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A Mint-Flavored Rebellion [Part 5]
Though the rowing was tedious and strenuous work, it was nothing compared to slave labor. Mint’s muscles were rock hard from years of that, then horseback riding, sparring, sword fighting, and strength training.
Sadly, this meant that the normally distracting task of owing the boat did nothing to occupy her mind besides a steady rhythm in the back of her mind. Luckily, it did mean that her back was to the city. If she was forced to stare at the city as she rowed, she never would have been able to make it.
She tried to distract herself, but there were only two categories of truly happy memories that she could easily recall; Jen’s food, which made her ravenous, and her playful youth, most of which had been spent with Alyssa. This meant she had to dig deeper and focus on specific experiences; beating Arthur at fencing and seeing him whine like a baby, running in her first snowfall ever in Te’gun’dara a few months ago, her various mentors and teachers there, and the beauty that she had seen when she had seen herself in the mirror.
That sight was unforgettable. The last time she had seen herself in a mirror was during her slave das with her tangled auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail and he body covered in bruises, scabs, and dirt. At Te’gun’dara, she had looked so… clean. So elegant. And tall. Very tall. She looked like a princess. Not a dictator like Al’gait, but a real, fairy-tale princess.
Still, the foggy picture her mind had conjured up was nowhere near the crystal clarity with which she had seen her surprised, elegant face. And, as the city drew nearer and she was within the circling patterns of some of the guards, she couldn’t help but worry about it. Her face was so feminine, so gloriously radiant that it couldn’t have been hers. Slowly, she uttered a spell, and she could feel her features changing to a tougher, more callused arrangement. It made her feel a bit safer, but she soon became aware that every rowing motion was bringing her closer to her possible doom. Not necessarily death, but a painful, meaningless existence at the least.
She took one last deep breath before she sat up straight and yanked the oars back, sending her into the harbor with one last burst of speed. She was sure that she was taking her last few breaths as a free woman as the warden stepped up to her and a few overly perky 20 year-old ladies came up to tie her boat.
She stepped faithfully out of the boat as the warden instructed, and he asked her a series of questions. What gender she was, how old, why she was there, how long she was planning on staying, and some other questions about her past. Those were the hardest because she had only a basic outline and she was asking for specifics. For the rest, she was a nineteen year-old boy coming because all of his known relatives had died in the spread of the horrible “red epidemic.”
In her studies, she had found that is was extremely contagious and just suddenly popping up in Minze’s chosen homeland. It made the carrier’s entire body turn red, and their temperature continued to rise until their heart couldn’t take it anymore and stopped. They died slowly and painfully, though. No cure had been found through magic or science, or any other methods, as well. It had seemed fitting.
After he was half-satisfied with her answers, he opened his mouth to ask a couple more, but the whistle of a steamboat could be heard. He turned and sighed, shaking his head.
As the ladies and a crew of some untidily dressed men helped dock and tie the boat, the warden scrawled down on a piece of paper and gruffly gave it to Mint, telling her to follow the directions on it and she’d get to the placement office.
She quickly uttered her thanks before walking off with as manly a gait as she could muster.
After she was off the dock, she unfolded the piece of paper. The scrawl was large, almost illegible, and had horrendous spelling, but she could make out what it said for the most part.
Soory abot the fait that waits yu, kid. I cn tel yu that this isnt the best plaic to escap to. Go to the big blu billdin and tak to the man at the contr. Hil hellp yu get yur asinmint.
She laughed at his spelling of “assignment.” It had “Mint” at the end, and she saw it as a slightly humorous omen. Of what, however, she had no idea. After a moment, she stopped herself and tried to add a gruff edge to the laughter, or at least make it lower pitched, but it came out sounding like she was coughing and she stopped. She’d have to work on that.
Her eyes drifted back down to the paper, and she began to whisper “blue building” to herself as her dusty green eyes scanned the surrounding area for one such building.
She had no trouble finding it; it was very close and large. She walked down towards it with a smile, her eyes on the ground so she could concentrate on taking one strong step at a time. When she finally looked up, she gasped in surprise.
All the buildings on the street were blue.
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