A little girl with soft pale skin, long black curls that ran down her back and shining honey colored eyes, sat in the mud building little houses. Her chubby hands patting them until their tops were pointed and she laughed before moving on to the next one, she could hear the women behind her talking as they went on washing their clothes. She didn't pay much mind to them and they were all content with ignoring the mess that she was causing, except for one woman who was quick to reprimand her when she caught sight of what the young girl was doing.

"K'ura, come to me now." she spoke in a harsh voice and the little girl ended up crushing one of her houses before she shot to her feet and ran over to the woman. When the woman looked her over she hissed "look at the mess you have made of yourself, I told you to stay away from the mud today and you still go to it!" her anger boiled over and she raised up the girls dirt brown dress to drop a few lashes on her leg making the little girl whine.

"Now look at the mess you have made of your clothes, I have to take you to the master's and if they see you in this state I will be whipped, why don't you understand?" She huffed and pulled the girl closer so she could wash the mud from her hands and feet, even having to rinse out the edge of some of her natural curls that had been caught in the mud. She sighed and stood pulling the girl along as she headed in the hut "now I must find you a new dress and wash this one."

K'ura stood off to the corner watching as her mother went through the basket in her house that held the few clothes that they had. She watched as she frantically searched for something to put on her and when she found nothing suitable, she pulled out one of her own brown shirts. She stripped her child of her now dirty dress and pulled the shirt over her before finding a piece of cloth that she folded and then tied around her daughters waist bowing it at the end.

"You're lucky this looks good, or I would have beaten you twice as much as they beat me." she turned her child around and pulled two locks of her hair from different sides and put it to the back of her hair binding it with a thread. She put her child to spin around and smiled at the little girl. "You look beautiful and strong I just hope one day you can have a mind about you, so I don't have to beat you anymore, I hate hitting you, it hurts me every time I have to, so when I tell you not to or to do something just listen, okay?"

"Yes mama." the little girl spoke in her cute baby voice that made her mother smiled and pull her into a hug.

The hug was interrupted when someone knocked on their door and Tern's head snapped in the direction, her eyes widened when she saw one of the young masters and she bowed her head to him "my father calls for you." was all the boy huffed before turning to walk away. Tern didn't waste time as she shot to her feet and picked her child up placing her on her hip before she turned and headed out the hut.

She walked along the trail that lead to the house and was quick to make it to the front porch of the house, the door was wide open but she wasn't foolish enough to go in without permission. She knocked on the door and the maid came to the door, the woman turned her nose up at Tern as if she too wasn't a slave and gave her a scornful look. But Tern ignored her and stood tall "the master has called for me."

The woman glared at her but signaled for her to follow as she went into the house and turned left to go into the sitting area where the master, his wife and youngest child were sitting. The maid let the masters know Tern and K'ura was here before she left the room and Tern stepped in, she bowed as soon as she did. "You may rise." Tern did as she was told and was met with a smile from the master that made her uneasy but she couldn't show it so she willed herself not to step back.

"Is this the child?" the master asked and Tern spoke saying that K'ura was her daughter and the same strong child that the master had met some five years ago. The master's smile shifted into a grin and he stood up "bring her to me." Tern walked over to the bear man and handed her daughter over, K'ura wasn't too fond of the idea of being held by someone she didn't know and had not yet learned how to act around the masters so she turned reaching out to her mother, who shook her head making her child whimper.

"Ha the child is not only strong but she is also brave, I feel like having a chat with her, you may leave, I will send her to you when I am finished." Tern didn't like the idea of leaving her child alone but there was nothing she could do but listen to the master's command and leave the house to return to her chores.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She walked back down the path and went straight to the wash area where she was met with some pitying stares from the other mothers. Everyone had known Tern to always keep K'ura at her side after that incident some five years ago and they knew that K'ura also didn't like to be away from her mother. So it was somewhat frightening as they thought of what had possibly happened in the master's house but they would never risk making conversations over such a thing.

Back in the house K'ura sat on the ground by the masters foot eating a large wheat and raisin cookie that the master's wife had spent the morning making for her children. When her mother had left the man asked her if she knew how old she was and the little girl was smart enough to show him five fingers. And then he asked her for her name and she proudly said that her name was K'ura and her mother had named her after one of the great sky gods.

The beast man was happy to see that even though he realized the girl couldn't pronounce the letters that spelled her name but she was able to draw them out on the floor. After talking to her he had checked her weight against his youngest boy who had a few pounds on her but it was expected because she was still just a slave. He had checked the softness of her flesh and smiled when she felt as a child should. He checked her hair and made sure it was a strong as it looked before looking into her eyes and enjoying the sight of the honey glow.

Looking at the child she was ten times healthier than any of the other children of his slaves, he would actually feel sick to his stomach when he saw the scrawny grey things running around the field. He had tried many ways to fix them but nothing he tried had worked so he just let them be, as long as most of them made it to adulthood he was okay with a few dying. But when he looked at K'ura he felt that something might have worked and now all he needed to do was find out what that was.

K'ura very much enjoyed the taste of the crunchy sweet thing as she chewed it and sucked on the little black things they had in them. She had never before tasted anything like it and when the time came she wasn't afraid to ask for another, the master's wife only arched a brow at the child before handing her the cookie that he son had tossed aside in favor of a sweet. K'ura happily ate the cookie and washed it down with what remained in the glass that the master's son was drinking from.

~~

It was late when Tern was summoned to the house and she found that she moved so fast up the path she was almost running as her heart raced in her chest twice as fast, she knew the masters would hear it but she did not care because her child was the only thing on her mind. She reached the house and rushed up the steps knocking on the door, instead of the maid a very excited K'ura and the master came to the door, Tern snatched up her child into her arms and hugged her tight before looking to the master when the bear man cleared his throat.

"You are to bring that child back tomorrow before the sun rises and I want the two of you in something white because you will be following the Lady of the house into town and she hates seeing the girl in that brown colored dress no matter how good it looks on her." Tern nodded and waited for the master to send her on her way before she headed back to her hut and as soon as she got there she dropped to the floor and held her child close to her as tears of relief flowed down her face.

After she had calmed down and had set K'ura to sleep, she found herself going to different huts to get as much white cloth as she could along with thread. She went back to the hut and checked on her sleeping daughter before getting to work on two dresses, one for her daughter that would look like what she had worn today and one for her that would only have a simple cloth tied around it. She set aside some cloth to make herself a band for her head and finished the dresses, hanging them up before she out the small lamp and curled up to her daughter in bed.

~~

The next morning just as the master said she was up before the sun and had headed to the wash area, to bathe both herself and her half asleep daughter, she paid extra attention to both of their hair before heading back to her hut. She dried both of them down and got her daughter dressed first before she wrapped her breast with a cloth and pulling on her own dress. She fixed her daughters hair in the same style from the day before but this time she used a strip of white cloth and then she just left her hair down and tied a bad around it.

She picked up her daughter and headed out the hut pulling the door shut, she went to the house to see that the lights in the house weren't on as yet and she decided it was okay to just let her daughter rest as she stood in wait. She looked up at the sky as she rocked side to side with her daughter cradled in her arms. She wondered what it was that the masters had planned for her and her daughter and wondered if things were finally going to change for her, a change she was suddenly very hopeful for.