A Painful Life

Pain... It flooded his mind, making it difficult to breathe, thus difficult to scream. Only grunts were issued through his hissing breath.

"Listen to that! He sounds just like a pig! Looks like a pig, sounds like one... He even smells like a pig! I, this young master, declare you are a pig!"

Laughter erupted from those that were surrounding him, and silence from those that watched from afar... The Teachers of the school found that the clouds in the sky today to be very interesting attracting all of their attention.

"You only have yourself to blame piggy for breaking my brother's arm..." Then with a laughing sneer, "In fact, break his other arm!" A command was given, "Don't break his legs though... I want to make sure he can walk away least he greases up the street with his fat. Heh."

The nasal voice of an older boy laughed from on high, as Phillip looked up through tears and anger to see another foot slammed into his face.

It wasn't long before pain... It again flooded him, as he felt the same sensation as his right arm now flooding him in his left arm.

More laughter ensued, and now another nasal voice called out, now younger than the other, but sounded of the same litter, "Next time you come to class you better ask my permission to come into the room, least my big brother find your fat displeasing again... Who told you to hit I, your father, when scolding you? Talking to Holly is something only men can do, not something for pigs! It's for your own good that you know what you are...! A pig!"

Soon darkness took over, and Phillip's vision changed to a different day...

He laid on his bed for many days, as his older sister nursed him back to health. Two broken arms weren't an injury easily healed, and unless she donated to the church then... Healing tonic would only be saved for others.

"Lean up, Phil... Eat this. It's good for you and will help you heal." He heard Charlotte ask in a soothing voice.

"Please, Sis... Your health isn't any better than mine! Please don't make me eat this! You should eat it instead."

"Brother, hush... Just eat this; make sister happy." Charlotte said with a smile, as she blew on the spoon a few times to cool to soup to feed her brother.

Phillip took a spoon full...

"Chicken! No! We don't have the money for this!" Phillip wanted to spit it back out into the spoon, but his sister had already withdrawn it... There was no way he could waste this food, so he reluctantly swallowed.

"Meat will help you heal. Shhhhh, Shhh, shhh. Get big, stronger, and healthier... Then you can help Sister get better!"

Phillip looked up into the loving face of his sister... His only family in the world. Working herself into sickness, and now so poor, that no doctor or priest would see them... So was the life of the slums.

Phillip only attended that damn school, because of the free food, and the chance to get leftovers to bring home to his sister...

His sisters face had a similar look to his own, but was thinning, but still pretty. Her wheat colored skin, though now paling to illness, told of a life of work outside. He had always wondered how his mother gave birth to his sister who was like a doll... And then birth to himself who was like a large pig... Fat... Rotund... Ugly...

"Don't show that face, dear brother... I know what you're thinking. Don't let those people get you down. They don't know you as I know you. They know you are strong, so they are jealous! Smart, and Strong! One day... I know you will the one on top. Now eat more."

Another spoon was given, in this soft dream-like place, his vision slipped again into darkness to another view... A... Terrible view...

Fire... It illuminated the night... That night many years after his school, after those bullies that had become more than noble's sons... The fire had spread fast and without regard.

Phillip had finished his work for the day in the fields, heard the news... All of the strength he could muster, he ran... He ran until he couldn't breathe... Until the pain in his sides was so sharp it cut his wind, and his vision blurred. His head buzzed.

His home... In flames...! All the homes! All of the slums! Burning! He took his hard shoulder and with his weight behind him busting into his home of flames. His two-room home of him and his sister... But...

It was too late...

The fire had consumed and did not give pause to wood, cloth, or... flesh...

Seeing the remains... He retreated from the burning home, coughing, as the smoke filled his longs from the sharp breath of horror inhaled.

With the sensation of falling, a powerful blow to the head brought Phillip from his nightmare and back into the real world again... His self-proclaimed nightmare.

Taking in deep breathes, Phillip reached to the back of his head to feel, and pull the hand back, as he looked up from the floor next to his broken bed.

In the first signs of the twilight of dawn that poured through the slits of the window... As expected, his hand reflected red.

Phillip laid there, as his breathing returned to normal, and the pain of his head increased, he finally gathered the strength to sit up, with the feeling of sticky liquid running along his back.

"Haaa~ That dream again..."

Phillip roused himself to his feet. as he walked outside with a bucket in hand to the slum's water pump. It was early, and there was already a line. He could only lumber over to stand as the twelfth person in line. He could easily bully his way through with his impressive height of two meters, but what difference did it make.

He stood with his head drooped, thanking the fact that blood clotted and the feeling of the stickiness on his bad no longer continued down, as the line slowly advanced.

While being two meters tall, with his posture, and habit of sinking in, he mostly resembled a cube in the eyes of the residence, who harbored mistrust of this behemoth neighbor... He was not pleasing to the eyes, and that air of depression that hung over him did not make others want to approach him, to find him otherwise.

Finally, his turn, he pumped his bucket of water and splashed it over his head. Then pumped a second, and walked off, while under the curses of the others.

He could hear them as he walked, "You son of a pig! You know ONE BUCKET is the limit!"

"Who does he think he is with that depressing air... It would be better for all of us if he just died... Save space and air..."

"And the smell!" Someone added as they all laughed at the misery of one to make the masses of poor feel better about their equally terrible situations.

After lightly wiping his head, and his body off, Phillip brushed his teeth the best he had, with one of the limbs snapped off a nearby brush.

He looked at his reflection in the murky water of the bucket to his teeth. Large, white, strong. These were his best-looking assets.

"Every morning... Just like you said, sis... Haaa~" Phillip sighed again, today was going to be another melancholy day. That dream would haunt his mind for the day until he beat it back down into the cracks of his mind. He would then be good for another week or two.

He looked up at his bed... [It seems that I've broken it again... I'll see about getting some spare boards from the stables, if I can sneak them away.] Phillip remember the last lash he got last time for this, at least he got to keep the wood pieces they didn't know about.

As the sun shone over the horizon and the first true rays of light scattered over the lands, Phillip sat just outside of his home in the small area that could be a makeshift backyard. He searched for the feeling that was taught in school. That elusive feeling of Qi.

[Focus Phil, focus... Feel the air, feel the sun... Concentrate on the qi of the heavens. Feel~]

Though concentration was hard when he heard the same things said the same ways from the same Passersby day after day.

"Look at the oaf... Still trying to feel qi at his age... He should stop wasting his time, and head to the fields early with us."

"No kidding... Just because he works as a squire now, he thinks he's better than us. Did you hear this morning?"

"No, what?"

"He took TWO buckets of water! Two!" A thin man held up two fingers to emphasize his point.

"Two! Seems like that must be the high life of a squire."

"Didn't you two know?" A third voice, a female voice, chimed into the conversation.

""Know what?"" Two voices overlapped

"He only got that job because of his fat body. He looks good sitting there, but he can't cultivate! He might be a squire, but he will never be a knight. They use him like a coolie!"

"Doesn't he already work as a coolie?"

"Yeah, but I guess being called a squire is a perk for a pig like him."

"I guess so... We commoners should just go to our jobs." Laughter rang out from the distance, as the voices became too hard to understand due to space between them increasing as they walked.

[Concentrate... Haaa~ Concentrate on the feeling of the sky, the sun, and the heavens...] Phillip continued, just like every morning... If he could just feel qi, then his life would turn right side up! Being a real knight could be more than a wish and a dream!

*******

Scrubbing the armor, oiling and maintaining the equipment, washing the flags, and banners, and cleaning up the armory... All in a day's work for Phillip, as now that the hard parts were over, he finally had time to feed and take care of the horses.

He approached his master's, Lord Godalming's, horse named Mourning Time... Phillip always liked this name...

[At least the horses don't judge me.] Phillip fed Mourning Time, and the other horses of the stables, and then began to groom them in earnest, as per his daily routine.

A voice picked up behind Phillip, as he continued to curry the horses.

"Have you ever seen a Squire this old?"

"He's like what? Twenty-Four?"

"More like Thirty, Hahaha!" The second voice thought himself funny.

[...Just leave me alone...] Phillip thought to himself, as he could hear the two voices getting closer. All this life he tried to life by the passive words of his sister, and believe in karma... Even if karma hadn't been delivered yet.

"Isn't this Piggy?"

"I told you it was going to be him!"

"I just didn't believe you! How did he make it to squire???"

"No, the real question is how is he STILL a squire!"

"Hahaha!" The older voice laughed.

"Piggy, why are you still deluding yourself into thinking you can become a knight. Go back to the fields, actually go back to the sty where you belong. Hahaha"

Phillip continued to ignore them.

"Hey Piggy, your betters are speaking to you. Why don't you turn and squeal for us like you use to... Big brother just became an ArchKnight! So, you should show some respect!"

[Ah... An ArchKnight...] Phillip thought longingly while continuing his work and ignoring the pair of boosting asses behind him.

Phillip wasn't even a true squire, only because of the strength of his body was he allows to become one, but he remembered the ranks taught in school.

Commoners, Squires, Knight, ArchKnight, Knight Rulers, Knight Authorities, Knight Virtues, and Knight Thrones... In the lands of the Human Empires, and his Empire, The Kingdom of Chadia, everyone revered Knights, and the power they wrought. They were the last and greatest bulwark that protected the Kingdom's of Humanity from the numerous rampaging Orcs, among other notable beasts.

"I said pay your respect Piggy!"

"Forget it, little brother... I don't need the respect of a pig. It would only lower my status. Let's go to the Blushing Maiden Inn... Today's visit will be on Big brother... We can request your favorite... Holly. Hahaha"

The two voices soon parted, and the large block brush in Phillips' hand crushed, as he broke it in anger. He remembered long ago after the brother's Dunkirk had their fun with Holly from school... She was thrown into the Blushing Maiden Inn... The most prosperous brothel of the City.

Phillip knew the two only played that girl to near death because he liked her... And there was nothing he could do... He found out that they already had their way, after near two months later... If only his arms didn't get broken, maybe he could of...

Phillip shook his head, as he left the stables, and returned his equipment.

It was time to go to the fields, while the sun was still in the sky.

Even in the fields, he endured the whispers of the other field hands at his expense.

As the sun dipped, and the sky turned to black, did he retire from the fields with the others...

Two copper coins were given to each worker, as the left.

Phillip took the small tied bag from his side, he called a change purse, to deposit his earnings. He now had thirty coins, and not a day too late. Tomorrow was the last day of the month, and rent was due.