Author's Note: Hello! As you probably don't know, I am the former Mitsuki Ryokucha. This is my new pename and I seem to love it a lot more than my old one. Well, this is, I guess you could say, a new version of "Winds of Fate" but under a different title. It might be a little different than what I had in mind for the first one (which was pretty horrible by the way). My writing style is different than before, but I hope it doesn't make this hard to read. Oh, I won't update much because I'm lazy. Well, enjoy this chapter. Don't forget to visit my friends fantasygirl90 & thoughtfullsilence.

Let Us Never Forget
Chap. 1
"I swear, Kiyomi, you'll sleep an entire day if you wanted to! Get up!"

I slapped my 'dear and loving' sister's hand away before she could pull the blanket from me.

"Five more minutes, I'm so sleepy."

"Sleepy?" she shouted, "If you weren't watching this outrageous contraption over there"—she pointed to my television—"you would of gotten some sleep!" She still managed to get her hands on my blanket and yanked it away with her strength, causing me to roll out of my bed in the process.

"Fine! I'm up, I'm up…"

I grumbled to myself and cursing Cernozura under my breath.

"If it weren't for me," she followed behind me to nag some more, "you'd still be living in the streets! You need to be more grateful that you have a bed to sleep in, so stop being lazy!"

"Yeah, yeah. Uh, listen, I don't know if you would want to watch me in the bathroom so why don't you go do your little 'maid' things, okay?" I slammed the door in her face.

"W-well, don't forget that you have a job here as well and you better report to the kitchen to help me with OUR 'little maid things!'"

Ugh! What is with her? Ever since I got here, she's been nagging at me on how lazy I am or disrespectful.

Long ago, there was a monster that ravaged throughout villages in Dragoon. Unfortunately, my village that I lived in was attacked. My entire family lived close to Draqueen so we—well, they—were fortunate that there was somewhere to flee to for safety. I, being the stubborn girl I am, was playing far away from home in the forbidden forest. When I had returned, my home was practically gone! Everything was in ruins. From then on, I did only what I knew I could do: I wandered from village to village, wondering where my family had gone. There was nothing else I could do; no one was around to help me. I had to fend for myself. This happened when I was just about three years younger than I am now. I was found by Cernozura, of course, one day in the markets of Ayah by luck.

Wondering why I'm not holding a big grudge against her?

It was my fault that I had wandered off. If I had stayed, I would have never been in that mess I was in. I was just happy that she even recognized me! I try to be a more obedient girl that my mother wanted me to be and marry the merchant's son she wanted me to wed, but hey. Some times breaking habits can be hard. She's not here anyway, so why should I? And the boy? I don't even know him. And I don't even care what happened to him after that day. I was only sixteen then and I still think I was too young to marry! My mother is insane…

The reason I'm still here is because of my sister. My mother and father left to rebuild Yeuli, along with all the other important people of the village (my family was the 'upperclassmen' of Yeuli with strong, political powers) and told us to stay here until things cooled down. They haven't returned since or sent any word of how progress is going. Hell, I even snuck out of my room to see how Yeuli was doing since it wasn't that far from Draqueen. But strangely… there was no Yeuli at all. The only ones I'm holding a grudge against are my parents. Those heartless bastards just left us here in this place. I didn't like it at first, but once you live here for a while, it starts to grow on you.

Okay, enough with reminiscing, let's begin with the present.

After brushing my teeth, I attended to the castle's breakfast to be served in ten minutes. Lucky for me, I was too late to help, so I just sat down in the dining room, waiting for my portion of today's meal.

"Woke up late, again?"

I stopped messing with my spoon and looked up to see Kaistern teasing face.

"It's a good thing. I don't think you'd want to die of food poisoning," I joked.

"I wouldn't want Rath to be cooking for one thing. He practically killed Crewger one time."

As soon as he said his name, Crewger came into the room, sitting in Rath's seat.

"Oh yeah! He can't even cook rice porridge."

Kaistern and I began to gossip negatively on Rath's bad traits and behavior (But let me tell you, he kept adding some so-called 'good traits' afterwards. He babies him too much) until everyone filled up the seats, coming out of their chambers. Random chatter spread around until the chefs and Cernozura came out of the kitchen with the food. She glared at me, meaning 'get-your-lazy-ass-over-here-before-I-drag-you-over-here.'

"Go get some extra bowls from the kitchen," she ordered.

I obediently listened to her and rushed to the kitchen. When I got in, more of the other maids stopped me.

"Hey, Kiyomi, give this to Thats."

This? Why did they address Earth as 'this?'

"Uhm, okay," I say and place him atop my head. "What was he doing? Stealing cookies for him again?"

They all sighed and I couldn't help but let a tiny chuckle slip out.

"You have to stop obeying Thats sometime," I scolded him as I strolled out the other exit of the kitchen.

Earth yawned cutely, making a high-pitched baby sound from his mouth and took a nap. The castle was huge so it was going to take a little while until we got there…

I arrived in the courtyard and spotted a shadow from behind a pillar.

Full of curiosity, I quietly tiptoed and hid behind the mysterious figure from a pillar away. I peaked and saw a book being held. The person was reading. But why at this time? It's time to eat breakfast. Hehe, I'm bored; maybe I'll scare him/her…

As I approached stealthily—or so I thought—the familiar voice halted me.

"Ruwalk!" I stated. "What are you doing? Stop reading and go to the kitchen before Cernozura starts bitching at you again."

He smiled awkwardly, scratching his head.

"If you clean my room, I'll go. I forgot to ask you the other day and I really need help cleaning—"

I snatched the book and pointed in the direction I came from.

When he left, I ignored that previous distraction and continued to the chambers. I took a look at the book that Ruwalk was reading as I strolled in the enormous halls.

The book's cover looked tattered and worn; it must have been read thousands of times. Ruwalk must be bored to read such a boring-looking book. My free hand gently ran across the top cover, feeling the gold foreign characters that were embedded in the hard cover.

Ruwalk was a weird one, always reading these sorts of books. I remember he said he was going to teach me to read this, but he's always so busy. He's either doing errands for Lord Lykouleon or filing paper work with Afleegi in the castle's grand library. Afleegi was the strict one of the Dragon Officers; always barking orders. I guess you could say Afleegi is like my Cernozura to him. Those two are so alike; I tease them constantly that they should be married one day so I'd have a brother and a niece or nephew.

Ha, little kids running around the castle… I can't imagine that…

Finally, Thats's room. My knock roused Earth, who simply stretched and went back to sleep.

No response.

I knock with a little more force.

Still nothing.

"Hey, wake up, you lazy-bum. We're serving breakfast."

"…"

"And I have Earth, who was looting the kitchen cabinets for you while you slept."

"……"

I was becoming agitated. I raised my fist for one loud knock until a maid stopped me. Specifically the high-and-mighty Miss Cernozura.

Am I going to be killed?

"It doesn't take an idiot to go in the kitchen and grab some bowls!"

It appears so.

"I can't help it! Everyone kept asking me to do things! And I had a few distractions!"

"What distractions and errands?"

I pointed at the door and she immediately gave her attention to the sleeping Dragon Knight on the other side. "Thats!" she pounded loudly, "Wake up before I drag your dead body out! You're not even supposed to be sleeping now!"

"Okay, well, since you seem to have this," I shoved Earth to her, "I'm getting hungry."

"Where are you going? Breakfast is over."

"What? Already? But I haven't even been gone that long!"

"As I said, it doesn't take an idiot to go to the kitchen and grab some bowls. If you did that, you would have eaten something. But I find you roaming around here, ignoring my orders."

Sheesh, Cernozura makes my days living here even lovelier. I wish I could just for one day escape this boring everyday situation I've come across ever since I got here…