Practice Writing: How to Overthrow a Tyrant

Piece01: A Hero is Born

The orphanage head was crazy, Timothy decided.

The whole point of an orphanage was to take care of children who had nowhere else to go. Not to secretly train them to overthrow that bastard of a tyrant Raul Myrriel. (Of course, the reason they were orphans was because of that damn Myrriel, and most trainees volunteered, if not begged the orphanage staff to train them. But that's beside the point, Timothy again decided.)

The orphanage would teach them in the morning. Academics, of course. They'd teach them their Maths, Language, History, and whatever the hell they consider as academics. By mid-afternoon, the orphans would be given their free time until dinner (not so much as free time since that's the time they're asked to do chores), and afterwards they're free to do what they want until they're told to go to bed. At that time the trainees would be trained some soldier stuff. Timothy could only guess what.

***

Why anyone would want to be a soldier is beyond him.

His annoying roommate asked him once, "Why don't you join us? That Myrriel bastard deserves to be overthrown!"

"They're training you to be soldiers, idiot. That's why."

His reasoning might not make sense to others, but it makes sense to him. He doesn't want to be some soldier brat. Raul Myrriel may have given the orders to destroy their village, but it was soldiers who carried those orders out.

***

He once voiced to the orphanage head that she and her staff were crazy. She just laughed it off and said it was for the sake of Nueva Terra.

"How?" he asked. "By stripping these orphans of their childhood and training them and turning them into your personal military? Ma'am, I know you're also the victim of the Veritan Empire. I know your husband was killed when they invaded, but..!"

"They're not my personal army, Thie. They're the Rieven Kingdom's military."

"Rieven Kingdom's funding the training program?" Timothy gaped. The Rieven Kingdom was the only resisting force left against the Veritan Empire. While the Obfus Orphanage was near their borders, they are part of a different set of sovereignty entirely.

"The entire orphanage, actually." Madam Obfus corrected.

Well. Rieven Kingdom's as crazy as the orphanage head, Timothy thought.

***

He wasn't the only one who didn't join the program. There were others who preferred to pretend they didn't know anything about the military brats, and would try to improve their manners and personality in the hopes of being adopted into a new family.

Not that Timothy had horrible manners to begin with. His parents had raised him well, he thinks to himself. His father was a carpenter, his mother a seamstress. His cousin lived with him, since his uncle passed away due to an illness. Treifant Town, where they used to live, was quiet. Not many people lived there, so when the invasion happened, they had no forces to fight back.

He wondered what may have happened had the town surrendered and not resisted.

Either way, he isn't the only survivor from Treifant. Three others were there with him, two of whom are trainees.

"Hey, Marriette, whose turn is it to cook dinner?"

"Not sure. All I know's it ain't me." Marriette replied. Marriette was a girl from his town who he never really talked to. It's not because they hated each other's guts, but they had other people to play with before. Now, they still wouldn't consider themselves as friends, but being in such a situation where everything and everyone's foreign, they'd attach themselves to each other for the sake of familiarity.

***

There came a day when Marriette and several children had finally been adopted. The non-trainees were happy to have been chosen by this Dirkiev fellow. He says he wanted many children because he and his wife grew up in a big family, but are unable to have any kids at all.

Timothy would have been a welcome addition to Dirkiev's "children", but before he was even in the man's line of sight, he fled the room and hid.

He can't help it. He'd rather be a twelve-year old orphan, than a twelve-year old child of someone who looks like a pedophile.

***

It was three years later that he and the orphanage learned that Dirkiev was a con-man and a slave trader.

Timothy, despite being raised properly by his parents, was relieved he judged a book by his cover. He regrets not saying anything to Madam Obfus about his suspicions of the damn con-man.

He wondered, Are there more people like that Dick-iev? If I get adopted, especially at my age, is labor all I'm good for? Will I end up a slave too?

He didn't want that. He knew trainees can't be adopted, since essentially, they're Rieven Kingdom's children.

So when Timothy finally joined the training program for that rather shallow reason, nobody knew it marked of the birth of a new hero.