Between waking up in a comfortable bed and finding myself tied and gagged, the former is an easy choice. Unfortunately the second option usually isn’t a choice.

A particularly large bump in the road shook me awake. Gone was the soft and comfortable bed that I went to sleep in, replaced by hard wood and the shaking of a wagon. I very quickly had a sword pointed at me while trying to get my bearings.

“Hey there, mornin’ darlin’. Here’s a tip, if ya’ wanna keep yer dignity ya better not make a racket.”

The gruff looking man held the tip of his sword so close between my eyes that I feared another bump in the road would be the end of me. I meekly let my muscles relax. I didn’t want to find out what he meant by dignity. He was obviously a kidnapper, or maybe a slaver. I could tell I wasn’t the only girl tied up in this wagon. While trying to grasp the full scope of the predicament I found myself in I heard another man’s voice from outside the wagon.

“Hey is that a girl there?”

“Mh? Oh yeah! Wow she’s a beautiful one, she is.”

A third voice joined the conversation from outside the wagon.

“I wonder what such a pretty young thing would be doing all the way out here alone.” The two of them laughed a wicked laugh.

The man who was with me in the wagon stood up to take a look outside. “Mh, best be careful. She must be a tough one if she’s travlin’ alone all the way out here.”

“Then we can’t just jump her carelessly, we can’t.”

“Since she’s headed the same direction, why don’t we pass her and set a little ambush.”

“That should work.”

“Ohh, we better be quiet now, we don’t want her to hear us, we don’t.”

The man sat back down inside the wagon and pointed his sword at me again as if to say, be quiet or else. I was worried about the girl outside who still had all of her freedom, but I was terrified by the sword in my face. I closed my eyes and tried my best to ignore the voice in the back of my head telling me to do something. Tears welled up in my eyes as I wondered what could be in my future. But my thoughts were interrupted as I heard the voice of a girl call out from outside the wagon.

“Hello there, could you possibly take me to the next town?”

No don’t, these aren’t good people. I wanted to shout. I wanted to warn her.

“Oh why yes of course, come on up. There is room for one more.”

Of course they wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by them.

“Thank you so much!”

The wagon stopped and I could hear the sounds of someone getting onto the driver's seat. I wanted to make a ruckus to make her realize that something was wrong, but fear of death had me paralyzed. Instead the tears welling up in my eyes grew as the wagon began moving again.

“So, what is someone like you doing alone all the way out here?”

One of the men outside began a conversation, his voice clearly a bit uncertain, but the girl replied with a cheery and carefree voice.

“I’m trying to find a town. I was already happy when I found this path, but this is going to be so much faster.”

“Is that so, and you aren’t traveling with anyone else, you aren’t?”

“Nope it’s been just me since I left.”

She didn’t specify where she had left.

Only the clopping of hooves and clattering of the wheels could be heard for an uncomfortable amount of time.

One of the men eventually broke the awkward silence.

“You look thirsty, do you want a drink?”

I knew they must have been planning something, but I could only lightly bite my tongue while trying to endure the feeling of helplessness.

“Oh thank you.”

I could hear her gulp down the offered liquid.

“Ahh, that was good.”

It was likely too late for her at this point.

I opened my eyes and I could see a wide grin on the face of the man who was still pointing his sword at me. It was as I thought.

She let out a loud yawn.

“I never thought, walking so much, could be.. so… tiring.”

Her voice trailed off at the end.

A sleeping potion.

The men waited for a moment before

“Yeah, that’s how you do it, it is.”

“Indeed. Here take her things and tie her up.”

One of the men leaned into the wagon holding her limp body. She was a beautiful girl, her long dark hair shimmered with a hint of purple as the light shone through the open wagon covering and her skin looked smooth as silk. The man in the wagon put his sword away and pulled her inside. He removed the daggers and backpack she was wearing and tied her arms and legs together with some rope. A piece of cloth similar to the one in my mouth served as a gag for her. I closed my eyes again as he placed her on the wagon bed with the rest of us.

***

I sat in a corner of the dark cell that the kidnappers had shoved us into. There were eight others in the cell with me. There were three already in the cell when we arrived. The four other girls from the wagon broke down crying when they were freed from their bonds while the girls that must have been here a while tried to comfort them to the best of their ability. I already went through these emotions in the wagon. My acceptance of the situation had grown to a level where I was done crying. Instead I sat down next to the girl that the kidnappers had drugged to sleep who, despite hours having passed and her having been carried from the wagon to the cell, was still asleep. While I was sulking in my own helplessness the girl next to me finally stirred. She stretched lazily as she sat up and looked around the room.

“Mh? Did we get to a town? Why didn’t they wake me up?”

She mumbled these questions to herself as her eyes landed on me.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Oh, I’m sorry, could you tell me where we are?.”

I was caught off guard by her complete lack of understanding of the situation so I only managed to answer her question at the bare minimum.

“Uhm, in a prison cell somewhere.”

She blinked a couple of times before continuing.

“Do you know of any interesting things to do here?”

“I, uh… No?”

I didn’t even know what town we were in, but I was too occupied with trying to understand what this girl was thinking to form proper answers.

“Oh well.”

Seemingly still satisfied with my answer, she stood up.

“Thank you anyway.”

I watched her walk through the large cell, drawing the attention of the other girls who looked up at her, some still with tears in their eyes. She simply ignored everyone and made her way to the door. The room became mostly silent as everyone was now just looking at her. I stood up myself as she reached the door. She tried opening it a couple of times, getting gradually more annoyed at the door.

“I want to speak to whoever is supposed to maintain this door.”

She muttered to herself loud enough so everyone heard her.

Does she think the door is just stuck? One of the girls who was in the cell longer than us spoke up.

“You do realize that door is locked, right?”

The strange girl turned around with a questioning look in her eyes.

“Why would you lock the only exit to a room full of people?”

Does this girl not understand the concept of a prison?

“Because you’re trying to keep the people inside in the room.”

It was a somewhat odd explanation, but it should get the point across.

“Then why not just ask them?”

Or not? Where is she even going with this?

“Because we don’t want to be here?”

The girl answering the questions seemed unsure what she meant as well.

“Then why are you even here, did you all fall asleep on a wagon too?”

“What? No.”

The two of them stared at each other, both seemingly lost for words. Everyone else in the room had seemingly forgotten that they were kidnapped for the moment. Their faces painted with confusion. After a moment a thought popped into my head.

“Do you even realize that you have been kidnapped?”

Her answer as she turned to me tilting her head in confusion confirmed just what I thought.

“Kidnapped? I did have a nap, but I’m not a kid anymore.”

We spent a good while explaining the concept of kidnapping and servitude to her. And while it sounds strange, talking about it in this way seemed to let everyone process their emotions a little. As the explanation went on, more and more of the girls were chiming in. We even got to introductions when it got confusing who we were addressing. She introduced herself as Tina. A simple name, but a memorable one as well.

“Let me just see if I got this right then.”

We finally finished explaining all the details of kidnapping, some tangents to other subjects included.

“We are currently being held captive because someone wants to force us to do things against our will and possibly to our detriment for their own gain.”

Her blatant description seemed to remind everyone of our situation and the room went silent.

“Yes, that's what it means to be a servant.”

I managed to confirm her assessment of the situation.

“And the reason why you would let yourself be forced to be a servant is because the people forcing you are stronger than you and they are threatening you.”

Everyone simply nodded, sadness spread across their faces.

“Then if you had more strength than them you would leave and go home?”

Slight confusion spread through the room, after all shouldn’t that be obvious. Then again I’m not sure Tina would know ‘obvious’ if it hit her in the face. Regardless of their confusion everyone in the room nodded.

“Alright, then let’s just leave.”

… Huh?

She had confidently declared that we would ‘just leave’. Most seemed to think that she had lost it. They turned their heads down in defeat. I was fascinated instead. Her mind seemed to work differently and I was curious to see what she was thinking.

“You do realize the door is still locked, right?”

Someone restated the first obstacle between us and freedom.

But her response was simply:

“I know.”

She walked over to the door, crouching down in front of it. She peered into the lock for a moment.

“Yup, thought so.”

She placed one of her fingers over the lock and closed her eyes as if concentrating on something. The entire room was staring at her in complete silence. And then. Klick. The sound of the lock coming undone echoed through the silence. I questioned my sense of reality while Tina simply smiled, stood up and opened the door like she was leaving the house for the day. And before I knew it she had walked out.

The voice of a very confused kidnapper made it into the cell shortly after.

“Hey wait, how’d you get out?”

Next came a loud thwack and something that sounded like a body hitting the floor. Fearing the worst I quickly went to the door and peeked around the corner. What I saw was Tina crouched next to the gruff and burly man who had pointed his sword at me on the wagon. She was poking at his cheek while he was laying on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

“Huh, what did you..?”

It was all I could manage through my astonishment.

Tina spoke as matter of factly as ever.

“Oh, he tried to punch me, so I returned the favor. I might have overdone it a bit on the.. hngk.”

Her face contorted in pain as she spoke, interrupting her sentence.

“Ugh, so that’s what they meant…”

She placed a hand on her neck. I rushed over to her.

“Hey are you alright?”

Her expression softened up again.

“I’m alright, what I was trying to say was I think I punched him a little too good.”

It felt like she was trying to be more specific before, but I didn’t feel like prying either.

“Is he still alive?”

“Yeah, he’s still breathing, so come let's look for an exit.”

I quickly looked around the room for something to tie the man up with and found some rope.

“One moment.”

I grabbed the rope and began tying the man's arms and legs together in a similar fashion to how they had tied us up on the wagon.

“What are you doing that for?”

Tina asked with a curious expression.

“It would be bad if he woke up and started following us.”

“We should be long gone by the time he wakes up.”

“Well I’d rather not let them do this to anyone else. I was going to tell the guards once we are outside.”

I used the man’s sword to cut the rope as I was tying him up. I kept the sword and leftover rope as I got up to admire my handiwork. The other girls had cautiously left the cell as well. We headed forward trying to find a way out. As we were carefully looking into the next room where two others were having a meal and some drink, laughing at vulgar jokes, all the while Tina’s attention was caught by something else.

“Oh it’s my backpack!”

I turned around intending to tell her to be quiet, but I couldn’t find her. Just then I heard two more thwacks from the room in front of us. I turned around to see Tina casually looking through the backpack she had on her when I first saw her. The two men were passed out and slumped over onto the table. Should I even be surprised anymore? Me and a couple other girls who had found some courage tied up the two men, while Tina was looking through her backpack. We finished at about the same time.

“They’re all tied up.”

“Everything’s still here.”

She hoisted the backpack onto her back as she stood up and placed two daggers on her belt. She looked really cool for a moment as she moved towards the next door. We followed after her and repeated the pattern a couple more times. Tina would take out some kidnappers and we all used whatever we could find to tie them up. Until finally, we opened a door that led out into the street. Tina stretched like she had just done a morning workout while the girls cheered for her. I clapped a bit myself but I was too in thought at the time to celebrate.

Who is this girl?

She was walking alone through the wilderness, where did she come from?

How can she take down these strong men with such ease?

Many such questions swirled through my mind. I hoped to answer them after we wrapped up this hostage situation, but when we arrived at the guard station Tina was nowhere to be found. The guards didn’t believe us immediately, but our descriptions of the kidnappers matched some wanted criminals. So when we showed them the hideout everyone we tied up was arrested. The guards promised to help everyone find their way home.

I was sad that I had not been able to properly say goodbye to Tina. I still had so many questions for her. Still, this experience had left me with a renewed sense of purpose. I wanted to be like Tina, strong enough to protect the weak wherever I could. With my sights set on the future, I asked to join the guards.