Suikoden Fan Fiction ❯ Music for the Savage Beast ❯ The Little Chicken Girl ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One: The Little Chicken Girl

Where shall I begin? Ah, I suppose right from the earliest time I can remember. Let's see… It was twenty years ago? I was born a 'peasant', a mere being without a last name. Come to think of it, I hardly remember my real name at all. It was…. Ah! Yes, I think I was called Beth. I had several older brothers and sisters but I loved my eldest brother the most. His name? It doesn't matter. In this world, names mean nothing. Only a form of identification and status. My brother was General of Highland. When I was born, he was about to enter the Unicorn Brigade: A training facility of sorts for young boys who sought to enter Military Academy. They were given monetary incentives for joining the Unicorn Brigade in the form of two hundred potch salaries. Ha. It was just another way of selling off your child. But my brother had great talent and passed with honors.

Me? I was born a girl, an unwelcome, additional mouth to feed in an already too-large family. But, unlike my siblings save my eldest brother, I had a talent: The gift of Song. Initially it seemed like nothing. Pretty voices were everywhere and none of it brought in much money. My childhood, though peaceful and quiet, was harsh and not without much hardship. I learned to sing as soon as I could speak, listening intently to the village women as they sang their songs of better lives and luxury and I fed scrambling flocks of chickens for the landlord. There were many songs to be sung in the lives that we peasant folk led. Songs of hope, of war, of famine, of plague, songs of love. Many of them I still sing today in honor of my beloved Highland, and it is one of these that I, at the time a mere child of eight, sang as I sat nursing my calloused feet and hands…

Free my soul to reach the sky

The world outside in my mind's eye

Lilacs cover hill in full bloom

A voice pierces the day, away with gloom!

You, oh, my soul

Take me above

Oh, sweet memory stays in my mind

You, oh, my pain

Now on the wane

Oh, sweet memory that we two find

I will live my life in this place

And I will pray to feel joy and grace

Now the wind strikes a haunting note

Resounding on the air it floats

Fragrant violets there do lie

Holding a dance when no one is by

You, oh, my soul

Take me above

Oh, sweet memory stays in my mind

You, oh, my pain

Now on the wane

Oh, sweet memory that we two find

I will seek a dream in this place

Though I will stand alone out of time and space

Fantasy castle in the air

Once it was bright, once it was so fair

Remembering those days the willows sigh

In praise of scarred braves whose time did fly

You, oh, my soul

Take me above

Oh, sweet memory stays in my mind

You, oh, my pain

Now on the wane

Oh, sweet memory that we two find

The legend endure with me

And with you I will write a new history…

All those evenings I spent alone, beneath a tree, music and my master's chickens the only companions. It was hard, and sometimes I was sick, but indeed illness is better than war. Some time in the fall, my chance had come to leave this life of poverty. And yet I was unaware. A royal carriage passed by as I set about my usual chores, a tune clear and lively on my lips. The chickens pecked about, oblivious to my pitiful, bare feet. It stopped along side the fence and the driver leaned forward for a moment to scrutinize me. Not knowing the station of the passenger, I stared right back, my eyes fixated on the darkened figure within. He was quiet, sullen, not even gazing my way instead staring straight ahead. A young man, older than me definitely, in a fine outfit of white and royal blue, his raven locks unkempt and wild for one who was supposed nobility. The rider cracked his whip in my direction and my bare, dirt-smudged arm was seized with the sudden pain. I let out a soft but sharp cry and clutched the red lash as my gaze flicked to the driver, he barked arrogantly at me as my childish tears began to fall.

"What are you staring at?! On your knees girl! No peasant may place their filthy gaze on the Royal Prince!"

I stood dumbfounded, I had heard the man clearly yet his words would not register in my mind. Prince? This man? I didn't move. With a snarl, he raised the whip again…

"…Still your arm, pig."

This time the driver seemed to seize up in fear. And I stared at the Prince again. He was looking at me now. Strange coldness crept up in my heart, much like when a large gray wolf came prowling round the compound to steal a chicken for dinner. His eyes were…. Mad, spine-chilling even; and yet, in spite of my fear, I also felt, fascination. Who didn't know the story of the state rogues who assaulted the royal entourage when I was but an infant? They said that the Prince and late Queen were never the same ever since. Those eyes, they reflected my own feelings save fear. His lips curved slightly into a smile, a distinctly deranged little smile that took all my courage not to flinch and turn away, yet drew me to stare even longer and harder than before. There was something beneath the madness. But…

"Move…"

And the carriage started up again, disappearing into the distance. I then realized my auburn locks were soaking wet with rain and the chickens had left off pecking at my feet, scattering in all directions to seek shelter. The head servant beat me that night for losing two of the birds, but I could only think of those eyes…