Peace for the tortured
#1
3rd january, Derp Taima Waki be an american buffalo/bison.
1803

At first the falling snow had been peaceful and serene, like a dream of fun and games. Falling so gently that the woman couldn't help but be enthralled with it for it was purely white like herself. It landed on her ears and her head and the woman almost gleefully shook it off with a childish abandon she rarely showed. She scooped hand fulls of it up and squished them into balls and tried to hit the trees with them. It was so beautiful that for a short time her fanciful mind forgot the incident that had chased her away from AniWaya and simply enjoyed the snow fall like she was a young babe, like the childhood she had never got to experience. She made angels in the snow, rolled around in it for fun and otherwise fooled around in the white ice. But as the day wore on and the showed no sign of it stopping and Gemma began to start to worry. where would she sleep for the night? Despite her earlier cheerful demeanor the femme still hadn't eaten a single thing and her bouts of dizziness and delirium were worsening. She set off in whichever direction, not knowing which way was which or where it would lead her to, she could be walking towards the edge of a cliff for all she knew. The cold began to seep into her bones and numb out her fingers and toes, moving became a hard thing for her as her joints stiffened and refused to bend until finally she ended with her back against a copse of trees, their bare naked skeletons providing some protection from the harsh weather but not much, not enough to keep her covered. The snow continued to fall, continued to deepen and Gemma felt a sinking feeling within her stomach.

Day plunged into night and a fierce wind struck up, catching hold of the white flakes and raising them up into a flurry of activity that truly scared her. Where was the fun now, where was the childish innocence. It was gone just like her life had done to her, something so pure and virgin turned into something that was sullied and dirty, fearful. The bitter wind stung at her eyes and she huddled up into a ball, her head pressed against her knees as she tried to protect herself. Hours passed by as her strength began to dwindle slowly like a light being turned down. Every so often she tried to open her eyes only to find them frozen shut, removing the frozen water was a painful experience, one that left torn skin and an even greater sense of hopelessness. The Sawtooth girl was giving up, it all seemed so pointless now, to continue to fight. If she just let sleep overtake her then she wouldn't have to wake up again, wouldn't have to face the demons inside of her that roared and clawed at her damaged mind, warping it further. She couldn't cope with this, it was all too much for her, the mental strength required to hold her frayed sanity together did not exist inside of her, it never had, she was set up to fail from the start by the people that were supposed to love her the most. The woman made one last attempt to bring somebody to herself, to cry out,

"Help... somebody help." But there was no answer and her voice echoed far away into the blackness to be swallowed up and never heard by lupine ears except her own. She was alone, she had always been alone, always left out in the cold and dark. A vice came to her, a child's and she recognized it as her own 'My daddy loves me yes he does! And I love my daddy! It was so happy, so full of life, so beautiful. Gemma wanted to be that child again, that lovely girl that had a home and a family to call her own, that had someone to care for her. For a second her world jilted upon its axis and her adult voice spoke up I love this man, yes I do. Then it was further back, angry and sad He left me! He threw me over for a wolf! And then again even more beyond that, a quiet hope Maybe he feels the same way, I like him, he's kind to me Gemma put her hands over her ears, trying to block out the sounds, her own voices from the past, listening to it now was torture, like watching a disaster happen where you knew every second from beginning to middle to end. So young..... SO YOUNG! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU! With a high pitched scream Gemma launched herself forwards, running away through the knee deep snow from the voices in her head, the ones she could never escape. Terrified blue eyes darted to the left and to the right, seeking shelter, safety from the storm that threatened to take her with it. There was so much though, so much of her that was broken and irreparable... ruined!

She stumbled in the snow and fell into it with no strength to go on. Totally unprotected now as she lay face down where she had fallen in the snow. The cold snatched away her breath along with any possibly energy she could have spared to save herself. Why should she save herself, nobody else cared enough to come and find her, she could have no idea that was what Teo was doing at that very moment, looking for her. A deep mocking laughter echoed around and she gasped, trying to curl into herself. Ghostly hands stopped her, holding onto her legs tightly, forcing them apart. The girl screamed again but it was cut off as she received a blow to the face. Instead she shut her eyes and tried to will everything away, trying to wish away the feel of him. She would have come willingly! He knew she would, but he insisted on taking with such violence. Hurting her even more, always hurting her and giving her pain, giving her reasons to fear. Maybe she was dead and this was her hell, an eternity of this. An eternity of torture. Wasn't she a princess? Princess Sawtooth. So where was her white knight in shining armor? Where was her savoir.

She cried. She couldn't help it. A faint brush against her cheek and a breath of a voice in her ears.Now hush little baby, don't you cry. Then more laughter, she had never been a baby, never a child, abused and beaten. Claws dug deeply into her skin and tore fiercely, spilling her blood onto the ground. Heat rushed out from her as the crimson covered the ground. She opened her eyes and saw the ones hers had come from sneering down at her, You are weak child, you are no daughter of mine. A cry and Gemma jerked awake, looking about herself wildly, she was laid in the snow yes but there was no evidence of her abuse, no blood staining the ground and no marks upon her body. She shivered. A dark shape flickered about her eyes and she looked up hopefully, "Daddy?!" It darted through the trees and she rose to follow, stumbling again, her strength fading, "Daddy wait!" But the shadow didn't stop for her voice or the longing in her call, "Daddy! Come back! I'll be strong! I promise!" The shadow was gone and so was her last dregs of hope. The girl sat back and hugged her legs close, everyone left her in the end, they always did.

Again the light in her blue eyes began to dim the longer she sat there in the cold and snow. She even stopped shivering after a while and began to feel warm again. She didn't even question it. But any traveler of the cold could tell you, if your strength is being taken by snow, first you will feel cold, then you will feel warmth, then you die and feel nothing at all. Her eyes drooped closed and her mind began to drift away from her, she was going to sleep now, and she was almost there when a voice woke her back,

"Child. Wake up" This was a new voice that she had never heard before. Gemma ignored it however and tried to slip away again, she was done with the world. There was a soft breath of warm air upon her head and she frowned but still didn't open her eyes. Couldn't whoever it was see she was trying to free herself! An amused feeling filled the air and she heard the voice again ,'You'll find no peace in the place you're heading for, only darkness Now her eyes snapped open and she was about to snarl angrily at whoever it was until her eyes realised what she was seeing. Her angry look was replaced with one of fear and horror and she tried to scramble back away from this huge thing! Gemma had never seen a buffalo before in her life. All she knew was that it was large, larger than her and it had horns and looked ferocious. She wouldn't even be allowed to die in peace, now she was going to be trampled to death by his thing. She trembled with fear as the two of them looked at each other. The buffalo snorted and tossed its head before turning itself so that it was blocking the majority of the wind and snow from falling on her and looked at her before speaking. "Death is not for you yet, little star." It had been the thing that had spoken! "You speak!" She blurted out, fear still obvious in her voice,

"Of course. I am no simpleton. You have no reason to fear me, I am your guide." Her guide? It was only then that Gemma really looked at him and noticed he was pure white all over, even his eyes were white, with only the dark of the pupils to spoil it.

"But I left AniWaya. I don't belong there." The great bison let out a snort, looking her in the eye with passion "If you did not belong in AniWaya then I would not be here, sent to guide you." Her mind was reeling as she struggled to take this information in. The bison swung his head at her, herding her to stand up and move from the deepening snow's grasp,

"Come child, there is shelter not far from here where you can spend the night." She followed him obedient as a pup before it's mother,

"What is your name?" For a few seconds there was only the sounds of the wind that she could hear,

"Taima Waki. Or in your tongue; Storm Shelter."


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