Stone

Callie skimmed her hand through the water. She was so content here. It was peaceful and no one ever came here. She didn't think anyone even knew this little pool existed. It was hidden deep within the forest and very few people wanted to hike this far off the trails. She'd always had a good sense of direction, so she knew the trail was basically a straight line from the giant oak tree across the pond. Of course, in a forest this old nothing was ever a straight line, but she still always knew where the trail was. People were amazed at her sense of direction.

It was only here that she could truly think. It was only here that she could get away. She shifted slightly and winced. She should probably undo the bindings on her ribs and rebind them. She was fairly certain at least one of her ribs was cracked. Hopefully it would heal quickly, but then, that was never her experience. Double checking that she was alone, Callie began to unbutton her dress, doubling her hands up behind her to do so. She let the tattered garment fall to the ground and then began unbinding her ribs. 

Bruises of all colors covered her body: legs, belly, chest, butt, everywhere. Well, everywhere that was easily covered. He never touched her face or arms. Some were old and some were brand new, only hours old.

She heard a gasp. Eyes wide, she raised her head to see a man staring at her. He had come from the direction of the trail. Hastily, she tried to cover herself and grab for her dress at the same time when she suddenly slipped on a wet stone and fell into the pool, legs tangling with her dress. 

The pool was deep, how deep she did not know. She could not swim. She began thrashing and felt herself being pulled downward. 

Then suddenly her head was breaking the surface. A strong arm was wrapped around her waist, pulling her towards the shore. She tried breaking free, tried thrashing, but the arm clasped around her would not relent. Finally she gave in and just let him drag her to safety. 

Where she had fallen in was much deeper than the side where the man dragged her out. He was soaked to the skin, having just dropped his pack in order to go in after her. He brought her to shore and ignoring his wet clothes or her naked body, he dove back into the water. She frowned, wondering what he had lost. 

A few minutes later he was back with her dress. He carefully squeezed the excess water from it and set it down beside her.

"I have a blanket you can cover yourself in while your clothing dries. I'll start a fire, too. And then we'll talk about those bruises."

She pulled herself into a seated position, tucking her knees up to her chest on the wet stone as he draped a rough wool blanket around her shoulders, draping it for her. She had a feeling she could trust this man. Maybe...no, it was too much to hope that he would help her get away from her violent uncle. She could feel the soreness all over from the beatings. She knew it was only a matter of time before he finally got what he wanted. She watched as the man started a fire and placed her clothing beside it to dry, and finally rose from the stones beside the pool to move closer to the fire. He produced another blanket and, turning away, took his wet clothes off, wrapping himself in the blanket. After setting everything close to the fire, he sat down and looked at her expectantly.

She hesitated for a moment, then began to speak.

Faceless Men

I keep to the shadows, the hood of my cloak drawn as far forward as it can go, so that no one can see. It wouldn't do to scare the locals. Not yet, anyway. That will come. I bite back a giggle and pause to calm myself. 

This is my first mission. My first outing. The first time I'll... Well, I'll get to that. Tonight is a test. Now, all of the things that have been done to me, all of the evil, pain and torture will be tested. If I pass, I will live this way forever. My mission is clear. It screams within me.

Do not be seen. Do not draw attention to yourself. Return to your home. Do what is necessary. Cut all ties with the world.

Over and over those instructions were beaten into me. Over and over those instructions were made clear. After the fifth time I could recite them myself. But that is never enough. Not for them. I will be one of them. I will not fail in my mission. They will know. They are watching me now. I know it. I can feel their...eyes isn't the correct word. They have no visible eyes any longer. I will not fail my mission or I will die. I can never go back to the world of men. I am one of them. 

I slipped into the house. It was quiet. The fire burned low. It would go out before the night was over. Soft sounds came from behind the curtain in the back of the house. Soft snores and sighs. 

Her first. 

She was hugely pregnant. I would have frowned but where my mouth was it is blank. I am a creature of magic now. I had not known she was with child when I left all those months ago. Steeling myself, I said it was of no matter. None of it mattered. My knife sliced across her throat and then stabbed into her belly.

"Father?" A soft, sleepy voice. My sweet daughter. 

"Hush child, go back to sleep," I whispered as I moved closer to her bed, careful to keep my face in the shadows of my hood. Faster than a snake, before she could roll over or say anything further, my knife came down across her throat. 

It was over. Suddenly there were two of them beside me. Remember this. You are ours now. You have cut all ties. You are one of the great assassins. You are a Faceless Man.

Shadows

Stalking through the shadows, Alith watched her prey settle beside the fire, wrapping a dark green cloak around itself. Her eyes narrowed. She couldn't believe that Tiara was taking off on her like this. Leaving her behind. 

She moved through the underbrush as silently as a cat, placing each foot carefully so she would avoid stepping on a tell-tale stick and snapping it in half. The shadows were wrapped around her. They were silent now though sometimes they'd whisper to her information from far off places. Only when she bade them to, however. 

Alith smiled as she stepped into the camp. Tiara wouldn't even see her. The shadows would hide her. No matter that Tiara could wield the shadows, too. She was fast asleep and Alith had command of them. 

She stepped closer to the fire and suddenly was flying backwards, slamming into the trunk of the nearest tree. Tiara rose from her place beside the fire and stalked towards her. The hood of her cloak was up, but pushed back enough that Alith could make out Tiara's pale face, a hint of her white hair, and her gold flecked, green eyes. The gold flecks danced in anger. Alith couldn't move. She tried to release herself from the shadow bonds which pinned her there. And couldn't.

"I told you to remain behind. You have duties here which you can not shirk. You are not strong enough to join me. This is my task. And my task alone."

Alith frowned. "I am strong enough. I can guard you while you sleep, because even the mighty Tiara must close her eyes every now and then. The elves will take care of things around here. I am not needed."

"Perhaps..." Tiara paused, hesitating, then her face grew firm again. "Absolutely not. I go alone. It is the only way I can do what needs to be done. If you are with me, you will distract me. I will spend my time worrying about you. You are not enough of a master at weaving the shadows as you think. See how easily I hold you?"

Alith's brow furrowed, her frown growing sharper, her dark eyes flashing with anger. "You can teach me more as we travel. I can help you!"

"I don't have time to teach you. I must move swiftly. Besides, there's not much more you can learn from me. You are no longer my apprentice, Alith. You are not yet a master but can no longer be an apprentice. My time of teaching is done. Only I can enter the Waste and scout the Lair and return. If you come along, you will die. I will not have that on my conscience. Not one bit. I am leaving now. Nothing will harm you here. If you follow me again, I will kill you." Tiara's voice was hard. There was no denying that Tiara meant exactly what she said.

Alith's bonds tightened slightly and she watched in growing horror as the shadows wove themselves into knots so tight and so intricate that she didn't think she'd ever get loose. Suddenly the tightening ended, the bonds were complete. When she looked up, Tiara was gone into the night. Shivering slightly at the thought of what Tiara could have done instead, Alith set to work trying to untie the knots. She would not follow Tiara, and she knew that she also would never forgive the woman for this humiliation.

Memory

She stood there naked, staring into the mirror, disregarding the cold chill in the air. How could it be so cold here? Ten miles to the north it was hot, so hot you felt like your blood was boiling. She stared at her red skin. How long had she lain in that sun for her skin to turn so red? It was fading. She was told it was much worse. Aloe had been applied to her entire body, warm baths to try to draw some of the heat out. At least her skin no longer hurt when she touched something. The Healer had been able to take away the pain, albeit several days after she was initially found. It was really only the front of her that was burned. Her back was pale, almost a pasty white. She was told that was her normal skin tone. She was told she was not from here. From Aragar. 

Slowly, almost reluctantly her eyes studied her reflection. She studied the way her hip bones jutted, the ribs she could see beneath her skin. Her breasts were small, almost shriveled. She was gaunt, starved. She stared at her hands, long, thin fingers, bony wrists. She looked like Death walking. 

She was told she was lucky to have survived. She was told she'd been missing for thirteen years. Beyond the gauntness and the sunburn, there was not a mark on her. The Healer told her she had broken a leg at some point in the past and fractured some ribs, but they had all healed well. The Healer told her she had borne a child, too. 

A child. She couldn't remember that. One would think she'd remember carrying a child in her womb for nine months and birthing him or her. One would think she'd remember whether it was a boy or a girl. Who its father was. She was told she had never married. 

They didn't tell her much beyond those basics. They wanted her memories to come back on their own. With a sigh, she finally lifted her eyes to study her face. 

Her hair was as white as snow. She was told it had always been that way, it was not a result of age (for she was not yet in her middle years) and it was not a result of whatever happened to her in the Waste. The Waste. Everyone shuddered when they spoke of it. They feared it, they hated it, they protected against the creature's in it. She knew inside that she should fear it too, but she couldn't bring herself to. She felt like she knew no fear. That whatever had happened to her over the last thirteen years had wiped away any traces of things to fear. 

She studied her sunken cheekbones, already filling out a bit from the regular meals. Her lips were a pale pink, her nose of average size and shape, maybe a tiny bit crooked. The Healer said it had probably been broken three or four times at least. 

It was the eyes that she kept trying to avoid. Finally she met them. Emerald green with tiny gold flecks in them. She was told that once those flecks danced when she spoke, laughed or fought. But now they were dead. 

Like her memory. Like her. 

She had to fight it. She was told she was a fighter once upon a time. As she studied her eyes, she spotted a few of the flecks begin to move as she thought about fighting to find out about herself, about her past. Slowly, she smiled. 

She would regain her memory. That was the only thing that would explain who she was. That was the only thing that would make her eyes dance again. That was the only thing that would explain the two separate bundles of....something that were in the back of her head. They pulled at her, tugged her in different directions. 

Memory. One never realizes how important one's memories are until they are lost. 

Monsters

"Where are your parents, little one?" the ebony skinned elf asked. 

Jenetia's lower lip trembled as she looked up at her. There was something frightening about the elf, but also something comforting. She reminded her of her own mother. Moving a little closer, the young elf tucked a few stray strands of blonde hair behind her ear and bit her lip. "The dr-dr-dragons took them. Took everyone: mama, daddy, my brother..." She bit her lip harder, drawing blood, and cast her gaze down to the floor.

The dark elf reached down and scooped Jenetia up into a hug, holding her tight as she wept. Awkwardly, the dark elf patted the child's back and made soothing noises that she'd heard other mothers make. Not her own mother of course, dark elf children are never comforted as a rule. 

"You can stay here with me, child. But you must be brave and strong and someday maybe we'll find that nasty dragon and slay it." The promise was empty, but Jenetia was just a child, she wouldn't pick up on that. Oh dear, what will Jace think? I can hear him now "another stray, Elizarath?" Nothing to it but to follow through now. 

And so Jenetia found herself whisked away to Elizarath's apartments. Within days she was calling the dark elf "mama". Elizarath was often gone, but the apartments boasted of a magical security system which kept her safe. 

----------------------------

A few months after Elizarath took her in, Jenetia woke in the middle of the night to a strange noise, coming inexplicably from under her bed. She frowned. Months under the care of her new mother had taught her to be tough and even fearless, though dreams of the dragons who killed her family still haunted her.

"Who's under my bed?" she asked, fearlessly.

The noises ceased. Then a soft moaning began, this time coming from across the room, closer to the closet. "I am the Monster Under your Bed. I am the Terror of the Night. I am your worst nightmares come to pass. Fear me, Child!"

Jenetia frowned, still unafraid. In fact, she found she wanted to start giggling. She thought maybe her adoptive father had returned in the night and was trying to scare her. She clapped once, sharply, and the room lit up with a bright white light. 

A shriek came from the creature she found standing across the room and she tilted her head to one side, chewing on her lip as she studied the cowering creature. "Please! Turn the light off! You're not supposed to see me!"

"What are you?"

"I told you already. But please, turn off that infernal light!"

"No," she replied, firmly. "Tell me what you are and why you're here. How did you get in? The magic keeps out bad guys. So how did you get in?"

"I am a Monster Under the Bed. I am here to protect you from evil while you sleep. You're never supposed to see me. I've never had this happen before. I'm so embarrassed." The creature kept his eyes tightly closed and his hands over them, but straightened a little. He was extremely tall and very, very thin. 

Jenetia didn't know what 'embarrassed' meant, so she ignored that part of his speech. "What's your name?"

"You couldn't possibly pronounce it."

"OK. Well, I'll call you Norbert, then." 

Forgetting the brightness of the light, the Monster took his hands off of his face and blinked. "Norbert?"

"Yes. You must be OK or the magic would have kept you out. If you're here to protect me, then you can play with me, too. And I have to call you something. Norbert is a good name." She grinned. 

He blinked again, his red eyes finally adjusting to the bright light. "This is highly unorthodox."

"I don't know what that is, but you can be my friend! I get lonely when Mama and Daddy are gone."

"The other Monsters are going to..."

"There are more of you?! You have to tell me all about them! I want to know everything!!!"

Resigned, "Norbert" sat down on the floor. "One question at a time, please." He rubbed his head as though it hurt.

So Jenetia gained a friend, a protector and a companion that night as she gently plied him with questions about just what the Monsters Under the Bed were. 

Fraud

"This is ridiculous. I can't do these any of these things. I can't be who you say I am. It's not possible! I'm just a child!"

The shadowed figure standing in front of her seemed to shake its head. It spoke again, a disembodied voice in her head, neither male nor female. "You are she. She is reborn. Your soul has been reborn time and time again. And you, Jenetia, are no longer a child."

She fell to her knees, screaming in agony as her limbs began to stretch. This was impossible. This could not be. The pain seemed to go on for hours, days, years. Time was no longer a barrier. Time was no longer a thought. Time no longer existed. There was only pain. 

And then darkness.

-----------------

There were voices. Barely above a whisper. The words made no sense. A different language maybe? Echoes perhaps?

Jenetia's eyes fluttered open. When her eyes finally came into focus, she saw the thick rafters high above her. She felt the cold stone beneath her back. There was heat to her left. She turned her head to see a fire blazing. A thin scratchy blanket was draped over her. She moved her hand and felt her naked skin. 

There was a familiar smell in the air. Was she really back at the Castle? That means she was almost home. How? The last thing she remembered was pain...

Her eyes widened suddenly. She pulled one arm out from under the blanket. And stared at the long, thin fingers, the longer arms. Glancing around she noticed that the people speaking were not close. She was completely unnoticed. She cautiously lifted the blanket and choked back a cry as she noticed the small but firm, definitely adult, breasts. The shadow was right. She was no longer a child.

Slowly she sat up. There was a dull ache in her body, but she could move. Carefully she took stock of where she sat and where the stairs to the upper levels were. She slowly wrapped the blanket around herself, and quietly got to her feet. Still no one seemed to notice her. She felt like a ghost as she made her way to the stairwell to head up to the apartments her parents kept here. 

There was no way the shadowed figure was right. What had it done to her? She wasn't used to her longer limbs, not used to being taller. Still no one seemed to notice her. Maybe there was magic involved somehow. She bumped into a table, rattling the dirty dishes piled on it. She paused looking around. It was like she was invisible. 

She'd heard a word once. She remembered that Mama had used it when referring to someone who was pretending to be something she was not. Fraud. Jenetia felt like a fraud in this new body of hers. Her mind didn't seem any different than before, but her body was completely new. 

As she began to climb the stairs, she started to weep softly, wondering whether her mother and father would even recognize her, wondering whether Norbert would still be there. Oh my goodness. Norbert!?! If she wasn't a child anymore, he wouldn't be able to come to her. He'd be assigned elsewhere and...

She started to weep harder. In between sobs, anyone listening could hear the word "fraud" choked out over and over again.

Flying

India, wow. I couldn't believe that I was one of the four people work chose to travel to India in order to train the team there. The team that would be doing our work, causing 50+ people here to lose their jobs. They had also chosen me to stay on. That was great news. At least I wasn't losing my job, but how shitty for everyone else. Some people were actually glad about this. It was the kick in the pants they needed to get out of here. And there was plenty of notice for most people. Still shitty though.

I'd never flown before. Always wanted to, but never had the money or made the decision on where to go. The way it was set up was to take a small, "puddle-jumper" plane to Chicago from Milwaukee. Then a roughly eight hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany with a five hour layover before our roughly eight hour flight to Bangalore. In INDIA. HOLY FUCK I WAS GOING TO FUCKING INDIA.

Arrangements made, bags packed, ready to go. I was nervous since I'd never flown before. I figured the short flight to Chicago would be a great way to pop that cherry and get used to the idea of flying. Yeahno. I was wrong. 

There was some sort of flight delay and my two teammates and I ended up on a bus to Chicago. Great. My first time flying was about to be an eight hour flight. What if I freaked out? What if I got sick from it? FUCK.

I kept telling myself on the bus ride down to O'Hare that turbulence couldn't be much worse than the nasty bumps we kept going over in the bus. I had Dramamine with so I could take that to deal with any motion sickness I might feel. I had two books in my carryon. I was set. Definitely set. I could do this. 

We boarded. Unfortunately when the company set up our tickets, they didn't bother to have us sitting by each other. Oh well. I guess that's par for the course. More chance to spend the flight reading. I was hoping I'd be able to sleep on the flight. 

The worst part was the anticipation, the waiting for things to go. I was nervous. I couldn't help it. 

The plane started moving towards the runway. 

The plane took off. The worst part was the pressure in my ears. I was battling that by chewing gum, and that sort of helped. Turbulence wasn't bad. Pressure wasn't too bad. Actually I found out flying wasn't all that bad.

Except for the fact that I really couldn't really sleep on the flight. I nearly fell asleep in the airport in Frankfurt during our five hour layover. I remember that I dozed a bit on the flight to Bangalore, but it really wasn't easy to get the rest I needed. When I crashed in my hotel room that morning (it was about 4am Bangalore time), I slept like the dead for about 12 or 13 hours. 

Flying wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.