The Former Slave

Chapter 1

The sun was shinning brightly as it began to wake up from its slumber and slowly rose high up to the sky. As it begin to do so, the town was starting to light up due to the sunlight shone upon it. Men and women of all ages started to fill the lane; setting up stalls, arranging their merchandise and some men are unloading big brown sacks from a wooden cart that was pulled by two black stallions.

Aria leaned back at the cage, adjusting her hands so that the ropes that binded her became less painful. She could imagine how red the area would be if the slave-seller untied it. Then again, it would be nice to not have your hands tied at all. But partly, it was her own fault too. Every time she and the slaves were ordered to stand in a line to be displayed to customers, Aria would always try an attempt to escape.

But so far, her attempts always ended up as a failure and at the end of the day, it would resulted by her getting beatings from the slave-seller and her hands tied almost every time of the day. And also, her foolish attempts earned her the title, 'wild slave' and she had not been sold yet as people would not want to own a slave they can't control.

The slave-seller was frustrated on this matter, which made Aria feel a little proud. Usually, slaves were never kept longer than 2 months because they were really easy to sell as they were cheap. But it has been 5 months since the day that she was labled 'slave'. Her heart felt like it was stabbed multiple times when she remembered the bitter event. She shook her head as she felt tears stinging her eyes. No, I can't cry, I have to be strong.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a loud whipping sound entered her ears followed by a stern voice shouting for them to get out of the cell. The slaves started to stand up and headed to the door of the cell which was opened a while ago. She struggled to get up because of the ropes that was tied around her wrists. She huffed in annoyance and when she finally stood up, the cell was already empty and she hurried to the door as the whipping sounds became more violent.

The brightness of the sunlight shone above her head and she raised her hand to block it. Unfortunately, her hands were tied together so she can't do so. She then proceed forward and enter another cell; this time, a more opened one with metal bars as the walls just in front of the previous one. It allows customers to take a better look at the slaves and choose the one that they favour and in the same time, it blocks any means of escaping.

When she stepped in, she could hear the door of the cell closed behind her followed by the sound of the lock clicking. She sighed in disappointment as the guard didn't forget to lock the door and quickly sat down. Aria planned to glare and give the death look at anybody who passes through the cell so that nobody would want to buy her. She heard that some of the women slaves were used as a toy by their master and were forced to give up their virginity almost every night.

She could not bare the thought of having to give up her virginity and lower her pride as a woman to a guy she didn't even know. That's why she is trying her hardest to not catch people's attention. But it's impossible. Because of her unique fair hair, she was the 'shinning' item among the other slaves and if not because of her death glares and violent actions, she would be sold a long time ago.

Aria kept her face as sour as she could as she watch the people come and go. The lane that was quiet during the early morning was now full with people selling and buying things. There's clothes, vegetables, foreign fruits, jewelry, animals and lots more. She watched them in envy. She had always wanted to be part of those people. The people who are granted the most valuable thing in the world; freedom. She had always yearned for it and daydreaming about it is one of her ways to spend her leisure time on. Being a slave that nobody wants grants you a lots of time to think about your surroundings.

A woman and her child passed by and the child made eye contact with her. She didn't know how, or why, but her lips tugged into a small smile and she gave the kid a little wave with both of her hands. The kid gave a frightened look in return and turned to catch up with his mother that is ahead of him. Aria was taken aback by his reaction and looked down at herself. Her clothes were covered with dust and was stained so badly that nobody would ever guessed that it originally used to be white. Her hair was in a messy knots everywhere and her face and whole body is smudge with mud.