Unknown to Renna, there were plenty of witnesses to the flying pig, she was safe on that account. Far greater danger lurked quite near to her.

Renna’s father was watching her from the house. His mind was troubled. Time was running out for her. He had had no luck finding anyone willing to marry her. Even widows of several wives with households in desperate need of a woman had refused him stating quite bluntly that they would like to live. He couldn’t blame them. But midsummer was approaching .This time, she was of age. They would need to take her away tonight.

She wouldn’t go alone, Tom, his youngest, would accompany her. They would need to try to make it on their own in the world. Letting her go like that scared him, but it would be too dangerous to wait any longer. Last year, it was a near miss. And she didn’t even know it - they had arranged it to look like an accident when she was away, but it would not work this time. Lord Aris had already decided that it was time to be rid of her and he sadly knew that most of the village approved.

Lord Aris was also watching from a hilltop nearby. He had accompanied his men to oversee the task at hand. Her brothers had been secured already. One by one, they could be subdued. Not easily, there were a few flattened noses among his men, but no fatalities and the brothers were alive as well, slightly bruised but safely tucked away in his dungeon. He would let them go after midsummer. They were valued in the community and hard workers. But their sister they insisted on protecting was a different story. And he did not like that kind of difference.

The man she had burned was his friend and guard captain. So he liked little girls a bit more than he should… they were worthless anyway. It would cause a riot to kill a kid, but she wasn’t a kid any more and this was a good cause. And nobody liked her much anyway. He felt rather happy with the way things turned out for him - she would burn too and he would be the good guy in the eyes of the villagers. Fate was a funny thing. His men should be at the farm by now.

Renna had just picked up a pitchfork to throw some hay in a goat enclosure when she saw movement in the corner of her eyes. It was automatic - the pitchfork went flying in the direction of the movement. Her family had learnt to not startle her so whoever it was, wasn’t family and was up to no good. There was a metallic clang and then scream - pitchfork had skidded on the man’s plate armor and then embedded itself in a crack between plates.

That was all she saw, because the next moment she was engulfed in darkness, bound and dragged away. She tried fighting but she had no chance against eight men. By the time her father got out of the house she was already on the back of a horse. She could hear his desperate yell. He was calling her name. She let out a breath and whispered to herself “Goodbye, Father…”

Lord Aris put her in the dungeon as well. There was still a week to mid summer and he had no intention of letting her get away this time. Besides, she had been a bit bruised by the capture. It would be better to let her heal. Dragon didn’t like bruised fruit. It had been rather angry and set fire to his castle, when Margarite had been served to him abused and barely conscious.

If this hadn’t been the case… He would have loved to strap that crazy bitch down and have his way with her for hours… Alas, this was an imperfect world. Good thing was, if she didn’t behave he could whip her brothers as much as he liked. So he was quite confident in getting her cooperation. With this in mind he headed for the dungeon to talk things over with her.

Renna found herself dumped unceremoniously on a hard stone floor. The sack and ropes were removed so she could look around in her new lodgings. It was a cell. A pallet with some old straw, a dirty blanket and a bucket in the corner. And iron bars up front. All light in the cell was coming from torches in the hallway. She had always had unusually good vision at night so the darkness didn’t botherer at all. She went up to the bars and looked out.

There were other cells. Almost all of them were occupied. Across the hallway, there seemed to be a young man looking back at her and her heart dropped to see it was her little brother Tom. He had a black eye and his clothes were torn. And he looked sad.

“I’m sorry, Ren.” he said, “we had a plan but he got to us first…” Tom wanted to be a traveling bard. Singing and legends were his passion. So for him, leaving with Renna for a life on the road was just the logical next step.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Are you okay, Ren?”, came another familiar voice down the hall. Jack, her oldest brother, was here too.

“Lord Aris is going to regret this…” stated a burly voice from the cell next to Renna. Ben. Ben was the village smith and very strong. Someone was hurting right now.

“Careful, Ben, walls have ears…” came further down the hall. Aron. Aron wanted to be a scholar. He was leaving soon to study in a monastery far away anyway. He had planned to leave with Renna and Tom tonight. He had been in town getting his supplies when he was rushed by the ruling lord’s men. Much of the same had happened with other brothers. Except Ben. They had come to his smithy and told him Lord needed him to shoe a horse at the castle. They had lured him there and then jumped on him.

Renna was furious - they had known that the Lord was eyeing her for this year’s sacrifice and not told her before. But she also felt moved that her brothers really cared for her.

“I'm fine, Jack,” she assured him. She knew that if she was to be sacrificed she was safe, until the dragon snacked on her anyway. But the same wasn’t true for her brothers.

As if on cue Lord Aris arrived and walked straight up to her cell. Renna took a step back, out of his immediate reach. Lord had a reputation too. His dungeons were not a place a woman would escape untouched.

He looked at her and sneered, “Too bad you are promised to the dragon, I would really like to enjoy you. Lucky for you I like my castle unburned more than some fleeting fun using your body.”

Renna remained silent, but there was murder in her eyes.

Lord continued, “I don’t like that look. Let’s get one thing clear - I can’t touch you but I CAN do whatever I feel like doing to your brothers. If you want them to walk out of this dungeon after midsummer you will be on your best behavior, you will not fight anyone, you will eat your meals, you will cooperate with preparations of your sacrifice and you will go out there like a good girl and be a good snack.”

He hammered his words in with a steel gaze.

“Do we have an understanding?”, he demanded.

Renna hung her head.

“Well?”, he demanded again.

Her mind was racing. She was out of options. Maybe - this was to be her fate from the start. She had always had mixed feelings about that beast. She knew she was supposed to be afraid of it. But the fear never came. It felt more like longing whenever she saw the beast gliding above. And envy. Definitely envy. And those were strange things to feel about a monster in the sky who stole cattle. And she loved her brothers. Maybe it wasn’t that bad of an end. Her brothers couldn’t protect her forever, the village was not accepting her, not after what she had done… This way, she would at least have a purpose.

She looked up with determination in her eyes, “I agree, but only if you promise to do nothing to my brothers. Not now and not later.”

“Very well. You understand though, that they will need to stay here until the event is over, right? Think of it this way - you will have company.” he replied.

“Will you allow me to say goodbye to my father?” she asked.

“If your behavior is good, I might right before the event,” he replied with malice in his voice.

Renna nodded. The man hated her, he would deny her out of spite. But her brothers would be there and able to pass on what she had to say. Somehow, she felt calm. Her life had a direction now. No ambiguity of the morning when she was tending to pigs was left. Her life was set on a course that was rather firm. And short. But that was fine. It was at least likely to be free of surprises.

Lord left and for a moment there was silence. Then all of her brothers tried to say something at once yelling over each other so she could not understand a word. She waited, until they quieted down.

Then she said quietly, “It’s alright… I've always wondered what my purpose is. Now I know.”

She smiled grimly, “But if that bastard goes back on his word and does not let you go unharmed, I will come back from hell if I have to and torch this place to the ground.”

Her brothers knew her well enough to respect her resolve. The days left passed, they just spoke of good memories and past days and what the brothers would do when they left this place. She listened. She had not much to say about her future. It was already written, but she loved hearing her brothers. They would live on for her too.

But her mind kept gravitating back to thinking how fate indeed was a funny thing.