The heavy smoke still consumed your lungs even now that you were far from the village. You couldn’t see where you were going and this made the ride in the back of what you presumed to be a wooden cart disorientating.

Why had you survived when so many others hadn’t?

As you were jostled about, laying crumpled on the jute sack that was the only physical comfort to your predicament, you mourned the loss of all you knew. Of the people you had known for as long as you had lived with your Grandmother. Despite the blindfold, you saw each of them clearly in your mind, their smiles vivid and their laughter ringing in your ears. You choked on your emotions, and the lack of breathing given how much smoke you had inhaled during the fire now made it harder to swallow back the heaviness in your chest.

It was still surreal. One moment you were listening to the birds chirping in the trees and the kids from next door playing out in the courtyard as you hung out the daily washing. In an instant, the morning light had succumb to dark plumes of smoke arising from the multitude of homes going up in flames, the cries and sounds of fear tugging at your chest.

You should be back there now, ruined, gone from this Earth.

When you weren’t racked with guilt and sorrow, you contemplated that of your survival. From what you had heard from travellers passing through your village to the main city of this land, the power struggle and chaos that ensued was not something you simply walked away from. Those riding out under the army of the enemy took no prisoners with them. They plundered and destroyed all that stood before them, time and time over. You were not of noble birth; there would be nothing worth of a bounty over your head.

Especially with all those who knew of you now facing the afterlife.

After what felt like several days of travel, the cart jerked to a final stop. You heard voices, orders from the men you had come to listen to along your journey. They had been far too cheery for cold-blooded killers and it made your stomach turn, any desire to eat now long abandoned.

You felt items being pulled out from around you, the only miserable companions you had on this journey so far. You were part of that they plundered, the rare items of worth found in your village equally jostled around on the ride to wherever you were now.

“What about her?”

“She’s been awfully quiet, sure she ain’t dead?” another crooned, receiving a couple of sniggers in response.

You didn’t even have the energy to fear them, your disgust merely rolling out with a short scoff. And then a firm hand landed upon your shoulder. “Don’t worry of her. She’s mine.”

You were pulled from the cart then by that hand, your body w