Katia loved her family very much which had made her decision to be sold as a slave easier and harder. Her family was very poor and her parents couldn't afford to take care of all eight children anymore.
The oldest child, her brother Sidrov had left home almost four months ago to work as a decoy for the royal family, it was ridiculously dangerous but paid well. The large sums he sent home had helped until their mother had fallen ill, now the money was used to pay for her doctor.
The next child in the family and Katia's second oldest sister had left for the neighboring country to be a dancer at a theatere in the city. That was weeks ago, it would take some time for her to start sending home large sums of money.
Katia had been in town when the slave traders had meandered through with their caravan of silk and fluorescent colours. They made all the buildings and locals look shabby even the natural flowers that shown with bright hues of blue and red were dulled as they pranced by.
The caravan had been made up of three wagons large, sturdy, and pulled by camels. The wood that wasn't painted in obscenely bright shades of purple, yellow, orange, and speckled with gold was a deep brown. Drivers were regal perched on top of overstuffed cushions. Magenta drapes were drawn shut the only exception a crack in the second window of the last wagon, silver finger cuffs sparkled in the sun an emerald eye heavily coated in kohl peaked out, watching the village folk gawking. The rest of the caravan was littered with men on horseback, other camels heaping with crates and rolls of fabric, and tied behind the wagons were men and women mostly young. Filled with fascination she was drawn in like a moth to flame.
Once they parked Katia noticed the traders brought water to the occupants inside the wagons, then the animals, and lastly those tied up behind the wagons. Wondering what made those in the wagons so special she slowly gravitate towards a lonely trader checking his rucksack on his horse.
"Umm.." Clearing her throat," Excuse me sir?"
"Yes?" He wasn't mean or gruff but seemed busy. "Do you need something? Or are you a prostitute offering your services?"
"No nothing like that. I was wondering where you're going and where you're from?"
"Ah I see, you're curious? That can be very bad. We are from Dostania, do you know it?""
You would've had to live under a rock to not know of Dostania, as the largest trade port anything new, high quality, or valuable came from Dostania. All aspiring to make a change in the world flocked to that one city. If you were looking for new talent of any kind you had your pick. It was also located on the continent of Pagora most known for change and progress. To live in any part of Pagora you had to be filthy rich.
The country was a monstrous island surrounded on all sides by ocean, and the ocean landscapes were chalk full of summer villas for the wealthy. It was warm all year round, sported dark beauties, in essence it was paradise.
"Of course I know it. What are you doing here?"
"We traders take a long trek to the other continents every Fall, we are almost done we have two more cities to visit, Worloas and Indestra. Then we travel back to meet or clients and employers." He had found whatever he was looking for taking long strides he made his way to the lead wagon handing a wrapped parcel and a sealed letter to the driver he seemed surprised Katia was still there.
"Don't you have somewhere you need to be? Feeding chickens maybe?"
She grinned up at him, eyes shining with the wonder of a small child. "No I've already taken care of my chores today, and ran my errand. What are you getting from Worloas?"
Scraping a large callused hand over his face he groaned both internally and externally, the curious ones were the hardest to get rid of. "Your chores might be done, mine are just starting. I don't have time to answer so many questions."
"What if I help you? You'd be done quicker and in turn you answer my questions?" Lazily stroking the muzzle of the white and brown spotted beauty the trader had rode in on. Katia caught movement out of the corner of her eye glancing over her right shoulder she saw another trader handing a bowl of fruit and a loaf of bread through the door of the wagon last wagon. So distracted she almost missed the traders answer,
"Ugh fine! But when we finish you go home? Deal?"
"Deal. By the way, what is your name?"
"No name. Just a number." Holding out his leg she saw the numbers 06-04-8712 tattooed into the skin of his right calf, perfectly centered on the top of the muscle.
"So if someone wants to get your attention they call out... What exactly?"
"Twelve." He said it as one would say to a village idiot.
"That's ridiculous, I'm serious what is your name?"
"No one calls for me except my employer and yes he calls out twelve. I lost the privilege of having a name when I failed to pay on a debt." He was frustrated and hoped by doing the hardest chores first he would lose his little talkative shadow.
Katia kept pace through unloading the horse, setting up camp in a field rented for the night, chopping wood for the six fires throughout camp, and now they were cleaning a large calf for dinner. Before getting to work on the calf the trader had rolled up his sleeves and removed his large over coat, catching an eye full of a large tattoo of an anaconda eating a sword. Katia had then taken to calling the trader Snake. Through the rest she had been informed that at the next stop the caravan would be forcefully taking a young man back with them, he had apparently been eluding his debtor for awhile but was then arrested for horse thieving. He was currently contained and waiting to be picked up. In the last city they were picking up a gift for Snake's employer.
"Wealthy merchants want to stay in business at all costs, to insure this they will give a servant to a nobleman in order to have a solid guarantee that their stock will be sold at higher prices. This particular merchant is giving his eldest daughter to my employer."
"That's awful! Who would do that?!"
"I've heard the daughter is quite upset she sent a messenger to my employer offering three servants, one of which is still a virgin. My employer wasn't fond of the idea seeing as servants of the Northern people are always dark skinned."
"So? Why would that matter?"
"He only likes light skinned women."
"What a pig."
"No matter, the daughter has tried offering large sums of money to girls in her village to go in her place."
"It would have to be a very large sum for someone to willingly sell themselves. I couldn't imagine doing something like that for anything less than a hundred thousand credits." For that much money her family could fully pay off their doctor bills, pay to heir servants for their large farm, and put her younger siblings in a private school.
Conspiratorially Snake leaned over whispering in her ear,"I heard she offered four times that amount."
Katia's breath caught in her throat, that kind of money could secure her family for the rest of their lives, her younger sister could have a dowry and marry instead of working. Her brothers could all go away to the finest schools, in any trade they wanted. Her father could retire! Such sinful thoughts filled her mind, she was only half teasing when she next spoke. "I would take her place if she hasn't found someone."
Snake scoffed at her,"You? Take the place of a merchants daughter? You'd have to have a special talent to be worth my employer's time." He looked down busying himself with tying the calf to the spit. "The only reason the merchant is giving up his daughter is because she has red hair, these days everyone has brown or black hair you'd be hard pressed to find someone with natural hair a different colour."
"What about yellow hair?"
At this Snake burst out laughing a deep bark that led to cackling, a sound that should never come out of a man his size,"Yellow hair? No one but royalty has yellow hair, and even they haven't produced an heir with that distinction in generations it is a trait not seen everyday. How would you expect to find such a rarity? I could colour a girls hair but after some time her natural shade would show." Wiping at his watering eyes he chuckled.
The walked side by side through a thicket of trees to wash their hands in the stream flowing freely by the camp, their conversation covered up by the noise it created.
"Do you think if you could find someone the merchants daughter or your employer would pay handsomely for them?"
