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Chapter One

Tres

It is all co to an end

Hyrrreat rocky peaks which lay so quiet for years have become active with his cries for fresh blood Ash fills the air and e the clear waters red and casting uine hue The sky turned white and then black and then red on the day he awakened, and nothing has been the same since

The sacrifice will be made soon

I sit inside a bathing tent e of the river’s flow, not a stitch of clothing protectingwashed with herbal infused oils I feel light, repetitive tugging as the wo me pulls the sides into braids It is important that I am presented as beautifully as possible Hyrrm will accept only the finest sacrifices A pure worown and yet unsullied by the touch of man Me

I was born to be the led about the day they would be given to Trelok, our chief I knew Trelok would never touch me I would never feel the touch of any man until Hyrrm’s hot embrace covered me over and carried me down

“Tomorrow, you serve your purpose, condehtened?”

I shakethe braids she is fixing She has been working on the strands of ht braids which will please my mate

“You have nothing to fear,” she says “You will fly into the arreater joy than any woman in this tribe”

I hear a slight quaver in her voice She is trying to contain her eers as she drops a braid, then picks it up again and tries to fasten it with a piece of wound twine Mira is a good woh I was not born from her womb I was not born from any womb I was cut from the stomach of a condemned woman, and for that sin, I became condemned myself

“Do not worry for me, Mira It won’t hurt”