Lili sat in silence on the hard stone floor of her cell. The world around her was mostly dark with only a single lantern light behind her. She hugged her legs and attempted to block out the horrible sounds of that what was happening behind her.
Every passing moment felt like an eternity of horror to her, but luckily the young lord didn't last long and so the horror finally came to an end.
Then she heard him speak out in satisfaction as he said.
"Hahaha, that was good."
The cell block was mostly quiet, making it easy for Lili to hear the young lord getting up to his feet, followed by the old woman saying.
"Was it good enough for you my Lord or would you still like to continue? Maybe I could introduce you to another girl? Of course that would then cost you more."
Lili could hear the boy start to pull up his pants as he then spoke in annoyance and said.
"Ha, don't even try it woman. Your girls might be a lot cheaper than the ones in the brothel, but they lack passion. This girl put on a good show, but once we started she became way too quiet. It's just no fun like this and besides that I don't think I could even go for another round."
In response to this the woman said.
"I see, well now if you're done then please come right on this way."
The man sounded a bit annoyed as he said.
"What? Just like that? Can't I stay for a bit longer?"
To this the woman coldly said.
"Not unless you pay us more, my Lord."
Now the man sounded just annoyed as he said.
"Oh come on lady. Surely I deserve a discount or something. I mean I am a regular customer after all."
To this the woman just said.
" We have already been over this before, rules are rules. And here we follow our rules."
The man just huffed in annoyance, after which he left the cell, the guard's locked the door and they all went back the same way that they came."
As Lili heard the cellblocks door slam close, only then did she finally dare to look to the blazing red haired girl.
The girls cell was now completely dark, but she could still make out the outline of her figure. The girl seemed to be calmly putting on her clothes. She seemed so composed to her as if nothing had just happened.
Lili couldn't help but wonder, was this a normal thing here. But more than anything she couldn't help but feel extremely grateful but sad at the same time. The girls actions seemed like they had truly just been done out of good fate towards her.
Looking at the red haired girl Lili couldn't help but say.
"Thank you. Thank you for saving me."
The blazing red haired girl didn't look at her as she slowly walked to her straw bed and layed down. She had her back turned towards her as she said.
"You should not thank me. All I did was spare you from the inevitable. Sooner or later someone will come and do that to you also and I will not be able to protect you. You should prepare yourself for that as there is no escaping it. Your best bet is to be bought off by a kind man."
Shaking her head in denial Lili clenched her first in determination and said.
"Don't talk like that. You saved me and I will not forget that. I will get us both out of here no matter what. Just wait and see. As it so happens I know a thing or two about jail cells."
Lili waited for a response from the girl, but none came. Obviously the red haired girl wasn't going to take her words seriously, but that was ok. Lili was more than ready to prove her worth to this girl. She would prove it by simply getting her and every one else out of here.
With the moonlight shining in through the small cell windows Lili couldn't help but admire the girls beautiful blazing red hair. In her previous life she had seen a lot of red haired people, but even there hardly anyone had as strong of a red colour as this girl did.
As Lili thought of this she also realized that she had not seen any red haired people before entering Camelot. Now Lili couldn't help but feel curious as she said.
"Hey, how come your hair is so red? Do you use some kind of dye to colour it or is it natural? I don't mean to offend or anything like that. You see it's just that this is my first time seeing a red haired person."
The girl didn't move and she sounded a bit annoyed as she said.
"Well obviously you haven't seen any before as only the natives of Albion have red hair. Natives that your invading people's expelled up north, so obviously you wouldn't see any of us here, except in chains. Didn't your parents ever teach you any of this?"
To Lili this was certainly something she hadn't expected to hear. She had no idea that she was a part of some colonizing group of people. But where did her ancestors then come from she wondered.
But more than anything hearing the word parents struck Lili hard. She looked at the ground in sadness and softly said.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that."
Then she heard the rustling of the girls straw bed. She looked up and saw the red haired girl look upon her with what seemed like bright red eyes. Her eyes seemed quite enchanting and beautiful like a set of red rubies.
Her eyes seemed to hold a sadness and concern in them as she looked upon her and spoke to her in a soft tone of voice as she said.
"You do have parents? Don't you?"
Lili didn't want to admit it, but she didn't want to lie and so she just shook her head lightly.
The red haired girl frowned at this sadly and continued to speak as she said.
"I see. Well what about siblings? Or maybe you have some adult figure in your life that has taken care of you, right? Surely someone has taught you something?"
Shaking her head at her words, Lili then said.
"No one has taught me anything. Everything I know has been taught to me by myself. Ever since the death of my mother when I was still but a single winters old, I have had to live by myself. All I have is just me and nothing else in this world. So I apologise if my knowledge is lacking, I honestly don't mean to offend."
After saying this Lili noticed tears come to the red haired girls eyes as she suddenly got to her knees and crawled to the cells metal bars. She looked upon Lili with what seemed like pity and sadness in her eyes as she got down to her level and said.
"Please don't say that girl. You have no reason to apologize to me. It's me who has been rude towards you. Please if theres anything that I can do for you, just let me know. I Just want you to know that me and the other girls here are all on your side, well do our best to protect you. After all us older girls need to protect the young, it's our duty."
Now Lili just felt confused at the girls behaviour, she could also hear movement in the other cells followed by the other girls voices of agreement.
"Yeah, that's right. Don't you worry girl, we will protect you."
Lili suddenly felt touched inside. She couldn't quite understand why these other girls were saying all of this, but it did make her feel happy.
Then the red haired girl said.
"My name is Accalia Lucania, nice to meet you. What's your name?"
To Lili the name sounded quite odd, never had she heard such a name. But to hear the older girl introduce herself and to even be interested enough to ask Lili her name, made Lili feel happy.
Without hesitation Lili went up against the metal bars and smiled at Accalia and said.
"I'm Lili, it's nice to meet you too Accalia. And yes it is just Lili and nothing more. I have never been given a family name."
With tears in her eyes Accalia said.
"That's a very adorable name Lili. I like it."
Lili couldn't help but blush a little at the older girls words as she then noticed her reaching out her hand past the metal bars and towards her. Immediately Lili understood her meaning and she did the same. Now with only the wide hallway in between them the girls said nothing as they then did an imaginary handshake.
For a few moments the two of them just smiled at each other affectionately and said nothing. To Lili she finally felt like she had actually made a real friend here. Accalia being a girl of maybe 18 years of age held no visible signs of lust or other inappropriate or bad emotions towards her. The girl truly seemed to be on her side out of pure kindness which warmed Lilis little heart greatly.
Then Accalia went to grab at her celss metal bars and desperately tried to pull at them as she said.
"Oh, come on. This is so frustrating."
Seeing this Lili felt confused as she asked.
"What are you doing Accalia? Surely you can't break those metal bars."
Accalia just sighed in defeat as she said.
"Oh I know. It's just that I really want to give you a big hug and kisses. Ooh you're just so cute Lili."
Lili could feel her little heart skip a beat at the comment as she quickly covered her face out of embarrassment ment and said.
"Wa, wa, what did you just say? I'm, cu cute?"
Accalia just nodded her head and said.
"Of course Lili. You're like a cute little white rabbit. You've got the brightest deep blue eye that I have ever seen and your skin is so pure and smooth looking without any defections. And your voice is like a little angels, it's so calming and sweet. It makes me feel at ease and makes me want to hear more of it. I bet you could become the greatest singer in all of the lands if you were given that chance."
Hearing this Lili squealed in embarrassment and blushed even harder as she said.
"No stop it. You don't have to say those things to me, I know that I am not pretty, not with these ugly scars of mine."
Accalia looked at her seriously as she said.
"No Lili, you are beautiful and don't let anyone say otherwise. Your scars just give you more personality if anything, they make you look unique."
Lili smiled at these words softly, she didn't believe them but the words did feel nice to hear. But then Accalia seemed to turn extremely serious as she then asked her.
"You didn't get bit anywhere, did you?"
Surprised by this question Lili looked at the girl and said.
"No, why do you say that? Do you know something about those werewolves?"
Accalia nodded her head in what seemed like relief as she then said.
"We don't call them werewolves but Lycans. And those you faced were probably Feral Lycans. They are cursed humans who have been turned into violent beasts that eat human flesh. They are nothing more than cursed monsters that eat whatever they can get their hands on. Their numbers are great and always growing, so they always need more space to expand. And so they attack the human territories in search of new prey and to increase their numbers even further. You see Lili their bite is cursed. Whenever they bite a human they spread that curse upon that human and so the curse spreads. You are quite lucky to have been able to avoid such a thing."
Hearing all of this Lili felt stunned. But more than anything she felt baffled at how this girl knew so much about the subject. The Kane brothers for one seemed completely oblivious to any of this information. They just talked of the werewolves as monsters. Never once was the word Lycan used.
Thinking of this Lili then asked Accalia about this as she said.
"How come you know so much about this? How is it that the people up north survive with such monsters in the wild? Isn't it really dangerous there?"
Accalia nodded her head as she said.
"Well, yes it's quite dangerous. But you see Lili, we northern folk are actually the true Lycans of Albion and that is why we survive. But don't worry Lili, we are nothing like those feral Lycans. We do not eat humans and we are no beasts, but intelligent humans just like you. The only real difference between humans and us Lycans is the fact that we have been blessed by the moon and wolf god which gives us power and the ability to transform.
And so we are also in a constant war with the Feral Lycans. Of course we are the stronger ones as we have our minds intact, unlike them and we are capable of returning back into our human forms whenever we wish. The only real edge they have on is their numbers which always seems to be increasing somehow. The feral Lycans are merely a by-product of an evil spell that a fool once tried to create in order to create a stronger race of Lycan's to fight the invaders of Albion."
Lili felt like she was finally starting to understand what was going on in this land of Albion, but there were still some things she felt were strange and so she asked.
"But if my people are the invaders of Albion then where do we come from and why is it that we fight one another? Isn't Albion a big enough land for both of our peoples?"
Accalia shook her head lightly as she then said.
"No Lili, Albion is not the vast land that you might think it to be. Because you see Albion is actually just a large island. Sure it's big, but it is already inhabited by multiple different races. To give you a few examples. High in the mountains there is the small, but powerful race of stone giants. Then there are the ferries of the old forests, they are a peaceful race which are kind to all life as long as you are kind to their forests of old. And then there is the Beastherd, they are by far the largest in number and most vile of all races in Albion. They are intelligent, but extremely violent and bloodthirsty. Luckily they are mostly concentrated in the far north behind the central forests of old. It is only thanks to the ferries that we do not have Beastherd bands roaming the south right now.
And that is why we fight and as for your people, I know that you come from a vast land mass in the south over the straight of Albion. That's all I know of it, as It is only recently learned to speak the tongue of your people."
Lili couldn't help but feel completely amazed by all that Accalia said. She still couldn't be quite sure of where Albion exactly was. So far on her travels she had tried to ask about it but even the normal peasants didn't seem to know anything regarding the matter as no-one actually had a map of the this land. But after hearing Accalias words Lili felt certain that this place was in fact the British Isles and the Kingdom of Albion was essentially located in the south of England, right where the Kingdom of Wessex once had stood. It seemed that this was truly some sort of a fantasy version of the British Isles.
Honestly Lili couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by all of this. The day had been long and so too had the night. Slowly exhaustion was starting to set into Lili and Accalia seemed to notice this as she then said.
"Well I think that is enough for tonight. You're still young Lili and in need of sleep, so please do not mind me and just rest."
Hearing this Lili couldn't help but say.
"But Accalia, what about you? Are you ok? That man he didn't...."
Shaking her head in denial Accalia cut off Lilis words as she said.
"Don't worry about me Lili, just go to sleep already. I'm an adult, I can take care of myself."
Lili wanted to say something, but the look in the girls eyes seemed to be quite firmly telling her to do as she was told. To Lilis amazement it looked like the older girl was now a completely different person compared to when she first saw her just a few hours ago. Gone was the girls dead expression and quiet demeanor from before. To Lili it almost seemed like Accalia had suddenly turned into some mother bear that was solely concerned for her cubs well being, which in this case seemed to be Lili.
The thought of this made Lili feel extremely happy inside. Lili certainly didn't want to hurt the feelings of Accalia and so she decided to do as she was told. She wanted to be a good girl in front of her eyes and so she said.
"Ok, I will go to sleep now, since you said so Mother."
After saying this Lili saw Accalias eyes light up with excitement and a happy smile came to her face. Lili could feel Accalias stare on her as she crawled back onto her pile of straws. Laying there in the fetal position she looked at Accalia who looked back at her and said.
"Good night my beautiful baby girl and don't worry I'm right here if you need me."
A happy smile came to Lilis face then as she closed her eyes and fell asleep.