Tujuheim 180

I submerged myself in the warm water the maids poured into the bathtub with a sigh. Despite being terrified, I couldn’t help but enjoy the bath thoroughly. Eight years of filth melted off me and I relaxed for a moment. The things I had always taken for granted before I was captured... This bath was bliss.

I wondered, for a moment, why no mothmen had come to rescue me. Caerwyn told me my species had been virtually exterminated, but that was just four years ago. Why had they not come in any of the four years before they had been killed? Did they really not care enough to come get me? Was I just another daughter to my father who was married to many women and had fourteen children with?

I cried stupidly and pitied myself endlessly. I should be weeping for my people, not myself, but here I was, being a selfish girl, as usual.

I climbed out of the bath after a moment with pathetic tears rolling down my cheeks and grabbed the rag left behind by the maids, drying myself bitterly.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Caerwyn asked, “may I come in?”

I was in my fifteen-year-old, moth girl mindset. It was not shameful or embarrassing for anyone to see moths under the age of eighteen bathing in my culture. I turned toward the door and called, “come in!”

Caerwyn opened the door, carrying a plate of food and was thoroughly embarrassed to see me naked. “I am sorry, Princess! I-I shall leave your dinner on the floor!”

He placed the food on the floor and ran out. I blinked twice, unashamed, and then sat on the floor and stuffed my face like pig with the human food.

“This is so good!” I said to myself.

Moths only ate fruits and vegetables; we didn’t eat things like cheeses and meats. I stopped eating for a moment and wondered whether it was okay to be eating such things in my religion. Daddy told me certain foods were off-limits, but I couldn’t remember which. Being my normal, careless and passionless self, however, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I ate the whole plate and then tucked myself under the blankets and hardly slept a wink. The fear of being found out pervaded my thoughts ceaselessly.

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Cloudy sunlight seeped in through the open window and awakened me. I nervously hopped out of bed and quickly put on the filthy dress I had been wearing for the past eight years, and then slipped on the cloak Terry had given me—fastening it closely about my neck to hide my face—and lastly, I dashed out the door and knocked on Caerwyn’s until he opened it while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Let’s go, Caerwyn, I’m scared…” I begged fearfully.

“Alright; I’ll get Terry.” He told me and closed the door.

I waited outside, tapping my heeled foot nervously.

My heart dropped in terror when I saw the land lord walking up the stairs along with two men dressed in armor and carrying spears. They must have been the town guards. I hurriedly walked back to my door when the land lord addressed me.

“What are you doing up so early, miss?” The land lord asked me before I could open the door.

“I am eager to be going, sir.” I told him earnestly.

“Why should you be?” The man asked curiously. “There’s plenty of fun for such a beautiful like you to have in an inn like this. Unless your face tells me something else…”

I opened the door to my room with trembling hands and locked it from the inside.

“Do you think I’m stupid? I don’t know why those templars are harboring you, but you must be an escaped moth slave to be hiding your face like that.” The land lord said through my door.

I knocked on the wall of my room that was joined by Caerwyn’s with tears in my eyes. “Caerwyn help me! Please hurry!”

The armored men broke the door down and one of them seized my arm roughly.

“Help me, please!” I screamed as my hood fell backwards and revealed my face.

The armored man tied my wrists together with rope and was hauling me away. I tearfully cried out for the templar again, and then suddenly, my captor fell over and Caerwyn stood behind him with his sword in hand.

Terry was fighting the other armored man in the hall—and losing—but Caerwyn joined him in a moment and the two easily overcame the armored guard and knocked him out.

The land lord was already running down the stairs and Caerwyn turned to me sternly and said, “put your hood back up; he’s going to get more guards. Let’s get out of here.”