6 Fire

  Sara didn’t know how long she sat there, but she eventually heard the voice of David.

  “Sari, would you come out? I would come in, but the door, well, actually, the whole building is a little small.”

  Sara sighed and got up, walked outside, and looked up at the giant standing relaxed in front of the house. David had thrown on what looked like a light shirt, had changed his pants, and was mostly dry. As Sara looked down, she stared at the huge shoes the giant wore. The shoes were made of thick leather and looked like they were made to survive a sword’s strike.

  Seeing Sara staring at his feet David said. “It’s a weak point for giants.”

  Sara looked up, confused for a moment.

  “The feet,” David said, pointing down at the shoes. “Giants have to have thick shoes as our feet are our weak point.” The giant laughed, “Making our weakest spot the place anyone can reach has to be the creator's way to equalize any fight we might think to enter. Without shoes, it’s even hard to walk when I’m like this.”

  Sara looked over him, then asked, “Isn’t it foolish to tell people that?”

  “Yes, but I doubt you will be telling anyone; besides, it’s not like there are any real giants on this continent, and I don’t think you’re going to hurt me. Enough about me, we need to talk about your life here.”

  “I’m not your slave!”

  “Are the people who are born in your country yours to command?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, they are yours just because they were born?”

  Sara didn’t think she was going to like where this was going to end up, but answered, “I guess so.”

  “They did not have a choice?”

  “They could leave if they wanted to; we don’t keep people locked up unless they have committed a crime.”

  “Oh, so all of your Lords allow their serfs to go wherever they want?”

  There were a couple of Lords who did allow serfs to come and go if they wanted to, but she knew that most of them didn’t. She was quietly putting the pieces together, then she said, “You are going to say that like them, I need to accept my situation.”

  David smiled, then said, “But this is different because we took you rather than you being born.”

  Sara shook her head and finished his argument. “Just like serfs did not have a choice about being born is the same as me not having a choice about being brought here.”

  Sara was quiet for a moment, trying to think of something to argue his logic, then she had it. David had spoken of the creator as if he believed. “The teachings of the creator say that all men and women are supposed to be free to choose their destiny.”

  “And you practice that in Rishona? Or do you expect me to treat you differently?”

  “Yes, I’m a princess.”

  David looked around and shook his head, “Not here. Here, Sari, you are just a human girl, and I might add the smallest person in the entire valley.”

  Sara shook her head and looked down. She didn’t want to think about this anymore, so she just stared at the giant’s feet.

  David just stood there waiting. His silence reminded her of Mistress Carmarthen standing at the other side of the table waiting for her to figure out a problem she was given. She found it just as uncomfortable now as it was then.

  Finally, she said, “What do you want?”

  “I would like a competent, well-trained servant, but I have you, so I guess that will have to do.”

  Sara looked up and stared at the giant, knowing she was just insulted.

  David looked down at her as if he had just commented on the weather being nice and then continued, “We are not uncivilized, at least no more than any Lord in Rishona. You will work for us five days a week, and you will have one day in which to do whatever business you want to do to make your life better. The other is to allow you to worship. I suggest that you break them up so that you will only have to deal with us for no more than three days in a row. Three days in a row is about as much as anyone can take of Draco.”

  Sara heard a growl out of the cave and wondered just how good the dragon’s hearing was, since he was complaining about what the giant had said, she assumed.

  “It was wrong of Draco to expect you to understand our needs without explaining them and punish you for it, but understand that if you purposefully do us wrong, there will be consequences.”

  Sara just stared, still, not believing that this was happening to her. Thinking about the flames that were aimed at her earlier, she understood there was real danger.

  Wanting to confirm it, she asked, “If I mess up on purpose, you won’t save me?”

  “You would have to do something really bad for me to allow what happened before to happen again,” David said, looking over his shoulder at the place where Draco had shot flames at Sara. “But I might not be around, and if Draco decided to let you go, I might not get there in time.”

  Sara's eyes lighted up, and she looked into David’s face, “He would let me go?” Sara nodded, confirming that this was good.

  David nodded, but there was no smile on his face. Then, the giant looked up to the sky and nodded in that direction, “Let you go from up there, Sari.”

  That kind of release from slavery would be permanent, and she wasn’t sure if falling from the sky or being burned alive would be worse. The light in Sara’s eyes went out, and she said, “What do I have to do?”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “The good news is that you might have got the worst job done for the week already, feeding Draco.”

  Sara heard another growl from the cave. Seeing the slight smile on David’s face, but she didn’t know why the giant would find pleasure in angering that creature.

  “So, let’s begin by discussing what you are expected to do. Of course, cook your own food and mine. We are not going to go out and get you any more bread, but there are plenty of animals, and over there beyond the pig pen,” With those words David waved his hand in that direction and continued, “is a lot of wild rye that can be used to make flour, and of course, to feed the pigs if there isn’t anything else. There are some seeds around somewhere, so if you want to start a garden, that would be good.”

  Sara looked around the little farm and saw what he was pointing to but didn’t have any idea how to do any of it. She then looked up at David and could see he understood the problem.

  “Sari, do you even know how to start a fire?”

  “My servants took care of those things?” Sara said, putting her hands on her hips and staring at the giant.

  “Yes, I am sure of that, but I am also sure that even the mightiest Lord in your little country knows how to build a fire,” David shook his head. “It does not matter, you need to learn now, because we do not want Draco to start a fire, do we?”

  Sara dropped her head and shook it. She didn’t want to see the dragon’s flame ever again.

  Go inside, and on the mantel, there will be a small box with a piece of steel, flint, and some worthless parchment in it.

  Sara went inside, and on the mantel above the fireplace was a small metal box. She picked it up and looked down at the empty fireplace. She was a little excited that she would learn how to make her own fire. She remembered being younger, seeing her mother get the fire blazing in her room. Sara hadn’t thought about it in years and had in fact not been in that room since her parents died.

  When Sara came out, she was surprised again by the giant’s actions. David was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. Sara would never have imagined a man as big as David being able to sit on the ground like that. It wasn’t going to be the last time David surprised her.

  “Okay, Sari, do you want me to tell you what to do, or would you like to see me try it first?”

  “My name is Princess Sara.”

  David looked all around in exaggerated motions as if he was expecting to see someone, and then looked back at Sara, “I do not see a kingdom here, so there are no princesses. I have already told you; Draco wants you to be Sari.”

  “Could you at least call me Sara?”

  There came a growl from the cave, and Sara was reminded that the dragon could hear them. Sara, not wanting her or David to face its flame again, shook her head.

  “If you would show me,” returning to the subject of the fire, Sara said, “that would be great.”

  David waved Sara to sit across from him and watch. Sara did, and now the giant towered over her again.

  David reached out, and Sara handed him the box. The box seemed small in his hand, but he quickly opened it. David took out a small piece of paper from the box and crinkled it up a little and set it on the ground. David then took the flint and steel and hit them against each other. Sara saw the sparks come off and watched David aim the sparks at the paper. After a few strikes, the sparks landed on the paper, and the paper began to turn black and then burn. In just a moment, the paper was gone.

  “If we were going to do this properly,” David explained, pointing at the burnt paper, “we would have had kindling nearby to keep the fire going, but I figured we would deal with one thing at a time.”

  “Kindling?” Sara asked.

  “No one took you camping, did they?”

  “No, why would they!” Sara cringed at the idea of sleeping on the ground.

  “Sari, if you had a chance to escape, would you?”

  Sara didn’t want to admit it because even if David was being nice right now, he and the dragon had kidnapped her. She didn’t want them to be on the lookout for her to escape, so she just looked down and kept quiet.

  David laughed, “Smart girl, but there is no way even for me out of this valley except on the back of Draco. Saying yes would not cause us to guard you more, so you could not get away. For the sake of my lesson, if you were traveling somewhere in a carriage to visit a foreign land and a storm came by, or bandits attacked. What would you do once you got away from the danger?”

  Sara had never considered this before but had read about them. She understood that even if she had food, she didn’t know how to build a fire or the first thing about cooking. Now she realized that even if she did escape that she would probably die in the wilderness.

  “I can guess what you are thinking, so let me just say it: you need to learn everything you can from me, because if you ever escape, I assume you want to survive.”

  Sara looked up into the face of the giant but didn’t say a thing, but she knew he was right.

  “For my part, if you managed to escape, I would not be happy to see you die in the forest.”

  There came a growl of words from the cave, and David and Sara both looked in that direction. Sara kept quiet, expecting the dragon to come out, but David said, “Do not lie to me; I know better.”

  David looked back at Sara and continued, “If you do not escape, I will need to teach you a lot if you are going to be a servant worth anything. Besides, you might find you enjoy this work.”

  There came another growl from the cave, but David just rolled his eyes. Sara didn’t know what the dragon said but wondered for not the last time what kind of relationship these two shared.

  It was late in the afternoon when David announced that her skill at making fire was adequate. It took so long, not because she wasn’t able to create a spark with the flint and steel, but once she had a small fire, she usually smothered it. She kept adding too much kindling or the wrong type. Sara quickly found out that she didn’t have the patience she thought she had. She could sit and read for hours, but sitting and waiting for the fire to take without helping it was a struggle.

  They took a break at one point in the middle of the fire lesson, and David showed Sara where she would use the privy and allowed her some time to get some bread for lunch.

  After learning how to make and maintain a fire, Sara went to the chicken coup. He taught her about the chickens. She learned that most of the food the chicken ate was from what they foraged around the valley, but also when to give them more. He taught her how to gather the eggs and not to pull away when the chicken pecked at her. Finally, he taught Sara when to leave the eggs under a mama chicken brooding over her eggs, so they could hatch and have more chickens later.

  David, to Sara’s amazement, was able to teach her how to cook the eggs three different ways. David retrieved some smoked goat meat from somewhere in the cave, and it was that and the eggs that they shared for dinner.

  When the day was coming to an end, Sara thought she wanted to take a quick bath, so she asked David, “Could you move the water trough behind my house closer to the spring?”

  “I can, but why would you want it there?”

  “It will be easier to fill?”

  “Yes, but the water will be cold, and if you sit in it too long, it will not be good for you, and we did not bring you here so you could die on us.”

  Sara knew that sitting in really cold water wasn’t good and could cause someone to die, but she also wanted to be able to take a bath. She smelled of smoke from learning to start a fire and didn’t want to think about what all she had stepped in while getting the eggs.

  “I could boil some water and add it,” Sara suggested, but on seeing David shake his head, she knew that it wasn’t going to work.

  “Sari, it would take a long time to boil the water, and even if you added several pots of boiling water to the trough, the water would still be too cold.”

  “The reason the trough is where it is so that it can warm up during the day while sitting out in the sun. Of course, that means you need to fill it in the morning before your other chores.”

  Sara sighed. She really wanted that bath.

  “For now, I will fill the trough for you since I dumped it on myself earlier. You won’t be able to use it until tomorrow, but it is the least I can do since I dumped it.”

  Sara appreciated the gesture and went to the house. She found the buckets for water and filled them, then put some in a pot over the fire once she got it burning high again.

  It was late. She planned to clean up quickly and then go to sleep. Sara added a little hot water hot to the bucket she was going to use to wash up with then moved to a secluded place behind the house.

  “Oh,” Sara groaned as she stuck her hand into the large bucket. David was correct. A little bit of hot water couldn’t heat the cold water from the spring.

  Sara gritted her teeth and quickly washed off.

  As Sara had thought earlier that when she finished up the day, she would be planning her escape. Now, what was more important was to figure out what she needed to know so that her escape wouldn’t mean her death. Sara’s planning didn’t happen because the moment she lay down, she could feel the aches in her muscles but even that didn’t keep her awake. Sara fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.