1Chapter 2
As daybreak fell on the Tristfal Glades, a horse drawn cart approaches the gate of the scarlet monastery. The guards draw weapons as they see that the driver has the ears of a elf, but when shown a scarlet order letter, immediately sheaths the blades. Scarlet commander Mograine meets the cart rider out front, he looks at the rider and demands the order. The elf rider hands Mograine the order and waits as its confirmed. Mograine orders two sentries to remove the special package and take it to a empty dorm, then looked to the elf rider. Mograine paid the elf for his services and sent him on his way. But the elf never made it to the road as Mograine gave the command to slay horse and rider and burn the cart. He was surprised how loyal certain Firewing's were to gold, and how foolish they are to believe they can aid the Crusade. Mograine just chuckled to himself and walked towards the cathedral.
As the drug wore off of Kinsie's brain, she started to wake up. Light poured in through a stain glass window and it took her eyes some time to adjust. She could tell that she was no longer in the forest and her new surroundings were that of stone. A straw bed near a wall, a plain chest, no floor covering and bare walls. She looked at herself and noticed her new dress was torn and all her pretty jewelry was gone. Near the solid door was a tray of some kind of soup, a loaf of hard bread and a flask of water. She ignored the tray and walked to the door, trying to open it, locked. Did she do something wrong to warrant this punishment? She walked to the bed and sat down on it, staring at the cracks in the wall, tears falling down her cheeks. She wanted her parents, she wanted out. The locked clicked and she looked to the door as a armored dwarf entered the room and started to talk to her, but she could not understand. "Ah you are finally awake, come, your duties await." Kinsie did not move and this seemed to anger the dwarf, he was not used to being ignored. He closed the gap between him and Kinsie, grabbed her wrist unkindly, and dragged her out of the room. Naturally Kinsie fought against this, but who was she kidding, did she really believe she could squirm out of his grasp. He took her to the main corridor, where a bucket of water and a brush rested in waiting. She was tossed to the floor near the bucket. "Now scrub this floor, worm!" Again Kinsie could not understand but could tell that he was visibly angry. He picked up the brush, dunked in the water and shoved it into her hands, and with his hand on hers, showed her how to scrub the floor. New tears welled as he was being so mean to her. She did not wish anymore yelling and did what she was shown and scrubbed the floor. She recalled a tune her mother hummed when cleaning the house and started to hum it as she worked on the floor. This form of independence earned her a slap and she fell into silence.
Three small boys entered the hall and saw Kinsie hard at work. The acknowledged the dwarf and one of them used his boot to create a scuff mark on the marble floor. She glowered at him and scrubbed off the stain, yes she would remember this one. The boys only laughed and went on their way. Kinsie watched them go, and was very quickly reprimanded for that action. Kinsie deciding in her mind that this is her fate, went back to work on the floor. She did this from dusk to dawn only getting breaks for meals and restroom. And as the weeks rolled on, calluses started to form on her hands and her muscular strength started to build as well. She graduated from brush to mop, but still seemed to be working the one hall. She yearned for a change in scenery, this hall was getting far to boring and she had already figured its size in both length and width by the time she was 7.
Mograine, who saw just how hard Kinsie worked decided to act on a hunch and walked to the dorm that she was at. At this time, Kinsie had picked up basic common, but dared not speak for fears on punishment. The door to her chambers opened and a older man entered the room. He spoke to her calmly and with a hint of a question. Though she still did not understand all the words, but dad, free, and you were said so often she knew those words. "You can be free of these duties if you refer to me as your dad. You would like it here, I promise. What do you say?" Kinsie wished she could comprehend all those words but for not answering questions she usually got struck for it, so she simply nodded. The man approached her, and held out his hand to her, with a smile on his face. The smile seemed reassuring and she smiled back, taking his hand. He walked with her to the galley and introduced her to the cook, a female gnome, not much smaller than Kinsie. The cook smiled warmly at Kinsie and sat her down in front of a pile of potatoes and then giving her a small carving knife showed Kinsie how to peel a potato, but warned her that the blade was sharp. Kinsie learned this lesson quickly when she cut her finger. Was this the change of scenery that she craved? And why was that tall man so nice and the short one so mean? These and other thoughts played in Kinsie's mind. She became a hard worker and became more careful around knives.
By the time she was 14, she had become skilled with a knife and was even doing meal preparations. She had become more fluent in Common over the past seven years that she was able to hold conversations with the cook and even her "adoptive" father. Every meal time she met those same three boys that tormented her when she scrubbed floors, only this time they wolf whistled and did stares and made her shiver. By this time, and to much of her wishes not, her body started to develop. Both in feminine matters and muscular, and she was sure the boys were interested in her feminism and not her strength. This became true when one day, she was carving the meat for the nights meal when one of the boys entered the galley walked up behind Kinsie and whispered in her ear "Wanna go to my chambers and have some fun, can teach you some new skills". This did not seem to faze Kinsie, but then the boy touched her on her rear. The action was so fast that Kinsie could not recall it, and naturally she was watched. In a fluid motion, she turned around, grabbed the boy by the throat and slammed him against the wall, then in a swift action sent the pummel (a.k.a. handle) of the cleaver into the boys temple, knocking him out. Kinsie, shocked by what she had done dropped the blade and backed away, looking at her hands. What did she do, what happened? She backed against a wall and sank to her knees, and watched as a crowd gathered around the unconscious boy, while she just stared at the floor. Mograine was there and saw what happened, and placed a hand on Kinsie's shoulder, noting that she was shaken by what happened and let her cry it off.
Well thats it for chapter 2, sorry for the long chapter, but future chapters are to be just as long. As always reviews are always welcome and I hope you are enjoying this so far. BTW Kinsie is a actual paladin character of mine, so you can figure that this character may be following her dad's footsteps or is she? Guess you have to keep reading to find out. Enjoy