She slowly opened her eyes, the taste of salt upon her lips. Raising her head the pounding is unbearable, the hot sun blaring down on her skin. She is confused by her surroundings as she brushes her damp blonde hair out of her eyes.

"A beach? How did I come upon a beach? Where am I?...Who am I?" She thought to herself as she looked around for something familiar. Kneeling up  she noticed her wrists feel heavy. Upon them were heavy shackles of iron cutting into her tan skin.

"Shackles?! But why......." She looks around in panic, the cloth covering her chest and hips stiff from the ocean water scratched her skin. She looked down at her chest, upon it a dark tattoo with two snake heads coiling up to her collarbone. She gazed in horror at the mark above her right breast. A mark, a brand burned into her skin. She slowly brushed her fingers over the raised skin, it didn't hurt. She slowly stood up, the wave of nausea hit her hard and she fell to the ground. Breathing heavily tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Why am I here, where am I!" She yelled out to the ocean. She hugged herself, unable to make sense of anything. She wiped her tears away and crawled to the near by rock. Slowly she tried to stand again, bracing herself to keep from falling. She looked around, taking in her surroundings of a tropical jungle before and the vast ocean at her feet. She jumped in horror at the sight of a man's dead body on the white sand. His mouth was open, his skin bloodied and red from the sun. She crouched to look closer, noticing the same brand on his chest. His wrists were buried under the sand along with the lower half of his body. Hesitantly she lifted his arm, it was heavy and stiff. At his wrists were heavy iron shackles.

She dropped his arm at the sound of male voices coming up the beach from behind the rocks. Panicking she looked around for a place to hide. She tried to gather what little strength she had to make a run for it when two men came upon her. They stopped suddenly and stared at her.

"Well well, what do we have here?" said the man with long black hair. He grinned showing his rotting yellow teeth. They moved closer as she backed into the water.

"Now take it easy love, we won't hurt you. We promise, don't we Smitty?" The shorter bald man showed no expression on his hard muscular face. In an instant he was behind her pinning her arms down. She struggled and kicked, but the bald one called Smitty held her tightly. The smell of him rose to her nostrils making her sick, he smelled of sweat and urine.  She began to scream but was cut off when the long haired one covered her mouth with his hand.

"Now now, there's no need for that, we just want to have a look see. Don't we Smitty?" He pulled out a large knife and slipped it under the material covering her chest. He sliced off the cloth revealing her full breasts then began to trace her tattoo with the tip of the knife until it stopped at the brand. His eyes widened with fear.

"She's a slave!" The long haired one cried out as Smitty threw her to the water. She landed on her hands and knees on the hard sand under the shallow water. A heaviness began to fill her chest, her breath coming out in a pant. Fear rose up, she didn't know what was happening. She could see the men on the shore shouting at each other and pointing at her but she couldn't hear them. The light around her became brighter, she couldn't catch her breath, the wind came rushing up violently, and then... all went black.

She awoke on the sand, the sun blinding her.

"What happened?" She lifted her hand to her temple and slowly lifted her head.  Horror filled her at what she saw. Two skeletons blackened and burned with smoke rising off them.

"But how?" She looked around the shore line but no one was there. Tears welled up in her eyes and she raised her hands to cover her bare breast and stopped. She looked at her hands and knew. In an instant it flashed back, the heaviness in her chest, the men shouting, the wind rushing up. Flames shooting from her hands, the men on fire rushing to the water as she lifted her hands and sent them flying back as if by an invisible force. And they burned.

Slowly she lifted her hands to look more closely at them, slightly rough yet unburned.

She whispered to the wind, "What am I?"

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Inspired by: Age of Conan: Hyborian Age

Copyright © 2009 Kelli Newbry “Anuste Moon” Guild Lore-The Insurrection