Running through the woods my breath catching in my chest, my feet barely grazing the ground. Twigs and leaves catching in my hair, and each time I try to look behind me I loose my footing and nearly fall. I can hear his steady breathing behind me getting closer each time I stumble, a wolf closing in. Frantically I try to find somewhere to hide, somewhere to go, someone to help; yet all I find is endless trees, bushes and rocks. His loping gait is getting closer as I find my strength and endurance running thin, too close to hide, too close to stop.
Suddenly my foot slips under a root and I fall hard to the ground pushing all my breath out of my lungs in a whoosh. With my ears ringing from the impact I didn't hear him until he was over me. "Now, now, if you had come with me easy you wouldn't have been hurt at all. Of course you always have to do it the hard way don't you." He towered over me, the dusk shadowing his features except the fact he was tall and broad, yet it was his growling words that chilled me to the bone. "Yes I have been watching you for a long time, working at the pub filling the mugs for all the gents, teasing them, fooling them. I also know that you have never been with any of them, no you were saving yourself for a knight of your imagination. Guess it's time for that fantasy to go to the wayside."
As his words sunk in the chills turned to numbness and tears stung my eyes, how did he know so much and why would he care about a girl like me. Darting my eyes madly I looked for an escape, he must have noticed in the quickly dissipating light. Chuckling deeply, "Do you really think a little thing like you can get away, I've proven that I can out run you. If I need to I will prove more if you test me, then again you have always been a stubborn chit." My mind was quickly running out of ideas, but I had to get away from him, nothing good could come from giving in.
Scrabbling up I starting to move away from him, but I quickly felt a weight fly into my back knocking the breath out of me again. Sinister laughing came this time, "Really as if I didn't see that one coming, you know your face gives away all your thoughts. Seems like we will have to do this the hard way, then again I always like a challenge." With that he changed his stance and placed his torso over my back pinning me to the ground but making it so I could breathe again. The air rushing to my lungs was blissful until I realized he was tying my legs together with a length of rope. I start thrashing under him trying to unseat him, but it is like trying to move a mountain. Around my ankles the rope goes tying them together and then he quickly turns and catches one of my arms behind me wrenching it back. I feel the rope bite into my uncovered wrist, tears leaking from my eyes. Easily my other wrist was caught and tied, so that I felt like a fellen deer.
Still he is not done; next I feel a piece of fabric cover my eyes blocking the last of the light. My body goes ridged which he can feel, "Now, now, don't worry that's just to keep you calm, think of the horses in the streets. This is to keep you quiet so that I can move you easy." Suddenly I taste leather in my mouth, and he ties it quickly behind my head before I can push it out. My fear total and my body tired, my mind blew out and I fainted in those dark woods.
As I wake up he is splaying me out on the bed, I thrash as much as my tired and sore body can, but even I know it is a weak attempt, more on the principle I wouldn't go easy. He chuckles slightly but continues to tie me out so that my arms and legs are spread but not uncomfortable, a little kindness that is welcomed. The blindfold of fabric covers all of my sight except I can tell he has some lights lit due to a brighter backlit and he chooses to keep the leather bit in for now. He starts talking to me in a low an easy tone, yet far from comforting it was unnerving. "I bet you are wondering why you were chosen and more importantly how I know you so well. I will answer the first question now and if you please me I will answer the second." I can feel the bed press down where he sat down near my feet. Off slides my boots the ropes cutting into my ankles and my fear rising again.
"I would guess it comes to no surprise of yours that I have been watching you work for some time now. I notice you try to hide the fact you are tall and lanky so that you won't stand out so much from your friend who also is a barmaid, the petite curvy one, she shows off those globes to whomever will look. Except you, oh I see it in your eyes and even though you won't admit it you want her like a man wants a woman. I'm not here to judge, she's a fine chit, but not what I like. No she's not, plus if memory serves right she looks for love in all the wrong beds. It must hurt you to see a friend try so hard to find the one man she can get to marry her and make a secure life for herself yet choose so wrong night after night. How many men has she shared her bed with above the pub only to wake up and have a copper on her nightstand than a man left in her bed? No she's not my type at all."
His hand made his way up my leg giving me chills that had nothing to do with fear. "I do like the type that's graceful and that can make a smart man laugh at her wit, and beauty that is understated and natural, not pushed out of shape. And I know that you untie yourself every chance you get that you hate the paint on your cheeks that the owner gives you to wear saying it will help the pub make the gents happier." I felt him move and then a damp rag started cleaning off my face where my tears had probably smeared the paint anyway. "All the while cutting down that little joy you have in you. So that one day you think the only way someone will want you is to get to others or because there is nothing better. Personally I think there is no one better, each piece of you revealed is better than imagined."
I feel him moving again and suddenly I find myself tightening again, which is strange because I wasn't sure when I started to relax. "Also for your imagined knight, hate to tell you, they all died in the last plague so you are just stuck with us gents. Really I can be a nice one if you are good and then you will see it, if you are bad then you will not. Truly it is up to you except for the fact that I will have you. Come now it's not so bad, at least I will remember your name and every bit of your body, unlike those drunks that will eventually whittle you away until you are the next whore upon rags. Consider this a liberation, once you can speak again call me Sir or Master, shouldn't be too hard for you to remember should it. Now I want to see that beautiful body you have."
