By instinct, she took after Delah, ran around the captured people, burned and bloodied. They stood listless, huddled in small circles, ready to be herded into the barge at the first entrance of the ship.

Leptis kept running to the first entrance only a few strides away. Before she reached it, a hard shove on her shoulder knocked her down. She looked up in the red and brown mud and saw a man running from her. She recognized the back of his balding head with strands of mustard colored hair. His purple short-sleeved shirt, like a beacon, gave away his position in the crowd. When she got up, something felt out of place while patting on her belt and pockets.

Her Reedpod pouch--it was gone!

Darting in the opposite direction, she caught up with the thief and slammed into that foul creature. The impact caused him to fall face down. She had a triumphant feeling, pinning his hands behind his back. He smelled of sweat and brine.

“You shouldn't have done this.” Leptis spoke in his ear and pressed his face into the dirt. “Where is it? You know what I'm talking about.”

He brought his head up gulping for air. “No, no, no I don't know what you mean.”

She pushed his head into the dirt again. “You had the nerve to call me out on the ship. And all of a sudden, you're snatching my pouch. All you want to do is use this for yourself.” She kept him down while searching his pant pockets and felt the bulge. “You're not going to kill any of my people with this. There's a better way to escape. Now get up.”

She pulled him up by his collar and noticed a guard running to her. “One more word out of you, informant, I'll have to kill you. Do you get that?”

He sneered. “I could've made it.” The informant's eyes turned to the guard closing in on them.

“Not with me around,” Leptis answered back.

“Ma'am, is there anything I can do?” The guard stopped before them and poised his hand over the plasma whip.

She flashed the Ident Badge.“No, I've got this informant under control. Take him to the right boarding entrance.”

Leptis shook her head as they left and pulled the hood tighter around her face. If the guard had seen she wasn't wearing a mask, he would've asked questions. A sigh of relief escaped her lips. The Ident Badge and nose mask really did pay off, thanks to Commander Le-Yetal.

She darted back around the soldiers, hearing the yells of Araidian guards and seeing the captives shoved and whipped into the barges.

They won't take Delah from me, she vowed within herself.

●

“Move the slaves!” an Araidian guard shouted. The plasma whips seared tender flesh. Black scars and a foul acrid scent of burned skin turned Delah's stomach. She watched droves of people push her forward. Their feet clanged and shuffled on the grating of the deck.

The sky, trees, buildings even her shack had disappeared, gone, just like that. How could this happen? How did she get here? She turned and looked around while tall figures in front and behind crowded her and blocked her vision. Enclosed in a pungent and heated ship didn't help her nausea to go away.

She held her stomach and stopped. She was lost and abandoned. Tears burst like a flood while she stood crying, praying for her mother to rescue her.

“Move!” the guards barked.

Delah felt arms covering her like angel’s wings and she heard her mother’s voice.

“Don’t cry. Just stay close to me. And whatever you do, don’t let go.” Leptis, her mother, had found her. Delah smiled. She snuggled under the burnt cloak, clinging to her mother’s waist. She felt her mother trembled and clung tighter.

The captives crammed together while standing or sitting in the cargo ship. Delah pushed away the cloak. She watched her mother's frantic searching eyes. The child understood. Other family members may have been captured.

“I don't like it in here, mother. Why can't we go home?” Delah's words were muffled as she pressed against Leptis for comfort..

Chairs, couches, beds or pillows would've made the trip bearable, but there weren't any. These rude Araidians allowed only standing or sitting room on the deck. They didn't even serve her drinks. She looked up the hull and felt the chilly air spewing from the above vents and bit her lip.

Stinky, puked up ship. I hate it! Delah seethed inside, wanting to stomp on the deck and hit the hull with her hands. She closed her eyes to calm down.

The odor of sweat and fluids suffocated her. Delah finally burst into tears. It was all her fault. Maybe she angered God because she hid a secret. Her shoulders shook while she buried her head deeper into her mother’s chest. Some villagers' voices she recognized as they wailed. She heard others fail at fighting back the black-garbed monsters by the snap of their whips.

“Momma… momma, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Shhh, child, I know.”

Leptis's arms held her closer as Delah felt the ship descend. The people that stood and sat on both sides of the ship, grabbed a thick rope netting along the hull. Delah understood why they gripped the netting. They'd slide in the direction of the ship's slope. Her mother squeezed her while the vibrations, thumps, and loud metallic groans increased.

“We're entering North Araidia’s slave port,” the guards echoed up and down the huge aisle. “Prepare for landing.”

When they disembarked, Delah witnessed throngs of creatures forced into dilapidated tents throughout the port’s craggy mountain. Her feet sank into the dark red mud, sticky and foul as she entered the camp where the guards placed selected captives in cells without prison doors or bars. She noticed how a few Shatarians were shocked from invisible shields. That kept them from escaping. A tight grip squeezed her stomach while she held onto her mother’s hand.

No meat pies or even reedpod juice awaited them. Only mud shacks within the camps, and pools of human waste bordered the base of the huge rock. That’s why it stank here. The child also understood why the wise men of Irema had taught her poverty was the destruction of the poor. There was destruction and sickness here. Old men appearing the age of the village elders looked ready to die. Hope wasn’t in their eyes. Young strong males, like her cousin, weren’t to be seen. She circled around and didn’t see any boys or girls her age.

Nobody?

Suddenly, her mother was counting under her breath. Delah realized she was counting the guards and how many slaves.

Leptis spoke softly in the child’s ear. “Look ahead. Don’t react to what I’m going to say. Act normal as if nothing is happening. Squeeze my hand if you understand.”

Delah squeezed.

Her mother continued. “We are going to escape right away. Though I know this place, we don’t belong here. We’re both Araidian and must not be discovered.”

●

Delah wasn’t her natural child. Leptis inhaled deeply. If they were discovered, there would be devastating retribution. In Irema everyone thought her father to be Hamnor, the brother of Jamis of the House of Ruyles. He had taught Delah the Shatarian ways as a king would teach a princess. Principles, honor, grace, strength, and morals were areas that had been continuously drilled to the young one. However, her biological father was Araidian and mother, Shatarian.

Leptis peered at the frightened child’s round face. She had to get back to Irema to bring this precious child to safety.

She could see the sluggish black-garbed guardsmen with their cumbersome octo-mechanical bipod aides. And she observed they were distracted by the raucousness of the new cargo of slaves.

Apparently, the recently deceased Watchman must have assigned mostly older guards. Only a few were appointed, probably, because of the long-standing peace treaty between the Shatarian Council of Irema and the ruler Government Watch of Araidia—of course, headed by the Watchman himself. As result of the agreement, the slaves never attempted escape, only to uphold the treaty and ensure protection for their villages. The attack had to have been contrived by that vermin, Eyetna, who was the new Watchman.

Leptis speedily took no thought of her next move and circumvented the guards’ distraction of the new cargo to her advantage. She dashed into a ditch and waited a moment for a guard to walk further away. And he did. Leptis snatched Delah’s hand. They climbed out and raced toward the bulwark shields, the weakest part of the main city’s shielding.

                                                                                                                                                        To be continued...