In the Heart of the Storm
Chapter 1
For most of Elena Gilbert's life the only thing that she had known was destruction, sadness, and grief. In the land where she had spent most of her life everything around her was dying and there was nothing that her family could do to stop it.
Shivering Elena threw the raggedy blanket off of her body than went to the sink grabbing a cup and filling it with water touching it to her lips and sighing. Water was the one luxury she took in her life and even water was something her father frowned upon.
Elena made her way to the pile of clothes by her bed and pulled her dress on making sure that none of her skin was showing as she pulled her long brown hair into a bun. She sighed and went into the cold winter air as she proceeded to do her chores not knowing that this was the day that the only life Elena had ever known would be taken away from her.
She was mid chore as her father approached her escorted by a man she had never seen before. Elena wiped the dirt from her dress as she looked from her father to the guy and back to her father again.
"What's going on here?" she said amazed that she found her voice in the mist of the huge pit forming in her stomach.
"Elena. This is my good friend Markos. And we have come to an arrangement."
"What kind of arrangement?"
"Markos has given me enough money to ensure that the people of our village are fed in exchange for one tiny thing that was mine."
"And what was that?"
"You my dear. I'm sorry about this."
Before Elena could say anything strong hands grabbed her dragging her away from her father and into a place that she had never known before wondering why her father would do this to her.