Echoes of Despair: Tales from the Kingdom of Zulu

in voilk •  last month

    Far away in the northern reaches, there existed a kingdom shrouded oppression and deceit. The kingdom of Zulu, with its towering walls, was starkly divided into two realms: the lofty heights of the upper town and the desolate alleys of the lower town.

    In the upper town, the air was thick with the scent of wealth, where mansions stood shoulder to shoulder with guarding treasures untold. The people of the upper town possess all the wealth of the kingdom, and they are not ready to share it with the lower town.

    Down in the lower town, where poverty clawed at the very souls of its inhabitants, there lived a family of four. A father, known by the name of Jon Snow, was a man of rugged determination, toiling ceaselessly at his farm to bring out his family from the generational circle of poverty, and a caring wife named Mara.

    "Father, father. Are you going to hunt again?" Sansa asked her father. "Yes, my love, I have to go on the hunt so we can have something to eat. If I am blessed, I will hunt more and then sell at the market before returning home," Jon Snow replied, his eager daughter. ""Father, please take me with you. I am the male child; I can be of help," Bran protested. "Soon, my son. I cannot take a six-year-old with me on the hunt. But I promise, when you come of age, you will join me," Jon replied calmly, careful not to quench the fervent spirit in Bran's heart.

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    Jon looked his children in the eyes and said to them, "I love you both. Make sure to tell your mother I have gone out for the hunt and I will be back soon. Bran, make sure you obey your sister, and no fighting." Sansa and Bran echoed "Yes, sir" at the instruction of their father.

    Jon set out for the forest; he spent hours toiling in the forest without seeing any animals, not even a rabbit. He checked the traps he had set the last time he went hunting, but none of them seemed to have caught any animals. It was getting dark already, and midnight in the forest was doom to any person who stayed that long. He set his traps again and headed back to the kingdom. As soon as he got to the gate, he saw many beggars line up on the street, begging for arms.

    "It's another day in this wretched pit," Jon muttered bitterly to himself as he walked through the muddy streets, his voice drowned out by the shouts of beggars' pleas and the distant echo of horse hooves, used by merchants that are just arriving from the upper ring of the kingdom.

    As soon as Jon opened the door, he met his wife sitting on the only chair in their room. His wife, Mara, met him with weary eyes as he returned home, her once-vibrant spirit now dulled by the weight of their circumstances. "Jon, how much longer can we endure this life of poverty?" she whispered, her voice barely rising above a lament. "Where are the kids?" Jon answered with a question. "They are at Madam Daenery's home. They should be back soon," Mara responded with a whisper again.

    But Jon, with a fire burning deep within his soul, refused to yield to despair. "Fear not, Mara," he told his wife with a steely resolve. "For as long as there's breath in my body, I shall strive to carve a better future for us and our children." After he said those words, the door opened, and his children rushed in to greet him. "Daddy, welcome back" echoed around the room as they shouted at the top of their voices with excitement.

    They all sat on the floor to eat the food Mara had prepared for them. "Daddy, I want to ask a question," Sansa started the discussion. "Will we ever know the comforts of the upper town?" Jon's gaze softened as he stood up and asked his children to follow him outside. "Look to the star," Sansa and Bran said, lifting up their eyes to the heavens full of stars. "Now, pick a star, look upon it, and make a wish for anything you want. Wish upon a star," Jon said. The two kids said their wishes out loud. "I want to live in the upper city," Sansa said. "I want to go hunting with my father," Bran said.

    "Good, now that you have made a wish, let's go inside so I can tell you the final part." Jon told his kids as he made his way into the house. After they got in, he pulled the only chair they had and sat on it while he instructed his kids to sit on the floor.

    "Now listen to me; you have made a wish upon a star. But now the real work has just started. You have to work toward those wishes. Miracles do happen, but you have to work your way to the miracle. If wishes were horses, even the beggars in our city would have one. It's not enough to wish; you have to work, okay? You have a star guiding and watching over you now, so work and make those wishes happen, ok?" Sansa and Bran chorus "Ok, sir," and they went back to the food they were about to eat.

    Over the years, Bran became a very well-known hunter. He went so far into the south and made a name for himself. He was able to fight monsters and beasts, and with his fame, Sansa was able to marry into one of the royal families in the upper city, and that marked a change of story for their family.

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