The Dragon's Slave

“Is this the girl?” the stranger asked, looking down at me, making me feel nervous and uncomfortable.   “Yes, this is Arabella,” my stepfather told the man, his hands on my shoulders holding me firmly in place. “She’s a good girl, sir. Strong and healthy and lovely manners. Pretty as a picture isn’t she?”   His words had me worried. My stepfather never complimented me. Usually he told me that I was ugly and worthless and forced me to wear tattered old rags. But today he had me dolled up in a pretty new dress, with lace and ruffles and flowers in my hair, just so that he could show me off to this strange man that I’d never seen before.   “And you’re sure she’s a virgin?” the mysterious man asked as he looked me up and down.   My stepfather seemed shocked by this question. “Sir, she’s only twelve!” he objected, sounding offended that the man would even ask.   “Good,” the stranger replied. “Make sure she stays that way.”   “What’s a virgin?” I asked innocently, but my stepfather gave me a sharp pinch on my arm, letting me know to keep quiet.   The strange gave me a curious look then. Cold and calculating. He had been looking at me the whole time, but it was only when I spoke up that he seemed to realize he was looking at a human being rather than an object. Out of nowhere, the man suddenly dropped to one knee so that his eyes were level with mine and grabbed me by the jaw, forcing me to look at him.   He was a handsome man. That was easy enough to see. Tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and a well defined jaw line. His hair was well groomed and black as the night sky, but at the time I barely noticed any of that. All I could focus on was his eyes. They were not like any eyes I had ever seen before. They were red. Deep, dark, blood red, like the eyes of a demon. Eyes that seemed to ensnare me, lock me in a trance and gaze into my very soul. As much as I wanted to, I could not look away.   His gaze seemed to last for an eternity, until finally he released my jaw, rose back to feet and turned to address my stepfather. “She’ll do,” is all he said.   “Thank you sir,” My stepfather said respectfully, taking his hand from my shoulder to hold it out greedily towards the man with the demon eyes.   The stranger reached into his pocket and pulled out a large, leather purse. “Consider this a down payment until the child comes of age,” he told my stepfather as he placed the purse in his hand. “Be sure she is well cared for until then. If she perishes or is otherwise damaged before the time comes, my master will not be pleased.”   “Yes, sir. I understand,” My stepfather said, bowing his head to the stranger as he quickly pocketed the money, with a broad smile on his face. No doubt he’d be heading straight to the local tavern this afternoon, and every last penny would be gone by the morning. “No need to fear, sir,” he assured the handsome man. “She’s a good girl, she is. She’ll be intact when the time comes.”   “I should certainly hope so, for your sake,” the stranger warned him, shooting me one last bewitching glance before turning and walking away.   As soon as the man was out of sight, I turned to my stepfather. “What just happened?” I asked curiously. “Who was that man, and what was all that money for?”   But a moment later I instantly regretted it as my stepfather gave me a sharp slap across the face for daring to question him. “Keep your mouth shut, girl! Haven’t I taught you yet to mind your own business? The money’s mine, you hear! I’ll do as I damn well please with it and that’s all you need to know! Now get to your chores before I beat you bloody!”   The old man didn’t have to tell me twice. I took off down the hill at a sprint, glad to get away from my stepfather and the creepy stranger with the demon eyes. I ran as fast as I could until I reached the meeting spot where I knew my best friend would be waiting for me.   “Arabella!” I heard her calling me from the berry bushes as soon as I arrived. I wasn’t sure why she sounded so surprised to see me. We met up at the same spot almost every day.   “Hi, Charlie!” I greeted my friend. Everyone in my village called her Charlie, even though it was a boy’s name and her real name was Charlotte. She was probably the biggest tomboy I’d ever met, and much tougher than any of the boys in our village, too. “Sorry I’m late, the old ogre kept me back to meet this really strange man,” I explained. (The old ogre is what I called my stepfather when he wasn’t around.)   “What are you wearing?” asked Charlie, completely shocked as she stared at me. Of course. I’d completely forgotten that I was still wearing the pink, lacy dress my stepfather forced me to wear this morning.   “Oh yeah, I should have changed before I came here,” I realized. “The grumpy old ogre made me wear it when that weird man with the red eyes came to see me. I must look really silly.” I said with a smile.   “You look beautiful!” Charlie declared, her eyes wide, with a huge smile on her face. “I’ve never seen you in a dress before. How could your parents hide you away under those rags all this time? You look like a real life princess!”   I was shocked into silence for a moment by her words. No one had ever called me beautiful before. “Oh, don’t be silly Charlie,” I dismissed her compliments, blushing red with embarrassment. “It’s just the dress that’s pretty, not me. Anyway, we should get to work. Those berries aren’t going to pick themselves.”   Charlie and I both laughed as we got to work. Our families were so poor they could barely put food on the table (even those my stepfather always seemed to have enough money for alcohol) and so part of our chores was to collect as much food as we could find in the forest. And so all day, we gathered wild berries, roots, mushrooms and a few shriveled up apples. At one point Charlie saw a rabbit, and was about to shoot it with her bow and arrows, but I snapped a twig and scared it away. It would have been good to have had some meat on the table, but I just couldn’t bare to see the poor little creature hurt.   After I filled up my basket with as much food as I could find, I decided to take a break from my chores and headed down to the lake to go swimming with Charlie and her brothers. The four of us had so much fun. We stripped down to our underwear, climbed to the top of the cliff and jumped into the water below! It was a hot summer day, and the water was so lovely and warm. We splashed each other and held contest of who could hold their breath the longest, and Charlie and I climbed onto her brothers shoulders and tried to push each other off. It was the best afternoon ever! Until the old ogre found me.   “What the f**k do you think you’re doing?” my stepfather roared at me as he watched me from the side of the lake.   Oh no. I was in trouble now. “I’m sorry, stepfather. But I already gathered as much food as I could fit in the basket,” I told him, assuming that he was angry at me for going swimming instead of doing my chores. I was wrong.   With his face red with anger, he marched across the path towards the lake, knocking over my basket of food and spilling it to the ground, and stomping my beautiful pink dress into the dirt. He then waded right through the lake, not caring about his own clothes getting wet, and grabbed hold of me by my hair, pulling it so hard that I screamed.   “Hey, let her go!” Charlie yelled, punching at my stepfather, trying to get him to release me. But her two older brothers stepped in to hold her back. They new better than to mess with the meanest, cruelest man in town.   My stepfather dragged me all the way home, yelling insults at me the whole way, until he kicked open the front door and threw me to the ground in front of my mother, still in my underwear and dripping wet from head to toe.   “Oh, sweet Jesus!” My mother screamed, clasping her hands over her mouth in shock when she saw me. “What happened?”   “Your little slut of a daughter was swimming half naked in the river! Throwing herself at a group of boys like a w***e!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Although I was too young to know what the words slut and w***e meant, I knew that they were insults. And judging by how angry he was, I knew they must have meant something very bad.   “Is this true, Arabella?” My mother asked, looking absolutely horrified.   “I’m sorry, mother!” I cried, wiping tears from my eyes. I knew that she and my stepfather were very angry with me, but I just couldn’t understand what it was that I’d done wrong. “I was just swimming with Charlie and her brothers! I didn’t mean to do anything bad!”   “The hell you didn’t!” My stepfather yelled, kicking me hard in the stomach.   “No, don’t hurt her!” My mother gasped, dropping to the floor to comfort me. “It’s all right darling,” she said as she gently brushed my hair away from my face. “I know you didn’t mean any harm, but you need to listen to your father.” I gritted my teeth in anger when she used that word. The old ogre wasn’t my father. My father was dead. But I knew better than to say those thoughts out loud.   “You have to understand dear, you’re not a little girl any more,” my mother told me. “You’re much too old to be splashing around in the lake with boys. People are going to get the wrong idea.   “Not to mention she’ll be completely worthless if one of them ever puts his hands on her,” my stepfather added.   My mother glared at him for that comment, but was not brave enough to defend me. “It’s not so bad now, while you’re still just a child. But you’ll be a woman soon, and women need to be careful around young men. Especially you, dear.” At this point my mother suddenly looked extremely sad, and wiping tears from the corner of her eyes.   “You see, you won’t always be with us,” mother told me, crying. I didn’t understand why. “You’re going to have to leave some day, and when you do, it’s important that you’re still pure. That no boys have ever done anything inappropriate with you. And that’s why, I’m afraid, I think it’s best that you stay away from the boys in the village. You can play with Charlie, and the other girls, but I don’t want you playing with boys any more.”   “What?” I asked, horrified. This was the worst thing that mother could have told me. I wasn’t allowed to play with boys any more? Most of my friends were boys. In fact Charlie was my only friend who wasn’t a boy. I couldn’t stand the girls in my village. They were all blonde and pretty and they made fun of me because my clothes were always dirty. All they were interested in was boys and clothes and make up, when all I wanted to do was to read.     I had always loved reading, ever since I was little.I loved books so much that I could quite happily read all day. Every night I would stay up late and read books about love and romance and fantasy and adventure. In fact, the only thing I loved more than reading adventure stories was going on real adventures with Charlie and the boys. But I couldn’t go on adventures any more, because I wasn’t allowed to play with the boys ever again.   “You heard your mother!” my stepfather snapped at me. “And because of your disgusting behaviour today, you can go to your room without so much as a scrap of food to eat! And, I have another punishment for you!” he told me, grabbing hold of my arm and dragging me up the stairs.   Once I was in my room he threw me on the ground and locked the door behind him. “You might have your mother wrapped around your little finger, but I know what you really are,” he told me. “A no good, worthless, filthy little w***e!” I still didn’t know what that word meant, but I could feel his hatred when he said it.   “If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll be pregnant by the time you’re thirteen. Well, that’s not going to happen on my watch.” All the time my stepfather was talking, I could see him taking off his belt. He then slapped the leather strap against his own hand, causing a loud crack that sent a shiver down my spine. “I’ll show you what happens to no good, dirty sluts in my house!”   The beating that followed was hell. He beat me with his belt over and over, absolutely covering me with welts and bruises from head to toe. When it was all finished, I just lay on the floor and cried for hours. I hated my life so much I wanted to die. My father was dead. My stepfather hated me. My mother didn’t care enough to protect me from him. I was forbidden to play with most of my friends ever again, and now my stepfather had beaten me so bad I would barely be able to move for days.   This was the worst day of my life. I thought my life couldn’t possibly get any worse than this. Little did I know, I was about to find out how wrong I was.