Dark Fire

\"I will not be sold as a slave!\" Enara screamed at her father. He strode across the room and slapped her across the face. No cry escaped her lips.
\"I will do with you what I will. You are an insolent useless child. You were a disappointment from the moment you came screaming from your mother.\"
\"I am your firstborn.\"
\"NO! You are a useless female!\" The king grabbed a whip from the nearest guard, and the crack of it against Enara\'s back made her fall to the ground.
\"Make her pay,\" said the king as he handed thip hip back. Enara was led to a pole in the middle of the room. She knew what was going to happen. She had seen prisoners tortured here. She said nothing as they tied her hands together around the pole. They pushed her to the ground, and the whip whistled toward her back. She made no sound when it hit, but fiery pain filled her body and intensified with each strike. It seemed to go on for hours. But then she thought she heard the door open, and the whip stopped. She barely felt the bonds being untied. A man held her and she collapsed in his arms. The last thing she saw before she fainted was the face of her rescuer.

Enara awoke in an unfamiliar room. When she tried to sit up, pain raced across her back and drew a gasp.
\"Please, you should not be moving. Your wounds haven\'t had time to fully heal, though my physician has helped.\" Enara turned to see who spoke to her. She looked into the face that she had seen before she blacked out. The face of the man she was being sold to.
\"Why did you save me?\" she asked Tronthien, for that was the man\'s name. Her voice would have been dripping with scorn if she hadn\'t felt like she was burning up from within.
\"I believe that you have every right to not want to be given away.\"
\"I\'m not being given away. I\'m being sold.\" The man winced at the bite in her voice.
\"Please, try not to see it that way.\"
\"How else am I supposed to see it?\" she asked.
\"Women are given away in marriage as part of agreements all of the time.\"
\"Except that the difference is that we are not getting married.\"
\"That is true. But it is my hope that we may come to care for each other and that you might consent to…\"
\"To what? To marrying you? It will never happen.\" Tronthien sighed as he stood.
\"It was my mistake to talk to you while you were still convalescing. I should leave you to rest.\" He walked toward the door, but turned back before exiting.
\"We will leave as soon as the healer says you can travel.\" Enara looked pointedly at the other wall. She heard him sigh again and then the quiet sound of the door closing. But she made no sound as the tears rolled unchecked down her face.

Enara sat quietly in the softly cushioned litter and read by the pink tinted light that filtered through the curtains. She would have prefered to travel by horseback, but the healer said that her back wouldn’t be able to handle it. And that was ignoring the fact that the healer thought it was inapropriate for women to horse back ride for such long distances anyway. At least Tronthien had listened to her request and had put these light, airy curtains on, as replacement for the dark, heavy, stuffy hangings women usualy wanted. As if knowing that he was being thought of, Enara heard Tronthien’s horse pull beside the litter.
“Enara?” he called inside, without opening the curatins. He had opened them the first time he tried to talk to her and she had berated him for it, so now he spoke through them.
“Yes?”
“We are going to be stoping for lunch very shortly. Will you wish to be served in there, or join me outside?”
Enara stoped herself from imediatly saying that she’d stay inside. He was trying to be kind. She decided that she might as well give this a try.
“I will join you.”
“Really?” Enara could hear the surprise in his voice, but she also heard some happiness as well.
“Yes. I’m sure the fresh air and walking will do me some good.”
When they stoped, Tronthien pulled back the hangings and gave her a hand down. She knew that all of the people’s eyes were on her. The men, becasue she was a stranger and she was beautiful. The women, because she was a stranger and they resented the way the men looked at her. He led her to a shaded area under a tree where he had spread a piece of fabric on the ground, and there were dishes of food sitting on it. When he sat down on one side of the fabric, she followed suit.
“This is very different,”she said to him.
“Yes, it is something that we have in our land called a picnic.” Enara smiled at that. Then, a young boy who had been making rounds to all of the lords and ladies, came and offered Tronthien a drink.
“And you m’lady?” he shyly asked her.
“Yes, thank you,” she replied as she held out her cup. When he had finished filling it, she smiled at him. The blood rushed to his face. He quickly bowed and hurried away.

A/N This is it so far. I just want to see what people think of it. And yes, there will be very bad stuff later on, including S&M, rape, more torture. So please review and tell me what you think.