Inside the coach, the princess stood still,
trying not to move a lot while being transported from her kingdom to the one
she had been promised to. A marriage of convenience had been settled and her
parents were thrilled to know that the prince that had requested her as queen
was a very wealthy and powerful person. His kingdom had recently won new
territories over a weaker enemy and because of that he had many presents
waiting for the princess. But first she had to end her five-day journey over
mountains and forests. The road that connected both kingdoms was rarely used
and no coach was prepared for such a bumpy ride. Neither was the princess or
her escorts.
Inside the coach there was only one more
person: her handmaiden. It was the only person there who could interact with
both the princess and the men that were in charge of her safety. The young
woman was not allowed to show her face for any reason while traveling to meet
her future husband as it was deemed bad luck for any other man to see her before
the wedding. So when they stopped for her to go and relieve herself, she was
accompanied by her handmaiden and would wear a thick veil in front of her face.
She looked strange but those were the customs people respected and it was
better to respect them because no one ever knows who takes them very seriously
and decides to punish those who don’t respect tradition. The kingdom that they
were heading to was a very traditional place and known also for its violent
ways.
There were two guards always riding by the
sides of the coach, the driver was also trained as a swordsman and the only
footman was also very handy with the sword. When stopping at night to eat and
rest, they would always form a small circle around a fire and would talk about
women, battles and their work for the kingdom. They also discussed food and
their own strength. And every single night, the princess would hear their
discussion from the coach. She had to pretend she was fast asleep but the truth
was she was fascinated by what men talked about. It seemed that, whatever it
was that they talked about, it was real and natural and they weren’t tied down
because of tradition or anything like that.
In the mornings, the handmaiden would bring
her breakfast. Every meal had to be consumed inside the coach and they could
only stop the transport if she couldn’t relieve herself easily inside the
coach. Her handmaiden threw piss out of the window but that couldn’t be done
with the rest. For the men, it was funny when they had to stop for the other
reason, as with all the rules the princess always seemed like a creature of
myth but then they realized she was as human as the rest of them and that
amused them but they only talked about it at night, when the women were asleep
or at least that’s what they thought.
Midway to the king’s castle, they realized
they had to go slower. The road was full of rocks and very narrow in some
points, especially as they got closer to the ocean. So the following days went
very slow. The princess was bored out of her mind and the men were thinking
about the moment they had accepted to be the escort of the princess. Of course,
it was an honor, but the regions they were crossing were far from nice and
safe. Many merchants said that the route was extremely dangerous for anyone who
transported goods around and that’s what they were doing. Transport someone
that was now owned by a powerful king. It was awful to put it like that but
that’s how thing’s were: wives were not a companion but an asset of the man.
One morning, what they feared happened. The
pointy rocks managed to break one of the wheels and the two women were asked to
descend in order to fix the problem. The handmaiden took the princess by the
hand and they sat down on a rock, facing the opposite side of where the men were
working. They had a spare wheel so they put themselves to work but then they
heard something strange. Or better, they didn’t hear anything. There was not a
single sound in the whole forest. Only the ocean on the distance could be
heard. They decided to accelerate their work and try to leave the place
immediately but that wouldn’t be possible. Very slowly, a group of men emerged
from the trees and bushes.
They
all had paint on their face and most were pointing an arrow to each one of the
travellers. One of the strangers walked
up to the women and tried to get them to walk towards the coach. But the
handmaiden started speaking fast, explaining whom she was with and what the
traditions were for. The stranger kept moving his hand, trying for them to move
but it wouldn’t work. Then, he got close to the handmaiden and she just
launched herself onto him, fighting and trying for them not to touch the
princess. But then the sound of an arrow put an end to it. It had pierced the
head of the handmaiden, who was left on the ground before they grabbed the
princess and threw her towards the men.
The strangers surrounded them but lowered
their weapons. They only looked at the people that they were preying on and
were apparently trying to decide what to do. They spoke in a strange language
and pointed to the princess often. Then, one of them got near the woman but the
footman cut his walk. He tried to explain who she was but they pushed him aside
and grabbed the girl. They pulled off the veil and revealed her face. One of
the strangers, apparently the leader, seemed pleased with himself and grabbed
the girl, pulling her towards the forest. She tried to resist without screaming
but there was nothing to do. The man was string and pulled her to a place no
one could see them.
There, she knew that she was going to die or
worse. She tried to prepare herself in order to fight as well as she could but
there was no need because the man that had pulled her to that area of the
forest just stood up there, looking at her. She did the same but didn’t know
whether he was getting ready to do something or if he was just looking at her.
Time seemed to have stopped and she was tired of waiting. If she was going to
die, she wanted it to happen fast and soon. But the man just looked and her and
finally pulled a bottle from a bag in his waist. He put some water on his hands
and started washing his face thoroughly. She didn’t understand what he was
doing but then she realized the paint was falling from his face and that, when
he finished, he looked like a different person. To be honest, he looked like a
person she knew well.
The man just looked at her and then she asked:
“Thomas”? Thomas had been one of her best friends when she was little, they had
been best friends until she became a princess and a woman and he just
disappeared. He walked up to her and told her that it was pleasure to see her
again, more beautiful than ever. Her cheeks turned red and he just got closer
and hugged her. She felt nervous at first but then she remembered and everything
was ok. It was the person she remembered, the first man that she had loved. She
held him strong for a few minutes until she decided to ask him what he was
doing in that forest.
Apparently, she had stopped seeing him around
because he had been expelled from the kingdom, as well as his family. The
princess wanted to be protected and they wanted a better husband for her in the
future so they decided to disappear every single man that had any contact with
her up to the moment when she became a woman. They were all sent to other
kingdoms, towns, left to die of starvation because they used to be rich people
that did what they wanted when they wanted and suddenly they had nothing to
survives with.
But Thomas was stronger than that and he had
formed a group of rebels that protected the good people from the bad ones. They
protected peasants from their kings, who only wanted them to work and die, so
to be replaced easily afterwards. They also fought against traditions and once
they had heard about the princess been promised to the cruel king to the north,
Thomas personally decided to kidnap her and free her from burden. But she didn’t
know what to say or what to do. She realized she was going to become a slave or
worse but Thomas seemed too violent, not much different than what they said the
king was. But then, again, the sound of an arrow ended it all. Thomas body
stumbled down and the princess screamed, watching as the king she had been
promised to smiled as he held his crossbow.
Her life had just begun and it was going to be
a hard one.
