Chapter Three: Lucas

Lucas stared after the girl as she made her way down stream. He half expected her not to make it. The river was violent and deadly this time of year, as the rain flowing down from the hisba mountains tended to cause floods. He had set up camp so close to the river only because he thought it would provide a good water source for his men and because it would stop people from running. How wrong he had been.

There was the sound of hoofbeats racing towards the girl and he slung his black cloak around his shoulders, sinking into the shadows to watch what was about to take place.

A black horse came into view, much like the one they had pulled the girl off of before. He winced at the thought, he hadn’t meant for her to be tossed around like a sack of potatoes, but her being able to fight only made it worse. If he didn’t need a servant he would have put her on the royal guard. They could always use someone who knew how to fight and with spirit, but since he didn’t intend to use her for anything but a slave, he turned back to the horse and rider.

The stallion was carrying a male rider with a clock obscuring his head towards the girl and Lucas watched as the man leaned to the side and wrapped an arm around the girl, pulling her up and onto the horse with an ease you didn't see everyday.

Lucas sighed and turned around, stalking back to his tent and sitting down at his oak wood desk.

Oak or any type of tree had become increasingly rare in the past year after a plight had caused the land to die, killing off a lot of living things, including trees and animals. Before his father, the king, could create a law about cutting down trees, most people had rushed to chop down what they could and only a few skinny forests remained, filled with dying trees. Horses had been another thing to go and that was why it had surprised him so much when the girl galloped back on a horse that was fit for royalty once, but was now fit for only gods. How she had a horse like that was an impossible question to answer, most remaining horses were overused and sick, or commandeered by nobles and royalty. He himself had refused to take a horse from the more poor people, and therefore had to travel by leg.

The girl had come from a poor family with a suffering farm, that shouldn’t have been able to afford a horse at all, nor should she have had an education. One of the things that had surprised him the most though when he had been trying to find a slave, was that there was no one working in the fields with her and the fact that she was working and not her brother.

In this time and age, females were usually the ones pampered and made to sit inside all day, doing needlework and learning how to take care of the household, but instead her brother had taken her place and she was working.

There was something off about the girl and he intended to figure it out.