Legend of FIVE: Shadow in the Lake

Saa'vorq

"Is it gruel again?"

Rebecca wanted to be difficult. She disrupted the daily routine set for her; one where two guards walked into her cell, silent and scornful.

One of them always carried a wooden bowl filled with bitter grey slop or stale bread. While the first guard fed Rebecca with one hand, the other hand wrapped itself around the spear.

The other guard had their weapon drawn and pointed at Rebecca at all times.

"I don't like it," Rebecca declared to the guard who fed her. "It tastes weird. Like throw up. Is that how you make it? You should throw it out."

The first guard—a muscular woman with black hair, tanned skin and golden eyes—they all had golden eyes, Rebecca realized—glared.

"We can always starve you to death instead," the guard said with a sharp tone.

Every guard had sun-kissed skin. They draped themselves in dark violet outfits that weren't too revealing but allowed their bodies to breathe. The choice of clothes was no doubt due to the heat.

During daylight, Rebecca perspired in blistering temperatures. At night, her thin body shivered from an unspeakable cold, though the guards begrudgingly brought her blankets to her to lie beneath.

Rebecca couldn't see the lower half of her captors' faces; they covered their mouths with veils. She wished the women did the same for their eyes.

Rebecca didn't like the way the women looked at her.

"It's not my favorite," Rebecca said. Her stomach wrenched from hunger. "That's what I meant. It's OK, I guess."

"That's what we thought, girl."

The guard tossed the bowl into Rebecca's lap. She treated her like a curse that could be touched, with the way she kept her distance from Rebecca and the wall.

A wooden spoon stuck out from the lumpy sea that was her meal. The first guard snatched the spoon out from it and shook her head.

"Let's get this over with," she sighed. "The usual. Open wide."

Rebecca sensed the snarls behind both veils. She ignored them while the first guard shoveled the gruel in her mouth.

Rebecca hated how embarrassing the moment was for her. She felt like a toddler, like someone whose age reversed to the time they were in diapers.

The only part about this that Rebecca liked was the guard's misery in carrying out this duty. When the guard was done, everyone seemed relieved that it was over.

"That should be it," said the guard, scooping the bowl up from Rebecca's lap before backing away.

"Is the bowl empty?" Rebecca asked. "You're captain obvious."

The second guard scoffed and snapped at Rebecca in the strange language. Rebecca figured some of the words were cusses.

She smirked at the woman's frustration and how it carried over to her calmer companion. They both despised how their so-called prisoner treated them.

Rebecca didn't care.

She was going to give them attitude until her very last breath, no matter how badly it turned out for her.

The guards' voices grew shrill as they continued complaining. A rush swirled in Rebecca's chest.

Her chains rattled as she balled both hands into fists. She stamped the ground with her bare feet as best as she could, despite the chains.

"Quit talking like I'm not here!" she shouted. "And speak Ingles! Or 'common language,' or whatever you call it. I call it English. At least be mean to my face so I can understand it, putas."