The Dragon Prince's Slave

Marietta Everything looked white. I could hear voices but they sounded so far away, like they were at the other end of a tunnel. I groaned as something touched my hand and the voices started drawing nearer. The voices were loud… very loud, and I could also hear music. That was strange because no one played music in my village and I began to wonder if I was dreaming before a name suddenly popped into my mind. Crista. My memory immediately started to come back as the white vision receded hazily to the edges to give way to the world. My hearing returned to normal just as my vision did and I realized that the voices I had actually been hearing were screams. They weren't screams of terror, they were happy screams. I blinked rapidly as I took in my surroundings. I was in a corner of a horse-drawn cart that was moving down a street which was alive with music and celebration by people putting a show up and down it. I immediately sat upright but the sudden motion made my head spin and I groaned. I tried to press my hands to the sides of my head but realized that I couldn't because my hands and legs were chained together. What the hell? I began to shake my hands, trying to pull them from the chains even though I know it’s no use, as the last thing I remember came to mind. My best friend, Crista, and I had gone to the forest at dawn to search for lotus plants because we wanted to sell the roots and I told Crista that we should split up so we could cover more ground. Crista didn’t like being alone in the forest so she hadn’t wanted to do that but I convinced her because we had to go to the Northern Kingdom after we dropped the lotus roots off at the market. She only agreed after I said we would stay within hundred metres of each other and we had split up. It took me a while to finally find a bunch of lotus plants and I had been about to call out to Crista when someone suddenly grabbed me from behind before using a piece of cloth to cover my nose and mouth. I tried to scream and get away but the cloth that had been pressed to my face must have been dipped in some sort of sedative because the last thing I remember seeing was the boots of the person that had grabbed me. Where am I? Where is Crista? I began to panic while a feeling of dread crept up from the pit of my stomach and my head swivelled around as I tried to figure out where I was. There was a parade of soldiers and slaves beside and behind the cart I was in and the people on the street pelted the soldiers with red rose petals. The slaves were mostly girls and all of them wore rags, were barefoot, collared and followed each other in a single file. None of the girls were Crista and my heart pounded even harder in my chest because what if they had also grabbed her and took her somewhere else. I was snapped out of my thoughts by loud cheering and my eyes darted to the well-dressed people on the street. Most of them had awe written all over their faces as they looked up to the sky and I slowly raised my head to see what they were looking at before my eyes widened in shock. Dragons… Five dragons were flying above the buildings that lined either side of the street and my mouth fell open when I realized where I was. I was in The Dragon Empire. “Oh no,” I muttered under my breath as my heart began to pound wildly in my chest. "s**t, s**t, shit." The Dragon Empire was the oldest Empire in the world. It had seen kingdoms rise and fall either by war or natural disasters but it had never flinched. Of course, it had had its own fair share of wars and natural disasters but they had never been able to bring down the Empire. There had only been five wars against the Empire by other kingdoms but they had never been successful because the Empire had dragons, highly trained soldiers and really strong borders. After those five vain attempts, other kingdoms had accepted that the Empire could not be defeated and tried to make alliances with them but they were all turned down because its rulers didn’t fear them and the Empire had everything its people needed so there was no need for it to do trades with other kingdoms. Basically the Empire was really powerful and in it, power was everything. I lived in a small village that was close to the border of the Northern Kingdom which was a neighbour of the Dragon Empire so I was far from home - really, really far - and I couldn't help but wonder how long I had been out for. The sight of the enormous, scaled beasts flying above the street didn’t seem to frighten the crowd below but I was petrified, not only because of the dragons but also because of the situation I was in, and I wanted to get the hell out of here. I watched the dragons as they kept flying towards a huge building which had a blinding golden roof. When the dragons were no longer overhead, I began to move around in the cart as I searched for a way to get out of it and one of the guards sitting at the front of the cart struck the side of my pen with his staff. “Stay still in there,” he yelled and I immediately did so with a whimper. Why am I the only one in this cart? Where are they taking me? The cart finally left the area that the celebrations were going on in and turned into a different street that had only a couple of people on it but I could still hear people cheering and music playing from the street we just left. I swallowed as I stared at the guards sitting at the front of the cart. I doubted they would answer me if I asked where they were taking me to but it wouldn't hurt to try. "E- Excuse me," I called out and my heart pounded even harder when one of the guards glanced at me over his shoulder. "... Wh- where are you… where are you taking me?"  The guard stared at me for a couple of seconds more before the corner of his mouth slowly curved up and he faced forward again. I didn’t like that answer even though it wasn’t actually an answer and my eyes darted to the slaves beside the cart. Their eyes were fixed on the floor and I decided not to ask them if they knew where this cart was headed because the soldiers walking next to them had stern looks on their faces and they were holding whips. The slaves had different cuts and wounds on their bodies and I had a feeling they would get hit with the whip if they answered any question I asked. I whimpered as it felt as if something had walked through me, leaving me numb, and my mind was clouded with fear while we made our way down the street. Do they already know that I’m missing back home? Are they trying to find me now? Is Crista missing too? I returned my attention to my surroundings when I noticed the cart had slowed down a little bit and I saw that we were entering an estate. The slaves and soldiers didn’t  follow us and stayed on the street while we moved past short neatly cut grass that lay on either side of the path we were on, towards the impressive stone manor that dominated the grand, well-appointed estate. The manor was basically ego laid out in brick; it was overly large and ostentatious to the point of intimidation. Its nascent stone walls were a grey colour and the windows were oversized, more than a casual could count. It was extremely fancy and everything about it said ‘expensively built.’ I couldn’t help but stare at it in awe as the cart came to a stop in front of the large building because the entire estate was bigger than my village. The guard sitting at the front of the cart came down and moved to the cart’s door while I quickly shuffled away from it, my heart pounding in my chest, before he unlocked it. “Come out,” he ordered and I rapidly shook my head at him as I glanced at the servants that were walking around in the estate. “I said come out!” I tried to move backward again but my back was already pressed against a side of the cart and I shrieked when the guard’s hand shot into the cart and grabbed my foot. I struggled, kicking him with my other foot as he began to pull my leg and he grabbed that one too before pulling me out of the cart. I landed heavily on the ground and he wasted no time in pulling me up but the moment I was on my feet, I slammed my head into his. "Ah!" I hunched over, pressing my hands to my forehead, while the guard stumbled backward as the servants in the estate watched us. "You b***h!" the angry guard bellowed with one hand pressed to his forehead too and I turned around. The path leading out of the estate was clear but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away because of the shackles and even if I did get far, the soldiers were still outside so there was basically no chance of me escaping. That didn’t stop me from trying though. I began to hop away from the cart since I couldn't run but I had only moved a couple of metres away from the cart before the guard grabbed me from behind, his arm going around my neck. I instantly put my mouth to his skin and bit down hard, making him scream before he let go of me. I tried to hop away again but before I could, the guard's hand harshly connected with the side of my face and I fell to the ground with a yelp. "Vita!" the other guard that was sitting in front of the cart called out while I pushed myself to a sitting position. "Don't hurt her. Lord Greeves wouldn't pay us if she's sporting a nasty bruise so hold your temper."