3. in waiting

High above the smokestacks, a monster lies in wait. It's patient, watching the people below it passing like ants. It wondered if they knew just how fragile their lives were. Lights from torches flickered below, someone stumbled around drunkenly and the monster licked it's lips. It was so tempting to pounce, but it wasn't going to. Not yet. It was waiting for someone. There was a sign that the monster needed, but it wasn't sure quite what the sign was. It just knew that it would immediately know what the sign was when it saw the sign. It would know, and then it would feast.

... *...

Morana felt like if she rolled her eyes any further, she was going to explode. She was bored beyond belief, thinking of all the different things that she would rather do than be here right now.

She decided that list included dying.

That's how bad it was.

She wondered why older men always had to be so dull. They managed to make even talk of war sound like they were cultivating slugs, or something equally as boring. She wished that she was anywhere but here. She wished that her sisters were here again so that she could talk to them. They always kept her safe and made her feel understood and loved, but she knew that the people that truly loved her were dead. Her eldest brother was solely doing this based off of greed. He didn't care about her at all.

"So, princess." Her potential husband said, "are you as good in bed as they say?"

Morana resisted the urge to roll her eyes and giggled. She knew what her brother was going to say. He didn't want her to be of any substance. He wanted to be this ideal picture of a woman in order to get in good graces with this man. Meanwhile, she couldn't even remember his name.

"I don't know, my lord." She stared down at her wine. "I am but a ******," He practically salivated at this lie. She knew that he wouldn't find out this truth and she expected that it would stay that way. She would marry this man, but she would find a way to get as far away from him as soon as she could.

She was smart and fast and knew how to hide. She had learned these skills from the war that was tearing apart Althea and several more countries as well. Morana bit her lip, trying to seem more inticing to this man. He licked his lips. Meanwhile, she was trying her best not to throw up.

She dreamed of being somewhere safe, away from people that wanted her dead, away from men that wanted to use her. She knew that such a place was fictious, Morana would never find the type of place that she so desperately wanted to call her own.

Fantasy helped her cope though. Fantasy was the only thing that she could use to keep her sane in the moment.

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