This is something I've been thinking about for a while. I recently lost inspiration to do anything so I decided it was time for a new category.

I'm not really in a good mood right now so I'll just start it.

…

Two hundred. That is the number of days I have been working in the mine, and coincidentally, it is also the amount of money I am paid for a month's work. It's barely enough to support myself and my father, but it's do-able. It was morning, but the time of day didn't mean anything to me. Morning was the time of day when the blazing ball in the sky would rise, and night was when it disappeared behind the hills. Who needs to keep track of time when the work you do could cost you your life?

I coughed violently as I walked down the cracked sidewalk, walking along the old cobblestone road, and past dirty and broken shop windows. Two hundred days in the mines can damage everything in your body, especially your lungs. But health, like time, was a luxury only the rich could afford to care about. I was willing to work myself to death if it meant making enough money to at least support my father. My father was not an old man, he was still in his prime age. He had once been a soldier in the Windsor Army.

The late king had led a series of military expeditions to stop the mercenary attacks from the Dead Lands outside the kingdom's walls. My father's military career was stopped short when he lost an arm during a battle. The doctors managed to save his life, but they couldn't save his pride. He was disappointed in himself because he couldn't do anything but beg until he died. He was ashamed to send his son in the mines to earn money. He was ashamed to send his wife away because he knew I wouldn't make enough money to support them.

My entire family's stability had been on my father's shoulders. The pay from being a soldier was good, but long gone, and as I walked down the gravel pathway towards the dark gaping hole that was where I worked, I couldn't help but feel angry. Normally, the woods surrounding the mine, and the chirping of birds would make me happy, but the sudden thought of my father and the family I once had made me incredibly angry.

I stepped into the dark cave and continued walking through it, trying to savor the cool breeze before I stepped underground into the stuffy underground tunnels where I worked. There was a crude staircase as the back of the cave, two torches burning on the cave walls. I jumped down the staircase and quickly saw the row of dented steel hooks where all the uniforms and helmets hung. As I put on the bright orange shirt and matching long legged pants, I realized some benefits of working in the mines. One, the mining uniform was the only regularly clean article of clothing I had, and second, the food in the mines was much better than at home.

…

"Name?"

"Griam Pots, reporting in."

The old man at the desk in front of the tunnels that would take me to where I did most of my work nodded, and I walked past the desk, heading down into the tunnels. The air got more and more stuffy as I went through the tunnel, heading towards the mobs of miners digging out pretty much everything out of the earth. The sound of digging, shouting, and the sounds of an alarm ringing from somewhere filled my ears as I stepped out of the tunnel, looking around the mine, miners swarming over the stone walls. Steam hissed from valves implanted in the rock, and harsh lighting turned the grey stone white.

I walked over to where a pickaxe was leaning against a stone wall, and I picked it up. As the hundreds of other workers brought their picks down, I followed suit.. After today, it would be my two hundred first.

Windsor Palace

The palace was not nearly as fancy as those in other nations, but I liked it. It wasn't some high rising buildings with steeples like a church. It didn't have huge towers, battlements, or moats. It was like an estate a wealthy nobleman would own, except it belonged to my family, the Windsor Family. I was inside, standing in the main hall, looking at my father's dead body, encased in glass, fully viewable to anyone who came to the palace.

I had mixed feelings about the glass case. While it was nice to see my father, I didn't really want him to rot right in front of me. In the background, I could hear my mother's screams of pain as doctors tried to calm her down. I grimaced as the screams continued, and I wiped some sweat off my forehead with my shirt sleeve, trying not to ruin the smooth black fabric. I looked back at my father, lying in the glass case. His eyes were closed, his hands holding his sword over his chest, and he was wearing his best clothes.

I almost felt a tear come to my face as I walked up to the glass case, something I had been too afraid to do before, and I placed my hand on it, looking down at my father. My voice was angry as I tried to get the words out. I almost choked with anger as I spoke to my father's corpse.

"I-I'll find them. I swear it, father. I won't let them get away with this. M-Mother is…sick…again. If you were here…I-I just want to be strong…"

"You don't look too strong to me."

I whipped around, teeth clenched as I wiped the tears away with my shirt sleeve. Walking towards me was Ruby Voltar, the daughter of a Baroness my mother was friends with. My angry look was broken for a second as I lifted my eyebrow at the clothes she was wearing. Unlike all noble women, Ruby was dressed in a full black suit, a black and white checkered tie to match. Her reddish colored hair was shorter than last time, looking like hair that a young ruffian out on the streets would have, only, cleaner. She smirked at me, her intelligent eyes daring me to do something.

Of course, I didn't do anything else besides turn back to my father.

"You look rather sharp, dressed in that black shirt, and your little cloak to match. Look, you even have your black hair combed back. Dressed in all black to mourn your father, eh?" she asked as she walked up to the case and patted it while smiling at my father's body.

That made me snap. I didn't turn angrily, but I aimed to insult her without showing my anger. My face was calm as I looked at her, my jaw set, trying not to give any indication I was really angry.

"I could say the same for you. What's a Baroness's daughter doing dressed in men's clothing?" I shot back, trying to insult her.

Ruby didn't even seem fazed as she smirked at me and put her index finger on the glass, sliding it down the glass case so it made a smudge.

"It's a new fashion thing. My mom told me to try it out, and I must say, it sure captures the attention of some people." she laughed as she stepped away from the case and turned to walk away.

I just grunted and turned back to my father. She always had her way of winning any argument she got into. As she walked away, Ruby suddenly stopped, turning back towards me, her face serious.

"Listen, Kanin, I was just joking. I'm sorry about what happened to your dad. I just thought I'd let you know that." she said as I looked back at her and nodded silently.

She left me alone, and I finally turned away from the glass case to leave when I found myself staring at Lord Ryon, and a group of Black Coats standing behind him. I narrowed my eyes at the sight of the one man my mom truly trusted besides me, and the Black Coats watched silently from behind their grinning masks and their black cloaks. I watched them carefully as Lord Ryon bowed, taking off his top hat as he did a low bow, putting it back on when he finished. He smiled at me, and I smiled back, weakly. I swore I saw a pistol hidden in his greatcoat as he walked towards me, arms extended, a pained look on his face.

"I'm sorry for not making my presence known beforehand, but I couldn't interrupt you and your father. Please, your highness," his face suddenly became extremely serious as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. "You are in grave danger. The queen has asked that you be escorted away from the palace to somewhere safe. The assassins that killed your father are coming."

I backed up, my back hitting the glass case. I looked at Lord Ryon's pale face, my own in complete shock. The assassins were coming? Immediately, the group of Black Coats revealed their pistols and muskets as they stood at attention, Lord Ryon wrapping his arm around my shoulder, leading me towards the group of elite bodyguards I had learned to trust so well.

"These men will escort you to safety. Please, be safe, your highness." whispered Lord Ryon as I was surrounded by the Black Coats, the sea of black leading me towards the palace's main entrance.

…

"I assumed it worked, Captain Riffle?" Lord Ryon asked as the man dressed in a black cloak and wearing a grinning mask nodded his head.

"Yes, my lord. He doesn't suspect a thing." reported the Black Coat captain as Lord Ryon nodded his head.

He drew his pistol from underneath his greatcoat and handed it to Captain Riffle, muzzle first. Lord Ryon was only a little bit taller than Riffle, but he leaned in anyways.

"Make it look like Westerfield assassins."

Rough Town, Dead Lands

The night was always the scariest time of the day. Nobody knew what was waiting in the dark. It was hard to get home in the dark, but I managed. I couldn't think about dying on the way home, the money for my father ending up in the hands of some bandit or thief. The night air was cold, and I shivered in my poor excuse for clothes, but I felt warmer when I saw the lights of my village appear in the night. I smiled lightly as I headed towards the light.

Rough Town was where I lived. It was where most of the miners lived. It was a town for those too poor to afford houses within the kingdom, and it was a place for beggars to live when they were thrown out of the country. I shrugged as I walked towards Rough Town. I just wanted to sleep. The work in the mine had been tough, and I just wanted to forget all of it, dreaming, before I woke up to repeat the same cycle over and over again until I either got too old, lost a limb, or died. It was a sad life, but it was the life I was happy to live if it meant maybe patching my family back up.

…

"Dad, I'm back from the mine," I announced as I pushed the rusty tin door of my hut open, expecting light inside the small bungalow, but finding total darkness.

I frowned as I closed the door behind me, the tin door scraping against the dusty ground. I looked around the darkness, trying to find my dad. I was walking around the bungalow for a while, looking for the lantern that usually sat on the living room floor. That's when I heard the uncomfortable grunting. I used the sound to enter my father's room. My eyes had gotten used to the darkness, so I saw him sitting on the ground, his face blank. He was grunting as he suddenly shivered, the lantern sitting right next to him.

"Dad, what are you doing? Are you alright?" I asked as I knelt down on the dirt floor, turning the lantern on, illuminating the thin wooden walls of our bungalow, my father's face lighting up like a candle.

He looked almost scared, his unruly brown hair sticking out in strands, his teeth clenched, and the stump of his right arm digging into his side.

"Dad, what's going on. Did something happen?" I asked as my father raised the only hand he had, to point out the broken window in his room.

"The Black Cloaks…they're coming."

That's when I heard the first gunshot.

Black Coat carriage, destination unknown

I never really trusted Lord Ryon. The man looked way too sly in my opinion. He was always talking to my mother, Queen Francia. People seemed fine with it, but I didn't. I was sitting in the carriage, Black Coats sitting next to me and across from me, their grinning masks staring back at me. I tried not to shiver, and I pulled my cloak closer to me. The carriage wasn't anything fancy, and I looked out the window to see towns go by, everything just a blur as we left everything behind.

Was I really in danger? Were the assassins who killed my father really coming to kill me? If so, why was I running away? That particular thought hit me pretty hard. I looked out the window and saw that we were heading towards the border of the Dead Lands. I looked at the Black Coat across from me.

"Why are we entering the Dead Lands?" I asked.

They didn't answer. I was about to ask again when suddenly I heard shouting from outside. One of the windows of the carriage cracked, probably hit by a rock. The Black Coats instantly shifted their attention to the cracked window. The one sitting closest to it pulled out his pistol and looked out the window, looking around. We passed through the border, into the Dead Lands. I could see at least a few miner villages in the distance. I decided to sit in silence as we went to wherever I was going to be safe, and a few moments passed before more shouting erupted.

I just ignored it, but that was before there was a muffled 'boom' and then the sound of wood splintering. Suddenly, I felt the carriage shake, and then I felt it completely tip over, the windows breaking, and the entire thing slamming into the ground. I let out a shout as I hit my head against the wooden door that was trapped on the ground. I blacked out for a second, and when I came to, the Black Coats were outside, muskets and pistols in their hands.

"W-What's going on! Answer me!" I shouted desperately as I reached towards the carriage's open doors.

I peeked my head out of the carriage just in time to see a cloud of white erupt right in front of me. Somebody was shooting! I ducked back into the carriage, shivering once again. Lord Ryon was right! I heard the thuds of bodies dropping onto the ground, and there was a thunk as a pistol dropped into the carriage, thrown out of someone's hands. I grabbed it and held it against my chest, my heart thumping as my thoughts raced. I heard someone approaching the carriage, and in a moment of pure adrenaline, I popped up, and aimed the gun in the face of a dirty peasant boy, around my age. He was wearing dirty rags, his face smudged with black dust.

"Who are you!"

…

There you go. I'm still not in a good mood so I won't make this too long.

If you want, submit a character for me. They won't be a main character, but they could be a villain in the future, depending on what role will suit them. I'm not sure whether magic will be included, but if it is, I will let you know. I hope this chapter was exciting and fun to read. I actually had a lot of fun writing this. Anyways, thanks for reading. FF