We Were Born To Lose

The castle came into view and it was even more magnificent than I'd imagined. It was huge and seemed to be a thousand feet tall with tiny guards standing watch at the very top of the towers. We pulled into the courtyard and a servant opened the door for us. The Prince, of course, went first and I followed. He lead me through the great doors and into a large room with a staircase and three other large doors. He took me past the staircase and to the room on the left, just behind it.
"Ah Alex, would you mind sending someone to get me more Yarrow- Oh hello!" A nice plump women was standing over a small cauldron which was bubbling. I noticed how she called him Alex not your Highness or Sire.
"Good afternoon Mom." He greeted warmly. I was confused, surely this couldn't be his mother. The women noticed my confusion and smiled at me,
"I'm not really his mother, everyone just calls me that. My name if Fina but you may call me Mom if you wish. And Alex I’ve never seen this young man before what's his name?" She asked. The Prince looked at me quizzically. “Alexander you don't even know what his name is?" She exclaimed putting her hands on her hips.
"Well?" The Prince said, looking at me.
"I'm J-Jack. Jack Barakat.” I murmured.
"Nice to meet you Jack." She smiled. I didn't know her very well but I could tell why people called her 'Mom'. She seemed like the kind of woman who was a mother figure to everyone.
"Jack, this is Mom, the court physician. Mom, he's going to be my new servant. Please tend his wounds, feed him, then explain his duties and show him to his chambers. I'll send someone for the Yarrow and I have to go train with my knights." He said before he walked off. She tutted him as he left.
"Those young one's always in a hurry. Come sit down dear, what's happened to you?" She asked. She had such a warm and inviting aura that I couldn't help but feel calm around her.
"My ribs are b-bruised." I said, I didn't really want to tell her what had happened but of course, that wasn't enough to satisfy her.
"How'd that happen? Did Alexander hurt you? If he did then we will have a serious conversation for hurting someone as sweet as you." She said, her tone was sharper but I couldn't help the small smile at her compliment. No one had complemented me in years, they just treated me as I was dirt in their shoes.
"N-no he actually saved me. I-it was my old m-master." I explained.
"Oh I see. Take off your shirt and let me look.” I did as she asked carefully, wincing as I stretched up. She came up and knelt below me and pressed her fingers on the bruises causing me to grit my teeth and clutch the table.
"They don't look too bad. Nothing's broken, just badly bruised. I'll put a rub on them to help stimulate healing and wrap them in bandages. You shouldn't do anything too physically challenging for the next couple of days. What you need is some rest and a decant meal too because goodness gracious you are skinny!" She exclaimed with a smile. I let a grin slip and clenched my jaw as she put a foul smelling comfy paste on my side then wrapped it in bandages. After that, she placed a plate with potatoes, chicken, bread, tomatoes, and cheese before me. I looked up at her in astonishment.
"Come on, eat up. While you're doing that, I'll write you a list of your daily duties so you wont forget anything and then I'll show you to your chambers."
"T-thank you." I said, shocked. No one had ever been this nice to me before. As I was eating and she was writing, I looked around. She had lots of books and bunches of herbs drying or in containers. She had small jars filled with different liquids or pastes, most likely different medicines. There was a door at the end of the room, and there were three crosses in the room. One over both doors and one over her shelf of pre-made medicines. I did my best to eat as much a possible since it was so good but I wasn't used to eating so much. She said that she understood and handed me the list. It read:

Bring the Prince his food for breakfast, lunch, and occasionally dinner
Clean the Prince's room (make the bed, wash the windows, sweep the floors ect.)
Clean and polish his armor
Feed, brush, and clean his horse's stable
Wash his clothes
And do any other task he asks you to do

"Thank you.” I said after reading it.
"You're welcome. You will receive a weekly allowance of five gold coins a week and you will be housed and fed for free."
"What?" I asked, my mouth hanging open.
"Pardon?" She asked, cocking her head.
"I-I'm getting paid? And h-housed and fed for-for free?" I asked, it seeming unreal. I thought this was all a dream and that I'd be woken up by my morning kick.
"Yes dear." She smiled, putting on her shawl. Tears threatened to fill my eyes but I pushed them away.
"As soon as you get paid, I recommend buying some clothes." She said. I suddenly felt self conscious in my worn shirt and pants. "But don't worry, there is an extra set of shirt and pants in your room do you should be fine for a week." I smiled at her and she led me out of the door. We took a right and went up the flight of stairs. At the top, there was a long hallway with four doors on the left and a bunch of small windows about two and a half feet apart on the right. At the end of the hallway, there was a spiral staircase which I was told, had the Prince's chambers at the top and mine were near the base of the staircase. She led me in and mouth dropped. It had a window which let in a gorgeous ray of sunlight and it had a bed with a side table next to it which had three candles. There was a wardrobe across from the bed and to the right of the door we just walked in, there was a bathroom which had a toilet, and a basin with a bar of soap, two towels, a chew stick, and it even had a mirror.
"This is amazing. Thank you." I smiled at Mom.
"You're welcome. Come to my chambers around eight and we'll eat dinner with the other servants and then I'll be here to wake you up at seven." She smiled before turning and exiting. I walked up to the window and looked out. The view was stunning. It had a view of the courtyard and city, then in the distance you could see the mountains touching the vast blue sky. I moved away from the window and walked to the wardrobe. It had a standard white shirt, brown pants, and leather boots in it but it was enough for me. I changed out of my old dirty clothes and washed myself in the basin of water. I tried off with a towel and hung it back up. Then I moved back to the wardrobe and changed into the clean clothes. It felt good to wear clean things again. Then I decided to explore the castle to pass the time. I'd found numerous bedrooms, the throne room, the kitchens, the armory, and a library, which I spent a lot of time reading in...Or trying to read. I had the basics of reading but I wasn't very good and I had to read slowly. There was an elderly man who worked there who helped me with words I didn't recognize. After reading for a while, my brain was exhausted so I bade a farewell to the man and continued exploring. I decided to go outside and look for the stables. I had to walk all the way around the castle to the other side to get there though. It was a large barn with twenty horses inside. There were two stalls that were bigger that the others at the far end next to the second exit and I figured that those two belonged to the king and prince. I walked up to one of the horses and the name tag on the door read:

Sieder

The horse inside was a beautiful jet black Friesian who looked to be about seventeen hands at the withers (68 inches).
"Hey buddy." I greeted. The horse looked at me, the looked in his bucket, probably wondering if I'd brought him food. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bale of hay. I pulled out a tuft and placed it flat on my hand and held it out. The horse's lips tickled my hand as he took the hay from me. I could hear him crunching it and I reached my arm out and met his soft fur. I smiled and gave him a few more tufts before walking out of the second exit. I could see two tents and several racks with weapons and armor in a small field. Then there was the Prince barking orders to seven men who were probably knights by the way they held themselves. I partially hid behind one of the weapon racks and watched.
"Rian!" He barked.
"Yes Sire?"
"Spar with me. Everyone else, watch me."
Rian walked up to the Prince and everyone else backed away about fifteen feet. They drew their swords and Rian advanced. Their swords clashed and twirled. The Prince looked like he did it effortlessly while Rian was showing signs of concentration. The Prince blew Rian's sword out of the way with a lot of force causing Rian to stumble, then the prince raised his sword and pointed it at Rian's throat. "If I were an enemy, you would be dead." He said. Then he lowered his sword.
"Work on defending your vulnerable areas if you're sword get's forced out of the way. You can do this by blocking with your arm if you have armor or simply just dodging. Practice with each other." He instructed. Then he walked near a tent and picked up a water skin off of the table. I moved my gaze to the knights fighting and heard their swords ring, and watched their coordinated footwork as they all tried to get the upper hand on each other.
"What are you doing?" Asked the Prince's voice. I just about jumped out of my skin.
"I-I'm sorry. I-I was j-just watching. I wasn't d-doing anything." I rambled.
"Quiet." He ordered. I stopped talking and looked up at him. I could feel myself slightly shaking. "It's alright. You'll be spending time here often. If you've done all your tasks, then you can come here and watch training if you'd like."
I sighed in relief.
"What did Mom say about your ribs?" He asked.
"She said that t-they are bruised but I'll be fine in a f-few days. She said not to do a-anything too physically ch-challenging though."
"Yeah I figured. Okay so I'm not going to have you do anything today because you need to rest." He said and I nodded. "Be in my room with my breakfast at eight. I have to get back to my knights because Zack is doing something that would get him killed." He said with a small laugh. I giggled and watched him walk off and show Zack what he's doing wrong. I decided to head back to the castle to dinner since it was getting late. I knocked on Mom’s door and heard a chipper voice say,
"Come in!"
I opened the door and stepped in. Mom was sturring something in a pot and there were two women and two men sitting by the fire. "Go sit with them dear, dinner will be finished in a little while, after dinner I want you to stay because I need to put some more comfy on you." She said. I nodded to show I heard her and walked over to the fire.
"Hello!" Greeted one of the women, "Please sit!" She said, scooting over on the bench to make room for me.
"Thanks." I said quietly.
"I'm Cassadee, but you can call me Cass" She said, "and that's Alice." She said, motioning to the other girl. Cass had dark brown hair and tan skin, and Alice had beautiful long blond wavy hair and light blue eyes. Both of them were absolutely gorgeous but of course, being gay, I didn't feel attracted to them. I’d have to keep my sexuality under wraps if I wanted to keep my friends, much less live.
"I'm Matt and that's David, Cassadee's brother." Said a man with black hair. You could see the family similarities between David and Cass.
"What's your name and who's servant are you?" David asked.
"I-I'm Jack and Prince Alexander's." I said quietly. They all said things like 'Wow' and 'Good for you!'.
"Dinner lovelies." Mom called.
"I'm sure you've met Fina. She's like our mother, in fact we all call her mom." Alice said.
We all got a bowl of beef stew and sat around the fire and talked...Well they talked, I just listened and laughed if they'd tell a funny story.
"So where are your from, Jack?" Alice asked. I stiffened. No way was I going to tell them my previous life.
"I-I used to be the slave of a m-man who o-owned an inn." I lied...Well it was partly the truth.
"Was he kind?" Lisa asked.
"N-not really." I mumbled, looking down.
"Not at all. You should see the poor boy's ribs. All black and blue." Mom said. "Don't worry sweetie, that won't happen here. Alexander may seem intense sometimes but he is a fair and just master."
"Besides, you've got us." Cass said, "We're here for you."
My grin grew and for the second time that day, I wanted to cry.

I have friends. There are people who actually care about my wellbeing.

I couldn't help but let one tear slip but I wiped it away quickly before anyone could see. After dinner, Cass and Alice decided to wait for me. Mom undid my dressings and replaced the paste. After redressing, the girls walked me back to my room.
"You two don't have to do this, really it's okay." I said, looking down.
"It's fine, Jack. We wanted to. We'll see you tomorrow right?" Alice asked.
"Yeah." I replied. they smiled and hugged me. They actually hugged me. People don't understand the impact of a hug. Simple physical closeness can provide someone with many reassuring thoughts. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been hugged and I almost broke down again. The fact that someone would actually give a damn about me was incredible. They let me go, smiled at me once more, then walked off together. I smiled and stepped into my room. I plopped down on my extremely comfortable bed and closed my eyes. Today had been such a huge day. I'd been plucked from my old torturous life and introduced to a new one filled with amazing people. This was honestly the best day of my life and for the first time, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Notes

Title Cred: House Of Gold by Twenty One Pilots

(A chew stick is like a toothbrush)

Guys pleaseeee comment. I need to know if you like this. I know it's boring but I promise interesting stuff starts happening just hang in there. But back to what I was saying, please please pleaassseeee comment.