Three Moons

Kappas and Flat Bread

Lile had barely spoken Gren's name when she was gagged. Something hard hit her square in the back and she fell face forward. She grunted as the wind was knocked out of her. The bone of her left cheek crashed into a rock. The skin of her right arm grazed along the sharp edge of a stick before it, along with her left arm were yanked behind her back. Foreign hands were binding her own in thick knots. She let out a muffled scream finally realising what was happening. She was being attacked, tied up, abducted. A set of tanned fingers appeared before her eyes before everything went dark and her vision was obscured under a blindfold. 

Again she screamed but the sound was held back by the gag. She called for Gren, called for Cleow, but her words were indistinguishable. They had been right there with her. Where were they now? Had Gren gone to get Maeve? Could the old wise woman save her? 

She was hauled off the forest floor and onto her feet. Once up, she almost fell out of fear, but several hands held her. Another set of hands began to wrap cords around her chest while yet another threw a sack over her head. How many of them were there? 

"Subdue then gag, wasn't it subdue then gag, not gag then subdue. Who grabs a prisoner by the mouth?" The voice of a man grumbled in Basa. Hearing the language Lile shrieked. Her still unbound legs leapt forward. The movement must have surprised her captors who all released her immediately. However, it was all for naught and incredibly stupid as she plunged into the chest of the man who had spoken. 

"Hold her!" he bellowed, pushing her backwards. Hands grabbed her from all directions and steadied her before she toppled over. 

"This one doesn't like Basamortans," said a husky woman's voice. "She's loosened the binds, I'll have to do it again." The cords that were wrapped around her chest were quickly unravelled and then wrapped around her again. They continued to wind around her torso and waist securing her arms to her back. As they bound her, Lile sobbed, She could feel the hot tears escaping the blindfold to run free down her face. The binds were tight, she could not move her arms at all, and they dug into her flesh painfully.

Nobody spoke to her, nobody explained. Once the cords were tied she was marched, a captor on either side, a stick -or so she hoped - in her back, off into the woods. Where they went, in which direction she had no knowledge. Her feet caught on roots and stones, her captors kept her from falling but the forest tore at her shoes and then at her skin. Still, no one spoke to her, they barely spoke to each other. When they did speak it was difficult for her to understand. Her Basa was poor, she had no formal education in the language. Listening to understand required a lot of mental effort and as the day drew on her energy and focus dwindled. 

The forest was eerily silent. To the ordinary wanderer, it may have appeared full of life. There were birds chirping, water bubbling in streams and a soft breeze rustling through the leaves of the trees. But the trees themselves weren't singing or whistling or chattering. Since Lile had discovered she could hear their voices, the trees were like a constant companion to her. They were the sound of the forest. Now they stood silent. Everything was silent. 

She wondered what Maeve was doing and if the wise woman had realised she was missing. Lile had been on her way back to the cabin, where Maeve was going to teach her her very first medicinal concoction using juleberries. She should not have been gone for longer than an hour. Surely Maeve was wondering where she was.

Completely blind she was disoriented and had little concept of direction or time. As it grew hot she knew that they had walked out of the morning and into the afternoon. It seemed to her that she had been walking, dragged by her captors for hours. Her legs were beginning to ache and she couldn't tell if it was the length of time or the ferocity with which they marched her, uphill, downhill, over roots and stones and through forest streams. Her feet were wet, cut, blistering. 

The gag in her mouth felt like a choke. It parched her tongue and she could feel it rubbing the corners of her lips raw. The exertion had her lungs begging for air but the gag wouldn't allow it. She breathed heavily, as deeply as she could, in and out through her nose, but the sack over her head made even this difficult. It wasn't enough and it felt like torture. Sometimes the torment got the better of her. She would break down and sob and her throat would constrict, suffocating her all the more. 

She couldn't breathe, she could barely walk, yet they kept going. How long did they have to go and what state would she be in once they arrived? What were they going to do with her? Why were there Basamortans in Gael Forest? They never came here. Unless-

She collapsed. Not of her own accord, though she had wanted to for a long time, but rather, due to a strong force that had hit her in the back of the leg causing her to fall forward onto her knees. She grunted as she fell and whined as her knees hit the hard stones of a river bed. She was sitting in water, her skirt now soaked up to her thighs. 

The sack was pulled from her head and orange light streamed through her blindfold. She winced. Then a hand grabbed her by the back of her head and forced her down until her nose was touching cool river water. The gag was untied, releasing her tongue. She gasped. Cool, fresh breaths of air filled her lungs. 

"Drink," the husky woman's voice ordered. 

But Lile wanted answers. "Why am-"

Her head was forced into the river. Water filled her lungs. Startled and confused she gasped for air but only drew in more water. She was pulled out again by the hair. She coughed and spluttered and gasped and cried out. 

"Do not say a word. Drink," the woman instructed. Lile's head was pushed back down until her nose touched the water again. She squealed, afraid that her head would go under again but it didn't. She was frozen for a moment, too scared to move or make a noise or even breathe. 

"Drink," the women said, firmly yet almost gently. "You must be thirsty." 

Lile was thirsty. And exhausted. She needed to drink. She lowered her mouth to the water and began lapping it up like an animal, still blindfolded, on her knees, arms tied tightly behind her back with a woman she had never seen holding her down. She drank slowly, afraid that at any moment she would be pushed under again. Once she had had enough and had stopped to breathe some more, the woman tugged at her hair, forcing her to sit up. But Lile wasn't ready to be gagged and frog-marched again. She knew she had to be quick. 

"Food," she yelped as quickly but submissively as possible. The woman's hand tightened around her hair, but she wasn't shoved back into the river. 

"Very well," the woman muttered. "On your feet." Strong arms lifted Lile back up to a stand and led her sloshing through the river and back onto dry land. Lile was soaked. Her skirts were heavy with water, her shoes filled with puddles. Her knees were now tender from the impact of falling on the river stones. The rest of the journey was going to be incredibly uncomfortable. 

"Jokin," the woman called, "the child's hungry." 

"We're feeding her now?" a familiar gruff male voice asked. 

"I see you lot are eating. Why should we deprive her?"

"Shouldn't she be gagged? You letting her speak now?"

"Food, Jokin."

"Alright, alright."

Lile was sat on the ground up against what felt like a tree. A silent tree. Around her she could hear people chatting in low voices, rummaging through sacks and relieving themselves. Someone crouched down beside her. 

"Eat up then," Jokin said and he pushed food up against her mouth. She opened it and tasted bread. Flat salty bread. It was dense and chewy. She had never eaten anything like it. She wanted to ask what it was but didn't dare. She savoured it, chewing slowly. She wasn't hungry. Her stomach was torn with fear and she felt like might throw up at any moment, but she needed the fresh air and the longer she ate, the longer she had uninhibited access to it. To her relief, no one rushed her. Every time she swallowed a bite, forcing it down into her reluctant stomach, another was fed to her. 

"So," a woman's light voice said beside her. Lile jumped. She hadn't heard this woman approach. "What's your name?" 

"We're not asking her questions. We're not talking to her. She's eating and then we're leaving," Jokin said.

"My name's Nahia. This is Jokin. He's my husband. We're both Kappas."

Lile swallowed her bread. "Kappas?" she asked. 

"Specialised military," Nahia said matter-of-factly.

"Nahia," the woman with the husky voice scolded, "No one talks to her until we get back to camp. You keep her quiet." 

Jokin pushed more bread into Lile's mouth. She couldn't tell if the conversation around her was distressing or comforting. They didn't talk like they wanted to kill her, Nahia at least seemed strangely friendly for a person who had just abducted her. But Lile wondered why they were so insistent that she didn't speak and why they were so scrupulous in binding her. 

"Her feet are in a bad way," said another woman's voice, deep and dreary. Someone began unstrapping Lile's shoes. Lile winced and pulled away. Her feet felt raw.

"Hey, no moving, and you, no playing with her feet," Jokin barked. He tried to feed Lile more bread but she had clenched her jaw shut in pain. 

"Last piece, then we should go, Haizea." Who was Haizea?  Again, Jokin tried to slip the bread between Lile's teeth and this time strong fingers dug into her cheeks forcing her jaw open. The bread went in. Lile whimpered as a hand smothered her mouth so that she couldn't spit the food out. 

"You should let me attend to these," the woman with the deep voice sighed tapping Lile's toes gently. She whimpered again.

"Not now, Sorne. Clean her and bandage her at the camp. For now, our objective is to get there in good time and keep her contained," said the woman with the husky voice. While she chewed her bread, Lile wondered if this was Haizea.

"Are you Deargish? Which village are you from?" Nahia asked. Lile's mouth was released and she wondered if it had been Nahia who had forced-fed her. 

"Nahia!" barked Jokin again. 

"Haizea, the men are pushing her too hard. Look! Come tomorrow she won't be able to walk at all," Sorne protested, drearily. She spoke as though she were falling asleep.

"The men are doing as I've instructed. It's her poor shoes that are to blame," said probable Haizea.

Lile swallowed her bread miserably. She felt humiliated and violated. 

"Right, let's go," Haizea ordered. 

Lile was dragged to her feet again. The gag was secured in her mouth and the bag draped over her head.  Who were these people that they were so excessive in how they contained her? Who did they think she was?

The journey began again and if she had hoped that Sorne might have made a difference in how she was treated she was disappointed. They began by wading through the river and then journeyed uphill. Her legs were so tired, her feet, so sore. Sorne had said she wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow but she could barely walk now. She had felt relief sitting by the tree eating bread. Her captors sounded like they cared somewhat. They were going to clean her and bandage her they had said. But the relief was quickly replaced by distress as she progressed towards being completely cripple. 

Her chest tightened as a sob rose up. She wouldn't cry, she was too exhausted for crying. Just keep walking, it had to end soon it had to. 

It didn't end soon. It seemed to drag on for hours more until the heat of the afternoon had disappeared. The cool evening, light wind and wet clothes caused a chill in her bones and she began to shiver violently. Finally, she gave way to sobbing again. She was cold and scared and in pain. 

They had been walking from late morning until dusk when Lile heard the noise of people talking, working, and even playing music. The rough forest floor gave way to soft, trimmed grass. She could smell meat being roasted and something sweet that she didn't recognise.  She felt warmth and heard the crackle of a large fire and, to the great relief of her frozen flesh, she was stopped right in front of it. This was the camp that Haizea had referred to.

A familiar kick to the back of the legs and Lile was on her already tender knees again. He winced at the pain. The bag was removed, so was the gag and for the first time since she was abducted, her captors removed her blindfold as well. Her eyes stung from the firelight and the cool air which blew against her dried tears. She was in a clearing of a sort, filled with people and large, round tents. There was a small crowd around her, all tanned skinned topped with dark brunette or black hair. They were fit, muscular, militant and they all looked down at her with intense brown eyes. And standing amongst them all, right in front of her, gaunt in the face, slender in build, with eyes so dark they could be black and the most apathetic expression Lile had ever seen, was Prince Asier.