New Beginnings

I think of my father a lot. I think of his green eyes watching me as I play in the field behind our house. If I close my eyes hard enough, I can almost smell the sweet pine. I think that smell will always linger with me...telling me I'm home. But, without fail, the musky smell of a mattress slept on for too many nights breaks through and I am reminded. He's gone. The house is gone in a fire. And I am not home.

The training camp is okay. At least King Menelaus is at least a week away. He can't come for me in the dead of night. He can't snatch me away from this bed. I want to blame him for my lack of friends here. I want to say it is because I fear watching them burn as I did my family. But that would be a lie. I have tried to make friends. I have tried to fit in amongst these soldiers in training. The bruise aching on my back reminds me of their hate. Maybe I am not meant to fit in anywhere. Maybe I am destined to be alone. Maybe I should just accept this training camp as the start of a new life.

I hear the night guard coming to check the barracks. If they find the journal, they will take it. Goodbye for now, my only trusted friend.