anything goes

two: all she saw was kindness

Written a while ago for a writing contest.  

A girl sits alone in a dark room.

The curtains in front of her hang low, a deep shade of maroon back lit by the orange light of the candles, their cinnamon scent filling air.  She stands explosively, her tattered robes fluttering around her as she rushes outside.

There is a commotion in the square, a man and a woman are dueling on the cobblestone tiles, their swords flashing in the light raining down from the hot sun. The girl holds her breath as she leans back against a sandstone column, one of many that lined the open market.

The scent of spices and livestock fills her nose as she looks upon the duel, and she takes interest in something behind the fighters.  She struggles to make out what it is through the heat and the light reflecting off of their swords, and she steps down the stairs that led into the temple to investigate.

She moves through a crowd that has gathered to watch the fight, skirting around people that barely notice she is there.  She squeezes below arms and between bodies covered in sweat due to the heat, occasionally looking up through the gathering to see how the duel is going.

The man is tiring.  His sword is flashing and slashing slower than it was previously, and panic is beginning to settle into his once determined glare.  He is becoming reckless as blood pours out a cut in his shoulder, and his face is paling.  His opponent keeps her cool gaze on his body as he telegraphs his every move, easily avoiding every fumbling attack and slicing him a bit more with every counterattack.

The girl trips over a loose cobblestone and she falls, hitting the ground hard.  Her ears begin to ring and she wonders why she even thought of exiting the temple.  She needs to stand up, or the people surrounding the square will crush her alive.

A stab of pain shoots through her hand, and she looks over to find a foot pressing it into the ground.  She brings up her other hand to push it away, but the heavy boot doesn't move.  She curls up around the leg in an attempt to keep as much of her body out of the way of trampling feet as possible and tugs at the man's tunic, eventually having to resort to hitting his leg before he notices her.

He shouts at her, his voice barely audible over the crowd, and kicks her away like the scum that she is. Limbs were everywhere, and her vision was filled with black stars and shoes as she was engulfed in pain, no one looking down to notice that someone was being killed under their feet.

She lay there in the fetal position for what felt like an eternity, half praying that someone would step on her neck already and end her miserable existence, half hoping that someone would see her as a person for once and help her up.

Relief comes in the form of a foreign tongue being shouted out and a harsh voice as bodies are shoved off of her. The girl doesn't move, afraid that whoever had just kept her from being crushed would kill her, but is met by the collective murmurings of the crowd and a cold hand on her back instead.

The hand is joined by another on her shoulder, rolling her over so that the girl could look up. She is surprised that someone would help her, and she hopes that it isn't some cruel trick, but when her astonished eyes are met by the gentle gaze of the woman from the duel, all she sees is kindness.

The woman helps her sit up, and with a lilting accent, speaks in the girl's native tongue.

"You are safe."