Chapter 6: Am I Alive?

Alasia's POV:

What was happening to me right now?!  What did I just do?  Why did I step out of turn and do something that I know I should have never done!?  I could not take my actions back.  I just risked my own life for someone else when I needed to stay out of trouble and do what I could to rescue my little brother.  Why did I make a mistake as foolish as helping someone else when I can not even help myself right now!?  What has come over me?  I know I would have never done that in any other situation.  If I were still with my stepfather, I knew he would be beating me and not my brother, which is why this has never come up before.  Why did I do something so foolish as pushing that other younger girl out of the way from that guard?!

As I tried to feel what was around me, I still felt as if I was being carried by someone.  However, there was a strange feeling, one that I had never felt before.  I felt as if I was lying on my back, but still lying in the arms of someone or something.  Wait, is this some sort of a dream that I am in, or am I actually alive right now?  I had to say it was hard to tell.  To be honest, I was terrified to open my eyes and see the person who was carrying me.  I just lay there, trying not to move or even let them know that I was awake and aware that they were walking.  During this whole time, there was something that I could not help but try to understand.  Deep in the center of my chest, I felt this warm feeling.  I have never felt anything like it.  What did it mean?  Was something, somehow wrong with me?  Was I sick or going to be sick?  Was this how a sickness started in someone?  

It was at that moment that I thought I was being lied down on something.  I knew what my grass pallet felt like, but this certainly was not grass.  I knew that, as I had to go and pick fresh grass every week just to make sure my brother and I had soft enough padding to sleep on at night.  This was most certainly not grass.  It was not as hard as a rock, stone, or wooden table either.  In fact, it was the complete opposite.  Where was I?  After a moment of remaining still, I finally opened my eyes and when I looked right above me I saw strange colored drapes of vibrant gold and brown.  I have never seen such colors inside any room before.  When I started to look around, I saw stone walls, not the wooden ones I had learned so well.  Even the pen I was in outside was all wooden, nothing made of stone.

I immediately sat up and I gasped at the sight of a man only standing a short distance from me.  Was he walking away from me just now?  Was he the one who was carrying me and laid me here but a moment before I opened my eyes?  It was at that moment that I realized yet another costly mistake.  When I gasped, he heard me and immediately turned around with great speed and stared right at me.  This was him!  It was the man that I saw hiding by the trees.  He was the one with the dark yellowish eyes that was looking at me from behind those trees earlier.  Just then, I heard a knock at the door on the opposite side of the room.  

It was not the knock that scared me.  I am not sure what came over him, but he growled like he was a massive dog, or, even a wolf!  How could he do that?  What was he?  Was he some kind of demon that was set upon this soil to haunt the life of those less fortunate!?  I did not know what to do, but when he growled I cried lightly and wrapped my arms around my legs and held them tightly.  He seemed to be angered by my actions.  This time, instead of walking toward me, he walked away from me with great speed and over to the door.  What was he going to do now?  

"What is the meaning of this?" He shouted with the same growl evident in his voice as he opened up the large wooden door.

I looked and there was a young woman, not all that much older than I might be, standing there and she even jumped back upon him shouting at her right then.  She took a step forward with her eyes focused on the floor and spoke up in a tone that I was not able to hear from this distance away.  What did she tell him?  He then closed the door but did not entirely shut it with great force, as if to make it slap the post, and when it was closed, he looked back over at me.  

I could not believe what was happening.  The next thing he did was start to walk over in my direction.  He did not go around the side of the pallet I was on but went straight for me and when he reached the end of the pallet, he placed his two hands on the end of it.  I still had my arms wrapped around my knees as I held onto them tightly.  I buried my face in my knees as I was not sure if I wanted to see what was going to happen next.  However, I really wished I hadn't.  He reached forward and grabbed me by my ankle and pulled me toward him at the end of the pallet.  I even rolled over and tried to crawl away but that was no use.  

He just picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and continued to carry me out of the room.  I did not bother to scream or cry, as he was far stronger than I, and I knew that would not get me anywhere at this point.  So, instead, I tried to push myself away from him.  With his other hand, on the arm not holding me, he reached up and placed his hand firmly on my rump, causing me to jump.  I could not help it as I jumped when he did this. Where was he taking me now?