Chapter 1

Laying on the old and weathered bed was her father. The man who appeared to be no more than over sixty had a face contorted in pain and sweat covering his furrowed brows. He could feel a gentle touch brush across his heated forehead, and weakly he pried open his eyelids to look up towards his daughter who loyally stood beside the bed. 

"Rose," He croaked with a dry voice.

"Shh." Rose whispered with a soft brush of her fingertips against her father's cheek. Tears glistened in her emerald eyes as she struggled not to start crying for her father's sake. It was only a matter of time before his weakened heart would give in.

"I need... To tell you," He spoke again. "You must go to the city. There... You will find what you need."

With a grimace at her father's words, Rose picked up the dampened rag that sat on the edge of a water filled bucket beside her, gently laying it over his forehead. "Please, rest father." She pleaded. Rose felt his fingers curl around her wrist in a feeble grasp, causing her to look down towards his hand.

"Promise, Rose." Her father demanded.

"Father, please,"

"Promise," He repeated.

"I..." Rose paused, averting her gaze in defeat. "I promise, father. Now shut your eyes. You need to sleep." Though she hated telling him to do such a thing at this point in time she knew very well how necessary it was.

By morning, he was gone. Rose woke to an eerie silence filling the room. Even the birds outside who normally sang to their hearts content had gone quiet. Tears again filled her eyes while she slowly curled her hands into fists. Why? She asked herself, wondering what gods were out there that would take away her only family, her parents.It took all the strength she had not to begin crying. The tears already pooled in her eyes threatened to spill over when she began to dig a grave. So desperately, she had prayed that it wouldn't be necessary. Maybe he'd get better. Things could go back to normal. Apparently that wasn't what fate had in mind. After burying her father directly beside where they had buried her mother years ago, Rose wiped at her puffy eyes with the sleeve of the shirt she wore. Her breaths were ragged while the tear stains on her cheeks were easy to see. With almost a glare, she stared at the newly dug grave that now held the body of her father, confused as to whether she should be angry or happy for her father. Repeatedly he had always told Rose of how the circle of life went on, and how much he enjoyed being part of that cycle. She couldn't find the joy of it.

Weeks passed as she struggled to continue her life there. By the end of the month, however, the promise she had made to her father nagged at her excessively. I know what I said... Her eyelids drifted shut as she sat at the wooden table in the small cabin that was her home, and had been since she'd been born. I know what I promised... But it's so hard. I know nothing about the city. About cars. About apartments, about jobs. I don't know anything... And yet her father had insisted that she promised to go to the city. The only thing to do there that she could guess he'd push for was college. When her mother had been present, it wasn't a rarity that she'd wake up to the excited sound of her mother's voice. Eager as always to begin teaching Rose more. As she grew older, her father began teaching her more until there was no longer anything left for him to teach her from the knowledge that he possessed. He would've loved for her to get to college. 

I have to. For him.