Chapter # 01: That Smile

"Is this how your mother used to treat the strangers?" She shook her head. "Then what's the problem with you, girl?"

"It's her wish."

"How do you know that it is her wish?" he remained still there. "She died even before you could see her."

"My father used to tell me about that." A smile passed on her face. "He often showed..."

"Well, he was a liar." He cut her conversation. "All he did was to just lie to you"

"No, he didn't."

"He did," he continued. "And this is the only truth. He was always against us. The only thing he did was to make the Scroshers rule over us. And this is not the only thing. He stopped our troops that were going for..." Then he kept on telling her a long story so he could alter her mind and after some unbearable hours, when he came to a brief halt, he drank the twelfth glass of water from the table beside him. "Your father was a traitor." He said, "If you want to live in this village, you will have to accept this truth."

All this quarrel for nothing. Neither could she make him believe in her nor could he. She shouldn't have done all this. Nothing came to the conclusion, all she had was a smile on her face. Nobody could stop that.

*****

It is a story of a girl who never stopped smiling. It may sound creepy but her smile was not that bad after all. She was the daughter of a former ruler of a tribe named Vandishers. Her father, Varian, was the only person from her family she had ever seen. Her mother, Katherine, died after bringing her to life. She had no uncle, no aunt, and no other relatives. Varian was burned to ashes in his home after the people of Vandishers rebelled against his throne. He was not a king but a mere administrator appointed as well as destroyed by the people of his tribe. He was replaced by the man who had led this rebellion against him. Now, he was called King Elmund.

The girl's only family was burned when she was only five at that time. The people expected her to be with her father but unluckily she was playing in the woods nearby. When she came running from the forest, tripling over the path that led to her home, she had to hear that her life was ruined. She heard it all but her eyes shed not a single tear. Elmund tried to persuade people to get rid of her as well. But their hearts were not cruel enough to end her from-now-on-miserable life. She couldn't even end it.

She was adopted by a couple who were just kind enough in their own words to adopt her. They told her to cry but she couldn't. The structure that was on her face before she left for the woods was still there fixed permanently. Her sorrows were buried deep into her heart. Now the only thing that was left with her was a smile and nothing.

How had she survived so far? No one knew. Maybe because she was a little girl. Maybe she doesn't remember those scenes that flashed before her eyes. The smile with the shiny blue eyes above it never made her look creepy but how she treated the moments of sadness, anger and unhappiness were enough to be unusual. These people were kind enough to keep her alive, but as her impenetrable smile outgazed everyone, they got jealous of her. No one liked to talk to her. Some even took her like a mad girl that never cries. Some people thought that she might be in some severe condition of some sort of disease. So, they took her for some treatment to nearby villages but all in vain. Many people didn't even want to look at her.

"She should have died with her family." She heard a man outside the main stable talking to another. "No one wants to see her face because of that smile." This was her routine. She was used to listening to all this rubbish. She had faced worse than anyone would have imagined. Her undertakers worked as stable managers. They had the best of the stables in the village where even royal guards would leave their horses. Everyone trusted their honesty and believed in them. However, since they had adopted an irrational child, the people liked them less than before. Their business worsened for a few weeks but stabilized soon. When she turned eight, they asked her to learn the basics of stable management. She was happy to accept the offer. Of course, she always was, but this was felt by them as well. Actually, it was Martin's idea. He was the one who adopted her and he cared for her. His wife, Caroline, did not like her as much as he did and she did not understand her.

Thus, this was her basic, nameless introduction. She was always considered naive and was not respected among the people of Vandishers. However tough a situation might appear, her face appeared right. No tears. No frowning. Just a smile and her.