My sword was still drawn for a specific purpose. I handed the bill of sale to her over my shoulder.
"Hold this please."
As she took it I backed Flin up against the side of the building.
"Zarta!"
On my command Flin lashed out with his back hooves and crushed in the side of a barrel full of lamp oil.
As the oil spread out across the dry boardwalk Esmeralda stumbled out of the auction house shrieking, "What do you think you're doing?"
Flin out of his own volition lashed out a hoof and sent her toppling backward into the building. I extended the point of the sword over my shoulder.
"Your papers my darling?"
With a giggle of pure joy Krista shoved her bill of sale onto the end of the amazing sword her husband wielded. I pulled Flin forward and reached the sword upward to the lantern overhead.
The papers caught flame and I swung the sword in a downward arc to shake the burning shards of the bill of sale off into the spilled oil so that they could burn up with the past. As the boardwalk and the front of the building burst into flames I heard shouts of alarm from inside. Let the fool's burn up with their blood money in hand!
I let Flin have his way and we busted through the railing of the boardwalk and headed northward for home as fast as Flin could carry us. I was free to be content now wherever I lived and through whatever I did, because I had the girl of my dreams, that I loved more than anything else, holding on tight to me.
Krista buried her head against Roric's back loving the solid feel of the man she held onto, knowing that the solidness she felt was more than just something that went skin deep. This amazing man had come back for her!
The slave buyers had wanted her body, but he had wanted her heart, and the Creator had freed her soul. A slave no more, but the wife of a proud warrior she would forever be.
Life's journey for her may still hold valleys and mountains to cross, but she could do it with her husband by her side and God showing her which way was up. Life was worth the living after all, because the Creator had made it so.