Sarkata (On Hiatus)

Chapter 3: Nina

The sun was almost finished setting and thunderous clouds were making the sky look as if it were already night. Lightening cracked and so did the sound of whips. The wind howled and moaned around the mountain, as did the prisoners that were chained and shackled, walking in a line up to the top, where the prison was. This was Kriton. Land of the prison kept beasts. It bordered Azdark and Oiya on the same continent. It was a grey and desolate land aside from the prisons that checkered the country. It was a very mountainous and frequently had storms. If there was any color chances were that it was a poisonous object. There were constantly new arrivals to the prisons.

Heavy set woman, with big arms and long strong legs, carried whips as they marched with the new criminals up the mountain. They shoved the prisoners around, yelling at them to move faster. Whips were also used as a threatening device. One cracked and a girl howled in pain. She was so hurt that she stumbled over her foot and various mountain rocks. She stopped and slumped on the ground trying to regain her strength. This angered a guard even more.

“Get up you senseless brat!” The guard whipped her again, and the girl let out a scream. It blended into the screams of the thunder. The girl was probably ten and her muddied hair clumped around her tiny face.

The next prisoner behind the girl cringed. She shook her side framing bangs out of her face. The rain was causing her sleek, black hair to stick to her face in a way that was beginning to annoy her. She had pointed elfin ears, and sharp teeth, similar in style to a shark. The rest of her hair was pulled into a neat but lazy ponytail. She wore a full body, black and midnight blue rouge suit. There were brown, leather shoulder guards and a leather belt with pouches. Upon arriving at Kriton you are not stripped of your wears until you entered the prison. Because the shackles held your ankles and wrists it was assumed that you wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. The girl smirked at this. If only they knew who I was. She thought. All the while the guard was beating and yelling at the child, had she lost her mind?

“Stop it! Now!” The girl behind the battered child yelled.

Everyone looked at the elfish girl. The guard snarled in disgust and turned toward her.

“Who do you think you are?” She bellowed, spit flying out of her strong jaw.

“I believe I’m Nina. How do you do?” The girl now identified as Nina tried as much as she could to muster a mocking curtsey in the torturous chains.

The guard looked surprised in an annoyed way, her brown hair was matting in the rain and clumping around her strong, meaty square head. “Shut your mouth and step back. You have no jurisdiction over this matter.”

“No. Not until you tell me why you’re beating that girl.”

Now the guard was just plain shocked. “Because, she’s holding up my line.”

“All she did was fall. And it’s not even like she fell because of something she did. She fell because you whipped her. Now you’re still whipping her just because she can’t get up. She can’t get up because you’re whipping her. Do you see the circle you’re making here? So wouldn’t that mean you’re holding up the line?” Nina said smugly.

At this point the guard was pissed. Who was this girl to think she could talk to her so?

“And at any rate,” Nina continued on, “Why do you guards think you’re so amazing anyway? Why do you like torturing your own kind? The only reason you have this job is because Tempra raised you like cattle to become the Manish looking warts you are today.”

Everyone in line that could hear this so called Nina let out a gasp. Thunder cackled and laughed in the background. Did this girl call a woman a Man?! One of the lowest Sarkatan insults, not even Tempran’s would call someone such a foul name. It was a sin under the Sarkatan name, a horrendous act. Most Sarkatan’s haven’t even seen a man in real life before. They only heard of them in stories and legends of the past.