Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Patricia ❯ Reunion ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One

Reunion

 

Black hair rippled around her face like a waterfall as she looked down at the wooden surface of her vanity. Her makeup lay strewn about the wood from the previous night. Picking up her lipstick tube, she twisted it until the ruby red contents were revealed. Looking up into the mirror, she carefully placed the stuff on her already red lips to make them even redder.

 

Her hand jerked in surprise when a knock came at her door, sending a streak of red across her cheek. She snatched up a white handkerchief and quickly tried to scrub the lipstick away as the person outside her door knocked again. “Patricia, open up, it's me, James,” a familiar male voice boomed.

 

Patricia gave a brief sigh of relief as she set her handkerchief down and let the streak of red alone for a moment. If it was James, it meant that her work would be cut short that night and the less male testosterone she had to deal with during the night, the better for everyone the next morning.

 

She got up from her vanity and walked over to the door and opened it. On the other side of the door stood a giant of a man, bulky with muscles he had acquired from years of manual labor during his time with the kings army, blonde hair bleached white from prolonged exposure to the sun, and blue eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.

 

“I know you're going to be busy tonight, Tricia, but I need to ask a favor of you,” he said, calling her by the nickname he had given her from the first time they had met.

 

“Anything, James. I still owe you one for getting me out of that jam with those drunkards the other night,” Patricia said with an earnest smile. Of all the men in the army, James was by far the one of the most civilized and one of the only people she allowed close enough to call a friend. He was one of the few that didn't try to take advantage of her because she was female, he was respectable, unlike most of the other soldiers that had joined the army for the sake of being able to pillage and destroy without getting into trouble.

 

“The second captain acquired another girl for the harem, a real young one,” James said, grimacing in disgust. Patricia understood his disgust as she agreed whole heartedly; they both disapproved vehemently about using younger girls barely into a double digit age as harem woman to please the soldiers during the night when they were off duty, but it was beyond James' control as he was only a third class soldier within the army ranks.

 

“I had heard of her through the normal talk of the other soldiers. As it turns out, she was rejecting those who came to her, and they would hurt her to get what they wanted from her,” he continued. “The second captain heard too and went to speak with her directly and told her that if she didn't shape up and start doing as was expected of her, he would tear her heart out himself. So I tracked her down and grabbed her before the nightly rounds of…you know…began and brought her here. I need you to talk to her and try to get her to understand why it's important that she does as she is told.”

 

James moved to the side to reveal a young, thin, pale looking twelve year old girl. She had strawberry-blonde hair and wide, frightened hazel eyes. “Kyra,” she gasped. It had been almost three years since her parents had sold her to the army second in command for the harem and almost five since she had seen her younger sisters. Patricia knelt in front of her sister and wrapped her arms around Kyra.

 

Kyra stiffened and tried to back away, but Patricia held onto her that much tighter. “You two know each other?” James asked, eyeing the younger girl. Just looking at the two of them, one couldn't tell that they were related in any way.

 

“Yeah, she's one of my younger sisters. Tell me, did another girl come with her?” Patricia asked as she stood and looked at him. She was dismayed that her parents had sold another of their daughters to the harem, but at the same time she was happy to see her sister all the same.

 

“Yeah, I think so, twins maybe. The other girl got stationed to do kitchen duty during the day,” James said quietly. “There was also a boy that came in with them; he looked to be about your age.”

 

Patricia swallowed bile down when she heard James' last words as the giant man walked quietly away, she shut the door behind him. “It looks like all four of us are all here now, huh?” she said, attempting a smile, but failing miserably. She trembled with fear and anger.

 

“How do you know us?” Kyra asked timidly.

 

“It's been five years since I last saw you, so you might not remember me all that well,” Patricia said, running her fingers through her hair. “I'm your older sister, the one that you might have seen talking often to William in the garden by the fountain.”

 

Patricia was seventeen and had been sold to the army harem at the age of fourteen. The last time she had seen the younger twins had been right before they had been sent off to a boarding school so that their parents wouldn't have to deal with their mischievous behaviors. She and her twin, William, had been left alone to contend with their parents for two years before the second captain came calling.

 

“Kyra, do you remember me at all?” she asked hopefully.

 

“A little,” the younger girl said nervously. “You were the pretty one of the older twins. Why'd you run away?”

 

“I didn't, our parents sold me to this place to make up for the bad harvest that year,” she lied. She had vexed her parents somehow and they had turned around and sold her to the army second in command when he had asked how much it would cost him to attain her from them. They hadn't even batted an eyelash when they named their price of six thousand five hundred and seventy gold coins, more than fifty times her weight in gold. Five years later, they had done the same to her twin brother and younger sisters.

 

“How did you end up in the harem, then?” Kyra asked.

 

Kyra had always been the shyer of the two younger girls. It had never been like her to ask many questions of people she didn't know, and not so many of the people she did know. Her hair fell about her face as she looked down.

 

“I was sold here. Is it true, what James told me? Do you fight those that come to you during the night?” she asked, kneeling in front of the younger girl and brushing the hair that hid her eyes away.

 

“Yes,” Kyra answered after a moments silence. “I don't want them touching me, it hurts, so I try and make them stop.”

 

“Kyra, to the soldiers of this camp, you're no better than dirt. You might meet some that think better of you and that won't take advantage of you because of your gender, age, or station, but very rarely will it happen,” Patricia said quietly. “All you can do is survive, and hope that one day you'll be free again, but to survive you have to do what's expected of you and sometimes it can be very unpleasant.

 

“The only way I get through the nights is by looking forward to the morning and to my daily job as a healer. I love the healer's job, its one of the few things I'm good at outside of the bedroom. Plus I get to work around people in a less physical environment, something I appreciate in itself, and people respect me for those skills.”

 

“How can you stand it? How can you just…” Kyra began, but burst into tears and buried her head in Patricia's shoulder. “Isn't there another way?”

 

“No. We were sold here and there's nothing we can do about it. All we can do is survive,” Patricia said gently. “I'll tell you what, I'm gonna try and get you and Kira out of here, or at least get the soldiers to lighten up on who goes to the two of you and get them to come to me.” She trembled as she spoke, not from anger, but from fright, she already had a lot to deal with during the nights and she wasn't so sure she could handle much more without seriously doing damage to her daily job.

 

Looking at her sister, though, she realized that if she could ease her burden somehow, it would be more than worth it.

 

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