The Ship of Siblings

The cell is filled with nothing but darkness and a simple blanket. Those who
reside there are in constant combat over who will get the one remaining intact blanket.
Some of the girls in the cell bear their fangs and claws, some are just standing on the
sideline hoping to jump in, and one is sitting in the corner glaring over the fighting girls.
The girl, who calls herself Lexine, wraps as much of herself as she can with one of the
torn blankets.
A flicker of light appears from down the hallway. All the girls in the cell are quiet
as they form in a line as they had been instructed to do so, except for Lexine. When the
light reaches the cell, a man holding a lantern in casual garb. He has a sword at his side
and simple armor.
“Hey, blondie! Get in line.” Lexine looks over to him and glaring daggers at him.
“Bitch what did I just tell you to do. If you don't want your situation to get worse, get in
line.” Again Lexine just stares at him. The girls in the line begin to whisper. “Screw it. If
you can't stand, I’ll make sure you won't be able to stand again.” The man pulls out keys
and opens the door. He walks towards her, as he tries to yank her hair she grabs his
wrist and digs a shank into his arm, and cuts him up the forearm. He tries to pull back
screaming in pain but Lexine pulls him towards her and wraps the torn blanket around
his head slamming him into the wall.
She quickly snatches a small dagger hidden in one of his side pockets. She
along with the other girls run out of the cell sprinting like their life is on the line. They
take a few turns before they are met with more ‘guards.’ They round up the girls one by
one, returning them to their cells.
“Make sure to do a headcount, make sure none are missin’.” One of the men
starts counting and stops at 14.
“Sir, we are missing one.”
“Well if we are missing one don't just stand there and tell me about it go fucking
find her! She’ll be worth a lot more now, as well as owing a lot of punishment.”
The guards go around looking for the complex but are unable to find her after an
hour of searching.
“Sir, I think she might have escaped.” He gets a punch in the face by the person
in charge, Greedy Fred. The man starts bleeding from the nose.
“Then you will take on her punishment.” Greedy drags the man into a separate
room. Lexine watches from around the corner, holding the dagger close to her. She
walks away finding the exit to this complex. It is night with a full moon, the skylight
brightens her evergreen eyes.
“Thank you all for your sacrifice. I will make sure your life and freedom will not go
to waste by allowing me my freedom.” Lexine walks the unfamiliar city, looking for any
remnants of a safe place to stay. After walking through the empty streets, she lights on
to what appears to be a tavern. The door opens with a creak that breaks the silence in
the tavern. There is a middle-aged woman at the bar cleaning, most of the remaining
patrons are passed out drunk on the tables and the floor.
The woman doesn't look up from cleaning her glass. “I’m sorry but we are not
serving ruffians tonight, please leave.”
 “S-Sorry… I didn't… mean to bother…” The woman looks in horror at the starved
child, who looks no more than 12. Long blonde hair reaching the floor with tattered
clothes and flies and ticks all about her muddied skin, the dagger still close to her chest.
“Sweetie what happened to you?! Who let you be in this kind of condition?” The
woman grabs a damp washcloth walking over to Lexine. She backed up at the woman's
approach, holding the dagger towards her.
“P-Please d-don't come-any closer…”
“Alright. Would you like some food, maybe a wash down?”
“I-I don't have any money…” The dagger lowers ever so slightly before being
raised back up.
“It's on the house. It would go against my conscience to let a small child go
hungry.” The woman starts fixing up some food.
“S-So you feed every street orphan that e-enters your place.” Lexine slowly
approaches the bar dagger held at a point.
“As many as I can. This crowd usually scares off children like you. How old are
you?”
“I-if I counted the y-years r-right…. T-the year is 1230 r-right..?”
“Yes, it is, It's currently July 15, 1230.”
“T-Then I should be…” Lexie starts counting on her fingers. “I-I should be 16…”
She pulls herself up into a bar chair, she sets her dagger down on the bar.
“Do you have a family? Why would they leave you in this condition.”
“T-They didn’t do this… but they are the r-reason I’m like this…”
“I see.” She hands Lexine a plate of food. “Did they sell you to someone?”
“No, n-nothing like that… I think…” She looks down at the food, her eyes widen.
“C-Can I really eat this…? I-Its not poisoned is it…?”
The woman looks at her with sympathetic eyes. “Yes, you can eat it. I didn’t do
anything to the food.” Lexine looks at the woman before picking up a bit of food with her
hand and tasting a bit. After swallowing it she begins to eat quickly trying to engulf the
food. A few big handfuls later she is handed water by the woman. Lexine takes the
water and drinks it.
“T-Thank you… I-I haven't… have food like this…F-for a long time…”
“It’s not a problem. Have as much as you like. Do you know where your family
is?”
“L-Last I remember they were across the sea… in the country of Droyye.”
“That's quite a journey. It’ll take a lot of money to journey over there.” Lexine
looks down, looking over at her dagger. “Say, I could use a hand around here running
this place and cleaning up. Would you want to work here until you made enough money
to travel?”
“Y-you would take in someone like me…?
“I will on one condition. You tell me how you got into this situation.” Lexine picks
up her dagger, running her hand along the blade.
“It happened when I was 10….” She looks into the reflection of her dagger. There
is a little Lexine, crying and yelling at her older brothers. She runs away and hides in the
garden bushes. She stays there crying before seeing a small rabbit. She chases the
rabbit outside of her fenced-in home when she is grabbed by the waste and someone
holding her mouth with a cloth. After a few minutes of relentless struggling, Lexine falls
unconscious. She is carried and put on a decent size ship where dozens of other young
girls are being held in restraints. She wakes to the sound of children crying. Someone
comes down with a massive sword screaming at the girls to be quiet, Lexine sees her
tattered appearance in his sword.
She sets the dagger on the bar again. “After waking… I lost track of the days…
trying to count the years when I could… and I…” tears start to swell in her eyes, “And I
only g-got out… b-because I sacrificed the l-lives of the o-other girls that were with
me…” She stares at the dagger, “Do I even deserve to live after what I did to them…”
She reaches for the dagger, but the woman grabs it.
“Desperate times, call for desperate measures. Survival of the fittest best
describes the situation you were in. We will report this to the guards, have them
investigate, and maybe help free those who you left behind. But you did nothing wrong,
Lexine.” Lexine almost starts crying when she looks at the woman with fear. She
scrambles to the floor.
“Sweetie, what's wrong?” Lexine looks for a weapon and sees on a patron,
quickly grabbing it.
“Stay away! Don’t come near me!” She holds up the dagger once again, shaking.
“Lexine I don't understand… Oh… shit I blew my own cover…” The woman's kind
appearance changes to a menacing stance. “Why don’t you quickly come with me
Lexine.”
“N-NO!” She runs out the door to meet some familiar faces turning the corner.
“There she is, after her!” One of the men yells. A chase throughout the city starts
dodging a weaving in between building after building before she runs onto the docks.
She runs down with the men quickly on her tail. As she runs down the stairs and
bumps into someone falling to the ground.
“Shit watch where you are going… a child?” Lexine looks behind her to see the
men watching closely. She turns back to the man.
“Please take me with you! I’ll do anything you want: servant, maid, daughter, pet,
sex slave I don’t care! Please don’t let them get me!”
“Woah Woah, slow down girly. Let who get you?”
“Them!” She points to the mean hiding by the buildings.
“I see. It's going to be a high price, are you sure you can pay it?”
“I’ll do whatever you want… I can’t go back there again… please don't send me
back there again…” the tears she was holding back emerge with a flood of emotions
shaking on the dock. The man picks up the girl and walks over to the men hiding
between the buildings.
“Are you here to give her back?”
“Quite the opposite. To get revenge for her.” He unsheathes his sword and a
sword fight begins. Their swords clash with a flurry of blows from both sides until only
one man standing, holding Lexine in one arm and the bloody sword in the other.
“Tomorrow, I will tell you what you will be doing. I hope you are ready for what you
signed up for.” He sheathes his sword and walks onto a large boat. He goes into the
captain’s quarters and lays Lexine, who is fast asleep, in his bed. After tucking her in
there is a knock at the door. The man opens it.
 “Captain, why did I hear fighting at 3 in the morning? Why are you bloody? Did
you pick another fight? Don’t tell me we are going to get banned from this country as
well!”
“Quiet. Can’t you see that there is a young miss who needs rest? Learn to keep
your vice down Lois.”
“Sorry, sir… Why did you kidnap a child?”
“What do you take me for, someone who sells children? She offered me her…
services… to save her. She will be put to good use.”
“Captain… what are you going to use her for…”
“Call it a morale boost for the crew. If they see a little girl working harder than
them it’ll get them working harder.”
“What am I going to do with you captain… Please don’t do anything reckless, we
cant be wanted in this country.”
“I heard you the first time. You brought it up. Now if you would please leave as I
tend to the child.”
“Yes… Captain… Good night… or good morning? Is it good morning… I don’t
know…” Lois walks away and the Captain closes the door. He begins to clean off Lexine
getting her into a new change of clothes, cleaning the mud and bugs off her as the
dawn breaks.