It Is You I Have Loved

Chapter 22

Vaggie spent a large amount of time scouting the area, determined to make sure that danger wasn't close by. When all appeared to be safe, she went back to the camp. Suddenly she heard the sound of something heading in the same direction she was going in. The figure was moving quietly, careful of it's steps, as if it was attempting to sneak up on someone. Vaggie suspected danger so she quickly crept up to the figure and pounced on it.

"Hey! Ow!" It was Angel she had tackled. "What was that for?"

"Oops. Sorry Angel." Vaggie got off of him immediately. "I thought you were a robber or something. What are you doing sneaking around the camp?"

"I wasn't sneaking. I had just come back from bathing and I figured that Al and the princess were asleep by now. I was trying not to wake them."

"Oh."

"Sheesh, paranoid much?" He said standing up.

"Old habits die hard." She said. "When you spend sixteen years constantly going up against knights, it sticks with you for awhile."

"Yeah Charlie told me about that. The collar."

Vaggie rubbed her neck which bore a scar from the metal brace.

"It all feels like a bad dream." She said. "I can't remember any of it but it comes back in terrible images."

"Is there anything you do remember clearly?" Angel asked. "That is if you even want to tell me."

"I remember my life before that damnable collar. I never knew my father, my kind mates for breeding purposes only and it is the females who raise the young. My mother and I were very close.   In fact she's was the only person I ever had. I had hoped that she would always be there for me but she took ill when I was still young and she eventually died. I wasn't on my for long though, one day I was captured by King Lucifer's men. They were looking for a dreaded beast to guard Charlie."

"Why did they choose you? Why not choose a dragon or something like that?"

"King Lucifer wanted something dangerous but also capable of looking after Charlie. I could grow and shrink so I would be able to enter her tower to bring her food, water, and other necessities. I fought back but I could do nothing against four men at my average size and before I could grow any bigger, Lucifer constricted that brace right on to my throat. Everything turned dark and was only partially aware of things. I had gone completely primal."

She felt a sharp pain in her mind as she tried to remember.

"You can't imagine how horrible it feels to spend so many years living in a nightmare where you uncontrollably kill and consume people like a monster only to wake up to find that nightmare was real all along."

She fell to her knees, clutching her head.

"I didn't mean to kill those men, really I didn't. And I didn't mean to keep Charlie locked up for so long but...But God forgive me, I couldn't help myself! No matter how loud my mind screamed, my body just wouldn't listen!"

Her good eye began to shed tears. She hated to cry, especially in front of others. It made her feel so weak and pathetic.

But Angel didn't think of her as weak or pathetic. As he watched her cry he felt very angry and empathetic to her situation. He may not have had his mind altered to a primitive state but he knew exactly how it felt to be forcibly taken and used against your will. To be treated like some tool for labor instead of a living creature with feelings.

"The bastards." He cursed.

Vaggie  looked toward him.