Epona stood on tiptoes to see out of the porthole. She was on her second month at sea and she was beyond stir crazy. She fidgeted with chestnut hair and chewing on a pail rose lip. Her tiny cell on the ship was not technically a prison, but it was closing in on her like one. It was four plain plank walls with a high port in the left hand corner was a cot on the right was her trunk and that was it. What was worse was that the Captain quote didn't trust the men with her unquote and refused to let her up on deck. She had commented she could handle them but to no avail.
She was stuck in her cell with barely any sight of the outside world. Damn she thought. She had wanted to see the world that had been her biggest reason for Volunteering in the first place. So far she had seen nothing but waves and a sliver of one port they had resupplied at. She felt one of her rare despondent spells coming on and shook her head to dislodge it. No she refused to regret her choice, She would be at the great port of Acresh the empire's capital city on the morrow.
There would be plenty to see then it's not like they would blindfold her right... right they had better not she thought bitterly. Legs shaking from hours on her toes she turned and stretched. Moving to her modest trunk she opened it taking out the dress she would have worn on her wedding if the Empire had not come to conquer her people. Her mother Aine had started it on her fourteenth birthday and taken a whole year to finish it. The base was fine knit lace worked with the tiniest green gem beads that matched her soft eyes. The green shown against the white of the lace, it was in sort exquisite, fit for any queen. She laid it out on the trunk lid to don in the morning when she would ready herself to be presented to the Emperor Adair along with all the other tribute her father had sent.
The surrender would bother her till the day she died, but she understood that her Father Abir the Chief of the Yuirdath horse people had done what he had to. Theirs was not the only tribe to fall; all seven had succumbed to the invaders, hers last. She bemoaned that if they had been able to put aside their differences, as her Abir had tried to get then to, but that had proven an impossible task. Together their numbers were too strong even for the disciplined lines of the Gasian empire's forces.
However the tribes strife was too deep to be overcome in time. She sat down thinking of the past few years since the empire had arrived on their shores. Some had gone straight to war with the invading forces others had looked for peace and trade. In the end it was all the same, subjugation or death. The seven tribes' bitter rivalries, and century's uncounted of strife, was used by the empire's tacticians to great effect.
She ran a hand over the dress to sooth her temper. Part of her wanted to kill the emperor when she was presented but that would cause massive retaliation back home. She could not be the cause of more misery and death. If she was honest she was also excited to be going to a new place. The center of the empire was home to many different peoples and she wanted to meet them, and learn from them. She wanted to see new things and while they would not likely let her roam free, even in the palace she could see so much she never could have dreamed of back home.
She sighed wondering about home she would never see again. How was mother and father doing, was her brother ready to forgive her yet for volunteering as tribute? Had her sister Dara stopped crying? Epona hated that the conquering general lined all the eligible women up and picked one to take whether she liked it or not. On so many levels it made sense for her to go. She was the chief's eldest daughter unpromised to anyone in marriage, despite her mother's best efforts. Most of all she wanted to go to see this figure that brought ruin to her people.
Epona stood and paced full of nervous energy and not much space to vent it in. Finally she settled into her favorite meditation form adjusted slightly to accommodate the tight quarters. It cleared her mind and brought her some peace before she tried to sleep.
Sleep did not come easily to her that night, and twice she awoke thinking it was morning. When dawn did brake through her porthole she had done her morning exercises and washed. Now she put on a slight white shift and donned her dress. She braided small sections of her hair and curled them onto her head leaving most of her chestnut hair to fall long, as her mother had done for her on festival days. She was ready long before they came for her and was obliged to sit patiently to be let out.
The captain descended into the hold himself to fetch her along with a bony sailor to get her trunk. She was led out onto the deck for the first time since setting sail. She revealed to have the sky overhead. Her cool stately demeanor cracked a little as she looked out at the city of Acresh.
