A Mark of Metal

Chapter 3

Opening my eyes I take a look at my surroundings, the once flowering plains I knew were now replaced with grass and stretched beyond the horizons. Reminding my drowsy self that I was no longer in the place I once knew. But soon the horse I was sat upon came to a halt, the man still sat behind me told his men to set up camp.

Not thinking much of it, I prepared myself to get off the horse and stretch my legs but unexpectedly the horse started to turn back into the direction of the forest. Watching as the men paid no mind and started to set up camp, I started to worry.

I look back at the man in shock and confusion, but he just stares straight ahead making a straight line to the wooded area.

Ignoring the whipping wind from the speed of how fast we were going, my heart began to race, the worst of what could happen being questioned within my mind.

Is he going to kill me? Beat me? Or worse...Assault me.

Bile begins to rise in my throat at the idea that my virginity may be stolen from me. Unwanted by any man in my life, I was still unwilling to let someone have it without my permission.

As the trees began to surround us, he pulls the horse to a standstill, and grabs my waist. Causing my fight or flight reaction to kick in, and I start squirming and kicking in his arms.

"GET OFF ME!" I scream, using my entire body to loosen his arms off me.

"GET OFF!!" I squeal in panic, making me cry and shout.

His grasp on me tightens as he pulls me closer to his chest, ignoring my cries. He leans over to my ear and snarls. "Scream any louder and the beasts in this forest won't be so favourable to you." He threatens, dropping me from the horse.

Using this moment of freedom I attempt to run, but he jumps off the horse with a thud and immediately grabs my arm. He flips me around to face him and lets go, causing me to cautiously walk back, but I'm stopped as I hit my back against a tree. He walks closer towards me, making me put myself up in a fighting stance.

"Now. I'm gonna ask a few questions and you will answer to the best of your ability." He stops his pursuit towards me, with a good few steps between us, but not enough for me to take off and run without being caught. "And if I get a single sense that you're being untruthful, I will not be afraid to cut you down." He shallowly mutters as he draws his sword.

A second of silence breaks out between us, as I break out in a cold sweat at the sight of the weapon being pointed against me.

"Give me your name."

"G-Genevieve Woodsman." I frightfully answer back.

He takes a step closer towards me, his brows closely fused together. "And how was it that you, a lone woman, was found in the sacred woods by herself?" He questions in a mockful tone.

"I-I don't know." He continued to stare at me, and getting the idea that my answer wasn't what he wanted, I continued. "I-I was with my friends, until I fell..And now...I don't know." Unsure whether it was fear or the fact that my friends were probably missing, tears began to well in my eyes as my throat tightened.

He looked at me and frowned, seeming unsatisfied with my answer.

"Pah! Friends? When there is no town for miles out!" He scoffs, before moving so close that the tip of his sword touched the seam of my throat.

"I have the right to believe that you are a spy sent to watch the western capital, now what reason do you have for me not to believe that." He threatens pushing the sword ever so slightly deeper into my skin.

I just stared at him blankly as tears began to roll. As there was no way to prove that I wasn't what he thought I was. And the idea that he would believe in the possibility that I might've time travelled or had been sent to another world was out of the question.

All I could mutter was that I didn't know as constant streams began to roll down my cheeks.

He just continued to frown.

I tightly clenched my eyes awaiting the quick and unjust death, but only a short silence remained.

"If you're that unsure, then the capital can deal with you." He sheaths his sword and moves forward to grab my arm. He puts me back up onto the horse and then gets on himself, and we ride back into the direction of the campsite.

But as we made our way back to the familiar grassy plains, the site of where the campsite should've been was gone. Panic once again begins to settle within me.

But the burly man behind me just continues to ride forward as if there is no problem.

I try to look around to see if I could spot any signs of a campsite nearby, but my thoughts suddenly become blank as the view before me changes, as if we had walked through an invisible wall where laid hidden behind it was the campsite.

In utter shock, I look behind us to still see the grass plains.

Perhaps I blinked? Or maybe I'm really fucking blind.

Looking back at the man for an explanation, he just looks down at me and back ahead again. As if what I had seen was something not worth answering.

I've definitely died.

Moving through the campsite, the men who were once trudging through dirt were now doing various jobs, like cleaning their equipment or setting up makeshift beds to sleep on. But their focus on their jobs was briefly haltered as they all looked up to see who had entered their 'hidden campsite'.

Looking at me with further curiosity as they got to see a better view of who was 'hiding' from them back in the forest. Feeling uncomfortable from their gazes I turn away.

The horse once again came to a halt and the man jumped off the horse and helped me down. And before I could even have a moment to think or digest what had just happened, the muscular man had called over another man, but dressed ever so slightly different from the rest of the men, as he was adorned with a cloak.

"Tend to her." The man commanded with a look that suggested 'and tell me once you're finished', as he removed his helmet and went towards the large campfire.

"Hmm..Let us see.." The mysterious man hummed, lifting my arm to inspect it. And without even a second thought he moved his hand over my arm, and a warm glow emanated from it.

W-w-what the fuck?

Once the man had trailed the length of my arm, confusion immediately struck him. I ignored his confusion, however, as I just sighed with a relief that my arm still looked the same as before, and no weird hippie crap changed it in any way.

The confused man just shook himself off and took in a breath and once again trailed my arm with the same weird glow coming from his hand as before. But his confusion had turned more into a cold sweat upon a possible realisation of something. He grips my arm a little tighter and gasps a little.

Possibly in an act of disbelief, he tries to do something else, he then moved his grip from my arm to my stomach, to which I immediately reacted and pushed him off.

But whatever he had felt had shocked him as his face seemed to have drained in colour.

Wait. Does he think I'm pregnant? I AM NOT FUCKING PREGNANT!

Anger began to boil within me, and I got myself into a fighting stance as I was about to smack the shit out of him. But instead of getting ready to be fought with, the wuss instead decided to tell me to wait where I was, as he ran back to the burly man, who had brought me here.