Sage had quickly learned that a mind-shattering orgasm is a rare beast indeed. Despite shared accommodation with three other sisters-in-training, she'd found enough time alone to successfully achieve climax through self stimulation on several occasions. The issue was that none of them had fully satisfied the now familiar itch of arousal that arose whenever her mind wandered back to the encounter by the giant oak. It didn't help that her stimulating dreams had increased in frequency rapidly, going from once or twice a week to almost every day.
To add to her frustrations, her decision to avoid the forest because of what it held meant that she had to spend much more time in the presence of her tormentors. Helgi Stromval in particular had been bullying her non-stop, having apparently made a bet that she could get Sage to leave the convent entirely. The only reason Sage knew this particular nugget of information was thanks to the girl the bet had been made with. Tallow was formerly a herbalist apprentice and had threatened to send several male relatives after Sage if she did decide to leave, with little imagination required as to what would happen to her if she tried. A not inconsiderable amount of money had been put forward on the bet, allegedly.
The harassment itself had escalated from insults and the odd mean prank to outright physical assault. Sage had had more meals knocked out of her hands than she'd actually eaten, and was subject to a constant barrage of slate shards and splinters in the lessons where the sister leading it turned a blind eye. She was beginning to loathe Mother Irina with almost as much passion as Helgi herself and spent her time constantly trying to think up excuses that would get her out of the History of Carseer lectures she taught. Mother Irina's lessons were the only ones where Sage was guaranteed to get strapped regardless of her behaviour. She'd once been strapped because Helgi had pulled her braid and used it to thump Sage's head into the wall next to her. Her resulting hiss of contained pain had apparently 'disrupted the lesson' and meant that she now suffered literally in silence through those lectures.
"Oh look, the Silent Savage is deep in thought. Probably trying to figure out why staring at the sun makes her eyes hurt." Sage's reverie was broken by the now familiar malevolent drone of Helgi. She strode toward Sage with two of her cronies giggling behind her back. Helgi flipped her dark brown hair over one shoulder and sneered down at where Sage was sitting. "What do you have planned for the rest of the afternoon, Barbarian? Banging rocks together, or aren't you able to think that far ahead?"
Sage sighed internally as the two cronies, who she now recognised as Sara Deepwood and Primrose, laughed in her face. She wasn't stupid by any means, none of the girls who came to the Convent of Lichen Rock were. At a minimum they needed to be literate, with many of the wealthier girls having had some prior education too. Sage therefore knew that the purpose of the insults were to provoke her, which was itself a means to justify further abuse. Any form of defence on her part would only serve to make her situation worse. There was, quite literally, no escape.
"Awfully quiet today, Ghost Girl. Don't they teach you how to speak actual language in the frozen waste you call home, or are you just so used to communicating in grunts like the rest of your family?" Helgi glanced smugly at her sycophants, who clapped lightly at her wit.
Sage had tried to explain that she was basically Swanian herself, having never experienced anything other than the forests that covered most of the Kingdom. Ironically, it was this thought that showed her the escape she had been wilfully ignoring all along. Without further hesitation she stood and, not giving the other girls a chance to stop her, strode purposefully away from the storehouse she'd been hiding behind and towards the forest.
"Oh, are you going to go live with the rest of the monsters out in the wilderness? You'd probably end up being their Queen, since I hear they elect the ugliest to be in charge."
Spiteful laughter followed Sage as she broke into a jog, desperate for the freedom she found among the light-kissed trunks and dew-dappled leaves. Her feet almost instinctively followed the game trail she'd sworn away from only a few short weeks ago, as if she'd never left. It took almost no time to reach the old oak, magnificent among the smaller birches. She marched right past, tears clouding her vision. Frustration kept her moving, possibly some effort to burn off the angry energy that had been building since she had confined herself in the safety of the convent. She laughed bitterly at that thought. For all the lessons that had been hammered into her as a child about the dangers of the woods and wild areas of the world, real experience had proven that it was around other people that she was at the most risk. The forest had been only a friend to her.
She had to stop suddenly upon finding herself standing on the edge of the lake she had often visited before. That meant Sage was at least a half hour from the nunnery. The journey had barely registered due to the storm of emotion she had travelled in. It was only now that she had stopped that her feelings were able to catch up with her and she began sobbing. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged her knees, all of the loneliness, sorrow and homesickness hitting her at once now that she had given it a crack to work its way in through. Great wracking heaves of her chest, ugly gulping for air, fists clenched until her knuckles turned white. It was many minutes before she recovered, but eventually the flood stopped and Sage managed to settle her breathing. She rinsed her face in the water, holding her habit above her knees to keep it dry and turned back to face the trail.
Standing half hidden in the undergrowth was a knobbly looking creature, covered only with a ragged, stained grey shirt. It was peering out at her timidly, clearly overwhelmed at how she'd been acting. Sage found herself smiling at seeing the goblin again.
