Dampylle
Star
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2009
The season had been harsh and unforgiven. The sun was beginning to set on this day and with it the last hopes that the harvest could produce the funds needed to pay the needed tribute to the lord of the lands. It did not help that the lord who ruled these lands was a creature of the night... and an ancient one at that if you believed the stories. They knew that tribute was necessary and they did not have the coin of the realm to pay their dues. But some of the slightly less scrupulous of the villagers had come up with a plan to remedy that.
The dark lord of the realm was known to have a taste for women and rumors that he enjoyed corrupting and transforming his victims had long been a part of stories told to frighten children. So they would instead offer to him a young maiden as payment for him to do with as he pleased. There was no doubt he would corrupt and transform her in some way or that she would end up as a slave to this immortal creature... which is why none of the families in the village was willing to offer up their own children for tribute.
So instead they had found a local tramp girl, no one knew if she was an abandoned gypsy child or simply some homeless scamp. But none of that mattered to the villagers who only wanted to protect their own necks and their own families. She was of sufficient age and she was not one of their family members... and as far as they were concerned that was all that mattered. They had seen to it that she was at least washed and then clothed in a simple white dress and now they had her bound to a post where they were supposed to leave their tribute. They scurried off to hide in their homes as the sun finally set and night fell.
In the distance the castle of the dark lord could be seen where it sat atop a plateau at the heart of the dark woods outside the village. Fog seemed to roll out from those woods even as the air grew cold... it was his time now. Soon the sound of hoof beats could be heard in the distance as he came to collect his due. It seemed like an eternity as those sounds grew louder as he drew close... and then after what seemed like forever a black carriage pulled by two black stallions drifted out of the fog and approached the post where the young woman was bound. The door drifted open without anyone touching it and a dark figure clad in the most elegant finery done entirely in black silk and velvet stepped from the carriage... his blood red gaze falling on the young woman as he stepped forward and then took the note pinned above her head and read it before arching an eyebrow, "Payment in flesh... an old custom... but it was part of the original agreement... I suppose I shall honor it then."
The dark lord of the realm was known to have a taste for women and rumors that he enjoyed corrupting and transforming his victims had long been a part of stories told to frighten children. So they would instead offer to him a young maiden as payment for him to do with as he pleased. There was no doubt he would corrupt and transform her in some way or that she would end up as a slave to this immortal creature... which is why none of the families in the village was willing to offer up their own children for tribute.
So instead they had found a local tramp girl, no one knew if she was an abandoned gypsy child or simply some homeless scamp. But none of that mattered to the villagers who only wanted to protect their own necks and their own families. She was of sufficient age and she was not one of their family members... and as far as they were concerned that was all that mattered. They had seen to it that she was at least washed and then clothed in a simple white dress and now they had her bound to a post where they were supposed to leave their tribute. They scurried off to hide in their homes as the sun finally set and night fell.
In the distance the castle of the dark lord could be seen where it sat atop a plateau at the heart of the dark woods outside the village. Fog seemed to roll out from those woods even as the air grew cold... it was his time now. Soon the sound of hoof beats could be heard in the distance as he came to collect his due. It seemed like an eternity as those sounds grew louder as he drew close... and then after what seemed like forever a black carriage pulled by two black stallions drifted out of the fog and approached the post where the young woman was bound. The door drifted open without anyone touching it and a dark figure clad in the most elegant finery done entirely in black silk and velvet stepped from the carriage... his blood red gaze falling on the young woman as he stepped forward and then took the note pinned above her head and read it before arching an eyebrow, "Payment in flesh... an old custom... but it was part of the original agreement... I suppose I shall honor it then."