The child twirled with the stick, the softly colored pastel ribbons on the end flowing and winding on the air. Her blonde curls bounced and flowed over her back, bright against the electric blue cloak around her tiny shoulders.
The sun cast long ebony shadows on the ground as the Keep began to awaken.
Colored awnings were unwound, bright tapestries and other merchants' goods were uncovered and proudly displayed.
The little girl shrieked with glee as she spun and danced with the toy from her father's store, observed from a short distance by the ambassador.
A man came out of one of the small shop doors, and moved to take the toy away from her.
"No, daddy, no!" shrieked the child in indignation.
Daddy.
Father.
Torio Claven's grey eyes went hard and cold, and despite the sun on her black cloak, she shivered.
"No, daddy, no!" shrieked the thin waiflike girl, as her father tore the doll from her hands and tore it in half, throwing the dull, tattered remains out the open window. As his burning black eyes bore into her, she knew she should have remained silent. Her father's straggly, dirt colored hair was matted with sweat which ran down the crags of his face into the red mottled week old beard.
"What'd I tell ya?!" he shouted at her, looming. "Useless as tits on a bull, jus' like yer corpse of a mother!"
He smelled of ale; not the well brewed kind from the taverns, but the greenish tinged kind found in backyard distilleries that reeked and oozed from the pores. Brown, black and yellow stains dotted the front of his nearly buttonless dingy grey shirt. Grey was so ugly. The ugliest color ever, she thought.
Spittle flew from his mouth as his voice grew ever louder, the words slightly slurred.
"Did I tell ya ta do somethin'? Did ya do it? Stupid little wench!"
She shut her eyes and cringed as she saw him raise his hand, knowing what was to come. Why, oh why couldnt she do anything right? She tried but she just couldnt manage to please him.
She landed hard in the corner and curled into a ball.
"I shoulda killed ya when ya was born! I done tol' her I dint want no worthless girl!"
She was yanked up by her auburn hair and dragged to the back door. The shapes and colors on the dirty worn wooden floor moving by, reminding her of all the times she had stared at them as he beat her. She saw familliar patterns and images, hoping maybe this was the day they would leap from the floorboards by magic to save her.
She heard her cranberry colored dress tear as she crashed with a grunt onto the hard ground outside, a rock embedding itself in her thigh. She bit down on her lip to avoid having him hear the sound of her sobs, which would anger him even more.
The door slammed mercifully without so much as an expletive from him.
The broken doll lay where it had fallen in the thorn bushes, and her arms came out of them scratched and bleeding but she didnt care.
Crawling into the tiny space between the ramshackle house and the rock wall, the bruised and bleeding child held tight to her treasure.
As she always did, she began to hum a soft lullaby. A dirty blanket was pulled out, a thin blanket of patches of pastel colors, the gilt edges barely visible through the filth. She wrapped up the doll and herself and rocked it like a mother with a beloved infant.
"Dont cry, Victoria. I am your goddess. I will save you. I will change you into something beautiful. Yes, I will do that because I love you."
She hummed softly in between the words she no longer remembered, cradling the remains of the doll in her torn arms.
"I know! Your daddy always wanted a boy. A boy is good, a girl is bad. We will make you into a boy, Victoria, and daddy wont be mad at you anymore. Sleep now, Victoria, sleep."
The child lay the doll carefully down beside her and curled up.
Sleep, Victoria, sleep.
Sleep, Tori, sleep.
Sleep, Torio, sleep.
The ambassador threw a gold piece down on the counter and yanked the beribboned stick from the man's hand with an icy glare.
Outside, she thrust it at the delighted child who squealed with glee, then fled from the marketplace.
"Oh, my how classy," drawled the elven wizard disdainfully, standing beside his Knight-Captain, witnessing the strange interaction. "The Luskan harpy has taken to corrupting the children."
He was taken aback, his blue eyes wide with bewilderment when his friend turned to him sharply, her eyes on fire and her voice a low growl.
"Sand, dont you ever, ever let me hear you say such a thing about her again."
In a rare occurence, the elf was rendered speechless as he watched Knight Captain Suki stride purposefully away.