I. The family

"Mother, father, are we really moving to the capital?" the girl's gentle eyes widened upon hearing the news from her parents. The capital is a place where everything she's dreamed of is gathered, from the music in the streets, huge houses, carriages of various styles, to the dazzling lights that somehow made the nights livelier as showing that the day hasn't ended, she's wanted to see it all. The life at the countryside is a quiet and peaceful life. Every day she wakes up, she would go to the chicken coop for eggs, bathe in the river along with her friends, go to school, everything was in repeat. Uriel is a girl of many dreams but what stood out the most in her heart is the dream of becoming a professor one day. Just like the kind-hearted teacher that teaches the children in their village, she wants to share what knowledge she'll have and now that they are moving to the capital, she has a chance of becoming one. However, dreams are difficult to reach especially for Uriel whose family is impoverished. Upon the realisation that everything in the capital must be expensive, the reason why the people from the village never dreamed of going to, the girl's eyebrows met with worry.

"But father, where will we live? The houses must be very expensive and the eggs of the chicken and the milk of the cows are not abundant enough to sell" Uriel asked.

"Fret not my dear for your mother and I have already taken care of that" her ever gentle father said.

"A good employer of ours let us stay in his small house in the capital when he heard how much you and Noah want to study" the mother added.

Uriel has a younger brother and a younger sister; Noah and Lily. They are the dearest to her just as her parents are. With her siblings and parents together, Uriel is elated to finally start anew.

While swimming in her thoughts of a bright future, she got halted by the word "employer". She never knew her parents had and employer, they were farmers, they consumed what they grew, they wore what they made. With such thoughts, she asked once again.

"Mother, I never knew you and father had an employer"

The couple looked at each other, they never thought their child would ask, she is a brilliant kid but just as she's brilliant, she's kind and she would be heartbroken to hear that her parents sold themselves as servants when they heard that a rich man was looking for servants of certain skills.

"You see, your father here was able to become a coachman, the one who drives the carriages around the capital and your mother an attendant, we will be given salaries that we'll use for our food in the capital as well as so that you and Noah can go to school."

Uriel didn't ask any further but worried, she held her parents' rough and ragged hands and looked at them with her gentle eyes that house her cool grey pupils. She can only do as much as hug them and massage their shoulder to show her gratitude for being born to such wonderful parents.

The night has come and Uriel couldn't sleep, she looked forward to the day they leave, she thought about the things she'll leave behind; her friends, the hut with two long wooden benches and a wooden roof which they consider as their school, the river, as something choking and painful rose up to her throat, her eyes started to heat up, the stars and the moon sparkle as drops of tears ran down her cheek.

Oh what will tomorrow bring?