ESCAPE TO SALVATION

1° part

The last fire went out in the oasis of the seven palms, that evening everything seemed calm, nothing foreshadowed what was about to happen.

The slave Alika put the children to sleep in the small bed inside the tent, some men including the pasha of the oasis lingered chatting in the field among the tents, the women had now all returned to their tents, some servants completed their work by cleaning the carpets and the low tables where everyone had shortly before eaten and drank together.

    The little princes Darian and Orlando did not want to fall asleep, they played with each other, joking with the little schjiava Alika, there had been talk for a long time of sending the little ones to a big city for their education, there was talk of Klima or AR, but everything was to be decided, the mother did not want to separate from her two children, but she was aware that one day they would leave for their knowledge and education on the planet.

    The elders of the oasis did their best to educate the little ones with the few parchments and old books in their possession, but they knew that it was not enough, the schools of the big cities were equipped with their libraries, and with the best teachers, the Pasha had said in the morning that he had learned from some passing merchants that there was a big city beyond the great river Wosk, it is called Olni and there is the best school on the Planet.

The two children unaware that their destiny would soon change were playing in the bed, the big one named Orlando had just turned ten years old while Darian the little one was only eight years old, Alika took care of them day and night, it was her job, she loved those children she had seen born and treated them as if they were her own children, her day began in the morning with washing them and dressing them and ended in the evening after having made them dinner and put them to bed, she would surely have rested for a few hours.

      Often Alika in her bed placed in the corner of the tent, thought about her life, she was not born in the desert but was the daughter of farmers who worked the farm, one day when her father had sent her to the port to deliver fruit for a Captain of a passing ship, she was captured by deception taken to the hold and chained, and despite her cries and screams, no one took care of her, they freed her from the ropes that kept her tied to a large barrel, and taken to the captain's room, now on the high seas no one would come to free her, she thought about what her life would be and the tears that her parents would shed for her.

     The Captain did not seem bad despite his gruff and rough figure, he lived in a beautiful, large and welcoming cabin, and Alika after a long time tied to that barrel could finally look around, with her eyes down and full of tears, she had heard many times of episodes of girls captured and disappeared, but she would never have thought that it would be her turn, the Captain said his name was Klarck, he told her that he would treat her well on the condition that she did not bother or that she did not try to escape, in the sea, because she would surely die eaten by sharks, and that as soon as they arrived in Port Kar they would sell her to some merchant or gentleman looking for a girl.

Port Kar at that time was full of ships and pirates, the port was crowded with people coming and going, Alika had never seen anything like it, in her small village of Degalbi in the archipelago of Cos everything was slow and quiet and life was simple, they had her washed and dressed in a clean white tunic, and the captain Klarck took her to the market, there many admired her for her simplicity and beauty, and around her a large group of men and women formed waiting for the auction.

She was sold to a rich Lord of the desert who with his escort of warriors and women in tow took her on his ship waiting to leave, another slave of that new master told him that they would disembark in Baku and from there with the caravan towards the Thahari desert, to reach the oasis of the seven palms, the new master was a notable of the oasis, and surely he would have given her to the Pasha.

While she was thinking about all this, some noises made her suspicious, she looked out of the tent door and noticed many figures armed to the teeth surrounding the tents, ready to attack and destroy the Oasis as she had heard they did in other oases in the desert, surely they were the Marauders who together with the panthers of the Shendi forest were plundering the poorly defended oases, she didn't think twice, she took the two children, put them in a large basket, covered them with a blanket, ordering them to be quiet, she cut the tent from the back and slowly slipped out to a large bush where she hid the basket, using her body as protection, meanwhile in the oasis the Marauders were killing and setting fire to all the tents and capturing the young women and children, taking them away, surely they would have sold them as slaves, the fire was lighting up the sky, what was a flourishing and lively oasis was now a pile of ashes, in the end everything fell silent,

Alike still didn't trust, she waited for dawn and slowly looked around, took the basket, put it on her shoulders and slowly I set off in the direction of the path of the sun, after many hours finally exhausted I met a caravan headed to Shendi, and precisely to the city of Korat, they welcomed her together with the children and after having refreshed her and let her rest they resumed their journey towards what would be their new life.

 

darianeditor

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxo