Faye awoke the next morning feeling surprisingly fresh and well rested, despite remembering the awful nightmares that filled her dreams. When she cracked her eyes open and found herself lying in a bed, she was rather confused as to how she had gotten there at all. Faye sat up to look around the room and found a small tray of egg, ham and bred sitting on the bedside table with a large wooden cup of milk. What was all this about?

The door suddenly burst open and in walked Kian, followed by two beautiful tanned women with black curly hair wearing lovely dresses, giggling and blushing madly.

"Here she is, ladies," Kian looked to Faye, "do your best."

One of the women twisted her face in curiosity, "Why is her hair like that?"

"Redhead. Last of her kind." Kian informed her casually.

Faye's cheeks blushed madly, "Kian - what is this?"

Kian smirked, "I chose an option…"

He then nodded and left the room, leaving Faye alone with the two glamorous women who approached her with wiggling fingers and gleaming eyes. What were they going to do - kill her?… No, not quite. Instead, they bathed her, styled her hair so that it was half-pinned up, dressed her in a pastel-pink dress which hugged her body and stretched down to her feet and planted little flowers in her hair, while applying a light layer of lipstick.

"No, please"- Faye tried to object, "I don't like it!"

"Ah, but the men do!" The elder woman giggled, "your skin, it's so soft!"

Faye grunted, fidgeting as the women continued to pick and prod at her face and hair. It was awfully irritating! When they were finally finished, they held up a little mirror and showed Faye her face; it was quite a shock. Faye never wore makeup or styled her hair fashionably. She spent most of her days praying or studying in the Temples!

Faye gently touched her cheek in awe, "What is…"-

The door opened once more and Kian walked in, with Gus and Tevo trailing after him. The two woman stepped aside and Faye slowly lowered her mirror to look at Kian, clueless, careless.

"Is this your option?" Faye growled, furious, "to dress me up like a child's doll and sell me?"

Kian would usually had something witty to reply with but this time… his mind was blank. All he could focus on was how breath-taking Faye was in that dress. The makeup didn't suit her - he preferred her without it - but she was still glowing… Even with that sadness in her eyes and the furrowing of her furious eyebrows, she looked like an angel.

"Kian?" Faye jumped up and rushed towards him, "are you listening?"

Kian blinked a few times and realised that he had just missed a huge chunk of Fayes' talking. The women were now making their way towards the door while Tevo and Gus were exchanging odd looks with each other - what was happening to their leader?

"Please," Faye whimpered, "don't do this to me…"

Absolutely desperate, she raised her hands and gently placed them upon his chest to emphasise how helpless she was. Her eyes sparkled with tears and managed to capture Kian, just for a moment.

"Come on, Kian," Gus awkwardly called him, "there's two girls left to go."

Faye tried to hold Kians' eyes for as long as she could, searching madly for the warmth, for the humanity. It was still there - so why was he acting like such an animal? Kian finally tore his eyes away, sighing, and grabbed Faye by her upper arm.

Kian didn't look at her, "Don't make this difficult."

Faye's eyes filled with tears and her heart sank into her stomach. She had, at last, lost all hope for mankind. Not only had her own family and loved ones turned against her, but also people who had such potential to be loving and pure. With her head low, Faye allowed Kian to lead her downstairs and out into the street of Ridian where the market was still as busy as ever. People sent Faye looks of interest, surprise and admiration as they passed but Faye took no notice. She was terrified.

"Sold, to the gentleman in the red coat for thirty Vils!" The auctioneer roared to the crowed.

The audience applauded and whistled as the pretty blonde girl was escorted from the wooden platform, the stage, and back to where some other girls stood. They were all dressed up, looking beautiful in their dresses, though most of them were crying or had been as their faces were blotchy and smeared in damaged makeup. Upon seeing the girls and the auction, Faye stopped walking and tried to resist against Kians' strong grip.

"Come on." Kian grunted.

Faye looked up at him, grabbing his arm, "I don't want to! You can't do this!"

Kian, still, refused to look into her eyes, "Money is money, red… I'm sorry."

Gus and Tevo came up behind her and grabbed her by her arms, forcing her to walk on without Kian; he watched in a strange denial of guilt as they led her over to where the auction assistants stood, waiting for them.

"Please, no!" Faye cried, stealing the attention of nearby people, "unhand me!"

"Ohh, a fiesty one hey?" One of the male assistants chuckled, "I like 'em fiesty."

He suddenly slapped his hand onto Faye's bottom and squeeze her left cheek quite roughly, making her jump and whirl around to whack him hard in the face. The other auctioned girls were now watching both in fear and hope for Faye's escape; Kian watched silently, knowing he was acting weak. But money was money, wasn't that more important? Living a good life with all the things a rich man would want?

"Get up there!" The assistant growled furiously, yanking Faye by her neck.

He threw her into the small gathering of girls who all gasped and helped Faye stand properly; Kian clenched his fists at seeing her being treated so roughly.

"Damnit," Kian turned away in difficulty, "get a hold of yourself, Kian. Get over it!"

Faye spotted him standing a few feet away from the stage, mumbling to himself. What a bastard. What a cruel, selfish, toxic thing. She had certainly been wrong about him.

"Are you alright?" One of the girls asked sweetly.

Faye looked round and saw the blonde-haired girl who had just been sold; she had tear stains down her cheeks, and although she presented Faye with an encouraging little smile, it was cracked and broken like their faith.

Faye frowned at her, "Why are they doing this?"

Another woman, a brunette, snickered rudely, "Wake up, little miss angel. Men are animals."

Faye glanced at her; she was older than them, with less to offer, and there was plenty of misery and anger in her eyes. She had been through a lot of sadness in her life, Faye could tell…

"Alright, you're next!" One of the auction assistants called.

Faye felt him grab onto her arm and was roughly pulled up onto the stage where she nearly tripped over her own dress; at seeing the audience, she froze in a half-crouch with her hair falling around her face. She was terrified. Men started to talk amongst themselves or just gape up at her while other women gasped, pointed and giggled at the colour of her hair. The auction assistant grabbed Faye by the shoulders and pulled her up into a straight, standing position so that she could be presented clearly to the buyers.

"A rare beauty, the last of her kind!" The old auctioneer shouted enthusiastically, "let us begin with ten Vils!"

"Fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

"Twenty five!"

"Thirty!"

"Thirty five!"

Faye's eyes darted left and right as she watched hands shooting into the air and voice after voice call out a higher number. It was happening all so fast! The auctioneer let out laughs of excitement as she price continued to rise, and rise, and rise-

"Two hundred Vils!" A man finally cried out.

"Sold, for two hundred Vils to the man with the ponytail!" The auctioneer exclaimed in huge delight.

Faye felt like sobbing her heart out. That was it. Done. She now belonged to someone - a person - not even the Gods. Her mind went blank and all she could do was stare at the floor, empty, as she was dragged off of the stage to be thrown in with the women once again.

"Two hundred…" She heard the women whispering in shock, "never…"

Faye instantly stared to cry and covered her face with her hands, as if it would make her disappear from the world; she used to do it when she was a child. Within minutes, Faye and the other sold 'merchandise' were hustled out from behind the stage and were guarded by the assistant's as their new owners came to claim them with the bargained money at the ready. Faye's eyes stared at the ground in a heartbroken trance, unable to find the energy to fight back or speak her rights. She saw a pair of legs emerge from the crowed and, as they got closer, she thought she recognised the boots on the mans' feet.

"You owe me, red." A familiar voice sighed.

Faye finally found the reason to look up, in hope, and there was Kians' handsome face looking down at her; of course, "the gentleman with the ponytail". It was Kian. He had bought her!

Faye's heart swelled with joy, "Kian…"

Kian shook the small sack, filled with money, and handed it over to the auction assistant (who now wore a red bruising on his cheek from where Faye had hit him). Kian recognised it at once.

"Excuse me," Kian called the man, who looked up, "just one more thing."

And then, Kian threw one of his own swift punches of vengeance that collided into the opposite cheek of the assistant, causing him to spin around once before collapsing onto the floor. Some people nearby gasped and yelped at the outrageous behaviour but it didn't phase Kian in the slightest. Faye watched, jaw hanging, as Kian subtly scooped up his money and returned it into his cloak where it was safe.

"You shouldn't treat a lady in such a manner." Kian spoke down to the half-conscious assistant.

Faye, not bothered by the fact that Kian had just acted so violently, stepped over the assistant on the floor to reach Kian. She smiled up at his face in a dreamy type of awe, of gratitude and relief. She had been right about him.

Kian shrugged coolly, trying not to reveal that Faye's actions were effecting him at all. Naturally, he couldn't be happier that she was back with him again.

"I guess I made the wrong choice." Kian spoke, warmly and truthfully.

Faye's smile grew wider and even Kian cracked a tiny, sexy smile of his own.

"AAHHHHHHH!" A woman's awful scream interrupted them.

The town all looked over to where the scream had come from just in time to see that beautiful, white snow-tiger run out into the road with blood around its mouth. Its yellow eyes were wild and wicked and its tail swished playfully as it studied its playground of prey.

Kian grabbed Faye's arm at once, "Stay close… don't run, it'll only chase us."

Faye did exactly as Kian advised, although everyone else had other intensions. Seconds passed before the town burst into chaos and people started running for their lives, shrieking into the air, crashing into each other and acting barbaric in order to escape from the ferocious tiger. It was mayhem.