The warchief snarled at the little blonde when she offered him that childish resistance. His free arm pulled back and his hand balled into a fist as he prepared to strike the little girl. The crowd behind Elise erupted into yet another roar of cheers when they saw that their warchief was about to destroy this little girl’s face. These people, for whatever reason, seemed to be getting far too much enjoyment out of the suffering of a small child than they should have been; even for savages. This was her fate now that Osric had absent-mindedly bought her into the hall.
The warchief did not finish his strike, however. His eyes were looking past Elise now and out through the hall which had fallen deathly silent except for the sounds of one lone figure against the floorboards as it approached the throne. With this bestial man’s hand locked in her hair like it was, it would have been impossible for Elise to turn and see whom it was approaching them though it couldn’t have been good if the figure had grabbed the warchief’s attention and killed the cheers could it?
The figure that had caused the sudden change in mood was
Temujin the Wild. Temujin was a tall woman, standing inch for inch in height with the warchief but her frame was much smaller than the other mountain barbarians, even for a woman. This was because she was not a mountain pureblood. Her father had been of the mountain tribe but her mother had come from the forests below; a refugee from Castille’s expansion. Her hair was also not the typical brown of the mountain tribe’s warriors but was a rich, ravel black. It was styled in a traditional forest tribe style; shaved on the sides with a mohawk that cascaded down her back. Her eyes were her only visual connection to the mountain tribes; the same gentle blue that Osric had had.
As she approached the throne, her armor clinked with each step. She did not wear the furs of the other barbarians, preferring the collection of protective metals that she had stolen in raids and crafted into her own version of the invader’s armors. Temujin was as fierce as she was beautiful and had many suitors within the tribe but none meant more to her than her warchief.
“Temujin salkhi,” a woman’s voice rang from behind Elise as the footsteps got closer and stopped within striking distance behind the small blonde. When the footsteps stopped, a set of small, feminine hands reached around from behind Elise and grabbed ahold of the young girl’s forearms. Even though these hands were so much smaller than the warchief’s there was still far more strength in them than Elise could hope to fight and in moments they were pulling the girl’s hands behind her back.