My eyes brightened up as I stared at the large field of tall grasses that spread for miles outside the Argarian village.
The sunset shone beautifully, like an orange diamond on the horizon between the land and the sky which was painted with randomly arranged clouds.
I could hear the sound of children laughing and playing around in the field under the orange sky.
Male and female farmers stood with different faming instruments on different positions in the field, working together to harvest what they could for the day.
“Welcome to the seventh Argarian field,” Elena, the girl who walked into the room with the bowl of stew, said with a soft smile on her face.
She wore a large straw hat and tied her silky brown hair in a pony tail that flowed beautifully in the cold wind that blew bye.
“It’s beautiful,” I said softly, mesmerised by the view.
I felt like I could live here forever; like all my sorrows were gone in a blink of an eye and I had begun a new life.
Being here with these healthily green grasses, I felt like I was finally free.
“I feel the same way every time I step into this farm,” Elena’s voice came again, cutting through my train of thoughts.
“Huh?” I turned to her with a puzzled expression, wondering if I had accidentally thought out loud.
“You said you felt free being here with the plants, right?
I feel exactly the same way.
I’ve lived here all my life.
Argaria is one of the biggest clans in all of Sunworld with seven individually large villages and seven farms called the Argarian fields.
The seventh Argarian field is the largest farm in the western Sunworld, and we are responsible for providing food to several kingdoms on our side of the planet.
Other farming clans also provide food for them, but we’re seen as the most important,” Elena explained, staring at the sunset with a soft smile.
“Wait, if you people are responsible for providing food to all the kingdoms, shouldn’t the Argarian villages look much wealthier than this?” I furrowed my brows, perplexed.
“Yes, we should, but our chief always refuses to take money from the kingdoms as he believes that money is the cause of all the problems that exist in our world.
We all believe that giving, expecting nothing in return is the right way to live; the peaceful way to live.
But We occasionally accept gifts from other villages and kingdoms,” Elena replied.
“Right,” I said softly, agreeing to what she said.
There was no doubt that she was right, but in a world like ours, was that really true?
It seemed they had lived like this for years, but according to all the history books I’d read, sooner or later, trouble would come knocking.
Even being a princess, enveloped by the enjoyment of being inside a castle, served by maids and butlers at the sound of a jingle bell, I knew that in a world like ours, there was nothing like being kind for no reason; in a world like ours only the strong survived and the weak perished; in a world like ours….
“Wait, did you say Sunworld??!!” I asked, turning to her with shock on my face.
“Yes.
Did you hit your head?
You’re not acting like an Argarian at all.
You should know all these things,” Elena replied, sounding puzzled.
I turned back to the horizon, letting out slow breaths as the images from the desert rushed through my head.
Somehow, I had gone through to the other side of the forest of the damned, and made my way to the solar side of earth; a place where the goddesses’ eyes never reached; Sunworld.
From my elementary school books where the science and basic magic of our world was taught, I learned that our earth was divided into two parts; the solar side, and the Lunar side.
The solar side was ruled by the sun god and was characterised by harsh weather conditions, high temperatures, and strange food, and the Luna side, we learned, was much better, with much more water, and better food and mineral resources that helped our economy move forward. Find the original chapter at NovelPing.
The two worlds were divided by a long wall with gates that only kings and authorized knights could go through.
Every king, or guardian knight was notified as soon as someone crossed the gates, and this was to prevent a surprise attack from both the solar and lunar sides.
“That’s how it has been for centuries.
But there have been rumours,” Elena said, taking a bite out of a chunk of meat.
We were now seated under the moonlight, around a camp fire somewhere in the village with three other kids who were in the farm too.
“Rumours?” I asked, leaning forward.
“Yes.
There’ve been rumours that a rebel group from the lunar side found a secret way to pass through the barrier undetected and are using it to break into Valtorian territory.” A boy among the three kids spoke.
“What?
Why would a people from the Lunar side want a problem with the people from the solar side?
We’ve… I mean… they’ve lived separately for years without problems,” I asked, trying not to blow the cover the moon stone gave me.
I had to maintain the act of being a man here to avoid getting myself killed.
“Well, we heard the king of Valtoria was on a trip to Andreia on the Lunar side.
The rebels coming here might have something to do with that,” a female answered.
“But it can’t be true, right?
There can’t possibly be another way to cross the barrier between the two worlds.
If there is, it could mean bad news for both worlds,” Elena said, staring at me.
As she spoke, I wondered how I ended up on the solar side.
I was sure I entered the forest of the damned on the Lunar side.
Did she bring me here?
The lady with the fangs.
If she did, my mission now was to find her.
“Right,” I replied to Elena softly.
A few minutes passed and me, Elena and the kids were served with large bowls of rice.
I stared at the food for a moment and my stomach churned again, this time silently so no one would hear it.
I turned to the others and watched them eating rapidly as if they hadn’t eaten anything all day.
I turned back to my food and lifted the spoon slowly from the bowl and into my mouth.
There it was; the taste of sand again.
This time, it was dry sand and not mud.
I spat the food out and pushed the bowl aside.
Maybe this was what our teacher meant when she said the food here was strange.
“Who’s your chief anyway?
I haven’t seen him since my arrival,” I asked as I and Elena both strolled along the boundary between the vast desert and the Argarian field.
The moon shone brightly on both of us, and my hair and hers flowed like water waves in the cold wind that blew by.
“Oh, we only have a village leader, and he’s been busy supervising food delivery for the past week.
The title of chief is passed numerically between the Argarian villages, so if the chief in the fourth passes on, his title will move to the fifth, then the sixth and so on,” Elena responded.
“Oh, I see,” I said.
“I asked you a question before, but you never gave me a reply,” Elena said softly.
“What question?” I asked.
“I asked if the necklace you keep around your neck was given to you by a maiden in the fifth Argarian field.
Do you keep it with you so you never forget her?” Elena asked, turning to face me.
“Oh, no.
I found this on one of my trips and thought it looked nice, so I decided to make it into a necklace and wear it,” I lied, hoping that was enough to get her 0ff my back.
From her words, I could already tell where this conversation was going.
“Oh!” her voice suddenly became high pitched.
She jumped in front of me and pulled out a flower necklace from her pocket.
“In that case, I made this for you.
I hope you like it.” She presented the necklace to me with both palms, her face carrying a bright, beautiful smile.
“Oh, thank you.
It’s beautiful,” I replied softly, taking it from her.
“I’m glad you like it,” she said.
“The truth is that, I’ve been wanting to leave this village for a long time now, but lacked the courage to,” she continued, turning to the field.
“What?!
I thought you loved it here,” I asked, surprised.
“I do, I really do.
But sometimes I feel like there’s more for me out there in the world than this village has to offer.
Like I could do a lot more with my life than cutting down weeds all day long.
My parents aren’t even alive anymore so what’s the point of staying.
That’s why I asked you that question earlier.
I wanted to know if you already had attachments somewhere else.
Now that I know you don’t, I’d like to ask you a favour,” Elena spoke with a low, discomforting voice, one that clearly expressed her sorrows.
“A favour?” I asked.
I already knew exactly what she was about to ask of me, but I wanted to hear her say it.
She turned around slowly, and her lips parted.
“Run away with me.
You don’t have to return to the fifth Argaria, we can just move to the nearest kingdom and figure things out from there.” There it was.
Even though I was prepared to hear those words, they still came as a shock to me.