I gasp as I wake up to the bucket of water my step-mother always throws on me when she needs me to wake up.
I immediately sit up straight and wipe my face in a Frenzy.
"You should be able to wake up without me throwing water in you nowadays."
She says with that tone of her's, disgust, her voice is dripping with disgust and she doesn't even try to hide it.
I come onto my feet and go to the bathroom without a word to her, as if I can say anything to her after my father married her two shoes.
I am Calix Red.
The son of Smith Red.
I don't want to be called the son of that woman out there who makes me up as if I am her servant.
I wash my face and clean my teeth before stepping into the shower.
Stepping out, I wear my clothes.
Not too fancy as our states weren't as good as some of the people in this town.
I don't even think to compare our state with the one's who can carry bags of money hanging from their pants cascually.
I step out of the cottage with my hair still wet.
I look around the place and take in the commotion.
There's a crowd gathered around a particular place.
Keeping 'Curiosity killed the cat' in my mind, I headed towards the crowd.
Peeping between the people, I see... Nothing interesting.
There's this sale going on for clothes.
I sigh and roll my eyes.
What's the need for such a commo-
I hadn't even finished my thought when someone ran into me and I yelped out in annoyance as I felt to the muddy ground.
"What the hell?"
I said to myself, with my eyebrows furrowed, I looked up at him and for a second, I stop thinking.
These red eyes are looking back at me.
Red. Like cherries.
Cherries are rare and so are these eyes.
I feel enchanted to just be looking at them.
"Get yourself up."
I snap out of it and stand up before finally realizing who it was.
Canon Gray.
The son of Alexander Gray.
Who was the next leader for the Ivy Kingdom.
My eyes widened and I immediately bowed down.
I heard his scoff and felt him roll his eyes before he walked away.
Canon was known to be arrogant and full of himself.
Even before his father.
His arrogance and pride were his everything from what I've heard.
Couldn't believe I would find his eyes pretty.
Well... That's not the only thing pretty about him.
His charming looks have everyone hypnotized.
I set up the stall for honey, buttered buns I made at home.
Sighing, I sat down for another boring day.
Evening hits and the sun dips.
Most of my honey, buttered buns are gone.
Because they're delicious and well, also very cheap.
People live off of cheap things in here.
In my area, people aren't very rich.
Rich people live near the palace.
Near the king.
Near all the best possibilities.
While people here die everyday because they don't get any medicines for just a cold.
I stand up and pack everything in a bag.
I hummed a tune before stopping as I heard a movement in the bushes.
My eyes follow the sound.
The bushes move again and I slowly pause my movements.
It doesn't seem to be human.
I slowly advance towards the movement which now seems to have stopped.
I reach out and pull the bushes slightly apart to be met with a pair of eyes looking back at me.
It was a dog.
A stray dog which looked hungry.
It barked softly and weakly before slowly making it's way to me.
It sat near my foot, smelling the pack of honey buttered buns.
I slowly removed one and gave it to him.
"You seem so hungry, little one."
I said as I saw him eat it in one go, chewing on it as it seemed that he liked it.
I patted him on the head and started to walk away.
I halted when I felt him follow me.
"You want another one?"
It seemed to shake his head at me and I was surprised.
Why was he following me then?
I nodded slowly and walked away with it following me too.
I reached the cottage and knocked on the door.
My step mother opened it just to be met with four pair of eyes and she almost did a double over.
"What are you doing with a dog!?"
She said, as always making her tone as dramatic as possible.
I felt so done with her right now.
I wanted my father to come back from ship.
"What does it look like? I am taking him in."
I said, I had not planned to but to oppose her was something I relished in.
I pushed past her and the dog walked in with me.
I went to my bedroom and closed the door behind me once the dog was inside too.
I looked at the dog and it looked back at me.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
"We're gonna name you Loyal, because you seem like it."
I said before caressing it on his forehead.
"Loyal? Thank you, master."
The dog- it suddenly spoke and I immediately shifted away from it, my eyes widened in surprise, shock and fear.
"What the hell? How can you speak?"
"You expected me to be a normal dog in a town full of magic?"
My jaw was still hanging open.
I should've expected something out of this dog.
I closed my mouth and gulped down.
Nodding slowly, processing the new gathered information.
"Do not speak infront of that woman."
I said referring to my step mother, because if she heard a dog speak, she would run away from planet earth.
The dog, or now we should call him Royal, chuckled and made his position on the ground and closed his eyes.
I looked at him and closed the lights.
Laying back on the bed, I looked up at the ceiling.
Something felt as if it was going to change.
Soon.
Tomorrow?
Day after tomorrow?