Captured Grace

Chapter {6} - S e i z e d

I soon realised my body failed against the battling of my rapid heartbeats and throbbing head, I had passed out. The threadbare blanket was drooped over me with such care, tucked in by my legs, Sybella probably assisted to me while I was unconscious. I tossed it aside and straightened on the edge of the weakening bed. Wincing as I rubbed my eyes, my hands were still blistered and raw.

That was when I heard the screaming.

The desperate cries of children yearning for their mothers as small groups recoiled from their cottages and were forcefully divided. I instantly shot up on both feet, throwing myself towards the window to absorb whatever was occurring outside. Father. Sybella. Elowen.

I broke into a sprint, dashing down the stairs with ease as I called out their names, searching and scanning the place. Until I paused at who stood before me. I glanced sideways at the two soldiers, who returned their gaze to my small frame. My sisters were no where in sight.

One of the soldiers mouthed to the other discreetly, who then suddenly strode forwards in long steps, grasped a handful of my lengthy white hair and yanked me out of my childhood home.

It's happening.

What I had been preparing for all of my life, was happening. And yet here I am, no where near prepared as the soldier heaved me out and exposed my skin to the bitter cold atmosphere. The snow had vanished, melted and replaced the ground with thick, sodden mud. There I saw the ordered line up of females within my village who had come of age this year. They kneeled into the filthy ground, even better yet, it had started to rain heavily. The unrelenting rain had already soaked through my ragged clothing, chilling me to my core. Though somehow, it relieved me as the water trickled down my mud-stained skin and seeped into the surface, revealing the olive glow of my skin radiating from beneath the layers of dirt streaming from my body.

Noted, there were at-least a dozen soldiers towering before our vulnerable postures. Hands crossed behind their backs, heads held high to highlight their authority, and their uniform screaming fortune as if to mock our indigent states.

Two of the soldiers, in which I presumed was the Captain and the Lieutenant, leisurely worked their way down the line up of kneeling women. Occasionally, they may even pause before one girl to absorb their innocence and beauty. Of course, never me. Instead, they scurried past me in a rush, as if they hardly noticed me, or were too disgusted to. I merely kept my eyes cast downward towards the mud. There were multiple women the soldiers lingered their eyes over, as if they had a choice.

Two large boots paused before me, casting a few specks of mud to my face.

I dared to only glance at the face of the figure lurking before me, his chiselled jawline, and from what I could see, through his clothing and amour, he was packed with toned muscles. I could tell he was taller than an average man, towering before me and the captain. His broad shoulders complimented his strong cheek bones, his skin was a flawless, golden tan. The thick fullness of his lower lip, and astonishingly curved Cupid's bow on his upper lip had my mind soaring through thoughts which sent my cheeks to flare up with heat. Although he wore a hood to somewhat mask himself, I could tell his hair tumbled in dark sprouts. It fell over his forehead, rain pouring down from the tips and nearly coating his long, luscious eyelashes that, too, complimented his eye colour.

Those eyes.

Blue, except they were nothing like mine, they were a bright, illuminating deep blue. Like a shimmering ocean, deep, with fierce currents just beneath the blue surface. Within the light, his blue eyes appeared so blue that even the sky would be envious. The colour, in contrast to his dark hair, was striking and yet somewhat attractive. And even in the dim lighting of clouds and tumbling rain, they continued to glisten like star filled skies, or perhaps even a solar eclipse. His eyes seemed to have endless depths, and if I wasn't careful, I felt as if I might as well fall so far into them depths that I would no longer be able to climb out if I stared too long. His brows framed his eyes so perfectly, full and angled.