I sit there as the sleet hits across my body and dampens my underclothes.

My head droops down and I sigh.

My breath joins the fog sourrounding me as the temperature continues to slowly drop. I look around and see the battlefield.

A mess, a complete mess.

Bodies everywhere, some in one piece. Others though were a mangled mess, arms and legs torn off or pulled in directions they shouldn't. The battlefield was completely silent. No wimper or cry from wounded or calls from the enemy force. Nothing. Almost as if an angry spirit swept through and killed everyone, well except me.

"Heh." I chuckled under my breath.

This doesn't seem right I shouldn't be the only one. I laid on my back to think about what happened. For some reason I couldn't remember anything before waking up.

"Faaaaaaaaaa......" Someone cried out by me.

I turned my head toward the noise and tried to listen.

"Faaaabbbbeeee...."

There it was again, but for some reason I couldn't tell where it came from.

"Faaabbbbeeeeeeelllllll WAKE UP!!!!!" The voice said lastly.

Then there was light. I was in my bed and in front of me was my father.

"You were sleeping like a stone this morning." he said to me.

"Sorry, Pops I had a nightmare I couldn't really figure myself out of." I explained.

"Sorry to hear that, but bad dreams don't get you out of chores." He replied with a stern face.

"Of course Pops."I said as I rushed to eat my breakfast.

After quickly inhaling a plate of eggs and stale bread I made my way to start chores. First of the day was chickens, all fine and dandy unless the rooster had a bad morning. If that's the case I will have to endure the pecks. Luckily all was fine and the rooster was a jolly fellow today. After feeding I got started on hauling loads of the farms' harvest in the families small wagon. I took the wagon of potatoes to the village storehouse and repeated the process over a dozen more times.

I took a breath afterwards as it was about midday. I went over to say hello to my friend Rowland before I head back for lunch. As I walked to the Tailors house I knocked and walked in to see Rowland and his father working.

"Fabe!" Rowland said as he left his workstation and ran up and hugged me.

"Well hello there Fabel, hows your fathers harvest? Said Rowlands father.

"Good, more than last year at least." I replied.

Me and Rowland decided to walk outside, so as to not disturb his father.

"So, how's the work going?" Rowland asked.

"Pretty good, I might not get done late today if I keep up my pace." I replied.

We talked a little more about gossip and rumors going on in the village then we said our goodbyes. I went home and ate the lunch father had prepared for me and then started my next task. The only thing I had left to do was clean. So I went and made the beds, swept the floors, and scrubbed the dishes. I then swept the leaves that were collecting outside the front door. After sweeping them into a pile by the house I went inside and lit the candles since evening was arriving. Father came home and we had a silent dinner as usual. It has always been like that, I barely get to talk to him and mother died while I was a toddler. I'm really all alone in this house with my thoughts.

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I finished my dinner quickly and left Father at the table. As I looked back he had his head down with a look of sorrow on his face. He only ate a little of his biscuits and potatoes too.

I sighed and walked to my bedroom.

I woke up again to sunlight, but this time it wasn't early morning.

"No no no." I said as I quickly got ready.

As I tried to put my clothes on I noticed there was only one set in my dresser. Hmm maybe Father didn't do laundry yesterday.

When I got out to the kitchen Father was still at the table with the same plate of food out in front of him. He slowly looked up at me with the same sad look on his mustached face.

"Son, sit down please." He said with an unsteady tone.

I sat down across from him and he moved the plate away. As I sat there he had his elbows on the table rubbing his eyes with his thumbs. The way he was acting started to scare me because it was like how acted when he told me how Mother died. Foreign soldiers came and killed all the women in our border village to keep it from growing. And to trigger a reaction from our Kingdom. 

I looked at Father with a look of worry not knowing what was going to come out of his mouth this time. He finally put his hands away from his face and looked in my eyes. His eyes were red and were on the verge of tearing up.

"Listen... there will be no chores today." He said keeping contact with watery eyes.

"Or any other day." 

"Wait, I don't understand." I said confused.

Father closed his eyes and a couple tears fell down his cheek.

"Please...just listen. Then you will understand." He said.

I stared waiting for him to gain his strength to tell me.

"All of the adults discussed yesterday and agreed to send the children to the Capital to live out their lives. This village is no place to bring wives to and have children."

He was silent for a minute to let everything sink in then he continued.

"We won't let our children experience the tragedies that we and our parents have."

"There will be a carriage coming at midday to take you kids to the Capital."

"You can't return either."

After that last sentence he just stared at me as I put together everything he was saying. His expression started to look worse as he could tell I was understanding what this all meant. This was the last day I would ever see my Dad. I broke down and cried, my father came around the table and hugged me. I could hear him sobbing as well. I understood what he was saying, about Mothers situation. What Father would want their child to go through seeing their wife or daughter slaughtered in front of them. It was a common situation in border villages. But to send me off and die alone here. It's terrible. We sat there sobbing for what seemed like an hour until Father went to grab a bag in his room. He came out with the bag and said.

"I've got your clothes in here with some of the money we got from selling last harvests potatoes. I also put some rations in there for the road."

I wiped the tears and snot off my face and slowly grabbed my bag.

"I'm going to miss you so much." I said trying to hold back the oncoming tears.

"I'm going to miss you too." He replied.

He pulled out a copper bracelet with three small pieces of metal forged into it. The left piece of metal held a pink stone, the right an orange stone. In the middle of the two was a silver wedding band.

"Now listen hear... your my big man now, this bracelet is so that you have a piece of all of your family with you while your gone." He said while slightly blubbering.

"Thank you Pops, I love you." I said teary eyed.

He knelt down and hugged me.

"I love you too." He replied more emotional.

I gave my Dad one last hug and then walked outside with my belongings. I put on the bracelet and then slowly walked down through the village to the main road. As I got closer I could see all the other kids leaving their houses, tears running down their faces, or kicking and screaming. As I got to the main road I spotted Rowland with some of the other kids and stood beside him.

"How are you holding up with all of this?" I asked.

Rowland looked at me like he was about to vomit and replied.

"It was too sudden, it felt like the whole world got flipped upside down."

"Your right, I would of liked another day with my Pops at least. This is all for the best though." I said.

Rowland slowly nodded.

We waited for about ten minutes until the carriage made its way down to where we were. It stopped in front of us and everyone slowly got in and took their seats. I sat next to Rowland and pulled some food out of my bag to eat. What was packed in there was hardtack, so I chewed on tiny portions as we were about to leave. When the carriage started to move, everyone including me looked back at the village. We all had the same idea of trying to capture the image of the village in our memories so that we wouldn't ever forget.