A Simple Life (Solo)

It all started when the little girl made an unreasonable request.

This place is nice! Let's live here!

The place she had so summarily decided that they would settle down in was a small town by the name of Quinn. The story behind that name had long since been lost to the annals of time, but the town itself was a thriving, if small, place tucked into a wooded valley. The buildings in the center of town were packed tightly and rustic, slowly giving way to log houses separated by small fields. At the end of a long road of packed dirt that ran through the town sat a schoolhouse that the little girl would call hers, and soon she would call a small wooden house home.

All that time, the guard merely accepted her new role as housewife, for she would do anything to make her mistress happy.

Two months have passed, and the two have fallen into their new roles wonderfully. The runaway noble and loyal guard have become the student and mother, and all is well.

==========

Aeliana rose early to ready herself for school. Gwynlyn had finally learned to prepare a passable breakfast after many weeks of coaching (much to her consternation), and so practically none of the porridge was burned. The only problem that Aeliana had found with this new life was the startling lack of fashionable clothing. Her favorite dresses were too ostentatious for this small town, and so she had to prepare more austere ones. The townsfolk would keep thinking that Gwynlyn was a skilled housekeeper, and Aeliana would have something to do in her spare time.

The trip to the small schoolhouse took less than ten minutes and Aeliana had memorized how to get there so that Gwynlyn wouldn't have to keep escorting her there every day. The building itself was small and seemingly once a chapel of some determination, since repurposed for a different kind of education. The things the children learned there were simplistic for her, but she pretended to be interested anyways. Because living like this is what every little girl wants, right?

Even if they have to lie a little about enjoying it.

There are big double-doors at the front of the building, but nobody ever uses them. Instead, Aeliana walks over to a smaller side-door and pushes it open. She is suddenly overwhelmed with the din of activity. Class hadn't started yet, so all the children were milling about and talking with one-another. Aeliana merely pads over to her seat and slips atop the cool wood, sweeping her dress under with her so it doesn't get caught on the corner. Before her lies the converted pulpit where the teacher Miss Alicia shuffles papers about.

Miss Alicia was a nice woman in her late twenties (and still woefully un-married Aeliana has noted). Her class is always quite fun and interesting due to a unique teaching method she employs. Aeliana had never quite seen anything like it before, but it completely eschews the 'training' so often employed in teaching a noble. She never hit anyone with a ruler either, which was a plus. Sometimes Miss Alicia's classes were boring but, though none of the other student know why, Aeliana knows that it is because even this small school has a principal, and that principal has certain requirements for the students. The lectures that he develops are always yawn-inducingly boring, droning on for hours and hours. It was like he was trying to bore them all to sleep.

But Aeliana still thought it was fun to be a child, and for Gwynlyn to be her mother. She didn't doubt that...

==========

Gwynlyn stared at the long wooden box tucked under a crate in the pantry. It was the box with her sword in it, and she hadn't had any use for it in this new life. Not until the third arson attempt. She pulled it out and gritted her teeth. The blade had started to gather rust in the various pits and rough grooves along the length of it. Her sword was rusted, in the same way that she was. She had gotten complacent, thinking that perhaps they had finally gotten away.

The blade was removed from the box, alongside a whetstone. Sparks flew in the earthen room as the two blades were sharpened.

"When she returns home tonight, I'll solve this problem."

Several hours passed innocuously until the sky began to burn a pleasant golden color. Slowly the children began to file out of the school-building, but Miss Alicia called Aeliana back.

"The principal wants to speak with you." she said, but seeing the look on the little girl's face she had to add "It's nothing bad, I'm sure, he just likes to have a chat with every new student at some point or another. I'll see you tomorrow." Miss Alicia nods sagely and proceeds to leave through the same side-entrance that Aeliana had used to enter that morning.

Working her way to the back room to the right of the pulpit, that was the principal's room, she turned the tarnished handle and let herself in. It seemed unusually dark, but the room was probably just a good deal darker than the outside. She closed the door and gave her a eyes some time to adjust.

"H-hello? You wanted to see me, sir?"

From the other side of the room, she heard a male voice. It seemed rather young to her, probably younger than Gwynlyn. Her eyes also hadn't adjusted yet.

"Ah, yes, just take a seat anywhere."

Now Aeliana was sure that it wasn't just her eyes failing to adjust, the room was merely pitch-black. She got a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Uhm... Why is it so dark in here?"

She reaches back to the door she used to enter, but the handle fails to turn.

"Oh, don't worry about that. We'll be spending time alone in here together."

An hour passes in quiescence.

The voice from the darkness returns. "You're unusually quiet for a girl of your age group. You must not be a native to the area."

"W-what do you want from me, why are you keeping me locked in here?"

"Want from you? Well, you seem both unusually stressed, and unusually calm. I just want to know why that is. But it is worth noting that I'm not keeping you locked in this room. You aren't even tied up like I am, and you probably won't be here long enough for them to forget to feed you either, so that should be encouraging."

Aeliana perks a little, inquisitiveness piqued by this new revelation. "You're tied up? Why?

"Oh, well, I accidentally stumbled on a human trafficking ring. They tried to kill me, but in the end just settled on tying me up and using me to lure people in."

"That's terrible! But why are you helping them? Why not try to escape?"

"Well, I'm not actively helping them, but mostly I've never been used as bait for kidnapping before, and wanted to experience it for myself."

There is a long silence followed by a sharp bang. The room is bathed in blinding light as two men rush in. One seems to be carrying something, but Aeliana is too blinded to make out their features. In the back though, she sees the unmistakable figure of 'Miss' Alicia.

"Oh, it's a shame you had to go so soon. I don't often find people your age with such a bright mind. We'll see eachother again, I'm sure, probably."

Suddenly Aeliana can't breathe, and then blackness.

==========

Another two hours pass.

"She's late. Something's happened." the metal of her blade screams across a rough stone, spitting sparks in the direction of the roaring fire and a now ruined meal (of porridge).

"I wished that I wouldn't have to take this sword back up so soon."

She left with no more preparation, leaving the new for the old yet again.