Maid In Royalty

♛ 26 ♛

Fabio and I made our way towards the bridge that connected the tugboat to the pier. My eyes flickered with sorrow and pity as the colour of a once joyful island, as explained by Fabio, was now a dead, grey nothing. Men and women had their heads down to the ground, waiting in line for food which was severely being rationed. Children held onto the hands of their mothers or remained on the dirty ground deep in regretful thoughts.

I swallowed with grief as a young girl carried a heavy sack of rice on her fragile back. She made eye contact with me, her eyes filled with fear, which made me look straight ahead. It was a long trail towards the village from the market. They were small houses piled on top of eachother. Old folks were chatting with eachother about the doom of Canna. The walls of the residences seemed poorly made as the cement was peeling off and graffitied. Stray dogs and cats wandered through the alleys, picking at whatever seemed edible.

We walked past an open door hospital, the sounds of cries and coughs and screams were louder than my thoughts. It was a long hut type of infrastructure surrounded by guards with rifles.

"Look down," Fabio whispered instantly. I did as he asked and covered my face with the shawl. My eyes demanded to well up, but the tears were long gone on the train, and the only thing they left behind was the rage. Fabio led me up the stairs of a pale blue house that resembled the others. It was closer to the gates of the palace that held an ominous aura to it. My eyes were glued to the gates as I took tiny steps, hoping not to fall through. It was heavily guarded with a limo right in the front yard waiting to pick up the demon in charge of this doing.

Fabio rushed in front of me and used a small key to open the door. He gestured me to enter first, which I did. The smell of raw fish instantly hit me causing me to gag. I covered my mouth and made my way to the kitchen. It was a small area. A single bedroom, a tiny kitchen, and a bathroom. I recovered myself by saying, "This is your home now."

"It is. Your father, he's in that palace. He sent that letter through a guard who's working on the inside," Fabio said. He placed his hat on the kitchen counter and ran his hand through his hair. "Everyone you saw in that village and marketplace is very loyal to your father. Those who aren't, well, they joined the villain in charge."

"What do you want me to do? Break him out?" I flailed my arms up with tension. Fabio smirked and paced to the bedroom. He came back out with a long weapon. He uncovered the cloth that was protecting it to reveal a dagger. The colour was light brown, and the handle wrapped in white leather. A small smile appeared on my face, which Fabio took notice of and pulled the end of the handle which made me gasp. It revealed itself to be a bō staff and reached 'till my shoulders. A small shock laugh came out of my mouth as he handed me the dagger staff.

"Where does knife go?" I asked as my hands caressed the beautiful woodwork.

"Hidden inside. If you put the staff on the ground and push it down, it becomes a dagger," he took the staff and displayed it to me.

"Wow."

"But if you want the knife to pop out from the end and still be a staff, then you swing it hard -," he shook the staff as if it was a lightsaber in those Star Wars movies, "- and then knife appears." The blade reflected through the sun piercing through the window almost blinding me.

My eyes landed at the end of the staff, right on the wood, just below in clear cursive writing was carved -

"Iris," Fabio finished. "Your father personally made this bō staff for you when you were conceived. He knew his daughter would be a fighter, just like him." He whispered the last part like our lives depended on it. Fabio motioned the staff for me to take. I hesitated at what my father thought I would be, but once I gripped it in my hands, it felt like I belonged to the word "fighter." I took in a deep, shaky breath and let it out as my eyes admired the carving in the wood.