22 Weeks to Forget and Remember

  Sara spent the rest of the week away from the farm, just doing what she had to do to survive it. This was due to everything she had learned in the last two and a half months. There were no surprises, and if anything, Sara felt it was the easiest week she'd had since coming to the valley. That was about to change.

  If it hadn't been for the encounter with the thief, Sara could have said she had almost enjoyed this week away from the farm and all the work that was required to do there. This surprised her, considering a few months before, she had never spent any time sleeping outdoors or having to prepare her own meals, not to mention living in old servants’ clothes, not having servants, or digging her own privy. Sara was amazed at how much she had changed.

  However, when the week was over, she overheard Draco flying overhead and then David saying, "Sara, it's time to get going."

  They had been gone eight days. And it was the start of the work week. And it would be a work week like she would never have imagined.

  On the first day, Draco demanded to be fed at least five different times. Twice, he came over and knocked over things she had been doing, along with demanding that she go find things that she didn't know anything about or were even in the valley. David tried to keep up with translating for the dragon and to be helpful. Many times, he had to just shrug and wave to dismiss the dragon with a look that said, "I don't get it either."

  The second day was even worse. Draco still demanded to be fed multiple times. Usually, when she was starting to do another project. The first time he growled for food was before she was out of bed. The growl came, and David yelled into the house, "Draco would like his meal now."

  So, dragging herself out of bed, she started to get dressed, and the growl came again, and David said, "I'm sorry, but he says he wants you to get it now."

  Sara ran with just her slip and grabbed a rooster for him. She brought it to him, at which he growled, and David said, "Nope, he wants a different one.” Therefore, Sara had to go back and get a different chicken.

  And that was just the beginning of the second day. Not long after that, Draco demanded that she go into the woods and find some apples because he wanted hot apples. She went into the woods, loaded a bucket of apples, but when she got them back, he knocked over the bucket. She didn’t need David's interpretation as she knew they weren't ripe enough. When she tried to explain they weren’t ripe at this time of year, he growled and leaned forward with his mouth open, his teeth showing. Sara thought she might get another bout of fire shot at her.

  Then, as if he forgot all about the offending apples told her, through David, that he wanted water. This confused her because he always drank out of the brook that the spring fed. She didn’t argue. Sara went and got a bucket and started bringing water, but then Draco argued that he wanted it in a larger vessel than she was carrying. Sara went back and not knowing what else to get, grabbed a barrel and rolled it over to where he demanded it be placed. Then filled it. Once it was filled, he knocked it over and said, through David, that he couldn't get his tongue or face easily inside of it. Draco demanded that she bring over her trough that she used for bathing. Sara tried and ended up having to get help from David as she could hardly move it over that far. Once she got it there, she grudgingly filled it back up with water.

  As she was getting ready to fill the water trough, Draco demanded he be fed again. She went and got a rooster, and brought it to Draco.

  It was then Sara heard David translate, "No, he says he wants a chicken this time. The roosters were too tough.”

  Sara rolled her eyes, but walked back, grabbed a chicken. One of the ones, she hoped, wasn’t one that was laying eggs faithfully. She brought it back, at which, when Draco tried to grab it, he instead knocked it out of her hands, giving it the opportunity to fly away. This meant she had to go back and get another one. By the time she had gotten back, the trough had been emptied as he drank it and demanded even more.

  Sara couldn’t understand. For some reason, Draco had become a real tyrant.

  Sara gathered water and filled the trough again. This time, Draco didn't even touch it.

  By the time the day was done, Sara was utterly confused and could see no rhyme or reason as to why Draco was doing the things he was doing.

  In the only moment they were alone she asked David, “What's happened?”

  To which David shrugged and said, “I will tell you what your head stewards tell the other servants: Just do what she says and watch your head.”

  Sara frowned but kept going. The third day mirrored much of the same actions she had seen the previous two days: getting food, getting water, and being sent on wild errands. It made no sense.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  At one time, he sent her to find a perfectly straight stick, five feet long and two inches wide. Sara scoured the woods. And when she couldn't find it within an hour, there came a growl from Draco across the field, and David ran across saying, "Draco said forget it, come on back."

  Not knowing what else to do, Sara left and came back only to find Draco asking where a stick was. When she said she couldn't find one, he knocked David over and shot fire into the sky.

  When David got up, he interrupted the dragon's complaint, "What do you mean she should have at least brought you something?"

  When she started to leave to go get some type of stick, David said, "No, go over and get him something to eat," which she did.

  By the end of the third day, Sara was completely and utterly spent and confused. The morning of the fourth day, Sara thought about praying that the Creator would do something nasty to the dragon, but resisted, knowing that wasn’t the right thing to do. She prayed that she could escape because nothing made sense, and things were more dangerous than ever.

  As the fourth day started, she got out of bed, but when she went over to start her chores for the day, it seemed as if everything had returned to how they were before they left.

  Draco left her alone for the most part, and she only had to do her regular routines. After getting permission to move her water trough back, David helped her get it back in place and cleaned up.

  Sara asked herself, “What is going on?”

  Why? was the question that plagued her? “If I could just understand,” she told herself, if I could just understand what he is thinking. But Sara had no frame of reference. No way of understanding.

  At one point, Sara asked David, “I don’t understand what is going on.”

  “In Rishona, do masters explain why they want something done or just tell their slaves what to do?” Before Sara could answer, he asked another question, “Did you always explain to your servants why you wanted something done so they would understand?”

  “This isn’t the same!”

  David laughed and went back to the chores, but she, too, went back to work, irritated that he was correct.

  When the fourth day was over, Sara finished her chores and went to bed, wondering what would happen next.

  The fifth day came, and it was just like the fourth day, a traditional day, no crazy actions, her normal routine of tending the farm, the livestock, and meeting her own personal needs. It was a week that didn't make sense, but this was only going to be the beginning.

  As day 6 began, Sara went out expecting to be trained. David was waiting to begin training as normal, but his training seemed more intense, more punishing.

  David didn’t hold back. He was intentionally pushing her further. She didn't get close to hitting the giant, but David got in multiple hits, and they hurt more than normal.

  By the end of the day, she was bruised, tired, and she never wanted to face training again, almost. She knew how important training was if she ever wanted to escape. The incident with the thief made that clear.

  As the day ended, the final session for her training was to run. He wanted her to run all the way across the meadow to the wall and back. Sara started to complain, but David looked at her and said, "Do you want to be prepared or not?"

  Sara just turned and began to run. She ran there and ran back. When she got back, she was surprised. She was able to do it. Yet she was so exhausted without worrying about getting anything to eat or even to clean up, Sara walked into her house and headed over to her bed. When she woke up in her bed the next day, she didn’t even remember lying down.

  Creator's Day was a rest for Sara, and she appreciated it. She spent much of the day in bed as her body ached in ways it had never ached before. But the rest did her good.

  And at the end of Creator's Day, before the sun went down, David came by and told her that Draco would be gone for the next week, allowing them to do more training.

  Sara almost groaned, but she wondered what was going on. Why was David interested in her training? And so she asked, "David, why are you working so hard to train me in fighting? If I'm going to be your slave, I shouldn't have to do any of this."

  David huffed, "Like you didn't have to defend yourself against that thief."

  Sara shook her head but then responded, "But we shouldn't have any more of those around here."

  David turned with a fire in his eyes, "You don’t know what the future holds, and I do not want to have to explain to Draco or to the Creator why someone I trained died."

  Sara was surprised. She had never heard David speak like this, or at least with this much fire. It made her wonder again what was going on in the mind of the giant. And as she thought about him, she asked herself again what was going on between the giant and the dragon? Their relationship always seemed strange, since the day he took the flames meant for her.

  Even her training was a mystery. Sara knew that David was preparing her to defend herself, and if necessary to fight to the death. She was sure there was more going on as the level of defense he was teaching her was far greater than any servant needed. David had already walked off, so there wasn’t a chance to ask anything else.

  Pushing all the mysteries aside, Sara said her evening prayers and went to bed. She wondered what the day after would be like, but sleep came before she could worry about it.

  The day after was training, and it continued to be brutal. Sara had seen some of her guards training. She had watched some of the physical and fighting training. It was the running which she had never dreamed could be so hard.

  The more she examined how she was being trained, it seemed to Sara that David wasn't preparing her to defend herself; he was preparing her for war. This thought scared Sara, but she kept pushing, knowing in her heart that David would keep his word; the training would stop if she didn’t give her all.

  David had her running, fighting, repeating again and again the staff and spear exercises until she could do them instinctively at full speed without error. Her expertise was getting far better. However, with David’s increased viciousness, she found herself unable to make any progress in defeating him in their sparing matches.

  Day after day, the training week went on and got harder and harder still. Though David called the days training over earlier than he had before, Sara was exhausted.

  Yet something else was going on. Something within her. After the end of one day, she asked herself, "What has happened to me?" After feeling her arms and the strength in her legs, Sara looked at her body and said, "I'm not the woman I was before. I'm stronger. He’s made me into a fighter."

  It made her wonder what she might be able to do. Now, she was convinced that if she escaped, she could survive. If there came an opportunity, she would run. What she didn't know was how soon that opportunity would come.