We were moving again. I liked moving around and exploring new places, but sometimes it just got tedious. It would be nice to settle down someplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are we moving again?\u201d I asked, \u201cWhat was wrong with the last place?\u201d<\/p>\n
The clearing we had moved from wasn\u2019t perfect, but it was still something I missed. There were climbing trees, a nearby pond, and even a bunch of fruit trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you liked the last place Sandra,\u201d my mother replied, \u201cbut like I\u2019ve said before, we can\u2019t stay in one place too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be arriving soon.\u201d my father chipped in. \u201cThe area I found is just over that hilltop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every time my parents found it necessary to move, Dad would go away for a day or two and come back with a suitable location to set up a new camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we take a break?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on Cassandra, ten minutes and we will be there.\u201d He said.<\/p>\n
My mother responded, \u201cMaybe on your long legs, but you\u2019re forgetting that a child is following you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped, turned around and walked to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright, come here.\u201d He said.<\/p>\n
I giggled as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I rode his back the rest of the way there. He put me down when we reached the clearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think?\u201d Dad asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell Aaron.\u201d Mom responded. \u201cLet\u2019s get settled and I will let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d He said. \u201cI am going to find some dinner, you two can rest up and get a fire going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laid most of what he was carrying down but kept his bow and headed back into the woods. Mom and I sat down to get some rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me how you and Dad met\u201d I said to my mom.<\/p>\n
I had heard the story before, but I always liked hearing it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d She began. \u201cMy province had been under siege for several days. I didn\u2019t want to risk the lives of any of my servants, so I had to sneak out to get help myself, things started out well, but someone found me before I made it out. I started to run but my dress got caught in a bramble and I tripped. The man who found me drew his sword as he got closer to me. I thought I was finished. Before he got me though, your father rode in on a brown horse, seemingly from nowhere. He knocked that guy out with one hit from the hilt of his sword.\u201d<\/p>\n
She waved he hand around attempting to mimic the knock-out motion.<\/p>\n
She continued \u201c\u2019Do you need a lift young maiden?\u2019 he said to me. I accepted after telling him that I was in fact a duchess, not a maiden. It was a good thing he happened to be hunting in that area. Weather it was luck or a miracle I will never know. Either way I was able to get to the kings castle and get some more soldiers to take back the area. He and I continued seeing each other after that. A couple of years later we got married, a couple of years more and you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you leave your province? Was there something wrong with it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it was actually a nice place. We lived comfortably there for some time, until the king told us to do something we couldn\u2019t bring ourselves to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a giant statue built in honor of himself. He called all the dukes and duchesses to the area. I didn\u2019t know why I had to be there, but I went, you and your father were there too. I gathered in front of the statue with everyone else. That is when everyone was instructed to bow to this statue, as if it were a god!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you just bow? It doesn\u2019t seem like a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo kneel or bow your head as a sign of respect is one thing but we commanded not only to bow, but to worship this object. That kind of worship is something that we only offer to our creator. While everyone else bowed, your father and I stood our ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened after that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cA nearby guard approached us and told us to bow. When we refused, he grabbed my shoulder and told me that the penalty for my disobedience was death. That\u2019s when your father punched him. The other nearby guards noticed and started approaching us, the only thing we could do was get out of there as fast as we could. We made it back home without much trouble. But word had gotten out of what we had done. Me being a duchess, and your father being a high-ranking knight, we were setting an example for many other citizens. The king wanted us dead, there was, and is to this day, a bounty on our heads. That\u2019s why we need to keep moving around.\u201d<\/p>\n
We sat for a few minutes just listening to the birds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should get a fire going,\u201d Said my mom, \u201cYour father will be back soon with a kill.\u201d<\/p>\n
I walked around the edge of the clearing for a while picking up sticks and collecting berries. Dad didn\u2019t get back until the sun was low over the horizon. He was carrying a few rabbits with him. I ran up to him and hugged him as soon as I noticed him.<\/p>\n
We spent the remainder of the evening sitting around the fire telling stories and cooking the rabbits my dad caught. After the sun set we unpacked our blankets and laid out in the field, the weather was clear so we didn\u2019t have to worry much about shelter tonight.<\/p>\n
As I started to drift off to sleep, I wondered what my life would be like if my mom was still a duchess and my dad a knight. I would probably have some friends and have a nice room. I would certainly have more stuff, but I didn\u2019t really care about that. I had my family, and that was all that mattered.<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cassandra is a girl who is orphaned at a young age and ends up getting adopted by something unexpected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-story","aesop-entry-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1242,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/1242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}