The mysterious old woman

Jemia looked scared and was about to say something to the boy who was now covered with flour but before she opened her mouth, Thomas spoke. "you looked amazing running like that and you have just caught the eye of the crowned prince, Jemia right?". The young girl had been scared before, but now she looked horrified! if this boy was the prince, then she was going to be in real trouble. She just continued staring at Tom but did not say anything. "What now, you do not believe me? How poor you must be, not to have ever seen the most handsome prince of this kingdom, that's right, I'm your future king, Thomas, so you better do as I say". Tom held a proud air as he tried to impress this beautiful troublemaker he had just met."I'm so sorry my prince, don't punish me, I promise not to steal again, please forgive me and let me go now, I really need to go your majesty" Jemia begged the prince as she was already scared for her life, thieves were not easily let off, and she had just offended someone right before the prince. "forgive you yes, let you go, never! I'll never let you go, my dear, I found you and I intend to keep you by my side forever" Tom said. "My prince, I don't understand what you're saying," Jemia said, looking perplexed. "you don't need to, come on let's go around and have fun, do you want some snacks? Follow me," Tom said, and started running back, Jemia followed closely behind him and all the people who saw her with Tom let her off, they didn't want to offend the prince, Jemia was a tear in the flesh and many people wanted to catch her. Tom ran until he got to the carriages where the snacks were kept and told one of the men sharing the bags to give Jemia some of the cupcakes that were meant for orphans. The workers knew they weren't supposed to but were too scared of Tom to refuse. One of them took out a little bag filled with lots of snacks and handed it over to Jemia. She seized the bag and immediately started running away. "an interesting one just for me to possess and subdue" The fourteen years old boy smiled and said before running after his new friend. Jerry was so tired after carrying so many bags, even though they weren't heavy, he was still eleven, and he tried to get some rest but people around him were speaking in loud voices and he couldn't rest because he liked a quiet environment. "Do you think today is gonna be any different?" Jerry couldn't help but overhear what one of the people outside was saying, he became interested and hid near the window to listen more, "It seems so, there's a little improvement today, maybe the queen decided to react after getting our complaint but we are so many, she should do better, let's write another request", another man replied. Jerry intended to gather more information from these people but suddenly he heard one of the workers slap the man who last spoke, "How dare you blame the queen, you are just lazy and selfish, instead of sitting in your house and working enough for your household, you come here even more than you are supposed to, I think I saw your face the last time we were here, don't you know everyone is supposed to come once in two weeks?" the worker asked the man,"But I didn't get anything the last time, the stuff you were sharing didn't even reach half of us, how dare you slap.." the man was still speaking when two more workers came and drove him away from that place. Jerry was so disturbed, he did not come here for some months now because he was busy and everything seemed to have changed, hundreds of carriages filled with food, snacks, and gifts were sent out from the palace to be shared amongst these people, there were many thousands of people, but the queen made sure the food reached everybody and now what was he hearing? something was wrong and he planned to figure it out, acting rashly could even get him killed, Jerry was smart enough to know that this particular group of workers weren't ordinary, he wasn't protected by the palace here, but he had to put an end to this, he was worried the people might soon rebel against the queen. A thought of Tom suddenly crossed Jerry's mind, worried that he had not seen him for a while and he might be causing trouble already, he decided to go out and look for him. "Hey there, have you seen Prince Tom around?" Jerry asked one of the workers "Yes my prince, but it has been a while, he came and got some snacks for a little girl and they went that way", the worker said as he pointed towards a direction that had fewer people around. "thank you, I'll go and get him now," Jerry said"my prince, you need to rest, why don't you let me, or at least I can come with you, this place might not be very safe for you", the worker told the prince who was already going in the direction he pointed. "Don't worry about me Tom wouldn't listen to you, I insist" Jerry said and left without giving the man any chance to continue talking.He walked in the direction that was pointed to him and his feet led him to a secluded place, Jerry wondered what Tom could be doing in a place that looked like this, the further he went, the fewer people he saw, and after walking for a while, he heard Tom's voice and followed it till he found Tom. Tom held a rope, and it looked like he was going to play one of those his pranks here, but Jerry couldn't figure out what he wanted to do, the only thing he saw was Tom holding one end of a seemingly long rope. This time around, he noticed that Tom wasn't alone, he was accompanied by a beautiful girl who looked just about his age, Jerry didn't know what to think of this and curiously approached them. "Tom, I've been looking for you, I was worried because you invited me here today, but you seem to have lost interest in whatever is happening, what have you been up to?" Jerry asked."Jerry over here come on now, we might need a little help from you, just pull this rope, can you? it's stuck down there and my girlfriend here really needs it" Tom said pretentiously with an evil smirk as he avoided Jerry's gaze. Jerry didn't bother too much about Tom's girlfriend, he joked all the time, so this might just be one of his pranks. But since this rope here looked harmless and the girl needed it, Jerry didn't think too much and decided to help out. he went over and held it but Tom immediately left it, "I'll stand by, and when you hear my signal, drag as fast as you can", he instructed and went out to stand by the road. Jerry found this strange, if that was all they needed to do, then he wasn't needed, but he didn't object. They waited for about 2 minutes, everyone was still, Jerry was about to say something but Tom gave his signal and Jerry dragged as hard as he could, he was still a child and his power was limited but when he realized that what he was dragging was heavy, he used all the strength he had to drag it up."Tom, I need some help over here, whatever this is, it's too heavy, I can't lift this up myself", Jerry said loudly but Tom gave him a deaf ear, Jerry, with a deep breath decided to give his last try as he felt like he had been sweating for nothing and dragged with all his might but to his dismay, he heard a little shriek, it's sound was faint but when he looked up, he saw an old woman, with the other side of the rope around her leg and her mouth was tied, Jerry's face immediately turned pale as he realized what his brother had just made him do. "Great heavens! Thomas, what have you done" Jerry shouted shakily as tears began to flow down his face, "run Jerry, she's gonna die, leave her" he heard Thomas say as he run away with his girlfriend. Jerry was shocked, he knew Tom's jokes were expensive but he had just gone overboard, this was unforgivable! He ran up to the old woman who looked so weak and broken and he tried to lift her "Grandmother, I didn't mean this, believe me, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me" Jerry spoke as she lifted the woman, tears couldn't stop flowing down from his eyes as he spoke, the woman looked pathetic and the guilt he felt was unbelievable. "you're a great one, don't let them. if it's not uprooted now, the young tree will grow wild, and cutting it will almost be impossible, find your purpose, find her, protect your people" the old woman told him.