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You run fast. As fast as you could. For the very first time in all your life, you run. Your lungs expands vigorously as it tries to catch up with your breath. Your feet are getting cut by the debrees you're stepping on but you couldn't care less. All you could think about is run to the forest where you could safely hide. It is the only place you could run to now.
You listen as the men behind you starts saying incoherent words as they try to catch you. The only light provided to you was from the fire you started at the brothel that's now big where they sold you three weeks ago. The cold nips at your skin that's only covered by the thin sheet that's wrapped around your body and your thin undergarments beneath it. The smell of the man who was about to take you minutes before you started the fire lingered in your clothes so you took it off and was hoping to change into better clothes before fleeing but the mistress there figured out what you were doing so you had no choice but to reach for the thin fabric nearest to you.
You dare look up at the midnight sky and starts cursing at the newly seated king of the lands where you were born and raised. You suffered enough from the late king's regime and now that his son is seated, nothing has changed.
You hear men whistling for their horses so you quicken your pace as fast as you could go. Only a minute now, you could pass out but you beg your body to not give up on you, not now atleast.
You finally reach the forest, a perfect place for you to hide. Dark, full of trees where you could climb, it's roots where you could stay flat beneath it. Whatever that you could think about. So you quickly scan the forest once you got in deeper and deeper. You tighten the knot that's keeping the fabric from falling off of you and spotted a tree that's lush with leaves. You grab unto the trunk and hastely climbed it even though your feet hurt from all your wounds.
You climb three branches up and hid behind the lushest leaves the tree has to offer as your protection. You calm you breathing as the crickets amd cicadas cover the sound of your harsh ones. You close your eyes, your hair sticking to you face and neck. From where you're situated, you can see a trail of men with torches as they try to follow your tracks.
Now, the only light that's helping your vision is from the moon that isn't even that full yet so you had to squint your eyes to see what they're up to. They only get closer and closer to where the tree you've climbed up to when they start going into separate ways in fours and threes. You look down at the three men below you and could barely hear what they're discussing.
"This is your fault," the one who's holding the torch blames the other.
"How is it my fault? You were the one who tried to take her without the mistress' permission," he answers back.
He was about to hit him but the other intervines.
"Shut up you two. If we don't find her tonight, we'll all be dead," he tries to knock them off their agitated state.
They continue walking away where you're situated. You still hold you breath until the torch they're holding disappears into the thick woods. You scan the premises more before exhailing as quietly as you could. Your heart and lungs has catch up on you so you could actually think straight now.
Now what?
You ask yourself while you look around to think of something. If you go down this early, they might catch you. If later, they might've already came back.
Before you could even think about going down, an owl suddenly perches on top of your head startling you and knocking you off balance. You start to free fall down to the ground as the owl flies away, you brace yourself for the painful impact.
A thud can be heard once you hit the ground and you can only pray that it isn't loud enough for them to hear. You weren't even thinking about the possible fracture you could get since it's pretty high where you came from. All you could do wad just whimper inwardly in pain and close your eyes shut.
You hit the ground, your back taking the shock. You can feel it radiate from the back of your head down to the entirety of your back and to your waist. You wanted so bad to groan and shout in pain but you know you can't. You wait for the pain to settle so you just lay there imobile, eyes closed shut and lips trapped between your teeth.
Once you can feel your body back, you slowly stand and search for another route where the men that were trying to catch you didn't take. You limp your way to your right but didn't even got much distance when you felt a pointed object hit your back. You tremble at the thought of them catching you so you slowly turn to see a man holding a sword against you.
Your eyes grew wide and in instinct, you swivel your leg and hit his wrist causing him to let go of the sword. The clang of the metal made you realize what you just did. You look up at the man who's only gazing you down. At this rate, you can only see his pointed nose and a surprised smirk.
"You are one feisty woman," he comments before picking up his sword and sheathing it back to his waist.
You were about to answer back but realized that no one from them carried a sword, just a couple of knives and whips. His voice isn't familiar as well and his clothing is not like what you've seen before.
"Why are you here in the forest at this hour kitten?" He asks and looks you up and down.
You couldn't stop yourself from trying to cover your body with your hands. It earned another smirk from him but this time from.your futile attempt to cover up and stares at you even more.
He starts to approach you and was about to grab your wrist but you retaliated by blocking his hand amd throws a punch to his face that he effectively dodged.
He successfully got a hold of your wrist after a lot of combat but when you were about to elbow him he hears the men coming his your way so instead, he pulls you away by your forearm and into the other direction. You wanted to run but his grip is like an iron clad. Whatever his reason in saving you is— or whatever hisnreason is— you don't know. But you guess this is better than dealing with fifteen men alone.
You trip from a twig and looses balance. You hit the ground again for the hundreth time for the past hours. The only part of your body that's not on the ground is your left hand that the man is holding.
"Can you just stand up and walk?" He sounds irritated but amused at the same time.
You were about to talk back but felt the sharp pain in your head making you lose consciousness.
Your eyes roll and the last thing you see are the star studded sky and him, looking straight into your eyes.
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