Chapter 1

 

'Mother, please try not to worry, I have resigned myself to my fate, which we cannot know the outcome of without much speculation. Reserve your energy for my little brother and sister, who need you to stay strong,' I spoke with more confidence than I actually felt inside.

'But Lydia,' my mother wept, 'I cannot stand the thought of you being given to those savages....what will become of you, and of the family when they take you from us?'

I understood my mother's concerns but I refused to give myself into panic as I turned to the window once again to find them riding their horses to the small dwelling where I had grown up right from a baby to a woman of eighteen years now.

'I believe that all will be well if we do what they say, I need to go with them without a fight. They are not looking for blood at least that is what they told the whole village when they evaded our land not three weeks ago. They say they are merely looking for single young women to take as their brides and bear them children, surely there are worse fates,' I tried to convince myself as my voice went weak, I watched them get off their horses and look in my direction, I wondered if they could see me gazing out from the corner of the window from where I stood.

'Worst fates, I am not sure of that my child. Have you looked closely at them all, especially their leader, they are giants and not normal men with their big arms and heaving chests. And the marks they at times paint on their face only make then seem fiercer. Lydia, you are a braver girl than I was at your age, you do not seem in the least bit fearful.'

'Mother there is nothing that can be done, please they will be here in a few moments, let's have no more talk about them being savages.'

My mother's words had a surprisingly different effect on me than the one she may have intended, instead of feeling fear I felt a tingle down below at my wet core, as I remembered my first sighting of the foreign leader, the warrior King. He had indeed looked formidable sitting on his silver stallion, his muscled naked chest bared for all to see, with his large, broad sword strapped to his back.

I had gone out to the village marketplace trying to secure some much needed provisions the day I caught the sighting of him; with all the disturbance and fear among my native people I thought that there may not be a better time in the short term to venture out and get all the vital items that were required for my family's survival.

I had certainly not expected to see the warrior king in the flesh, let alone positioned with a front row view of him, whilst crowds of people huddled to the side and back of me, we all looking up at the warrior King and his foreign tribe of people with a mixture of curiosity and awe.

Silence was all I heard around me as my eyes fixed upon his proud face; his eyes were a most intense deep blue, his nose was hawk-like and jaw line appeared strong. He wore a mid-sized dark blond beard, a similar colour to his mane of hair that fell below his shoulders. I had never seen the appearance of such a man before; I had been unable to look away from his ruggedly handsome face stained with lines of red war paint. Then something very unnerving had occurred, the warrior King had fixed his own gaze upon me in turn as he rode slowly through the street with his army, our eyes had locked on each other. I should have perhaps bowed my head in reverence and fear at that point just as some of the others around me had done. But I just could not look away, it was if he had cast some strange spell over me as I continued to watch him staring straight at me, at my blushing hot face before moving his eye slowly down my body as if he was trying to visualise my naked womanly curves beneath the garments that I wore. And then his look of hunger was gone as he turned his head and his men rode on disappearing into the distance, leaving me all flustered and breathless by his inspection of my person.