The Maiden and the Beasts
What really defines a beast?
This story is courtesy of the Mini-Challenges at Creative.Inspired.Happy with Evelyn Skye. Thank you, Evelyn, for allowing me to share these little quick writings. The prompt for this story was the below photo, which Evelyn herself took of St. Alban’s Church in Copenhagen during one of her amazing book tours. What a neat prompt!
Leona was proud of herself. Her parents had finally trusted her to take the cattle to the lord's manor herself. It was a mark of maturity, a trial of teen trust, a rite of passage. She herded the two beasts along the dusty road, her eyes on the manor spires just above the rise and across the stream. She'd never been inside, never met the lord, never been old enough, until now.
"Hail, maiden!" The call shook her from her thoughts. The dark-haired stranger leaned forward in his saddle, his expression said it was not the first time he'd tried to get her attention. His face was handsome, but his eyes were leering, and something about him drove in as many directions as the cow and bull she drove to market. Something about him called her toward him. Something about him repulsed her away. She felt both fear and fire, but she managed to only politely reply "Good day, sir."
"If you are headed for the manor, I would like to ride with you for the journey."
His clothes were of fine cloth, with accessories that only the rich and carefree could adorn. 'Twould be foolish to be rude to him, and part of her did not wish to be, anyway. "You may ride where you like, good sir, but the journey is not long."
He continued to engage her with conversation, to ask about her family and her self. She blushed when she caught him looking at her, and cursed herself for doing so. She was an important errand that would prove her maturity and value in the family. She had no time for idle dalliances, particularly with strange men of dark, curly hair, whose shoulders seemed at war with his shirt, and thighs denied any need of saddle astride the brown stud-
She blushed again at her own thoughts and chastised the cattle for their normal speed.
As they reached the stone bridge to the manor, she breathed a sigh of relief, this torturous man would finally part on his own errands, and leave her be.
"Maiden, I have tried to win your attention this entire ride, and yet you spurn me. Here we are now at the manor. Will you abandon the animals you drive and mount my horse for dinner and the evening?"
The hard hoofs of her cattle echoed on the stone bridge. The surely cool water passing below that she suddenly desperately wished to dive into. There was a flush of heat at her neck that neither began nor ended in her chest.
"Good sir, I am only just old enough to bring my family's beasts to market here at the lord's manor. You flatter me, but I must decline your offer." The heat in her bolstered her courage, and gave her reason to strike him back for making her feel this new way. "I will not spend this night, or any other with so bold a stranger whose fine clothes barely contain him!"
His stormy eyes turned dark. His arched eyebrows drew down. "You, girl, have the look of a spring filly, but a heart of stone. If you truly will not leave your animals to be with your lord, then I do hope you enjoy each other for a very long time."
His eyes flashed, and her body froze. She couldn't breathe. The cattle, too, had stopped moving. Her eyes could not leave the man as he rode into his manor. Her skirts hardened in the breeze from the stream, whipping about her trembling legs forever.
This is a bit darker than my usual style, but perhaps it’s an opportunity for conversation? Let’s chat in the comments.
