Fears (Elysum)

Samantha

Samuel is such a pain! He permits me no freedom. He is just like father, standing with his back so fiercely upright that it looks as though he will break his spine. I hope he does, he is so horrible!

I am glad nobody knows I have this journal. Or, for that matter, that I can write as well as this. It is ever so exciting to keep a secret diary! Those months of practise behind the town hall were well spent indeed. It is upsetting to look back over the ugly entries I penned in the first pages of this diary.

However, I must transfer is location once more, as one of the new villagers was wandering around its hiding place earlier this morning. He was an elder, with hair white as summertime sun. He wore strange clothes and appeared very bedraggled. I watched him from my hiding place as he walked aroudn the back of the hall, treading carefully. His eyes were always on the woods right behind the hall.

The new families have been in the village for one week now. People have spoken of others coming to Elysum from neighbouring villages. There is a sense of worry in the air. Teresa said she heard from a travelling cloth merchant that he passed through Arcade Village and it was abandonned! However, nobody seems to know why people are leaving the surrounding villages, least of all the newcomers, who seem foreign and distrustful.

Father says the village council shall convene tonight to discuss what to do about the refugees from the other villages. The council do take their time to make decisions. Tonight will be the first night.