"When can we stop Val" my little brother said after we had been walking for miles. He always called me Val, even though my name was Valerie. He developed some type of nickname that I didn't care about. 

"Fine" I said stopping, and he collapsed on the floor "we can take a five minute lunch-break, but only five minutes because we got to keep moving from them" he paled a little at this because he knew who I was talking about. They were two groups of people...the slavers, which have been tracking and following us for years, and the dragons which could kill us in one bit and not need to ask any questions.

"Were lucky to have gone this far without being captured" I said to him, and I went into the backpack that I had gotten from a friend that I had stopped by and seen. I had a sleeping bag, snacks, blankets, a tent, and other things that I needed, and so did my brother. 

"Yeah" he said under his breath but I could still hear him "he are. Do you think that this is the longest that a runner has gone" he lightened up a little hopefully. 

"Yeah" I said "by far" I then leaned over to mess with his hair a little. 

"Sis!" he exclaimed swatting at me to stop. Then I heard a beeping sound, and I looked into my bag.

"Shit" I said and started to immediately packing for a quick leave.

"What's wrong sis" he asked 

"There was a tracker in my bag, and I don't think that it belongs to someone friendly. so we need to go now!" I said throwing the tracker into the woods behind me "come on!" We started to run at full speed, but we didn't get far before a whizzing noise went by my ear and slammed into my brother's chest. I couldn't move as I saw my brother go down unconscious, and I didn't know what to do. Then I felt something slam into my right side, and I soon fell to the ground unconscious from the electric shock that it gave me. 

"Wake up you little rats" a man with a deep voice "we are going to sell you and him" I noticed that I was being dragged on the ground on a stretcher that had straps, and a wheel with a special padding on it for light travel on the muddy land of this spring. 

"I don't know how you managed to survive for four years on the run, but then again you are a smart one eh" the bulky man behind me said leaning in to squish my cheek, and wiggle my head a little. 

"Hey! Don't touch the merchandise. We need to bring her in unharmed for a better deal okay" the man hauling my brother on a stretcher to my left said "and you are rather calm for just being kidnapped" 

"I knew that it was going to happen eventually" I said sadly "but we made it this far right" I scoffed looking at my still sleeping brother. The man behind us was just about to wake him, and then I shot him a death glare saying 'let him sleep'. He needed his rest, and if it weren't for our constant running he would've gotten one, but that couldn't happen. They were always on our trail, and that stupid tracker only made it easier to track us down, and capture us. 

"Look at that men" the man that appeared to be the leader said to us all. I struggled to see above me or around him, but I gave up after figuring out that I couldn't move my body anymore than a worm wiggle. 

"OPEN THE GATES" he yelled when we reached the place, and I heard a metallic screeching noise. Great a guarded steel wall...just what I needed. We started to move again, and then I felt like I was falling, and I realized that I wasn't looking behind me anymore, but at the sky. Then the sky was blocked by a fit man with a helmet and black armor on with a red dragon insignia on the left side of his breast-plate. What does that mean I thought to myself looking at it curiously, and then the man looked at the leader. 

"Aren't the restraints a little much" he asked

"No these two were the ones that everyone's been chasing to get" he said

"Do you kn ow why" 

"No, but I guess that we'll find out when we get to the seller" we started to move again, and I swear that I caught a stricken and pity-filled face from the guard right before he walked away to his post by the left side. He sat in a chair and looked like he fell asleep, asleep on the job I thought I wonder what the punishment here for that is.

We were moving for what seemed like ages with the other slaves stopping their work to look and stare at the new people. I saw one that caught my, and he was one of the weaker ones with many scars on his back. He turned around and I breathed in sharply because I got to see the amount of scars that were on his back and shoulders. After a little while of this we slowed a little and then came to a stop on what felt like a stone walkway of some sort. My brother finally started to wake up, but he didn't say anything because he was confused as to why he was strapped to a stretcher. Then he looked over, and saw me in the same position, and he started to cry silently a little. We started to move again, and I saw a large door frame, and then I looked over and wished that I hadn't because a big and ugly man with a face lined with scares looked at me. Then he huffed and stepped out of the building, and started to walk home. I saw that he had a whip on his left hip, and he had two knives on his right. 

"So these are the runners that everyone's been trying to find" a man with a sweeter, but harsh voice said out of my line of sight. 

"Yeah we were lucky that we switched the bags of that slave-friend of theirs with a tracker bag when he wasn't looking" the leader said "that's how we caught them" 

So it wasn't his fault that we got captured, and our trackers were actually smart I thought to myself, and then the stretcher was dropped and I landed on the floor with a thump and I think that the binding of this thing cracked a little, but I couldn't get free still because of the straps that were binding me to it. 

"Where are we going to go" I said trying to get a little power into it, and I kind of succeeded. 

"You are going to be sold, and you better hope that the man that you saw earlier won't buy one of you because he will break you down to nothing" the sweet-sounding man said "and I only know this because one day a tough man came here to be sold, and when he was sold to him I didn't see him for a month, and when I did see him again. There was nothing, but fear in his eyes towards everything that he did, and some took advantage of that fear and used it against him. He died from that man, or his master stabbing him in the chest with one of his knives, and later he said that he would never end someone so quickly again" 

"What did he do" I asked

"He tried to steal one of the knives to give to a man that bribed him with freedom, but he got caught and they both were killed by that same knife" he said "it has a hilt of fire, and it is sharpened by two sides to a very dangerous point" 

"Why was he feared so badly" I asked

" Those scars that you saw on him were from the war" he said "do you know of the war" my expression fell with fear and sadness.

"Yeah me and my brother know that they were killed by a dragon, but we don't know who they were" I said 

"Do you know that in order to become a dragon they need to scratch you with one of their claws" he said and I shuddered visibly

"Yes" I added low

"I said that you don't wan't to go with that man because he used the claws to whip his slaves, but I haven't seen him use it in years and I don't know if he even has it anymore" he said "well we got to get you to the stage, and sold to the highest bidder" I started to move, but my brother stayed in place.

"Why isn't my brother coming" I asked

"He is too weak to sell, so they are killing him" 

"NOOO! NOOO! BROTH!---" I tried yelling to him struggling with my straps, but I was punched by the leader lightly and put into a peaceful sleep. I woke up on a stage with a large group of people yelling, screaming, and holding up their hands. 

"Going once, going twice, sold to Sir Addeck" a person yelled pointing at that man that I had seen at the doorway. 

"No" I whispered under my breath, but it was too late, and I was too tired to do anything because of the side of my face hurting, and because of my grief. The man came up, and then whispered in my ear "this is going to be fun" before taking me and carting me to where I was going to 'stay'. I woke up in a dark room, and I saw other women in here too. 

"Where am I" I asked them, but they stayed silent for a little while. Then one of them spoke up. 

"Your the girl that was just out of their clutched aren't you" she said

"Yeah I am, but where are we" I asked again

"We are in the 'houses' that he made for us" another said "how did you survive for so long on your own and where are your parents"

"I- I wasn't alone" I said "I was running with my brother, but they are all gone now. They said that he was too weak to be put into slavery, so they murdered him and as for my parents--my parents are in a grave somewhere being honored for their service in the war...I hope" 

"Oh" she whispered "I'm sorry that I--"

"No need" I said "you didn't know" I got to actually look at them, and I saw that I was the youngest woman here. They were all in their twenties, and I was only sixteen. I heard a door open and a little light came through, but it was clogged by the man's large and powerful body. 

"Enjoy your beauty rest hon" he said "cause you won't be getting any more after what I'm going to do to you" he pulled me by my hair and started to drag me somewhere, but I was in too much pain to see where. Then he strapped me to a large wooden pillar, and I didn't know what he was doing. I couldn't see behind me, but I knew what was happening... he was whipping me. 

"I've been waiting to use this one for a special case like you, and just to say this will hurt a lot" he said in my ear, and then I heard him pick up something that scratched on the floor. 

'Snap!' 

I gripped the pole tightly screaming loudly. My back felt like it was on fire, and I could feel the claws go through my skin and tear it to shreds. 

'Snap' 'Snap' 'Snap' 'Snap'

It came again and again until I couldn't feel my back, but I thought that I could feel my bones against the bare air. He did this for hours, and after a twenty I was in too much pain to feel or count anything. Then I heard them being dragged across the floor, and I braced for more pain. When it didn't come I relaxed a little, and I heard something being set down, and he was walking to me. Then he untied me, and dragged me somewhere. I fell into a peaceful sleep, and didn't feel anything. 

I woke up in the same room that i met the girls except all of them but one were gone. I tried to get up, but my back hurt so much and I screamed inwardly to not wake her up from her first decent sleep in probably a while. I slowly got up, and I felt something rip and this time I couldn't hold in the scream. My scream woke her up, and it was probably loud enough to be heard by the whole field. I fell unconscious again, but this time it wasn't so peaceful.

--------------------------------------------- 

"Please take care of her while he are gone" a tall woman had a girl walk over to the woman that she was talking to in the doorway. Then the child ran to her happily.

"Auntie May!" she exclaimed and ran into her arms. The woman hugged her back also happy for their reunion and embrace. 

"I thought that I would never see you again" the little girl said

"Nothing could keep me away from my Valerie"  she said, and I was stricken. I was that little girl, and those where my parents. They were dressed in heavy armor, and they started to leave, but the little girl, or me, stopped then by hugging the woman's left leg. 

"Val I need to go" she said "please let go" the little girl was sad, but she let go and stepped back. 

"I need you mommy" the little girl said "where are you going and why are you dressed like that" 

"My and daddy are going to fight in a war, and while we are gone Auntie May is going to take care of you" she said sadly.

"Do you have to go" the little girl said in a small voice

"Sadly yes we have to go" she said "you like Auntie May don't you" 

"Yes" the girl said "but when are you coming back"

"I don't know" she said "but don't let that hurt you because you are going to grow up strong like me and daddy, and you will be the prettiest girl in the town" she was being imaginative, and yet it felt like she wasn't, but it lightened up the mood a little. 

I woke up slowly, and I noticed that my back wasn't in pain anymore. I turned to the girl that was sleeping at my side, and I looked for any likeness between her and the woman that I was 'given' to. I didn't find anything, and I sighed a little too loud because it woke her up. 

"Don't move too fast" she said in a warning as I started to get up "in fact don't move at all" I lay back down, and the blanket felt like it was getting wetter and wetter. 

"How long was I out" I said, and I was starting to get dizzy

"Almost three weeks" she said "when you were thrown in here I've never seen such horrible wounds as yours were from a whip" 

"I was whipped at least fifty times, but I didn't try to count" I said "and I was whipped with the dragon claws...what do those do again, and why does the blanket feel like it is getting wetter and wetter by the second" I said and she immediately got up and came over here with a sad and fearful face. Then she instructed me to lean over so that she could see what was wrong. I took off the blankets and then when she looked at the bed. I heard her breath in a little, but then I felt my back close, and I was filed with pain. 

"What happened" I asked

"I sealed it up for now, but you aren't going to be moving for a week or so" she said, and for a week she was tending to my wounds, feeding me, and making sure that I slept well. After a week I was on the field and doing work, but from time to time he whipped me with the same whip but my wounds were healed the next day. 

"Hey how are you" the girl that took care of me for the long while that me and her were inactive in the field and the many times in-between, her name was Hearth. Then there was a large roar, and a shadow fell on the field. I looked up to see one of the creatures that I had been running from my whole life, and I took the chance and ran. 

The field was a blur of yellow and gold as I pushed away wheat, and then I reached a fence and did a sideways flip over it, and like I had done before I landed on the ground in a crouching position with one hand on the ground, one foot straight, and the other bent a little. I then took off, and I thought that I heard her say good luck Valerie. I was miles away, so I dismissed it as my imagination. Then I noticed that I was five miles from where my 'master' had tortured me and made me work. I was confused that he never raped on of us as punishment, but he wouldn't have because of the chance of sporting children that he didn't want. In his culture if you have another bear a child then that child is also your to care for. He was smart to not do so with one of us because then he would be stuck with that person forever as part of his religious rules, and that person would be free to do and go where ever they wanted to. 

How the hell could I have gone five miles in two seconds I thought to myself maybe I'm dreaming, and in that case I don't want it to stop. I ran until I was in the place that I had seen my brother's grave at when I saw him being buried without a stone, but I had dug his body up and buried it properly with a stone to mark it a couple of miles away. I thought that he would love it if he was planted by and as a tree, and all of the sudden the ground rumbled and a large birch tree that I had pictured blasted out of the earth and spread out to it's full length. 

I fell to the floor in shock, and I stayed on the floor for a moment, and then I looked around. No one saw it...good. I can control the elements, but why and how I thought to myself. Then I closed my eyes and went into a peaceful sleep for the first time in months.