My body feels heavy. The moment I tried to open my eyes, I knew that I am not home anymore. I could smell the stench of sweat, soiled cloths, spoiled food and vomit, I almost gagged against the cloth wrapped around my mouth. I wanted to rub my eyes because my vision has turned blurry, something is making it cloudy, but my hands are tied behind me and I could feel the ropes bit into my wrist. My shoulders are aching aa it stretch against my wings.
"Oh, the angel is finally awake"
I turned to the source of the grating voice only to see dirty pair of footwear. "Get up."
He pulled the ropes tied around my hand, forcing my body to follow least I want my arms to separate from my shoulders.
My eyes finally met his displeasing facade, skin crumpled by time or meanness, eyes squinting at the sides, his beard dirty with traces of soiled food clinging to its end.
"So pretty," his breath stinks and so does the fingers that touched my face. "We are lucky that we found you in the glen."
A mistake that I now regret. I was so curious with the laughter I heard, the sound like a siren's call luring me to see its source. I was mesmerised by the smile of the blond princess across the glen, her lover in front of her, his back towards me. But I could feel his gentleness as he touched her face, tracing it delicately. I wanted to feel such touch, but the touch that runs to my face right now repulse me.
I was so engross with the scene, so filled with yearning, that I didn't hear the danger that approached me. All I saw before darkness engulfed me was the shocked look on the princess's eyes and the side of the face of the man who turned to discover what she saw.
"You have such pretty wings." My wings started to struggle, wanting to stretch to escape this place. "Lined with gold tips" I cannot let them discover my brand, if they did, it will be a disaster.
I tried to get away from his hold, but he only tightened his grip on my wings pulling some feather with it. Blood started to coat the white with red. "Struggle again and we'll clip your wings"
That kept me frozen as I stare at the knife glinting by his side.
Without any other words he threw me towards an old woman. "Change her clothes and make her ready for training."
Training? For what?
The woman was not gentle as she dragged me towards a set of big pail tub, large enough to fit a whole body of a human but small for my wings. With my hands still tied behind me, they tore my clothes away, leaving me naked before I was thrown into the tub of water. She roughly scrubbed my body and rinsed me with cold water. She then dressed me in just plain brown clothes, with nothing to protect my arms and the length does not even reaches my knee. After she pulled the clothes over me, she untied my hands only long enough to place my arms through two holes at the side of the dress.
She never uttered a word, even as she roughly ran a comb through my still wet hair.
"Have you been touched?" She finally asked
I just stared at her, not understanding anything. With the cloth still around my mouth, I can't ask her to clarify her meaning.
"Have you had a lover?"
Still blank. She must have been frustrated that she finally pushed me down and lifted my dress until my lower part is exposed. She prodded and I felt so ashamed.
"Good. You're intact"
——
I don't know how long I have been in that disgusting place. The dark only shattered by the lamps and torches on the wall. No sunlight since there are not windows in any of the room they kept us in.
I was transferred from one room to another, each for different purposes. And each time I failed to do what they asked, I would be whipped or they would threaten to cut my wings. My hands were freed on the second day so that it would be of use. I was trained to be a slave - doing menial things and sometimes disgusting perverted things. The only room I was not placed in is the last one, where I would often hear grunts and screams. Once when someone accidentally left the door open, I saw someone on the table with two man on top of her, her legs spread open, her hand tied to the table. They were doing something to make her scream.
Then everything changed. One day everyone was placed inside a carriage with no windows and we were transported somewhere, blindfolded and hands once again tied behind our backs. No one spoke to anyone, no one even attempted to do it during our capture and 'training' but I could hear someone crying heavily near me.
When the cloth from my eyes were finally taken, I am standing on a platform in front of different creatures. Some with horns, some with wings, others with protruding scales and teeth. And some humans-like.
My hands are tied behind me, the chains pinned to the floor. A collar wrapped on my neck with chains also running through it to the floor.
"We have here a rare specimen. An angel. Untouched." Someone said, then the crowd started to be noisy. I could hear a hammer pounding somewhere.
That's when I realized that we are being auctioned as slaves. I would not see my home again.