Story Worth Telling

The edge of endless water drew her closer, ever closer. It lapped at her bare, dirty feet, at though it might wash her pure of the barren land that coated her skin. As she looked on the rolling, dark waves, the dust cleared away in streaks under her drowning eyes, and the ocean cleansed her feet, and she was ankle deep in a life brand new.

Before her in a small boat awaited the king who dared ransom her, smiling with a wild love that scared her more than the deep sea ever could. And further out, too far for her weary arms to swim, was a ship with sails that laughed at the call of the wind and danced to the tune of distant lands.

To step, ragged and most undignified, into that boat meant farewell to everything, perhaps her own life. She didn’t know what lay beyond but the freedom that glistened in the eyes of him who had saved her told her this was a chance at life that few people would ever see….

With another glance back at the bustling streets and milling crowds as they wandered with empty smiles and empty lives, she smiled sadly and stepped into a choice that could lead to death or life, suffering or joy, but a choice she knew would lead to a story worth telling.

[First draft excerpt of a story I'm finally putting to paper. I wanted to get the theme portrayed in a couple of paragraphs.]