Finding Myself

Chapter 2

After my village had sold me off to the slave traders, I did a lot of manual labor. They had almost made me a service person, which takes care of peoples needs, if you understand what that means. However I had scars on my body, which would apparently scare off my customers. I needed to do some sort of work, if I wanted to be fed, so I did anything that no one else wanted to do. 

In the year I've been gone, I've been through a bunch of different places. I was sold as a slave to rich people to serve their daughters, but my scars affected their image, so I never lasted long. I've been kidnapped by bandits, used by the government to help build things, clean things, cook and so on and so forth. I have currently been kidnapped by bandits for the 3rd or 4th time. They are using us slaves as bait to rob more people. We pretend to be injured on the side of the road, and the nice people that stop to help are robbed. If we die in the process, then oh well. 

"Ea, it's your turn." I hear Antonio call from who knows where. He was actually an okay sort of guy. Shame he's a bandit. I stand and walk towards the door. Antonio looks at my guiltily. He always feels bad about making us do these kinds of things. Especially since he says that an 8 year old shouldn't go through these circumstances. I couldn't careless. After being a slave for only a month, news reached me that both of my originally kingdoms had been taken over, and most little villages, including mine, had been taken over.  No one knew how, but I had a feeling that the coins had something to do with it. After this news, I didn't care what happened to me. I had failed to protect my home. "You okay kiddo?" Antonio asks me hesitantly, and I just nod. 

Antonio grabs my hand and pulls me after him. At my lack of resistance, Antonio rubs his face. He's always been angry that I don't care about myself. We walk through the village, and a few people wave at me. Since I've never tried escaping, I earned a little trust, so I have a bit of a looser collars then other slaves. I'm pretty sure that they are debating whether or not to make me part of their bandit group. 

"Ea, come over here." I turn my head and the head boss is beckoning me towards him. I try to let go of Antonio's hand, but he refuses to let go, so I pull him after me towards the boss. "The people coming today apparently are very caring people, so make sure to show your scars." I don't ask about how he knows these things. Someone was probably sent into town to gather information on the people travelling through. 

"Sure." I nod, and the boss shoos Antonio and me away. We all get onto our horses, me sharing one with Antonio, and we head out. After we arrive at the road,  I walk to the middle of the road and lie down, pulling my shirt in some places, making sure that some of my scars can be seen. I close my eyes when I feel movement in the ground, alerting me of the approaching carriages. 

"Halt!" Someone calls and the carriages stop. I continue lying on the ground, as I hear people coming out of the carriages. 

"What's going on?" I hear a voice, that sounded slightly familiar for some reason. 

"Derek honey stay here, it could be dangerous." A woman's voice calls. My eyes snap open and I jump to my feet, spinning around and facing someone I never thought I would see again. Derek's cautious face turns to an equal amount of shock that must be showing on my face. "Derek, are you okay?" The woman went ignored by the both of us. I gulp and start backing away from Derek. He sees what I am doing and quickly darts towards me. I also turn and start to run in the opposite direction. 

"Ea stop." Derek yells, at the same time, tackling me to the ground. I let out a blood curdling scream, trying to claw my way away from him. "Ea, stop, what's the matter?" Derek's voice sounds to be in pain as he is holding my thrashing body against him.