Chapter 24: Mate At First Sight

Pain.

"It is all I know now," Alma thinks in her mind. Sighing softly, she welcomes the agony of fresh bruises and open wounds from the whip. They hit the air, and she grits her teeth in order to stop the groan of pain rumbling through her chest. She closes her eyes, blocking out the entire city. She focuses on the way the breeze caresses her cheek and brushes her thin hair. She inhales the warm scent of the thick stew that the Drein rebels, her captors, are making. Her stomach rumbles, and ache in the center of her body.

"Alma," the voice, belonging to an older man, another slave like her, reaches in through her reverie. "Tell me more of your homeland. Of Pyrion."

Reluctantly, she opens her eyes once more, her shoulders sagging. "There is not much else to say. It is useless." She forces a small smile onto her lips. "We are stuck like this forever." She tugs on the rusting shackles locked around her wrists and ankles. Her flesh is beginning to peel and blister around the restraints.