《A Mark of Metal》


 Chapter One

    Scurrying over to the cream painted fridge, I slide the pre-made sausage rolls into my pink, floral, picnic bag.Wait, was I supposed to make desserts instead?I wonder while zipping up my bag. I shrug, knowing there''s no time to do anything about it now. I dart my eyes to the small analogy clock hanging on the wall.


    Ah shit...


    I pace myself even faster, rushing out of the kitchen towards the doorway of my now empty house. I unfasten the buckles to my leather sandals and slide them on, unconsciously glancing up at my family portrait on the wall, looking longingly at my father. The house hasn''t been the same since he died. He had Aplastic anemia, a disease where your red blood cells don''t regenerate, well at least that''s what we think? As almost all his cells didn''t, no matter the amount of donor transplants he got. His passing made my mother mad with nonsense, always talking about bizarre incoherent things. So mad it drove my brother away, he couldn''t stand me ''entertaining'' her delusions, always insisting on beating her down with the truth every, single, time. It broke my heart to see my poor mother struck with the reality of a truly dead husband and distant children from her imagination. Anguished by her loss she distanced herself into a care home, though I still talk to her whenever I can.


    Bringing out my phone, I quickly flip it open and look at the time.I''m so late...I grab the keys off the rack hung by the door and throw them into my bag and swing the door open, jogging out. I miraculously make it to the bus, paying the fare and settling down onto my seat, I lean against the cool window, a luxury in contrast to its warmer environment outside. I stare out into my grim, dated town filled with eyesore tower buildings and miserable people.I can''t wait for my contract at the school to end so I can move out of this suffocating town. No one can thrive in these hideous small cities that lack opportunities.


    As we pull into the bus station, I hop off the bus into the glass built station, and walk towards the ''meeting place'' and wince. Amelia, Ellie and Millie stand there with a disappointed look.Yeah yeah I''m late so what?I do a little jog over to them and profusely apologise for my lack of time management. We have a quick conversation as we pace ourselves to our next bus, the chariot to our deliciously beautiful destination, all words intended as I know Ellie brought victoria sponge cake. I''ve never been more excited for a ladies day out than when cake is involved.


    Getting on our next bus, we all watch as the view shifts from our meek town and its bustling streets, to hilly fields where flowering plains meet a dense woodland forest.Finally, nature''s bliss!Getting off, we walk to where we could see the high summer sun strike the tall leafy trees, strike them in such a way that it looked as if it was creating a world where only streams of light flow. Sitting beside the trees that lay on the outskirts of the woodland, we turn to the wild field of tall flowers where the occasional rabbit would pass. The overwhelming sense of calmness and autonomy arises like I could lay dormant forever just staring at the view. As if the encapsulating beauty of the landscape is unconsciously draining you of all your worries and impurities. As if nothing mattered in this view of flowing grass and colourful vegetation.


    A feeling that everything is fine, where my mother is herself, my brother isn''t astray and father...alive. I ignore the pang to my chest, and join in the laughter with my close friends as we pluck the tomatoes out of our sandwiches, as if they were diseased and to eat them would kill you instantly.


    "Good for the plants." I laugh, as if I had to justify my childish palate of disliking certain veggies. We all nod in unison to the justified hate of tomatoes.


    "It''s quite nice that we all can meet up, even if it''s only during the holidays." Amelia, an age old friend of mine, mentions.


    It is nice. It''s difficult to keep connections when your fast coming unpredictable adult life is thrown at you. Yet for moments like these where we can meet up and act as if our age and time away from each other has never changed, it is nice.


    Nevermind amusing seeing how time has changed the people you used to watch, anxiously approach their school crushes and horribly fail into an exploding mess of words, and cry about it afterwards.


    "It is nice...So nice in fact, that I feel as if we need to do something, to maybe...Well, I don''t know...Walk off our lunch? Or hide our lunch." Ellie smiles, pinching the side of my stomach playfully, causing me to give her a smug side eye.The gall of that girl!


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    Ellie gets up and runs into the well lit forest giggling and looking back at us, as if urging us with her eyes and her body to come up and play with her, just as though we were no longer a scatter of women in our early 20s, but 12 all over again.


    Those of us still sitting at the picnic just look at each other and unanimously agree to ignore the behaviour society has agreed for our age. In unison we get up and run towards Ellie, laughing and pushing each other along the way.


    I lift my long blue skirt and run, jump and wheeze trying to catch up with Ellie...Man I need to get into shape..


    Catching up to her, I tackle her to the ground, laughing as we both turn to face the sky for a brief moment to catch our breaths. Calming ourselves down briefly, we slowly get up as the others catch up with us from playing between themselves on the journey into the dense woodland.


    "Should we go to the pond? I want to wash my hands." Amelia suggests to the group. Causing Millie to speak up in turn.


    "Is that really true, or are you going to pluck the reeds from the pond and chase us again?" Millie questions with her arms crossed, remembering our last visit to the flowing floral fields.


    Amelia just stares at her as if she''s a deer in the headlights.


    "Uhh...I''m unwilling to answer that." She adds before walking off into the direction of the pond.


    "We might as well go, something to add to our adventure before we catch the bus home." I add, pushing Millie and Ellie into the direction of the small body of water.


    Along the way to the pond, we make sure to distance ourselves away from the edge of the path where a steep slope is connected to one side. It''s not a big slope, yet it''s still slippery and abrupt enough where you could sprain an ankle or two. Nevermind the dense shrubbery located along the slope and base, that would most definitely cause a nasty bruise or cut.


    So either way, it''s best to stay on the side of the path where there''s flat land next to it then a steep slope of a bruiseful fall.


    The line of trees on either side of the path become less dense as a small opening between them show the hidden away small nestle of a pond surrounded by sparse amounts of reeds. Amelia and Ellie rush to the pond to wash away the dirt and grime on their hands as Millie and I slowly make our way towards them. I hoist my patterned blue skirt to just above my knees and kneel onto the dry ground and dip my hands into the lukewarm water, turning to see Millie doing the same. Serenity captured me once again, well atleast I thought so until a cold sensation hit my hair and giggles followed suit.


    "Hehe whoops..." Ellie sheepishly grins holding her hands to her mouth as if it was a great accident.


    "Oh you''re...SO ON!" I shout, collecting a handful of water in my hands, clambering up to my feet and rushing towards Ellie as she playfully screams and runs back into the direction we came from.


    Gaining on her I threw the water towards her, though missing completely, I had fun in the chase. Though it quickly dawns on me that I am without any left weapons in my arsenal, I am completely defenceless against this lunatic. I stare at her blankly as she slowly turns to me and gives me the deepest devilish grin.Run!


    I squeal as I turn to run away, ducking into the woody path to escape my foe. I find cover behind a tree along the path.


    I capture my breath as I wait out Ellie''s presence to find me. Hearing a noise in front of me, I peer out from behind the tree to see a shadow race past the small collection of trees on the other side of the path. Holding in my giddiness, I creep out and follow the path the shadow might''ve gone. I hear a rustling noise and spin towards it to see the shadow just miss a tree.Idiot I see you.Swiftly changing my movements I run towards the shadow. Seeing my soon victory in slow motion, I reach my hand out in front of me hoping to catch Ellie by surprise but in a large stride forward, the dense trees before me dissipate.


    Time doesn''t allow me to catch up with the knowledge that my path will run short onto the dense slope we passed earlier. The shadow appears before my last stride to the end of my path towards the depth below and suddenly time seems to slow, I turn to face the shadow that guided me to my eventual fall.Dad?Before I can even come to terms with who I saw, my eyes straighten to the steep sight before me filled with dense prickly shrubbery. As I hit the ground I watch as the world moves quickly as I''m thrown down the side of the forest floor. I instinctively throw my arms up shielding my every being from the sharp bushes, countless branches and thorny plants. My view then meets the sight of a line of white mushrooms before everything turns black and I''m knocked unconscious.


    Weightlessness, as if I was floating on water, the feeling encapsulates my sleep filled body. It felt like a familiar sensation I had from my childhood, when my family and I had gone to the local baths, and I had found enjoyment in drifting at the top of the surface of the pool. Feeling as though I was completely unaffected by my own mass, a moment of surreal bliss of calmness.


    Yet it felt a little different from that quaint sensation, a little more ominous...As if I had fallen into a hole I couldn''t quite reach out of. Or if I had tumbled into a place where my soul didn''t wholly belong.


    A feeling of hopeless dread began to fill me as my body laid still against the now flat ground.

 Chapter Two

    Opening my eyes, I blink, wincing at the setting sun as its light passes my eyes. A sky of amber and purple hues greet me and I take in my surroundings, the dense woodland reminding me of the events that just happened.


    ¡°G-guys?¡± I whimper out, attempting to push myself up to no avail. I sigh, thinking this is what I get for being a 23 year old woman playing tag in the woods with her friends, god forbid a woman have hobbies. I wince feeling stings to my arms, I bring them in front of my face to inspect and I see a deep gash from the tumble, mixed with a trail of scratches and earthly debris littering them. Gathering my strength once again, I hold my breath and with a large heave, slowly and steadily do I bring myself up to an upright position.


    What the hell?


    I question myself looking around a dense forest a lot denser than the one I knew before. It was plagued with bioluminescent lights sprinkling into the crisp air creating a deep blue hue within the woodland. The glowing of the lights becomes stronger with the slow descent of the sun. In a daze of the beauty, I momentarily forget my predicament as I slowly push myself up, creating a trail of soft lights in my movements in doing so. Moving forward I push past overgrown hedges and thick windy trees, looking for any opening into a familiar view.


    Haven¡¯t I seen that tree before? Or not? A forest has lots of trees¡­No, no..i¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s the same tree as before. I mean how many trees look like they have a phallus.


    I sigh in defeat and lean against the very male looking tree, holding in the overwhelming feelings of embarrassment and despair of getting lost in a woods I was so familiar with. My mumbling of scrutiny to myself is interrupted by the sounds of chains, weights and heavy footsteps. A symphony of sounds that plagues me with anxiety for some reason, despite all reasonable explanations telling me that it could be a search party sent out for me. But I don¡¯t move, my instincts telling me to stay still and quiet.


    I cover my mouth, still leaning against the tree and attempt to hold my breath. The sounds become louder, and the distinct noise of wagons, carts and horses are made evident.


    Why can¡¯t I turn around? It¡¯s probably a company of rescuers who¡¯ve heard of my disappearance, so why can¡¯t I turn around?


    Yet the feeling of ominosity remained, a feeling so threatening that my mind screamed that if I moved, I''d perish¡­


    As the sound of wagons get closer, the distinct smell of mud made by the movement of these mobile structures sweep over the ground towards me. I continue to hold my breath, hoping that my silence hasn''t given away my position to those only a few steps ahead of me. I listen as the sound of grit and mud being moved becomes distant, I unconsciously let out a breath of relief as I felt the sense of danger die down.


    A few bird whistles are called out, and suddenly a hand clasps my mouth pushing me from the tree to an unknown person¡¯s back.


    "Keep your position. Move one step and I''ll cut you down." A breathy threat snarls in my ear, accompanied by a prominent feeling of cold metal on my throat causing my body to freeze instantly, as if it knew this would be the moment I could die.


    The hand of the unknown man grabs the scruff of my neck and pushes me forward to face the once noisy commotion of movement. I stare in shock at the long line of men on horses, wagons and on foot. The sight looked morbid. Grime, dirt and blood covered the men, as if they had just paved their way through a merciless war and was showered with the outcome. The view in its entirety was so bizarrely out of place that I couldn¡¯t even attempt to utter a word of my presence or to even question what I was seeing. To me, there was no way for my 20st century mind to even comprehend the sight before me. The sheer stench of men unbathed by travel and war was too strong to even compare to any smell I had come across in my life. And their looks of grief stained by combat and bloodshed was too surreal to even counter with a modern explanation.


    There was no way these men had come from a movie set, some real life roleplay of fantasy characters or even a possible convention. No, these men had truly faced a tale of horrific feats and survived to tell the story of it.


    "It''s a woman." The man still holding me, bellows to the men on horses in the troop.


    Keeping my mouth clamped shut, I watch as the men look between themselves as if to decide the proper course of action. A man wearing an outfit similar to a Teutonic knight comes forth leaping down from his horse, holding the shaft of his sword steady as if ready for an unexpected attack. He grabs my arms and looks at the scratches.


    ¡°Just a woman, she is of no use to us.¡± The knight speaks from his helmet as he looks at the man holding me, then proceeds to squint in thought. ¡°Yet alone in the sacred forest...Bring her, the lord will need to question her whereabouts¡±.


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    The man pushes me forward towards a man filled wagon near the end of the troop of men. Grasping my waist he hoists me up onto the edge of the wagon, as if I weighed less than a bag of rice to him, and I¡¯ll let you know I definitely weigh more than a bag of rice . He holds his hands out in a noiseless request for me to display my wrists, and in no position to protest, I put my wrists out to him and he quickly ties a rope around them. Moving away from the wagon, he ushers me to move down so that I''d be sat abreast to the tied up dubious men within. I slowly scooch myself into the wagon, being careful to avoid the crooked looking man beside me. The wagon is closed up, containing the men and I inside the wooden cart and with no roof I take to looking at the sky, to idle my time as we slowly start moving again.


    What just happened¡­?


    I stare blankly at the dark night clouds, irritated by my lack of willpower to do literally anything other than just standing there, like a child who has been caught doing something mischievous or naughty. I suddenly grasp my head in thought; Why didn''t I say anything?!? I can¡¯t believe I''ve just let myself be kidnapped so easily!


    ¡°Arak ka laverki na!¡± The man next to me laughs, causing the other men on the wagon to glance over to me and breathe out a chuff.


    A large man in the corner of the wagon opposite me, tilts his head to the murky looking man beside me, adding onto his conversation. ¡°Peveraki ka naveriki na.¡± He eerily sneers, looking at me. I follow his line of sight to discover he was looking at my exposed calves, I pull my skirt down over them and all the men in the wagon laugh. A soldier on a horse riding next to us smacked the head of the grimy man next to me.


    ¡°Shut up you Eivan criminal. Or you¡¯ll be walking the length to Arrton.¡± The assault causes the stingy man to sneer, turning his head to spit out of the wagon in disrespect to the soldier.


    I hope this isn¡¯t hell.


    cxxx{}::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>


    The droning silence among all the men in the troop persists, as they watch onto the vast scenery as we travel to our unknown destination. Yet it was unexpectedly halted by the fast clomping of a soldier in chainmail on an auburn coated horse galloping towards us. He rides up to the knight at the front of our travelling troop to deliver his message.


    ¡°Sir, we have set up camp a ways ahead on the great plains before Arrton. The marker for the camp is etched onto a large slanted stone.¡± The well dressed knight nods in acknowledgement, replying to the man to follow alongside them.


    ¡°Eiman, go to the troop behind and relay the message.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir!¡± The soldier yells in compliance to the knight, and turns his horse away from the group and rides back into the direction we came from.


    There¡¯s more of them? I question myself staring behind us to see if I could make out the sight of any troops following us, but upon seeing nothing in the distance I turn to the sky and rest my eyes once more praying this long jolty journey would come to a swift end.


    Upon opening my eyes again, I was hoping to be greeted by the sight of at least a humble camping setup of a few tents, at least a fire, but instead I was met with the glorious sight of¡­Nothing? In front of us just laid a boundless landscape of sweeping long grass and blissful silence within the dark star lit night.


    We tread forward to the aforementioned slanted stone. Trotting past it everyone takes an involuntary breath, as if their bodies were swept by an invisible wave. Though I could barely notice as my eyes were focused on the fact the view had suddenly changed from a vast waving greenland, to a bustling campsite where at least a thousand soldiers roamed.


    I think I''m losing my mind...Did I blink? How could I miss this massive campsite?!


    I close my unhinged jaw, when I see the unphased boredom of the men inside the wagon, a look to tell me that what I saw was completely normal. Using my eyes I scan the large camp, where there were makeshift horse stables, black smiths and leather workers and rows of bell tents. Three large tents stuck out however, as their colour was bold and their size larger than the rest, signifying importance within this place. A chance, a hope for me to negotiate my being and hopefully be set free.


    ¡°Sir Leiman, I will tell the lord of your arrival.¡± A young lad says to the well dressed knight in charge of our troop. The knight responds by taking off his helmet and handing it to the lad, scruffing his hair in appreciation. With his helmet off, I could finally see the appearance of the knight in charge of the troop. He had blonde hair shaped into a french chop, a trimmed short beard and sharp features, nothing short of attractive.


    ¡°No need, the reconnaissance mission was successful, I will see the lord myself with the intelligence we collected.¡± He turns to look at the wagon with a scrutinising glare.


    ¡°Archer, collect them.¡± The familiar face of the man who grabbed me in the woods appears and unlatches the wagon, he ushers for me to come to his way. Scooting to the end, he helps me get off the cart by grabbing my waist and hoisting me to the floor, a move similar to when he got me on the damn thing. These people are way to handsy. I think to myself, but in a state of fear I dare not complain. I stand to the side and watch as the men on the wagon stand and jump off the vehicle, orders given to them by the archer and another soldier. Once we were all collected on the ground, the soldier tied us all together to a single long rope, beating the men that did not comply to being strung. Now I''m glad I didn¡¯t complain¡­