I shouldn't cry… But I still felt the tears falling down my cheeks. There was absolutely nothing I could do to keep the tears from falling and mixing with my blood.

I wouldn't scream… I refused to give them the satisfaction of listening to my pain. Seeing my suffering was enough for them. I had to bite my lip to silence the sounds of my agony.

I couldn't change... I feared what they would do if they were to see me like that. If they knew, I would be worth more and treated worse. I didn't want to die yet. I didn't want to die like that.

The funny thing about being in pain, the funny thing about knowing your life is in danger, is that your senses change. The adrenaline keeps you from noticing the pain, but your senses are all heightened at the same time.

I could feel the heat as the red-hot metal got closer to me. I bit my lip when it touched my skin just below my collarbone, branding me for life. It was the second thing they had done to me. The first was putting some metal object through my ear.

I bit my lip to keep my screams silent, blood flowing into my mouth from the cut I had just made. The metallic flavor of the blood was exciting the hunter inside of me and heightening my senses further. My teeth became sharper and I could distinguish scents and sounds that I hadn't noticed before. There was an agonized moaning that echoed through the room. Earlier I had believed the sound was in my mind, but I could now hear it clearly. I could almost see the horrible noise bouncing off of the walls of the small, concrete room.

No! I screamed to myself, I can't! Not here! I took a few breaths to calm the beast inside of me down. If the slave traders knew I had devil fruit powers, I was worse that dead. Right now, I was just a human to them. I would be bought as a slave or a bride- most likely a bride, seeing as how Saint Charloss ordered them to brand me with something that wasn't entirely unattractive. If they knew about it, my demon, I would fetch a higher price and be used in some sick game. The world nobles would buy devil fruit users and pit them against each other in fights to the death. The users did it, but only because they had the chance to either end their misery of the suffering of the other slave. Most of them went into the arena hoping to lose. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to have to fight the others. I was… different when the beast came out. When I changed, even when the transformation was just starting, I liked the hunt. I enjoyed killing them. I relished in having their bones crack in my jaw and savoured the taste of their lifeblood on my tongue.

"Move," one man pushed me back the direction they had brought me from. My branding was done, now I just had to wait for Charloss to buy me.

I didn't like feeling like that, I wasn't a killer. I was horrified at the thought of having someone else's blood in my mouth. I was NOT a fucking killer! I was a good girl; I was friendly, polite, caring… over emotional, maybe, and moody for a few days of every month, but what woman isn't? Yes, I was strong-willed; yes, I had a bit of a temper and occasionally lashed out at others; and yes, sometimes I didn't know how to keep things to myself… and I might have a slight fascination with death- I blame my brother for that one- but I wouldn't kill anyone because of it! And my brother was always so calm… I couldn't help but try to piss some people off… after years of not getting a reaction it was fun to see them explode! But, despite all of this, I was good! Good, I tell you… GOOD! I wasn't evil! The beast inside of me was the malicious one!

At least that's what I kept telling myself. Of course, deep down I knew it was a lie; I just used my transformation as an excuse. I had always been a little strange, but, again, I blame my brother for that. He had been the one to raise me, and he had weird obsessions… some of which were passed down to me. Like my fascination with death, my love of a things sharp, and my obsession with the sky and rain. Although I don't let people know it, I'm a great navigator. I learned to use the stars when I was little, all because my brother used to sit outside for hours and just stare up at the sky. He didn't get much sleep… and now I don't either. I like to sit outside and remember the times when he would explain to me the constellations and the stories behind favorite was the story about the giant wolf, Svlika.

Svlika was a great hunter, and a terrible monster, but she was a very beautiful animal. The men in the village near her forest would all try to catch her and take her fur. They were all planning to give her fur to the most beautiful woman in the village, you see, they all loved the same woman. They thought that, if they could kill this giant wolf, the woman would see that they were great. So one day, when one of the men finally caught the wolf, he looked into her eyes and found that he couldn't kill her. The same thing happened with the next man and the man after that. This happened until there was only one man left who hadn't yet managed to catch Svlika. Finally, when he did catch her, he looked into the eyes of the great wolf and saw something that none of the others had been able to see. Yes, he saw the eyes of the woman he loved, but he also saw that her soul was dead. The man understood the pain that she was in and he knew that she ran around as the wolf, hoping that someone would end her pain. And so, he did what the others had been unable to do: he wrapped his arms around the wolf, raised his blade and ended the creature's existence, weeping the whole time. When the wolf in his arms turned into the girl he loved so dearly, he ended his own life in hopes of being with her once more… and the girl loved him. Unlike the others, who wanted her for their own, this single man had loved her enough to give her what she truly wanted. Now there are two constellations, right next to one another; one is Svlika, and the other is Damon, the only man who truly loved her.

We hadn't really known our parents… and I couldn't remember them at all. I was four when they left; he was eight. Well, I don't really believe that they left. I remember blood, lots of blood. It's my first memory… but he won't tell me what happened. He used to say that he would when I was older, that he would tell me the truths he had hidden when I was ready to know… but he left. Four years ago. It was the day after my sixteenth birthday.

He left me a note. He said that he would come back one day; he said that he wouldn't leave me there forever… But I'd had enough waiting for him to come back for me. "One day" was just too far away, and I wasn't an overly patient person. So, naturally, when I heard that he had entered the grand line, I went after him. I decided to travel with the marines, figuring that they would be the fastest mode of transportation. I was right. They were a lot faster than a pirate ship would have been! Especially when you give them some sob story about how you were separated from your mother years ago and she was on her death bed on Sabaody Archipelago and wanted to see you just one more time before she died. I knew that, if I waited on Sabaody, I was bound to run into him eventually. Well, if he didn't die first. He was a big shot pirate, after all. On top of the marines and other pirates, there were a lot of bounty hunters after him. I knew he wouldn't die, though. No one could kill my brother. He was too strong to let someone beat him. He was tooe was smart to get killed along the away.

But Sabaody really was the only logical place to wait. Anyone wanting to enter the New World had to stop here! It was a perfect plan… until the slave traders took an interest in me. As if slave traders wasn't bad enough, that disgusting Saint Charloss told them that he was definitely going to purchase me… but he wanted to outbid the others, he wanted to make them see that he was better than them by paying more… so I didn't get to go out onto the stage in "normal" clothes. No, I wasn't that lucky. My clothes consisted of a bikini and a short skirt that was fashioned to sit on my hips on an angle. Now I was going to be stuck with the idiotic noble… I was never going to be able to find my brother!

Well, I sighed, it might be a crappy life, really I'll be nothing more than a sex slave, but I still don't regret leaving. I wasn't the kind of person who had regrets. I tried to live happily and I looked at everything as a new adventure. I knew I could get away from the nobles eventually; I just needed to figure out how to do it.

"Are you alright?" I heard a man beside me ask. I opened my eyes for the first time since being pushed in the cell. There were more people in here now…

They must be the ones being sold today… the man who had spoken was a kind looking man with silver hair."I'm fine, thank you."

He crouched down next to me and looked at the mark that had recently been made above my chest. "That looks painful. I might be able to help-"

"No thank you," I smiled at the kind man. He shouldn't have been worrying about me… he should be thinking about himself right now. They all should be. When you're about to lose your life, you don't think of the wellbeing of those you don't know.

"What about this one?" he touched my ear.

I stiffened, but I didn't make a noise. My ear was incredibly tender. They pierced my ear with a large piece of metal. If that wasn't bad enough, the steel had been incredibly hot so it wouldn't be able to be removed afterwards. It had been permanently fused to my ear. "It's fine. I'm fine."

I had lived here long enough to know the starting price for the people in my cell.

There was a huge man who was easily two times taller and five times wider than me. I can't tell if he's human or a devil fruit user… so minimum will be 500,000 beli.

I looked at the five short people next to the huge man. One woman and four men. Dwarves… 700,000 beli.

Devil fruit users… they don't have an actual starting price, but they will be sold for quite a bit. I watched as the first person was taken out to the stage. It was a girl. She had been sitting in the corner with two others. Triplets… don't you know you would get more if you sold them together? The three of them had powers. One had made a bubble out of the moisture I the air, another had surrounded the bubble in fire, and the third had been sending bursts of electricity through the water. They were young, maybe ten years old.

The mermaid will start at 70,000,000 Beli… but I don't know what you are, I turned my attention back to the man at my side. He was still staring at me. You can't be normal. No normal person would be this calm… or be the least bit concerned about someone else.

I was trying to figure this man out, he was making me nervous because he just kept staring at me, while the cell emptied one person at a time… finally, when there were only three others in the cell, it was my turn to go out.

"Move it." the man growled after making sure my shackles were attached to each other and my collar by chains. The stage was quite a long way from the cell, but I suppose they wouldn't want the screaming prisoners to be heard…

The man on the stage came over and grabbed my chains, pulling me out into a bright light. I could hear some people whispering, but there were so many noises that I found it impossible to focus on one conversation. I looked around, looking at the people who were talking. I found Saint Charloss almost immediately, but I tried not to look at the disgusting man for overly long. I had lost enough today, I didn't want to lose the little bit I had in my stomach as well.

Hmmm, I thought to myself, she wouldn't be all that bad if she didn't have her hair like that… I couldn't help myself. Saint Shalulia really wasn't an ugly woman… well, her personality was horrible, but if she changed her hair and her clothes she would be quite pretty.

I shook the thought from my head. I didn't need to be thinking of that right now, and I continued to look around the crowd. That's when I saw him… my brother.