Half Dead

Waking Pain

Her memories were always there every time she drew she would draw her mother at first she would be alive but when Ace looked back down at the paper she saw her mother as she had died. She never meant to draw but sometimes her writing utensil found it's way onto blank paper and her hand moved on it's own. There was no shortage of sadness for poor Ace. She had very few sleeps that weren't plagued by nightmares of her parents deaths. She woke up screaming loud enough to wake Fenris. Usually she wouldn't tell him anything but some days she would awake sobbing. On those days she would tell him all about her old life. She expected him to laugh at her but he listened silently nodding every once in awhile.

    "Your parents died because of bad people not because of you." He said when she told him it was her fault. Her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. She was afraid to fall asleep because she would have terrors in her dreams. Her braid hadn't been redone since being taken. Her fingernails were stained with dirt. She didn't wear shoes only fabric wrapped around her feet. The cloths were tattered and worn. Her cloak went down to her ankles, mud was plastered to the bottom of the thin clothing. Her pants were ragged and cut off in the middle of her thighs. Her shirt wasn't much better. It was a present from Merril on her twentieth birthday. She wore it everyday leaving holes the size of her fist in the fine white spider silk garment. She worked hard to keep under Denarius' radar. She helped the other slaves do their duties too. Little did she know the slaves reported this to Denarius in hopes he would give her less work. Her selflessness intrigued him beyond even his own knowledge.  Denarius knew she didn't like his attention so he rarely showed it to her. He watched her carefully, not ever wanting her to know he was interested in the way she acted. Ace knew someone was watching her, she just never wanted to know who was watching her. She had perfected her senses to be able to tell when someone was there. When she was younger she and Merril would play hide and seek. She knew when Merril was watching her so she always won...... Ace fell onto the stone floor.

      "Ugh! I'm so bored!" She moaned rolling her eyes. Fenris looked at her with an odd smile.

  "If you're bored go do something." He said messing with her hair. Ace swatted his hands away.

      "I want to go hunt. But I can't." She frowned. He chuckled at the face she made. Ace held her head in her hands and thought for a moment.

"I wonder if Denarius would let me...." She muttered. Fenris looked at her with increasing wonder.

  "You dislike your hair being messed with and yet you want to hunt?" He asked skeptically. She looked down.

    "My mum used to braid my hair. The day she died she had done it up for me. So I just keep it this way." She said smiling sadly.

"That's a good reason to leave it that way. I apologize but you're still an extraordinarily weird girl." He said trying to ease her pain..... After consulting Denarius and getting his approval Ace and Fenris when hunting. Meanwhile............