A star-speckled pup ran through the land, distressed and shy. All the uproar, what a scandal! Odin’s mate kidnapped, the heir of Sabertooth the culprit who’d stolen her! She couldn’t handle all the distress and yelling.
She knew it was naughty, to run away from her parents and Vhagar and Syrax. But she just needed some time to her own.
Her parents. Lähmer, who’d given Elsa her beautiful bloodline. She was a prisoner of Tarben. So, that meant Elsa was the daughter of a hostage. She was a prisoner herself. This made Elsa very self-conscious, and she worried that it would affect her life. Of course, she was already to be w h o r ed off. That was what happened to all the women of Tarben: And she was very powerless to stop being claimed herself.
THAT affected her life! Her father was the adopted son of the king; when she was very, very little Elsa had thought that she could be spared because of that, but no. Even his own daughters and granddaughters had been put up for any male to grab.
As she ventured into the Firefly Forest, she felt very woozy. Moments later, she was lost to anyone who might come by her.

“Someone like you . . . and all you know, and how you speak . . .”