PAINED MEMORIES

You see, in the beastly Kingdom, there were basically five levels of position. 

First was the lowest rank of beasts. They were not nobles, not even a hint of nobility in their bloodline, but they were assigned to work pari passu with humans, yet gifted with more privileges than the humans.

The second rank was the rank of the average beast. They were regarded and treated like the commoners. This is largely because they had only one noble parent, whose bloodline they carry. 

The third on the ring was the Upper level ranks. They are the ones with the upper hand and are always the preferred in matters of politics and the likes as opposed to their junior counterparts. This is so because they were born of parents who are both nobles, making them to carry the bloodline of nobility.

Then, we have the fourth level of authority in the kingdom. They are regarded as the chosen ones. They were specially selected by the moon goddess and have been elevated to the position of the Alphas of their pack, across the entire wolf Kingdom.

However, these were nothing in comparison to the Royals of whom it had been said that they possessed a unique gift which separated them from the rest.

And then, there was him… the terror King!

His legendary feat as well as his infamous achievement spanned across the world. His conquest of the entire human race was proof that his powers were extraordinary. The maids were not left out of his evil influence either. It was anything but joy and pleasantness.

He was truly an epitome of a monster. He was the devil's son as his subjects like to address him.

How fortunate I considered myself not to have crossed paths with him, and truly, truly, I do hope it stays that way. Much as it is true that I was assigned to work in the Palace, it is also true that I was not assigned to the part of the Palace where the King was. The Palace had two separate buildings. One building lodged the great King, while the other was reserved for some of the royals, and that was my jurisdiction as a Palace maid. 

Need I undermine and downplay the brutality of these royals?.. Hell no! … However, anyone in his right senses, would make a preference for them, a thousand times to the King.

There was a mini bowl of water close to my bed, and so I made use of it in washing off dried tears on my face. Rolling up my hair into a bun, I changed my outfit into an old, faded maiden gown, before sliding my feet into an old, worn out pair of flip flops.

I stepped out of the room and ambled down the corridor of the royal castle to the backdoor that leads to the kitchen where the other maids were already gathered.

"Phew!".  I puffed out a breath of relief upon realising that I had arrived in the kitchen in time, shortly before Madam Fegor arrived. I immediately joined the queue, waiting for the head maid to make her way in.

Not a single word came out of anyone's lips. I noticed that our breath had become discordant, and our bodies overpowered with fatigue. We watched as our lives were literally taken away from us, while we stood there helpless without the slightest inkling as to what we would and could do to salvage the situation. Alas!, There was absolutely nothing in view, as the future continued to appear more bleak than it ever had been.

Poor maids!.

Suddenly, we could now hear the approaching footsteps of one, thumping the ground with so much energy and carriage. Afrighted, we stood transfixed, our arms crossed before us and our heads bowed to the ground. 

Madam Fegor, the head maid, had just walked in.

None of us dared look her in the eyes. It was one of the laws given to us as humans. We were prohibited from looking at any one of their kind in the face unless we were granted permission, regardless of the rank they belonged to.

"Heads up". She ordered in a rather cold but authoritative tone.

Like robots, we obeyed at once,  raising our heads, almost in unison, as if we were being controlled. And indeed we were. 

There was not a single utterance anywhere. Everywhere was silent, a deafening silence that could have been likened to that of a cemetery. I chuckled inwardly. It had become a regimented life for us after all.

"Listen up everyone.. The routine is about to change with effect from tomorrow. And as such, I want you all to be present here, thirty minutes before the usual arrival time. Else, there will be grave consequences. You don't want to find out by experience". She said, with so much sternness written across her face.

There was nothing short of hate and disdain in her eyes for us. From her perceived ivory tower, she looked down on us with such a demeaning stare that I had never seen before. 

For what it is, she was at the same level with us, which would somehow make one to presume that she would be atleast, a little condescending and compassionate to us, but I guess we were wrong. Just wishful  thinking I suppose. I had snapped out of that fool's Paradise a long time ago, and had come to accept the reality of my fate in  respect to their kind.

"Am I understood?". She asked aloud, with a raised eyebrow, barking at us with such energy, and cutting me off my thoughts.

"Yes Madam Fegor". We responded, agreeably in unison, and as loud as we could, looking anywhere but her face.

"Better". She retorted with an air of arrogance, after a couple of seconds.   "Quickly, scram off your mixed, have your breakfast and resume work ASAP". She said, as she stormed out, frowning.

"Rubbish!.. I keep wondering why the King won't do away with all of them.. Isn't it obvious that they are nothing but a piece of thrash.. Rodents if I may I add". She said to herself on her way out of the kitchen.

Once I was sure she was out of sight and was now a safe distance from us, I turned around and noticed that different maids had their hands on their chest, puffing breath of relief. They had already clustered themselves in pocket sizes of two and three discussing the supposed routine change they had just been briefed on, as well their dread of it. They loathed it. 

These changes and reassignment are carried out in the royal castle, once every year. For some of the maids,  it's a time of sorrow and unhappiness as soon as they get reassigned to the other section of the Palace where the King dwells. How unfortunate they deemed themselves. Many of them considered the end of the road as they may never set eyes on us again. 

Death was their only way out!.

The others who are retained with the section of the royals tend to be happy about their retention. They counted themselves as fortunate to have still been kept at this side of the Palace.

With a long face of gloom, I heaved a sigh, looking around the familiar but lonely kitchen.

Flashes of the past came rushing into my mind. I remembered just like yesterday, how five years ago, I had lost my family.

My father had been in charge of the stables at that time.  A day came when the King lost his favorite horse. Although my dad wasn't on shift that day, he was still blamed for the missing horse.

I wondered why he was blamed for what he knew nothing about. But then, down the line, I discovered it was simply for the obvious reason that he was afterall a human, and an easy-to-be used scapegoat.

He was charged with being careless with the King's property, and straightway, he was whisked off to the dungeon where he was brutally tormented and beaten like a common criminal. Not to mention the fact that he was starved of food and water for many days and nights. By the time, he was released to us approximately, two to three weeks later, he had become a shadow of himself. His entire body had become so bruised and battered. His face and eyes had turned pale. 

Unable to recover from the ordeal…

He died. 

The death of my father hit my mom so hard, with such pain that she was unable to handle or bear. It was the pain of losing a loved one, moreso, the husband of her youth. Nothing and no one could console her, not even the presence of my brother, Jamal and I. 

Soon, depression set in, and on that unfortunate day when my brother and I had gone to meet the medicine man to get some herbal medication for her, we returned only to find her lying in a pool of her own blood with a knife stabbed into her belly. She had killed herself. I couldn't forgive myself for leaving her all to herself.

Weeks later, after my brother was deployed to the western side of the military cantonment, news got to me that he was dead four months later.

Those were dreadful years for me indeed. My entire family was gone. All, all of them.. I then came to terms with the hard fact which is that I was the only surviving member of my family.