You Are Made of Iron

Chapter IV pt. 3

Viljast grabbed his coat, said his goodbyes, and left. It was as simple as that.
​Silas stood up, went into the living room with the fireplace, and his trophies and weapons and sat down in the padded velvet chair. "Come here girl." Zeilla knew that he was about to do what she had been fervently dreading all night.
​She walked into the living room and got down on her hands and knees by his feet, "Master please don't kill me." Zeilla was so terrified that this only came out as a whisper.
​Silas Gruff groaned, "Zeilla, shut up about killing you! I'm not going to kill you!"
​"You-you're not?"
​"Zeilla," he stood up, "For all the time that you were gone, which was about three weeks, I realized that I actually enjoyed having you around. When I cooked it wasn't nearly as good as your cooking, when I made my own arrows they weren't nearly as straight, when I sharpened my sword it still had notches in it, and I could never entertain myself as well as you do when you try to duel with me. So, I am not going to kill you, but for that very reason I don't want you trying to escape anymore."
​"Then what are you going to do?" her timidity returning.
​""Zeilla, I am going to give you the worst beating of your life, and if you try to run away now while I'm beating you or any other time, I will do the same as I'm doing now every other day for two weeks."
​Zeilla nodded biting her lip, "H-how a-are you g-g-going to d-do th-that?"
​"I am going to use a weapon on you," he walked over to his weapons case, "now; I'm letting you decide what type of pain you want to endure and then I will inflict it upon you. So what do you choose? Bow and arrow, with which I will shoot at you and you won't know which shots will hit?" Zeillas eyes bugged out and she hurriedly shook her head, "Hmm, how about my sword, that would give you a few scars to think about." He could see that she was about to cry as she shook her head furiously a second time. "Well then," he picked up his club that he used to bash the animals on the head killing them. All Zeilla could think about were the blood stains permanently coloring the previously brown wood, "It seems that this is all that is left, you haven't ever been beaten with a club before have you?"
​His words snapped Zeilla out of her stupor, "Master please, I'm sorry! I won't ever run away again! Forgive me, please!"
​"Zeilla, those are the exact same words you used last time, and what did I get from trusting your word? You ran away again." If Zeilla had been in snide comment mode then she might have pointed out that he had beaten her then too, but she was too terrified.
​"I promise this time! Master I'll never run away again, please! Mercy!" she fell to her knees and looked down at his feet as two hopeless tears blurred her vision and then dropped on his boots. That was when the first blow struck. It hit the scared girl in the shoulder and knocked her on to the floorboards. She put a hand on her bleeding upper arm to stifle the bleeding, so that Silas wouldn't have to clean up as much of her blood while she was sleeping. The second hit thumped her in the cheekbone, Zeilla could tell that her master was holding back, if he hadn't then that strike would have crushed her skull. The third time she was struck it was in the chest and she had the wind knocked out of her, she found herself gasping for breath as Silas struck her again in the leg.
​Be strong, she told herself, you can be strong. Don't scream, don't whimper, and do not make a sound. Bear the pain. She was about to curl into a ball to prevent her face or torso getting hit again when her master landed a blow on her ribs and she felt something crunch. It was then that she started screaming.