Though Kara never truly established the exact reason for the kidnapping, her mind has played with possibilities which range from an identity hidden even from herself as some high ranking noble, to a routine slave run by the bandits who captured her. She was never given a reason, or even spoken to outside of the training they wished her to receive, as she was to spend the years which they held him serving in the most degrading of positions, from a servant of the house, to a slave within the fields. No position given with the hope of freedom, and each seemingly designed to destroy both mind and soul.
However, the time of her escape from captivity happened long after the capture itself. Indeed, though the kidnapping marked the turning point in Kara's life, it was her first escape attempt which would forever mark her and truly change her life beyond any hope of return to the old.
Kara's first, and last, actual attempt to escape was met with the same brutal efficiency which had marked her abduction. The run through the forest surrounding the camp was marked by hounds, hunters, and arrows, herding her in circles for hours. Her eventual collapse was nearly inevitable, and only marked the beginning of days of torture. It was sometime after this hazy period that Kara discovered what the ultimate punishment for her temerity had been, for her pleas for mercy had not fallen on deaf ears--unfortunately for her. The cries of pain she emitted during the seemingly endless days were the last she sounds ever created with her own voice.
The years which followed, though never on a par with the days during which she lost her voice, followed in much the same vein. Kara slowly became more inured to pain, as any deviations in behavior, done with intent or not, were met with harsh cruelty and physical punishment. The loss of her voice was never met with any schooling in alternative methods of communication, and the only time she was allowed near writing materials was when forced into the position of scribe.
Nearly five years later, as Kara grew from a young girl into the adolescent beginings of adulthood, the begining of the end to her torment began. A chance encounter with another band left her with several near-mortal wounds, abandoned to the whims of a fate whose cruel actions had already destroyed her former life.
Fate however, was not yet done with Kara, and though she suffered, her wounds eventually healed, leaving little more than scars in their wake. For the first time since she had been a small child, she was free. It seemed a wondrous idea, little more than a dream, a hazy expression of the summer's zephyrs and heat. For two years, the young woman wandered within the wilderness, mild winters and summers providing her with the opportunity to learn to survive, and more importantly, soothe often harsh memories with the beauty that surrounded her.
This healing allowed Kara to weather the storm of once more intermingling with people as a peer and equal, and set the stage for the most important aspect of her current life to complete that healing for the most part. For when Kara finally left her involuntary wilderness retreat, stumbling upon a small city in the east, she discovered something that was, to her, possibly the most beautiful expression of one's soul that could exist...music.
To this day, Kara has studied this unique form of expressing oneself, and it is with it that she strives to express the beauty she sees within life itself.
