brave new world

She broke free from the constraints, but when she ran out there was nowhere to go. She stood on a mesa, and the steep sides were intimidating even from this angle. She felt completely lost. Those heinous men had taken her diadems, amusing themselves by mocking her with a parody of her royal life.

Overwhelmed with utter despair, she fell to her knees in the grass, crushing an agaves plant as she succumbed to her tears and began to sob hopelessly. How was it that she, Lilia, of noble blood, nearly related to the princess herself, could be here, in the company of such heretical... outsiders? She could not even return to face her world and suffer the ignominy from having been captured. She shuddered, gasping as she swallowed a sob.

"Oh, come now, are we really so terrible?" A deep voice resonated in her eardrums and she turned to see Ian, the most innocuous of the lot. Still, he was one of Them. She glared at him as she mentally recapitulated the events of the past day. He stared back, almost challenging. "Do you want to hit me? Would that make you feel better?" He picked up a flat, black rock of obsidian and offered it to her, smiling cordially. She paused, tempted, but turned away and he dropped the rock. There was a moment of silence as they sat. Ian was quiet; speculative, even. Lilia looked up at hi and said, portentously, "You kidnapped me."

"Nonsense," he said dismissively. "We saved you." She scoffed. He rolled his eyes and muttered a scatological comment that made her both blush and turn away in disgust. "Ah, our fair maiden is vestal," he remarked, noticing the slow creep of rose spreading to her face. She turned around, glowering, picked up the rock he had dropped earlier and chucked it at him furiously. He ducked, narrowly avoiding a sharp blow to the head, but smiled as she stood up and stormed off to nowhere.