Chapter One: The slave and the princess

Karla hid near the door to escape from the maid.

“Karla! We need to go to school!” The maid grasped the uniform as she tries to follow the tracks while her eyes are covered with glitter slime. 

Karla slammed the door shut and carefully pulled out the boxes under her bed. She placed them in front of the door. She crawled under the bed to hide from the maid. Well, she never hid here before.

The maid tries to remove the slime from her eyes while walking like a drunken man.

“Urgh, this problem child!”  The maid finally removed the slime and saw the girl’s door.

She yelled out Karla’s name in a very angry tone. She kicked the door, and hundreds of boxes stood in front of her. Some of them were stacked, and pillows messed the floor. She yelled Karla’s name again, and birds outside the mansion flew away hearing her voice.

The maid heard a scratch and a chuckle. 

“Karla, come out!” roared the maid. “We need to go to school!”

She walked to the giant pink closet and opened the door. The maid clenched her fists, she is not here.

She yelled her name once again.

She heard the chuckle again. Today is the worst day she will ever have, or it will be her first one; Karla’s first day of school.

“Come on Karla!” Grunted the maid. “I’ll tell your parents about this!”

She looked down and saw a little foot under Karla’s overstuffed bed.

She smirked. She crawled to it and violently pulled her out. Karla’s scream shook the people inside the mansion.

“Karla! Now you can’t escape from me!” The maid pulled her out of the room, and then carried her to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Karla was amazed at how the bubbles were popping even she didn’t even touch them at all. 

“Maude?” She looked at the grumpy maid, scrubbing her toes with a pumice rock.

“What is it?” Maude the grumpy maid asked.

“Why do you love me even I’m always annoying?” She said. 

Maude looked at her. With her cute eyes staring at her, she can’t stop thinking she is very cute. She sighed and reached for the shampoo.

“Well,” She started to put the shampoo in her hands. “Because I am here to serve you, and I’m lucky to have you. You are such a cute princess.”

She placed the shampoo in her beautiful chestnut hair.

Karla smiled; she was loved even by the maid that she annoys every time.

/

A girl with lovely violet hair leaned near the pot and dropped a poison ivy. She started stirring it with the giant wooden spoon. She smiled at the result. The pot’s contents were a green liquid and a bit stinky smell.

This was the result of her hard work. Stealing this pot from the crone, a month with no food, and a year of sleeping in the treehouse.

She sighed.

She never heard an ‘I love you from her mom, nor her dad. She was hated by the elders. But children got no idea who she was. For them, she was a slave. She was no daughter but the crone’s property.

She still remembers the story the kind human told her.

She stared at the human. His hands were tied up, and he got blood on his lips. The end of the rope was in her hands. She looked around, her fellow witches started glaring at her. She can hear everybody yell at her, telling her to move forward. She never liked this. Living as a slave isn’t fun at all. 

“Hey,” The human said. She turned to him, shocked.

“How old are you?” He said.  She tilted her head and stared at his eyes.

“Seven, seven,” She looked at their height gap. He was too tall, and she is too small.

“Seven?” He frowned. “Are you a slave?”

He raised her hands and tried to pat her head.  She smiled.

“You’re too young for this. Hum, when I am about to be hanged can you please run away? And uh- find the treehouse you saw me hiding before. I got food there and enough supplies. Good luck, kiddo.” 

He started to walk by himself. She was pulled by the human. She stumbled on the floor. When she tried to stand up, she can see the eyes that hate her. 

She still stands up. She watched how the crone does the trial. In the middle of the forest court, she was there, standing like there were no witches behind her. 

“Witches and Wizards! Today is the day where this sinful human is going to be hanged in the dark gallows. I, the crone of the forest court, am going to be the one who’ll lead the way.” 

“With the help of Hazel Finn, we will now start the trial.”

Hazel walked forward; she is boasting to everybody that she got some pretty dress. She stood next to the crone, and the human kneeled in front of the crone. 

She didn’t even know he had sin. He is the guy who fed her delicious foods, why does he need to suffer because of her?

Wizards wearing black coats flew down from the air and landed behind the human. They put a mask on him and flew up the air. 

“Hazel,” said the crone.

She nodded. The crone tapped the staff in her head and then Hazel can feel that her feet are in the air. She looked afar, the dark gallows waiting for them to come. She saw how the wizards passed them at a lightning speed, that they almost didn’t notice they passed them. She saw the crone raised the staff and chanted the spell. While falling, she saw witches riding their brooms to the gallows. She closed her eyes and then felt the air coming on her face. 

She woke up after the crone smashed a rock in her head. Blood flows from the wound, and a single tear didn’t come out from her eyes. She looked up at the crone, her reaction is blank. None of the witches helped her or even worried about what the crone did.

She stands up by herself and followed the crone to the gallows stage.

She turned to the crowd and glanced at the human. The wizards tied the rope in his neck, and the other wizard above tied the end in the branch of the dead tree.

The crone cleared her throat and then the wizards finished the job.

“Today is the end of this human's life.” The crone smiled at the crowd.

“Now we can live in peace in our forest.”

She can hear the crowd’s claps and the whistles.

A tear dropped from her left eye.

“Goodbye, human.” She whispered.