Chapter 15: Aicha

Uploaded: February 20, 2025

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Father had explicitly forbidden me to leave the house at night and meet with Bruno. He told me our small Rebellion would do nothing else than bring us into trouble. Of course, that did nothing else than want me to leave even more. The hours seemed to stretch on endlessly before the house became quiet for the night, but when the time finally came, I jumped from the attic window where my room lay and ran to the forest.

None of my friends ever believed me when I said I did it, but it was the truth. What other choice did I have? Father wouldn’t let me sleep anywhere else and sincerely believed that the attic would keep me out of trouble. I wouldn’t be the one to convince him otherwise. After all, who knew what else he would do to prevent me from meeting with Bruno and the others if he found out? He had already taken my shoes in the hope it would stop me from causing trouble, but he hadn’t expected me to get used to walking barefoot. I did it all the time now, and only if the snow reached my ankles did I stop and consider an alternative. Luckily, that barely happened in the winter, so there was nothing to worry about.

At least I had been lucky and managed to slip my bow from the house before Mother began to worry I would do something reckless with it. Which meant we had a weapon when the right time came to use it. Thinking about it now as I ran made me even more eager for the meeting, and I sped up and sprinted the last part of the way.

Today’s meeting was important. Bruno had just come back from the valley after spending several days spying on the Queen’s soldiers. I guess everyone wanted to hear what he had learned, but none of them were as thrilled as I was. After all, we had put together all our money to fund this mission.

That isn’t to say that I didn’t wish it had been me who had gone instead. But Bruno was seventeen and looked like an adult, and I didn’t. It wasn’t fair that I was so small. It also wasn’t fair that Emma said that even if I weren’t so young and could mingle with the soldiers in town, I would never remember what I’d learned from them long enough to report it. Alex added that I probably would get too jolly and tell them about our Rebellion. They did have a point, but still. I really did want to see the valley, but I wasn’t sure what Father would do to me if I ever tried. After all, it wasn’t safe for our people to go there alone any longer, not after our war against the Queen. He was right, I guess, but even so, weren’t we the heroes? Even Emma said that her people were cowards who accepted the Queen's rule without a struggle.

How I wished Sara would bring her army here and banish the Queen from our land. No one wanted her new taxes and rules. Not even Emma’s father liked it, and he even worked for the Captain. I had hoped Sara’s army would reach the Valley before the winter, but I didn’t think it would happen in the end. At least when she came, we would be ready to rise against the Queen.

I was out of breath when I finally reached our fort. It only had two simple shelters, and the fence was just being built. But if we could recruit more people, the work would go much faster, I thought as I walked towards the small campfire and sat down with the others.

Submitted: February 20, 2025

Fantasy fantasy romance heartwarming lgbtq high-fantasy

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John Grim

Yet another intriguing new character. It takes a great deal of forethought and organization to weave so many different characters onto a comprehensive story. I'm quite impressed with the complexity of this story so far, and I'm very curious where the narrative will go next.

Sat, February 22nd, 2025 5:37pm