Lowly Seduction

Chapter One || 𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙣

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙚...

Fear. Rage. I feel it running in my blood. My vision hazy forcing me to depend on touch and sound. Horses trotting, I hear it. Deep rugged voices, that too. Whereas my body feels as if jittering on wood like a moving cart. My hands are bound behind me with my mouth sealed with a cloth; to some miracle my legs were left free.

Memories from the night before hit me causing tears to breach my eyes worsening my vision. They did this to me, the king's men.

"Thane sweetie, gather the girls before rain falls!" Mother shouted, her feet sinking in the damp soil as she attempted to bring us home before rainfall. The curls on my head bounced freely in sync with my paced chasing after my cousin, Fawn. We raced trough the fields back to the village and soon enough drops of water fell upon my almond coloured skin where as for Fawn she was thankfully covered in her washed-out head scarf.

On her back was a newly crafted straw basket and inside rested her baby sister Gia and fruits we collected in the forrest today. It wasn't much but was enough to please our stomachs for a night or two. Her sister cooed at our running as if it were a race, her gummy grin softened once we arrived at the village and our wild behaviour stopped inorder to not get scolded by my mother.

"Lets hurry inside and get you two dried, hm?" Mama had gestured at myself and Gia - who was completely drenched yet still giggling at my less muddy body.

Every night I prayed for the gods to protect her. She's doesn't deserve this life..

Soon enough we made our way inside our tent not before greeting Fawn's Father. The man had some years in him making wrinkles coat his face and arms, his ribs were most prominent on his torso from malnutrition but it's something we all failed to address. What were we meant to do about it if we could've barely fed ourselves?

The man sat brewing some beatrice stew on the fireplace which burned on the dirt floor inside our tent. My eyes sparkled at the delightful sight of our bowls that were pre-made for us after our long day. When my stomach protested for food, everyone around me fell into laughter while my face crumbled into a small smile.

"What?! It's only every other day we get full meals like this." It wasn't a lie. It felt like I hadn't eaten in months. I decided to take the first move by grabbing a plate for myself then taking a seat on the stained mattress before Fawn joined me. In the other corner of the tent my mother and Gia rested, the bigger feeding the smaller with pleading eyes as the little girl didn't want to eat. Her little fist swatted at my mothers.

My head turned to my side spotting my wide eyed cousin who beamed at the sight. "So beautiful. Ones sister can be so beautiful, aren't I right Thane?" I nodded, simply taking my first sip in the pottage with a fulfilled sigh. The quietness was soothing. Tonight we were all grateful for my uncle keeping his mouth sealed because for the past nights he'd gone on edge ranting about the king's new laws.

Unfortunately he wasn't the only one. A week ago Fawn had overheard a merchant talking about the king closing off all suppliers making resources nearly impossible to achieve. The orc king took control over the main resources us humans needed - ones we barely had in the first place as well.

Apparently he'd even been sending his troops to housing sites like ours. Taking away young women and men for trade. The thought of it made my stomach curl but the fact that no one had lurked amongst ours was enough to calm my nerves though. All of it was probably just a hoax anyways.

Rumours were easy to spread amongst humans. This so happened to be another one.

All the silence was soon disturbed when a horn blared. The noise happened to be loud enough for the ground below to shake, small cracks appeared in the dirt causing my mother to latch onto her niece thinking it was an earthquake.