English Translation:
"Your place is with the eunuchs and old women, Uncle Raghat!"
shouted a man with greasy braids adorned with silver bells.
I didn't understand what he said, but when the laughter erupted around me, I realized he was mocking me.
Confused, I looked around. I saw people with bronze skin and black eyes. Their braids were long, decorated with silver and gold bells. Some of the men had metal rings hanging from their long mustaches.
I swear, in those few moments, my confusion deepened again and again.
I asked myself:
Wasn't I peacefully sleeping in my room? How did I end up among these people? Who brought me here? Was I kidnapped?
Then a huge man approached—his arms covered in black hair like a gorilla, a thick beard, and a bald head. He kept speaking, but with all the laughter and my growing disorientation, I couldn't understand a thing he said.
As I tried to make sense of the situation, the bald man suddenly shoved me. I fell to the ground.
When I looked at myself, I saw I was wearing woolen clothes… and a sword was hanging from my waist.
Clumsily, I drew the sword and stood up, shouting:
"Who are you, you bastards?!"
The laughter stopped. Everyone stared at me angrily.
Then they started shouting words I didn't understand, but their screams and the hateful glares enraged me.
Suddenly, a woman screamed.
I turned to her—and saw her: silver hair, a slender frame. She came toward me and began speaking.
I didn't understand her words… but I felt she was either warning me—or trying to protect me.
Then the bald man approached again, struck me, and took the sword from my hand.
I collapsed.
Then the bronze men descended upon me.
The blows came fast and brutal.
Their boots—leather and grass-wrapped—crushed my head, ribs, back.
I didn't understand what I had done to deserve this.
After a few minutes of being beaten, I lost consciousness.
---
I woke up tied by the neck to a tent pole.
I looked around and saw nothing but a sea of tents and rising smoke.
Panic settled in again.
I tried to think, to make sense of it all—but no answers came.
I tried to undo the rope…
That's when she came.
The whore who tricked me, the one who lured me into capture.
She stared at me with disgust.
I tried to stand, but the rope pulled tight around my neck.
Each movement sent sharp pain through my throat—as if my skin was being whipped from within.
I looked at her again.
She was standing at a distance, watching me.
Her face expressionless.
Silver hair fluttering in the wind.
Her eyes… cold and strange, like the surface of a still lake.
She didn't move.
She didn't speak.
She didn't even blink.
She just… watched.
When I tried to turn, the rope tightened again.
My breathing grew heavier.
My mind began to spin—maybe from pain, or hunger, or the beatings—I didn't know.
How long did I stay like that?
An hour? More?
Time no longer made sense. Everything blurred.
---
Suddenly…
The bald man returned.
That damned gorilla.
His eyes were filled with disgust, like I was filth stuck to his boot.
He said something in his strange tongue, then a few men joined him. They laughed, mockingly, as they stared at me.
I didn't understand what they wanted—but I knew something bad was coming.
They came closer…
And they started hitting me again.
I screamed,
"I don't know you!! Why are you doing this to me?!"
But they didn't understand.
No one did.
Why were they beating me?
I was just asleep in my bed!
You're the ones who kidnapped me, you bastards!
I began to cry.
Then… I blacked out again.
---
I woke to muffled whispers and slow footsteps approaching.
Harsh faces surrounded me.
Not a single trace of mercy in their eyes.
The pain in my neck was unbearable.
The light inside the tent was dim.
I tried to move—but the ropes were too tight.
Cold seeped into my bones, and the air reeked of smoke.
A man came near and slapped me across the face.
After regaining some strength, I looked at him.
His gaze was like stone—unfeeling and cruel.
He raised his hand to strike again, but suddenly another man entered the tent.
He spoke to him—more words in that strange language.
The first man stopped, looked at him for a moment, then walked away, taking others with him.
They left me tied, alone.
Tears fell from my eyes, uncontrollably.
I had no explanation.
I didn't know who these people were—why they were treating me like this.
Hours passed while I sank deeper into my thoughts.
I wondered if I would ever get out of this place…
Then, I heard it.
Footsteps again. Heavy… different.
More deliberate.
The group returned.
Two men approached, tied my hands with a long rope, and untied the one from my neck.
One of them pulled the rope, urging me to stand—but I couldn't.
He pulled again.
Still, I couldn't stand.
He came closer… and struck me on the head.
I raised my hands to shield myself, but the other man joined in the beating.
After a round of blows—I don't even know how—I managed to stand.
Then…
The group started walking.
And they dragged me behind them.