Disclaimer: Okay! I'm sorry for missing this on the last chapter, but I
don't own Final Fantasy IX. Geez, I'm not insane, Square does foo's. So
don't sue giggleplex, she barely owns the computer she is typing this on,
or the Cibo Matto CD that is playing.
Chapter 1:
"You didn't get enough, brat!"
The woman backhanded her shaking daughter in disgust, causing her to fall backwards in a heap of mismatched patches and tangled hair. The blow landed directly on her right cheek, leaving an angry red mark on her pale face and the physical illusion of a million pins poking her nastily as some sort of aftershock. The pain almost brought tears to her eyes. Almost. Because she knew for certain that if one droplet escaped her squinting eyes that wasn't a satisfying red, her punishment would be even worse.
So she bit her bottom lip down as hard as she could, allowed her hair to cover her face, and balled her bony hands into tight fists, with white knuckles popping out and fingernails cutting into her sweaty palms. Then she waited for her dear mother to continue.
"I told you to buy ~five~ carrots, not a bloody FOUR!" her eyes flashed dangerously.
But the girl didn't argue or deny the words. That would be the worst thing she could do at that moment.
"You'd think for all the time you spend at that school, you'd at least have learned to count!" she yelled, spittle flying out of her mouth in all directions. "But no. You're even stupider than I gave you credit for!" She kicked the girl on the floor.
But before she could even stop herself, the girl cried out "But you only gave me twelve gil, a-and carrots are three!"
The woman's face grew even angrier as the girl clamped a hand to her mouth. "Carrots are two gil the last time I checked! That means you should have two gil left. God! Tell me WHY I was cursed with this impudent fool!" She cried out, tilting her head to the heavens.
The girl's eyes closed slowly in hopelessness. She felt her mother's presence loom over her, and braced herself for the severe beating that would surely follow.
* * *
She stumbled into her room, having to rest slightly just outside of the door because of the effort it took her to climb up the stairs. Once her spinning head found that she was in her only safe place, that was when the tears came.
Her name was Maiaza; the fifteen year old daughter of Shiesha and Ulban Striner ((AN no, not "Steiner")). Supposedly, that is. She looked nothing like them; she was tall, remarkably thin with light brown hair and chocolate eyes. Her mother was short, plump and an excellent example of fading beauty with her flyaway red hair and bright blue eyes. Her father was tall, burly with black eyes matching hair, and a glare almost fixed permanently on his face. Maiaza didn't really ~hate~ them, they were family after all! Though for some reason completely unbeknown to her, they just seemed to hate her with a remarkable passion. Or at least, they didn't show any "normal" parental concern for her. Maiaza's three brothers were treated with smiles, hugs and the occasional fond kiss. She was treated with scowls, yells and sharp kicks. So, fear was almost the only emotion she had known.
With great effort, she crawled her way over to her small cot, the salty and increasingly sticky tears still moving. It was a good thing it was layed out on the floor, for she was feeling somewhat noxious, and didn't want to risk standing at that moment. She shivered a bit and buried her smeared face as far as she could into it. Sometimes, she would do this on happier days, and pretend she was in another world. A world full of no pain, and no parents. But, happier days had long since disappeared from her miserable life.
She rolled over, shivering uncontrollably under a paper thin blanket; that was all that was given to her, even on this cold October night. If it got really cold, she would sometimes retrieve all of her clothing (two skirts, two tunics, one old cloak and a hidden pair of her brother's old breeches that she wasn't supposed to have) and bundle herself up in that. But tonight, winter was just starting and she knew that she would have to get used to the cold if she wanted to survive.
Well one good thing about living in the attic was she at least was safe from her family. They despised the attic; most likely because of the strict religion they were involved in that was determined to rid the world of demons. Supposedly, the higher up you were, the closer the horrible demons were. Maiaza didn't really believe that, so it didn't bother her as much. Of course, she would have ended up in the attic anyways, no matter what she thought. Though she wasn't alive during the Massacre where Lindblum was almost completely destroyed, she really couldn't say anything about the "demons" not being real.
Maiaza snuggled into the blanket as much as she could, tears no longer coming from pain, but of sorrow. Why were her parents always like this? Why didn't she have her own breeches let alone bed? It wasn't as if they were terribly poor; her father was a good and stable Lindblum citizen, her brothers all apprenticed in respectable jobs, and her mother was a good housewife. Just everything a normal girl would need. . .
/But I'm not normal/ she thought, firmly knowing what she was talking about. Maiaza attended the required (by the regent himself) schooling every day. No one could hurt her there; and it was the only thing she could really do for herself, and not some other person. She had even made some friends there, others who were in situations not unlike Maiaza's own. And even though they couldn't exactly help each other, it was at least comforting in not being alone.
Suddenly, she was brought out of her thoughts from a cold and powerful wind, coming and probably would have made her non-existent windows rattle. She couldn't remember the last time she was this cold; it seemed far worse than usual. She curled herself up tighter, hoping it would help, but it didn't. She was shivering violently and started coughing, making her throat burn as if it was rubbing against sandpaper. And Maiaza knew she wasn't going to get any help. Here anyways.
So, the brown-eyed girl mustered as much strength as she could afford, threw her trembling hand to grasp her cloak, and somehow managed to pull it on while breaking into another fit of coughs. Her feet were a bit more unsure of themselves than she would have hoped, causing her to stumble to her little trapdoor rather than walk, but it served her purpose and that was the important thing right now. Then, she flung it open.
The icy chill whipped her knee-length tangled hair painfully across her now dry, salty face. Biting her lip to relieve pain, she carefully lowered herself down to stand on the kitchen's rooftop, glad for once that she wore cheap, soft-soled shoes rather than steel ones, because they might have heard her escape. And if that happened, it would be an escape no longer.
Her gaze setting on the frosty material underfoot, she wished she had a real cloak rather than the rags she wore now, but now was not the time to think of such luxuries.
Making sure a small pouch was tucked in and safe in her pocket, she walked carefully over to the other side of their house. She only got caught once, but that was an experience she truly wished to forget.
She sprang like a cat to the next rooftop, taking almost the same care as her home's but going a bit quicker. She wouldn't have even gone outside under normal circumstances, but . . . she ~needed~ to. Maiaza proceeded to the next roof, and the next, and the next . . .
The sky was completely dark now, its stars hidden by the billowing clouds of mist. She cursed silently as she noticed it; mist shouldn't have drifted this high around this time of year. Then, she quickened her pace almost dangerously, because falling off a house was certainly safer than being unarmed when the mist-monsters showed up.
Her eyes were watering, yet still dry from the wind. It became harder and harder to breathe, causing Maiaza to inhale with a rasp and increasingly more coughs. Oh, how she wished she was in front of a warm fire, sipping bits of tea and cuddling with a yellow eyed cat. . .
/No/ she scolded herself mentally. She needed to use all of her wits on the task at hand, not dreaming foolishly of something that was impossible to occur.
She coughed again. Luckily, no one would really think twice about hearing coughing this deep into the slums. The shadowed buildings around here were mostly in various forms of disrepair, and so were its people. If anyone actually heard her, they would most likely be insane, to drunk to care, or too frightened of their world to put two and two together.
Maiaza continued, her cough becoming steadily worse and more uncontrollable. Her unsteady breathing didn't help matters either. Twice, she was forced to stop, just to catch her breath, and wheeze in the smoke- contaminated air.
But she couldn't stop. She had already reached her decision when she left the attic.
Then, after what seemed like an age of roof-jumping, Maiaza's destination came into view.
It was a rather dreary looking building that caught her attention. Even from her rooftop view, she could hear the animated chatting and gruff laughter that erupted from the place. Candle and firelight shined from under and over the creaky door, slightly illuminating the old hanging sign which read: "The Hungry Bandersnatch"
Maiaza leapt down to the ground, and headed toward the welcomed sign. Not bothering to further investigate the trip as she landed, which she never did.
The short walk to the seemingly constantly swinging door, was ridiculously hard. The world started to spin in a wild blur to Maiaza, who's only reliable sight became the blinking light ahead.
She coughed again, the act to her throat hurt more than her head, which let us assume, hurt greatly.
Maiaza lost track of time, her only thought being to continue the agonizing strides, and the pain. Oh the pain. . .
She bumped the swinging door open with one last stumble, not being able to think now that she had reached the destination that seemed so impossible before. The inn seemed to fall silent upon her abrupt arrival, but she didn't notice. She only noticed the mop of red hair that was located somewhere above her before whispering the barely audible word; "Willie".
Then her world spun into dark.
************************************************************************
Okay, the first official chappie, in my first official ficly is now. . .*drumroll*. . . finished! Yupparoosies, aren't I special? Anywho, I tried to deal with the pauses and italics best I could, but I'm not promising anything. So, we'll see how it turns out.
Anywho, the main character is now introduced. And no, this is NOT a Mary Sue. I wish I was like her though. . .^^
So now, you have to tell me what you think! Pwease? You could even click on that little box, not have a name, and just say a one word comment! I just want to see if my writing style's okay. See, I'm usually only a reviewer (which I'm somewhat good at actually) but I thought I should try this out. Hope I amused you so far!
Chapter 1:
"You didn't get enough, brat!"
The woman backhanded her shaking daughter in disgust, causing her to fall backwards in a heap of mismatched patches and tangled hair. The blow landed directly on her right cheek, leaving an angry red mark on her pale face and the physical illusion of a million pins poking her nastily as some sort of aftershock. The pain almost brought tears to her eyes. Almost. Because she knew for certain that if one droplet escaped her squinting eyes that wasn't a satisfying red, her punishment would be even worse.
So she bit her bottom lip down as hard as she could, allowed her hair to cover her face, and balled her bony hands into tight fists, with white knuckles popping out and fingernails cutting into her sweaty palms. Then she waited for her dear mother to continue.
"I told you to buy ~five~ carrots, not a bloody FOUR!" her eyes flashed dangerously.
But the girl didn't argue or deny the words. That would be the worst thing she could do at that moment.
"You'd think for all the time you spend at that school, you'd at least have learned to count!" she yelled, spittle flying out of her mouth in all directions. "But no. You're even stupider than I gave you credit for!" She kicked the girl on the floor.
But before she could even stop herself, the girl cried out "But you only gave me twelve gil, a-and carrots are three!"
The woman's face grew even angrier as the girl clamped a hand to her mouth. "Carrots are two gil the last time I checked! That means you should have two gil left. God! Tell me WHY I was cursed with this impudent fool!" She cried out, tilting her head to the heavens.
The girl's eyes closed slowly in hopelessness. She felt her mother's presence loom over her, and braced herself for the severe beating that would surely follow.
* * *
She stumbled into her room, having to rest slightly just outside of the door because of the effort it took her to climb up the stairs. Once her spinning head found that she was in her only safe place, that was when the tears came.
Her name was Maiaza; the fifteen year old daughter of Shiesha and Ulban Striner ((AN no, not "Steiner")). Supposedly, that is. She looked nothing like them; she was tall, remarkably thin with light brown hair and chocolate eyes. Her mother was short, plump and an excellent example of fading beauty with her flyaway red hair and bright blue eyes. Her father was tall, burly with black eyes matching hair, and a glare almost fixed permanently on his face. Maiaza didn't really ~hate~ them, they were family after all! Though for some reason completely unbeknown to her, they just seemed to hate her with a remarkable passion. Or at least, they didn't show any "normal" parental concern for her. Maiaza's three brothers were treated with smiles, hugs and the occasional fond kiss. She was treated with scowls, yells and sharp kicks. So, fear was almost the only emotion she had known.
With great effort, she crawled her way over to her small cot, the salty and increasingly sticky tears still moving. It was a good thing it was layed out on the floor, for she was feeling somewhat noxious, and didn't want to risk standing at that moment. She shivered a bit and buried her smeared face as far as she could into it. Sometimes, she would do this on happier days, and pretend she was in another world. A world full of no pain, and no parents. But, happier days had long since disappeared from her miserable life.
She rolled over, shivering uncontrollably under a paper thin blanket; that was all that was given to her, even on this cold October night. If it got really cold, she would sometimes retrieve all of her clothing (two skirts, two tunics, one old cloak and a hidden pair of her brother's old breeches that she wasn't supposed to have) and bundle herself up in that. But tonight, winter was just starting and she knew that she would have to get used to the cold if she wanted to survive.
Well one good thing about living in the attic was she at least was safe from her family. They despised the attic; most likely because of the strict religion they were involved in that was determined to rid the world of demons. Supposedly, the higher up you were, the closer the horrible demons were. Maiaza didn't really believe that, so it didn't bother her as much. Of course, she would have ended up in the attic anyways, no matter what she thought. Though she wasn't alive during the Massacre where Lindblum was almost completely destroyed, she really couldn't say anything about the "demons" not being real.
Maiaza snuggled into the blanket as much as she could, tears no longer coming from pain, but of sorrow. Why were her parents always like this? Why didn't she have her own breeches let alone bed? It wasn't as if they were terribly poor; her father was a good and stable Lindblum citizen, her brothers all apprenticed in respectable jobs, and her mother was a good housewife. Just everything a normal girl would need. . .
/But I'm not normal/ she thought, firmly knowing what she was talking about. Maiaza attended the required (by the regent himself) schooling every day. No one could hurt her there; and it was the only thing she could really do for herself, and not some other person. She had even made some friends there, others who were in situations not unlike Maiaza's own. And even though they couldn't exactly help each other, it was at least comforting in not being alone.
Suddenly, she was brought out of her thoughts from a cold and powerful wind, coming and probably would have made her non-existent windows rattle. She couldn't remember the last time she was this cold; it seemed far worse than usual. She curled herself up tighter, hoping it would help, but it didn't. She was shivering violently and started coughing, making her throat burn as if it was rubbing against sandpaper. And Maiaza knew she wasn't going to get any help. Here anyways.
So, the brown-eyed girl mustered as much strength as she could afford, threw her trembling hand to grasp her cloak, and somehow managed to pull it on while breaking into another fit of coughs. Her feet were a bit more unsure of themselves than she would have hoped, causing her to stumble to her little trapdoor rather than walk, but it served her purpose and that was the important thing right now. Then, she flung it open.
The icy chill whipped her knee-length tangled hair painfully across her now dry, salty face. Biting her lip to relieve pain, she carefully lowered herself down to stand on the kitchen's rooftop, glad for once that she wore cheap, soft-soled shoes rather than steel ones, because they might have heard her escape. And if that happened, it would be an escape no longer.
Her gaze setting on the frosty material underfoot, she wished she had a real cloak rather than the rags she wore now, but now was not the time to think of such luxuries.
Making sure a small pouch was tucked in and safe in her pocket, she walked carefully over to the other side of their house. She only got caught once, but that was an experience she truly wished to forget.
She sprang like a cat to the next rooftop, taking almost the same care as her home's but going a bit quicker. She wouldn't have even gone outside under normal circumstances, but . . . she ~needed~ to. Maiaza proceeded to the next roof, and the next, and the next . . .
The sky was completely dark now, its stars hidden by the billowing clouds of mist. She cursed silently as she noticed it; mist shouldn't have drifted this high around this time of year. Then, she quickened her pace almost dangerously, because falling off a house was certainly safer than being unarmed when the mist-monsters showed up.
Her eyes were watering, yet still dry from the wind. It became harder and harder to breathe, causing Maiaza to inhale with a rasp and increasingly more coughs. Oh, how she wished she was in front of a warm fire, sipping bits of tea and cuddling with a yellow eyed cat. . .
/No/ she scolded herself mentally. She needed to use all of her wits on the task at hand, not dreaming foolishly of something that was impossible to occur.
She coughed again. Luckily, no one would really think twice about hearing coughing this deep into the slums. The shadowed buildings around here were mostly in various forms of disrepair, and so were its people. If anyone actually heard her, they would most likely be insane, to drunk to care, or too frightened of their world to put two and two together.
Maiaza continued, her cough becoming steadily worse and more uncontrollable. Her unsteady breathing didn't help matters either. Twice, she was forced to stop, just to catch her breath, and wheeze in the smoke- contaminated air.
But she couldn't stop. She had already reached her decision when she left the attic.
Then, after what seemed like an age of roof-jumping, Maiaza's destination came into view.
It was a rather dreary looking building that caught her attention. Even from her rooftop view, she could hear the animated chatting and gruff laughter that erupted from the place. Candle and firelight shined from under and over the creaky door, slightly illuminating the old hanging sign which read: "The Hungry Bandersnatch"
Maiaza leapt down to the ground, and headed toward the welcomed sign. Not bothering to further investigate the trip as she landed, which she never did.
The short walk to the seemingly constantly swinging door, was ridiculously hard. The world started to spin in a wild blur to Maiaza, who's only reliable sight became the blinking light ahead.
She coughed again, the act to her throat hurt more than her head, which let us assume, hurt greatly.
Maiaza lost track of time, her only thought being to continue the agonizing strides, and the pain. Oh the pain. . .
She bumped the swinging door open with one last stumble, not being able to think now that she had reached the destination that seemed so impossible before. The inn seemed to fall silent upon her abrupt arrival, but she didn't notice. She only noticed the mop of red hair that was located somewhere above her before whispering the barely audible word; "Willie".
Then her world spun into dark.
************************************************************************
Okay, the first official chappie, in my first official ficly is now. . .*drumroll*. . . finished! Yupparoosies, aren't I special? Anywho, I tried to deal with the pauses and italics best I could, but I'm not promising anything. So, we'll see how it turns out.
Anywho, the main character is now introduced. And no, this is NOT a Mary Sue. I wish I was like her though. . .^^
So now, you have to tell me what you think! Pwease? You could even click on that little box, not have a name, and just say a one word comment! I just want to see if my writing style's okay. See, I'm usually only a reviewer (which I'm somewhat good at actually) but I thought I should try this out. Hope I amused you so far!