(It is night time in the village of Olanbo, the only sound that could be heard is the sound of the rain pouring on the ground. Suddenly this peaceful sound was disrupted by a man who called out saying……..)

“ They are coming”, “ the raiders are coming everyone”.

All the mothers panicked and locked their children in a room while the men got their weapons ready to fight. The fight lasted for about 30 minutes but due to the lack of manpower the villagers lost. Then suddenly a voice said “ find the women and the children, pack them all up, anyone who refuses should be killed”.

The raiders found us all and we were all bound to a rope, while leaving the village I could clearly see the lifeless body of my father and the men who lost their lives fighting on the ground. I suddenly clenched my mother's cloth crying.

All the women and children were then rounded up and we followed behind the horses with our hands bound. We weren't given clean water to drink for 2 days we could only drink from the water the horses drank from, due to this some kids and old women died, leaving only few of us alive. After days of walking we finally arrived at a ship , the raiders loaded us like animals and we were kept away from seeing the sunlight.

After what felt like weeks on sea, we finally reached land. As soon as we stepped on shore, the raiders started splitting us. Some to the left while the others to the right. I was on the right side while my mother was on the left, I begged one the raiders not to separate my mother from me but the only thing I got was a slap. Even with all my begging my mother was still separated from me. The raider dragged me to an unknown place and I got really scared already thinking about the worst, but I ended up getting sold to a slave trader.

After being separated from my mother, I was sold to a slave master, he looked at me not as a child but an investment. The master took me to a room and tossed me on the floor, he shut the door and when I looked up I saw three other girls. We were all from different nationalities. A girl with short, light brown hair approached me, I froze as she approached but then I flinched when she reached out to me and guided me to a corner with a basin of water. She told me to wash up, I really wasn't expecting kindness from anyone after all I had been through. I looked at my reflection in the water and wondered why she helped me, I was all bruised up from the trees touching with my body, my lips cracked, my hair dry and tangled, overall I was a complete mess. After washing up, I headed back to the room when another girl with long braided brown hair approached me and gave me some clothes to wear.

After dressing up I thanked both girls because their kindness reminded me of what was left behind of Olanbo. I took a good look at both girls, the one with short, light brown hair introduced herself as Lia while the other with long braided hair introduced herself as Becca. I couldn't guess where Lia and Becca where from because living in a village you have little access to books. Their skin reminded me of cooked yam, which is a really strange thing to compare someone with, their skin was white and so smooth, and they both had faces I had only ever seen in the ink sketches of old books I've read. The thing that caught my attention was their cheeks, they both had a natural pink flushed cheeks.

After staring for a little too long I introduced myself as Ewa which means beautiful. My mom named me Ewa because she said during her labor pains the only thing visible to her was a beautiful flower she saw, so she named me Ewa. I suddenly became so teary remembering my mother and how we were separated.I looked to the corner and saw the third girl, she had blonde hair and she was less bothered about what was going on and didn't even approach me.

After crying Lia and Becca both showed me to my bed. All the tears made me hungry but I shouldn't be thinking about that now, I should be thinking if there's any possibility of me escaping this unknown land. Both Lia and Becca took turns explaining how they got kidnapped.

Lia had been travelling with her family when they were attacked, her dad was killed by the bandits while Lia and her mom were taken hostage, Lia's Mom was heavily pregnant at the moment and ended up dying while Lia got sold. According to the bandits Lia would fetch a high price since she was so pretty. I asked both Lia and Becca what they knew about this place but they said they didn't know much. They were also new and had been placed here two days ago including the blonde girl.

Becca started “I had always been an orphan and like every other kid at the orphanage, curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to explore the walls outside the orphanage before I got adopted because I wasn't sure how my future foster parents would treat me, so I wanted this little piece of freedom. During my exploration I got kidnapped and that's how I winded up here, funny right?”. We all had our sad stories, was I expecting a happy story from them? I mean we all don't even know where we are. I still didn't know Raelynn’s story, that's what Lia called the blonde girl. After exchanging the little information we had, we all retired to sleep. Who am I kidding? I couldn't get any sleep, I kept tossing for hours until sleep finally won.

Morning came and a loud noise startled me awake. It was Master who opened the door so violently I was sure the hinges would come loose. Then he stepped inside the room and told us to get up and follow him, he didn't even give us time to freshen up, well we are slaves so I should probably expect the most inhumane treatment. While getting up from the bed, I suddenly heard Raelynn gasp, that was the first time I've heard anything audible from her. I followed her eyes and outside the door were three boys, all teens like us, Lia and Becca were equally surprised but Master wasn't so happy about that, he shouted and told us to hurry.

After getting ready, we all followed him to a door which he opened, and it led us to a large room, at the right there was a huge counter with drinks of all sorts at the back and to the far corner at the left there was big covered rectangular box, and at the center of the room there were chairs and tables which filled the entire room, so I'm guessing this was a tavern. After a moment of silence, the master finally spoke “I'm Will, but I'll prefer if you called me Uncle or Master, I'll get straight to the point, you guys are burdens and are living under my roof for free, and I don't do any free work, so you work to live under me”. He faced us “The ladies are in charge of cleaning the tables, chairs and floors before the customers arrive and also washing the dishes” then he looked at the boys and said “you guys are in charge of loading the drinks, drawing water, rolling the barrels and cleaning the stalls”. He spat on the floor and said “Urgh there's not enough of you for the work around here, hopefully Bill brings the new set of boys next weekend”. (He goes to the left corner at the far end and gets a cigarette from the rectangular box and smokes, filling the air with the scent of whatever was wrapped inside the cigar). After he finished talking, the boys headed to the door that we came in from and started loading the drinks. I took care of cleaning the floor, while Lia cleaned the tables and chairs, Becca and Raelynn both did the dishes while “Uncle” gosh that almost made me gag, watched us while we worked.