Live and let die
It had been nearly a year since she had ventured outside the walls of the place she now called home. Although, at this point, it was more of a prison chamber. For 17 years she had lived in Sparta, and for all of her 17 years she had felt trapped in a glass display case, like a decorative water vase. When she was young she had attended a school where she was taught to wrestle and grow strong. It had been liberating, almost fun, until she caught the malicious eye of a barbaric warrior. Caledon Hockley was a 27 year old Spartan from a wealthy family. He was almost at the age where it would be considered "improper" to be single. In Sparta, you had to be married by 30. He had been training ever since he was 7 to be a strong fighter, and he was not about to let his 'glorious' reputation be tarnished with the lack of a son. For that, he needed a wife.
For most, Rose was not like any woman in all of Sparta. Her naturally fiery red hair was a mystery to all who gazed upon her. if the color wasn't enough, it was thick curly, and wild, much different then the smooth monochromatic hair of all the other women. It wasn't just her looks that set her apart, it was her soul as well. Unlike the fest of the females, she wasn't one to sit by and watch life happen, she wanted to be a part of everything. Festivals, fights, gatherings, basically whatever women were forbidden to do, she yearned for desperately (even though Spartan women enjoyed more freedom than other girls in Greece, they were still looked down upon). So Rose wouldn't be the one to take a random, evil, marriage proposal sitting down, as was tradition in Sparta, what men wanted, men got. Marrage was only to produce strong children (warriors), not for love. If a child wasn't strong, then it had to die. Sometimes Rose wished that she had been flung off a cliff as an infant. The quick death would have been excrutiating then living her life as a woman in ancient Greece.
Yes, to most Rose was oddly unique –though most women hated her- but to Cal, she was just another inadequate object to be had…