Chapter 4.5 - Letter 7
Angela laid in her gigantic bed, she still wasn’t used to living in the castle again after 5 years. She looked out of the window thinking of Zee, her old friend from the outskirts, wondering when another letter would come in from him.
At that moment a knock at her door got her attention.
“Madam Angela, that young man sent you’s another letter, the persistent bastard.” The voice of Eppie said to Angela through the door.
“Eppie! Don’t be rude, that's my best friend in the whole wide world ya talkin about!” Angela ridiculed Eppie.
“Yeah yeah, whateva Madam. Are you gonna open the door or do I’s need to bend down and break my back to slide it under ur dumb door.” Eppie complained.
If it was Hippie delivering the letter she would just have him slide the letter under the door, but if she made Eppie do that he would never forgive her.
“Hold on!” Angela yelled.
Angela jumped from her bed and ran to the door and cracked it open slightly.
“Here, take it.” Eppie says as he slipped the note through the crack of the barely open door, he sounded annoyed to Angela.
Angela grabbed the letter quickly.
“Thanks Eppie!” She said, and Eppie only grunts in response.
Eppie’s footsteps are audible to Angela, as he walked down the long hallway she waited until she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore to read the letter. She ran to her bed and stared at the unopened letter.
Angela’s pale hands unfolded the paper and she read the letter.
~
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Letter 7
April 1st, XX04
To: Angela Swain
Hello again, Angy I have been missing you a lot these days. I have some news to tell you, to be honest I am not sure if it is good news or bad news, but I am being sent to some sort of program called “Early Development”, some military guys came by and gave my mom a letter that said I was going to be trained to fight the Evil South, and in order to be the strongest kind of soldier I had to go now. I am not sure what any of that means, and to be honest I am kind of scared, I don’t wanna go to war.
But anyways Angy, I don’t wanna scare you, I’m sure I will be fine. I don’t have much to report besides that. I do hope to hear from you at some point, I decided to start numbering my letters because I am worried that I might forget how many I have sent to you. But that's neither here nor there.
You wanna know something funny? Mom seemed happy that I was being sent away to some sort of military training. She thanked the military men at the door and laughed while she read the letter, and continued laughing when she told me what the next few years of my life was gonna be like. I seriously have no idea what I did to that lady to make her treat me like this.
I wish I had more to say Angy, but mom is currently nagging me, apparently the bus is already here so I gotta go. I’ll write to you again as soon as I can!
From Your Best Pal, Zee.
~
On the bottom of the paper was a sketched photo of a flower and the words “For you.” written under it.
Angela’s mouth hung open at the revelation of Zee going into Early Development. See, she knew all about it, there is not a soul in the Capital City that didn’t know about it, but the people of the royal castle knew what it was in reality, and that is a child soldier training program, made in a desperate attempt to beat the Artenian Army with soldiers who only knew how to kill and fight in war.
Angela stormed out of her room for the first time since she got back to the castle, she made her way to the throne room where King Harold was located. She burst through the huge doors to the throne room, where not only her father dwelled, but also Queen Emilia and her half brother, Prince Lucius. The sight of the two of them, one of which is a murderer, made her doubt her next words, but she stood strong.
“Father! My friend from the outskirts is being drafted into Early Development!” Angela exclaimed. She stood there, analyzing her fathers reaction to her words, only to see him completely unfazed.
“Please you have to spare hi-” Angela is cut off by her father.
“Be quiet!” Her father yelled.
“You have locked yourself in your room, and you have enjoyed the luxuries of this royal family, and you have shown no gratitude towards us! Now that your friend is at risk you come asking for more?!” Her father scoffed at her arrogance.
“You haven’t spoken out against Early Development at all until now! You hypocrite!” Her father yelled.
Angela’s eyes were downcast at this proclamation, for one because her fathers voice scared her into submission, but also because she knew he was right. If Zee hadn’t been drafted into Early Development she wouldn’t have given it a second thought, in fact she knew that she wouldn’t care at all, she even saw how such a program might help her country succeed in a war against Artenia. Angela looked up at the three of them one final time, her father had a glint of hatred in his eye, and the other two just snickered and mocked her.
That night was the one and only time she ran away from the castle, she didn’t make it very far for very long at all, and that is not what matters most, for that night she was spotted by the person that would eventually leak her existence to the public. But that wouldn’t happen for another few years. Moreover, this event sowed the seed of rebellion within Angela, you might even call it the catalyst of current events, a butterfly effect of sorts.