Luna obeyed, but she couldn't fall asleep again. She lay awake for several hours under her flowery bed-cover. Suddenly she heard screams. She sat up drowsy with sleep, jumped out of bed and ran onto the terrace. From there she saw something which would change the whole of her life.

Down in the Palace Park there was war. Soldiers hit and stabbed each other to death on that same lawn where she had played with dolls, skipped with a rope and eaten biscuits. Men in blue uniforms fought with men in dark red. Maimed men lay under the linden trees writhing in agony and clouds of flies buzzed around their wounds. Luna herself was close to being pierced by an arrow.

"Go away from here Luna and hide in the Palace a soldier shouted".

The emperor had so many soldiers and more kept arriving. A foreign flag already fluttered on a flagpole.

Luna ran crying through the halls of the Palace. She searched for her parents and her younger brother, but couldn't find them anywhere. She finally sat on a chair and cried inconsolably. She was alone in the Palace.

Suddenly, an enemy soldier came running through the hall. He looked around quickly and stopped by Luna who screamed with fear. He had bright golden buttons on a dark red uniform and looked nice, but she knew he was cruel and killed her father's men. Perhaps he would also kill her, but he didn't; he smiled.