Starlight (Book 1)

Chapter Four

     Suddenly, the cloaked man holding the girl by the arm pulled her towards the horse.

     "No!" She screamed. "No!" A sharp breath escaped Ro's lungs.

     Ro's grip on the tree tightened. It was obvious that they were going to take the girl somewhere against her will, but how could she help her? She began to look closely at the crying girl as the man continued to pull her towards the horse. Her cheek was reddened and she had a bloody bottom lip. She had been hit by someone. Those men. Those men had hurt her. Ro glanced down at her body. Naked or not, she knew that she needed to do something to help her. She said a silent prayer to herself and slowly stepped away from the tree. Her body was shaking, but her voice was firm.

     "Let go of her!" She shouted.

     The man released the girl, but it wasn't because Ro had commanded him to. Then all at once the man on the horse kicked its sides and it began to run toward Ro. Without thinking she took off sprinting into the forest. At that moment she didn't care that she was naked or lost. All she cared about was surviving. Somehow she had managed to avoid most of the rocks and limbs along the path, but the ones that she couldn't nearly knocked her off of her feet. She pushed through it. She ignored the pain. But Ro couldn't ignore the sound of the horse's feet pounding ever closer to her.

     She looked from side to side looking for any other path to take, but there was nothing. Nothing. She had nowhere else to run except straight forward and she knew that she couldn't outrun a horse. So Ro did something. The only thing she could do. She stopped. She decided to save her energy for the fight that she told herself she would put up. She covered herself up again with her hands and waited the next few seconds for the horse to halt in front of her. She stood her ground as the man dismounted. The hood of the cloak shadowed his face, but it couldn't hide his height.

     Ro stood there shaking as the man approached her. She relaxed her breathing and slowly focused on his movements. He stumbled around her with an obvious lack of any kind of grace. He was behind her now and all Ro thought to do was just stand there helplessly as he examined her body. But then, she could feel fabric on her shoulders, her back, all the way down to the back of her calves. The man had given her his cloak. She wrapped it around herself thankful that she no longer had to endure the embarrassment of having a stranger see her naked. It didn't completely relax her though. She had no idea what the man's intensions were.

     She kept her position as the man walked back around her. She was looking down at his boots and tattered pants. For some reason she couldn't bring herself to look at his face, but she didn't need to. Faster than she could think, he reached out and cupped her chin forcing her to look into his eyes. Her stomach dropped. Her eyes watered. Her knees buckled. His thin black hair whipped in the wind as his yellow eyes met hers. His warty skin was grey and oily. It glistened in the sun and it wasn't in a pretty way. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. His smile was revolting as he flashed jagged and rotten green teeth with breath to match their vileness. Her body began to shake even more. He tightened his hold on her until she thought her jaw might break.

     Then he let go.

     Ro still didn't say anything. What could she say? There wasn't anything to say because this couldn't possibly be real. But it sure felt real as he lifted her up onto his horse. The beast snorted in protest and stomped its foot. The creature grabbed a clump of the horse's mane and put it into Ro's hand. It started to lead the horse back to the house in the hill side. Ro just sat there holding onto its mane keeping her balance. But that was the only thing she could hold onto. This wasn't reality to her. There was no way that this was real. It had to be a dream, but her aching body told her differently.