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Red Tahlia

A tale of love and betrayal

By Kristine verrierPublished 2 years ago 9 min read
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Red Tahlia
Photo by Gigi on Unsplash

Princess Tahlia has never felt at peace in her kingdom… she’s bored and is never allowed to talk to anyone except her maid Aubrie, but Aubrie can be rather boring at times. With boredom comes the thought of escaping, even for just one evening this crosses her mind often, almost everyday but she never goes through with it… that’s about to change.

The night was cool in Zenith but Princess Tahlia was warm and tingly with excitement, she had been planning her escape for the past 2 nights and tonight’s the night she gets to see her village, she will see all of Zenith, just like she had always dreamt about as a little girl, she doesn’t believe her father when he says it’s a cruel and dark place beyond the castle walls, from her window it looks so beautiful and quite charming. Like something from a fairy tale.

Her plan is to wait until sundown, go through the cellars and crawl through the tunnels…

Princess Thalia’s plan went off without a hitch, the moon was on the horizon and shining brighter than she had ever seen before… wondering off to the side so the guards didn’t see her leave she made her way down the hill and towards the village of Zenith, the land she will one day rule when her father passed the throne onto her… she admires the field flowers growing and the trees swaying in the breeze… suddenly she hears footsteps, not sure what direction they are coming from she hides in a bush not far from the path, the footsteps get louder and louder then she sees them, these legs were long, and beefy, as she panned her eyes up she saw him, a huge man walking towards the village, he had a red beard and was wearing the skin of a bear, leather around his wrists and chest, a bladder full of mead strapped around his waist, hitting his hip with each step… something primal stirred in princess Tahlia and it shocked her to her core… whatever it was she had never experienced it before so she just passed it off as nerves…

Once he is out of sight she makes her way down to the village… she was smart and wore only the most basic clothing she could find, a brown and grey dress she found in Aubries closet, and a hooded cape, hoping no one will recognise her… the path leading into the village was not what she imagined, the flowers slowly became less and less and more and more weeds and rubbish was scattered around the place, her heart dropped when she saw a man passed out slumped against a tree.

“Maybe father was right” she thought to herself, “maybe things arnt as beautiful as they seem…”

Even so, she kept walking, she had come this far and the thought of that man kept creeping into her mind… it was like she was drawn to him in a carnal way that she had never felt before, she wasn’t far from the first hut, she could see a sign with a blacksmiths mark, “black snake blacksmiths” this was something she knew of, that blacksmiths mark was on all the guards armour and every sword in the kingdom was branded with that image of two swords crossing with a little snake twisted around them.

She pulled the hood over her face as she passed the blacksmith, afraid that someone may recognise her, as she scurried past she noticed a yellow glow coming from a window in the distance, something made her follow that glow, as she got closer she could hear the laughter of drunk men and cackling women, the sign read “fryiers tavern” a little picture of a honey eater strategically placed in the middles of the two words… as she approached the beat up bar she heard a crash, the bar fell silent but only for a second, the door swung open with such force she thought it was about to fly off, two men flew out even faster, one bigger man had the drunker looking man by the collar and threw him to the ground so hard the princess swore she heard a crack, the bigger man kicked the man on the ground, causing him to curl up into a ball, he then lent down said something to him she could quite make out and then spat on him, he stood up, brushed himself off and walked back into the bar like nothing had happened…

This should have made her turn and run but it didn’t, her life had been so boring up until tonight and her curiosity has the better of her.. she approached the bar with caution… no turning back now.. as she opened the heavy wooden door she was suddenly faced with that same red bearded man she saw on her way down to the village, he had gone to leave as she opened the door and they bumped into each other with such force she lost her footing and fell to the ground, startled she hurried to stand up only to see the face of the man she saw on the path, his eyes were blue as ice and his beard as red as fire, the look he gave her was one of destain and disgust and also something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on, he gave her the slightest smirk and brushed passed her, only to turn around and walk back towards her, he grabs her by the arm pulls her to the little ally way beside the tavern, the fear in her traveled up her spine and made the hairs on her neck stand up, she didn’t know weather to run or to tell him who she was, but before she could do anything he was already talking, his voice like sandpaper on raw oak, she didn’t hear a thing he said, she was still dazed and her head was going a million miles an hour, untill he slapped her so hard she saw stars

“Are you listening to me!?” He bellowed.

tears pricking in her eyes… as she said “sorry, I’m not from around here…”

“I can see that” he says with amusement in his eyes.

Her heart was beating so fast she could barely think straight…

“May I ask you to repeat what you said..?” She said so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard her…

“I said, what is a pretty little girl like you doing in a place like this…? Your going to get yourself into trouble.” He growled with a wicked gleam in his eye

“I was just leaving” she breathed.

“Not on my watch, when I’m in town I get what I want, and your no exception… princess”

Her blood ran cold when he said that word, how the hell does he know who I am?!

Next thing she knew there was a big rough callused hand around her mouth, she was barely able to breath let alone scream… she put up the biggest fight she could and it was still as if this man was picking up a helpless wounded animal, no effort at all.

It was in that moment she realised there was no escape from this beast of a man… she felt so helpless and alone and scared and the regret of wanting to see her village was heavy in her chest.

After what felt like a lifetime the red bearded man put her down, still holding on tight he said “don’t try to run or I will kill you..”

The next words that came out of her mouth shocked her more than they shocked him…

“May I ask your name at least…”

The look he gave her was one of confusion and fury, he barked at her “don’t you know who I am!? I am Bjorn the Red, Viking king of the west isles”

She sat silent and took in that information, not understanding what exactly was going on and why she was casually trying to make conversation with a man who may very well kill her, or worse…

She stopped her thoughts in there tracks as she didn’t want to panic, she at least knows panicking Will not help her situation…

She took this moment to take in her surroundings, assess the situation and work out what to do next.

She looked to her right and saw a drunk man stumbling around, he wouldn’t be of any help…

Then she turned her head to the left and saw and woman and her child looking at her through a dimly lit window, as soon as they made eye contact the woman shut the window… she was obviously no help either… smart lady.

Bjorn was holding onto princess Tahlia arm so tight she lost feeling in her fingers… then suddenly she was whacked so hard on the head she lost consciousness…

Bjorn couldn’t risk letting her escape… so he did what he knew best and put her to sleep. The whack on the head was just hard enough to knock her out for a couple hours, not hard enough to kill her, he didn’t want her dead, that would defeat the purpose of taking her.

He tied her feet with leather cord, wrapped a piece of cloth around her wrist and slung her over his shoulder

Bjorn visits Zenith every full moon, it’s his pit stop, his men love the drink and the woman never complain, they know better than that here, there smart in there own dumb way.

The walk to his hut wasn’t far from the outskirts of the village, he took it from a farmer many moons ago and claimed it as his own, again, no one is stupid enough to take it back. Once he arrives at his hut, he kicks the door open with one foot and walks inside, throws princess Tahlia next to the fireplace, he will get to her in a moment.

Bjorn gathered his days earnings and put them in his locked chest that sits to the right of the fire place, once he locks it up he stands and stares at the woman he took from the streets. He had never seen her around before, he wanted her. In the most evil of ways he needed her. Her blonde hair fallen across her face as she lay unconscious made something inside him stir… an animalistic urge was washing over him. He grabbed her by the waist and was about to sling her over his shoulder and that’s when he saw them, her gold earrings with the kingdom’s crest emblem adorning her perfect little ears… he was shocked and couldn’t believe his luck, had he finally caught the king’s daughter without even knowing it? Surely not! She has to be a thief otherwise how would she have gotten those earrings?

She was remarkably clean and well spoken for a comment thief he thought to himself… his heart started beating faster as he carried her down to the cellar to get a closer look at his find. With her ankles still bound he grabbed the chains hanging from the roof and shackled her wrists, he was always prepared for moments like this, letting her hang there helpless and unconscious he stood back and almost admired her…

Bjorn the red had just captured the princess without even realising.

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About the Creator

Kristine verrier

Discovering myself has been a lifelong journey for me, one I believe will never actually end, at 28 I have discovered I can write, and I have joined vocal to explore this new found passion and talent with as many people that will listen.

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