THE UNKNOWN WORLD

CHAPTER THREE

At dark, the woman returned and with her, four other girls, they were all young and pretty. They looked at Rebecca differently, it was obvious that she was older than they were, but because of how hard life has been for these poor girls, she looked like she was the same age as them. Her white skin contributed greatly to it too.

"Stay here, the buyer will come to see you" The woman said and left.

One by one, the girls went to the mattress and sat, Rebecca was still sitting on the stool.

Outside, they heard voices of people, then a man opened the curtains, he was holding a burning torch (a big stick with fire on it), Rebecca looked at it, she had never seen anything like it, it was really true that she was nowhere near the modern world. The man walked in quietly and a woman followed behind, there was no escaping this one, she was truly a Madame, adorned from head to toe with jewelries and with an unmistakable high class aura, she was middle-aged, looking tough and bossy.

"Only four?" She asked in disappointment.

"The slave market...." The man was saying when she held her hands up, cutting him off.

"No more slaves!!!, I told you I would have nothing to do with them, they are bad for my business" She shouted and then she saw Rebecca. "And where did you get this.... goddess?" She held Rebecca's cheeks in a loving way.

The man grinned. "Her parents sold her out" He said, Rebecca widened her eyes at the lie.

The woman saw it and smiled. " Such bold and beautiful eyes" She said. "I'll take her....., I'll take all of them" She said without turning to the other girls. "How old are you, dear?" She asked Rebecca.

"Unfortunately, she is dumb, Madame" The man quickly replied.

"That's good news, and still bad news" She turned to the others. "And these?"

The man, loud and chatty took it upon himself to introduce them to the Madame.

"This one is called Shema and she is 17 years old" He said pointing to a slender girl with lovely girls. "This one is called Hushim and she is 18 years old" He pointed to a beautiful, round shaped girl and the woman smiled at her. "The other two are called Noah and Kiri, there are siblings, aged 16 and 19"

"No 14 years old?, not even 15?" She grumbled something and frowned at the man. "What will I do with these old.... things, the men want the girls to be young, young blood, not some old women that don't know anything" She said distastefully and sighed and then turned to Rebecca with a smile. "And what about you my dear, how old are you?" She turned to the man. " Get her paper and ink, I want to know her age and name"

The man ran out of the room and returned with the requested items.

Rebecca held the brush and dipped it into the ink. She paused, she just couldn't write her real age, this woman will be so angry when she sees 25 on the paper.

"Come on, write something dear" The woman urged.

She wrote 20 and saw from the corner of the eye to see the woman smile satisfactorily.

"20 is a good age" She said, the man gaped and the other girls stared in unbelief. "You are still young, what is your name?"

Rebecca didn't want to lie about this one, she proudly wrote her name down, but no one was able to pronounce it correctly.

"Is it Re...bbe...cca? " The man said.

"Maybe her surname is Rebe , and her name is Cali , the short form of Calliste" Another man said.

"Enough, you idiots, I am not waisting time on uneducated idiots like you two, I am going to give her a name" The woman said. "I name her Sol , it is the Sun in Latin, and you don't know what Latin means either, idiots"

"The name is good, Madame" The two men laughed.

Madame Tirzah smiled proudly.

"They leave tomorrow " She said and walked out of the room.

The journey to Quin City took five days. Rebecca got acquainted with one of the sisters, the one aged 19, called Noah. She heard the sad story of their been sold by their drunk father while their mother was away working in someone else's farm.

From the outskirts of the city, Rebecca could see that Quin city was the centre of excellence, a sophisticated city.

I must be every young lady's dream to live in such a place. She heard the other girls giggle, they must have hated their former place, she however didn't hate her world, she just hated the circumstances she found herself.

Entering the city, she saw that there were no log houses, only stone buildings that looked like bungalows, except that it wasn't all that fashionable and almost had no touch of the modern ones. Over shadowing these houses was a palace, it was beautiful and quite sophisticated.

Their carriage stopped Infront of a house that looked like a hostel, from the look of it, it had no stairs and there were different women coming in and going out like a public house.

A woman came to them and led them into a large room, there were six bunk beds and a stool were beside each bed, it had this look of a modern hostel.

The girls were excited as they took their beds, they all wanted the upper bunks.

"They will kill themselves for nothing" Noah shook her head. "Will you take the one down?"

Rebecca nodded and sat and Noah took the one opposite.

"I wish you can talk, then I'll tell you so many things and you will tell me what you really want. I just.....want to go back to the farm and care for my pigs and goats and even the chickens, Mother can't manage without us...." She looked away to her sister and the other girls who were chatting loudly. "She is senseless like father, she doesn't know anything, who knows what those men will do to her, I heard a girl had to sleep with four men at a time, it was so horrible"

Rebecca stared expressionless. She wasn't going to allow Madame Tirzah do that to her, she hated the men of Quin city already, just by hearing what Noah said. She was going to call the shots, refuse to be a harlot for these despicable men. First, she needed to find the book woman and probably change this character she was portraying, it really didn't suit her.

A woman came to meet them, and brought three helpers with her, carrying trays of food.

The food she gave Rebecca was far richer compared to the ones she gave the other girls, and the other girls looked on with envy but Noah was all smiles.

'Too nice' Rebecca shook her head. 'I like her though'

After lunch, the woman returned to take Rebecca somewhere else, to a room where she took her bath in a n outdated bath tub made with smooth stones (They call it a bath) with two maids attending to her, and then she was taken to another room filled with clothes, and she was given one of the best clothes to wear. She was curious as to why she alone was being given the "Special treatment ", maybe it was because she was different, more beautiful, more smooth, different from the typical kind of women everyone in this world knew.

Madam Tirzah came into the room where she was being styled.

"Don't put too much make up on her, let her hair down" She instructed the stylist.

"But there is no hair to let down" The stylist cried out. She moved from the way so the Madame could see the length of her hair. Her hair stopped a little below her shoulder, because she had cut it off.

"That is no problem, it makes her look different" Madame Tirzah said.

"She can never find anything wrong with what I do, why?, it's because I am her star, no, I am her bright and morning sun"

Rebecca smirked without them noticing it.

"Long hairs are the pride of women, Madame, but she has the hairs of a man"

"It's alright, just go on ..... , she is booked already, I want her to entertain the guests at the "Night of the single man"(also called bachelor/stag party in modern times) of lord master Kol Othniel tonight"

(The term lord master is used for makes of higher rank, families that are next in the social ladder after the royal house)

"She is new, what can she do" The stylist asked.

"She doesn't have to do anything, her beauty alone will make the men crazy and the women envious" Madame Tirzah said, and scoffing, she added. "How I so long to put those proud, arrogant ostriches in their place, she could dance, I know Sol ....she may be dumb but she's got fire in her and she can maje the men stare...."

Rebecca listened.

"You are going to seduce those men, Sol, and you are going to do it well" Madame Tirzah said.