Chapter 1- My meal decides our fate
My bare feet hit the blistering hot pavement as I run back to my brother. I hope over a field of broken glass,
“If I have blisters or glass in my feet I’m going to kill you Corbin.” I yell at him. He chuckles,
“That was a pretty good dare though, don’t you think?” Nodding I sit beside him in the shade of a flourishing oak tree. I stare at our cottage, it’s shattered window panels, the mud peeling from the walls, and the broken roof tiles. We’re lucky to be where we are, right next to the beachfront.
“Calliope, come help me make dinner.” Yells a voice urgently from inside the house. Shaking my head and smiling, I rise from the cool grass and head back to our cottage; the door is already open and a whiff of smoke escapes through it. Over the hot plate, coughing whilst stirring a wooden spoon around a pot, stands my father. His raven black hair sticks up in two spikes on the sides of his head, and his rimless glasses sit at the end of his nose fogged up from the steam of the potatoes.
“Help me, it’s smoking up! What did I do wrong?”
“What are you cooking dad?” His silvery blue eyes stare into mine intensely.
“It’s our meal of offering for the Pardas, for the stupid celebration of their dominance over us. I’m trying to cook chicken and potatoes.” His eyes return to the pot.
“Did you put butter in the pan first?” Dad sighs and shakes his head,
“I should’ve just waited for your mother.” I push him away,
“I can do this, you go away.” My attention turns back to to the potatoes and chicken. Lucky for me cooking has always been one of my strengths. I start to sing a lullaby my mother used to sing to me when I was little. The lyrics had been sitting in the back of my mind for years, I was surprised I even remembered them.
“In a kingdom full of blessings,Just a girl to wear the crown, The goodness brought such sorrow, Her head was in the clouds.
The trees obeyed her whispers, The grass parted at her feet, Wind whistled to her gently, And flowers smelt so sweet.
In the leaf stricken fields, Her true love she met, His eyes like the cloudless sky, His hair like golden threads.
Away they went together, On a horse like marble stone, To a place of calm and peace, For her love for him would never cease.”
I smile to myself, singing is one of my other strengths. I put the potatoes and chicken onto our best plate which has been passed down in my mother’s family for generations and pour the sauce into a little pot. My family’s and my own lives rest in my hands now. If the Pardas soldier that tries our meal doesn’t like it, my family will be sentenced to be their slaves until next celebration of the Pardas. The door swings open.
“I’m home .”A women with lengthy blonde hair and pale blue eyes wraps her arms around me.
“Hey mama, how was your day?”
“Amazing, that smells delicious.” She smiles proudly, gesturing towards the plate.
“It’s time to leave Calliope, Corbin and Kadence, come on.” Dad shouts from his bedroom. This is it, my meal is the decider of my family’s freedom. Whether we spend our next year in our dingy home, or as slaves, our bodies and lives tied to the Pardas even more so than usual.
