AUTHOR'S NOTES

So this is my first fanfic, and I'm not sure what led me to come up with the idea, as unoriginal as it may be, but I already pretty much know where the story's going so, all being well, I'll update regularly.

Although I love writing- I'm a lil bit nervous becase this is the first time that I've actually decided to let other people read something I've written, so I reeeally hope you like it and I would really appreciate it if you let me know what you think as the story goes on.

Thank you so much to everyone who reads this !

A NEW TYPE OF FREEDOM

Chapter 1

She opened her eyes. Brightness came so strongly that they were almost scolded and she had to snap them shut again.

She could feel nothing except a hollow lifelessness that reverberated through her body. She did not know where she was but she did not have the energy- or the care- to find out. For all she knew, she could be dead. The slight warmth enveloping her was not quite the warmth that she was used to, but it was pleasant all the same. She wondered when her peaceful ambience would be disturbed but the disruption never came. In her tranquil lethargy, she soon started to return to nothingness… but not before she could make out a figure hazily appearing into her vision.

"Hello?" Edmund asked, gently trying to shake the girls shoulder. "Her eyes were open…"

"Oh do stop gawping at her and do something!" snapped Lucy. "She looks so helpless."

"Where did she come from?" asked Edmund, gazing at the girl with the curiosity of an infant- this was certainly not what he was expecting when he and his sister set off for their afternoon walk.

"She looks like she's from Calormen," said Lucy. The girl's dark skin and strong black hair were clear, even if everything else about her was not.

"Then how did she get here?"

"How would I know?" Lucy said impatiently, and she sighed deeply. "We can't just watch her, we must call for help."

She had angered him greatly this time.

CRACK.

"O hideous slave!" He shouted, piercing her ears with such ferocity. "O ungrateful wretch! How dare you! Have I not been a kind and generous master? Have I not given you a home? Have I not fed and watered you?"

CRACK. The pain seared across her back, and she bit her lip desperately to stop herself from crying out in agony.

The Tarkaan continued to shout at her, with each word his voice grew louder and there was an increase in the speckles of spit that pricked her skin.

"It is more than you deserve," his voice boomed, "I see that now, you disgusting brute, and in the name of Tash, I will no longer accept this disobedient laziness!"

CRACK.

"It is beyond my patience, now!"

CRACK. It came again and again, and once the Tarkaan commanded the guard to stop, the familiar fire of the wounds on her back was so wild that she began to feel faint.

"No," barked the Tarkaan, "I will no longer accept this foolishness. Tomorrow you will be sold."

He turned to the guard.

"Lock her up," he said coldly, "and give her nothing."

--

She opened her eyes.

She had moved from the last place, she could feel it. There was no sharp brightness but a dim light glowing from somewhere. Her body was still motionless, but she knew she was gaining strength. Her eyes rolled around lazily so that she could try to guess where she was- but her vision was still hazy and she gave up willingly, closing them once more so that she drowned in her dreams.

"And then we just found her. Lying on the beach like she had been there forever," said Edmund. "I thought she was dead at first, but then I walked over and I was sure that her eyes were open."

Peter listened carefully, a questioning look on his face and his arms neatly folded on his lap.

"Did you give her some cordial, Lucy?" He asked- it was more of a command than a question.

"Only the smallest of drops," she answered, "for it seemed that she was more fatigued than wounded."

He nodded approvingly.

"Perhaps she's a runaway," said Susan calmly, "like Aravis was."

"Perhaps," he said, and he gave a small shrug. "If that is the case then she will have travelled far."

He stood up.

"I will see to it that there is some food ready for her when she awakes," he said, and he strode out of the room in order to notify the kitchen staff, with a new-found curiosity to see this mysterious new arrival.

"At Galma there will be plenty of trade," she heard the captain say to her new master. "You will be sure to earn yourself a large number of crescents- as well as perhaps a few new slaves."

"Good," her master said. "This is very good news, for wise was the poet that did say that he who has no bread has no authority."

He turned to see her cowering by the door of the cabin with a tray of beverages. She was so unsure of everything, so scared of her new surroundings, and she did not like the sickly feelings that the waves were delivering to her weak form.

"Indeed," he added quietly as his eyes wandered over her. "You! What are you staring at? I bought you for your services, not for your eyes."

She gulped in fear and convinced her feet to shuffle towards the tall, powerful figure of her master- the ship was jerking and swaying brutally but she managed.

He took the drinks from her and nodded for her to leave, but not before firmly gripping her wrist and whispering,

"Stay obedient; slave, for I will be requiring a different service later and it would do you good to remember your place."

CRACK. She flinched when his hand struck her, and she shuddered as his eyes wandered again, but she knew that she could not say anything. A lump came to her throat as she left them to tak more of their journey. She hated her new master and she hated her new home. The ship was so violent, it twitched and jolted like there was an arm under the ocean shaking it and she longed for her feet to touch the safety of land again.

As she tried to comfort herself in the small box of a slave cabin, she did not hear the cries of the crew above her and she was completely unprepared for the ship's most violent jolt of all and the final CRACK.

--

She opened her eyes.

She could see that she was in the same place as before, for the dim glow of candlelight still warmed and soothed her. She had more strength now and she could feel that her body was lying on something soft. With the scraps of energy that she was slowly gathering, she lifted her head up and her heart jumped.

At the sight of a strange-looking man standing just metres away from her she let out a high-pitched, terrified scream.