Westward

Chapter 4

////Heyyy! This is probably the worst chapter I have down so sorry not sorry! But why the heck to you continue this story? Like....why????? So confused?????////

There were footsteps. The madman strode in, hair sticking straight up like the grasses. His tan cheeks were being sucked into a puckered frown. Aowyn hugged her wounded hands closer and scowled up at the man, for it was all she could do. No insults would help anything.

The board had fallen off her lap hours ago and she didn't want to try to pick it up again because her hands still leaked. The cloth though, was only soaked on the bottom. Near the top, it was wrinkled and bloody but stiff and dry.
He kicked at the reddened board and crossed his fat arms, peering towards the door. Aowyn watched his movements warily until she heard more footsteps. She winced, wishing for the thousandth time in her head that that iron ring was gone.
A girl walked in. She was curvy and had flaming red hair that spiraled down to mid-back in beautiful, perfect ringlets. A jutting out jaw; warior-like, and bright, big fawn brown eyes. Her bodice was scarlet in color that clashed with her hair in a strangely beautiful way. The girl pursed her full lips and gave a smile that was evidently supposed to be kind but seemed only there to hide a wicked grin that lay beneath.
Aowyn's chest and stomach tightened as the scarlet girl came towards her in small, balanced steps. Staring, wide eyed, Aowyn tucked in her injured hands and scooted her legs inward, bringing lips into a tight line. Do not have fear. They can smell it. That's what all the people said about dogs and wolves and this scarlet girl could be either, the way she stared...
"I think she will be good. Thank you for your precautions." Her voice was confident but quiet, a slight French accent spiced up her words and gave it a saucy flair. A curl swung in front of her face as the girl turned to face her captor by the doorway. She said this with gumption and extra-animated lips as her eyes met Aowyn's hardly scabbed hands at the word "precautions." The man gripped the door handle an with indirect eyes he started,
"It was a bit of trouble but with a bit of persuasion it will most definitely do your bidding. I will send you a guard in case of trouble but-"
"Oh stop blathering on." The scarlet girl snapped while tucking away a curl. Aowyn turned wide eyes back to the man, expecting an equally nasty remark but only relpied with a stiff, mouth parted, nod before swinging the door shut. A bit of dust fell from the ceiling in his wake.
Did that man call her it? Inside, Aowyn was aghast. The girl stood above her, hands on hips, leaning down at a right angle. Aowyn stared ahead and then suddenly snapped her head up into the girl's face, teeth bared like a wild animal and an extra melodramatic hiss. Teeth barely missing her nose the scarlet girl swung upright again, hands slipping off waist. The scarlet girl sneered, to hide the surprise and turned in a full circle, like a bewildered dog, before facing Aowyn again and looking down her nose.
"And with that note," the girl spat, rocking sideways on her heels, nostrils flared. "We will start with introductions before I give you my task." Aowyn snarled and gripped hands tighter which made her cringe.
"There." The girl pointed. "A bit of humanity is shown. So your not the immortal, beast you make yourself look like." What? Is this girl insane?
"A bit of humanity?" Is being tricked, seperated, captured, and injured not enough to prove I am human?" This is the first time Aowyn had spoken in two days and it felt good. Like courage had suddenly been swept through her. Then as soon as it had come, the courage dissapeared. The girl unbuckled a simple silver sheath and laid it carefully on the ground, out of Aowyn's reach. A simpering smile blossomed on her plump lips.
"Yes, yes, yes. I understand how you feel but, we shan't argue about such a silly thing. You are mine after all." Aowyn bit back a nasty retort.
Suddenly there came a swift knock of two. The scarlet girl made her lips into a dainty O and turned her head, gracefully sauntering toward the door. She cracked it open and smiled that wickedly courteous grin.
"Oh, come in. We are indeed having a bit of trouble and your services would be great help."
"Of course Madam Piper." The voice made Aowyn stop cringing in the corner. Was that possibly...? That would mean...? The stationed guard walked in. The same one. He had blonde hair that flipped up at his ears and a long, pale, face. What was his name? Like a bird...Jay.
Jay took position in the corner, the limp persisted. His face didn't give away anything in the slightest; acting like he didn't care about anything. Or maybe it wasn't an act.
Piper. That was the name of the scarlet girl. Piper kneeled on the floor in front of Aowyn.
"Glad to meet you. I understand that you are a Sarasonion. Correct? Now what is your name?" Aowyn jutted out her jaw and decided to correct this Piper.
"I am Thinourian and proud to be so. My name is Aowyn and I am not very glad to meet you." Icicles and brambles couldn't have been sharper in the way she felt these words on her tongue.
Piper clapped politely.
"My turn. My name is Piper. I am Narcian and am your owner. If you don't want the same gruesome marring to your feet as was done to your hands, I recommend not insulting or lying to your superiors." A sweet smile followed. "We found that gun in your possession which proved that you are in fact Sarasonian. I forgive you for being born into that family."
She fluttered her lashes as if she was flattered by her awn apology.
"Forgive me for being born... This is insane." Aowyn scoffed.
"Yes. When they caught you it was the plan to torture you for information. This is in the schedule somwhere but for now, you are my pet."
Pet. She wondered what that entails.
Aowyn glanced at the guard. He looked the same, he didn't give a thing of his thoughts away. So still...
"Get up." Piper ordered, standing herself.
Aowyn blinked. "Get up?"
"Yes, yes. Come on." Her hair bounced with impatience. She sighed as Aowyn simply watched, wondering with a gruesome suspicion that somthing bloody would happen either way. Piper leaned down with a scowl etched on her face and picked up the knife with four fingers.
"First warning..." She sang, eyes widening with the urge of withheld anger.
"Maybe I don't want this one. She already got up to..." she breathed with a sigh, "second warning..." The tune almost sounded happy. Piper knelt, drawing the knife with such a dramatic flourish that it was clear this had been done before.
"Oh, wipe the fear from your little baby face. I won't kill you." She shrugged a shoulder slowly, indicating somthing wicked was to come. Aowyn spoke.
"What is this! Are you insane? I'm. Not. Sarasonion. Who the hell are-"
"Third warning..." Piper interupted, stroking the blade with the edge of her thumbnail. She puckered her lips and shot out her hand, it latched on her ankle.
"No, no, no, no..." Aowyn leaned farward, kicked, then almost reached Piper's hand before self preserving by remembering that touch would be torture.
"I'll stand! I'll stand! I swear! What the-" It morphed into a scream.
The calluses of her feet split open from her center toe to heel. The memory of the hands cuts felt minor compared to this. But things are always different in memory. Aowyn managed to kick out her foot from her petty grip and held it, howling but not before Piper took a swipe at her other foot, slicing the top. Piper leapt back watching curiously, like she didn't hear the bloodcurdling screams that struck the air.
"Stand." Piper murmured, entranced with the writhing girl. She snapped her fingers in a few moments after Aowyn ignored her. The guard came to life like a statute and marched around Piper, then snatching Aowyn's wrists and hefting her to her feet.
The agony of the soiled floor in each gash made her stumble from Jay's grasp and lean to the wall.
On her hands.
She cried out again and hobbled around on a single foot until the chain around her waist jerked back. The guard had taken position near the wall, his duty done, staring ahead waiting for further order.
Aowyn sobbed, forehead pressed flat against the wall. She tried to look at her hands. Tiny beads of blood had squeezed through the scabs and had smeared down the carved out paths. The cuts looked like rivers.
Rivers of blood.
These scars would last forever.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?" Aowyn gasped, words filled with horror and too much reality.
At home, in Thinour, everything was so level and scheduled. Nothing was as sudden, unexpected, painful... She felt so weak.
"Turn around." Piper commanded from behind, in an illustrious accent. Aowyn closed her eyes and realized with such sudden force that she had nothing to loose but her life.
She pivoted on the single foot, toes of the other scraping the floor. "Good girl." Piper cooed, raising her hand and touching each finger to Aowyn's lowered head, like a puppy bring insincerely praised. "Now dance. It doesn't have to be much." Stepping back, and confidenty jutting out her hip and crossing her arms. It made her seem stronger, bigger. Like how birds puffed out their feathers to frighten predators.
Aowyn was the one who needed to be frightening.
"No. I can't, and I wouldn't if I could." It came out as a whimper or plead. Not like the idealistic courage that it once had in every word she spoke- the deceptive impersonation of her mother.
"Really." Piper drawled. Aowyn looked up to see the reflection of a hellion in her eyes. Once so dewy eyed and filled with childish prettiness, now, looking at her seemed like it was punishment.
"Now maybe your not worth training. I have had many pets in the past and I have learned to be patient. They all start out like you." She swiped away an imaginary tear. "But I always know how to make them cooperate in the end."
Aowyn tried to turn that grimace into a sneer but, it was impossible to clear away all evidences of past pains.
"I. Will. Not. Dance for you." It came from the spaces between her teeth. Though she said it, Aowyn did not feel it. Why couldn't she simply entertain her for a while until she goes away? Piper must have spotted the indecision, dispite her forceful words.
"Come on..." Piper called, voice smooth and deceptively smiling. As if she was calling out to a stray dog. Aowyn had made her decision, based only on the tone of this girl.
She shook her head.
Piper knelt again, leaning farward as if Aowyn was a toddler who needed scolding. The knife was still to far away.
"I am a patient woman. Tomorrow is your next chance. And depending on how you do, possibly your last chance." Eyebrows raising just a little, Piper turned her head a fraction of a centimeter, continuing to stare though Aowyn's head.
"Until tomorrow!" She gave a tight lipped side smile and squinted, pushing herself to her feet with her thin-fingered hands. Aowyn drew back, half to look up again and half of surprise. Her expression must have been strange for, when Aowyn turned her head back, Piper started to giggle. A sharp yet tinkling laugh that rebounded through the room and made bumps sprout up from her arms.
Piper patted Aowyn on the head and sauntered towards the door.
"Farewell!" She grinned at her and tipped her chin towards the door, gesturing the guard to follow. He flipped around, not even daring to glance at Aowyn, following Piper with a skilled way of absent perfection. Piper and the guard dissapeared behind the doorframe of The Blue Prison.