The noon sun was hung high in the sky as the wind blew through the tall grass on the open plain. Nearby there was a small village. A few brown and black goats were kept in a pen made of branches and ropes strung together in a makeshift fashion. Small, dirty children ran around in a game of tag while the village women cleaned the clothes and foraged for food as the men were out on the hunt. Just over the hill laid a vein of life across the land, the river flowed gently over rocks and dead leaves, trees grew tall and strong as they lined either side of the water source.
A young girl with long brown hair and deep blue eyes kneeled at the banks of this river, resting the buckets to fill them for the cooking to be done for the night time meal. These people lived a simple but happy life, undisturbed and uncaring about the higher things of the world. They did not have silver, gold, or precious gems; they were virtually worthless to any higher civilization. There were not many tragedies that came to their quiet existence. There was the occasional sickness, death, or wild animal attack; but these were not major things. But today would mark the day of the first offense against the rural village. One of their own would be taken from them, stolen…….kidnapped.
Kirei set the second bucket full of the cold river water down on the ground as she filled the second. Turning around she reached to pick the first one up, but something caught her eye. There were ripples in the water…….what would cause this? Her azure eyes scanned the grassy hill facing towards her home to spot anybody coming to find her. Nobody came. Right then, something exploded behind her as a deathly scream rand in her ears and caught her off guard.
The containers slipped from her hands as she turned around seeing four men mounted on horses leaping out of the thick forest. The men were dressed in stained and rugged leather armor. Their horses were skinny but hardy, mat of dirt sticking to their fur. The young girl's heart raced as the mounted thieves circled around her. Tripping over her own feet in all the commotion, she fell to the ground. Taking advantage of her in this vulnerable position, one of the men jumped down from his steed, pinning her down and holding her there as one of his cohorts tossed him a length of rope.
The girl screamed into the empty air, her cheek finding the back of the man that was attacking hers' hand. Her hands and neck secured with the rope, he pulled her up to her feet. Picking her up he tossed her onto the back of his waiting horse, one of his friends held her in place as he pulled himself into the saddle. Laughing and snickering for some ungodly reason, they began to run away at full speed. They had taken her. No one in her home village had heard or seen the struggle…no one knew she was missing……she now held on to dear life to the quickly running horse that she had been so disgracefully flung onto. These monsters were taking her away! She did not know what to do…she tried to kick and struggle her way free, but it was no use. Tears fell from her eyes as they ran farther into the forest and farther away from the small home she had always known.
It was so cold out at night…..the men had finally stopped to rest both themselves and their exhausted beasts. Her bound wrists and neck were secured to the saddle on one of said horses on the edge of the campsite. There was a healthy bonfire with the meat and carcasses of small rabbits and squirrels speared on a stick hanging over it. The men drank from animal-skin sacks full of fermented spirits….and Kirei, for one, did not like the menacing and lusty looks they were giving her from time to time.
One of the barbarians stood to his feet and emptied the skin, liquid dripping down the sides of his stubbly chin. Dripping the container to the ground, he began to shuffle towards her, muttering something in his foreign tongue in a tone that sent shivers up her spine. When he was close enough to touch her face she tried to crawl away backwards, he drew his hand back to strike her when the horses began to rear and buck. There were wolves out tonight.
The brown beast that she had been tied to raised its front hooves into the air, the snarling and evil eyes of the doglike creature in the nearby darkness frightening it. Kirei was jerked into the air, her air supply cut off by the rope that was tightly wrapped around her throat. All she remembered was the sound of the men yelling, the wolves growling and screeching in pain, and the horses stomping the ground and screaming into the chilly night air. Everything slowly faded to black as she fell unconscious. Her only thoughts were that this was the end……..
When she opened her eyes, she got the shock of her life. They were in some sort of town, nearby there was water….but it went on as far as she could see……there was a wooden monster in the water, men with crates and chains climbing on and off of it. Her body was draped across the back of the horse, her hands still tied but her neck was now free. Her blue eyes adjusted to the bright sun as she looked around, she saw the men …they were standing nearby, talking to a fat, hairless man. He had markings all over his body and held a rope-like object in his hand. They were smiling and laughing as if they were friendly with each other, one patting the other on the back as they talked in a language Kirei did not know.
She noticed that they pointed to and looked at her off and on during the conversation. She did not know what about but soon the fat man pulled out a small bag from his belt, pouring out a handful of small round items…they were bright…bright like the sun……
The men pocketed the golden disks and proceeded to pull her off of the horse and pushed her towards the big man. With a perverted laugh he grabbed her by the arms and shoved her into two other men that were standing behind him. She whimpered quietly as she was being rough handled, they dragged her to the monster on the water and took her onto it. Her eyes were wide with terror when they took her below deck. There were dozens of people on board the slave-vessel as well. Their wrists and ankles were bound with chains that were bolted to the sides of the ship. They were skinny, fatigued, and scared. They watched silently as the men bound her in the same way they had done the others, the iron pinching her skin.
After the men left, some of the people skittishly muttered and cried, she could only understand a few of the words they said, but what she could tell, no one truly knew what was happening to them. Closing her eyes, a single tear fell….would she never see the sun, or more importantly her loved ones, again…..
It had been an eternity since she had seen the blue sky. Whatever this prison they were in was, it constantly rocked back and forth, and the noises the echoed into it from the outside frightened her to no end. Her body ached and her stomach hurt from lack of food. Some of the others laid there dead, their corpses decaying as they laid surrounded by others, the chains still on their body. The smell…the noise…the fear…it was too much for her….she wanted death…..
Suddenly there was a commotion up above them, the door leading down into the hull of the ship opened. Blinding light came pouring in, stinging her eyes painfully. People screamed and chains rattled at everyone was pulled to their weak legs, being forced to walk up the stairway leading up towards the burning sunlight.
The chain of people was lead off of the ship, down the plan, up the dock, and straight to a platform where an auctioneer stood. Hundreds of people stood in front of the stand where the man that found the highest bidder for the human trash. So many people were talking and yelling. The sights the smells, where was she? Who were these people? She could not understand a word they spoke……all she knew was she was slowly moving up in line to the platform where the man with the whip stood. Soon enough the man who was in front of her had been led up onto the stage, and after some yelling from the crowd, he was led off the other side and handed over to the man who would pay the highest price.
Now it was her turn. She was led by her elbow up onto the stand. Her breath left her body as there was an uproar from the crown of lusty-eyed men……she wanted to turn and run away….what did they want with her?
The yelling hurt her ears, but she could not cover them because of the heavy chains on her hands. After a few moments of the men going berserk in their bidding spree, a final price was decided on and she was led off the other side of the platform and taken by armed men to a wagon with a barred cage on it. The man who had bought her wore simple clothing, he had metal cuffs on his wrists with some sort of inscription on it. He had brown hair and eyes…..he did not have the mean look to him that all the others had had. For the first time, she tried to talk to one of these strangers.
"W-where am I? What is going on?" She fought back tears and pain as she spoke for the first time in weeks. The man gave her a strange look, before he surprisingly opened his mouth….and spoke in her native language.
"You looked foreign…I guess you are lucky…it seems I can understand you….." He opened the back of the cage door, revealing over a dozen women who were also chained were sitting.
"Where am I?" she repeated herself, her hand touching his….she wanted to know…..
"Young lady" He said as he gently took her hand and helped her up into the cage, she looked at him as he locked the door. "You are a very far way from your home….that is all you need to know."