Authors: Carmella Jones
“Cry all you want, you hussy. I don't have the heart to care anymore. You threw that away when you decided to betray your whole family by throwing away your honor for a MacNeil,” Donnan hissed and then left, slamming the door and locking it from the outside. He was going right now to get something to secure her window with. A bit of wood and some nails to make sure she didn't get out.
By the time night fell, Caitriona felt totally helpless and afraid. She hadn't been brought dinner. In fact, she heard Glenna raise her voice towards Donnan in protest when he ordered that she not be taken any supper, which was the first time in a long time that Caitriona had heard her mother argue with Donnan. Try though she may, Donnan refused to listen to her pleading with him, and he won out. Caitriona sat in her pitch-black room with an empty stomach and tear-swollen eyes.
Sleeping would have made the time go by faster, but Caitriona was sick to her stomach from all the turmoil. Even though she just wanted to sleep the day away, she couldn't. She couldn't sleep at all, nor did she move from her spot on the bed until she heard from the outside some scratching and scraping noises. Her first instinct was to call out and ask who was there, but she didn't want to alert her parents.
Caitriona did, however, get off of the bed. Her limbs felt tired and sore from being still for so long, but she stretched them a little as she walked over to the window and saw the boards being taken down piece by piece to reveal a friendly face.
“Ailean!” Caitriona said in an excited whisper. He smiled.
“You didn't think I'd just take off without you. I promised to protect you, after all,” Ailean said, and lifted the window, then helped Caitriona out of the hut.
“Yeah, you did. I just didn't think that you would actually come on to my father's lands,” Caitriona said, holding Ailean’s hand tightly.
“I'll protect you no matter where you are, Caitriona,” Ailean said, giving her hand a squeeze.
Caitriona smiled at that, and let Ailean lead her off into the woods. Despite only the light from a full moon being there to partially illuminate the ground, Ailean knew every step like the back of his hand. A true outdoorsman, despite his looks.
“So, what are the plans now, Ailean?” Caitriona asked softly, after they put some distance between themselves and the hamlet.
“We run,” Ailean replied, a small smile creeping onto his face as he marched on, looking towards the horizon that held the future of their dreams.
“We’re leaving?” Caitriona asked, her voice shaking with shock. That was not an answer she was anticipating, but Ailean was eager to calm her worries.
“There’s a bigger world outside our families’ feud. We can escape this now, and we never have to look back,” Ailean said, an air of confidence instilled into his words. He was determined, Caitriona could see that, and it made her smile, a soft, warm smile. A new life with Ailean, away from the violence and the fighting. That prospect was such a sweet song to her ears. So, she walked with him. Step by step, they grew further away from the lands of their fathers, ready to start a new life together.
THE END
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Chapter One
The sun was setting on the Terekian horizon, but Lilith hadn't finished plowing her quota yet, so she continued to toil out in the fields. Though the temperature was well over ninety degrees, and she had run out of water to drink an hour ago, she wasn't allowed to go back to the manor until she finished. She knew that as well as anything, though something more than just the misery was weighing on her mind.
About twenty minutes prior, she had seen a cargo ship land near the manor. Typically, these ships came with slavers to buy children and breeders. Seeing as Lilith was just a field hand, and a young one at that, she was usually not even called back for these inspections. She was turning nineteen soon, though, so she would be in the same age range as the rest of the breeding stock in a month or two. She didn't remember exactly, because time was an impermanent and meaningless thing to her, until now. Now she was afraid of when her birthday came.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear one of the supervisors yelling her name until he was in the tractor she had been piloting, holding up his whip. When she turned towards him and her eyes widened with fear, he realized that she hadn't been purposefully ignoring him. Typically she would still be punished for being negligent, but no slaver would buy someone who looked like a rebel, so putting a bruise on her would be a bad idea.
"Master wants you at the house. The Lexxor Tribe is here," the supervisor said. He was a big, ugly, toad-like creature. His skin was a disgusting, yellowy brown, with warts everywhere, even near the little slits of his eyes. His mouth was huge, with a protruding lower jaw, but what was more intimidating were the massive muscles he sported. Though he was short and stocky, he had more power in one of his stubby fingers than ten human arms, so she feared him and any of his kind. They were they Jabber race, and they were the apex creatures on Terekian, which was the planet she was born and raised on.
"Oh. I…I haven't finished, " Lilith began, preparing to explain that her work in the field wasn't quite done. She had never been permitted to go back to the house without first completing her labors, after all, so she assumed that the supervisor just didn't realize that she wasn't finished yet. If that was the case, and he found out that she went back to the manor without finishing her allotted jobs for the day, she would be whipped for sure.
"Are you arguing with me?" the supervisor demanded in a deep, guttural voice. Just his tone sent shivers down Lilith's back, but the threat was far more frightening.
"No, sir. I just…" Lilith began, but decided that an explanation would get her into more trouble, rather than doing her any good. "No sir. I'm sorry, sir," she said softly. "What should I do with the tractor?"
"I'll put it back in the docking area. Master wants you back at the manor immediately," the supervisor said. "Now shoo! Get along! We don't have all day!" he ordered, and Lilith quickly got down from the huge tractor and started running towards the manor. It was over a mile away, and she was dying of thirst, but she knew if she was seen strolling casually, there would be trouble.
When she got to the manor, she was panting and wheezing from not having enough to drink, but her master quickly saw her and went over to her. "I was wondering why you were taking so long. Get in line with the others," he growled, his unnerving yellow eyes piercing right through her. She didn't argue, and simply went over to the lineup, though she was unsure of whether or not to stand with the breeders. A kick to her backside, pushing her that way, informed her quite quickly that she was to stand with them.
Lilith's blood ran cold as she stood with the line of breeders. She wasn't nineteen yet, and that was the age that was appointed to be ripe for child rearing. Before nineteen, there were more medical complications than were worth dealing with, in the opinion of most of the slavers at least. Therefore, typically girls didn't stand in this line until that time, but now she was here, before her time. It made her shiver, and curse her blasted luck. Her supervisors or master must have misplaced her records, or misremembered them, or there must have been some mistake. Still, Lilith only worried about that in the back of her head. The more pressing concern was getting water.
"Listen up, all of you!" the master of the farm, Lord Slorn, began to address the general crown. "The Vorox prince has come today to pick house slaves for his castle, and he came here because I keep only the best of the best. If any of you, and I mean any stinking one of you, gives him any other impression, then consider yourself dead! My reputation is on the line here, and if I lose that, then you lose your stinking life, and so does every one of your friends and family!" he said, his voice booming. The Prince of Vorox must have been quite an influential figure to get Slorn in this sort of a mood, but still Lilith couldn't focus on that more than her parched throat. It felt as though tumbleweeds had taken up residence and were roaming around. All she wanted in this world was a tall glass of cold water, though at this point she would have taken any liquid capable of slaking her thirst.
Slorn went on about more threats, though Lilith didn't focus any of her attention on his rambling. She just started looking around the room for water. Surely there would be a little somewhere? Even if it was just near a plant, or even if it was a bucket put under a leaky spot in the roof. At this point, she wasn't even going to bother worrying about whether or not the water was clean. She was dying for some liquid.
Though Lilith didn't see any water in the room, she did notice that everyone--except for her, it seemed--was dressed in their finest clothes. Some people without finer things even looked like they had been given something to wear for the occasion.
No sooner did Lilith realize this than did a strong, somewhat slimy hand of a Jabber grab her arm and pull her off to the side, quite unceremoniously. She wasn't offered an explanation, and she didn't ask for one. Being a slave all her life made her rather accepting of whatever sort of injustice met her.
Once the Jabber stopped hauling her around, she found herself in a dressing room with some nice, sparsely embroidered clothes. The fabric was similar to linen, but it was clean. More than she could say about her current clothes, at least.
The Jabber unceremoniously took a wet rag and wiped the worst of the dirt from her. What Lilith wouldn't have done to take that rag and wring the water out. Her throat was like a desert. But she refrained and got herself dressed in a clean, white, linen outfit that was decorated with gold-hued embroideries, a much nicer thing than would typically be given to a field hand, but she had to be presentable if she was going to be chosen by royalty.
After she was dressed, she looked around for the rag, but it was nowhere in sight, and in no time she was being led back to the lineup.
"Stand straight, no slouching!" the Jabber that had her go change into the clean outfit ordered. Lilith hadn't been slouching per se, more looking for a drink, but she followed his orders and stood tall, though her wandering eyes couldn't be contained.
Luckily, she wasn't standing dumbly for long. A tall, dark, handsome figure walked into the room within minutes. He stood at about seven and a half feet tall, with long and flowing purplish-black hair. His skin was pale, making him somewhat unnerving to look at, but he was surprisingly human. The only differences that she could see were his claw-like nails, his bright purple eyes, and his height.
The prince was adorned in a long black cape with purple accents and a black suit. In his hand, he held a goblet of something--she couldn't tell what. Despite not knowing what was in the goblet, it became the sole focus of her attention.
"Announcing the famed Prince of Vorox, Draci," said Lord Slorn, doing a very uncharacteristic bow as the tall, pale man walked in.
The prince surveyed the room briefly, then looked in his goblet and swirled the contents briefly before taking a sip. Lilith wanted it so badly, but she didn't move from her spot.
Slowly, and deliberately, Draci began moving around the room, surveying all the children with a discerning eye. He picked a lot of the more delicate and refined-looking boys, presumably for butlers. For the women, he seemed to favor those with black hair and smooth skin, as every one that he picked fit that category.
When he moved over to the line of breeders, Lilith stiffened and stared forward intensely, not wanting him to pick her. She was afraid of his deliberate, slow, purposeful manner. Something was unnerving about it compared to the brash, loud, and violent manner of the Jabbers. Perhaps the Jabbers weren't objectively any better than this man, but they were at the very least more familiar than this man.
While staring forward intensely, she eventually did see Draci pass by her, and she relaxed after a few moments, when he moved on farther down the line. Now relaxed, she glanced around, and she saw his goblet on the table near her! He had actually put it down!
Lilith couldn't believe her luck, but she didn't wait to wake up from this dream. She carefully took a cursory glance around. The Jabbers didn't seem to be too focused on her section of the slaves in the lineup. Their focus seemed to be wherever the prince was at the time, and because he was a bit farther down the line, she could carefully slip out of place for a moment.
Though she knew if she was caught there would be serious repercussions, at this point she felt truly desperate to get some liquid in her. So, she took the goblet in her hands and quickly chugged down enough of the contents to sate her for the moment, then put it down and was about to turn and hurry back to her place.
As she turned, however, she bumped into none other than the prince. He was tall and imposing, and just seeing those intense purple eyes look down upon her made her shiver in fear.
"Insolent little wench!" Lord Slorn shouted in a terrible grating voice, and doubtless he would have continued berating her, except the prince put up his hand to silence him.
"Do not screech in my presence. I came here to see your stock, not to be serenaded by a banshee," the prince said coolly, turning to glare at Lord Slorn. He quickly bit his tongue, but Lilith could see how angry he was. She felt as if she had been issued the death sentence already, as that was certainly coming.
"I…I'm sorry. I was so thirsty," Lilith said quietly.
"Go stand with the others," Draci said, but Lilith wasn't sure if she was saved or if he would just have his own punishment for her back at his castle. Perhaps he was a sadist who liked to torture people? It wouldn't have surprised her, especially considering he was royalty.
Still, Lilith could only choose between this stranger who might spare her or certain death. Granted, she knew the Jabbers would give her a quick and painless death, but she couldn't deny herself the chance to be saved. So, even if she was walking towards a terrible, torturous end, that sliver of hope encouraged her to take the chance.
Once she was in the line, Slorn exploded, yelling loudly at her. "Get back in your place, you insolent child! You…you!"
"I ordered her there, Slorn," the prince said shortly. Though Lilith could plainly tell that Slorn was containing an explosion within him, the toadish alien said nothing more, and neither did Lilith.
The rest of the assembly went on without a hitch, and Lilith followed the group that was led by the prince to his ship, after he paid for the twenty-some slaves he had picked from the group he'd perused.
Strangely enough--or at least Lilith thought it strange--there were no guards that followed the slaves or prodded them onwards. Instead, the prince seemed to just have faith that all of the slaves would follow without faltering.
Though Lilith thought it odd, she followed the prince without a second thought. Everyone in the procession knew that if they failed to stay with the prince, they would be executed on the farm. Perhaps the prince's confidence that they would follow wasn't so odd after all.
Once on the carrier ship, she milled in with the rest of the crowd, and all the older women who had been picked, who were at least over nineteen, knew the drill. Slorn prepared his slaves with meticulous attention to detail--something he was famous for. Therefore, all the older girls directed the younger ones to follow them into the human transport area, which was easy enough to find by following the signs.
Lilith was prepared to follow the older girls, considering they actually knew what they were doing, but she stopped herself when she felt a sense of unease come over her. She couldn't account for the cause exactly, but she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up, and her skin began to break out in gooseflesh. She froze momentarily before she looked up to see that the prince was staring straight at her.
For a moment, Lilith was completely at a loss, unable to make any coherent thought stick in her mind. As he started to walk towards her, however, she felt instantly afraid. She was worried he wanted to punish her for stealing, yet her feet wouldn't heed her mind and run away.