"Oh thank you dear sweet child! Thank you!" The grateful mother had said.
Krista had stepped back into the shadows and crept along the wall leading to the last guard post holding the baby to her hoping that it wouldn't cry out.
She'd heard the woman briefly say something before she was out of sight, "May the Creator protect you."
Krista broke from her reflection of the night before and reached one grubby hand up to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"I wonder what his mother would say to me now?" Krista said softly to herself in sorrow.
Shaking her head she made her way up from the river's edge to the wharf above. Lost in her sorrow she was not as careful as she should have been. The morning had progressed more quickly than she had thought. Workers and tradesmen were already busy about their business. She gasped realizing her mistake. She was noticed almost at once by one of the field masters that she worked under in the firan cane fields.
"You there! Stop slave! Get her! She escaped from the slave stockade!"
Everyone suddenly became an enemy to her. She ran trying to elude the outstretched hands of the people all around her.
She slid under a table holding produce and bounded up on the other side of it. There up ahead of her was an alley, if she could only reach it she might be able to out run her pursuers and find a hiding place until nightfall, when she could sneak out of the town under the cover of darkness. She sprang for the alleyway, but a hand grabbed her by the calf and flung her backwards. She landed in the middle of the street hard. Muddy water and refuse splashed up at her landing and soaked her in its filth.
An angry mob had gathered around her and she was cut off from any chance at escape.
She turned around on the ground trying to avoid any of her would be assailants as the field master, who had first seen her spoke up loudly, "Let's just kill her! She's not worth much and we'll make such an example out of her that no other slave will even think about escaping!"
Krista curled up in a ball and screamed, as they began to kick and hit her yelling insults and curses at her as they did so.
Krista landed hard against the side of the curb waiting for the next hit hoping that she would die soon. Life was just too painful and hopeless to keep fighting to hold onto. The expected hits didn't come though.