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Chapter 2-kindness

The days after my arrival were all kinda similar-

Waking up at gods know what time.

Being dragged to the mine and working until lunch.

Having a small lunch before being forced back to work.

And if I ever disobeyed or made a break for it, which I did often, I got whipped.

Returning back to my dark, damp cell way past sundown.

This painful routine lasted for what I think was a month before I cracked.

Lunch was crazy again, every prisoner trying to get the food first. Lunch was moldy bread and cheese today. After I shoved down my food, we were brought back to the mine.

This next part is from ToG and I do not own the idea. I just had to put it in here.

I was again handed the pickaxe and told to start mining. But I was done with this. I swung my pickaxe into the current overseer's gut, and then freed myself by cutting off the chain with a swing to the link.

I sprinted out of the mine, the bright sun blinding me.

I killed any guard who tried to tackle me, but the mob behind me was growing.

I looked ahead and saw the wall. The wall between me and freedom.

I sprinted faster, but then I heard the draw of a bow and the whistle of the arrow.

I knew I wasn't going to make it. I knew before I made a break for it I would never cross that wall. As the arrow embedded itself into my left leg, I fell.

I was five feet away from the wall when I was shot down.

oo0oo

I woke up again in my cell. This time, I wasn't chained. I struggled to my feet, about to question myself why, but then I felt it. Whenever I moved my back.

A searing, hot slice of pain that was obviously from endless whippings was felt on my back when I struggled upwards. So I did the reasonable thing. I collapsed.

The pain emitting from my back was too much. I quickly turned as today's lunch rose up in my throat and I emptied my stomach on the ground beside me.

Well, at least my old, disgusting rags are still on. Although the shirt probably stuck to my back already.

I groaned and laid back down, but immediately hissed and rolled onto my stomach. What did I do to deserve this hell? Oh. Right. I was betrayed.

And the fact that I was Adarlan's Assassin...but let's not worry about that.

I turned my head up and looked around my cell. There was almost nothing I could see.

I laid my head back down and closed my eyes, hoping for a little bit of sleep before I was again dragged to the salt mines.

Surprisingly, I woke up not to the banging on my cell door, but to the chatter of guards outside.

They were talking about an old women who is here. I recognized Stinky as one of the guards that was outside.

"-and she has not broken yet." Stinky said. Unknown guard one replied, "Maybe she just needs an extra push to break her!" Unknown guard two shook his head and said, "Nah. We should use her children against her."

Stinky and unknown guard one nodded in agreement. Then Stinky lowered his voice so I had to strain my ears to hear him.

"This girl in here, Celaena, is also not broken. We were ordered to never let her die so her punishment extends longer."

The unknown guards nodded, and stopped their conversation as a bell sounded.

The guards each went to their own door, Stinky on mine, and loudly banged on it.

I looked toward him and said under my breath, "I am Celaena Sardothien, and I will not be afraid."

oo0oo

Lunch came around, and my back hurt like hell. I didn't even think I could walk anymore. I struggled in line behind an older lady.

The old lady turned around to me and whispered, "Almost everybody heard what happened to you. Here." She held a small tin of salve. "Spread it on your back when you can. You might get your cuts infected if you don't."

I gasped at her, but she just pressed the tin into my palm and turned around. "Thank you." I murmured.

I think that was the first time I have said that in five years.

I slid the tin into my pocket and followed the line up.

After I got lunch, some weird brown goop that looked like mashed potatoes, we went back to the mines. This time, I was chained to a different group of people.

I was handed a pickaxe and me and my group shuffled over to a spot where there were lots of salt.

I lifted my pickaxe up and started mining.

Today I wasn't paying attention to the people next to me, or the overseers, or the mining. I was thinking about the kind old lady who gave me the salve and probably saved me from infection.

I thought about what she said. Almost everybody heard what happened to you. Did everybody really know? I shrugged and struct another patch of salt.

oo0oo

After today's work, I was again thrown in my cell and chained to the wall. I wasted no time, rolling over on my stomach and slipping the tin out of my pocket. I dipped my fingers in the gooey substance and smeared it on my back.

It hurt when I applied it, but I kept doing it. My back should heal soon. When I finished, I again put it in my pocket and closed my eyes.

When I woke up to the banging on the door, I was again chained to the line of prisoners and shuffled to the mines. As I passed, I saw the old lady who was so nice to me.

She was dead. I could vaguely see the cut marks on her body as they basically threw her into a hole on top of someone else's dead body.

As they handed us a pickaxe, I sent a quick prayer up to any gods listening for the kind old lady that went out of her way to help me.

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-Nat