Hello! So, the chapters are going between Alec and Jane. Alec's chapters are going to be shorter. Just saying.
Thank you very much too WolfHowl091 for being my only reviewer :)
And here is chapter 2!
Chapter 2- Alec
o~O~o
With the family down to three, things became both harder and easier.
There was more food to go around. That was a good thing, as there never was enough food for them.
But without the cheerfulness of Jane, Alec felt like their family had grown dull.
She was always the bright one, always full of sunshine, he thought.
Stabbing the straw with the pitchfork, he heaved the load above his head and into the wheelbarrow.
The workload doubled without Jane. He had to gather all the straw by himself while his father planted the summer crop.
The cattle had to eat something, and Alec had to do something, so he got stuck with piling up the food for the animals for the week.
His bare feet were dirty. The one thing he enjoyed about summer. He didn't have to wear those awful moccasins his mother made him wear during the winter. Though he will admit he probably wouldn't have feet if his mother didn't stop him from running barefoot in the snow.
He liked his feet to be free and exposed to the air.
"Alec!" His father shouted. "Are you almost done?"
Quickly, he shoved one more load into the wheelbarrow before running it back to the house.
Running was great too, but most of the time he had to be running with something weighing him down. Sometimes he just wanted to run free, but that was never going to happen. He would be stuck working his whole life. No time for fun.
He grew up knowing this was what he would do, but back when he was a kid, everything was easier.
Now everything was work! Work! Work!
As soon as he rushed up with the wheelbarrow, his father sent him out again.
"You know what you have to do, Alec. Just because Jane isn't here anymore doesn't mean you get to slack you work."
"I know, Father. I will work harder, I promise."
Alec saw his father lean in, and eye him. "I mean it, Alec. You will only have to work harder as you get older."
He nodded again. "Got it"
With that he ran back out to the fields to collect more straw.
Running himself back and forth with the straw was only a minor chore. But once the summer crop was planted and growing, Alec would have to weed and water the entire field. Day after day.
Even when he married in two years or so, working in the fields would be his life.
His parents had arranged a marriage between him and another peasant girl who lived farther away.
When he was thirteen, he'd be able to start building a cruck house for himself and this girl.
To be honest, he didn't even know the name of the girl, and he didn't really care. If it were up to him, he wouldn't marry anyone at all.
But they were both healthy, and the healthy paired up to produce more healthy kids for the lord.
That's the way things worked.
Although, Alec was hoping that he could be richer than his parents and be able to have more land. The more land he had, the more taxes he'd be able to pay off. And maybe his life would be better than this crap.
But being reasonable, he knew he would be just as poor, if not poorer, than his parents.
Growing up wasn't something he had ever wanted to do, but it was inevitable.
"Sometimes you just have to deal with it," He muttered to himself.
That's what he told himself when Jane and he had played with sticks and his twin accidentally stabbed him in the arm too hard.
That's what he told himself whenever there hadn't been enough to eat and he went to his pile of straw hungry.
And that's what he told himself every day he woke up to a workload that he was already behind on. With every day that passed him, he hoped for a way out of this. He wished for a better life.
And now, all he could do was hope that his day would come sooner than later.
Alright, so what do you think? Good? Bad? Does anyone see where this is going? Please review! :)