The Farm Boy

Within the Kingdom of Albion, located to the south-east of the Northern Continent of Elham, lies a small village. This village, seemingly forgotten by all but its residents is none other than Axcell Village. Axcell Village would be considered as any other small, remote, villages within Albion if not for one peculiarity. Within the village lives a soul with no past, no family, nor name. The poor one was named, by the village chief, Leon.

Since he was rescued and adopted by the villagers of Axcell Village, Leon has been living off from the good graces of the village chief whom, while not adopting Leon, fed him and clothed him until he was of age to work. From his eleventh birthday until today, the wake of his sixteenth birthday, Leon has spent every single day working the fields and harvesting the crops and this very day would not be any different.

Leon woke up at six in the morning and got out of his bed ready for the day, while still tired from having labored the fields for the past months. After a small breakfast made of one egg and two slices of old and tough brown bread, Leon went for a quick bath in the river next to his shack. For the past four, soon five, years, since he was eleven, Leon has been living in this shack, located near the entrance of the village and close to the fields. During all this time, Leon has worked the fields, laboring them and harvesting the crops in order to help the residents of the village who adopted him and saved his life. But soon, his life of repayment, his life as a slave for the village would end. Leon promised himself, on the day of his twelfth birthday that as soon as he would become an adult, he would leave.

The cold water removed the remaining traces of sleepiness from Leon's face and revitalized him. The bath finished, Leon put on some clothes, a shirt made of some rough cotton and a pant made off of the same fabric. He went to pick his tools and directed his steps towards Mr. Duncan's field. After the village chief's field, it was now the turn of Mr. Duncan's. While on his way, Leon heard the yells and voices of the other children of the village, all well taken care of by their parents. The children were running everywhere under the vigilant and caring eyes of their mothers as for the children's fathers, they were either pretending to get angry at their undisciplined children or were running after them, playing with them.

All the adults saluted Leon, giving him a big smile as well as some food for him to last the day. As Leon would be gone for the day, working the fields, the nutrients were vital for him. As without food, the boy would not have any strength in his body left after a few hours and who would go cultivate the fields then? Leon left the premises of the village and went across the village chief's field as well as the field of the pharmacist to finally reach Mr. Duncan's field.

As Leon started working the fields, he heard some chatters behind him. "Not again" thought Leon while turning over.

"Hey Leon!" yelled someone.

"What is it Blum? Are you at it again?"

"You know I am" smiled the so-called Blum. "Come on get ready for your weekly beating. Or is it the daily one? Haha I don't know. We are having so much fun together" added Blum.

"I believe that today is the third this week" interjected Pol, the son of Mr. Duncan.

"Come on give me a break, I'm working the fields and don't have time for you right now. Pol, I'm working your father's field. Do you think he would be happy to learn that I couldn't finish my work today because of you?"

"Bah, I don't give a crap about my old man's happiness, I want to enjoy myself. And this is much more important than the field. Right?" replied Pol.

"Fine, come at me if you want. Do the three of you feel like men ganging up on a single man? Someone that doesn't even fight back" asked Leon.

"That has nothing to do with feeling like men" interjected Mak. "It's just that we don't like you orphan. We don't like how you live in our village, depending on the good grace of our parents"

"Haha, I might depend on your parents but at least, I contribute to the village. Can you say the same for yourself Mak? What about you Pol? And you, oh son of the village blacksmith, the almighty Blum?"

"SHUT UP" yelled the three boys.

"You want some, you'll get some" furiously said Blum while launching his fist at Leon.

Blum's fist hit Leon in the stomach. At the same time, Mak kicked him, aiming for his ribs. The two strikes cut Leon's breath and forced him to bend his body. While Leon was still bending, Pol took advantage of the situation to kick him on the face with his knee, propelling Leon's back to the ground. Once on the ground, the three young men took turn to launch vicious kicks at him, aiming for his face, ribs, and waist. For the next half an hour the three boys kept kicking and punching Leon that was lying on the ground. Leon survival's instinct made him roll in a ball but the fists and feet still manage to touch some of its weakest areas.

"Not so proud now, are you?" asked Blum "talk back to me again and you'll get more farm boy"

"Yeah farm boy, who do you think you are?" said Mak

"I'll tell you who he is" interjected Pol, with an air of knowing, a smile appearing on his face. "He is no one. He is a good for nothing. Not even good enough for his parent to keep him with them, just good enough to be tossed to the trash. He is just good enough to take care of our chores and the whole village chores."

"Haha, that's right, you're just the village's slave son of no one." Concluded Blum

"Well boys, now that our daily tasks, nay our daily duty is over what say you? Should we go grab some breakfast with the rest of the villagers or should be go fishing? I'm sure I can get a bigger fish than you this time Mak"

"Yeah right, keep dreaming Pol; you know that I'm the king of fishing"

"Well farewell farm boy and see you tomorrow".

Leon kept lying on the ground, hearing the sounds of Blum, Pol and Mak steps getting further and further away. A ball of anger was building up in Leon stomach, piling up over the already existing one. "Why must I go through this? Why must I endure the pain? Why must I be the village's slave?" wondered Leon. "Starting from next week everything will change. I will be of age, I will become a man and make those three pay. I will make them regret calling me son of no one" thought, out of anger, Leon, with tears flowing out of his eyes.

One or two hours later, Leon finally managed to stand up and work the field. It took him the whole day to finish the task that was allocated to him by Mr. Duncan. At dusk, Leon's work was done; Leon took the direction of his shack. To do so, he had to cross the whole village in order to reach the other entrance and his tiny cabin. While crossing the village, he heard the whispers of the small children asking their parents "why did Leon come home every day in such a state?" and for all answer the parents said that "Leon is playing games with the other teenagers but he is so bad at it that he always loses and thus gets such treatment, the treatment of the loser" to finish with "learn from this and do not become like Leon".

Leon reached his house took a new set of close and went to the river to clean himself from the blood, the dirt and the sweat. The bath taken he went back to his sleep for a well-deserved sleep.