Chapter 1: Beauty is the Beast (Part 2)

Read Part 1  here: http://slavestheseries.blogspot.com/2011/12/beauty-is-beast-part-1.html

[CONTD.]

1000 YEARS AGO, MEDEIVAL INDIA

Shackles of iron dangling, and dripping a trail of blood, the ugly woman was being paraded to the pedestal where she was to be executed. The death sentence came without delay. She was ugly, she was old, she cured a few poor peasants, and she never interfered in anybody’s affairs. She was the perfect candidate for the witch hunting scheme the king had introduced. Catch a witch and get a reward of a handful of gold coins. Three witches had already been burnt alive and now it was her turn. She never got the chance to plead mercy; she was captured in her home while she was sleeping, her hut burnt in front of her eyes, beat badly and chains were put around her so the weak frail woman would not run away from twenty able bodied soldiers who had come to capture her.

“Witch! What’s your name?” screamed one of the soldiers as she was a few steps away from the pedestal of doom.

“Hema!” she cried, her voice breaking.

Hema was made to climb the pedestal made of logs and was chained to a wooden block. She looked around and saw that a crowd had gathered to witness her slaughtering.

“The witch who calls herself Hema shall be executed as per the orders of our King,” announced someone which was greeted by a cheer from the crowd.

“The King arrives,” another announcement was made, which was followed by more cheering.

Hema looked around with whatever power she had and with her blurred vision she saw the figure of their new king approach the pedestal. Probably he would set the fire himself.

“No! No! Mother!” someone screamed from the crowd.

Hema looked and saw her daughter run towards the pedestal through the crowd. She screamed, “Aruna! No! Go away from here!” She knew it was not safe for a witch’s daughter to be around the king and his soldiers.

Shabbily dressed Aruna reached the clearing in front of the pedestal and looked up at her mother. She was greeted with a collective gasp from the crowd:

“Oh, my God! Did you see her face?”

“She’s a monster!”

“Kill her! Kill her!”

Aruna was not the most beautiful girl in the kingdom. She had the ugliest face anyone there had ever seen. She had a patch of baldness on her head, her limbs were deformed and she smelled horribly. She looked up at her mother and cried, “Mother, no... Come down from there...”

Hema looked down at her and said, “You shouldn’t be here, Aruna... Go! Run! They will kill you.”

The king looked at the girl and gestured at his soldiers who immediately advanced towards her but hesitated a while with disgust.

Aruna looked up and said, “Why are you allowing this, Mother? You can just walk down...”

Hema said in a hoarse voice, “I can’t, Aruna! They have my hands tied behind my back... But you must go...”

Aruna looked around and saw the king’s soldiers slowly surrounding her but no one dared to come close yet.

She extended her right hand towards her mother and shut her eyes. Then she began chanting a spell which was immediately met with cries of horror from the crowd:

“She’s a witch too!”

“Kill her!”

“She’s chanting a spell!”

“Stop her!”

[TO BE CONTINUED...]

Does anyone stop Aruna? Read Part 3  here: http://slavestheseries.blogspot.com/2012/01/beauty-is-beast-part-3.html