The Hunted Princess

Chapter 3

The rest of the night was a blur to Vera. Alber had left with a few coins, and was no doubt piss-poor drunk before Vera had even gotten the kids to lay down. They all wanted to play giants, and kept asking if they could slap her to see if they could throw her as far as Lord Aberon had.

Marge tutted in her corner and gazed at them all with a kind smile. She didn’t say a word to Vera the entire time she was putting the kids to bed and cleaning up the bowls from dinner. Vera’s only comfort was the little bit of stew left at the bottom of the pot that no one wanted to claim, and she was graciously allowed since it was already cold.

As the house settled and the stars peered in a small window, Vera reclined in one corner, the furthest away from the family on the cots in another corner. The night was just chilly enough they could all cuddle comfortably, while Vera shuddered slightly in her thin nightgown that she’d had since she was a small child. Then it had been too big on her, since it was Marge’s hand-me-down, but now it barely covered the important parts of her and had been patched so many times it was barely even the original garment anymore.

As the peaceful breaths of the family steadily grew louder, the unwillingness in Vera’s heart grew along with them. When she was younger she had often wondered why she was treated so differently than the others. It hadn’t been until the oldest had told her that she’d ever even thought that Marge might not be her real mother. He’d told her to mock her, but what he didn’t expect was that the knowledge actually made her happy!

She was glad to find that she was not blood related to people that could treat someone as poorly as they treated her. They wouldn’t waste the words to tell her, but she could tell from the snide comments, demanding chores, and aggressive looks that there was no love lost on her, and never would be. Once she knew why she was different, they held no more power over her heart, which wanted a family that would accept her.

The only reason that she had stayed was because she had no where else to go. The villagers looked down on the whole family, but her especially since she was so pitiful, so none had ever given an indication they would take her in. The nearest town was only a few hours away, but she’d always convinced herself that it would just be a larger population of people that would treat her the same, so why bother moving?

Now, though, even strangers who would look down on her was better than staying and being sold as a brood mare to a short-tempered lord.

The moment Vera came to her decision, there was no turning back for her. She stood and moved around the hut, gathering her day dress and shoes, with a small chunk of bread and a dull knife she used to prep meals. The family was so loud in their corner that no one heard her, or if they did they didn’t care. In less than ten minutes, Vera had enough she felt she could get to the next town.

The night air was crisp as she stepped outside, closing the door gently behind her. She wrapped her small bundle as well as she could and slung it over her shoulder before setting off in the opposite direction from where she had that morning. For once, she allowed a small grin to grace her face. Even if she had to become a beggar in the next town over, she would never allow herself to be sold!

The ground was still muddy, but Vera’s spirits were higher than ever as she made her way into the darkness. No one would know where she had gone, or be able to find her, and never seeing that family again made her want to laugh and cry at the same time, thinking she should have come to this conclusion years ago.

As she moved slowly along the path, the moon appeared over her head, as though to help light her path to a brighter future, and Vera was able to quicken her pace. She wasn’t weighed down by much, and the ground was starting to freeze over. In all, everything was working so much in her favor that Vera decided it was fate that she left when she did.

Almost a mile down the road, Vera felt in her heart that she was on her way to a better life. Her feet were light, her heart lighter, and the road ahead was not daunting. Until she passed a single patch of large trees.

Before she could react something reached out from the shadows and grabbed her arm. She didn’t even have time to scream before she was being lifted off the ground by that arm so roughly she thought it might pop off. Vaguely, she thought of her dull knife, but she had put it in her pack instead of carrying it, so she had nothing to cut away the thing that was handling her.

“Well, you sure took your time. I was starting to think you wouldn’t even run!” A greasy voice sounded from a bit further away, but Vera had frozen when she was finally able to realize what was happening to her. She was dangling helplessly in the hand of none other than Lord Aberon!

Vera shook violently and felt light headed when she realized this man had been waiting for her the entire time. He knew she was going to run, and even which direction she would go!

“The witch did say you were special, but apparently not. You did the same thing every other girl did, so the hag was obviously lying.” Vera looked to the side to find the greasy man looking at her with something like disappointment, but she couldn’t care at the moment. The grip around her arm was tightening by the second, and it was taking everything in her not to scream at the feeling of her arm about to dislocate.

“I suppose that’s alright though. We didn’t offer very much for you anyway, just in case. And now, Lord Aberon can enjoy you any way he likes, right M’lord?”

Lord Aberon grunted before dropping Vera unceremoniously to the ground. She crumpled into a heap at his feet, the cold mud splashing onto her clothes and instantly making the night much colder.

“Run. I want to hunt.” The deep grunt sounded above her, at once bored and dangerous. One glance at that cold, hard face, convinced Vera that he was not joking at all. He really wanted to hunt her, and she couldn’t even be sure what he would do once she was caught.

“N-No,” There was no way that she was going to be some hunted animal! Even after being a servant for so long, this was to much!

“Better run, girl. Even if he catches you later, it’ll be better than defying him now.” Greasy man chuckled, looking like he didn’t care which option she took.

Vera only took one more moment to lament that she’d only had a few minutes of freedom before her death, but the next second the giant in front of her took a huge step and she had no other choice.

She started to run.