A/N - Hi everybody! This chapter marks the first entry in a new series I'm starting called Before the Shepherds! It will be a collection of stories, each one around 5-10 chapters depending on the length and content of their backstories, focusing on traumatic/influential events for characters in the Shepherds. In addition to this story, focusing on Nowi's origins, I have several backstories planned. Among them are: Gregor, Lon'qu, Virion/Cherche, and Libra! Be sure to keep an eye out and give my profile a follow after this particular installment to be notified when I get along to posting the others! But, for now, enjoy Before the Shepherds: Nowi!
Content Warning: Rated M for disturbing themes, dialogue, and plot elements including: physical/sexual abuse, rape, and violence. If that kind of thing upsets you or makes you uncomfortable I would highly suggest not reading.
Nowi woke suddenly and with a start. Opening her eyes and taking a quick gasp of breath, she instinctually reached her hand to her neck.
Ever since her birth countless years ago, she wore a silver chain around her neck. Attached to the chain was a heart shaped pendant containing a bright green gem- a dragonstone.
It wasn't there.
Once her hand met her exposed neck rather than the stone, she started to panic. It was dark, certainly too dark to see clearly until her eyes adjusted to the unknown around her. Regardless, she frantically patted the ground near her in hopes that she'd land on the stone that had kept her company through so many lonely nights.
Deciding that her efforts were fruitless, she laid the back of her head against the cold concrete floor below her and let herself give in to stress.
She couldn't let this happen. Not again.
"Hey," a voice said quietly from somewhere in the corner of the room.
Taken off guard, Nowi rubbed her eyes and sat herself up on the palms of her hands, looking around the room. Letting her eyes adjust to the darkness surrounding her, she began to notice a figure sitting in the far corner of the room.
"Hey. You okay?" the figure said, a little louder this time, the soft cadence of a younger girl now evident in her voice.
With a sniffle, Nowi nodded, unsure if the girl could even see it. "Who are you?"
"Name's Alysa. Yours?" the girl, Alysa, responded.
"My name is Nowi."
"Nowi. That's a really pretty name, miss."
"Aw, thank you. I like your name, too," Nowi smiled, happy to finally have a conversation after so many years- she couldn't begin to imagine just how long it had actually been.
Getting up and stretching her legs, Nowi's eyes had finally adjusted enough to get her bearings in the room. It was a small, rectangular room with four corners, a metal grate acting as one of the longer walls to her left.
"You, uh, haven't missed much. Between when they knocked you out and now, I mean. I don't mean to be rude, but I can't explain how happy I am to have another soul in here with me," Alysa said, breaking the silence.
"It's okay, I understand. You don't mean anything bad."
Alysa smiled slightly, adjusting herself slightly in the corner before clearing her throat to get Nowi's attention. "Sit with me?"
"Sure!" Nowi answered quickly, stretching her back one more time before approaching the girl. Once she got closer, she had a chance to take in her features.
She was a young girl, no younger than 17. She had fair skin and dark, scruffy hair, cut into uneven short strands. Another thing she noticed was her clothes, or the lack thereof. She was wearing a revealing performer's outfit that left little to the imagination. She could probably fit all of the cloth on her body in one hand.
Sitting down next to her, she took in a short period of silence before speaking. "So, Alysa. What's your story?"
Alysa shifted in place, taking her forearm in her other hand and rubbing it with her thumb as she pulled it towards her chest.
"Well, I uh... live in a small town not too far within Plegian borders. With my mom, dad, and a sister. She's a few years younger than me. Her name is Rose."
As she spoke, Alysa's face lit up, closing her eyes and smiling.
"Ooh. Roooosee. That's a pretty name, too," Nowi giggled, imagining the life the girl had with her family. "What do you do for fun?"
Opening her eyes and turning to look at Nowi, she smiled again. "You ever been hiking, Nowi?"
Nowi cocked her head at the question. "Hiking? Like going on long walks? Yeah! I've been doing it my whole life!"
Turning to look in front of her again, Alysa rested her head against the cold wall behind her. "My family loves hiking. Always has. You could probably trace it down three, four, maybe even five generations. Something about the freedom of it all is just so... liberating. Seeing things, seeing places bigger than yourself? It makes you realize that there's so much more to this world than what you could see in one moment. Well, a couple of years ago, we all sat down as a family over dinner, and we said 'Hey, you know what? We should go on a trip'. So, we did. We packed up a couple backpacks of food and supplies that night, and set out the next morning. We didn't know where we wanted to go, we just walked. Walked the dunes, met new people, camped under the stars at night. It was magical."
"Wow," Nowi said after a few seconds. "That sounds amazing."
Turning to her again, Alysa simple smiled sadly.
"Yeah, it was. After a few weeks of walking, we uh... we found a small group of traveling bandits. Got all in our faces and yelled at us. We tried to offer food and some supplies for them to leave us alone, but that didn't work."
Noticing her change of tone, Nowi's ears perked up slightly. "Oh.. What happened?"
"My mom and dad, they..." Alysa started, clearing her throat and covering her mouth with a clenched fist. "Well. The bandits took me and my sister and stole our backpacks. There was nothing we could do. I couldn't help them. They took my sister and I and sold us off to separate buyers. That was the last time I ever saw her. There's not a day that goes by where I don't think about her."
"Gosh, Alysa. I'm so sorry, it sounds like you really miss your little sister," Nowi pouted.
"Yeah. I do. But I've learned to live with it, you know? I don't want to live life sulking in the could-have-beens. I honestly just take things as they come here," Alysa said, as if she had recited it a thousand times. "Look, I'm sorry for ranting off to you like this. I haven't had someone to talk to, like, really talk to since I got here. I know i'm not going to be talking to those freaks that took me anytime soon."
Nowi nodded understandingly, looking the girl over and noticing something about her she hadn't noticed before: bruises. She had to have had at least a dozen bruises, some big, some small, lining her legs and arms. "Oh? What do they do to you?"
"Well, they... They make me dance for them. And if I don't, they... they give me these," she said, pointing to her arms and legs.
"They make you dance? That sounds like fun! You don't like dancing?" Nowi asked innocently.
Alysa's eyes widened as she turned to the little girl next to her. She was obviously young, and Alysa genuinely didn't know how to explain something so vile and disgusting to someone who looked so blissfully ignorant.
"I... Yeah, dancing is fun, Isn't it? Dancing is fun, but I've learned to not like dancing here. They made me not like it so much. Does that make sense?"
Nowi took a moment, seeming to rack her brain for an answer. "Oh. Yeah, it's okay. I get bored of things I like sometimes too if I do them too much. Will I get to dance, too?"
Alysa closed her eyes, a conflicted look on her face. "Yeah. Yeah, you'll get to dance, Nowi."
Nowi seemed to perk up at her response. "Cool! I can't wait!"
Shaking her head, Alysa scooted forward on the ground to lay herself down against the cold concrete. "Hey, it's been great meeting you, and I'd love to talk more, but I think I'm going to get a little sleep. I think you should too. You'll need it for tomorrow, okay?"
"Oh. Okay, Alysa. I can do that."
Resting her hands on her exposed stomach, Alysa smiled up at the ceiling.
Laying down on the ground next to her new friend, Nowi let out an excessively animated yawn. "Okay. Goodnight, Alysa."
Huffing a small amount of air out of her lungs in amusement, Alysa nodded to herself. "Yeah. G'night, Nowi."
Happy that she got to meet someone new after all those years alone, Nowi smiled to herself. As little as she showed it, she was scared. She had managed to stay out of trouble for a while, but it was obvious that her luck wasn't meant to last- she was just happy she had someone to share it with.
With that, she got as comfortable as she could on the hard floor and let herself fall into sleep.