Aruna's mother was a beautiful woman, even in the village she turned heads at the yearly dance. Yet no man in the village looked like her, nor looked at her mother with anything other than lust in the eyes.
Travelers were few, and only then did it resolve around the salt mines. People were born in the village, the lived in the village and they died in the village.
Aruna was born in the village, and if she spent another winter in her corner with that sack she was going to die in the village.
If she spent another winter in those mines, hands to froze to pick up the salt, she was going to die in the village.
If she asked her mother for a new dress, her current one too filled with holes to be repaired and shoes out grown years ago, she was going to die in the village.
If she didn't ran away from the older boys in the village, stumbling out the pub, she was going to die in the village.
Aruna would be beaten raw and not fed for days if her mother knew she had left the mines early to see the dance that she heard some of the village kids talking about.
But it was so worth it, the once book Aruna had in her possession was one of a orphaned girl who meets a prince of darkness, she wasn't allowed to attend school so she couldn't read the words, but the pictures.
The pictures of a handsome man surrounded by darkness had little Aruna giggling at her own thoughts. Her pet rock, borrowed from the stream now adored rubbed charcoal as they were acting out the book.
Aruna's favourite scene however was when the orphaned girl turned into a princess and were a beautiful dress. A dress so beautiful that even the local seamstress could not attain.
Aruna's dreams for years would be of the shadow prince and the ball gown, even as she shivered in the cold, with only her pet rock as a pillow and a flour sack as a bed.
Those would be her only escape and the only happy memories for Aruna until she aged to thirteen.
And if she had to watch her mother throw her pet rock and book into the fire again, she wouldn't cared if she died in the village.
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A guard was banging on Aruna's door, her heart almost left her body at the thought of something bad happening. Wrapping a dressing gown around her nightwear she opened her door to the guard, only to be told to immediately to to the place gates.
That idea terrified her, her thoughts went immediately to the orphanages or homeless, perhaps they were at the gate, Aruna prayed they were not cold.
Yet when she arrived at the gates her thought sent from prayers to an exorcism. Aruna hated very few people, her heart was to filled with love to hate anyone. Yet it had room for three individuals and the one she hated most was staring at her through the bars of the gate.
The woman who did not allow her a childhood.
The woman who still haunted her mind.
The woman who's face haunted her at every look in the mirror.
The woman her made Aruna vomit at the smell of salt.
The woman who was responsible for Aruna's short body, and constantly verging on sick health.
The woman who threw away any of the extra food, just so Aruna could not eat.
And The bitch had the audacity to smile.