Guardians of Plaxas

Chapter the Twentieth: Ruby

"Perry, what you got?"

I'm thrown into the center of a clearing, bloodied and bruised from being dragged along the forest floor. A cluster of men sit around the clearing, leering at me as I struggle to sit up.

"Oh, finally you got a good catch! Thank goodness for that! What is she?" asks a man on my right.

"A human. She was traveling our road. I got her in Center Forest. She was riding a horse, but I tied it to a tree a whiles back," answers the man who had caught me.

"Please," I mutter. "Let me go. I'm trying to get t-to the s-school of Plaxas."

"Oh, the School, eh? They've never allowed anyone but the students in there. You don't look like a student. Are you a student?" asks another man.

I slowly shake my head. "No, but my sister is,"

"Oh, posh! They don't care a thing for sisters! You may as well try to cross the ocean on that horse! It's impossible to get in," says Perry, kicking at my rib cage as he passes me.

"An' besides, we ain't gonna let you go. You're ours, now." says the one on my right.

"Perry, make sure to get her taken care of, and she can start tomorrow," says one at my head.

Perry picks my feet up again and drags me a short ways out of the circle to a cluster of forest-green tents. He drops me at the last one and calls in, "New recruit! Get her readied up for her first day, tomorrow!"

A woman appears at the door flap of the tent and picks me up, walking me inside.

Four women sit inside the tent, including the one who brought me inside. They're all dressed in very ragged clothes and they're smeared with dirt all over.

The woman who brought me inside sits me on a bench and begins wiping my face with a rag to get the dirt and blood off. None of them speak.

"Um, hello?" I ask. "Who are you guys? Who are the guys outside?"

One of the women waves her hands in front of her face, shaking her head. I guess that means no talking.

I'm led to a mat in the far corner and the lady urges me to lay down. I do, even though I'm not tired.

"You'll need your strength for tomorrow," she whispers.

"Kara! We need you!" cries one of the men from outside. The woman closest to the flap slips outside.

The other woman leaves my side, heading to the other side of the tent to tend to another woman whom I hadn't noticed before--she's lying on a mat and she's very pregnant. The first lady tends to her very carefully.

I'm brought water to drink and I stay in the tent all day. The other women move in and out of the tent throughout the day, doing various jobs for the men. They're all exhausted, I can tell, but they're used to this.

When night comes, they pull rolled-up mats out from under the benches around the tent and lie down. The men move around a little bit and then finally go to sleep.

A woman gets up and goes over to me. I sit up in the dark.

"We will help you," she says. I realize she's the woman who helped me so much when I first got here.

"Okay....why are you helping me? What about you guys?"

"You have a place to go, a family," says another woman.

"I-I'm sure you guys do, too," I say.

"Not anymore. They were killed long ago. You still have hope. We can get you out of here. You'll find your horse at the edge of camp. We'll bring you there,"

Five minutes later, me and one of the women sneak out of the camp, hurrying towards the forest.

Someone stirs within one of the men's camp, and then a voice. "Kara?"

The tent flap opens and a man's face peers out.

Kara pushes me forwards. "Run!" she cries, and I'm off into the night.