I tossed and turned in bed. I had gone out drinking with my friends last night and I was feeling it, though this isn'twhat I had imagined a hangover to feel like. I always thought it would be a splitting headache and nausea, but weirdly enough my body is what hurt the most. I didn't feel like I had to throw up at all, but I had drank so much that I don't even remember coming home. This was my first time drinking like that, in my twenty-three years of life I of course had had alcohol, but never had I been drunk. So drunk that I couldn't even remember coming home. I had yet to open my eyes, for fear of the headache, this might not be my house. I now kept my eyes shut for a whole new reason.
What if I open my eyes and I am in some man's room, my body did hurt? Maybe I got lucky and my friends brought me home, and I was simply sore because I passed out somewhere in a drunken stuper. But what if..."
I slowly peeked out one eye... I wasn't in my house, I shot up from bed only to realize I hurt all over. I looked down and my body was covered in bruises, and the dress I had worn to the club was no more, now I was covered in which could only be described as a potato sack.
I was trafficked, I must have been. This is so much worse than I thought.
I looked closely at my bruised body, some of the bruises seemed... old? There were bruises on my legs and arms that looked and felt fresh, but my shoulder had a large bruise that was already yellowing. Upon closer examination I was much much skinnier and paler too.
What happened to me? Was I unconscious long enough for bruises to be inflicted and to heal?
I looked around the room to see just where I stood in what could barely be called a shed walls made of rotting wooden planks, space between that allowed sunlight to peak through. I was sitting on a wooden cot that had a blanket laid on top. On the wall was a door; well if you could call a doorway with thick fabric draped across as a door. I looked down again at my feet and felt the hair that had been sitting down my back, start to slide in front of my face. It was a silvery white. No longer was my brown frizzy hair, it had been replaced with this long silky (albeit very dirty) silver hair.
What on earth has happened?
Then I heard someone approaching I started to shiver in fear. I didn't know what had happened; this could very well be my kidnapper. If I was lucky it might also be my rescuer, but I didn't have much faith in that idea.
"ELLE! ELLE! Get your lazy ass out here! Why do you think someone like you can sleep in! Get out here now if you don't want another thrashing!"
I didn't know who Elle was, I felt bad for the person... but I also felt relieved. Relieved that I was not Elle. Before I could breathe though, a large angry man came stomping in through the fabric covered door.
"I warned you brat!"
The man grabbed my arm pulled me to the door and slapped me across the face. As I fell to the ground I was kicked in the stomach. The air left my lungs with the kick, leaving me gasping on the ground.
"Elle you are to come when I call you, and you are to do your work! If I had known you would be so useless I would have never bought such a girl. Go labor over the farm as you were born to do." The man left.
I managed to catch my breath, and tried my best to stand. I hurt so bad I had never experienced pain like this? I'm not Elle, I wanted to say, but I knew that saying that may just anger the man again. I looked around me and could see a herd of cattle in the distance, grazing in a green grassy field. I hobbled over to the animals, hoping for dear life that that was what Elle was supposed to be tending to. In my head I continued to practice what I wanted to tell the man; how I could get away from all of this.
I'm sorry sir, but I am afraid you are.
mistaken. My name is not Elle, I am. Genesis. I don't know where Elle went.
No not that, the real Elle might get in trouble if he thinks she was shirking off her work
Hello I am Genesis, Elle's... cousin. I know we look very much alike, I did her chores for her today, but I must go home now.
He would surely not beat me again after I had done what was asked of me (or more so what he had asked of Elle), and revealed my identity. If I look like Elle then he would believe we are just family... right? Family's do share certain traits, maybe this lie would get me away from here. I repeated that in my head over and over. I needed to remember that line, enough for that man to believe my story.
I finally managed to hobble to the field, and in that field I spotted a barn in the distance Near the barn I could see several other women going about, as well as another person out with the cattle.
I had never been anywhere near a cow, but I knew I needed to get to that barn. Slowly I inched forward through the cows. I quickly realized though, that other than the occasional head lift, the animals didn't seem to mind me. I quickened my pace, and finally managed to get to the barn. I woman ran up to me. She had short wavy blond hair, and looked to be in her early twenties.
"Elle why are you so late?" the woman asked.
I opened my mouth to try and explain that I wasn't Elle, but before I could she pulled me into the barn, shouting about what I should have already started doing.
"None of the animals have had any water today thanks to you. You somehow managed to sleep through letting the cows out, watering all of the animals, AND MILKING. Honestly we might all get a proper beating thanks to you. I know you got an awful kick yesterday, but if you are alive you need to get here on time now lets go mind the chickens.
I followed her lead through the barn and into what looked like a built in chicken coup. A few brightly colored birds were still inside, but by the size of the coup I could tell that there must be many more, most likely outside. The woman grabbed, basket opened the door and walked in. I followed closing the door behind me. I stood by the door and waited for any kind of instruction. I looked to see several small water containers on the ground completely empty.
Well hurry up and do your dumb finger tracing thing. The woman said as she pointed to one of the empty dishes. I walked over to the dish and looked down inside I saw a symbol I didn't recognize, but for whatever reason I knew meant water. I bent down and nervously began tracing the symbol, I truly hoped that this is what the other woman meant by 'finger tracing thing'. As I finished tracing the symbol water began bubbling up through the metal dish. As though it was magic... no way, there is now such thing as magic it must be just some mechanism foreign to me. I looked back to the woman who was seemingly talking to the chicken sitting on eggs.
"Gerty I am telling you there aren't any babies in those eggs... How do I know? Because there is no damn rooster. Now get off those eggs or I will pick you up and throw you outside my self, now go out with the other girls."
The chicken hopped out of the nest box giving one last look to her eggs that were being put in the basket. She gave a few clucks.
"I know you will make more tomorrow, and the same thing will happen tommorow. Go ask the other girls about it." She seemingly told the chicken. "Uhh", she groaned, "dealing with the new ones is always a pain." This time speaking to herself.
She looked back at me. I was just standing there staring.
"Have you only filled one dish? Hurry up and do the others. Do I really have to list off everything?" She asked, then quickly started speaking as though she was trying to imitate someone else. "First and foremost start from little to big, after all that's how everything should start, even if it is inconvenient to the likes of you. Remember water, food, cleaning, then mental health." She gave a scoff, before continuing in the same voice. " First, the hens cute little things, though I wouldn't touch them, that is for the help. Then the cows remember to talk to them, because it makes them feel loved and it makes their milk and meat taste better. Then Queenie is last, though she is the most important of course because she is part of the family, though spend extra time with her, do everything withing your power to make her happy." She stopped her immitation "puh-leez that women knows nothing do you know how annoying playing therapist to a hundred cows, they are so dumb she has no idea, but I have to talk to them one by one every day anyways. That's what tattletale makes sure of. Hurry up get to work you have the easiest job after all, just that face of yours that is the issue."
I forgot to follow her instructions as she was speaking, with a bit of a jump I tried to do as she said. I looked around for more wayer dishes to trace, then I looked for any more symbols I could fine. There was one symbol in a dish that was different than the rest the others; this one said 'hen grain'. I traced it with my finger and chicken food began to appear out of the metal dish, just as the water had. I could understand the possibility of water bubbling up from seemingly just metal, but these grains boggled my mind. Was this magic, for real? I Didn't have time to think about what that had been because soon the yelling of the other woman got me back to work. I traced several more things each just as mind boggling as the one before it. One made all of the dirtied hay in the coup dissapear, while another one made fresh hay appear. Another cleaned all of the chicken feces off of every service. I looked down at my fingers wondering which was magic, me or these strange objects with odd symbols. In a few minutes we were done. The other woman had spoken to the chickens in a group so we could move faster.
"Don't tell the masters I had a group conversation with the hens." She asked me, though it sounded more like a threat. I nodded and continued my work with her.
As she had said earlier next were the cows each had a brand on the side that seemed to be another symbol. I traced it and the cow seemed to freeze in place. A new woman threw a bucket at me, which I miraculously caught, though it did hit my stomach making me wince.
"So after that kick yesterday you are fine paralyzing the cows huh? No more of that animal cruelty talk." The new woman said.
"I...I...I", I tried to stutter out that I wasn't the Elle, whom everyone seemed to think I was.
Before I could try and talk anymore she laughed and said, "Better hurry up cotton ball, that little spell of yours will wear out quick, don't want another kick.
I scoweld and began trying to milk the cow. It was much harder that what I thought it would be. I had tried pulling each udder in several ways before I finally managed to get it right. I decided that trying all four utters would probably be a good idea, though on TV they only ever milked too. The cow's head began to move, and that was my cue to move one. I noticed that the girl who had been taunting me earlier was milking cows earlier. While my cow was frozen still her's was not, though it wasn't moving much anyways. She was an ugly woman, which I believed suited her personality. Despite being in the same line of work that Elle was she was stout as though she was eating all of the food meant for everyone else. She had dull brown frizzy hair that had been cut short and very much unevenly, her nose was pushed up reminding me of a pig, and to top it off her face was covered in either acne or some sort of rash. Her looks brought me some solace, after all she did throw a bucket at me, and my bruised and battered body wouldn't be able to do anything back to her.
Several hours were spent: paralyzing cows, bringing full buckets of milk into a silver milk can, being yelled at by the rude ugly woman, and watching the first woman go around and talk to cows. We finally got to the last of the cows which were near a fence, leaning on the fence was a boy of maybe fourteen.
"You sure you got all of those cows?" He asked, for some reason his voice gave a shutter down my spine.
"Yes young master. Though someone was late." the ugly woman said, glaring daggers at me.
"Tattletale" I heard the first woman say underneath her breath.
"What was that Penny?" The boy said again.
The new woman who I now new as Penny responded through gritted teeth, "I apologize young master. It was a simple yawn, due to my fatigue of today's work."
The boy looked at her with distain then moved on to me.
"Oh Elle, I can barely see any beauty on your face with all of those bruises."
He grabbed my chin causing my eyes to water a bit. The man hadn't hit my chin earlier, but for some reason it hurt none the less.
"You know you really should behave, after all, your looks are the only reason you are here at all. And men don't find a purple woman to be particularly pretty." He took his hand away, then left the three of us.
"You are such an asshole Hilda! Why did you have to bring Elodia down like that in front of that tattletale?" Penny yelled coming to my defence.
Though I wasn't Elle, or Elodia. I assume Elle is short for Elodia.
Hilda snapped back "She needs to learn from her mistakes. She can't get away from everything just because she is pretty."
Once again Penny came to my defence. "Look at the girl she is black and blue all over. Given how she acted today I am sure she is concussed, and she hasn't been fed in two days. She hasn't gotten away wifh anything!" She yelled before grabbing my wrist and going back to the barn.
"Thank you." I told penny shyly.
"We need to stick together, if you get offed or sent away I am stuck doing everything by hand again." She didn't say this with any form of sincerity. She was completely genuine with her words, making me feel like a tool.
No I don't feel like a tool... It's Elle she is talking about.
We finally got to Queenie, which I found out to be an extremely gorgeous horse. I didn't know anything about horses, but even I could tell that this one was exceptional. Penny began talking to the horse, I went around in the stall finding and tracing new symbols. Once I was done I sat down and waited for Penny to stop talking to the horse.
"Yeah I know she is insufferable, but if she or the masters hear me talking like that I wil be as purple as Elodie over there."
The horse looked over to me. I stood up and did a slow turn, trying to humor Penny. Though she didn't crack a smile at all, it seems she was dead serious about communicating with the animals. Was it truly not just coincidence that the horse looked at me when it did? Was Penny actually talking to the animals? I suppose the conversation she had with the chicken earlier didn't really sound like she was simply talking to a pet, she looked like she had a conversation. I sat back down and stretched. I was sore from such a tiring day. After nearly twenty minutes she got up, said goodbye to Queenie the horse, and I followed her once again. By the time we left the barn it was already night fall. I followed her across the field and into the edge of a forest. There was a small pond, I looked back up, only to see Penny stripping.
"GAH! What are you doing?" I said as I turned my head.
"Taking a bath, now hurry up and get in. If you sleep in again you might just get beat to death tomorrow." She taunted.
I quickly got undressed, I imagined my face was bright red. I looked into the clear water, which shown bright in the moonlight. I saw my reflection, no this wasn't my reflection surely not. This face wasn't mine even through all of the bruises and swelling I knew this wasn't right. My eyes were most definitely brown yesterday the eyes I was looking through now were the lightest shade of blue I had ever seen. My hair was long yesterday, but it was nothing in comparison to this silky slivery white hair. It flowed all down my back and nearly to my waist. My curvy physique was gone I was almost entirely skin amd bones. My it was hard to tell the color of my face, but if it matched my arms it would be very very light. I had silver freckles dabbled across the bridge of my nose and cheeks, which would likely go unnoticed had I not been closely looking. Even my bone structure was different. I wasn't Genesis anymore. I was Elodia
"What happened to me what happened to my face?" I said not actually expecting an answer.
"Uhh you got kicked by a cow, and the chickens told me they saw master smack you pretty hard." Penny responded, "I think you may have been kicked a bit too hard, you are all over the place today."
I simply nodded. I then walked into the pond water, too shocked to even feel the biting cold of it. I softly rinsed the days filth off of my body, no soap was available. I rinced out my hair, then quickly got out, put on my potato sack dress and ran back to the shed in which I had awoken that very morning. I cried, I cried hard, but I stopped my tears quickly. I need to figureout what happened. This wasn't a dream; the pain was far too real to have been dreamt up. The other girls called the man who beat me Master, and the gross teenage boy young master: which means I must be a slave or a servant. I then recalled that before my beating the angry man had mentioned buying me. That must mean I am a slave. There is magic here, so I must be in some sort of different world. I can make weird things happen by tracing my finger along certain symbols, Penny can talk to animals, and Hilda... well she hasn't shown me any powers as of yet.
"Magic, a new body, slavery, a whole different world. Isn't this shit supposed to be limited to manga or cartoons!? What is this crap!" I yelled. I knew thinking about it was useless now. I laid down on my wooden cot, and let the day's exhaustion consume me. Soon I was asleep.
It was a brain aneurysm ma'am. This. wasn't anybody's fault. They are rarely even discovered until it is too late. I am sorry but your daughter is gone.
I could hear a woman sobbing, I think it's my mom.
I shot up out of bed in a cold sweat. Was that a dream, or did I just find out that I died. Did I end up here because my sole needed a body? Is that how life and death work? I don't know, but I did know I wouldn't be going back to sleep. I decided to start farm work, at the very least this meant I wouldn't be beaten for being late. I ran across the field. Half of the cows were sleeping, while others had begun to awaken as morning was nearing. I quickly went to the chickens, the barn was nearly pitch black, but I had just enough light to see what I needed. I opened the small door that would let the chickens outside. Then I grabbed the basket that Penny had used the day before, and started gathering eggs. Some of the hens were very against me taking their eggs, but I managed to get all of them, even if that meant a few scrapes and bruises. They would likely complain to Penny later. I didn't know where Penny had taken the eggs earlier the day before, so I set the egg filled basket on a low shelf. I began fumbling around trying to find all of the symbols in the dark, but I managed. By the time I finished with all of the chickens the sun had begun to rise, letting beautiful rays shine across the fields. I worked hard milking cow after cow. Yesterday I learned that exactly half of the cows were brown and half were black and white. Like yesterday I began to milk the brown cows, remembering to trace the symbol on their flanks. I had gotten through about twenty cows before Hilda showed up. She had a visable scowl on her face as she trudged towards me. I could tell she wanted to yell at me for some reason or another, but instead she kept walking. She walked wand walked until she got to the edge of the forest then let lose a scream. This was no ordinary scream, this was deafening she was nearly a mile away, but it sounded as though she were screaming directly into my ears. Weirdly enough none of the animals flinched. I saw her walking back, and despite my curiosity I put my head back down and continued milking the cows. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing me watch her. Before too long she was near me again, she passed right by me, and gave another scream on the opposite side of the property, making me grind my teeth. She came back again. At this point the sun was nearly in the sky and I could see Penny rushing into the barn, looks like she was the one who had slept in today. It was past noon before I finished milking my half of the heard. I then walked to Queenie's stall. I cleaned up using the symbols just as I had done yesterday. I had finished my work far earlier than the others, and I took this chance to have an early bath. I ran to the pond that Penny had showed me the day before. This time I washed not only my body, but my flour sack dress. I got out of the water to hang dry my dress on a tree, then returned to the water to relax. Soon evening had arrived I had spent most of my time in the water, just floating about and thinking. I was hungry and wished I knew where to get food. I walked a bit into the forrest to see if there were some kind of edible plant, not that I could identify any even if I did spot something. Soon I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Thanks for getting the eggs for me, you really saved my ass." I heard Penny say behind me. "What are you even doing back there?"
"I Haven't had anything to eat for days, I was hoping I could find something edible in here." I tried to explain.
" You won't find anything in there cept' poison oak." Penny said with a bit of a smirk.
I flinched, then walked back the way that I came. I had questions that I needed answers too, lest I need them later. So I began asking everything that I had thought to ask in my hours of soaking. Luckily for me I could excuse my foggy "memory" as it was a side effect of being kicked.
"Penny my thoughts have been so jumbled since that kick. I can hardly remember left from right, can you answer some of my questions. I don't need anymore reason to be beaten or mocked by Hilda." I asked.
"That makes sense. I guess I am the smartest person here, what do you need to know?" Penny said with a grin
"Before the cow, why was I beaten? What magic does Hilda use, is it why she screams? Why doesn't anybody else use the symbols? Can you really talk to animals? Are we slaves? Is slavery legal? Who are all of our masters? When and where can I eat, do I get drinks? I am super thirsty. Does Hilda use this pond too? Where do you two sleep? Are there more people like us?" I asked quickly not even taking a breath.
"Hold on hold on. You really don't remember squat do ya?" Penny asked. I simply nodded. "Okay I'll start with what's most important. One. We have three masters: Master, the tall old guy, Madam the old guy's wife, and Young master, the tattletale. If you get on any of there bad sides for any small reason you get beat. Two. Your food is usually thrown in your room. Check the floor there is probably some bread, that's what we get. Three. There is a rain barrel behind Queenie's stall, that's how we get water. There is a ladle you can use, in a drought you can drink the pond water, but I wouldn't reccomend it unless it is the only option. Four. We are slaves, slavery is legal in most of the empire. Five. As far as 'Magic' goes, I think you mean skills. Those screams Hilda does every morning, for whatever reason predators and omnivors hate it. So it keeps away anything that might attack the animals. She's a banshee. My skill is supreme communication, I can talk with any animal, human, or demihuman regardless of language." My eyes went wide when she said demihuman, but I stayed quiet. "Your skill is very rare. You can symbol summon. Only you, and people with your skill can read those symbols and activate them. To everyone else they are just useless scribbles. Me and Hilda, we share a hut unfortunately. We were bought at the same auction, so they just put us in the same building; you're newer, that's why you got your own shed. Is that it?"
I thought for a moment. "Oh I still don't know if there are other people with ma... I mean skills. You also didn't say why I got beaten before." I said, feeling a little bad that I had been pestering someone who had just finished work.
"There are people all over the world with special skills. Though they are typically either the wealthy or nobles that can't be touched, or people like us. You know because someone with a skill can be sold for more that those wifhout. As to why you were punished... could be a number of things. One of the more common ones is the Madam thinking you were teying to seduce her husband or son. Usually it is young master who is the one flirting with the help, then we get in trouble for it. That's why Hilda thinks she is so high and mighty, because she has never 'seduced' her masters. We both know thats because she is a pompous pig." I laughed a bit at that. "Usually the master only beats us when we have actually done something: sleeping in, slacking off, talking back, skipping out. Stuff like that. Tattletale won't beat us, but he will run to his mommy if any faults are found, sometimes he just makes things up. He enjoys watching us suffer. He kinda prefers just harassing you though. You have an amazing skill, but the deciding factor for buying you really was your appearance. That brat begged and begged for the "pretty one"."
"I see." I said a bit downcast.
"I know I didn't give you any happy answers, but that's the life of a slave. Be happy though, a lot of slaves have masters that force themselves on them. I don't know if it's because Madam is so over protective or he just doesn't think like that, but our master doesn't do anything like that. The young master might try in a few years though, wouldn't surprise me." She said the last part with worry and sadness.
I gave her a light hug before laying down on the dirt. We both just laid there in utter silence and stared at the sky. As the sun began to set I asked one more thing.
"Hey, where do you put the eggs after you gather them." This caused her to laugh a bit.
"Not gonna tell you, last thing I need is being sold again."
We got up and walked back. I headed to the barn where I found the barrel of water and drank like a camel. After I couldn't drink anymore I went to my shed. There was a moldy piece of bread on the floor, but in that moment it may have well been a sirloin steak. I ate like it was the last time I would ever see food. I laid on my wooden cot tomorrow I would have to do this all over again. I noticed for the first time how callous the tips of my fingers were. All of that tracing must have caused that. Despite the repetition I knew, somehow this was only the beginning. Of what, I didn't know yet.