The Dragon and The Nomad

(1) The Nomad

Amara

“What are you daydreaming for?”

I jump. I feel her warmth from behind me and I instinctively move out of her by sidestepping. The bulk of the sheets in her arms are larger than her, but she maneuvers expertly up the steps of the stairs. “Sorry”

“You’ve been out of sorts lass!” Marina grumbles ahead of me. She’s one of the few cleaners here who doesn’t seem to mind the smell or the fact where those sheets went through. She hugs them close to her body, so she doesn’t have to go back a second trip up the stairs to the laundry room. “Get your head out of the gutter”

I smile at her. Her words might be harsh but she’s the nicest person I’ve met in this job. The s*x workers don’t really like talking to us, and I chose to respect that. “I’m sorry just remembered that I should be sending my parents a message”

“Didn’t your last communicator finally die?” she grins at the memory.

My old communicator has been with me for a decade ever since my brother gave it to me when he left our nomadic clan. It was the only link I have to him, but it finally died the first few months that I arrive in this poor border town. I just remember hearing a fizzle in my pocket and the heat of the communicator almost singeing my skin. Marina helped me take the fire out of my pants before we turned into a laughing heap on the floor.

“Yeah, I also need to go to a center to get their codes, but the nearest one is too far inland.” I hoist the basket up. Feeling it slowly slip from my grip. “Do you know any place where they could scan old codes from a dead communicator?”

She hums. Her hips swaying while we finally got to the laundry room where the scent of fabric softeners violates my nose. She drops the pile of linen sheets with all sorts of stains on the tiled floor and looks at the row of washing machines. “I’ll ask my cousins if they do”

“I’ll pay whatever amount it is” I put my basket down. I’m the only one who took a basket because I do mind what the sheets has went through. The smell still bothers me after months of working here and I don’t mind the extra trip.

“I’ll make sure to haggle with them. You’re helpless with money when you’re just as dirt poor as myself” She scoffs, almost spitting on the floor as she gazes at me disappointingly.

I blush. “I’m sorry, just never had to haggle in the clan before”

She scoffs. “What a life you’ve lived”

In the clan, everything was shared and given when asked if it was readily available. The communicator though was a gift from my brother from his own savings that he earned from the random jobs in the small towns we often stayed in. He’s the one who had this dream life in the mainland. Tired of moving around after a few days with no roots. He often complained to our matriarch about it, but what else could we do? He was able to leave, but for some odd reason, his messages stopped when he regularly called us before.

I was the first one to worry. Jaime was never the kind to deviate from routine since he’s obsessed with being organized. He left for three years and he regularly called to talk to each of us, which made it feel like he never left our family, but one day he just stopped calling and doesn’t answer any of our calls. Both my parents knew something was amiss, but they couldn’t leave the clan since they lead everyone, so it was all left to me.

Mama allowed my arranged marriage with Larkin to be put on hold till I find my brother. Papa even gave most of our savings to me, but the moment I left and entered a small town it was apparent that I am but a small human in the world of Dragon born. My money lasted only for a few months and I had to get a job to survive, but no one would hire a human with no formal education in a school. It left me being hired in a shady street where I clean a brothel for a living.

“Did you hear that the Madam has ordered a new toy?” Marina grimaces. Throwing the white sheets in one of the machines.

“Why the sudden interest?” I ask her. Marina wasn’t the kind to care about what people do to survive or any gossip or news about them, which is why it surprises me that she is willingly bringing this up.

“This is no ordinary worker Amara” She hisses between her teeth. A permanent scowl marring her face. “This one isn’t paid like the others or paid at all”

“You mean…this one is a slave?” My spine straightens. “Aren’t slaves outlawed here in Dracone?”

“Yes, it is. It’s the main reason why this one is borrowed rather than bought”

“Borrowed?”

“The Madam borrowed him for a month and someone else would be taking him in the next. He never stays long, I hear.” She dumps a precarious amount of detergent inside the mouth of the machine. “The manager has told me to keep our mouths shut”

It makes sense that the manager told Marina first since everyone follows her or rather is scared of her. There were rumors about her being related to a large local gang which made her untouchable in this town.

I nod. “I won’t tell anyone about this”

She grins at me, while pulling my basket towards her and dumping the contents on the machine beside hers. “I trust you, but you’re far too naïve for this world, you know? You are better off in that tribe of yours rather than coming here”

I smile at her. “I’ve been through stuff too”

“That I don’t doubt, but if you stay then there would just be more stuff to go through, you know?” She ties her blonde hair high up her skull with a leather rope. “Especially from what I heard from my cousins”

“Why? What’s different now?” I uneasily look around the empty room. There were only the two of us and the sound of the machines moving in their places. The strong scent of detergent and bleach still blocks my nose from smelling anything else, but even through the sound of the machines I could hear the moaning just through the laundry door.

“This slave” she whispers the word. “is owned by someone really powerful and is kept with guards and only the highest of the high gets to sleep with him. The Madam is only allowed to assign one cleaner to him, and I just hope that it’s not you for your sake”

I see the danger of what she’s saying. If anyone were to be this illegal slave’s cleaner, then your life would always be in danger from his guards and from the law. We are helping the Madam keep this person’s identity a secret and for a lowly nomadic human like me, I have no chance in a court. No money and no support, it would all just be a clusterfuck if I get caught up in it.

The guards could easily kill me too. If I did anything to help him escape his predicament or even breathe the word freedom, then they could easily kill me and dump my body in the river that empties out to the ocean. No one would ever find me then.

I prayed to Aegir, the Dragon God, that he’ll keep me from being chosen. I know he’s not the human god that our clan often worships and prays to, but I’m in the land of Dragons and perhaps Aegir would hear me better than the human Goddess Karin.

I nod. “I hope not too”

It was dark in the servant dorms when Marina and I finished our job in the main building. The dorms sit on the back of the brothel separated by a sandy courtyard without any signs of greenery at all. There was just a dying leafless tree standing in the middle of it and I have often seen s*x workers smoking there and rubbing the cigarettes on its trunk.

Mama would weep if she ever saw the state of the tree. She’s closer to Goddess Karin than anyone else in the clan and the faith frowns upon any sort of disrespect towards any tree as the forest is Karin’s home, where she gave birth to the five human nomad families.

“Marina!” Hannah comes running out of her room. One slipper flies behind her in a perfect arch and she doesn’t even turn to look at it. Her frazzled look made the both of us look at each other, knowing what’s coming. “I have news!”

 Marina sighs. Crossing her arms over her chest. “What is it? What’s got your panties in a bunch?”

I walk past Hannah to get her missing slipper, while she grabs Marina’s shoulder to steady herself. Her blonde hair in disarray and her face red from running the short distance of her room and to the courtyard. I pat the slipper down to brush the sand away.

“The new thing! It’s here!” She says.

Knowing what she meant, Marina grimaces. “And so?”

“The Madam is summoning all of us now to choose the personal cleaner”

I almost dropped the slipper back into the sand from hearing that. I didn’t think it would be that quick when Marina just told me earlier. Marina usually tells news a few days before it happens and it’s rare for her to have news that late. I seriously thought it would take a few days before any of these would happen.

Shouldn’t transporting an illegal slave be hard?

I put Hannah’s slipper close to her bare feet and she waves her hand to motion for me to move away. I didn’t take that personally and took a step back and stand beside Marina. Humans from towns never did like us nomads, but I understand that our cultures have diverged at some point and became so different from each other that I never really took how they treat me personally.

Marina is the first mainlander that I have ever met that treated us nomads decently. One of the many reasons that I like her even though she’s prickly at best and even grouchier in her bad days. She never really means anyone harm, but she grew up tough.

Marina sighs. “Well, a tiring day with the laundry and now we have to stand at attention to the main b***h herself”

I purse my lips to keep from laughing. “It’s not that bad”

“Not that bad?” She growls. “You did more work than I did! It’s good to let out some steam Amara and just talk s**t about those who wronged you. I swear you nomads are too much of a peace-loving hippies.”

I chuckle. “I still feel okay. I can stand to see the Madam for a few minutes and get this over with”

“God, it’s a mystery how any of those naïve nomads remained alive through the years.” Marina brushes Hannah’s hand off her shoulder and curls her fingers at me to follow her. “Come on, you little puppy. I must keep my eye on you”

Hannah sneers behind me. “A befitting name”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion” Marina hisses at her. Then her eyes flicker at me with a softer look. “I didn’t mean it that way”

I smile at her. “Truly, it’s okay. Let’s just go”

A few minutes later, we’re standing in front of the Madam’s room. My aching body wants to protest the slightest movement and standing is a chore, but I bite my tongue and look straight ahead.

The Madam in her glorious tight-fitting leather dress comes out a few seconds after we arrived. Her dark raven hair tied into a messy bun to show off her swan like neck. Between her fingers is a lit cigarette with the smoke reaching my nose and violating my lungs. It has been known that the Madam was once beautiful, but now time has caught up to her no matter how much she tries to intervene with modern medicine. Her neck always gives her away.

She takes a drag on her cigarette and blows the smoke on my face. “Is everyone here?” she lazily looks down on me.

“Yes, Madam” Marina meekly says. The same fake smile plastered on her face when she’s in front of the Madam.

“I know that you girls have heard of the news and I would like to clarify that if you breathe even a single word about this then I would make sure those guards and my dogs would feast on your body and be thrown to river Gerish. Understood?”

“Yes Madam” we all say in unison.

I regret standing in front with Marina just beside me. I always forget that the Madam likes blowing smoke on people’s faces and I’m her prime target now. It reminds me of the first time we met. It was when I was looking for a job to take me

“I would not lose his trust and the money I invested just because you couldn’t keep your mouths shut” she glares at all of us, but then her gaze lands on me. I had to look away from her hazel eyes, feeling something amiss in the pit of my stomach. “You, nomad, isn’t it in your people to keep your mouth shut for a favor?”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “It depends Madam”

“Depends on what?”

“If it’s honorable”

The Madam’s cackle is high pitched and hurts my eardrums. Her red lips stretching in an evil grin. “You do truly make me laugh, Nomad. Perhaps, the guards would find you amusing too. You shall become his personal cleaner and maid. Make sure to satisfy his needs and the guards, if you value your life that is”

Aegir apparently did not hear my prayers or perhaps this is Karin’s doing for my betrayal. Either way, it seems that I won’t ever have a decent sleep.