It is a sad fact of life that not every child will grow up. It is also a fact that causes that ache of regret to well up, that a child may grow up without knowing anybody that loved them. Love is such a huge thing that although we may have written countless stories and myths about it, the concept of such a thing is to much for a human mind to conceive. Some species can’t feel love how we explain it. To them, love is the simple act of caring for a person. Humans delve far deeper into it than necessary, and just conceive the wrong idea of the pure and simple element that is love.
For one child, love didn’t exist. Kimberlei Falanar Disconte didn’t love anybody, or anything. She had joy, she had emotions, feelings, but she did not understand the concept of love. Perhaps because she had never known her parents, as she was assured she must have, or because she had never been in close proximity to it, who knew? Whatever the case, she had not yet tasted the sweet and sour fruit named love, and she lived happily in Essyrn City. A simple street urchin, a thief in her later years that grew up rough and rugged, always different from the other children that roamed the streets. She had no reason to care about the people who had tried to take her in, believing that they felt, as she herself did, that the karma would help them in the afterbirth.
When once queried about her beliefs, and how she came about them, the young girl shrugged and told them that she had always believed in it. It was the same category as love, really. It could be there, or it could be not, a real thing or the simple product of a thing’s imagination. She had no morals beside this, which was why she kept stealing, enough to live and nothing more. It was of course, to good to last, as she fell into the rhythm. That was where she made her mistake; comfortable in the routine. A mage-trap, one she couldn’t sense, caught her, snapping her up in it’s hold.
Stealing was against the law, and sixteen years had taught her this. If you were caught you had a mage mark placed on you, and the third mark meant that they weren’t released the next day. No, they were given the choice between the slave market and the mines, both sure death in the next three years. She chose the mines, and when they were far enough out into the desert, escaped. The guards, lazy and uncaring, didn’t chase her far, and left her for dead. But she was a creature born from flames, although Kimmi herself did not know this, and she thrived easily in the heat, a predator. Her second mistake was made when she fell asleep in the shade of a cactus, near high noon, several days later.
She woke up bound tightly, thin chains pressing cruelly into her dark skin. A slaver, one who profited on stealing people and selling them leered at her, and for all her curses and struggling she stayed bound. Three lessons learned. First, mage-traps were to be treated with more caution, and rushing into things without probing was a bad idea. Second, falling asleep without setting up her own warning system or being right out in the open was a hideously bad idea. And three, if she ever came across a slaver free, she would kill him.
--
Around her neck was a thin metal band, poorly padded around the neck. Thin agile fingers played with it constantly as they traveled, in a wagon that allowed no sight to where they might be going. When they arrived, she was smuggled at night into the pen that held several others, so she still could not see where they were. Now she sat in the corner, drumming her long nails against it and scowling. Kimmi had been watching, waiting, testing for the whole day, and the feeble light that slipped in through the slates of the old shack told her that it was nearing sunset. She could escape, and damn it, she would. Hah, like they could keep her locked up like this. She was an escape artist, if someone would just let a whole open for her worm out. Fingers idly scratching at the top of her spine, where they had neglected to pad under the collar she idly scanned the other slaves, taken illegally taken, she guessed. The looks and gazes were dull, cowardly. Well, no hope there… A puff of air escaped from between her lips, and she settled down to wait, restless.
Footsteps jolted awareness back into her. Not asleep, but conserving her energy, and she could sense them coming, just as she could sense the shifts in the humans around her moving. It was so odd, that she felt scorn for her own race. They were all so... Useless, whining, weak. She hated feeling any of those, and yet these creatures did it on a daily basis. At least once a day she asked herself if she really was one of these, and the face looking back in the shard of mirror she had found told her she must. She looked just like them, at least. The door creaked open, the jangle of a lock as it was set down, and she shot for the door as two men entered. Suddenly down her spine shocked, and in the moment she faltered, so close to the door, a heavy boot connected with her rib cage. Pain made her fall to the side, holding her side and clenching her teeth against the pain. But no noise escaped her, and the two men looked down at her, momentarily intrigued.
'She didn' make ah sound.'
'Think she's mute?'
'Naw, that fool slaver, he woulda told us?'
'Well, maybe the jerk knew we wouldn't have paid him so well for her. Damnit, he'll pay for that one.'
She let the misconception there, soothing the pain as she played meek and hurt, until they turned to poke at another one. Then she was pushing off of the ground, shooting towards the door, in the doorway when the pain shocked her, dropping her as she couldn't help uttering a faint whine. She couldn't move, the collar weighed a ton and the pain was immobilizing her. But she carefully filtered the pain back, pushing it back as she focused on her surroundings. And her jaw dropped. She knew they had traveled pretty far, but it was so... Green. How did people live with it pressing so close around? And such a dark color, it was odd. The plants in the desert, while green, were always lighter. It was oppressing... And yet she wanted to touch it, for it looked cool, and a good place to hide.
Rough hands shoved her back inside, and the pain slowly faded, allowing her to lift her body.
'Stupid gixie, we ain't gonna let yer escape. Gods, stay still or we'll have more at ye.'
Her glare followed them out, and she knew that they would be watching her now.
The sunset slowly, and that was when they came for her. In a peaceful town it would be simple to hold an illegal slave trade, where the people who were interested could come in town for a few days, and then slip back out, with neatly forged documents saying that they were legal. It was a neat operation, and proved foolproof. In chain they were lead out and made it line up in the building, while people gathered to see what was going on and the bidding would start. Three people later, it was up to her. As she was roughly pushed to the dais and her teeth bared at the rough guard who did so, the auctioneer began to rattle off.
'A mute here, understands Common and is bright despite her slight disability, quick, all of her teeth. Roughly 17, strong and wild, you might have a little work on your hands taming her. She has a quite a spirit to her, and may need breaking in a little.'
She wasn't mute, but it gave a bad point on her record, and the numerous scars littering her body from the fights she had been spoke out. A growl rippled from her throat as she dive at the auctioneer, but a guard who was actual paying attention grabbed her, securing her to the dais as she fought, uselessly. Damn it, that was her last try for now. Hopefully, from the wary looks people were passing to each other, she would be to much for them to handle...
[[Meet Kimmi. ^^ I can change anything you want on it, if you wanted something different, whatever, I'll fix it up. Written in different moods, so it's a little ramble-y...
