"Morthia, Morthia. Please wake up." Tina, her little sister whined. "Morthia, I am hungry." Morthia sighed loudly. 

"Tina how old are you?" Morthia asked, not even opening her eyes. "Thirteen, so are Andrea and MJ. And do you see them here in my room. Do you hear them whine like a toddler? No you don't, you know why?" Tina didn't give her an answer. "Because they have opened the fridge and have seen the breakfast I prepared last night." Morthia knew that she was walking on thin ice, because if their father heard her talking like that to one of his children. But Tina was old enough to heat up a meal in the microwave. But she always talked to a dragon steel wall, when she talked to him. All she wanted was to sleep in, for one day of the year. 

"I will tell daddy." Tina said. Morthia sighed, well that was great, her little sister was a brat. 

"Ask Andrea to warm your plate up, Tina. All I asked is for one day to sleep in." Morthia said. "And thanks to you, I have to wait a whole year for that moment to arrive again." She pushed off her sheets and stood up. "I am going to take a shower and I will see you downstairs." 

"Morthia!" There he was, her stepfather. He came into her room. "How dare you, talk to my child in that way." Morthia sighed and rolled with her eyes.

"Micheal, she is not a baby. She is thirteen, there is breakfast in the fridge, the only thing that she needs to do is take it out and heat it up. Or ask the other thirteen-year-olds, to do it for her." She said, moving with her hand. "Which they can, because they are not here." She said. Micheal looked around and sighed. 

"You have only one job." He said.

"And I did, last night. I cooked breakfast, and all I am asking is to sleep in. You agreed that I get to do that one day of the year. That day is here, but instead of sleeping, I am being woken up and arguing with you. So Tina, please go downstairs, ask one of the others to heat up your breakfast. I will be there is ten minutes, and no Micheal, I do not want too ague with you about this! I am tired, you promised my mother that you would take care of me. You are not taking care of me, instead I take care of you and the kids." She said, while walking away. "I cook, clean the house, take care of the small garden, I watch the little brats, although they are the same age when I started to do all of these things. So in my opinion, they could take some of the workload off me. But no, they are not and do not tell me that this is for my own good. I can't see why this is for my own good, I never leave the house. I never have time to even read a book for dragon's sake." 

"Morthia I am warning you." Micheal said.

"That is all you do, but go on. Go to work, I am up now and will go to work as soon as I have my shower." Morthia replied. She turned around and walked into her own bathroom, hating the fact that this was her life. She has taken care of everything, ever since her mother died. Back then, she was a child herself and now she was twenty-seven and still took care of everything. She got herself undressed and stepped in the cabin, pushed on the button, and water slammed against her body from all sides. This only took two minutes, and then a warm red light filled the room. Drying her up, she knew that this might not be the latest form of Dragonfire technology, but it came close. Sometimes she wondered how a simple mine worker like her stepfather was able to afford this, but in times like these she was glad that she was able to use it. This was a moment for herself and she treasured every second of it. The red light faded and the program was done, it was time for her to get dressed and brush her fire red hair. She sighed, grabbed the clothing out of the cabinet. A gray t-shirt with a gray skirt that reached her ankles. The same old clothes she wore every day, what wouldn't she give to wear something else for a change. But Micheal couldn't afford new clothing, not for her and not for the triplets. She brushed her hair and tight it up in a simple braid. Micheal was already gone when she came downstairs, Tina was sitting at the table with her plate in front of her. Andrea smiled at Morthia, she was the only one of the triplets with red hair. But she had her father's hazel eyes, Tina and MJ were exact copies of their father. And Morthia, she looked like a younger version of her mother.

"Good morning, Morthia. I am so sorry about Tina. I offered to warm her plate up, but she wanted you to do it." Andrea said, Morthia opened the fridge and took out her own plate, placed it in the microwave. 

"It is not your fault, Andrea. But there are some things going to change around here. And I do not care if your father agrees with it or not. You three are going to help me in and around the house. Tina and Andrea, you two are going to do the laundry and MJ, you are going to help me in the garden." Morthia said. MJ and Tina started to moan. "He, he listen. I do not have the energy to argue with you. You all can thank Tina for that. But I want to be able to read one of mom's novels today, before I need to start dinner." Andrea nodded. 

"Can I help you with dinner?" She asked. And Morthia gave her a smile. At least one of them was not acting like a spoiled brat, she blamed Micheal for the behavior of the other two.

"Of course you can." Morthia replied. The microwave beeped and her breakfast was ready.

*******

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Tina and MJ complained as if their lives depended on it, but they still did their part of the chores, and Morthia had finally time to sit down and ready a book. It was something she wanted to do for years, but with all the work she needed to do. There was simply not enough time for it. Andrea came to her when it was time to start dinner, which was almost done when Micheal came home. 

"Smells good. " He said, he nodded towards her as a greeting. But his attitude changed when he saw Andrea. "Why is she here?" 

"She is helping me. I put them to work today." Morthia said, Micheal was about to say something. "How old was I when I started to do all of this? Yes, they are children and you didn't have another option. But they are now old enough to help with a few simple chores, and Andrea offered to help me inside the kitchen." Micheal looked at Andrea. 

"Is this true?" He asked her, and she nodded. 

"I wanted to help Morthia, so that she could sit down and read. Tina and MJ will complain to you about all the 'hard' work they needed to do." Andrea said. "Which in Tina's case was putting the laundry inside the machine and afterwards placing it in the respective cabinet. In MJ's case getting rid of some weeds and watering the garden. I helped Morthia with cleaning the rest of the house, which was done in no time." Micheal looked from her to Morthia and back. "Dad, we are indeed old enough to help out. Morthia desiverce to sit down and read."

"You two are indeed two peas in a pot." He said with a sigh. Andrea simply shrugged.

"I am just stating a fact." She replied, turned around and grabbed the stack of plates. And left the kitchen with them, leaving Micheal and Morthia behind.

"Which book did you read?" He asked. 

"Summer star." She replied, while grabbing the pan. "Mom loved that book, and I now know why." Micheal nodded, and left her alone. She thanked Andrea silently for her werds, her little sister had her back and that was good to know. Tina and MJ indeed complained about the work during dinner. "Good to know that you two found it so hard, after dinner MJ is going to fill the dishwasher and Tina is emptying it." She said and looked at Micheal. "It is only fair, Andrea helped with prepairing dinner." Actually she wanted to get back to her book.

"I am not going to do that, that is your job." Tina said. "Am I right daddy?" She asked. But her father shook his head. 

"It was her job, your sister is right. The three of you are old enough to help with this kind of things." He said, MJ and Tina looked shocked at him. "And I do not want to hear about how unfair this all is. Your sister has being doing these task for years now, and that is unfair on her. Besides that, tomorrow you will have simple bread for breakfast, because your sister gets to sleep in. And I do not want to hear that someone gets to ruin it for her again." Morthia didn't know what to believe, but she was glad that he was about to turn around. Which was a huge relief. She gave him a smile and whispered a thank-you. After dinner, MJ placed the dishes in the dishwasher and Morthia went upstairs to her room. Which was filled with bookshelves, which in turn were filled with books. Her mother had left her with a nice collection, and Micheal had added some more after she passed. She packed up the book that lay on her bed and started reading. Suddenly, her door slammed open and the triplets entered the room.  She looked up, all of them looked shocked. She closed her book. 

"Dad said that we need to hide here." Andrea said. A hard sound came from downstairs, loud voices filled the place. She stood up and motioned the children to come to her. She stood up and they gathered behind her on the bed. Just in time because a man in dragon guard armor entered her room. She spread her arms to make herself bigger than she was, not that it would matter if he shot her with his Dragonfire gun. 

"Princess Brialea?" The man said. 

"No, no, leave them alone, they are just children!" Micheal's voice echoed through the house. "Leave them be." Morthia didn't know why the dragon guard, the army force of the Empire, was here on Valeron the smallest moon inside the Empire, better yet why they were inside her house. But Micheal knew why and he was begging them to leave her and the triplets be. But the soldier in front of her just said princess Brialea which made no sense, her mother was no princess. Tina started to tear up, Morthia couldn't turn around and comfort her. She was the only thing standing between them and the soldier. 

"General Derock, you have to see this." The soldier said. Morthia could hear Micheal scream and beg, but it did nothing because the general still entered her room. 

"Ahh, princess Brialea, we finally found you." The older man said. He had long gray hair, but his blue eyes were clear. Morthia shook her head.

"I am not the princess, I am Morthia." She said. "Please, leave me and my siblings alone. We have done nothing wrong." The general started to laugh. 

"Do you really think that I was born yesterday, you grace. We have grown up together..." The general said. 

"Um father." A young man with also blue eyes appeared behind the general.

"Stop calling me that, when we are on duty. Captain." General snapped at his son, who didn't seemed bother by it. He shrugged it off and then nodded towards Morthia.

"I think she is speaking the truth. If she was the princess, you might ask her which kind of dragonfire tech she is using." The captain said. "This girl those not look older then eightteen." 

"I am twenty seven." Morthia shot back. The captain raised his hands as if he surrendured. The general nodded slowly. 

"But that those not explain why she looks like the princess." The general said. 

"People say that I look like a younger you, all the time. How difficult can it be to say that this is her daughter." The captain said with a sigh. He now looked at Morthia. "Are you Princess Brialea's daughter?" 

"No, Derock. It is me that you want, leave my children out of it." Micheal entered the room, interupting her. "They have nothing to do with my betrayel. My oldest is twenty seven and she can take care of the younger once. So there is no need to bring them along." Micheal was afraid, why was he so afraid.

"Your time of giving me orders are long over, Micheal. You made that desision twenty seven years ago." General Derock replied. "Where is the princess?" 

"She passed away. Some time ago." Micheal replied, defeated. "Her grave is behind the house." Morthia looked shocked, so her mother was a princess? "But please, I promised her to keep the children safe." 

"You shouldn't made any promises." General Derock said. "Take those children. I want to leave this Moonlover's paradise."