Bird in a Cage

[Breyan Norrey]

The autumn night was unusually cold. The icy rain soaked her woolen clothes through. The young girl pulled her knees up into her chest in a feeble effort to keep warm, but nothing seemed to help. She buried her face into the back of her knees and cried, keeping her sobs hushed so that none of the town's people would notice.

"Look at her." A voice sneered. "Filthy beggar. They should have hanged you." He barked at the tiny prisoner.

The girl looked up, only to see two men. They were woodsmen, dirty and drunk. Lumberjacks by trade. The two stood in the rain, gawking at the young girl until the other spoke.

"Ah, you're drunk Fergus. That's no girl... tis a boy." He laughed. "What's your name boy?" He barked.

But she said nothing. She knew what the two men could do to her if they wanted to bond her out, and with her hair cut short, it disguised her enough to pass her off as a boy. She simply swallowed hard and hoped they'd go away.

Frustrated, at the young prisoner's silence, one of the men rushed upon her and shoved the cage backward. The rusty gibbet swung on its chain backwards, and then forward again. Rain water poured from its base, and she grabbed the bars to steady herself.

Fergus spit towards the cage. "You'll be dead in two days!"

Then both men staggered off.

She took in a deep sigh of relief. Her legs were cramped and there was no room to move. It appears her fate was sealed.

A thunderous crack exploded overhead as the rain continued to fall. The market became caked with thick mud. Most of the town's people had retired for the night. The girl sat cramped in her cage, shivering in the cold rain.