The Lady's Highlands

Part 2

I'm sorry it took so long! But guess what??? I got a new tattoo! WAHOO! lol, I'll post a picture once I get it filled in next week. :) 

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The keep was enormous, much bigger than what Scarlette and her dear sister were used to. It was a hulking form, looming over the surrounding village like a bad omen. Scarlette was dressed in a common brown gown to disguise herself as she trotted through the plains and over the peaks of the mountains that the castle was situated on. If one looked closely, they would notice that the gown was one of fine make, but Scarlette did not plan on being close enough to anyone to worry about that.

As she walked through the lush green plains, he mind wandered desperately. When they arrived at the keep, the Duke was there to greet them. He greeted Lillia with a great show of affection and adoration, lifting her at the waist and spinning her around in welcome. Scarlette also received a warm welcome, though it was nothing improper. He bowed to her once she dismounted and pressed a respectful kiss on her knuckled before wrapping his arm back around Lillia’s waist.

Scarlette decided to accept their marriage for what it was on the two-day journey. It took her quite a bit of lamenting, and a few sour expressions that worried the guards, but she finally convinced herself that things were going to play out the way they are meant to and there was nothing at all that she could do about it. And maybe she shouldn’t do anything about it. Her whole life Lillia was coddled and protected from the injustices and cruelties of the world, and though it may be later in life than would be kind maybe, Scarlette told herself, it was time for Lillia to see the world for what it was.

But it was a shame to lose such innocence, for innocence is so difficult a thing to hold onto.

Scarlette took in a deep breath of the highland’s air around her before she stepped beneath the cover of the canopy of the woods. The land was so different than her land at home. It was wilder, richer, much more lush! She marveled at the fullness of the leaves on the tops of the trees, the flowers in bloom across the forest floor, the bushes stretching up to challenge the trees in height the way a child would preen to convince their mother that they are big. She lovingly caressed the bark of each tree she passed, never allowing herself to keep her eye on one thing for more than necessary to absorb it into her memory.

The woman’s face stretched into a smile that she did not realise had settled over her face when the wind blew, rustling the leaves, the brush, her skirts all as one. The sound of the wind pushing passed the leaves high above her tempted her head to fall back, and the feeling of the wind’s forceful caress bid her close her eyes. She felt one with the forest in moments as such, for she was no different than the smallest blade of grass in the eyes of the wind. It is the wind that keeps the world humble.

In her whole life, she never felt more at home than she did when the wind picked up her hair and carried it back over her shoulders, trying to take her away with it. She found herself wishing she were a leaf or a flower petal or something equally as light; something that could give in to the to the directing wind and allow it to carry her where she was meant to be. Wherever that was.

It was not the sound of the stream that she was approaching before the wind distracted her like a seductor that broke her from her reverie, but rather the unnatural vibration of many a galloping steed. She recoiled, knowing full well that her situation had just taken a turn for the precarious. Not a soul knew of her whereabouts, as she had left the castle like a shadow in the dead of the morning. She would not be worried if she had any knowledge of the land she was visiting, or it’s inhabitants. She did not believe that all of the Highlanders that settled along the border of Darkumbia and Lundmar were governed by senseless violence as those from her home in the Westlands presumed, but she did find need to be wary when strangers were afoot. Or rather, when she was afoot since it was not her land on which she was trekking.