"See the golden jeweled gate, the golden dome with inlaid jewels, the golden rails, and inside the golden swing and goldleaf newspaper? It's a golden birdcage! And it's my Christmas gift to you both. I know you don't have one of THESE!" Elena's eyes glanced heavenward, and in the supremely satisfied voice of a shopper-par-excellence, she said, "Merry Christmas to all, every one!"

"Amen," quipped Elena's brother Roedderick. A greasy grin curled into his lips, a grin that was not missed by Elena. "And don't even THINK of stealing this gift from our parents, little Dicky! This is a special gift, not lining for your coffers!"

"Where did you get it, my daughter?" Father bellowed.

"Well, it fell off the caravan that passed this way last week from the East. Remember the portly gentleman from Carthage."

Just then, two husky, hairy men broke down the door and marched into Elena's hovel. "We found you, you thieving wench!" With the one hand, one man snatched the golden birdcage from the lap of Elena's stunned mother, and with the other hand locked onto the wrist of Elena. "You're coming with us, to pay for your stealing ways, mademoiselle la garce!" The men dragged Elena kicking and screaming into their jailer wagon, and galloped off into the misty night. Mother, Father, and Roedderick exchanged shocked glances, then stared down the street, after Elena. Fade to black.

Many days of rocky traveling were in store for poor Elena. Standing on all-fours and fitted in a small wooden cage with a her head sticking out a neckhole (designed to hold livestock), Elena saw that she was being brought up to the rest of the caravan that had departed her Basque homeland one week prior.

The wagon soon stopped, and one of the henchmen dragged her out, holding her by her wrist chains. She saw the rest of the caravan, as well as the bodies of two men swinging from a nearby tree. Then she saw her victim, the portly man from Carthage, a man named Leptis Parva, First Prelate of the Carthage Syndicate. From the way the henchmen around him acted, he was a man of great power and great brutality, demonstrating his authority with beatings for his thugs and hangings for these two unfortunate curs who crossed his path.

Then he saw her.

"Salope! You will pay for your thieving ways!" He looked her up and down and, with a twinkle in his eye and a twitch on his face, he growled, "you will pay for your sins, wench."

Then, without a second thought, she spun around her captor and garroted him with her chains. He fell motionless at her feet as she cracked his neck with her forearms. "You can cage me like an animal, but you will never have me!" Three other henchmen mobbed her on the spot and, after a vicious skirmish, successfully recaptured her.

Leptis Parva recognized the skill with which Elena dispatched her captor and smiled, "A fighter AND a thief! You will serve in my clutch as my personal bodyguard, and you will learn to obey my authority! Yes, you will bring me much pleasure!" Cringing at that particular thought, she was forced to accede to his authority.

From that day forth, Elena began to work within the Carthage Syndicate for two years, pirating across the Mediterranean Sea, improving her skills as a fighter, teaching her skills as a thief to her fellow thugs, and constantly monitoring her situation for an escape from her servitude. Then one day, the opportunity presented itself. She was sent to lead a team of pirates to ambush a trading vessel on its way from Sicily to Constantinople. She planned to escape on the ship, but needed to deal with her team members. She handpicked her team, gambling that some were loyal to her, others could be bribed, others could be subdued and turned in to the port authorities in Constantinople for reward money, and still others would be killed and tossed overboard.

Surprisingly, her plan worked perfectly. With the help of her new all-girl faction, She set up the crew of the vessel as her hostages, imprisoned the thugs who were more loyal to Leptis Parva than to her, and fought to the death anyone who wielded a blade before her. Just before entering the port of Constantinople, under the cover of night, she dove overboard with her belongings, swam to shore, and successfully escaped the clutches of Leptis Parva and the Carthage Syndicate once and for all time.

She spent the next two years in and around Constantinople and the Greek islands, changing disguises and identities many times. After a few dicey escapes from bounty hunters from the Carthage Syndicate, she decided to travel inland, up the Balkan Peninsula towards the Slavic lands of Wallachia and Romania, where it was said that men were brave, women were strong, and all the children had above-average intelligences.