Moon Guardian by J. V. Lisa (if you liked this book TXT) 📕

happened? Usually I can hold my tongue, but it all just came out. “Ugh” I rubbed my temples. I started looking around the wagon again, trying to find something to help me escape somehow. I looked inside some of the crates around me. In one of the crates I found a painting done by one of the village elders. He was one of the few who loved everybody, even me. The painting took him a long time to finish. He said it was his best one yet. I hugged the painting, and felt tears start to run down my cheeks, then moved on to another crate. There was mostly jewelry in this one. I searched everywhere and found absolutely nothing. I sat down again by a pile of crates. I let my head drop backwards and unexpectedly hit it against the hard wood.
“Ouch!” I said, rubbing the back of my head. I felt the wagon come to a stop. A few seconds later my captor flung the wagon cover open. The bright light hurt my eyes but they soon adjusted. His eyes went to where I had been tied up before. When he only saw ropes his expression became angry and worried. I smiled inside for being the cause of his discomfort. His eyes quickly searched the wagon until they fell on me. He glanced back and forth between the ropes and me. Then his grin spread across his lips again.
“My, my, my, aren’t we the crafty one.” he said, his eyes gleaming.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said standing and folding my arms across my chest. He jumped into the wagon and walked towards me, he stopped in front of me. He drew his sword then stood aside motioning for me to exit the wagon. I walked past him eyeing the beautiful sword. He followed closely behind me with the tip of his sword at the small of my back. I stopped at the edge of the wagon and took a moment to look at my surroundings. We were on a small mountain trail. To my right was a thirty-foot drop straight down, with nothing to slow you down. To my left was a six-foot wall of rock, and once again there was nothing sticking out to grab hold of, or any good foot holes. Straight-ahead was the way we had just come from.
“The wagon has to go a different way. The mountain is too rough for it.” The man said jumping down then offering his hand to help me down. —Yeah like I really wanted him touching me. – I looked at the hand, side stepped and, jumped down to the ground. To my surprise my landing was somewhat graceful. He chuckled then grabbed the rope from the wagon and stepped toward me.
“Is that really necessary?” I said totally surprising myself. “It’s not like I can run away with a thirty-foot drop on one side, and a six-foot wall on the other.” Once again he starred at me in amazement. I hated the feeling of his eyes on me.
“True, but I like seeing you in ropes, it suits you. Like a saddle on a wild horse.” He said grinning while he wrapped my wrists. He led me, with the rest of the rope, around the side of the wagon. The space between the wagon and the wall of the mountain was small and cramped. He had some difficulty fitting though, but I didn’t. I started making a mental list of my advantages. So far I was smaller and more agile. We emerged from the space. I saw his men waiting for him they were all on horseback. At the front of the pack there was a beautiful black horse. It had a broad chest with thick legs. It was almost pure pitch black except for a white crescent moon on his forehead. I paused for a moment to admire the horse. The man felt the line tighten and looked back at me. He followed me gaze to the horse.
“Beautiful isn’t he. I stole him from a palace along with my sword.” He boasted walking over to the horse pulling me along with him. He stepped in between the horse, and me then suddenly grabbed me by the waist and kind of threw me onto the horses back. It startled me, but the horse didn’t seem to notice me. I suddenly had a strange feeling like this horse was somehow important to me. The man got on behind me. The horse seemed to object with a quiet whinny, but the man didn’t seem to notice. His arms came around me as he reached around me for the reins. His arms were very hard with muscles and very strong. They felt like an iron cage around me. I started a new list in my head of my disadvantages. So far his strengths, manpower, resources, horses and he most likely knew the lay of the land better. The list continued, after a while my advantage of small size made me feel like it was mouse vs. cat. The mouse is small and agile, but the cat… well we know how it usually ends. I stayed quiet for the trip. Every now and then I would hear his men whispering and, when I would glance back they would be leaning towards each other but looking at me. I hate it when people stare at me. I can always feel when I’m being watched. I returned my focus to the road ahead of us but was soon bored. Instead I started playing with the horse’s mane, twining it around my fingers. It was slightly difficult seeing as how my hands were still tied but it kept me occupied. As I was playing with the mane I came across something tied in it. I moved the hair out of the way and saw a piece of silver. It had the same carving on it as the man’s sword. I quickly covered it again and went back to playing with the horse’s mane. I started thinking about the design, for some reason it seemed familiar to me. Suddenly the horse stopped and The Man jumped down. He grabbed me firmly by the waist and set me on the ground. He kept hold of me and made sure that my hands were still bound. For a second he looked disappointed.
“Awe, you didn’t try to untie yourself. Darn, I was hoping to do it again.” He said letting go of my waist.
“Sorry to disappoint.” I retorted.
“Hmm, I will enjoy breaking you.” He said grinning again.
I looked around, this time we were in a small village at the top of the mountain. There was a thick forest to one side with a small stream. The man put his hands on my shoulders gripping them tightly. He pushed me towards the houses.
“Are you raiding anther village?” I asked bitterly.
“No.” he said, “We live here, and now so do you.”
“We’ll see about that.” I said under my breath.
I looked at the village again faces started appearing in the windows and doorways. They were all women and had very grave faces, but when a man would enter the houses, they would fake a smile. Some looked at me and gave me a piteous look. Some however looked at me in amazement of course they had never seen anybody with golden hair before. I kept my eyes down as the man steered me through the little village. We walked through the middle of the village to a very large house. The beautiful horse was already in the stable nibbling on some hay. Again I stared at him amazed by his grace and beauty. He looked up at me with intelligent eyes and gave me a whinny of recognition. Again the strange feeling came to me, like I somehow knew this horse, and it knew me. I felt the pressure on my shoulders increase, so I continued forward. Inside the house was beautiful, but a total pig sty. There were people passed out drunk and boxes of things randomly scattered about and old scrolls littered the floor. There were a few elegant wall hangings that were in fairly good condition but others were torn and stained with who knows what. The Man walked in front of me again leading me with the rope and parading me past his servants and guards. We came to a hallway with about three or four women, who looked the same age my mother was, standing with their heads bowed. The man roughly yanked the rope making me stumble forward. He turned to me around to face him and untied my hands. He whipped me around to face the women as I rubbed the welts on my wrist left by the rope.
“Clean her up and find her something to wear.” He said shoveling me towards the women. “I want my latest trophy looking nice for when I present her to the public.”
I stepped with the momentum of his shove but then fell to my knees. I quickly stood and bowed to the women. The Man left and I stood there not sure what to do. One woman stepped forward. She carried herself with pride and appeared to be in charge of the other three. She slid one arm around my shoulders and the other gently gripped my right forearm and led me to a large room. The women gathered in the room and started asking me questions.
“What is your name young one?” The shortest woman asked.
“L-Liza…Liza Kiyuki.” I said timidly.
“Where do you come from?” Another asked.
“I come from the Legin Village.” I answered.
“So why did he take you, aside from the obvious reasons” said the third woman.
“What do you mean ‘obvious reasons’?” I asked slightly confused.
“Your hair and eyes, they are very rare in fact I’ve never seen anything like them. And he is always looking for rare beauties.” She said.
“Well aside from that I’m not quiet sure.” I said pondering. “Well he did say something about me being too spirited and wanting to break me.”
All four women stood there slightly shocked. The woman in charge seemed to snap out of it first clapping her hands to get the attention of the others.
“You,” she barked, “get the bath ready. You find her some suitable clothes. You find a thick brush and some pretty combs. “And you,” she said as she turned to me,
“Off with those filthy clothes” Before I could react she started yanking things off of me. I grabbed for the note in my shirt pocket before she had it totally off of me. Once I had it my arms flew to my chest to cover my nakedness.
“What is that?” She demanded.
“Please let me keep them, they’re all I have left” I pleaded clasping the note as well as my necklace. She gave me a sympathetic look and nodded. “Thank you.”
“The bath is ready ma’am” said a woman entering the room.
“Good now, off with those pants and into the tub.” The woman barked again.
“Wait,” I said before she reached for me again, “May I at least bathe myself?”
“Very well, but you had better do a good job, or else.” She called after me.
“Yes ma’am.” I replied. The woman reminded me of my mother at that moment. I pushed the thought of her body from my mind, attempting to lock it away. I concentrated of scrubbing myself clean. One of the women brought me a thin dressing robe. I was led to a stool in front of a large mirror. The woman in charge sat on a stool behind my and brushed the tangles, dirt and, dried blood from my hair. I was then dressed in a dark blue silk kimono with black and red embroidered flowers