A birds dream

The cold morning air blew past me as I stood atop the little hill overlooking the city.

Yellow and orange leaves from the various autumn-shedding trees around the hill followed in the wind's path. And soon came the sound of twittering birds that rushed flying in the wind I looked at them and a part of me felt a little jealous. I wished I was free like those birds flying, they could go anywhere they wanted with nothing holding them back.

Suddenly the realization that I would be late for work if I continued to stand here daydreaming hit me. I decided to continue moving. Besides today was an exciting day it was the end of the month after all. The day I got one step closer to fulfilling my dream. Walking down the hill the city behind me dissappeared.

Soon a neighbourhood of large manors came into view. This was where all the nobles of the city lived. Each manor was surrounded by a wall and had a gate. Two guards stood on either side of it protecting the homes.

 I rushed to the manor I was specifically headed to. The guards stationed there recognized me and allowed me to pass. Upon entering the manor, I headed for the servants'/maids' quarters, where I changed into my uniform.

"Morning Mera,"

"Morning Naya!" I yelled as I ran.

"Morning Mera,"

I greeted and was greeted by several of the other manor servants moving around in the area. Having changed, I quickly ran to the kitchens where I was scheduled to serve the breakfast that had been prepared for the masters of the house.

"Mera barely making it on time as usual, I see," Zeana one of the maids I worked with said as I entered the kitchens. I went and stood by the group of maids that were already waiting in the kitchens.

"Sorry," I responded.

Some of the other maids laughed at me.

The manor chefs then finished cooking and laid out all the breakfast dishes to be served. All the maids waiting, including myself, picked the dishes up and went to the dinning room to serve them. In the dining room were two people seated by a table. The masters of the manor, the Temans.

Very quickly and quietly the servants and I placed the dishes before them, poured their drinks and then went to stand around the room waiting tend to any need they may have.

The two were a middle-aged couple in their late fifties.

"When is Kaizen returning again, darling?" Madam Teman asked her husband as she ate her breakfast. She had slightly greying hair that was neatly braided and styled. Though a few wrinkles were on her face she looked fairly young.

"In three days," Master Teman absentmindedly answered. Master Teman was a balding, short and stout man. The little hair he did have was silver and he more wrinkles on his face.

"We should have his room prepared then and also to give him a proper welcome," she said excitedly. "I'm so proud of my boy, working hard to become a court official like his father." Madam Teman was a classy, refined woman who dressed well and was well-spoken. She also had a happy go lucky attitude.

Master Teman scoffed and continued to eat in silence.

"Now why are you so grumpy?" she asked him.

"If I hadn't forced him to go the academy and get the certification he would have never gone," he complained. "That damned lazy boy, he should have done it ages ago not now."

Master Teman on the other hand was a stern, aloof and scary man. I had yet to see him smile once.

Kaizen was the Teman's son and one and only child. He was the heir to the Teman estate and set to become court official like his father. Three months ago, he had gone to the high court academy to finish off his studies and finally get recognized as a high court official. Master Teman was an advisor in the high court

"Now, now what it's important is that he's done it, regardless of when or how long it took," she tried to calm him.

Master Teman scoffed again. Then there was a moment of silence before he spoke up again.

"You, pour me some more tea," Madam Teman directed her order at me the closest servant to her.

"Yes, madam," I responded and quickly went to follow her order.

As I carried out the task my thoughts were on the couple's conversation. I felt uneasy at the fact that Kaizen was returning to the estate.

After serving the Teman's breakfast I was then tasked with cleaning bedrooms, scrubbing hallway floors and walls, dusting, doing laundry and serving other meals to the Masters if they were in the manor. My usual daily routine.

It was now late in the afternoon, and I was scrubbed the floors of the mansion my final task of the day with me were the four others who scrubbed along with me. 

"The masters said the young master is returning at the end of the week ," Zeana whispered as we cleaned. "It's been three months since he left, I can't wait to see him again maybe he'll finally notice me."

"As if, he ignores your advances now and barely even acknowledges your existence," the other, May, argued. "He's forgotten about you now."

Zeana flinched at this. "At least, I was once chosen by him, unlike you," she retorted.

Mays eyes narrowed as she looked at Zeana. "We need to find out who is currently sleeping with the Young Master It's been almost a year since he stopped sleeping with Zeana and we haven't heard or seen him with anyone else.

"Maybe he isn't sleeping with anyone," another said. "He's been away at the academy for a while anyway. "

"That can't be, he's only been away at the academy for 3 months and a lot of people said they saw him with hickey and scratch marks on his body before he left," May argued. "Meaning he was definitely seeing someone before he left."

"So, who is it then? It's impossible that we don't know this person," a third servant countered.

"Exactly, we know all the servants at the manor we would know who it is, if he had chosen one of them," a servant from nearby responded joining in the conversation.

More and more servants came and joined in on the conversation gushing about Kaizen and their theories as to who he was sleeping with.

I listened to their conversation but took no part in it, I was more focused on .

Once we were done, I had finally finished my shift for the day. I let out a sigh exhausted from all the work I'd done but soon it was replaced by a feeling of excitement. I quickly went to the head-maids office.