So Enticing...

A short story of the fantasy genre.

What could be more enticing than the promise of safety and financial freedom? Of never having to worry about money, food, shelter, and having the chance at an education? What would you give for it? What would you sacrifice? Treely glanced at herself in the fine, gilded silver mirror before her, a look of doubt plastered on her strangely shaped face, with poorly suited makeup sitting on top like a cheap fresco. This was what she was doing. Securing for herself and any potential offspring, the promise of a better life, a good life.

She hated the outfit that her future mother-in-law had her crammed into. It was an impossibly ugly yellow affair made of a strange material, silk brocade, one of the attendants had proclaimed. And it came with a wide, round cage that hid beneath the long, cumbersome skirts, around the hips and legs. It clashed horribly with her natural mottled green and brown coloring, and they had done the lacing so tight on what they had called a corset that the seams and boning of the top garment dug into her flesh like shark’s teeth.

Treely had next to no hair on her head, being an orc, so rather than have it wrangled into some perverse attempt at a fashionable style, her soon-to-be mother-in-law had the seamstresses make a matching yellow bonnet and white veil that had to be shoved on top of her head. Wires used inside the fabric to help squeeze the hideous thing with its ruffles and dyed cocks’ feathers pressed into her skin, causing pain behind her ears. The wrinkles and ridges of her face were softened somewhat with a heavy layer of pale white powder, while rouge was applied to her cheeks and mixed with a paste for her lips. She looked beyond ridiculous. She had been around many humans, and never had she seen any of them dressed or made up in this fashion. It felt profoundly degrading.

Outside of the only home that she had ever known, her ‘new’ family was all gathered, waiting to escort her to the ceremony some miles away in a grand castle that they owned. These were all customs of their culture, she tried to remind herself, but it was all rather unnecessary. No one asked her or her father about any customs they might have or wish to observe. Treely sighed. Her groom was human, a spoiled popinjay whom she had been enticed to marry by both his father and her own. The two had made some deal together, and she was a mere pawn.

The marriage itself was a form of punishment for him. His name, Treely couldn’t quite remember due to her soon-to-be mother-in-law insisting on calling him her baby or her boy. However, this was an opportunity, as her aging father had told her, a chance at a better life for her. She initially thought that he was right. She thought perhaps the two of them would grow to be friends at least in time. His father insisted that they already shared common interests, such as hunting, fishing, reading, and chess. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a sacrifice after all. Or so she had originally thought. She didn’t care for the constrictive and hideous clothing, the pomp, and the overbearing mother-in-law who was constantly pretending to be on the verge of tears whenever she looked at Treely, and then was so quick to march into a rage if Treely spoke to her without invitation to do so.

She was already lamenting the loss of her four-roomed, dirt-floor hut, sleeveless linen shirts, loose-fitting breeches, and reading barrowed scrolls by the light of a single candle. The tantalizing promise of whole rooms full of books, real books, and of warmth, food, and peace from the warring chaos of the orcish tribes sounded so good up until this very moment. Her own father wasn’t even allowed to be there with her when she would meet her new husband for the first time, a man who was not keen to marry her in the first place. She was beginning to suspect that the price to pay for this supposed freedom was giving up her true self and real freedom.

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Thank you for reading! This was a writing prompt from my writing group, and while I do feel that it has its faults, I decided to share it anyway. Poor Treely.