Prince James looked nervously through the carriage window. A few hours ago the green plains of Oram had transformed into the thick coniferous forest of the northern frontier. The forest were foreboding with an uncountable number of large and ancient trees. The forest was so thick that little sunlight made it down to the road. For all Prince James knew, every shadow and dark place among the trees could be host to the barbarians who had been rampaging across the frontier.
James had just ascended to adulthood, which was the age of eighteen in the Kingdom of Oram. James' father, the King, had used the opportunity of the recent barbarian raids in the northern frontier to toughen up his son. The King was not pleased with his heir. James was timid and bookish. He was also rather frail looking. His body was pail and skinny. He had an effeminate face and large blue eyes. His red hair had grown over his ears, which was longer than Oramian men kept it. James preferred his books over martial matters and this infuriated the King. So, the King had sent Prince James with a contingent of soldiers to join the Oramian force guarding the North. Hopefully the hard life of a soldier would make a man out of Prince James.
James had dreaded this trip and had kept mainly to himself in his royal carriage. He wanted nothing to do with soldiers or barbarians. All James wanted was to read his books in peace. That peace, however, was short lived. As James was looking through the window he saw some movement in the trees. Soon after a loud horn blast broke through the air.
Large armored men descended upon the carriage and the soldiers around it. Prince James could hear clashing steel mixed in the amongst the sounds of the screams and shrieks of dying men. Suddenly the right door of the carriage was pulled upon and one of the Oramian soldiers looked inside. Prince James could see the terror in the man's eyes.
"Your Grace, you must leave at once! Escape through the doors to the left and hide in the forest. The Carriage driver is dead and we are being overwhelmed. You must not be captured!" The soldier yelled.
Prince James did not hesitate and sprang through the carriage doors. He bolted into the dark forest as quickly as his legs could carry him. He ran for a while and collapsed beneath a large tree. The forest was dark and tangled to such a degree that Prince James doubted if he could find his way back to the road. He could still here the sounds of battle in the distance. Maybe if he stayed hidden long enough the battle would end and he could slowly make his way back to the road. He then could head back south and get out of this horrible forest.
His thoughts of escape were suddenly cut short by the sound of heavy foot prints moving through the forest.
"I thought I saw the boy run this way." A gruff voice stated.
Prince James quickly put the large tree he had rested under between himself and the voice he had just heard. "Maybe they will not see me and go by me." James though to himself. He started to shake out of fear. The footsteps were coming closer.
"You better be right. The whole point of this ambush was to capture that little prince." Another voice snarled.
"We will find him. I am sure I saw him come this way." The first voice answered back confidently.
From what James was hearing, it sounded like there were only two the barbarians looking for him. James could not contain his curiosity and he stole a peak around the tree. Abut twenty yards away from him were two hulking barbarians. They had to be over six feet tall and were muscular. The barbarians had on studded leather armor and had axes strapped to their belts. Prince James knew that he had no chance of beating them in a fight. His only hope was to stay hidden and evade them.
James' chances of staying hidden evaporated when he realized that he had been staring for a little too long.
"Hey! I think a see someone behind that tree!" the second barbarian whispered excitedly.
Prince James, knowing that his cover was blown, decided that now was the time to run for it. He dashed away from the tree with all the speed that he could muster. He had not gone far before he heard a whirling sound behind him and all of a sudden he was face down on the forest floor.
James was sure that he was dead and quickly felt around his body for the fatal wound. He did not find a wound, but found that his legs were tied up by rope that had two lead weights on each end. Prince James frantically pulled at the rope, but he could not free his legs. In seconds the two barbarians were upon him.
"Well look what we have here!" The first barbarian exclaimed. Prince James noticed that he had a large skull tattoo on his shoulder.
"Great throw! I didn't think you would be able to get him." The second barbarian replied. The second barbarian had a large necklace made of bones around his neck.
Prince James looked on them in terror as they approached. He couldn't even find the breath to yell or scream.
"Now you stay right there and stop pulling at the ropes or we will hurt you badly." Skull ordered.
James heeded the order, but quickly began pleading with his savage captors.
"Please let me go! I am the crown prince of Oram. My father will pay you what ever you want! Just don't hurt me!"
The two barbarians erupted into laughter at his pleas.
"Boy, we will be well rewarded by our chief when we bring you to him." Bones said.
"You are a pretty boy." Skull said as he knelt next to the bound prince. He roughly lifted James' chin with a large dirty finger to better get a look at James' face. "Your skin is so smooth and pale. Your hair is longer than a man's and those eyes. . ." Skull looked up to Bones, "Do you think the boss would mind if we had a little fun with him first?"
"The chief only said to bring him back alive, I think that we can have a little fun and still have him alive for the chief." Bones replied with a sadistic grin.
"No!" James yelled "Please let me go! I will do anything just please let me go!" James sobbed as tears began to fill his eyes.
"Shut Up!" Skull yelled. Prince James went silent. "You are going to do everything we say. If you try to run, scream, or resist us we will break every bone in your body. Our chief wants you alive, but he didn't say that he needed you to be able to walk." Skull ordered gruffly. "For right now, little prince, we are going to make you our little princess. Do you know what that means?"
Prince James shook his head and the two savages erupted into laughter. "Well, if you are as much of a girl as you look then you may enjoy this too, but only if you listen" said Bones.
"Now I am going to untie you. If you run we will catch you and it won't end well for you. When you are untied, you will take off all of your clothes and we mean ALL of them."
James looked at the ground he could not believe that he was in the predicament. He could see no way out. He was going to have to play along for now. He nodded in agreement at the barbarian's orders.
