Chapter One

"Master, please!"

"Quit your whining you whore! You are my slave and I shall do with you what I want now shut your dirty trap!" the man said over top of the woman. He continued to grunt loudly, moving rapidly over the slave beneath him, who was now moaning in pain. He collapsed on top of her, exhausted and spent from his vigorous intercourse. The man rolled over onto the other side of the bed, breathing heavily, and looked back at the woman. "You are free to go now Callista. Go on, get out of my sight."

Callista, the young-woman, rushed out of the bed and grabbed her clothes hastily from the floor (if you could call them clothes). Ignoring the pain between her thighs, she dressed into a skimpy dress that accentuated her curves but did practically nothing to hide her body, and escaped from her Masters' bedroom. Once inside the safety of her own living quarters, she lay on the bed and cried heavily until she fell asleep.

As the next day dawned through the Castle Brote, Callista was again ravaged until she finally found herself unable to keep her emotions hidden. In the middle of her task, she began to cry, and the tears flowed down her cheeks onto the pillows beneath her. She was hit brutally in the face where a bruise had formed and left her in more agony. When she was dismissed, she ran to her room once again and cried.

Ever since she was a developed child, men of all ages had eyed her body with lust, and she knew not why. When her family was auctioned off at a sale she was immediately sent around as sex-slave, going from one greedy, perverted Master to the next until one Master had finally planted his number on her. A branded number placed into her lower back numbered 900128.

"The first three numbers represent my number my dear," the Master had told her after she was burnt. "The fourth number is the 'quality' and 'priority' of the slave meaning that you are a very good slave and you are very important to me. The fifth number means how many very good slaves I have and the sixth number means how many slaves I have altogether." Then she knew why men had eyed her greedily and lustily.

That evening, after she was in her Masters' clutches again, she awoke with a start to see a bird appear at her barred window. The moon was shining brightly and cast a pale light through the window, and Callista could see the shining stars beyond. Oh, how she longed to be able to go outside into the night world again. There was something on the birds' legs. A note.

"What?" she said to herself silently. Grabbing the small scroll from the bird, she gently untied it and read.

Dear Slave,

We have seen you suffer enough and we feel that you need not suffer anymore. Come join us, in the woods, where you will be safe from harm. You will be free, and will no longer be taken against your will.

Signed,

The Outlaw Clan

(Meet me right now outside if you can. I will be waiting with two horses. Code will be 'Lakashna')

"Lakashna?" the word rolled over her tongue easily as if she had spoken it before, but no memory came to her of the word. She smiled at the bird and then looked longingly to the outside world and smiled. 'You will be free…' the note had said. "What is it like to be free my bird-friend? Is it like soaring through and beyond?" Her eyes lighted and she escaped her bedroom to the main hall outside, and through the servants-door at the back, where there was a man, with two horses.

"Lakashna?" Callista said and moved slowly towards the stranger.

"Lakashna to you too," the stranger said. "Quickly now. Atop the horse. You didn't pack anything?"

"I do not have anything to pack."

"Very well. What? Have you never ridden a horse before?" the stranger asked looking at her oddly.

"Well I have never ridden these kind of horses before," Callista said and attempted at climbing the great black beast before her.

"I will help you. My name is Marlo," he said and aided her. "Stay close to me if you want to get out of here in one piece."

"I am Callista," she replied and mounted the horse. With great speed they were off, with Marlo holding onto her horses' reins, keeping them in close step together. The trip went by rather silently, and not a word was spoken to one another until they reached a clearing in the middle of the forest. Marlo made a high-pitched whistling sound and an arrow landed by their feet, causing the horses to rise up in fear.

"Lakashna," Marlo called out after the horses had calmed and from the boughs of the trees came three men, clad in wooden armor and bearing very badly made bows. "Another recruit." He winked at the men, and Callista began to wonder if this was indeed the freedom she thought about.

"What does Lakashna mean?" Callista asked after they had stepped past the guards and continued their journey.

"It means 'good evening' in the ancient language. Why?"

"It sounds familiar that's all."

"Unlikely considering your age but if your parents were Knowledge Binders then maybe. Considering your…status…I would say that's unlikely," he said and smiled. He pulled the reins when they came to a slight rise in the ground. "What you are about to see may amaze you. Once you enter, you may never leave unless you are killed. Do you want to turn back?"

"No," Callista answered immediately, suspicion rising in the pit of her stomach.

"Very well. Follow me then," he said and rode ahead slowly and stopped at the top of the hill and waited patiently for Callista. She stared in awe at the sight before her, her eyes twinkling with glee. "Welcome to your new home Callista."

A/N: I'm working on the drawings right now. This is a medieval story if nobody caught that…I might throw fantasy in here but I'm not too sure at the moment…

Callista is only nineteen. She was sold at fifteen, and branded when she was seventeen.

Knowledge Binders: Librarians of a sort, who use their knowledge of the world and places it in a book, that they make, bind, print and sell. It is up to them to decide how many books they publish.