Lies Dressed In Lace

Not This Strong

Chapter 14 Not This Strong

    We walked for hours continuing through the thick forest until he stops me with a hand on my arm and bag yanked over my head.

    "Sorry princess, but you cant know where we are yet." I sigh.

    "This is a little worrying." He presses himself against my back laying one arm across my stomach and digging his fingers into my hip.

    "Don't worry princess I'll take very good care of you." He wraps a lock of my hair around his wrist and yanks it pulling my head back with the force of it. My scalp stings but I don't move until he lets me go and pulls me along after him.

    A few more hours of trudging though the woods and tripping over all of the roots in my vicinity he finally yanks me to a stop and I hear the soft buzz of people and life in a large camp. We stop for only a moment before he rips the hood from my head and shoves me. My foot catches on anther root and I fall heavily onto hard packed dirt, a pair of dirty boots sits inches from my nose. I follow the boots up to dark pants and those to a long blue shirt, then tan skin rough with scars, a heavy chain around a thick neck, and the bluest eyes I have ever seen circled with thick black lines of a tattoo crawling down his face. He suddenly smiles showing me a large mouth full of sharp tipped fangs and blood red lips. Fear prickles my skin as I stare up wide eyed at this bald, thick man.

    The Carver pulls me up by my arm roughly making my skin under his fingers sting painfully. "What a pretty girl Carver, mind if I take a bite she could use a good scar." The man winks eyeing my neck lustfully. The Carver pulls me against him and growls like a dog, deep and rumbling in his chest. "Down boy, I was only looking." The man says, his voice slides like silk over me. My body leans toward him as he walks away like I want to follow him but The carvers arms stay wrapped around me tightly keeping me from following him.

    "His bite is worse than his bark trust me." I smile pulling away from him and looking more around the camp. Men and women walk around giving us odd looks but hustling past.

    "Do you always growl for the women you bring here?" I put my hands in my pockets and turn to face him. He glares at me.

    "No, I don't bring little girls here that cant protect themselves." I laugh bitterly.

    "Thats rich coming from you, I mean I know you like those kinds of girls." He smiles baring all of his teeth.

    "You would know." I walk backwards into the camp and then turn on my heel. I hear his heavy footsteps follow me into the camp.

    "You're right I would." His footsteps get softer behind me but I keep walking. Looking around at the people and little stands they set up somehow running a little market inside this camp. Some people have cooking meat it selling jewelry but all of them are trading wares, no one pulling out even a copper. My nose drags me to a meat and soup stand before I can talk to the small woman with a tattoo of black lace around her right eye carver pulls me away and gets a stick of meat for me. "I wanted to talk to her!" I say snatching the meat like a child and walking away.

    "Don't pout, I just don't want you interacting with anyone until you meet the king." He catches up to me and wipes a smudge of dirt from my cheek.

    "Than let's meet him, I doubt he's taking a meeting and expecting me today." I gesture for him to lead me on. He rolls his eyes and continues the way we were headed. I notice the camp is set up in a swirling pattern a surprising amount of intelligence went into the design. The small market sits on either side of the main outer walk way and smaller walk ways to more tents surrounding them some little market ones and others living ones making the swirl wider at the start then thins out. As the shops run out living tents take their places the deeper we go until we make it to the largest tent sitting alone next to the second largest which is open on all sides and seems to be the medical tent with a few curtains for privacy. He stops me just before the Kings tent.