Egyptian Night

The beginning

Jasmine's hands trembled under the pressure of the tight, unforgiving metal shackles. A younger soldier who looked to be about 20 with shaggy brown hair and emerald green eyes was locking them back into place for the day's trek. The whole camp was tearing down for the day's trek while some of the unlucky ones, as they thought of it, were put in charge of the slaves. They'd just marched out of the small village of Provaro the night before and had at least several more days to go before they arrived back in Egypt. The whole trip had been for the purpose of subduing the small village. They'd been 'rebellious' in following the Pharoah's commands, or as the pharaoh and most of the people had thought, which led to the raid. Whether or not that was actually true was a totally different story. It could have just been motivated by the large temple they had which was filled with gold, jewels and other riches. Regardless of the reason, however, the town had been burned to the ground and the surviving villagers that were of any use were taken back as slaves. Jasmine had been one of the lucky ones, if you could call them that, and she'd been singled out for a possible royal slave. When they got back to the palace she'd been cleaned up and dressed for the pharaoh or prince. She'd heard through rumors that foreign slaves were often given to members of the royal family as presents. What a present.

The barren wasteland around her was intimidating, to say the least. Even if she did manage to escape where could she hide? For miles the cracked earth was completely void of any hiding places. Which was only a point if she was able to get away. The closest escape she could see was the possible clumping of several large boulders. It could have just of been a mirage, though. The sun was certainly throwing off enough heat to cause a heatstroke induced death, a mirage wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Besides the rocks the only other things were visible was the occasional hardy dessert bush. Not exactly a lush valley, not even as green as her village had sometimes been.

With a rough tug on the shackles her thoughts were soon brought out of the future and to the long hot trek ahead of her.