Tribute - Bride for the King of seas

Personal work
"...They arrived earlier than we thought. It had been a couple of years since the last tribute. Yet there they were, on our doorstep, demanding the next pay. Perhaps the king had become greedier, his tastes - viler, or the last poor soul had just passed away.
The collector stood proudly in the street with the king's scroll in his arms, proclaiming of another shameful toll. He was surrounded by the brutes, his bodyguards and enforcers. Behind them there were servants, run-down and burdened by the years in servitude..."