Love or Freedom

SpaceHuman's Note: *Hi. I hope life is cul 4 u. I can't find my stories in the directory, but when I try to edit them it says they have already been approved. So I'm very confuzzled. If any1 has any advice plz comment, otherwise, enjoy my not the best story :).

I stand over my weak, and almost still mother. It's a hard sight to stare at. I watch her tears wet the dried blood on her cheeks, causing me to shed some water as well. She turns her head away from me and with the remaining strength she has, pulls off her opal pendant that hangs tightly on her neck.

Once it is placed on the ground she is still. I weep and weep, but no one notices. The citizens have escaped, and the soldiers are out fighting, soon too perish as well.

I grab the necklace and pull it over my head and onto my scratched neck. I'm about to kiss my mother goodbye, when general Abram breaks down the door. He looks at me from the doorway, and then his gaze switches to my mother.

I see sadness. No, I see grief. I look at our reflections in the window, and notice we have the same deep sorrow in our faces. I didn't know he and my mother's friendship was that close. He looks at her for a few moments, and then all attention is back on me.

Apparently, because I am the princess, and as Abram says it, his most important duty, I have priority to escape. I have many questions squirming around in my brain, but before I can express them, his bloody hand is already wrapped around my arm and dragging me out the tower.

I don't see much. It's going so quickly. But I see bodies that won't be honored. I see soldiers that will never get see their family again. But mostly, I see my people fighting for the last time they ever will. There is so much determination in them though. I pray they aren't doing this for me.

We stop by the edge of the forest. I tell him he needs to escape, but he refuses. Pity is in his eyes, but it leaves him when he informs me that he needs to get back to fight. Fight for what? There is half the castle left. Some soldiers. No citizens. Maybe he does it to prove he would die for this place. But everyone already knows that. So can't he just leave and come with me for safety?

I begin the quest. I was told by Abram there is a town I can go to that will welcome me. I was told we and this town are allies. Why can't everyone be an ally? I would ask my father that, and he would respond by placing his food back on the table, and say to me that different views mean same battle. Then he died from too much alcohol in the tavern and jumping off the roof onto a wooden table. My mother told me he had a better side. Before they got married. But she doesn't like the topic much.

The forest is tough. I give some recognition to the soldiers that do this every day.

Days pass. I make shelter every night. One day I see a bridge, and on the other side, it looks to be the village. I'm sure there's a smile on the back of my head. I straighten up and step onto the wooden walkway. I big spear falls directly in front of me. I step back and look at the man who has thrown it at me.

He puts his hand out, and I understand. So I hand him some coins. He shakes his head. I offer a bag of coins. He shakes his head. Some time later, I still don't have access and I feel desperate. I try to tell him that I'm the princess to his ally, but he rolls his eyes and puts his hand out yet again.

Finally, his eyes settle on my mother's pendant. I point out that this is my mother's and it's in the family, but he doesn't care. He doesn't see the desperateness in my eyes. I just want freedom from the battle happening right outside my bedroom window. The battle that lost so many of my people's lives. This man does not seem to care, and he just wants the pendant.

At one point I'm on my knees begging. I want to throw this man off the bridge and tumbling into the slapping waves below.

When I know there is no hope I sit down, my back facing to him and ponder on what to chose. My freedom would be more valuable to my mother than her pendant. But it's been passed in the family for years. But if I kept the pendant then I surely would die somewhere and the pendant would be lost forever.

But-I don't deserve this freedom. I only get it because I was lucky in my raffle before I was born and got the ticket to be born to the queen. My people should be here. Maybe if I go to the village I can sort things out there and figure out a way home. But the pendant. The man on the bridge isn't getting impaciente waiting for my decision. He isn't even looking at me. He looks at the village. He must be proud on how well he has protected it.

I wonder if the people living their happy lives in that small place know what he is doing to me, and probably many people. Maybe there have been desperate people looking for shelter and they had nothing. And the guard didn't let them in.

Did my mother know that? Is that why she gave me her pendant? I hope it is, because I walk up to the guard, and place the opal stone into his greedy hand.