Lowly Seduction

Chapter 2 || Preparations

Thane...

Minutes flew by and then all movement around me stopped. My eyes flutter open seeing the large calves that were way too close to my face for comfort. A hand grasped my curls tugging my face upwards only then I see the orc. This one was not recognisable from the others - somehow they worsened in ugliness.

"Such a pretty one, I wish we had you all for ourselves."

I shook my head. Vomit made its way to my mouth but I knew better than spilling it on this man, god knew what he would've done. Instead I swallowed, avoiding his view waiting for his grip to loosen and when it did I brought myself on my feet.

My knees buckle from the hours that passed without mobility. Yet even with my feet trembling on the cart I still manage to jump off into the roads. Below my feet blazed from the hot concrete but still, I fled.

Just as desperate as Fawn, I wailed in the hall only for my calls to be muffled by the clothe. I hadn't realised I had made it into a building, I'd never seen one in person before. It was so different than the muddy tent walls. Gold seemed to be carved within the stone walls while above me there were towering statues of who I believed to be the rulers of our kingdom.

Queen Dawn the II, she was on the furtherest left. The old King, Theo, right beside her.

The others were past my knowledge but my eyes caught onto to the one statue sculpted of gold. Directly infront me was the clothed figure. It being shorter than the other statues made it look pitiful but even the blind could tell it was going to be grand once complete.

It was the king's own.

They brought me for him. I was in his palace. I dragged my eyes off of the sight before me and continued my escape fearing the thought of that creature having me. The voices and thundering footsteps of my captures only grew trailing behind me.

Just as I was about to turn the corner a body spawned.

"Do not touch him. The king has sent me to collect the human." The startling tall figure had me smuggled in her chest making it impossible for me to glimpse her face. My nose pressed on her collar bone made her Patchouli scent swarm me. Her slender fingers threaded my curls making my eyes shut. The woman protected me from the beast eventually shunning them away. Then she let me go softly.

She was ethereal.

The creature possessed jade coloured orbs and high cheek bones that made her eyes look even more slanted. Pointed ears. Thick lips. Her skin was rosy and paled with her hair waist length and wavy. On her wrist were golden bracelets, she wore a beaded jewel dress with a diamond-like headdress that dripped onto her facial features.

"Won't you stop your gawking, I Zaahira, and you?" Zaahira tone wasn't hasty like all the others I encountered today, in fact it was playful and cooled my nerves. My face flushed when hearing that she noticed me staring her down, this woman was far by the most gorgeous elf in Ivorian.

"Thane."

"Thane." She repeated, "We don't have much time, follow me." I shook my head in refusal making her lips falter into a scowl. The elven began to strut down the corridor leaving me behind and like a dog I followed. Admitting I was stubborn but not stupid. I wasn't given a choice whether to do it or not. Without this woman's guidance I'd be a lost runt in this palace, vulnerable.

I hated being vulnerable.

So I depended on her.

We'd reached deep in the castle before she spoke breaking the silence.

"The king was already alerted of your arrival the night before, a feast is prepared for your two. Apparently his men claimed you were like a gem compared to the other selection of peasants. They were not wrong on that matter." She smiled making my lips turn into a frown. Those were not peasants. They were my family and friends, I'd known them my entire life and to hear them be degraded like this hurt.

Zaahira noticed my discomfort.

"You look suddenly Ill?"

"How do you expect me to look like? You just called my folks peasants like if they are any different from you! I just want to go home."

"Keep wanting." This woman's tongue might've been sharper than mines. Clearly I wasn't getting what I wanted out of her, so I decided to differ my questions.

"Where are all of those people you took before me? Saying that I'm the final choice you know...."

I caught Zaahira eyeballing me from the corner of her eyes before straightening her gaze back infront her. No matter how much seconds passed of me waiting for the answer, she still dismayed my question. I was now more alarmed than ever. Were they killed? Returned? The questions trickled themselves in my mind causing a pounding headache.

"One day this empire would be crumbled and those peasants would be the cause of it. They would strip you of everything and you would be the one at their feet." Anger riddled in my voice even if it was a soft mutter. Apparently Zaahira had heard the slightest bit of the sentence since it provoked her to finally open her mouth.

"Your tempter is hazardous."

"And your bluntness is fatal."

Laughter erupted from Zaahira. Something that I would've never envisioned in years. Then she stooped in her tracks, bending the corner of a hallway covered in paintings. As my feet trailed behind her I took notice of the many portraits and paintings. There were landscapes of this kingdom, portraits of our human descends and then there were ones of orcs. They planted themselves in our history.

Zaahira's palms pressed against one or the biggest frames and then as if commanded a piece of the paint flapped over revealing a rugged hole. The elven reached her hands into it pulling out a stained piece of paper that was scrolled. The most shocking part of all of this is that she handed me it, clasping her fingers over my knuckles ensuring that it was held tightly.

"This was the Queen's journal, I've read it nearly a thousand times before. It's almost like you two share a brain; the way you speak was just like her. Rude but generous." As she spook I began to unfold the scroll but before I could catch a peek the woman pinched my arm. I had understood none of what she had said just honoured to have something that belonged to her royal highness.

"You are never to open this unless needed. You would know when that time is. Trust me, Thane."

And then she covered back the indent on the painting, continuing to guide me as if none of it happened.

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It was my first bath in two years.

Zaahira scrubbed at my hair turning the clear water a deep brown. Her sharp fingers clawed at my napped curls while moisturising the strands causing her to hiss more than once at such a nuisance - it was time consuming. Yet I felt myself loving it. Getting pampered by her was enjoyable as she oiled my body in jasmine claiming it was one of the king's favourite scents.

And then I wondered why was she doing all this to me for the king. Wasn't I enlaved to him?

Slaves don't get treated like I am right now, so I asked her.

"Zaahira, why was I selected from the others, what does the king want from me?"

"Your beauty and youth."

"No, what is he going to do with it?"

"Mate you, it's going to be one of the most lavish celebrations of this kingdoms history. You two will get married and he would breed you the same night and create a heir."

The colour drained from my face. The fulfilled grin on my face was stolen and now I found myself fearful. I've seen those beastly creatures, their looks distasteful and brutish and the way they treated me was inhumane. Why in any universe would I wish to be married to someone like that? Farless bear a child which wasn't even possible - I was a man.

The rest of the morning I kept myself quiet, letting the elven woman dress me and style my hair in her preferable way. Then we made our way in the halls to the banquet room, the garments dragged on the red carpet. Shame was all I felt walking trough the halls with a thin clothe blocking my privates. My behind was fully revealed showing a strap lining trough both cheeks.

As for my chest was bare, my neck covered in tons of gold bracelets - it drained me to carry aswell.

"The king does not like people refusing him. You must submit to every word he utters. Do not present yourself as someone bigger than him, he feels as if it denys his existence."

The words were recited in my mind. It seemed as if everything I was known for doing the orc disliked, how was I meant to live with such a man.

The door opened to the room presenting a lengthy table with what looked like dozens of plates. Zaahira told be to be seated at right beside the head chair before taking her leave. I didn't want to admit that I felt like crying the moment she abandoned me. My chest rose trough harsh breathing when overhearing speaking outside the room.

I couldn't face this alone. I wanted my mother, Fawn...anyone.

Thundering footsteps roared at the door and then it swung open.

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