My Final project

Below is my chapter where we first meet Adyna, and after that, my new one-pager.
For your final project, if you're adding a chapter, make sure it's no more than 2000 - 2500 words, and if it's a script, no more than 5 screenplay pages.

So for your final project:
- Choose a cover image that illustrates something about your project or that inspires you.
- Add your first chapter (2000-2500 words)/ scene (up to 5 pages)
- Add your one-page outline

CHAPTER ONE
The kingdom of Thocorus was a place of simplicity. People accepted their place, and therefore life was simple.
Fate had determined a clear hierarchy of status. At the top of fate’s list was Queen Val, obviously. She was a monstrous woman with a face as welcoming as a disturbed beehive. She was rumoured to have bitten the ears off one of her servants, just because she hated that they were more rounded than her own. It led to the current fad of long hair, with people desperate to hide their ears from sight.
Next on the list was Prince Eron. A man whose looks shone with the beauty of the clearest ocean, but whose wit and common sense was comparable to a crushed peanut.
Third on the list was every inhabitant of Sunstream, the privileged part of Thocorus, high on the hill. A place of straight stone paths, strong stone homes with thatched roofs, and no cares in the world. People woke up, ate, drank, stared at whatever they felt like staring at and spoke about nonsense like shades of cloth for their chairs and what bizarre rashes they had developed overnight.
Beneath them on the list were the guards, an important cog in the machine of maintaining order and status. Approachable, dependable, and knowledgeable in the history of Thocorus. Those were all things nobody ever said about the guards.
Next came horses, pigs, dogs, ravens, rats, butterflies, ants, dung beetles, and finally, at the bottom of the list, peasants.
They lived in Peasantia at the foot of Thocorus. Their existence was for the sole purpose of serving those above them. Their duties included ploughing the fields, reaping, sowing and whatever else the guards and higher-ups decided needed doing.
The one thing peasants had going for them was a healthy dose of defeatism. They decided their pitiful situation was the will of the gods, so they had the numb happiness people get when they accept their lives are meaningless.
However, the peasant wasn’t actually at the foot of fate’s list. The bottom of the scrap of parchment had been folded over.
Beneath the peasant was a different kind of peasant. The idiotic kind. The kind who thought their life could be different, who was dumb enough to dream. The kind who didn’t engage with the other peasants, because she thought she was better.
The one-of-a-kind peasant who through sheer idiocy wanted to disrupt the system.
An ambitious eighteen-year-old peasant called Adyna.
She had truly earned the right to be the lowest of the low, and here she stood on top of a thirty-foot wall during a warm, sun season night, convinced her life was about to change.
She crept along the wall that divided Peasantia and Sunstream. Peasantia was bathed in darkness, everyone asleep, ready to wake up at sunrise to get back to field work.
Adyna spat towards her home, her prison.
She could creep along this wall and exit Thocorus if she wanted, but she had no interest in the outside world. She’d never left this kingdom and the only time she had been outside these walls was when she was found as a baby. Apparently, she was tied to a pig which had chewed off her left toes. She kept that mangled foot a secret, and even during her secret nights of passion with the prince kept her foot covered.
Her only interest in the outside world was her dream to look at it from the top of the Viewing Tower.
The tower stood in the middle of the castle. It stretched over one hundred feet into the sky and the queen regularly stood atop it to fire arrows at peasants in the field, for fun.
Adyna wanted to stand on top of it to look at the rest of the world and feel it beneath her. For once she wanted to be as high as the sky, instead of as low as a toilet hole.
It was rumoured that at sunset, the Stone of Extraction on top of Mount Grimreal, far to the north, shone with a layer of green beauty that stretched the land at the height of the clouds, only visible from the tower. She wanted to see that.
She continued along the wall and looked for Prince Eron’s carriage. He promised that tonight was the night he would visit and sneak her into Sunstream to house her, but he never turned up. So here she was, sneaking into the forbidden place to find him, because there was no way he wouldn’t keep a promise to her. He loved her.
Cheers and laughter burst out of a tavern and she spotted his carriage. Unmistakable, as it was built to resemble a block of cheese on wheels; a reminder of his favourite food.
Adyna adjusted her itchy tunic and spotted a ladder down. It was between her and a guard who seemed more interested in throwing stones at flies.
She climbed down and hid between two stone houses. She watched the tavern. Everything about it was amazing. The merriment, the harp music, and the variety of clothes on those she could see through the entrance. She would kill to wear something other than this tunic that felt like a sack.
She needed to get to the side of the tavern to look through the windows and find Eron, but guards stood outside the door. They would definitely spot her.
A hand grabbed her shoulder and her heart froze. Maybe she should throw an elbow back, knock the guard out and run.
‘Adyna, you should be in bed, if the guards find you they’ll have your head,’ a familiar voice said.
Adyna sighed, relieved. She turned around.
Dedric, a fellow peasant, assigned to clean the stones, wore concern on his gaunt face. He always got the good jobs on account of being cursed to talk in rhymes. The people of Sunstream found it funny.
He placed his brush in the bucket of soapy water and raked his filthy finger nails down his neck.
Adyna whispered, ‘It’s fine, Dedric, now shush so I can find a way around those guards.’ She turned back to the tavern then had an idea. She turned back to her fellow peasant. ‘Actually, Dedric, why don’t you help me?’
He shook his head. ‘That sounds like a bad idea, I can already feel my fear.’
She smiled. ‘It’ll be fine, and we’re friends, right?’
‘I don’t know if that’s actually true, you often wave me away from you.’ Dedric raised an eyebrow.
Adyna nodded and put her hand to her heart. ‘Work just makes me cranky sometimes. I don’t mean it. You’re one of the few people here I would genuinely call a friend.’
Dedric smiled so wide Adyna thought his face might rip. ‘I’m so touched, you are so kind, a true friend so rare but magical to find. We can go for walks and talks, and make items of clothing out of stalks.’
‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Now, I need you to distract them so I can creep into that alley by the tavern.’
Dedric nodded. ‘I have just the thing to distract, a wonderful wondrous quirky fact.’
‘Great.’ Adyna nudged him out into the alleyway. ‘Go friend. For the power of friendship.’ She smiled.
Dedric approached the guards and smiled at them.
‘What do you want?’ one of them asked and folded her arms, her steel gauntlets clanking against her breastplate.
Dedric smiled and placed his bucket and brush on the stones. ‘I want to tell you something fun, a fact about the dragon run.’
The male guard waved Dedric away. ‘Nobody cares. Go scrub the stones.’
Dedric raised a finger. ‘But it will make your mind spin, now listen well and take it in.’
The male guard stepped towards him. ‘Get out of our sight.’
Adyna wondered if she should just run and call for the prince. She could see him dancing through the doorway.
The female guard left her side of the door and joined her colleague. ‘Actually, what’s your name?’ she asked Dedric.
Dedric’s happiness faded. ‘You know that my name is Dedric Torn, cursed to rhyme from the day I was born.’
The guards laughed. The male guard nudged the female. ‘Can you just tell us your name without the words around it?’
Dedric bit his lip. ‘You know I cannot speak this way. Why must you mock me every day?’
The guards laughed. ‘Sorry. What was your name again?’ the female asked.
Dedric hung his head.
Adyna used his sadness as the distraction to creep behind the guards, into the alley by the tavern and up to the side window.
Prince Eron danced between three women, drunk out of his mind.
Adyna convinced herself he was just entertaining his people. He had told her it was his duty to be extra friendly with people.
The three women pressed their bodies against his.
Adyna waved harder and caught his eye.
Panicked, Prince Eron pushed the women away and rushed outside.
‘Adyna!’ he approached and looked around, making sure nobody was watching. ‘You can’t be here.’ He took her hands and it sent electricity through her body.
‘I had to find you. You said you would come.’ She squeezed his hands and inhaled his smell. It was beautiful, although covered in rum.
His face turned red and he stumbled over his words. ‘Mother…she…erm…she wanted me to raise spirits by being present. I was on my way to you, but I had to do my duty.’
Adyna nodded.
Prince Eron smiled. ‘But now you’re here.’ He tilted his head.
Adyna smiled.
They ran into another alleyway and Adyna ripped Prince Eron’s cloak off while he lifted her tunic. He kissed her neck.
Finally, they were together. Adyna felt alive, like more than a peasant. Like a non-peasant.
‘What is this ugliness?’ a beastly voice said.
Prince Eron fell down and covered himself. ‘Mother!’
Adyna’s heart sank.
* * *
Adyna always imagined the first time she would enter the castle would be to marry the prince. Now here she was, on her knees in the throne room with a guard’s sword pressed against her neck.
Queen Val leaned forward on her throne. ‘You shall be sentenced to death by ants!’
A guard pulled a rug away from in front of Adyna, revealing a pit filled with more ants than she had ever seen. A sea of them devouring what looked like a peasant, only recognisable by their uniform, the tunic.
What if it was Dedric? Adyna was overcome with guilt, but quickly forgot so she could concentrate on saving herself.
‘Please!’ Adyna pleaded.
Queen Val smiled. ‘Last words?’
Adyna looked to Eron, who shook in his throne next to his mother. He looked apologetic, but mostly useless.
What was there to say as last words? I hate the system? Your castle is a little bit on the cold side?
‘Can I have an evening to think about my last words?’ Adyna said.
Queen Val scoffed. ‘Push her in!’
The guard pressed her boot against Adyna’s back. ’Wait!’ Adyna said. ‘I have last words.’
Queen Val nodded to the guard who removed her boot.
Adyna gazed at Eron. Her hope. Her dreams. Maybe he was to be her saviour, just not in the way she had hoped. Adyna gazed into Queen Val’s eyes.
‘Your son is the greatest man I have ever met.’
Eron smiled.
Adyna clasped her hands. ‘I would do anything for him and you are about to kill true love. So when I’m being chewed by ants, you remember you destroyed the kind of love you only hear about in tales. For him, I would give all of my belongings to sick children. I would catch a fire fairy so he may be forever protected. Tame an ogre to offer him as a pet. Steal the hair from a witch’s tail. I would find the sea dragon and steal one of its teeth. I would find the Stone of Extraction and offer it to him as a gift. I’d—’
‘Silence!’ Queen Val said. ‘You can have him.’
‘What?’ Adyna said.
‘What?’ Eron followed.
‘You may have my son,’ Queen Val shrugged.
Adyna beamed. This was it. Free of peasantry. She had done it. ‘This is amazing! Thank you!’ Adyna approached her future mother-in-law.
Queen Val raised a hand to stop her. ‘If you do the things on that list.’ She grinned.
Adyna’s face dropped. ‘But those aren’t things. I don’t even know if half of them exist. The bit that was important that we need to focus on is the true love.’
Queen Val scoffed. ‘Do the things on the list or it’s ant time.’
Adyna’s heart sank. ‘What if I do one of the things?’
Queen Val folded her arms. ‘If you return without everything on that list, you will get an arrow through your left eye.’
Adyna gazed at Prince Eron, hoping for a solution. He hung his head.

END

ONE PAGE OUTLINE OF ENIRE STORY:

Adyna is an 18 year old, ambitious peasant. She hates farming, hates her hut, and she can’t stand the other peasants. They represent life’s cruel hand. You see, Adyna was found in the wild as a baby, tied to a pig and with nobody to claim her, so she was brought into Thocorus and raised into peasantry. She dreams of living in the nicer part of the kingdom, and wants to stand atop the highest tower and look down at the world to feel superior. Thankfully, those days may be close. She’s having a secret affair with the prince and is certain he will lift her from peasantry into privilege.

However, when a guard catches Adyna frolicking with the prince, she’s sentenced to execution by ants. In a desperate bid to survive, Adyna makes a romantic speech to beg for mercy from the queen. She lists all the things she’d do for this true love. The queen acknowledges her pleas and Adyna thinks love has won the day, but the queen demands she complete everything she listed in her speech. Succeed, and she’ll have her prince and status. Fail, and she can never return.

In the wild, Adyna is nearly eaten by a bear but saved by a vengeful, has-been goddess, Ruth, and a peasant she often avoids, who is cursed to only speak in rhymes, Dedric. Ruth wants to find the gods who abandoned her, while Dedric hopes that by travelling with Adyna he will find a way to lift his curse.

It’s a rocky start, but the trio find ways to work together. Their bizarre skillsets get them through encounters with beasts, crooks and manipulators, while they learn about themselves and face their insecurities. They also learn of the suffering the queen causes the world. Through Adyna’s quests, she ticks off tasks on her list, and through kindness is offered her last item - the extraction stone - which maintains a town’s defences. Dedric and Ruth think she should leave it, but Adyna takes it.

Disappointed in her selfishness, her friends abandon her, much like her parents did. It doesn’t matter though, she’s won. She returns to the village and finds it massacred by the queen. Adyna is offered her prize, the prince and prosperity for the stone, but seeing the carnage rejects it. The prince, on his mother’s orders, attacks Adyna, steals the stone, and the queen stabs her. The queen used Adyna to get the stone, as nobody trusts people from Thocorus, but a lowly peasant?

Near death, betrayed, friendless and devastated, Adyna waits to perish, but Ruth and Dedric save her. They remind her of the good she did. Now they need to do good again by saving people from the queen.

With the help of those whose lives she touched, Adyna and her friends attack the castle. They suffer heavy losses, and with Dedric and Ruth wounded Adyna is alone. With the queen moments away from extracting the souls of all the peasants, Adyna sacrifices herself, killing the prince and subjecting the queen to death by ants.

With the queen’s rule shattered, the people rejoice, but there’s a sadness at the losses, particularly Adyna’s. Ruth and Dedric destroy the wall separating people and make Thocorus a place with no class divide, a fairer system, and they welcome everyone. They place a portrait of Adyna at the top of the castle, looking out over the world.