1 Abduction

The day Brightise's older sister was abducted, she was working on the fields.

Field labor was no joke, but then again, neither was being an orphan with two sisters to support. Brightise might not have been the oldest, but she was the strongest and by far the worst cook. Morral had been in charge of the household ever since their parents had died. She was three years older than Brightise and a lot more wiser.

"Clober is five and she comes home in a better state than you!" Morral would often tease her whenever she entered the house with dirty hands and feet.

Clober would laugh, even though her own hands were never clean either.

Brightise was a tomboy. She had accepted that early on in her life and tried to help her sisters the only way she could: by getting dirty on a daily basis. Paldagor was a village of farmers, so it had not been hard for her to find work, even at 15. By the time she had turned 18, she was considered one of the most hard-working people in the village.

Paula, her parents' friend and neighbor, grew potatoes every year and sold them at the town market. Brightise had been helping her in exchange for food for years, so it hadn't been hard to convince her to hire her full-time and pay her for her trouble. She and Morral couldn't raise Clober on potatoes after all. Milk and meat were kind of essential in their exhausting everyday lives.

That day, the sky was cloudy, making it easier for the field workers, who had to suffer through long hours of potato harvest.

Brightise looked up from the ground and saw Gren looking at her. He was Morral's secret admirer. He had been sending her letters with Brightise's help for six months, unable to express his feelings for her through any other way.

"Did she say anything about my last letter?" he asked Brightise.

"She said you spelled 'beautiful blond locks' wrong," she told him.

Unlike Brightise and Clober, whose hair was a dark copper color, Morral had bright blond hair and a pair of blue eyes that made many boys in town turn.

Gren blushed at her comment.

"She likes you," Brightise told him. "You talk to her every day. Why can't you tell her who you are already?"

"Maybe she likes someone else more," Gren mumbled before going back to work.

Brightise shrugged. It was true that it was hard to tell with Morral. She was kind to everyone, and most people in Paldagor adored her. Clobber did more than anyone. She had been three years old when their parents had passed away, so Morral was more than just a sister to her. She was the only mother figure in her life, perhaps other than Paula.

Sometimes Brightise envied the special bond between them. Being the middle child sucked even when one was an orphan.

"Let's call it a day!" Paula yelled across the field when the sky started to get dark.

At 50 years old, Paula was still as strong as a 20 year-old when it came to work. She had her five children to thank for keeping her fit.

"Can I walk you home?" Gren asked Brightise.

He would do anything for a chance to see Morral.

"I can walk with Paula. She lives closer to me."

When she saw the disappointed expression on his face, she sighed. "Fine!"

Gren washed his hands with some water before they left. Unlike Brightise, he cared about making a good impression on Morral.

The two of them followed the other workers along the path silently. The weather seemed to be getting worse, but Brightise was sure they could get home before it started raining. At least, she would. Gren might get a little wet on his way to his own house.

"How do I look?" he asked her as they turned on the small road that led to her humble cottage.

Brightise's answer froze in her throat when she saw her house.