This is a rewrite of a book I have not yet finished, but can't find the original draft. Its entirely fictional, Hellenistic era fantasy, where gender makes you a villain, or a hero. A twist of the old all female Amazon tribe fantasy.
Eerika didn't look back as she ran through the forest. Her wild and angry eyes held a depth of emotion that would be difficult to fathom if you were not familiar with her life. The story was told in the scars that crisscrossed her back, and parts unseen.
The blood on her dagger had dried over an hour ago, not long after she plunged it into the heart of her tormentor, and started this frantic journey to escape the savages of this country. The ones known as men.
The branches whipped at her face and arms as she ran, and tore through some of the remnants of her clothing, but she took little note of it. She's known worse.
The moon above lit her path, which let her run long after her energy had waned, but her rage had not. Only when her reserves had been fully used up did she find a clearing. The anger that sustained her had run dry only to inflame once again when she saw a stone cottage near the middle.
"Grr." A feral growl rumbled from her lips when she considered who might be home. Her dagger sliced the air in defiance, and she stepped forward.
Kalfren looked around the room in shock. The mayor was already ahead of him, his own face now clear of emotions in spite of the broken and gutted bodies. He quickly stepped outside.
"Guards! Secure the area! Search for anyone who's not supposed to be here!" Kalfren closed his eyes, but opened them when he heard a whimper. He looked around the room and saw a young woman curled up in a ball. Her face was puffy from the beating she took.
"Well, Kalfren, it looks like they stole your property." He looked over to the badly abused girl and shook his head. "She must have been too badly damaged to steal. You can have her this month since you already paid for Eerika." Kalfren grimaced. This girl was not what he had in mind.
"Thank you, sir." He gently picked the woman up and carried her to his small modest home. The mayor snorted and shook his head.
"Poor fool is too soft. These slaves need a firm hand!"
Kalfren closed his door and gently set the woman on his bed, then tended to her wounds. Through swollen eyes, she looked at him with suspicion. Men were never gentle with women, their property. Then he did something that did shock her.
"Are you hungry?" She looked up at him, her eyes betrayed her emotional state. She was nearly broken.
"Are you toying with me?" He sighed softly.
"I take it that means yes." He turned away from her and started to make a simple meal for them both. He didn't have much, and he stretched his earnings each time he made the attempt to purchase Eerika for the month, but he felt it was worth it. If she had a month's rest as often as he could give it, she would survive. "Please, eat it." He took her a bowl of hearty vegetable stew, and some bread. She looked up at him.
"What do I have to do for it?"
"You need to eat." She took the bowl gingerly, watched him carefully until she had taken a few mouthfuls with no repercussions, then swallowed it greedily. When she had finished, she looked at him with a measure of interest.
"I'm ready now." He shook his head.
"No, you're not. You need some rest. Go to sleep. No one will touch you tonight." She cocked her head, not sure if she should believe him or not, but decided to obey. She laid down slowly, and closed her eyes. She opened them again when he laid a fur over her.
"Why are you crying?" He asked softly. "You're safe here."
"Because I would never have known how kind you were if Eerika hadn't killed those men! I would never have known if I had gone with her! Why didn't I go?" Kalfren started to smile.
"She did it?" She nodded. "Then she's free." She looked up into his serene eyes, and saw his smile. "I'll miss her, but I'm glad she's finally free." She reached up and took his hand.
"Please." It was all she said, but Kalfren could hear the plaintive tone.
"This will be your first night when you aren't forced. Enjoy it." She let his hand go, and snuggled down into the fur. It was her first night with him, and he had not done anything to her yet.
She would enjoy this night immensely.
Eerika pushed at the door tentatively with her hands. She didn't want to wake the occupants, but she didn't need to worry. The telltale signs of neglect were obvious. The edge of the door crumbled in her hands, and the rusted hinges tore away from the rotten frame. It was still a heavy half log door, and it would keep most animals out, but would not secure the inside from the out.
Her dagger led the way as she walked inside. The moonlight pushed through openings in the roof, and showed her how empty it was. Except for a few rotten furnishings, a table, chair, and collapsed bed frame, the room was practically empty.
She put the door back in its space as best she could, and made sure the cottage was empty. Her half starved body was gripped by a deep weariness that pushed her to the floor. With her back against the wall, Eerika closed her eyes, and fell into a fitful slumber.
One of the first where the whip did not fall upon her flesh, nor did she hear the mocking laughter as she cried out in pain. Though Kalfren had been kind to her every time he could manage to afford to buy the time to spend with her, he was still a man.
And men were the enemy.
"RRRRAAAHHHH!!!!" Eerika woke up with a roar on her lips. She lashed out with the dagger in her hand, but only struck empty air. Her hands were not bound, and for the first time in nearly three decades, there was no man around to make her beg for food. Her belly gurgled, and complained heavily. She hadn't been fed the day before, but she was used to such deprivation.
Her eyes adjusted to the bright light that now streamed through the holes in the roof, and the cracked glass in the window. The first thing her eyes lit upon was an important item. A rusted old firewood ax.
Clang. The sound of the dagger striking the blade was music to her ears. It was still solid in spite of the years of neglect. Even the handle was good and solid. She smiled, the first happy one in many years. That was when she inhaled the first free air she's ever breathed, and her stomach growled louder. There was a familiar scent in the air.
"Berries!" She pushed the door away, ran out to the bush, dropped the ax beside her, and started to pick and stuff her mouth as quickly as she could. They were early season blackberries, and beside this thorny patch, blue gold. "Blueberries!" It was a paradise. She looked around the clearing and could see old fruit trees that had gone wild, and some old apple trees that had unripened apples hanging from the branches.
That was when she started to cry. The Creator had provided her more food in a short period of time then her village gave her for the last couple of months.
That was the price of being a woman in this country. Women were not people. They were things, and property. She spied her ax on the ground, and growled.
"Never again."
It was not the hardest she's ever worked, but this was necessary to her survival, and she did it for herself. Eerika cut saplings that were close to the cottage, and ripped them away from the foundation. Though they were good to hide the building, she didn't want to ruin the mortar that was still strong in spite of the years of neglect.
She stripped the branches, and wove together a small framework that could cover her windows, and protect the cracked glass from further damage. It was also a good way to block the light inside the cottage, and not let others see it if they were in the woods nearby.
"My door." She said proudly. "My very own door!" She smiled wide as she put some cut logs side by side and lashed them together with some strong supple roots. She would need to learn everything from trial and error, but considering how they learned before, this would be easy. Then she heard a growl.
"I can't stop now!" She said to her stomach. "I have so much to do!" Then she heard another growl, and turned around slowly. Not more then twenty paces away stood a lone wolf. Her stomach growled again, and with a smile, she put the ax over her shoulder. She turned the handle so the blade would not be the weapon. Her stomach growled again.
"Soon." She licked her lips in hunger, which only delayed the wolf for a few seconds. Hungry prey were not often easy to kill. But the wolf overcame its own unease and ran right at her. With thoughts of how good that fur would feel, and roasted wolf meat over her fire, she growled right back at the wolf.
Now the only question is who was hungrier.
Eerika looked at the roof above, the last remnant of the sun fading from the sky, and the smell of freshly roasted meat rose from the fire. Her door was finished and in place. It was strapped to the iron hooks that were used like hinges, and tied there with strong roots. The bottom scraped the bare stone, but that would only sheer the pointed ends flatter over time, and cut down on the draft. She would stuff it with moss tomorrow.
She used the dagger to cut the meat off the carcass over her fire, and tasted it tentatively. It was medium, with the juice still seeping from the meat, and it was the best tasting food she's had in many years. It was hers, she didn't have to beg for it, or perform any filthy task to get it. Even the gamy fats tasted extremely good to her starved body.
"You were a heavy beast, old wolf, but you will keep me alive for a while. Thank you." She didn't shed any tears as it would have eaten her, but she was thankful for the food.
"And thank you for your fur. That will keep me warm in the winter months." She had already put the skin over a log, and scraped it carefully to remove as much excess fat as she could. She didn't have a proper place to tan the back side of it, so she knew that it wouldn't last for years, but it would last at least a season or so. That would be enough until she could get a shallow pit dug and soak the skin in the oak bark necessary to tan it. She knew she could use the brain of the animal, but she needed this skin now, not in a week or two.
Even as she ripped the meat off a leg of the wolf, she knew food, water, and preparing this cottage for winter were her main goals. This year was about survival, not comfort.
Up until a week ago, she didn't want to survive. Now, she wanted to live.
Eerika concentrated on the things she would need the most. A chair, table, and furniture were not the most direly needed things. Right now, they were luxuries. Food was most important, and something she could store that foraged food, and water she could collect.
Firewood was also necessary. In order to supply herself with enough firewood, she decided to go further west of her cottage, and stay away from the north eastern part of her property. The north east was the direction she ran from, and didn't want to draw attention to herself.
Eerika collected and chopped firewood, foraged for berries, and pulled up wild root vegetables that grew near the cottage. The feel of it being an old farm were getting stronger, as was the unease she felt in her heart.
The air felt heavy, burdened with the unknown, and a malevolence that grew thicker as her day wore on. It grew dark earlier in the evening then she expected, and just as she collected a bundle of swamp rushes. The reeds could be split like tall grass, and bundled together to fix her roof. If there were enough layers, it would be fairly water-tight in the winter ahead.
The unease grew stronger as the night fell. She latched her door shut, and gripped her ax something fierce. The dagger was tucked into her belt made of woven supple roots.
"Grr." She growled deep in her throat, and her lips pulled back in a snarl. She heard the cry of a girl, and the black evil laughter of those who pursued her. "Slavers!"
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