A day in the boring life of a medieval serf named Caius who wants to be a knight. A shovel makes a bunch of appearance for some reason.
Oops, it's all dialogue!
This is a writing assignment I did in 6th grade. In fact, it is the only writing I have that's dated before I entered middle school. It's for a book that I've long forgotten the name of, but it was about the life of a serf in the Middle Ages. The assignment prompt was something along the lines of "write a story about the daily life of a medieval serf". I probably wrote it in first-person because it's easier to write than third-person. I was spamming bold font for emphasis but it doesn't really make any sense lol.
"No!" I scream. "That was just a nightmare, it's not real, it's fake. I'm still alive." I kept on repeating to myself. This is the third time that I'm having this awful, ridiculous nightmare. I sit up and realized I'm on the ground, when I'm about to put my sandals I heard somebody yell my name. "Caius! Come out and help out with the farm!" It's my Father. Oops, I almost forgot to introduce myself. Hi, I'm Caius! My Father's a serf and a labor, so I'm a serf, too. My job is to help out the farm and do all the chores. "I hope today's breakfast wasn't too stale." I murmured to myself as I quickly rush out to the beginning of this boring day, same as usual.
"Good morning Caius!, or should I call you Caius the Knight." My friend Antonius joked as soon as he saw me. "Don't laugh at me, I want to be a knight, and I will become a knight," I replied. I know being a knight was no small duty. And I know only a noble boy or vassals can become a knight. It is ridiculous and impossible for a serf to become a knight, but I still want to try, even though I don't know how. "Come on Caius, hand me the shovel. Stop being ridiculous."Antonius called. "I didn't even have breakfast yet," I said while walking towards where they pass out breakfast. "Wait… how come the basket is empty? Did you save some for me?" "You haven't had breakfast yet? The bucket is already empty 30 minutes ago." "Oh. That's awful. Why did this happen again? I thought… nevermind it doesn't matter. I have to go help Father with the farm. I'll just eat some fruit later."
And so on we work and work and work. It's now the afternoon, I sit under the tree near the farm, with the only friend I have, which is Antonius sitting next to me. Even though he's taller than me but I'm stronger. But Antonius himself doesn't think that way. After a little time of drinking and resting, we went back to work again. "Why do you want to be a knight? And how can you become a knight?" Antonius ask me while shoveling up the dirt. "Well, first of all, being a knight is a very honorable thing. And the strict code called chivalry included being honest, helping others, and treating women with great respect. I think I could handle that perfectly. It also dictated how a knight was behaving on and off the battle. I want to fight for the King, It's very honor. Oh! And the squires is the…" I always get exciting talking about the knight's skills but all of a sudden Antonius interrupt me. "Ok ok, I know what a squires is, you have talked about this a million times. I just want to ask you how can you become a knight. You know it's impossible for you to become a knight." "I don't know, but I will figure something out. I will. Hand me the shovel."
Farming's not easy at all. You have to be strong enough in order to handle the shovel. My job for today is to move the tiny fruit trees from the north side to the north side to the east side of the farm. Most of the time I help Father with the farm. That's basically my daily life. Boring. Tired. It's now dinner time. We don't have meat nor the other fancy meal. All we have is bread and some fruit. If we are lucky enough there might be some vegetable. Since I was born, so far I have only tasted meat no more than 5 times. Well, I dreamed about it a bunch of times. It's now dinner time, I'm starving because I haven't even had a meal (only some fruits) so far. As soon as I started walking over to Father, I heard Antonius calling me. "Get over here quickly Caius! Otherwise, you won't be able to get the bread!" No way! I said to myself as I used all my energy rushing towards Father and a whole bunch of people. I can't miss dinner like last time (last time I was so tired that I fell asleep and when I woke up it's past dinner time, but luckily Father and Antonius did save a piece of bread for me. I run as fast as I can towards the table where they pass out dinner.
"Finally! That was close." I said as I'm chewing the bread. "I should have pay more attention to the time." "Good for you that you can run pretty fast." Said Antonius. The bread taste so delicious because I've been starving all day long (a little bit of fruit is not enough). Anyways, normally after dinner, Antonius and I will spend some time together. Antinous's father will stay with Father for a little time talking about things like tomorrow's plan. I usually light up an oil lamp so Antonius and I are able to see and play around the big tree like we always do. After dinner is the best time of the day to me. After relaxing and playing a bit we were back to the farm again. Antonius and I usually help out Father organizing the tools and the farm. And after everything is organized we have some chores to do. Every two weeks we gave the product we have to the lords. I went to sleep after all the hard works. Tired. Exhausted. I hope the same nightmare won't appear again. Goodnight everyone.