Starlight (Book 1)

Chapter Seven

"Ro...I'm sorry to give your hopes up, but there just isn't anything to be done." Nicole's voice was absent of any optimism. Ro had been asking her question about getting back to the human realm all morning. "I understand that your grandmother is sick, but you have to think about yourself now. It's the only way to get through this life."

     "Nicole, that's the problem. I can't give up on her because I know she wouldn't give up on me." Ro voice was definite as she continued to brush down a beautiful chestnut mare. It was the fifth horse that she had done that morning and the first one Nicole didn't have to brush back over for her. She had finally gotten the hang of it. Nicole had asked her about her evaluation with the guards and how on earth she was chosen to work with the animals. Ro was confused by the question and Nicole explained that every new slave is evaluated and placed in the appropriate position. Ro must have slept through that part. Rosa had told her that working with the animals wasn't her doing. Someone else had put her in the position. Frankly she didn't care who it was. She was just happy not to be a Courtesan. Ro was also glad not to be doing the hard manual labor she had to endure yesterday, but she was sure that Rosa would come up with something for her to do once she and Nicole were finished with the horses.

     "You said her illness made her forget...maybe she has already forgotten you." Nicole had a serious look on her face, but pity in her eyes.

     "No she hasn't!" Ro threw her brush down, "She wouldn't forget me!"

     Nicole stopped brushing her own mare, "Ro, you need to calm down." She looked over her shoulder to see the empty doorway to then back at Ro, "Just get back to work."

     Ro grabbed the reins of her mare and began to lead her back to her stall. She didn't want to talk about it anymore. She had been trying to calm down for the past four days. It made it easier to keep telling herself that she would make it back to Grams, but the more she tried to find a way the more hope she lost. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but each day she spent away from Grams was a day closer to the day that the disease would eventually erase Gram's mind of any memory of her. It was a day that Ro had dreaded. She had promised herself that she would be there for Grams through all of it. Every doctor's visit. Every lapse of memory. Everything. Now Grams was all alone and there wasn't a damn thing Ro could do about it.

     "Ro I'm going to brush down the rest of the horses." Nicole called out to her as she locked her mare away in her stall. "You need to go to the pig pens. It will be time to feed them soon."

     Ro shut the gate to her mare's stall with a loud clank. It was only her second day of enslavement and already she was tired of it. Her body was aching. Exhausted. And her mind and emotions were so weighed down that she wasn't sure how long she would be able to hold herself together enough to find a way out of it.

     "Something wrong?" Nicole asked.

     Ro lowered her eyes to her wrecked hands , "Everything."

     Nicole cocked her head, "You know...I can't sympathize with you because this is the only life I've ever known." She took in a sharp breath, "But I know what it's like to be separated from the people you love." She opened a black gelding's stall, "I wish I could tell you that it will get easier, but I will not lie to you. I miss my family every single day, and I will always have hope of seeing them again. I wish I could tell you to have hopefulness..." Nicole brown eyes met Ro's distressed green ones. "Your grandmother is a world away. This realm is your life now. I know that it will take time, but you will learn to accept it. I want to be your friend. I want to help you in any way that I can. I will not give you hope that isn't there. I just won't do it. No one has ever returned to the other realm."