The King's Possession -- Book Two: Water

Chapter Three

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          I woke to the feeling and sound of water rushing over my skin. Fluttering my eyes open, I allowed the air to fill my lungs. I sat in a pool of crystal blue water, bubbling under the warmth that came from beneath the stones. The room wasn't large, but held a table and a few chairs, along with a separate table that seemed to be attached to the stone wall, covered in sweet scents and a few towels. Turning to look around, I saw that I was not alone, but being watched by a woman in a mask, her blue eyes shining as she set a few bandages down on the table. Turning quickly away from her, I slowly sat up, only to hiss from the pain in my ribs.

         Damn Giant seemed to have taken a number on me, much more than I realized. And, through the adrenaline rush, I hadn't noticed how severe my cuts were. I could hear a door creaking open, then followed by the sound of feet padding against the stone. Without looking, I allowed whoever it was come to set their feet in the water, bending down to tend to my wounded arm and cuts on my face. Never in my life had I been given this sort of attention. All my years on this land, the four years that I had been in debt to Yokeen... I was always treated as a possession. Never a person. And if I had been seen as a living, breathing, Eenack... it was always followed by that word. That one word that seemed to follow me wherever I went.

         Savage.

         Was I ...a savage? Perhaps it was a complement? I laughed internally, knowing what the word meant. It was never one of polite intentions, but like that of a blade sinking into my skin. It was aimed to harm me, bring me pain and sadness. I seemed to have been placing a very convincing façade, however, but they failed to realize that I was already broken.

         Like that of a great rock, hit with enough force over the years to slowly allow small chunks of myself fall to the water below. Until, one faithful day, the strike of a mighty hammer sent a crack through me, finishing the destruction and allowing me to crumble and fall into the sea. When I had been sold after freedom was tasted, that seemed to be the final blow. Anger, hatred, sorrow, depression, and back to anger... all of that filled me at once. And because of that... I had been blind to realize my mistake.

         I had killed men... several men. But, for what cost? To return to the mountains that I had once called home? To a life mate that surly believed me dead? It had been several years... so much time had passed, and the silver moon would be coming in the next year. As painful as it was to realize, my tribe had been allowed to move on, recover from the fire, and continue life as it had been. While I was still stuck in a never ended loop of being able to grasp freedom, only to see it be stripped from my hands and leave me in a broken state once more. I had nothing left in me to wish to fight.

         The thought of a home was foreign to me now, filled with memories that haunted my every waking hour. They followed me to my chambers, dancing around as I slept, and taunting me of what could never be.

         Was this my life? Had the gods truly been intending to be so cruel to me that my own life was no longer mine? I had been taken from my life mate, shown greed and anger, punished for speaking, and watched as I was punished for doing something wrong in their culture. All of this was foreign to me, because I had no idea what was normal for my life anymore. Was being sold to man after man, though they did not deserve that title, and be sent to the bed chambers with men? All for the ability to say that they had 'ravished' a savage before they journeyed home? I had no home, I only had the pain filled days of having to lie under strangers, allowing them to penetrate me and tell me things that I already had known for so long.