New beginning, trying to be a little more informative. Tell me what you think!
Prologue
The snow gently drifts down into the smoke, mixing when it meets. One goes up and the other down. The whole village has been burned, the animals have all been slaughtered or ran away. The street of this once happy town was littered with bodies, animals and humans alike.
A little girl stands crying in front of a burnt house, clutching a torn teddy bear, only to be whisked away by some strange man in black tunic and pants that were covered in blood stains. She screams and beats her little fist against the mans back, desperate to find her mommy and daddy. The man roughly throws her in the saddle of his brown horse before mounting up behind her.
She looks around, her green eyes wide with terror, and sees her friends also mounted on horses. There was Rhea mounted on a sturdy grey, her brown curls hid her face from view. She and Rhea played this morning with corn husk dolls. And Kenny, his face had a large red welt across one cheek and his blue eyes where glazed over and dull. Their mothers had grown up friends and so had they. They always were getting in trouble.
Her keeper grunted something she could not understand and whipped the horses rump to get him to go. The horse whinnied in protest, earning another whipping. The girl felt tears fall down her cheeks, hot and unstoppable, when she glanced behind her at the ruined village. The snow froze her skin where it touched and the smoke burned her lungs when she inhaled.
One goes up and the other down.
Chapter 1
Her back burned from the whipping. She winced as another blow fell across her spine, leaving a raw, open welt. she sagged to the ground when no more blows came, but tightened when grubby fingers grabbed her chin, forcing her to look into the blue eyes of her tormenter.
"How many times do I have to tell you never to talk back slave?" He whispered, his face dangerously close.
She glared at him icily, her strawberry hair falling in her eyes and her lips pursed in silence. The man shook her roughly.
"Answer me!"
The girl let her green eyes fall to the floor, knowing that if she continued to glare at him it would only make matters worse.
"I don't know why my farther bought you." He said in disgust, throwing her against the wall. "Worthless piece of scum. No, scum has more value then you, you are nothing." He sneered at the girl, flicking the whip so it bit into her cheek. "Now get out of my sight!" He yelled pointing at the door.
The girl scampered outside, her back still stinging. Some slaves like her hurried past, glancing out of the corner of their eyes, pity and smirks aplenty on the faces that flew by. The smirks were from the younger generation, the pity from the older. None dared to stop and help or tease in case they got in trouble to. She sighed and squared her shoulders.
Stupid Dario. I wish I could hit back. She thought as she grabbed a couple water buckets and trotted to the well.
Dario was the sun of Master Hanka, the fat man that owned the farm. He was to lazy to punish the bad slaves, so he sent his son to do the job for him while Master Hanka sat in the house and pigged out on roast duck and such. Dario was what you would call cold beauty; blue eyes that seemed to bore into your soul, close cropped blonde hair, chiseled features, and in short, cute. If you like insensitiva, cruel, heartless... the list could go on forever. Half the slave girls where in love with him, it didn't matter that he beat them on a regular basis.
She snorted. Idiot girls. She hauled the bucket of water out of the well, the contents splashing out and raining down on the dark gloom below.
"Hey Ember, whats ya doin'?" Drawled a voice nearby.
"Hello Carmen." Ember replied with out looking, lifting another bucket of water up.
"Aw, how'd ya knew it was me?" A young man leaned on the well. His brown doe eyes watched her under a thatch of curly brown hair. His crocked nose, covered by pimple scars, and wiry frame added to his rough country accent. He was new here and decided to take a liking to Ember.
"Lucky guess. I never asked you before but how did you get captured?"
Carmen winced. "Me parents sold me to 'ave the farm. You?"
"Oh just the entire village burned down, parents killed, la de da and I found myself sitting here next to you."
Carmen stared at her in shock for speaking so bluntly about her village burning. Ember didn't care. Caring about that kind of stuff just got her in trouble, it was not worth it if it got her beaten and locked in the barn for the night. She hoisted the now full buckets and tottered off toward the barn. Carmen sat there, opening and closing his mouth, trying to get something to come out but to no success.
The barn was big, musty and dark, but big. The garnakas huffed a welcome to her from their stalls. Ember walked over to the nearest one and stroked its neck. The strange animal let out its content sound, a cross between a cats purr and a goats baa.
"Purrbaa! Purrbaa!" It sound like a cat got a hairball stuck in its throat and was trying to cough it up. They were odd creatures, they looked like a giant tan and black dappled cat, but with cloven hooves and goats horns. They were strong enough to carry a rider and as nimble as a goat.
She topped the buckets off and lead a garnaka out by the nose ring to clean his stall. He swished his long tail and climbed the wall in front of him to nibble on the wood. Ember had gotten five of the eleven stalls done when she heard a shrill scream. She hurriedly put the large cat back in the still dirty stall and rushed to the door.
Three large 'lizards' were watching men, carrying pitchforks, shovels and anything else on hand, charge them. right before the men hit the 'lizard' they whipped their tails around, scattering all of the men and knocking down the ones that were not fast enough to jump. Their scales gleamed mutely in the setting sun. one was red dipped in grey and a grey tail. Another was a deep purple with a dark red belly that extended under its chin and tail. The last and largest was a bright blue color with a black muzzle, spine, and stripes on its legs.
A thought dawned on her, though she had only heard the tale once, she remembered it vividly. It was about dragons, the monstrous beast that ate humans and prayed upon wondering travelers. Old Joe had told it to the children when they were bored. The beasts outside her barn looked enough like what Old Joe described them to be that Ember decided thats what they were. The purple dragon roared, spreading its wings wide and fanning the air. The slaves cowered behind each other, dropping their weapons and shaking in fear. The dragon looked around smugly and rumbled. A human hurried over to the cowering slaves and bound them together with some rope.
More strange men were rounding up the slaves. Most had been knocked over by the dragons tails but some had jumped the blows and were running towards the fields that surrounded the farm, only to be chased down by dragon and human and put with the others. It was done quickly and neatly, like it was practiced a hundred times. The men spread out and headed toward the buildings. Ember shut the door and glanced around for a hiding spot. The garnakas stalls would be to easy for her to be spotted. the feed room had nothing to hide behind. She grumbled at the lack of dark spaces. She spied a board leaning against the wall.
That will do.
she headed over to it just as the door squeaked open.
Yeah its done! Is it exciting? O.o I will redo chapter 2 some time. I hope. Maybe. Prod me and it will get done. I need prodding.