Tears streaming down her face and with her lips quivering from unspoken cries of sorrow Krista nodded her head yes.
"Good. You have been the joy of my later days child, God bless you! I have to leave you now. He's waiting for me."
With a look of peace wreathed across her face her eyes closed and the breath left her body, as she was held clutched in Krista's arms. Krista started shaking uncontrollably tears streaming from her eyes as short strangled gasps for air forced her lungs to open and close.
"Hey look at this one mates! She's a ripe one for the picking! I saw her first!"
The lurid meaning of the slaver's slurred out statement broke the solitude of Krista's grief over her kind hearted care taker.
Krista listened to the voices of the slaver, as he approached from behind her. Something crystallized and snapped within Krista and suddenly with a scream of rage she turned from Sansa's lifeless body to face the big slaver who had killed Sansa. He approached her now with nothing but evil intent in his small beady eyes. She grabbed the small paring knife from her pocket and fairly sprang upon the surprised slaver.
He tried to protect himself, but to no avail. The small blade of the paring knife flashed again and again in the fiery light of the burning cottage that couldn't compare in intensity to the rage that had befallen Krista. The slaver crumbled to his knees and then pitched over onto his face already dead from a dozen or more stab wounds. Lost in her hate filled rage Krista continued to stab the inert form of the man, until a terrific blow from behind hit the back of her head, and knocked her over onto her face. Not wanting to succumb to the enshrouding darkness Krista fought to keep her eyes open, but failed more than she succeeded.
She felt herself being picked up and slung over what felt like a shoulder. Battling unconsciousness she lifted her head and looked back. The cottage was engulfed in flames now. Everything she loved gone within a few pain filled moments. Giving in to the darkness she collapsed devoid of any hope for the future as her world burnt once again behind her.
Krista grew conscious of a rough jolting motion and painfully opened her eyes to see the cause of the strange jerky movement. She was in a farmer's cart surrounded by half a dozen other young girls. She closed her eyes again knowing without further explanation the conditions of her new reality.
She was a slave once more, except this time with a different intended purpose. She wished vainly for a moment that the boards of the cart would melt and the ground below would swallow her up and that her life would be over.