The Quest for Paradise

In desperation I looked to the girl who wasn't following along. With a beaming smile the girl called out, "You live! I tell them you my slave. No fear. I give you to my father. You be his woman when he comes back."

I stared at her in horror as I was moved along further into the shadow of the towering walls of rock. How could such a sweet little girl do such a thing?

I wanted to scream at her, but I knew that she'd saved my life by doing what she had. How could I be angry with her and grateful at the same time?

She'd given me to her father!

In a daze I followed along behind the warrior who led me into a cavern like opening in the rock that was lit brightly by torches. The semidarkness was suddenly gone though as I suddenly found myself back in the bright orange glow of this sunken world.

Before me lay a brief section of cultivated looking trees that were surrounded about by high natural stone walls that effectively ringed in this little hamlet like a natural fortress from the rest of the island. The open sided end of the hamlet hidden from the rest of the island was bordered by the ocean whose waves were broken up by a long wall of breakers that I doubted even a ship could make its way through.

I was very much a captive all of a sudden in a way that didn't promise to have any escape from it. I was led out along a stone trail through the boulder wall that protected this village of people from the harsh realities of the island at large.

As soon as we got down to the tree level people began to flock from everywhere as word spread. I found myself blushing as the strictures of the society I had been born into were noticeably absent in almost every way here. The reality that this place could be my permanent future was overwhelming.

The people, despite the shock of seeing me written plain on their faces, were still open and as friendly looking to me as the girl had been. We made a circuitous path through the fruit trees and gardens of these people until I felt my shoes sink into the sands of the beach, which I was led across.

My ponytail was long gone now as it had been moved by the actions of so many curious onlookers just as the girl had been in terms of wanting to feel at my hair. Now as my hair blew about my face I fought to come to grips with my new reality.