The Elite (Editting)

Chapter 11: IDs

          Scabs led me to a lower part of the castle into what looked like a medieval torture chamber. "The dungeon," he said, unlocking a massive prison cell. "Have fun, make some friends, at least you'll feel like you have a chance of getting out." Scabs pushed me into the cell filled with other women as well as men and children. He slid the cell door closed and locked it.

          I looked around at my new surroundings to notice a particularly old woman in a darkened corner.

          "Look here, fresh meat," one of the male prisoners said.

          "What's your name girlie?" another asked, running a strand of my hair through his fingers.

          "You're pretty, you'll be a good girl for us, won't you?" a third inmate quipped.

          "She better be, that's the only way you'll survive down here," the second man spoke again, pulling me closer to him.

          "Stop it! Leave the new girl alone!" a woman with hard blue eyes said pushing the men away from me.

          "Come on Xenia, we were just having a bit of fun, we were really going to do anything," the first prisoner said. "Yet." he added quietly.

          "I know you aren't going to do anything to her because she's with me. So why don't you and your goons find a hole to crawl in, Paul," the woman Xenia said.

          The three men dissipated and went to their areas in the cell. I looked up to thank the woman who had surely saved me from a horrible fate to see that she was exceptionally tall and very beautiful. Xenia stood close to seven feet and had a long cascade of wavy, waist-length orange hair. "Thank you Xenia," I said.

          "Sure, whatever. Just avoid the men and keep close to the women," Xenia said walking away. She looked down her nose at me the whole time as if I were lower than dirt.

          "Don't mind her, she's just mad that she's a half-breed, its nothing personal," another, smaller woman said. She turned her head and raised her voice when she said 'half-breed'. Xenia gave no rise to the comment.

          "I'm Diana, goddess incarnate," the woman stated extending her hand in a gesture of greeting. I noticed the difference between her and Xenia more so, especially since she was kinder. Her green eyes were like giant spheres that looked like they could see into your very soul set under her perfectly sculpted green eyebrows. Diana had short, olive green hair just as strange to match her eyebrows.

          I took Diana's hand in mine and shook it, introducing myself, "Donatella."

          "Donatella? The Donatella?" Xenia spoke again.

          "Yeah, I guess," I answered.

          "You're Donatella?" Xenia stood up and walked in a circle around me, looking me up and down. "Strange. The prophecy spoke of a beautiful, statuesque maiden of noble descent. You look only slightly better than the pigs I tended back home!"

          "Hush, foolish girl!" the old woman in the corner spoke up.

          "Grandmere, I was just joking-" Xenia began.

          "I heard you child. Sit in your place and mind your tongue, lest someone not as kind cuts it out," the woman spoke. She turned her attention to me after reprimanding Xenia.

          "Come closer child," the old woman beckoned from her corner. I walked to the old woman and stood before her. "Please, be seated." I sat on the cold, hard ground before her feet. "The story I'm going to tell you is just as true as it is false; just as applicable to your life as it a fairy tale; just as remembered as it is forgotten."