I have been eating wild fruits for months straight, I ran away six months ago after my parents had been murdered during a rebellion, a rebellion I suspect was caused by one of my father's siblings or all.
They were always either lying to me or trying to force me into a corner, intimidating me not to ask questions, or talk in general. And one day I was tired of the berating and everyone acting like I was stupid, so I asked a question during a very silent dinner "does anyone know who started the riot and why my parents and brother were targeted'. It was quiet for a minute or two or five and then I heard a ringing in my ears. I got slapped to the floor by an uncle who dragged me by the hair into my room and threw me on the floor.
No one said anything the whole time, not my uncles or my aunt or my cousins and definitely not the servants. Not even when they heard me screaming as he put his hand beneath my skirts and held my thighs, his thumb rubbing a spot over and over, I wanted to throw up, I did. On that pretty rug my mother gave me as a gift, he grabbed my shoulders and pushed my back to wall twice, chuckled and walked out. A sadist he was, he loved seeing the anger and fear and torment in my eyes and I hated that I fed his wicked heart that satisfaction.
I could hear him telling my personal maids to tend to me after an hour, after I had 'calmed down' because OfCourse being angry at sexual assault was insanity.
The maids came to me later, I had laid down on my bed now, my pretty rug stained with vomit and my pillow soaked in my tears. my eyes were closed but I could feel them looking at me and then one called me a pet name 'RIAH' . I had known them since I was five and I loved them, I heard sniffling and immediately knew they had been crying, I opened my arms to them, and they climbed in to hold me.
I fell asleep for a while but was sharply woken up by Aler and Germanii, my maids /friends telling me to that I needed to run away, somewhere I had never been, to NAZER .
They said my uncles, Decker and Gole had planned to chain me and run a marathon of abuse on me until I broke, until I was quiet , until I was weak and lifeless and had to no heart left to fight for anything, leaving me a puppet for their use and maybe one day they would kill me but not yet, not until they found the scroll. Because if my name was written on the scroll, they would need to rule behind me, keeping me only as a useless face behind a title for a little while so the subject wouldn't riot or if it was my father's name they would still need me to inherit the throne for them....
SO, I RAN AWAY.
The girls helped me pack a bag made of strong FALSETHEAN leather with necessities I needed to survive for days until I could get to COPEN 'THE LAND OF THE FREE'.
And that night they helped me escape, I was scared for them, what if it was found out that they helped me, I begged them to come with me, but they wouldn't.
They had both sworn to live all their days here, to take care of their families and await me on the day I would return and then we would reunite. "If we were still alive" Germanii joked, she never knew how to be serious in serious situations, maybe it was her coping mechanism, but it had definitely helped through a lot of bad stuff.
I knew they were scared; I was scared but I still had to say my goodbyes, crossing a border they helped me through with my head covered lest I would be seen and recognized by locals.
I left my home and my friends and my people and even my cousins whom I were really close to until they became too scared, too timid to speak to me not even a greeting.
I LEFT IT ALL, SIX MONTHS AGO FOR COPEN UNTIL I GOT THERE AND REALIZED THAT IT WASN'T AS FREE AS WE HAD HEARD.