Hey, everyone!

This is a story about Serena and Darien (my fave anime couple). Everyone in this story is normal, ok? No sailormoon stuff or sailor scouts or talking cats. Just regular people who live regular lives, got it? Good! Anyways, Serena is sold as a slave to-guess who?-Darien and his family, who is beyond rich! It takes place when slavery was still common among the rich. So pls sit back and enjoy the story. Remember, NO FLAMES! If you don't like it, don't read it. Even if you've already read it, and still hate it, pls don't bother reviewing; you're just wasting your time. Ok, I'm sorry to take up so much of your time. On with the story! LOL!

WARNING: I know NOTHING about England. This is ALL fiction. So pls bear with me, and if you have some knowledge you would like to impart with me, pls tell me. You see, I don't really have the time to research about England and stuff, so this is all by whim, understand? Ok, ON WITH THE STORY!

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Only a Slave

She was all alone. In this cold and terrible place, she was all by herself. She had no one to turn to; no one to tell her everything was going to be alright. She was all alone. And worst of all, she didn't know what to do…

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"We gots ourselves a purty' one 'ere! Who wants 'er? I'll start at ten dollars! Anybody?" The bidder hollered above the noisiness of the old English town.

People bustled around everywhere, trying to shop for food, clothing, tools, etc.

The bidder quickly tried to sell off the rest of the slaves that were captured a few days ago from a small isolated, poor, rebellious town in the northern part of England. The little town was burnt to the ground with nothing left but ashes. Townsfolk were taken prisoners as punishment for their rebellion against the king of England and were to be sold off as slaves. The prisoners were simply horrible. The bidder wanted to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Seventeen-year-old blond blue-eyed Serena Wellingfield was one of them. Her father had been killed in the war and her mama recently passed away from cancer. Her aunt and uncle and their two kids had lived them before in their little shack, but they, too, were killed when the soldiers from the south came and burnt down the entire village. Serena also had no brothers and sisters. Her family was very poor and could barely support themselves. Some days they would go on without any food to eat. Now, she was all alone, left in this world with no family, no money, no anything. And to make things worse, she was gonna be sold off as a slave to some rich snotty family. Oh, if only her mother was still alive! She would help her. But alas, her dear mother had gone to rest beside her husband.

Serena groaned inwardly, craning her neck and trying hard to look over the man's shoulder to see if anybody was bidding for her. At 5'5", she was too short to see above the 6'2" bidder. She let out a tight breath of frustration. "Why won't anybody buy me? Am I not worthy enough to be a slave?" Secretly, she cringed. "I don't even wanna be a slave…then why do I care so much that nobody wants to buy me?"

For what seemed like an eternity, someone finally shouted out a price and Serena found herself looking into the eyes of the person who "purchased" her as a slave. She had imagined a stuffy old man with a long beard to be staring at her right now, but the person studying her was a handsome middle-age man with dark brown hair, kind blue eyes, bushy eyebrows, and a faded-brown drooping mustache with a smoke pipe sticking out of his mouth. He wore exclusive-looking garments which told Serena he was very, very, very rich.

His eyebrow rose ever so slightly at the bold way she was looking at him.

She understood his meaning and quickly bowed her head in subservience. "I'm sorry, my lord."

"Very well. Let's get going." He gallantly made his way to his carriage and stepped in.

Serena looked up, expecting to sit up on top with the coachmen. But instead, her new master gestured her to enter. She did and sat down carefully, as not to make dirty the beautiful and highly expensive upholstery.

The ride to the mansion was deathly quiet and Serena was itching to get out of the stuffy carriage. At long last, they stopped and she waited patiently as her master stepped out first.

Serena got down last and turned around. Her mouth dropped open. It was so gorgeous! The mansion was gigantic! It had so many enormous windows, large oak doors, wonderfully manicured green lawns, and expensive looking water fountains; everything was magnificent! She broke out of her trance when she heard someone call out to her.

"Slave, get inside the house. I'll introduce you to your new mistress. Now, come on, move along," her master chided her gently.

She slowly made her way into the massive mansion.

As soon as they were both inside, the master rang for another maid.

Almost immediately, a maid came. She was a pretty blond with a large red bow in her hair. "Yes, sire?"

"Mina, I want you to call my family together. I want them to meet Josephina's new maid." He gave a slight wave of his hand and off Mina went.

Serena gazed at the wondrous beauty before her. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. She continued to stare at everything surrounding her when someone sharply called her to attention. She snapped back to reality and lowered her eyes as her master spoke. She swiftly took a peek at each her new masters and mistresses, studying them very closely.

First, she saw who she thought was the master's wife. She was a small lady, but very elegant and poised. She had dark auburn hair rolled up into an attractive hair bun. She appeared a little older than the master but what made her seem younger was that she had a compassionate face. Her eyes were a deep blue, caring but very alert. Serena listened carefully and noted that she was to be called, "my lady." "Ok, got it, Mrs. Vivian is to be called, "my lady," Serena thought.

The next person she was introduced to her was the master's oldest son, Darien. Serena had a take in a sharp breath when she saw how handsome he was! He had broad shoulders, a strong chin, kissable lips (blush), a slender nose, two beautiful steel blue eyes, and a head full of wavy brown hair. He was gorgeous! She lowered her eyes again as his gaze settled on her. She stiffened when she realized her was sizing her up. She felt a little offended by his boldness. She knew that she wasn't very pretty. Having long unmanageable blond hair that was way past her knees, dark, dark, dark blue eyes (so dark that it was hard to tell they were even blue!), and a terribly skinny body didn't really help the situation, either. She shrugged the helpless feelings away and concentrated on her master's words.

"This is my other son, Braden. You'll refer to him as "my lord,"…do you understand my words, slave?"

Serena nodded her head obediently, despite the fact that she hated being called "slave." She then realized that the master didn't even know her name. Oh.

Braden was the very image of his older brother. Just a tad bit not as handsome but still very much like him in appearance.

Master Shields then introduced her to her new mistress, the lady Josephina.

Josephina was the only girl of the family. Even at 15 years of age, she was the spitting image of her beautiful mother. She had the same dark auburn hair, although it was worn loose instead of in a bun. She also had the deep blue eyes that Vivian had. But instead of the compassionate face her mother seemingly possessed, Josephina had a scowl on her face, thus ruining her pretty features.

She stuck her nose up in the air and cried out, "Daddy! Why must I have such an UGLY maid like her? She's far too thin; she has depressingly dark eyes, and look at that horrible hair! Why can't I have a maid like Julia's? Hers is far prettier than this one! This is sooooo unfair! I-"

"That's quite enough, Josephina. I'll not have any more of your rudeness. This slave is well-mannered unlike that of Julia's. Her slave cannot be trusted. But I have a good feeling that this slave can be," interrupted Master Shields, his hand up, silencing his angry daughter's outburst.

Serena blushed pink at the comment. She silently thanked him.

Josephina bowed her head in shame, but didn't remove the scowl from her face.

"Last, but not least, my eight-year-old son, Adrian. You may call him, "little master," or sometimes even just "Adrian." He's too young to understand, anyways." Master Shields patted his youngest son on the back, earning a silly grin from the happy lad.

Serena took one good look at the lad and saw that he didn't look at all like his older brothers or even his father. Actually, the boy didn't look like anybody in his family. Adrian was a scrawny little boy with thick dark blond hair, laughing green eyes, and a goofy grin plastered on his small lightly tanned face. He was simply adorable! She had a feeling they were going to be good friends.

The master dismissed his family except for Josephina and watched as they made their way back to their rooms to finish whatever they were doing before supper was served. Then he turned his attention on Serena and his pouting daughter.

"What's your name, child?" he asked.

"Serena, my lord." Finally, now he'd stop calling her "slave!"

"Very well, Serena. You are to start serving Josephina this instant, understand? Whatever she asks of you, you must do it." He saw her nod her head. "Good. Now, be gone from my sight-both of you."

At the dismissing wave of his hand, Josephina stalked out of the room with all the dignity she could muster. "How dare he! I cannot believe he could do this to me-his only daughter, for Heaven's sake! Do I not but get a few pleasures in my life? Why must I put up with such an ugly slave? How Julia will laugh at me!" she thought furiously to herself. She ignored Serena who followed her around like a lost little puppy. She climbed the long and dreary staircase that led to her bedroom and glowered when she saw the maid trailing after her. "First thing's first. Leave me alone! Go away!" she practically screamed, but displeased at the fact that Serena barely even flinched at her harsh words. "Do you not understand English, slave? You must have been so poor that you couldn't go to school. Now, you be gone from my sight. I never want to see you again. Go back to your burnt down village. You belong there with the rest of those stinkin' rebels! You will never belong in the world of the civilized, slave!" Josephina said haughtily.

Then the door slammed hard in Serena's face.

Serena's lip quivered. She tried to blink her tears away. "She's right. I didn't go to school because we couldn't afford it. But we are not stinkin' rebels!" She flushed and murmured miserably, "Now what am I to do?"

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Hey, that's it for the first chapter. Hope you liked it…I guess. I have a feeling it'll have lots of chapters. Sorry that I make my chapters so short. The next chapter I promise will be very, very long, ok? It's just been a hard time for me. But, I can do it! So, stay tuned for the next chapter. Maybe sometime next week or even this week, it might be posted. You'll just have to wait and see, I guess, huh? Ok, well, I g2g. Adios, amigos! Hasta la vista! NO FLAMES, pls…it breaks my heart…lol…if you are a writer, too, you know what it feels like when people criticize your writing. Hey, don't get me all wrong. Criticism is good because it helps you become a better writer, and I like it sometimes, but in this case, pls, no flames. I can't bear them. Honestly, they break my heart…ok; I'll stop jabbering and let you go…adios!

Stay sweet,

Jade Ocean