So this here is really the first chapter. I wanted to start out with a teaser chapter (I think thats what you call it) to try and spark some interest for all of you out there. It may not be the best of writing, but I'm going to give it a shot anyways.
~~~~~~~~~~~~Yone

Chapter 1 The Cold and the Just

For years I had been hidden away, in a dark and cold cell. I had never known what I had done to deserve such a dreary place.
My own family as they called themselves said I did not need the light of day, or the warmth of the sun.

They said 'it was best that I be locked away, I was not needed in the world.'

Truly I would do more good if I rotted away in their dungeon beneath my so called home, over and over through out my years that was all I heard, from everyone.....well almost everyone.

I had one friend in the world, and his name was Alester. He was an older man, nearing his sixty's when he first started helping me.

He was a scholar for my family. He had been all over the world in his youth. To the highest mountains of Yavac, to the shallow shores of Vestin.

My family had an intense thirst for knowledge of many things. Knowledge of all sorts, mostly knowledge of secrets but most weren't aware of that. They wanted to know everything about everything, so they wouldn't be in the dark about what was going on.

They sold information when needed, and tied up loose ends for information they wanted. They even tied up the ends of the family secrets, family line and any facts that involved them.

No one could ever find any information on us. They let people know what they wanted and that was it. It's still a wonder how Alester found out about me, but he did and I was saved thanks to that.

It was like it was any other day, cold dark and dreary. I had just received my breakfast of two day old stale bread and water. I tried to eat slowly not knowing when I would be fed again. I had learned that they fed me when they wanted or felt like it. I couldn't remember the last time it had been a daily thing.

Just because my family didn't want to kill me doesn't mean they didn't want me to die, not just yet anways. As to why that is, I'm still not sure. Sometimes it seems that they are waiting for something to happen, though I don't know if it would be a good or a bad ending for me. For whatever it is they are waiting for.

As I was finishing what I had left of my bread and water I heard footsteps approach down the cement dungeon stairs. I knew that was not a good thing to hear, I quickly finished eating and then hid in a corner of my cell.

Whoever that is was that was coming to my cell, I wanted to be as far away from them as I could be. Over the years my relatives liked to come down to the dungeon to have a little entertainment, in my expense of course. Sometimes the guards or people who I assumed worked for my family. Even my young cousins with my nieces and nephews would come down and be cruel to me.

The cruelty would differ from the age and rank groups. As I heard the steps getting close, I hoped that it would be just one of the younger ones. Yes they were cruel and yes they still injured me, but I would prefer their marks that would clear up in a few day. Instead of others who's marks would remain on me for weeks or a month or so.

I held my breath as I realized it was no child's steps, but those of an adult. I wished to be wrong but after years of hearing foot steps down the dungeon cellar, I had learned to tell how many their were and if they were a child or adult.

I pulled my body as close to the corner as I could, pulling my knees to my chest with my arms wrapped around them and my head in between them. I tightened my eyes as my cell down creaked open and shuffling steps came in. I dared not to look up or move and just waited for the pain to come.

I tried to calm my breathe as I heard the cell door creak closed. I internally flinched and curled my toes underneath my feet. As the feet took its finally steps away from the cell door towards me, I willed myself not to cry. I was on the breaking point when I heard something I hadn't heard in forever as the footsteps stopped about a foot away from me.

I tried to move as I listened for it again. It was a sigh, and not just any sigh a sad one...Why?.. Why? I froze not sure what to do. My curiosity was getting the better of me. I wanted, no needed to look up and see why.

It was such a strange sound to hear out of whoever entered my cell. No one had ever been remorseful or sorrowful over me, but that sigh. 'Why?'.

I waited for a few more minutes to see if it would happen again and it did. I could no longer ignore my curiosity scratching at the back of my head. I needed to know and now, I could no longer stop myself from looking up.

I slowly pulled my head from in between my arms and raised my head up ever so slowly. Still cautious about what could happen if it was just a trick to test me.

As I preceded to look up at this person before me, I quickly noted the shoes and clothes it wore.It was clothing of a scholar, I had seen it enough in pictures of books an elderly maid had given me to know. They may have been ripped to pieces in front of me but the pictures were engraved into my mind.

The elderly maid use to say, 'these men and woman were gods when it came to knowledge. They knew everything, and could help anyone with any questions they had.' I was in awe of them, since the first time she was able to tell me stories of what some scholars had done. These men and woman would use their knowledge for good and just things, to help people. I loved to hear those stories, they were good people. They were people who were the exact opposite of my family. I had always wanted to be able to talk to one and ask them all the questions about why my family were so cruel and what had I done to them to be put here.

I stopped raising my head as I got to his chin. I say his, because he was obviously a man by his form and his dark grey chin whiskers, an older man but still. I felt a chill run through me, what if he wasn't a good scholar. What if he was like the rest of the people that came down to "visit" me.

If he was like the rest, the same as them...what hope could I hold onto anymore? And once more why would he come down to here anyways? I am the only one down here since the older man three cells away from me died. What importance could I have for a scholar to come down here and see me?..I'll tell you...none.

My emotions were uncontrollable, this was to much to bare. If he was truly down here to hurt me like the rest, I hoped that he'd kill me. To end this, all of it... This suffering was just to much.

I couldn't stop the sob that came from my mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out another sob. I put my right hand across my eyes tightly and continued to sob,and then spoke out to him.

"Please.... I beg of you please. N-No more, no more. I can't take this anymore. Pl-please if your just going to hurt me, please just...just kill me now. I don't wa-want to be like this anymore."

I had sniffled and sobbed through my words, but I was sure he understood. I could feel the tears on my cheeks as I spoke but I didn't care. I left it be, held it in for so long, I just couldn't anymore.

I felt more tears come and fall as I heard him step towards me and then crouch down. I heard him shifting a bit and ruffling from his clothes, but didn't remove my hand to see what he was doing. At this point it no longer mattered, maybe he was feeling bad and had a knife on him and was going to do what I asked. I let my body relax at that thought, to be at peace. Even if I wasn't at peace in this world, I would be in the next one for sure.

I heard him shift closer to me, thinking to myself this is it. It's over now, no more suffering, no more pain, no more of this cruel life.

I heard him sigh deeply and waited for the pain to come and release me from this world, but....but it never came. I waited for a few more moments and nothing. I frowned deeply as I couldn't understanding what he was doing and why I was still alive.

I was going over a million and two thoughts as I stayed there, but then suddenly my thoughts were disturbed.

I felt something on my face, my left cheek, where I had been wounded by a guard a few days ago. It was cold and damp, soaked really but it felt so smooth and so pleasant.

I wrinkled my forehead as I removed my hand from my eyes and looked right at the scholar's face. He looked at me with such a heart breaking expression, my heart clenched as I saw small tears forming in his light grey eyes.

I stared at him as he swallowed a lump in his throat and then finally spoke.

"I-I am so so sorry it took me so long to get here. It will be alright now, I'm going to protect you now, Amelia."

I was in utter disbelief as a single tear rolled down his face.

I thought to myself 'why?'.

Here was this elder man, who I had never seen or met before me and he was tearing and saying sorry to me. For what I didn't know or could even began to grasp as I was still in shock over the whole event.

I tried to listen and focus on what he was saying as he spoke once again to me but it was all a blur. So many emotions and questions coursed through me I didn't know where to began. My mind swirled and spun as I felt myself start to fall.

As I collapsed my world darken, and one word still imprinted on my mind.

'Why'?

It was the same 'why' I had every time I collapsed, but at the same time it was a different why. A why, that had never occurred to me that could ever happen for me. A why, that shook my world completely. A why that stirred a new emotion in me, one I had never felt before.

A why that I would always remember, for the rest of my life.

Author Note

Tell me what you think, like it? Dislike it?

Any typos or grammar errors?

Looking forward to more?