Aisha spun and clapped as she danced her way around the crackling fire. The golden circlet around her ankle glowed brightly as it caught the light. She wanted to laugh with the others but she was not particularly happy.
Seeing an opening, Aisha slipped away from the ring of dancers. She used her first quiet moment to look around. She saw the faces of her friends all celebrating the same thing: her fifteenth birthday. Aisha shook her head and sighed; celebration was just something she’d never enjoy.
It was not her birthday to which Aisha objected. She simply did not like crowds, even a small group where the number of girls matched the number of years she’d walked the Earth.
“Dance, Aii, dance!” Leilelle cried merrily as she broke away from the others to try and pull Aisha back into the festivities.
“I grow weary, give me a moment of rest.” Aisha pleaded, mustering a bright smile. She must have done a fair job because Leilelle smiled back and twirled away.
The rest of the night passed quickly and the fire slowly died. The dancing girls collapsed in a circle around the embers and Aisha joined them on the sand. They whispered and gossiped and giggled back and forth until the early hours of the morning before one by one the girls drifted off to sleep.
Better rested because she had not danced for a great portion of the night, Aisha remained awake to watch the sun slowly rise across the Great Water. Sighing contentedly she sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees before resting her chin atop them as she gazed across the softly lapping waves as they sparkled in the early morning light.
Minutes passed and Aisha thought she saw something on the horizon. Standing to get a better look, she could just barely make out a shape in the water. It was a small vessel. Perhaps a fishing boat or a merchant ship, she thought. Unease pooled in her belly but she was hesitant to allow the sight to alarm her. After all, merchants and fishermen visited this area often.
Still unsure of whether or not to dismiss the sight, Aisha wandered closer to the edge of the water. Out of the corner or her eye she saw a dark shape. Turning her head, Aisha discovered a raft anchored just off shore where the beach turned into forest. It was a fair distance away along the shoreline but not so far if one were to travel through the woods. Curious about to whom the raft belonged, Aisha crept along the water line towards the trees until the sand turned to dirt beneath her feet.
Just as she reached the edge of the forest a mighty war cry sounded somewhere deeper in the woods.
Immediately recognizing the sound, Aisha spun on her heel and dashed across the wet sand as fast as her bare feet could carry her.
“Wake!” she screamed to her slumbering friends. “Rise!”
A few heads lifted drowsily to find out what all the commotion was about.
“Wake up!” Aisha called again but before she could say any more she felt something wrap around her left ankle and she fell face first into the sand.
The girls who were already awake screamed as Aisha fell. Their screams were more effective in waking the others than Aisha’s calls had been. The girls who were fully awake leapt up from the circle and sprinted across the sand in the opposite direction of the forest, heading back to the safety of the city, merely three miles away.
The war cry sounded again, this time from the beach as a hoard of barbarians descended upon the girls who were still trying to obtain their wits after a long night and little rest. Meanwhile, Aisha had recovered enough to roll over. She quickly sat up and was faced with the sight of eight or so men bearing down upon her.
YOU ARE READING
Slave Princess
RomanceAisha was a young girl when she was taken from her home and thrust into the hands of her enemies. In order to protect her identity, she changes her name and becomes someone else in order to survive in her new and unfamiliar environment. Will her str...
