AN: Two chapters in one day. What a surprise. Anyways, I was bored so I wrote another chapter. I'm tempted to write one more today, but no promises.
Beep. Beep. Inbetween the solemn beeps of the alarm a little raven haired girl stirs and groans. Beep. Beep. Her hand hits the off button, stopping the annoying chirp. Roxanne Winlit, an average 9 year old girl throws off her covers and walks to the bathroom. She goes through her morning routine and gets ready for the day. Once she's ready she walks downstairs into the dining room. "Morning!" Chimed a cheery voice. Roxanne, half asleep, grumbles out a good morning to her mother. She sits down at the table staring at her silverware as a plate of pancakes and bacon is slid in front of her. She rubs her eyes and grabs her fork, then digs into her breakfast.
While she eats her breakfast, Roxanne's mother sits down with a plate of her own and begins to eat. Her mouth still full, Roxanne looks around and asks, "Where's daddy?" "He got a call from a friend earlier, needed help fixing a cart. He'll be home soon." Replied her mother. Roxanne looked back down at her plate and nodded. Soon, after some idle talk with her mother, she had finished her breakfast. Taking up her plate, her mother suggested Roxanne go out and play. She nodded, and got up to go outside.
She stood in her yard, bored, and looked around for something to do. Her house was farther from town, out near the countryside. Because of this, she had no nearby neighbors, let alone friends. She was always pretty lonely. Years ago, because of loneliness she used to play with imaginary friends, but as she had turned 9 recently she did away with that, claiming that imaginary friends were for little kids. She regretted this decision, it brought back her lonliness, but she held to her decision.
Frowning, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, then walked over to a ball. She began kicking it up and down the yard. After a while, she became frustrated and kicked it with all her strength. It went sailing through the yard and bounced into the forest behind her house. She hesitated at first, the forest always intimidated her. The large trees towering above her, the leaves inside blocking out the light. She shook her head, ridding herself of any fears. She was 9 she was a big kid, only babies would be scared of that forest. Roxanne reassured herself with those very thoughts.
Taking a deep breath, she worked her way to the treeline. One step at a time. Anytime she felt fear she would hesitate, only to reassure herself and continue onwards. Before she knew it she was stepping into the depths of the forest. As the darkness enveloped her she had to stop. It worried her that she couldn't see, but she calmed down as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. While still quite dark, she could atleast see.
After a while of searching she spotted the ball. She edged towards it as she felt eyes on her. She grabbed the ball, and looked around for whatever was watching her. A twig snapped and a bush rustled, that sent her over the edge. Terrified she began running towards the edge of the forest. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, but she tripped and hit something solid. It didn't feel like a tree. As it caught her and they both fell to the ground, she scrambled backwards. She closed her eyes, hoping whatever it was would go away.
"You should watch where you are going" A cocky voice taunted. Roxanne looked up to see a boy about a year older than her standing there. "Come on, you knocked me over and you won't even apologize? Jeez, you're rude." Said the boy with a large smirk on his face. Roxanne felt embarresed, and also irritated. "S-sorry." She eventually choked out. "Was that so hard?" Asked the boy.
He offered a hand to help her up and said "My name's Edwyn" The raven haired girl grabbed his hand and stood up. "I'm Roxanne." She declared. "What are you doing here in the forest?" Asked Roxanne curiously. "I should ask you the same," Edwyn replied, "But if you must know. I'm out here training, getting used to the darkness y'know." Puzzled, Roxanne questioned him further, "Training, for what?" "Geez, so many questions," Said the boy with an exaggerated sigh, "Well, me and my brother are training with our master to become mages!" Roxanne looked at him with wonder. She had never met a mage before.
"Edwyn!" A voice called in the distance. "Gotta go." Edwyn said. Before he left he added, "Meet me here again tomorrow." Roxanne nodded as he walked off. She was ecstatic, she had just made a new friend. Better yet, he was a mage!
Roxanne had made her way through the forest, marking her way as best she could to remember the spot, and came out into her yard. She came inside and went up to her room. Later her dad came home and they all had dinner. She kept her whole experience earlier a secret. After dinner she went up to bed and slept better than she had ever before.
The next few days Roxanne got up, did her morning routine, ate breakfast, then went out to the forest to meet Edwyn. During these days Edwyn and Roxanne learned a lot about each other, and became the best of friends. For the first time in her life she wasn't lonely. Everything seemd right. Until, one day after meeting Edwyn in the forest, Roxanne had made her way home. Something was wrong, the door was ajar and it was all silent throughout the house.
"Mommy, Daddy?" She called. She made her way upstairs, looking for her parents. She heard crying and faint laughter. She looked into her parents room and saw her mom crying over the limp, cold body of her father. Roxanne choked back a scream at the sight of his body. His eyes were rolled back into his head and there was a large cut across his chest. parts of his clothes were singed and there was a charred area in the middle of his wound. All color had left his body as if drained into some void.
She looked more into the room and saw two men chuckling. One was tall with bright orange hair. The hair looked as if it were flames bursting from the top of his head. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit that too, looked as if it were flames. He had a mark on his pale white neck that looked like the moon with an insidious grin. His faint laughter turned into a stomach-churning cackle as he saw his victim before him. The other man was taller, his bald head almost scraping the ceiling. He wore nothing but baggy, purple pants. He had the same mark as the other man on his chest. He just stared silently.
Roxanne's mother looked at her and mouthed run, between her sobs. The orange haired man looked over at the door and saw Roxanne. Her mother had a look of pure terror, when the man's grin grew even larger and he looked back at her. He mumbled something, then with extreme heat Roxannes mother burst into flames, her skin charring and cracking. Her blood curdling scream carried through the air. As the last of her life left the flames burned out. Roxanne, inbetween sobs, screamed and ran at the men. The men let her hit them then, as the man with orange hair was about to whisper something else that would end Roxanne, the bald man stopped him. "The master may want to see her." He rumbled out, chilling Roxanne to the bone.
The orange haired man grimaced, then grabbed her. She kicked and screamed trying to break free, but he was too strong. "A feisty one." He chuckled out, with a crazed grin. "This'll be interesting." Ignoring her protests and fighting they carried her out of the house. As they were about to leave the bald man stomped with little effort and the house came tumbling down. To cause even more pain the orange haired man set the rubble alight causing pillars of fire and smoke to shoot into the sky.
It had been 5 years since she was taken, the master of the dark guild that took her allowed her to live. As much as she wanted to be dead, the master knew it caused her pain to live. She was lonely once more, she had lost her parents, she didn't even have her friend Edwyn. She felt no sadness, she was numb to all emotions, besides anger and loneliness.
Her time at the dark guild was torture. She was abused by the people she was forced to serve. Once she had hit 14 the members were allowed to use her as they would. Often whenever she was finally alone she would resort back to imaginary friends to bring her comfort. That time, however, was fleeting. She rarely got rest, besides to sleep a few hours. Then it was back to work, days filled with abuse, violation, mistreatment. There was no break in this routine. The abuse was awful, they would beat her and injure her to the brink of death, then have a masterful healer in the guild restore her to almost pristine condition, just to go through the pain all over again.
One day she was called into the master's office. "Roxanne," he started with a devilish grin, "today will be the start of something new." Confused and untrusting Roxanne thought and thought about what kind of torture was in store for her. "Boys!" He yelled, the same two who had captured her all those years ago filed into the room. "Hold her down!" The master ordered. He pulled out a lacrima. "This here, is a lacrima infused with the powers of a Gem Dragon!" He came closer to her as she fought "You're now gonna become a little experiment of ours." He forced the lacrima into her causing her to convulse as magic flowed within. Unable to handle it, she passed out.
She woke up later, in a dark room, strapped to a bed. She struggled with the straps to no avail. Outside she could hear the guild, this was abnormal, because all rooms were normally far away from the main hall. She laid there for what felt like hours when she heard to men conversing outside the door. She shut them out, only wanting peace and quiet. Roxanne retreated deeply into her thoughts. The now dragon slayer was abruptly interrupted with shocks of pain, she had no idea what was going on, but soon passed out. As her conciousness faded she hear a voice, full of dissapointment, say, "What a shame, the lass couldn't withstand that wee bit of pain."
Years passed by with a new routine, she was experimented on. Testing the pain threshold of a dragon slayer. She would be put through many tests, only to be healed and sent through them again. She had turned 18 recently, and was ready to put her plan to action, unsure if it was their intention, Roxanne had grown stronger through the experiments. She had been planning for years to try and escape.
The door burst open. "Time for your tests!" Declared a loud, scratchy, voice. Roxanne said nothing, but waited for the machine to kick on. She pretended to pass out prematurely so that they'd shut off the machine. Angered by the miniscule amount of time she lasted. The man who was testing her unstrapped her and brought in the healer. The dragon slayer steeled herself preparing to begin the plan. As the healer finished she pulled upon her magic and let a roar burst from her mouth, knocking both men away.
As she burst into the main room of the guild hall, the mages within shook off the shock then charged foward. Thinking of the years of torture and everything she went through caused anger to radiate from within her, she lost control as her skin became more scale-like and her eyes reptillian. She let out another roar, this one much more powerful due to dragon force, and knocked men into the walls and destroyed pillars. The roof sagged a bit due to the sudden weakening in support. A few beams above groaned and snapped, falling to the floor below. Not wasting any time Roxanne burst her way past every one and blasted a hole in the wall. She jumped through it, not caring about the mages behind her.
As she left that guild, she burst into a full sprint, outrunning all the mages behind her. She began to shed tears, she was free. The torture was over. Her eyes returned to normal, her scales faded. She didn't stop running. She continued for miles until she finally felt safe. Something urged her to go to a place she had heard of. A chance for a fresh start beckoned her. She headed off towards Magnolia.
AN: (More notes at the bottom? How about that.) Hooray for timeskips and all that. Mah boi Edwyn's backstory is up next.