The Tale of the Huntress

2. The Trade

The girl who was once filled with energy and shined liked the sun itself had withered away to a raggedy shell. She now stood on a small wooden staircase waiting for her number to be called so that once again no one would buy her. She was only 6 years old. Hardly a good buy since she was small in stature and too young to do much of anything yet. No offers had been placed on her brothers either because of the fact that they were children. She scraped her foot against the board below her in a feeble attempt to take her mind off of the painful shackles binding her arms but it did nothing to help. Her once lustrous green eyes were now dull and stared through everything, never fully giving notice to any one thing in particular. They had been taken away from their home about 3 weeks earlier and it had left a large hole in their hearts and heads.

"Number 12," her chains were tugged forward and she followed them absentmindedly to a dimly lit makeshift stage. In the back of her mind Nova knew that there was a crowd staring at her but she didn't bother to glance up from her feet. No one paid her any attention for a few seconds as her description was read off of a sheet. Once the auctioneer took a look around the Trade hall and deemed it useless to keep her around, she was pushed away.

"Wait!" A man shouted catching everyone off guard. The crowd parted to reveal an elegantly dressed man with a beaked mask to hide his face like all of the others in the salon. His mask was a deep red and silver that shined like royalty in the candlelit space. The stranger approached the stage and stared at Nova up and down before tossing his coin at the seller.

"I would be a disgrace to my name if I were to leave her in your care. She will come and work in my household," he said with finality. Nova's shackles fell and she looked behind her to the person who had freed her from the chains. It was the very same horrid man who had snatched her up the day that they were taken. He wore a gnarled expression on his face with a lip curled up in disgust that someone would buy her. Either that or the fact that his days of tormenting her were over.

Her little feet led her to the end of the stage where she faced her new owner. He pulled her down from the platform with a strong grip under her arms and then balanced her on his hip. The little one was surprised by the gesture and even wrapped her arms around his neck to hold herself up. "Thank you," she whispered and he gave her half a grin though she couldn't see it through to mask.

"Nova!" A shout came along with clanking chains and struggling. Centauri's face appeared for a second as he was thrown against the stairs by her former captor. He was dragged back into the unknown making Nova's heartbeat quicken in fear. The man holding her tensed up and flexed his hand with a tighter grip making her wince in pain.

"Who is this boy to you?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"Big brother," came her reply. He nodded after a few contemplating seconds and walked to the stage once more throwing down a few extra coins.

"I will take the boy as well." More struggling and then came the cry,

"I'm not leaving without Arcturus!" The man's eyes turned to Nova who was beginning to light up a bit at the antics that were no doubt taking place behind the scenes with the amount of scuffling noises they could hear.

"Dear gods what a mess," he mumbled to himself. "I will take her and her siblings. Now get on with it and release them to me," he commanded. The auctioneer would have probably looked stunned if it weren't for the mask hiding his expression. He scrambled down the stairs and came forth with the two boys after an exchange of whispers to figure out how many siblings she had.

The group of four left hastily after that and walked from the Trade room with all eyes on them. "Let her down. If she needs to be carried, I will carry her," Centauri demanded. The mystery man stopped and in a quick motion slapped him hard across the face. The two unaffected siblings turned to stare in shock at him as he grabbed his reddening cheek.