It was probably the blow to the head that granted Taala some sleep that first night in captivity, though her dreams were tormented.
Morning brought with it reflection. Her head still ached but she brushed the pain aside. Taala was not an arrogant girl, yet she hated conceding to her weaknesses. What had gone amiss yesterday? Two men armed with daggers and a rope would not have usually presented much of a problem. But that was it wasn't it? The rope, the rope and the sound of the key turning in the lock and Taala had panicked and regressed into a child again.
*************************
She did not understand why her Father detested her yet loved her sisters. "You are wicked and you are wayward, Taala, you give me cause to punish you" he would scold. Even in her grim surroundings and circumstances Taala managed the faintest of smiles recounting some of her childhood misdemeanors.
Why did she do the things she did? Why did she not behave like her sisters or love the things they did? Pretty dresses, sewing, crafting and other niceties? Why did she prefer the company of lads, climbing trees, shooting a bow, the forges, sparring and brawling? She was an embarrassment to her family who had taken to locking her away. But there was no rope, nor room that could bind nor contain her, she would escape each time and run further from her family, but they would capture her and lock her away again. Each time became more unbearable, until finally they came to realize there was little point for she could not be restrained.
It was her fifteenth year before she discovered the reason her father despised her. She was perched high up in a tree listening to her parents quarrel. Her mother wept as her father paced back and forth, his arms flailing about "I will stand for no more, Esther" he raged, "I cannot stand any longer to look upon your bastard and be reminded of your indiscretion". He balled his fist "She has had every privilege, she is feral and she will never change, I will not tolerate her any longer. She is evil like the man you lay down with to have her" He spun towards her "You will go with her to Eaworth before her belly swells, she is your daughter, not mine, if she births a son, take him from her and he will be the heir you have never given me..."
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Taala switched off the memory and blinked, looking around at the room that caged her. The threat of the men of the woods binding her had knocked her off kimber yesterday and she had struggled to compose herself, fear had clouded her judgment and now she was their captive.
She was barely eighteen summers, she was not afraid to die, but she was afraid of never finding her son Tagen.
It was time to plan her escape...
