Honour Thy Lady

I looked out the carriage window and tried not let my over whelming emotions take me. Closing my eyes i stuck my head out the open window and let the warm wind brush the few bits of stray blonde hair from my face.

This was one of the three times I had ever been allowed to leave my fathers estate. The first was when I was but a small child and father wanted to see why I needed to be protected at all times. He had taken me to all the scariest parts of town and pointed out all the dirty and poor people taking advantage of one another. It had been meant to scare me into submission. To keep me from trying to leave the castle on my own accord. To limit my own freedom myself. It was a nice idea, but had backfired on my father. I was sad for the people, taking pity on them for what I had and didn't need and what they would do for even half of what I needed to survive.

The second time only a few seasons afterwards, the season of my eight birth year, my mother died. She had been sweet, to others, but hadn't truly cared about me. By the time the winter season had run its course so had her life, and she had been so distant from me and father for so long, I almost didn't notice. Almost.

The rain that poured down on us as the men tried to keep her pyre fire lit made it look as if the young only daughter of the noblewoman was crying. But I only felt fear. Fear that at any season, at any moment, my life would end as well. Being as bitter and alone as my mother had been. I never left the estate after that. Fear of an illness that seemed to always be spreading somewhere kept me chained to my fathers left side. It was always hard to tell when the Hands of the Castle were exaggerating or right on the gold and I didn't want to test their information. Everyone thought it was because a depression had set in after my mother was gone.
But Nana was the closest thing to a mother i had had all my life. So I wasn't truly depressed.

Now was my third and probably last time. The time when I would meet up with my father at an unknown man's house. The man would inspect if my fathers words rang true about my beauty and worth. Then dear father would sell me off in less than a years time. My father had been holding me in a small glass vase just for this reason, to make me untouchable and wanted. It had worked.

I opened my eyes and looked up to the sky as a colder breeze came over the trees. I could smell the rain coming towards us and pulled my head back into the carriage. How ironic it would be to have rain on yet another sad day that would change my world forever,
I heard the first rain drops and suddenly felt sadness for my Knight and his new apprentice. They would be soaked, and with no other clothes to change into.

I hadn't even seen either of them pull on a cloak.

Quickly I leaned down and pulled out my chest, grabbing two extra cloaks I always kept just for this reason. That man up there had been with me since I could remember. I remembered him as an older child running around training as Nana taught me how to become a woman. As we grew older he became the only dear friend I had, and my protector.

I knocked on the wood and the carriage stopped. My Knight came to the door with a quizzical look and a tunic with wet drops forming on it. I handed him the two cloaks and bowed my head to him. He smiled and bowed his whole body putting on the cloak, handing one out of my sight and shutting the door.

I try to do my part to repay him as well.