Hiding In Plain Sight

Wolves of Illeá

Wolves.
Wolves live among the common people, disguised as them. We fear them, to a certain extent. The people always fear what they do not understand.
Sixes clean houses with them, Sevens walk with them to work and beg for food with them. Eights share needles with them.
But, on the equinoxes and full moons, wolves cannot control themselves and gobble up the children of the villages and towns.
Me? I've danced for wolves.
I'm a Five. I dance for anyone who will pay me. Dancing is my passion. If I was any other caste, I would still want to be a dancer.
The existence of wolves doesn't bother me as much as it does my sister. But it still bothers me - the child eaters and man swallowers who instigated the caste system in Illeá. Us common people marry wolves, have wolf babies with them, and sometimes we don't even know until it's too late.
Christy married a wolf. She ran away with a Four six months ago, and she writes home with the most devastating news. She got married too quickly, and now my sister the Four is poor and desperate.
She contemplates running back home, and I encourage her, but Mom always says that communication works out any problems. Mom is huge on us never getting divorced because she is and regrets it.
Dad sends what money he can from being a Four to us. He remarried one after he got rid of my Mom and now we're stuck down here.
I never see him. Never see Christy. Never see my mom. She's always out trying to marry up, and I'm left alone to get all of the food. All of it.
I taught myself to dance, since I've been alone most of my life. I made friends with sixes, and wolves, and worked my tail off for every single piece of gold I've ever gotten.
Which makes me resent the royal family. Queen Sabrina and the Prince. Peter. The royal heir to the throne. They never have to work a day im their lives.
Meanwhile, I work everyday and barely have enough.
Christy was a musician before she married up. Gifted, and talented, but all she ever did was sneak off with the neighbor boy.
Who turned out to be a wolf.
Peter is almost old enough to be king now. So, he will undergo the Selection. Common girls are taken to the castle and paraded around like prizes to the Prince. And he has to choose one to marry. To fall in love with.
Everyone in town is excited about possibly getting picked. I'm not going to enter. I have dancing. I can marry dancing. And then I can dance forever.
Besides the Prince is a stuck-up brat. All royalty is.
But at least they aren't wolves.
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Please tell me if everything makes sense because sometimes things get lost in translation when I'm rewriting this from another device!
-Kate