Stranger

After the weird soldier punched my head, everything went dark. When I finally woke up, I found myself bound in chains inside a moving carriage.

I squinted as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and attempted to sit up, but a sharp pain shot across my waist."

"What's with ya"? A gruff voice asked as I slid back slowly "why are ya groaning, do you need water or sumtin?"

The question came from a burly man who sat beside me in the carriage and my heart palpitated in fear.

"Do ya think the boss would be impressed wit our catch?", the burly man said, hovering above me. "You don't need to be afraid, lassie," he said to me, offering me a skin filled with water,"drink up, we have a long way to go"

"Don't talk nice to her, Horace" the man in front of the carriage said, but I wasn't listening to him. I was wondering where they were taking me and what would happen to me. Who was the boss they were referring to, and what did he want from me? What did the dead minister have to do with the issue as well?

"Take the water, missy" Horace said again, but I only cringed and held my breath to keep his repulsive mouth odor away from my nose.

"If she doesn't take the water, Horace, pour it on her head."

I thought I'd misheard the stoic man, but I hadn't finished processing my thoughts when Horace opened the skin and emptied its contents on my head. I cried out in pain as the cold water seeped into my hair, but no one said a word. I ignored the pain in my back and sat up, some droplets of water had made their way into my ear. I was trying to prevent the water from soaking my buttocks when my eyes suddenly landed on the dead body of one of the minsters.

Goosebumps covered me from head to toe and as I kept gazing at the lifeless body of the fat middle-aged man. I began to wonder what would happen to me. Were these people going to kill me? I remember how I had begun my life and the pains I've had to go through. I cannot end my life here, I cannot just die.

"Where are you taking me!" I screamed out loud "and who are you people?"

But the carriage only waded through the dark forest and my frail heart trembled in sync with it. With each passing step, I felt myself drifting further from home and closer to an unknown destination. I felt like I was dreaming, or perhaps existing within the pages of a book rather than in real life. The chain of events occurred to me within the space of four weeks felt surreal.

First, I was married to the arrogant Alpha Prince. Then I was in prison, waiting to be sentenced. Now I was being carted off to nowhere, bound like a criminal in a carriage filled with armed strangers!. Perhaps the moon goddess did have favorites, people she favored and made life easy for, and then people who had no control over the unpleasant situations that befell them every time.

"Where are you taking me" I whimpered, blinking to grant the unshed tears in my eyes freedom as we journeyed deeper into the dense forest. Besides the tiny trail that the horse journeyed on, there was nothing else in the forest that welcomed humans. I began to fear that we could get attacked by some wild animal or some giant snake or something even worse, but my abductors carried on, unaware of my fears.

"If I were you I'd get mi som res missy" Horace, the big man said after a while, raising his gaze from the arrowhead he was sharpening to look at me. "The journey is still far."

"Who are you" I asked, "and where are you taking me?"

"I wish I could answer that, missy buh I con't" he then puffed onto the arrowhead and tried fitting it on top of a stick while I tried to read the expressions on his face. Which place could possibly exist in this thick and dark forest? There didn't seem to be a sign of life in this place, so where was the journey progressing to? I did not see any trace of human inhabitation or anything.

"Should I get you sumin ta eat"

He asked again, and my stomach growled as if it'd heard him. Yes please" I muttered, wincing at the dry sting in my throat.

"No!" The man at the front of the carriage said, "you will not give her anything", but the big man ignored his order and placed a dry piece of bread and some water before me.

"Gobble this up as quick as you can", I wanted to ask how it would be possible for me to eat with my hands cuffed behind my back, but when he started whistling as he returned to what he was doing, I took that as a cue to leave the other man unsuspecting. Tears welled in my eyes at that moment, but after a while of shedding them, I rested my head on my knees and fell asleep.

I didn't know how much longer the journey lasted for, but I was jerked out of slumber when a pair of rough hands started pulling my chains. The sharp pain around my leg reverberated through my body and I hurriedly sat up. It was the stoic man, and he was adjusting my chains.

"Get up" he gruffed as he pulled the chain on my arm, but there was no strength in my legs "are you deaf?" He asked angrily again, and I forced myself to my feet, wincing and gasping as my stiff bones crankled and squeaked within me.

When I finally managed to straighten my back,I looked up and saw that we were in front of a dark, gothic and giant castle in the middle of an eerie forest. The atmosphere in the dark was tense and when some wild animal suddenly howled in the distance my heart jerked with fear, making me feel as though I'd been brought to a slaughterhouse .

"Move"

The burly man said as he nudged me further, and I almost crashed to my feet again.