Ma Neteyam

9

Vareya laid resting in her Marui, feeling exhausted and drained from last night.

It hurt to move, hurt to blink. Her eyes shut on their own and her body spasmed whenever she so much as breathed.

She doesn't understand how she managed to haul herself up into her hut when she was in the state she was in, but she did it. Used the last of her strength to climb up, her muscles aching, head pounding, and vision blurring.

Vareya collapsed the second she set foot inside and blacked out, that was the last thing she remembered. Now that's she's awake, the sun was peeking through the opening of her hut as it made its daily rise.

Shining brightly in her face, and while any other day she'd embrace it, right now she despised it. Yet as Vareya attempted to turn her head, her lungs felt compressed in her chest, making her breath escape her mouth with a loud gasp.

Memories of last night flooded her mind. The torture she endured was painful, but the healing process after was indescribable. Needless to say, Lengö and the rest of his gang of morons weren't pleased with the believed 'stunt' she had pulled on them.

They were confident she herself had brought him as backup, or perhaps a witness to prove to her uncle what they were doing to her.

So they made sure to leave Vareya as depleted as possible. They cut her first, some getting creative and carving drawings and cruel phrases on her skin.

She remembers screeching into a hand of one of the males in pain as they attempted to silence her. Especially when they forced her to heal herself.

Some say it's a gift, it sure sounds like one as well. The fact you can heal yourself after a minor cut or a more life threatening wound, it's an ability most only dream of having.

You can heal not only yourself but anything that breathes, anything that has a living soul.

However, no one comprehends the price that must be paid for such a curse. Just to mend a simple tear of the skin leaves her with a headache, mending several leaves her dazed and aching.

What they made her perform last night, left her on what felt like the brink of death. She tried to tell herself she was being dramatic, but that was the second worst pain she's ever experienced in her life.

The extent of the injury decides just how much is taken out of her. The smaller the wound, the lesser of pain. Yet when there are several injuries, or the harm caused is execrable, that's when the pain turns into pure unrelenting agony.

Makes it feel as if parts of her very soul were being torn and used to mend the broken, and it hurt.

They made sure to burn her, went as far as sticking an arrow though her foot and making her heal what they destroyed.

Over.

And over.

And over again.

Until she had nothing left to give. They left her there, snickering between themselves as if they had just done a deed Eywa would be proud of them for.

Lengö had stayed behind, placing a light kiss on her forehead as he whispered in her ear, " You did well Vareya, Kai would be proud."

She wanted to yell and sob at the same time, but she was struggling to breathe as she laid there helpless and defenseless against him, " Don't forget who you belong too."

A loud snap cracked through the morning, and she was snapped out of the prison of memories she almost locked herself into.

Vareya tried to sit up, but her arms gave out as she slumped back into her position. Another snap followed by a groan this time sent her ears upright, and she herself couldn't help but groan.