The flamboyant Sea's Bounty moved surreptitiously through the thick air of nightfall fog, gliding across the coarse sea surface with a shadowy trepidation. Sailors brawl and laugh in the distance, juggling their thick mugs of mead and occasionally stopping to catch their breath, joy was amongst the boat. The shipmaster, Albatross Zimbaj however, seemed increasingly nervous and dangerously pale to the face. His eyes danced around with fear and paranoia - something was not in its place. Not a word escaped his mouth that night, his hand never left the hilt of the katana resting through a rip in his clothing. A young female slave sat jeopardized by the uncertain feeling of dismay. A deep red scar throbbed and protruded off her face, beginning from a split lip and joining to the tip of her ear. Below the decks of the ship - underneath the rotten pinewood floorboards - can the sounds of whimpering and whinging be vaguely heard piercing the tranquillity of the night. Fools with a similar fate with mine, she thought cynically, there are perhaps better things to waste my time. She was clothed by nothing more than tattered and torn rags, which barely covered the chest, thigh and back; this was the common clothing of slaves that tried to escape. The destination was unknown, and as for so far, how close we where to land was more of a mystery than how the ship steered itself. Her mind wandered aimlessly; she drew strange figurative characters of her homeland in the soft, cool water. Even through the many years that passed did the residue of defeat loiter bitterly on her tongue; nothing could compensate for the constant suffering and anguish of the past. This is nothing like my home.she thought to herself, gazing upon the small ripples in the water created by a gentle sea breeze. Why was I taken away? Pictures and visions floated through the water. She flinched in shock at their vibrancy and detail as they emerged off the water. No longer did she stand upon the decks of a ship, but more upon a vast grassy knoll that stretched out further than the visible distance of the eye. There was no beginning, there was no end - the only limit was her imagination. Through the errors in the past did she become vigilant enough to defy her purpose and reason - coming to terms with what had happened.

This. this is my homeland? So vast and beautiful.

Images immerged from her mind, creating manifestations of upmost magnificence before her. She could walk in these strange images, she could smell and touch and see. it seemed all too much. A vivacious rainbow darted across the cloudless blue sky, birds and wildlife loitered the luscious branches of trees. This was her homeland. the special part of herself lost when the belief of being told she was nothing more than what the world thought of her. Many new understandings began and a new experience of happiness arose. she had unleashed herself.

I am in a place where darkness and desolation are unknown, where the shadows of despair of the past are non-existent. a deeper self- understanding is clear to me now, it is time to start anew. I am no longer a part of a greater feeling of hopelessness, shame and anger.