ones in the ruins with swooping arches, majestic columns, and just an old world feel. I knew all of this because I was taught of it and because I've lived here my entire life.

The ginger's head moved back and forth between the buildings and pulling on me to look too. I rolled my eyes and amused her by answering all the buildings names she pointed to. Church, Council hall, bakery, Council hall again. Everything was so new to the ginger. I wanted to be annoyed, but I couldn't. She looked so funny being so eager.

“What's so funny?! Quit laughing at me!”

Laughing.

I was laughing?

How could I?

I hadn't laughed or smiled in two years.

I tried to think but I couldn't. The ginger kept making a face after another trying to show how mad she was, but the laughter kept coming. Eventually she just started laughing too and gave me a sweet smile.

“See, you can smile,” she giggled.

I couldn't help but feel my face, I could feel my tense face muscles loosen slightly. I was smiling. Even if it was a little smile, I was still smiling. I looked up to the ginger who's gaze went back to the passing buildings.

Did... she... do this?