This choice: Carla Phoenix, a 20 year old Native American woman • Go Back...Chapter #4Carla Phoenix, a 20 year old Native American woman by: SWLatina   It might have been magic, or some lost technology. No one knew. It was just something that happened to one of the daughters of the People once every generation. She was born small, and grew up tiny and beautiful. It was considered a great blessing.
You don't consider it a great blessing. Yes, you are beautiful. Your dark skin is flawless, your long dark hair healthy and lustrous, your body fit and trim. Your hips might be a little narrow, but you have a firm butt and legs, and a bust line that would make you a candidate for a Playboy centerfold. If they knew you existed.
They don't. Nobody does. That's also another tradition of the People. The shrunken daughter is kept a secret to outsiders.
You've had a good childhood, and your little village might be remote, but it's still part of the twenty-first century. You have plenty of online friends, for example. Just none of them know what you look like, But if they saw a picture of you, they would just think it was photoshopped, Whoever heard of a six inch woman?
Now it's your twentieth birthday, and it's time for your marriage ceremony. In times past, warriors would compete for the Shrunken Daughter, or she would be rewarded to a man of the People who had done them a great deed.
Now the Shrunken Daughter --- you --- will go to the man who can give the most money to the tribal elders. In this case, the man is forty-five year old Nathan Running Calf. Nathan has government contacts and, even though he only has a small cleaning company, seems to have his fingers in anything that happens on the Reservation.
Nathan is the greasy sort, who wears his hair unnaturally short, due to his intermittent stays at the local prison. His face is acne scarred and has a patchy beard. His clothing is cheap and is stretched by his obesity.
He grins at you and you shudder. Once the ceremony is over, you're going to be his to do whatever he wants.
Or so both of you think.
Your tribal president is bringing forth a bowl of challenges. Theoretically, the challenges can be anything from jenga to pole vaulting, One is drawn at random, and anybody who wants to join the contest for you will step up.
That's the theory. In reality, Nathan has bribed the members of the tribal council, and every challenge in the bowl is one he can do. And anybody who can beat Nathan at any particular challenge has been bribed not to step up.
So both you and Nathan are expecting you to be in his grubby little hands later that night.
Both of you are about to be proven wrong as the challenge pulled out is  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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