Claimed by Khan by Remote_Operator

She’d lived within sight of the family home for all the sixteen summers of her life. There were a few travelling traders and some officials that occasionally came to through their valley, but most of her life it was just her, her father and three older brothers tolling away with this subsistence farming. It was all she knew and, for the most part she had been happy with her lot in life. Yes, there were harsh winters and hot summers, sometimes feast, often famine, but they world mostly left them alone and it did the same in return. That was until the day that the horde came. She’d been on the sunny hill side, tending their livestock when she saw the group of mounted soldiers appear at one of the ridge lines. Her father had always told her to run and hide when strangers appeared, but the sparse vegetation offered nowhere to shelter. She made a dash for a rocky outcrop to try and hide in one of its crevasses. She hoped she wasn’t seen, that the strangers had other interests and would ignore her and leave them be. This hope was quickly extinguished as she heard the roar of hooves come closer and closer until they were nearly atop her hiding place. She heard them stop and dismount yelling to each other with words she couldn’t understand. The creaking of leather and ting of metal hitting rocks were the sounds of their armor and swords as they searched for her.

She made herself as small as she could in the rocky hole, but they found her anyway and dragged her out by her foot. She defiantly fought back, thrashing her limbs and screaming, throwing fists at them but the men were too strong, and the group easily subdued her. Close up their faces looked different from the men of her family. They resembled one of the travelers from distant lands that had passed through a few summers ago.

The men scrutinised her then started to pull at her clothing. Their foreign words were lost on her but she recognised lust in their eyes. She was pinned to the ground then one of the men kneeled between her legs whilst the other two held her arms apart. The man starter to remove the armor around his groin. She struggled and yelled again breaking one hand free until the other man drew a dagger and placed it at her neck. She froze with the words of father running through her mind ‘survive at all costs, there nothing you can do dead’.

The men holding her arms jeered and started to tear at her clothing, exposing her breasts. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as she felt her under garments being wrenched from around her groin and strange hands fumbled between her thighs.

Another man appeared behind the solider that was between her legs. He yelled in their foreign tongue and the men immediately released her and stood up startled with a formal salute. She looked at the new man, ha;f dressed but still frozen in fear. He was scolding the other soldiers who now had their head bowed in deference. She assumed this man was their superior and the embellishments on his armor seemed to support this idea.

Once he had finished berating his men, her turned to her. He surveyed her, inspecting her body through the tears in the rags that had been her clothes and pushing aside her hair to inspect her face. She hoped that this man might be her saviour from these brutes, but he barked orders at the men and they bound her hands and gagged her. She was lifted onto one of their horses, riding in front of the soldiers like a child. The soldiers spurred their horses with the group riding up the hill and out the valley that had been her entire life.

They rode for hours, passing through burned out villages. There were soldiers looting homes and bodies on the ground. She could see flames and trails of smoke from distant farms on fire with farm animals running free. She’d never seem much of the world but was certain that this wasn’t its normal state.

It was close to darkness when they arrived at the enemy encampment. There were a village of tents, all various sizes, with many campfires and soldiers running errands. It was more people than she’d ever seen, all in the same dress uniform and ethnicity as her captors. The soldiers leered at her as she was led between their ranks. Some were injured and being tended to, others sat by the fire, exhausted and a distant look in their eyes. She was pulled by her restraints to one of the bigger and more ornate tents near the centre of the camp. Inside were several young girls bound to the tent poles. She was also secured with her hands above her head with her back to the pole and then left among the group of confused and distraught girls. She could do nothing but weep until an exhausted sleep took over her.

She awoke to a slap in the face. Startled, she looked around for the source of the assault and saw a tall older woman peering down at her. The woman brusquely inspecting her. She examined her body, scalp and teeth, as if she were livestock for sale at market. She spoke quickly in the foreign tongue to another women, who was taking notes. She removed the gag and spoke to her in a different language that she also didn’t understand. Then she spoke to her in her own language. “How old have you?” Her tone was harsh and not all the words made sense as she clearly wasn’t fluent, but it was enough for her to understand. “Sixteen” was all she replied. The woman spoke to the notary, conveying this foreign tongue and it was scribbled down. “You have husband. You have children?” questioned the woman. She decided not to answer this time, and this was rewarded by and even harsher slap. ”No, not married or children” she replied. “You know man?” came the old woman’s next question. “Which man?” was her reply as the question didn’t make sense. The woman looked at her puzzled by her response, then rephrased the question “Has a man known you?”. She thought for a minute and then it came to her, she means had she had sex.

She knew about animals and breeding; you couldn’t miss it on a farm. All the rutting and mating between the livestock. Her mother had passed when she was young and there weren’t other women to explain any nuances of sex and it was a taboo subject with her father. A match maker has visited the farm last summer and had commented on her beauty but also her defiant streek. She was independent and didn’t care for a husband to control her life. Her father was told had she’d be lucky to find any suitable suitor that would accept such a head strong girl. As the only woman around she suspected her father didn’t really want her to go and if she had to marry, she was more worried about the thought of leaving her home to have become part of her husband’s family. To get a good match she was told she should remain ‘pure like the snow’ so as not to be ‘known to another man’. It hadn’t made sense then or mattered much as there were not any eligible men around for consideration.

The woman raised her hand to strike her again. “No, I haven’t known a man” she replied. “When did you last bleed?” came the next question. This was a very personal question that she didn’t want to answer, it was her body and no other. The slap stung the whole side of her face. She wanted to stay silent, but the woman twisted her wrist within her restraint, inflicting agony on her and she relented. “Eleven days”. The woman’s eyes seemed to lite up at this statement and she conveyed this detail to the notary. She then passed onto the other girls in the tent, seeming to repeat the same questions and inspections also dishing out punishment for those that didn’t reply.

In the late afternoon, a solider came and led her to the largest tent at the centre of the camp. This tent was subdivided into smaller rooms, and she was left in one with a single cot that had a guard posted outside. Her hands were unbound but her legs were tied so she could only shuffle and she was given water and bowl of a meat stew. It had strange spices and a weird taste, but she was so famished she quickly ate it all.

A while later a small fat woman came and beckoned her to follow her. She shuffled after her and was led to another room with a large tub in the middle. The tub had warm water in it and petals on the surface. The fat women then started to pull, removing her restraints and tattered clothes. She started to resist but then realised the woman wanted her to bathe as she motioned for her to enter the tub of water. She disrobed and stepped into the tub. A cold splash in a mountain stream was her usual way of bathing and the immersion in the warm water was a delight after the cold night tied up in the tent. It soothed her muscles and removing the grime from her skin. The fat woman started to attend her, applying soap and washing her hair. There were floral fragrances with hints of unknown spices. Her nails were cleaned and filed, her hair was trimmed and combed.

All too soon it was over, and she was beckoned to get out of the water. She reluctantly did so and was then padded dry by the fat woman. She was given a long white robe to wear that parted at the front but no undergarments. She marvelled at the fabric, which was smooth and soft, nothing like the coarse textiles she normally wore and she admired its pristine white colour. There were embroidered flowers and designs in colourful arrangements. She’d never seen such a garment let alone worn one. She was instructed to sit and makeup was applied to her face. She was then given a cup to drink from with some sort of herbs in it. The liquid was strong with a bitter taste but warm and she drank most of it.

The tall old lady came into the room and spoke with the fat lady, conveying some instruction she didn’t understand, and the fat lady left. The old lady then turned her gaze to her, inspected the bathed and decorated girl. She spoke, in the incomprehensible language that these people used, almost as a comment to herself. Then she spoke to the girl in her native language. “You will do well for the Khan, it is a great honour”. A solider came in and bound one wrist and led her away to another room. As she walked, the world seemed to swim around her as her focus blurred. It was like when she has secretly taken several gulps drinks fathers rice wine but magnified a thousand time over.