Milika heard the door of the nusert open. She knew those foot-steps. The quiet, soft steps of her mistress, Kalone. Kalone was extremly beautiful, with long golden hair and deep blue eyes. Kalone was the nicest woman she had ever met, even though her husband, Xenith, beleived niceness was weakness. Milika turned, smiling, to bow before her mistress.
"Straighten, quick now, I haven't much time." Milika straightened to look into those immense eyes. Kalone spoke again, "I am so very sorry. I love having you, you are a great nurse, and my children love you, but they have grown up, and I will have no more. Xenith wishes to sell you, and I cannot object any longer. He will be in here soon to grab you. I must go, I will miss you." The beautiful woman gently touched Milika's soft cheek, then turned and hurried off, tears in her lovely eyes.
Milika's mouth dropped, but she said nothing. She bowed as her mistress left, her hand reaching up to the spot that lovely hand had touched. Large, silent tears spilled from her blue eyes. "Sold? It cannot be. Have I grown so useless?" Milika had raised Kalone's children since she was five, the time of Kalone's first birth, and now the oldest was fourteen, and the youngest 11. Milika had been trained as a nurse of infants and young children, and there was another nurse for those over ten. There truely was no use for her. But she was still young, she could be re-trained, couldn't she?
Loud footsteps coming down the hall interuppted her thoughts. Xenith was coming. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and turned to face him, bowing as soon as he came in. "You! Get your belongings and be down in two minutes! You are to be sold!" She slapped her on the face, hard, before she could respond. "Yes, Master." She said limply, and he left, satisfied.
Milika hurried to grab her things and raced down the stairs. She knew two minutes meant less than one, or a beating. She walked out the door, shown the way by another sad Neko slave, her cousin. Milika smiled sadly at the younger girl. Xenith was waiting outside with the 'buggy', as he called it. To her, it was another horse drawn peice of wood in wheels. She woudn't tell him that, though. A beating would surely follow. There was another slave girl who drove the 'buggy', so she would be in the compartment under the seats, like usual. Milika reached the 'buggy' quickly, but apperantly not quickly enough. "What took you so long? I've been waiting forever!" He slapped her hard again, then grabbed at the back of her head, and slammed her face into the ground. He lifted her up by the hair, and threw her in the tiny compartment before closing the lid. She had kept her small bag, held with her mothers old belongings, tucked safely under her arm, and held it close as she passed out.
A little while later, the jolting stop of the 'buggy' awoke her. The girl driving, no doubt one of her cousins, neices or aunts, and Xenith's daughter, would be beaten for that. She cringed and wept softly as she heard the angry scream and the slaps and kicks. Then the compartment door opened, and she was roughly pulled out. She looked up at the driver girl, now bruised and bleeding, as she was, and kissed her own hand softly, then blew it to her. She was again slapped for this.
Milika looked around. She was at the trade center, like she had suspected. She had heard of it, but never seen it, belonging to one family all her life. She was a dragon man walking away from some beaten, and maybe dead guards with two slaves, a pretty girl and handsome, muscular boy. She watched as they dissapeared into the alley, and smiled for them. They had escaped.