Pale skin and sandy brown hair stuck out of the mud. Her face had been beautiful once, the edges of her lips had been torn, her face sliced from hairline to jaw.
Handfuls of hair had been ripped out leaving her scalp bloody and bare. Her naked body had been half consumed by mud and animals alike. Bite marks littered her body near as much as freckles. Blood poured from the torn remnants of the left breast in slow rhythmic pumps.
stained teeth ripped through bone and flesh until powerful jaws claimed her heart and a river of red ran down its chin as blood trickled down the back of its throat.
The boy awoke in silence, his eyes were wide and tears streamed down his face yet his lips did not quiver and his face was as hard and rigid as stone.
Mud surrounded him, only a damp canvas mat protected what little of him wasn't soaked from the filthy water that filled the bottom of the hole. It was hard to see in the darkness but cracks of light shone through the wood above him.
Men sung foreign songs in a tongue he understood. Water trickled from the mud walls and down into the little pool slowly forming underneath Kain's feet.
"Help!" Kain's voice was weak but soon enough a man came over to his hole and lifted the lid.
"What do you want, boy?" Blinding light forced its way into the tiny crevice.
"Let me out… please" Kain made an effort to stand but both knees gave out.
"If we were going to let you out just like that we wouldn't have put you in would we" the lid slammed into the found kicking mud down onto Kain's face.
Only his soaked underclothes were left to him. The mud walls leaked dirty brown water and gushed when his fist pushed into it. Another fist and a bare foot dug into the side only for him to land hard onto the wet canvas.
The men sang so merrily and danced so hard more and more water began to sleep into his cell. Kain sat cross legged staring up at the wooden trapdoor as the men partied above.
"Oh Lilah, oh Lilah girl with the ring!" the men shouted as they sang.
Their boots stomped on top of the lid and spilled cider through the cracks. Kain held out his tongue and a bitter droplet fell into his mouth.
"Have mercy on me, mercy please, my thoughts were just a fling!" their relentless singing pained the boys ears.
For hours Kain sat, waiting as they roared the same song over and over.
"Oh Lilah, oh Lilah the girl with lips all crimson men's eyes did falter right down to her bosom" mud and water seeped around Kain's toes as they pressed hard into the wall.
A fall twice his height waited for him to slip, the bottom of the filthy hole had flooded with water not far from the colour of the walls.
"Oh Lilah, oh Lilah girl with a knife in her left and my knob in her right. Oh half a crown would have saved my shaft if only it were for another night" Kain's teeth gritted as he held himself at the very end.
Half rotted oak splintered slightly as the boy's arm threw it into the air. He scrambled out of the hole, almost falling as he clutched the edge.
Near thirty men stopped their dancing and turned to him. They laughed as he pulled himself out of the hole and stood amongst them.
Kain scrambled to his feet and froze where he stood.
"I don't suppose you'll let me go" he gives an awkward smile.
"Get back in your hole lad" a large man set his cup on a barrel and met Kain in the muddy field.
A cleaver hung from the crude leatherbelt on his hip. Behind him a boy only a bit older than Kain sat rocking back and forth.
"No!" the boy shouted, pulling a chunk of brown hair from his scalp.
The red carving on his face seemed to bleed as he slammed into the barrel sending the cider toppling to the ground.
One of the men pinned him into the mud and forced his own belt into the boy's mouth all whilst he violently wailed.
"Scary! He's scary!" He screamed through the belt.
A man behind him was only a few steps forward from plunging a knife through Kain's shoulder blade but at the boy's words he slowly backed away.
"Don't!" The boy screamed as he's pushed into the mud.
Every man present seemed disheveled, rough spun rags and chipped weapons. Three of them had split Kain's armour and a fourth was bundled up under a wagon with the cloak wrapped around him.
"My armour" Kain growled with anger.
"Ours now even if you are scary" the tallest spoke through Kain's own helmet with a mocking tone.
Wrapped around his waist was a rope belt and Kain's sword. The sight made something bubble within the boy.
All of them had blue engravings across their faces apart from the one squalling on the floor.
"what was a little lad like yourself doing all the way out in that forest eh?" The slender bandit leaned against a barrel.
"Could ask you the same" Kain scanned their small camp.
Half rotted palisades shielded them from some of the elements but rain still pattered softly on the ground.
"Get back in the hole boy" a pig-like man stepped forward, club in hand.
"We will only ransom you off to your father" the tall one coughed through the helmet.
"Been ages since we had a lordling" some rat-faced oaf Kain thought.
'they think me a lord's son' it had taken everything he had not to laugh.
Kain slowly walked to the edge of the hole. It had filled just enough to soak his feet, looking back up to the group of bandits he jumped down.
'They'll set a guard to watch me but they've all been drinking so maybe I can escape tonight' his toes began to ache in the water.
Hours slowly crept past at a snail's pace and yet the sound of men partying didn't dwindle. Water trickled down the mud wall a little faster and a piece of mud fell before he heard the sound.