Limbo between Kings

Day 3 - Quieted reign

Olivia found comfort in the rain. Even as the thick droplets assaulted the crown of her head like cold daggers, she still felt safe in its embrace. Her eyes stayed shut while the beads streamed down the bridge of her nose, too heavy to pry open. Between her sore legs, the familiar sway of a horse awoke her senses. She couldn't remember the last time she had ridden atop a horse, rather than in a carriage.

The thought chilled her body, her mind searching the farthest depths to remember how she had gotten here. Covered in a fog, her last memory was of home, warm against her feathered mattress, fur blankets engulfing her full frame. She could recall the cold bite of wind through her open balcony door, kissing her cheek as it pulled her to sleep.

Warmth touched her back, much hotter than the fur of her bed. The iron grip around her waist was too large to belong to her guard and unlikely to be her brother. Her head leaned back, crust sealing her eyelids shut, too heavy for her to fight, too lulled by the oscillating horse. Pulled from reality, she slipped back into darkness, a dreamless sleep.

~*~

Frantically, Olivia's head whipped up, slamming into the moss-covered bark behind her. Her brother had often teased her of her inability to tolerate pain, calling her a crybaby and claiming she was a "Typical woman", but now, as her back pressed against a large tree, with her gown drenched against her skin, she found her pain tolerance not low- but nonexistent.

Tears rimmed her closed eyes, filling the lashes with heavy droplets, her chin wobbled, a whimper escaping her trembling lips through the cloth gag. A calloused hand wrapped around the nape of her neck, pulling her head down to face the mud. Olivia's clenched eyes flicked open, tears finally making their descent down her cheek. Quick hands slid over her skull, probing the knot that was quickly forming. Her hair was too damp for her to ascertain if it was bleeding, but surely she hadn't hit it that hard, even if her pounding head felt as if it were split in two.

A relieved sigh accompanied the release of her neck, the voice seemed pleased with how little her head had been harmed.

The Courage to look upon her abductor failed her. Olivia's bound hands gripped the sheer fabric of her nightdress as she watched the fire crackle across from her, embers swirling the moist air, extinguishing as it rose. To start a fire with this soaked timber must have taken great skill, she deemed. She had observed her servants starting hundreds of warming fires in the hearth of her chamber, struggling to ignite the lumber. No matter how many trees they would chop weeks in advance, they always remain moist, struggling to ignite.

"It's good that you're finally awake. I was starting to get worried that our healer put too much in the syringe. You're a lot smaller than expected." The man spoke without looking her way, crossing her field of vision to the saddlebags. His back towards her, his hands rustling through the pack. She felt offended by the way he hesitated 'smaller', like a slight that only he knew the meaning to. Yes, she was short in stature, at just over 5 feet, but nearly all the women of her kingdom neared her height, mere inches taller. They were descended from wood elves, whose remains littered their tombs from centuries ago. To a giant like this man, she supposed she would seem small.

Finding what he wanted, he stood, stretching his back, a groan accompanying the movement. Envy filled her, wishing she had the opportunity to stretch her cramped muscles. How long he had ridden with her would forever be a mystery, at least a full day, she guessed, perhaps more.

Ebony hair lay rumpled across his forehead, water dripping from the curled ends as he walked her way. Olivia couldn't shuffle away from him, her hands bound in her lap, feet, and legs tied straight. The pressure between her thighs, from straddling the horse however many hours, burned with rage. Fear unlike any she had ever known, crept from the tips of her feet to the hair knotted on her head.