Another Life

Chapter 1: Valine

A/N

So here it is finally! Hope it is good so far. Tell me what you think! :) hope you enjoy it.

LBCooper

Chapter 1: Valine

Even though Xenon wasn't at war we still had boot camps and drafts. You never knew when you'd need an army in this day and age. So, men and women could join the army, only if they met the requirments.

When I got into trouble my father would beat me and tell me that he'd send me away to the planet Anquitz, which was a planet we weren't exactly friendly with. They threatened us before but we never took them seriously. But my father was the military captian on Xenon. So, really it didn't matter if our planet was at war because my whole life was a battle against myself and my father.

Catain Weil was what you'd call the president of our planet. He ruled everything.

You'd think I'd be spoiled and like a prince. Wrong, all wrong. I'm more what you would call the unknown child. No one knew I existed. I have a twin sister. She was a princess and in every way treated as one.

She was perfect. When I was born with a strange birth mark on my forearm that was written in some language I didn't recognize. Apparently my parents had but they never told me what it meant. I eventually gave up on trying to find out.

I was to never leave the house unless it was in the middle of the night and kept everything covered. Especially the birth mark. My parents didn't want anyone knowing about me. I was their servant and every bit treated as a slave.

My sister and I were friends when we were younger but they started beating her and keeping us apart so she became hostile to me just like everyone else. Except the house maid didn't treat me any less of a person. She was nice to me and taught me to push all emotions away and to the very back of my mind.

Every beating I ever got just went on forever because my father wanted me to beg for mercy and cry like a little coward. I would never let him win so he would start the beatings until he was tired and would get one of the strongest gaurds to keep the beating going until I couldn't keep getting up anymore or I passed out from all the pain.

I had abandoned the tears from my face. Even when I was alone I'd never cry. I would just lay on the floor huddled up and sleep. It was the only time I was free but sometimes even in my dreams I was scum and unworthy.

I was a still a young boy by the time my father allowed me to leave the gates on my own. They made me wear a brown robe with a red strip running around the left sleave to show I belonged as a servant to the captain and his family.

One night as I was out walking around the market place and churches I ran into a small girl crying by The Tree. There were myths about how it was the place of death so people usually didn't venture over by The Tree. Only I had because I hoped the misery would just end my life.

I heard this sobbing and knew better than to approach it but my curiousity got the best of me and so I sought out this creature in pain.

I cleared my throat as I stood by this young girl that seemed to be around my own age. She didn't seem to be afraid. "Are you okay?" I asked still bowing my head so she wasn't able to see my face.

"Please just go away. I'm fine but if anyone finds you with me we'll both be killed." she said as a whisper that I had some how heard so clearly. I could feel her eyes on mine. I tried to move my head to look her in the eyes. That moment I regretted it. I couldn't walk away. She had red velvet eyes that seemed so sad and kind.

I bent down to comfort her. "I said leave." she said louder. I didn't move and neither did she. Not lashing out she just held herself closer together. Trying to close herself off from me and the rest of the world. I didn't know what happened but I reach out to pat her on the back.

"No one would miss me if I died so I'm not really worried about it," I said without thinking of something better to say. She just started crying even more. I stopped breathing and didn't move a muscle. I didn't know what to do. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to upset you more." telling her that I had hoped would get her to quit sobbing.

What an idiot for telling her something like that. "No one would miss me either." she said with a sniffle. Looking up to me she began to speak once more. "Why are you being nice to me? I may be young but I'm not stupid."

I stopped to think for a second. Why was I? No one had ever been nice or considerate to me. All I had ever known was being beaten. Sometimes random gaurds and people of the captain's gates would just come beat me because of something else that made them mad. I should be the one lashing out. To kill, to protect myself but all I could do was stand there and take it.

"I'm not quite sure. Maybe because you haven't tried hitting me or ordering my head to be cut off." thinking for another moment. "Everyone needs a caring hand and a friend around to help them keep living."

"But there is absolutely no reason for me to live here. All I'm good for is for people to use." she said as she flinched away from my touch as if I hadn't been touching her for the last couple of minutes.

"Will you allow me to be your friend?" I asked without really thinking about what that meant.

"Why I'm nothing. Filth and dirt. How can something like me be a friend. I don't even know the meaning of the word." she said with a frown and one last tear fell down her cheek and as I watched that last drop I saw that her eye was swollen and it was from more than weeping. She had been hit. Hard.

It made me flinch and want to cry for her. All I knew was beating and was okay with it but knowing that others were going through the same made me cry inside. I never broke my stone expression.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

She made a confused facial expression. "Umm..." she thought about it which broke my heart to know that she most likely had no idea if she even had a normal name. Even though I wasn't often called by my birth name I still had one. "I think it's Jacy..." she was so unsure of herself.

"Not many people call me by just one name. This is the only normal humane name I'm called that I can remember." Her face turned red from embarrassment.

"Well, Jacy I'm Valine." I said holding my hand out trying to offer her a gentle small hand to grasp. I felt so little in that moment that I blushed. She just looked at it. "I won't hurt you." I said when I realized she wasn't going to hold hers out as well. "I promise."

Jacy slowly lifted her hand to lay in mine. They both were so tiny compared to the rest of the world. Some reason I had always hoped they would grow strong and powerful and hopefully together. I wanted jacy and I to be best friends. But in that moment I knew we'd be inseperatable.