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Book 1
Chapter I

Ran



Nei has been in chaos since the death of their king, many have lost hope for the return of the prince Thomas. They now hide from Alicia's knights so that they will not become her next slaves. So much that they hide they forced themselves underground, away from her terror. Once every so often, they come up to get food and clothing supplies that they ran out of down below. But Alicia sends her knights to guard the areas where food, water, and clothes are plentiful. For a few days it seemed nearly impossible for them to get supplies and some died of starvation and cold.

Then one day an elder came forward, Elder Gus or 'Gramps' to the children, he said he got an idea; "If Alicia expects adults, we will send the children instead." Many parents were outraged by Gus's idea, but the children wanted to do something to help their parents from death. Many of them secretly formed groups of two to go up to the surface and quickly gather what they need before the guards saw them. The children never told the adults that they were the ones who brought them what they needed. One of the children, a girl named Ran, decided that their little group would be called 'The Givers' so that none of the parents would know its them.

It worked too, none of the adults expected the children's secret work, but they had to come up with multiple excuses as to why they were all so tired.



"Ran, hurry up already!" whispered a boy to a girl grabbing random pieces of cloth for clothes. "Not done. Where they?" Ran asked in a child's voice while stuffing another cloth into a rat fur bag, "They are coming up from square. Get down to hide." The boy quickly ducked down into a hole near the ladder up where Ran was, she quickly hid behind piles of cloths as the light of a lantern shown into the small shop. Ran and the boy could hear the clank of the armor that the knight's wore and hear them talk of something strange.



They waited until the clanking and talking disappeared from their ears to step out from hiding. "Alicia no queen. She snake lady!" Ran whispered to her friend while coming down from the ladder, he got a good laugh out of it as well as she. "Come Ran, before they come again." Ran nodded at her friend and jumped down a hole near the ladder, he soon followed her after. "Ben, me no like secret now." Ran stated as she walked down a tunnel with lanterns guiding the way. "Me no like either Ran, but we all said 'No telling' and that what we do." Ben answered while putting his hands behind his head.

Ran and Ben walked down the tunnel until they came to a tarp over a hole on a wall. Ben went and lifted the tarp to reveal a room with many books and tarps all around. Ran walked through the hole and came to an arm chair with its back facing her. "Gramps! Ben and Ran backs." she said to the chair as it was amazingly snoring, and then it grunted. "Oh what's this. Oh dear fell asleep. Now now, who was the one that called me?" the chair turned to reveal an Elder Gus as he was holding up two spectacles to see who was there. "Oh Ran, Ben! Good to see you two are back. Now now, place the bag over on the table and the runners will do the rest." he said as he hugged them and pointed to a table. Ran took the bag over and laid it down like it was a doll that she treasured and then walked over to Ben. "Byes Gramps!" they both said as they ran out of the room through another tarp.

Ran and Ben ran through dirt streets and past rock shaped huts until they came to a square area. In the center of this area was a stone with a legend which read;



Ran stopped at the stone as she remembered what Gramps told her. He said that it was a stone written before we had to move underground, it was written by a man named Troy. Ran remembered that he said Troy was a knight that used to work for Alicia, she even loved him, but Troy could not return her love for he had fallen in love with the enemy. The enemy was a knight of Sepol named Sakura, who rose up to fight for her people and their king. Ever since that day five years ago when Gramps told her about Sakura, Ran would stop anything she was doing just to hear one more story about her.

"Ran no time left." Ben interrupted what she was remembering about Sakura, "Ran hurry home, me go home too." He then ran to the left of the square, Ran watching him turn at another bend to make sure he got home. Ben, to her, was like a brother; an annoying nine year old brother but she didn't mind. Ran was only a mere child of eight, she didn't know much but she believed in the stories about Sakura and the Kingdom of Sepol. Some day, I will go to Sepol and see your home Sakura, Ran thought to herself as she turned to the right to go home as well.