The Ending of the End: Broken Spirits

A woman stumbled forward, being pulled by the chains around her wrists which were held by the man on a horse in front of her. She had been treated like this for nearly a week. It was horrid, her wrists had bled and healed countless times so far, and they beat her mercilessly. She often found herself staring up at the green skies, wondering about the legends her grandmother used to tell her. She had always been told they used to be Blue, in the before time. She liked imagining it as blue, it took her mind off the events that were happening.

She was forced to a stop, being jolted out of her daydream when she connected with the horse. Her captor yelled ahead at two men approaching on horseback, both heavily armored. She watched them warily, almost seeming scared of them as they approached. Her captor was yelling horrible words at them, telling them to leave. She had never learned his language, it was a mess of jumbled up sounds to her, very different from her native tongue. She jumped back in disbelief as one of the men pulled a weapon off his back, and let off an arrow before she could blink. The arrow met its mark with a meaty thud, landing squarely in her captor’s neck. He made a gurgling noise before falling from his saddle onto the ground, dead. She tried to yank free of her chains, scared of the approaching men.

The first one to reach her hopped down from his horse, looking at her with light green eyes. His hair was light also, a sandy looking color as he spoke to her in the language of her captor. She looked at him blankly, not understanding a single word he was saying. He started speaking using different sounds, still none sounding familiar to her, until. “Can you understand me?” She nodded vigorously, “Yes! Yes!” The man smiled at her, removing a sword holding out his hand to her. She looked at the sword apprehensively, almost disdainfully before he explained. “I’m going to cut you free of these chains, and then you’ll be free.” She nodded slowly, offering her hands out to the man, shrinking back when he struck the chains severing them cleanly from her wrists.

His companion spoke in the language that her captor had, but the man translated for him. “My friend says that we can take you to the nearest town, then we’ll let you free to go where you want.” The woman shook her head, speaking slowly, uncertain of her words. “I can’t go anywhere… My village won’t accept me now, and I don’t know of any place. I stay with you.” The man looked at her questioningly, “Me? But, I won’t be able to provide for you on the road.” She shook her head speaking again, even more slowly. “I go home with you, to your family. And I will be servant.” The man began to object, but nodded slowly. He had seen her kind before, and probably would again so he had no use but to accept.

Several months passed with the woman acting a servant for his family. One day his child became curious and asked, “Daddy, why does she work for us like this? Isn’t she free, like everyone else?” The man, being even more battle scarred from the few months just frowned slightly, watching the woman clean the dishes from breakfast. “She’ll never truly be free, dear. The people who captured her broke her spirit, and once the spirit is broken there is no repairing it. She has had it beaten into her that she is a slave, worthless and made to serve others. So that is how she’ll live, believing she must serve others…” The child watched the woman also, frowning in a perceptive manner, seeming to understand what the father meant even though it was years beyond her.