A look into the past

She sits in her bedroom, she glances at a picture of her daughter where she laid a ring and dog tags but they are no longer there. She glances to beside her looking at the person sleeping in her bed, letting out a content and for one peaceful sigh. She opens the drawer in her nightstand and pulls out an old scrap of paper and on it had her mother's writing on it. She read it to herself in her mind but can almost hear her mother's voice reading it to her “Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;never selfish, not quick to take offense. There is nothing love cannot face;there is no limit to its faith,its hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love;but the greatest of them all is love.”

She says them with such profound meaning in mind it brings her back to the story of how her mother and father met. She remembers sitting in front of her mother.

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Just in the back of the Kunnani estates was the slave residence, the grass with a thick luscious green. A hill just out back, is where you find a 6ft tall, very chocolate skinned woman with heavy freckles. Her hair, deep red color in dreads that fall down all the way to the small of her back. A 10 year old, fairly skinny, red haired not so dark freckled female child sits in front of her, her dazzling haunting green/golden eyes stare up at the older woman. "Mama, how did Papa and you meet? Slaves are not usually allowed to marry." The older woman is Corale Khammael nods her head slowly "Yes Little Lit, but sometimes even the cruelest of people can have one act of redemption, this was Mistress' one act of kindness, now shush my inquisitive one and I will tell you the story."

The young Lit pouts her lips but nods her head wanting to hear the story of how their parents came together, as she places her hands on her lap, crossing her legs. Corale looked upon her daughter affectionately, the two brutor females sat near a fire as food was being prepared. "You see it was about 13 years ago, I was up for sale on the slave markets on Amarr Prime, Mistress had come to the market to see about acquiring new slaves. Your father accompanied Mistress for protection. I was brought up near the end of the auction and your father saw me. He pointed me out to the Mistress, she agreed with him. It was my eyes that caught him, and the Mistress thought I had good hips and strong back for working the fields. She bought me and brought me back home."

The young scrawny red hair brutor looks up at her mom with her eyes sparking in the fire light as she desperately tries not to fidget "But Mama, you didn't say how you two got married." The older red hair woman laughed softly "Oh my sweet little blossom, patience I was not done. Sometimes you have to tell the leading up to the story before you tell the whole story. Now are you able to sit and listen like a good girl?" Lit nodded her head and repositioned herself as she watched her mom stir the pot on the fire.

Corale looked down at her daughter with a soft smile, her dazzling green eyes sparkle in the fire light as she gazed upon her daughter with love and affection. "You see not long after that, I was working in the kitchen and your father came in. He had cut himself badly some how doing work outside. I told him sit down on the stool and proceeded to rip off part of my shirt after I had cleaned his hand." She smiles, with a deep sigh of love "The moment I touched his hand, the moment I looked into his eyes, the moment he pursed his lips. I fell in love with him." A man walks over the hill with short red hair and scarred body, muscular tone tribal marks run up and down his arms with dark skin. He sits down by the young brutor with a cheeky smile on his face and speaks from like in the story "So, bright eyes tell me your name?"

Corale turned around quickly from stirring the pot and smiles at her husband, her mate, her love "Corale, is my name, what is yours?" She looked deep into his eyes "You see little Lit, I was dressing his hand which would should have gotten stitches, but I had some herbs to help with healing."

The man looks at her with a softness in his face "Arthur Khammael, thank you for tending to my hand. You have a healing touch, your eyes only shine in comparison to your true beauty." He let out a low chuckle, as Lit giggled very child like, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

Corale blushed like she did that day, moving her long red dreads back behind her ears, she then plays with the slave collar around her neck as she looks to him with a sigh. " In dark times people look to find something good, something real, something that gives them hope that its not all bad out there. I reached my hands up around your fathers neck and I kissed him in a way that I thought I would never kiss anyone. Out of love, passion, from somewhere deep inside my spirit."

Arthur let out a hardy laugh as he watched his wife stir the pot over the fire. Lit squirmed in her spot on the grass "Mama, papa so it was love at first sight? It can really happen?" Lit played with the collar around her neck and then whimpered slightly as her wounds on her back became itchy, her mother looked at her "Lit don't scratch it will only make it worse, and then they will never heal."

Lit flopped back and sighed "But mama, they are soooooooo itchy."

Arthur piped up with a sternness in his voice "Little blossom, a warrior doesn't whine." He softens his face and pulls his daughter into his lap and rubs her back for her "Yes little Lit, love can happen at first sight, if you believe in the magic"

Corale nodded her head in agreement with her mate "You see Little Lit" Her head perked up "Love can you tell the next part the other two are awake from their nap." She wandered over to the hut not far from the fire and slipped in.

Arthur with a deep bassy tone to his voice as Lit traced her fingers around his tattoo's on his arms "As your mother was saying over the next few months, we grew closer and closer. Which the Mistress had noted and saw, she is hard and harsh on us for punishment, sometimes too hard. It happened a summer day when Master Gabrielle.." Lit shivered and squirmed at the mention of that name. "Took us out to the field where your older sister was killed so that we could sow the next crop. We got the plows set up as he watched over us from his horse. All of a sudden his horse got spooked and threw him. Just as the horse was about come crashing down on his head. I ran into the middle of it" He lifts his shirt to show a horse shoe scar on his back right on the shoulder blade. "I put myself between the horse and Master Gabrielle, and yes my precious angel if I had known what he would be like I would have let him die." Lit shakes her head feverently "But papa that means you and mama wouldn't be married."

He laughed a full belly laugh "Oh, my angel we don't need marriage to tell us she is my mate and I am hers, it is nice yes but we don't need it. But we carried Master Gabrielle back to the manor house where Mistress ran out to meet us with her younger brother, I was ordered to carry him in while Shenzu was told to fetch the doctor for me. The first time she ever did that for any of us and the last time. After we were all checked out she thanked me for my loyalty to the house and offered me a reward of my choosing save being freed. So I asked for permission to marry your mother. She without hesitation granted it and said it would be done in two days time. We were married as promised."

Lit smiled brightly at her father as she puts her head on his chest, Corale walked up with a baby in arms and a 4 year old little boy. "That's nice Papa, and thank you Mama. Its good to know that love can even find slaves." Corale walked over to Arthur "Duncan sit here sweetie beside papa, Lit take your baby sister."

Lit sat up straight holding her younger sister in her arms trying to be a good older sister, as her mother begins to serve them all dinner. She rocks back and forth with this tiny infant in her arms, for right now in this moment, she felt like a girl, a sister not a slave, she had a family. Unaware of the darkness that awaits her ahead, not knowing at this time where her path would take her.

Lit starts to sing "Land of the Bear and Land of the Eagle. Land that gave us birth And blessing, Land that pulled us Ever homeward. We will go home across the mountains, We will go home, We will go ho-me, We will go home. We will go home singing our song, We will go home across the mountains, We will go home Hear our singing, hear our longing, We will go home across the mountains."

The family just smiled as she sang, the baby cooed in her arms as this ten year old young Brutor sings unaware of what is yet to come, innocent in many ways but not so much in the cruelty of man.

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She puts the paper back in the drawer as a tear falls down her face both with sadness and happiness remembering the story, but a time of innocence that been lost. Remembering her little sister, her mom, her dad, but for once she isn't sad completely. This is a good memory, one that sticks out in her mind knowing that its from when they were together and happy.