Chapter One: The flee
Perhaps it had all started when my father had invited in a Chinese merchant into our house and asked me to wear my most beautiful gown, or maybe it happened even earlier when my Mother whispered that a marraige is when two people fall in love and not when your father uses you as a tool for gaining status.
You may be wondering what's going on, well to understand that, we shall have to go back to my homeland. Bharat.
It was midnight when I woke up from a swaying movement that was not usual for my bed. I looked up to see a few lanterns around the pungy smelling mattress I was laying on. I was on a ship, a place I do not know how I came to be in.
I stared at the small window through which I could see the moonlight turn the black sky into a beautiful shade of indigo. I had always looked to it when I woke up at the middle of the night. Except this time I was not at home.
A man suddenly walks in, it was the same Chinese man who had stared at me and the one my father was very keen to introduce me to. He goes, "We are almost there, wear these clothes as we are to be wed once we reach China."
China. That is where we are going. Far from my home. Far from my country. I started to panic. I can not let this happen. No. I can never let this happen. To be married off was my worst fear. But to be kidnapped for it?
I started to feel my heartbeat getting faster and faster. What should I do? There must be an escape. I was still wearing my saree from Bharat so I can be easily spotted. And the clothes he gave me are too extravagant as well...
A servant came in, he is a man. I am a woman. I can be spotted easily as the crew rarely has any women. However....if I dressed as a man, maybe, just maybe I can escape. I take my saree off as he puts down cutlery and glasses and Poured in water and organized the food. I took a good amount of the my saree and wrapped it around his neck and strangled him.
I do not want to kill him. He is just a mere servant. So I made sure he was unconscious instead before undressing him and wearing his clothes. Then I took his limp body and settled it on the mattress and covered his face so it would seem like it was me.
Now the only thing left is to cover my own face, assuming everyone here is from China it will be difficult to leave without being noticed. I tore a piece of cloth and wrapped my face around it. I acted like I was coughing. Yes, this was my plan, I would pretend to be sick and use it as an excuse to cover up my face.
The sun was rising, and the land that once seemed to be so far away had gotten close enough that I could seperate every tree. Frightened with the amount of time I had I quickly left my chamber and ran upstairs where I could escape.
However I was troubled with that same man again, the man who kidnapped me, the man who was the reason I was in such a state.
He called on to me, "you useless scum, what are you doing here? Get down and clean up before I fire you so that you can sleep on the streets with the rats."
Such harsh words, but I could not listen to his command, I had to make another excuse before he asked me why my face is covered.
"Master, I am sick, I do not wish to spread the illness to you and the my other crew mates." After saying so I did a cough.
He seemed to believe it. Such stupidity. I walked away from the ship to the land and as I walked on it, I thought to myself that, I was free. Free from the men who kept trying to put me in a cage.
It did not take me too long to realize that the land I had stepped on was another cage waiting for me to fall right into it. The country of China. And the next trap for me