Atilosvan (not done)

She seemed to be beauty incarnate. Yes, she was only six, but her beauty surpassed any one else's. No one could deny this girls beauty, just like they couldn't deny her temper. That, they say, she must have inherited from her father. The girl's mother never seemed to have lost her temper, she was a calm person. She was friends with everyone she met, except Venus, her daughter.

Mildred was jealous of the beauty bestowed upon her daughter. She herself was no ugly duckling, but like every one else, she her beauty paled in comparison to Venus's. Not only did Venus have her mother's jealous working against her, but the fact that she was a product of rape didn't help it any either. Every time her mother looks at her she can't help but remember when the village was raided and the soldiers came and busted down her door. Why should a child conceived by such an ugly dead have the most radiant beauty? She always thinks, her bitterness and jealousy would someday be her downfall she was always told, but never completely believed it.

Venus has never met her father, and she likes it that way. But she, unlike every one else in the village knows that here mother isn't the gentle woman every one else sees her as. She in fact does have a temper, and she in fact can be considerable cruel. Driven by the jealousy of her beauty and the hate of Venus's father, Mildred has several times beaten Venus to the point of unconsciousness and has locked her in a hidden room in the basement that is just big enough to fit her.

Of course she couldn't let the abuse spill out onto the street, she was after all, the most loved woman in the whole village, so she always made sure Venus had the best clothes, always made sure she was the center of attention, always made sure to make it seem like she loved her.

But Venus didn't need her mother's help to be the center of attention. Her hot temper did that with out fail. Venus was horrible at keeping her cool, and when she lost it, she lost it. She would go after anything and everything in her way and stop at nothing. She would attack anything if provoked enough, whether it be a child her age, an animal, even a fully grown adult, nothing was safe when this little girl lost her temper. Not only would she go after everything, but she could actually win a fight against most people.

After her attack on the mayor, Mildred knew it was time to leave. She packed things up over night, leaving all of Venus's things behind. The next morning, before the sun had completely risen, they were gone, heading out for Atilosvan.

Upon arriving to the island, they took root to a house far away from any main cities, Mildred didn't want her daughter to be seen, she wanted all the attention to herself. So in a feeble attempt to mask her daughters beauty, she set her to work. Her daughter was to do everything she could think of, from tending to their newly bought animals, to cleaning everything even the fireplace and chimney, to tending to the herb garden out back where Mildred grew all her herbs, for she decided to make a living as a doctor.

Year after year, Venus was never clean, she just had to many chores and no time for a bath. But she did find time for training. She got stronger and stronger with each passing day. She had gotten to the point where she could actually carry their fully grown cow on her shoulder, she was only twelve.

One day, something quite odd happened when Venus was seventeen. A ship had shown up in the docks fully loaded with an army, something unheard of in the entire time of civilization on the island. The island has always been a peaceful holy place, not unfriendly to warriors, but rather disapproving of armies coming to shore. While they wouldn't turn them away, every one was quite nervous, even with the ancient magic protecting them.

The commander of the army, a rather large man named Zeke, was the only one to actually leave the ship. He wandered the city with out saying a word. He stayed for three days, searching every where, not saying a word, with his crew all on board.
Finally he came across the house of Mildred. Venus was out behind the house, tending to the now rather large herb garden and the cows where out grazing behind the garden. Zeke heard her singing, and like the voice of a siren it drew him in.

He walked around the house, and some how managed to stay out of her sight. She walked up and down the rows of herbs watering them. She had a huge barrel on her back with a small tube hooked up to it that she held over the plants as she walked by. The barrel was at least three times bigger than her, and that amazed Zeke. He stood there, mouth open and eyes wide. Just when he though it couldn't seem any more amazing, Venus spotted a cow starting to munch on some mint near the edge of the garden.

She caps the end of the tube and takes off to the edge of the garden. Upon reaching the cow she scooped it up onto her shoulder and started walking it back to the field with the rest of the cows, "Now what did I tell ya about eating the herbs? Mother needs those to make a living," she says to the cow.

Zeke is standing transfixed. Not only does her beauty radiate through the dirt, but she is incredibly strong. This who he was looking for he decides. He opens his mouth to speak, but the words just wont come out. Here he is, the commander of one of the greatest armies ever known, and he is in aw of a teenage girl. He steps out into the open.

She sets the cow down and turns back to the garden. She spots Zeke, she isn't at all startled that there is suddenly a strange man in her back yard. She walks to the edge of the garden and takes off the barrel. She sets it down and there is a loud thud. She walks over to him and reaches offers him her hand, "Are you here to see mother?"

"Uh, no actually," he says, "I'm here looking for an apprentice."

She looks at him curiously, "An apprentice for what?"

"To help lead my army, and take over once I'm gone. Or maybe even start an army of his--er--her own."

All she does is look at him. She can't believe what he is saying, "And you want me?"

"Yes. Yes I do," he says. She walks towards the front of the house and he follows behind her. She makes it to the door.

"Stay right there," she says and heads inside. Next thing you know she is walking out with her mother on her knees crawling begging her to stay.

"Please Venus, you can't leave me!" she screams, "I have no one else to help me! Please! After all that I've done for you!"

Venus stops in her tracks and turns the face the woman graveling at her feet. She bends over, they are face to face, "What the fuck are you talking about?! All that you've done for me!" she lifts her mother up by her shirt her feet are dangling in the air as she struggles in Venus's grip, "You haven't done shit for me!"

She drops her mother, and she lands in a heap on the ground. Venus walks away with Zeke, neither of them say a word. They just walk away as Venus is rejoiced by the new freedom she has attained, and Zeke wonders if he actually did the right thing, and if she can live up to his expectations.

Venus got on board the ship, walking behind Zeke looking at the ground.  The deck was packed, all Zeke's men were up there waiting to see the new recruit.  They all stare in utter confusion as Zeke leads her through the parting crowd.  She can't look up, she feels all of their eyes on her.  She is suddenly self-conscious.

The men whisper amongst themselves, just loud enough for Zeke to hear their disapproval of a woman on board.  Venus keeps looking down as she begins to hear laughter in the crowd.  Why is she here? She could never be as strong or as useful as these men.

Finally they make it to the back of the ship, where Zeke's quarters are.  Zeke opens the door and holds it for Venus.  She walks in and stands just off to the side of the door.

Zeke walks in and heads over to a table with two chairs next to it, its bolted to the ground in a very crude fashion, just like everything else in room.  He sits down and just looks at Venus, she walks over and sits down on the chair across the table from him.

"So," he says to her, "think you can handle it?" He expects her to know everything, know all the answer, or at least pretend to, that's what he is looking for, some one with confidence, not just strength.  He is looking for a person who can carry themselves well in a respectful manner, but still get down and dirty when need be.  And in this case, she could use sex appeal to get into places the other men couldn't, seeing as how she will probably be the only woman in any of the armies.  It amazes him how she can be so strong, and so no signs of it at all.

"I-I guess," she says, her voice is slightly trembling.  Zeke just looks at her and nods his head, eyeing her, rethinking, maybe she isn't what he was looking for after all, maybe he found the wrong person, maybe this wasn't Wampyr's child. "Yes, I know I am."

He smiles, "Okay, then you're gonna need a place to sleep," he says standing up and walking back to the door, "You coming?" She gets up and follows him out the door.  The men on board of scattered and started working on leaving the island, Venus's heart sinks a little, even though she can't stand her mother, she has never been away from her, she feels alone.

Zeke leads her down below the deck and down a couple of hall ways, finally stopping at the last door at the very back of the ship.

The ship trusts forward and Venus loses her balance and flies into the door and slides down to the floor and Zeke is knocked just a little off balance.  He laughs and offers her his hand, she takes it and stands up, "Gonna need to learn to walk on this ship, it can be a pain."

She chuckles a little and rubs her left shoulder.  Zeke turns to the door and opens it up, "Right inside there," he says.  She takes a step in and doesn't like what she sees.  It's the jail.

"You don't have to sleep in a cell, but you have to sleep in here," he says and walks away.  She walks in to inspect her new home.  It's cold, really cold.  She walks down between the cells, filled with men all staring at her, making rude gestures, and even touching her.  The guy in the fourth cell on her right side grabbed her arm.
"Let go," she said trying to sound tougher than him.

"No," he says as he pulls her up to the bars, they're so cold, she can't help but gasp as the cold steel touches her skin and he grabs a hold of her hair and pulls her head up against the bars.  He smells her neck, "Pretty," he said. He touches her thigh with his hand and starts to move it up.

She grabs it and smiles.  She pulls his hand up quicker than he was.  Right before his hand touches her she twists it away, breaking his wrist.

"You bitch!" he yells and bangs her head against the bars over and over.  On about the sixth time she reaches up and grabs his hand with both of hers and twists, she isn't in the position to break this one too, but he lets go. She pulls his arm through the bars and twists it behind his back, pulling it up as far as she can.

"What was that?" she whispers in his ear, "Whatcha call me?" She is breathing heavy adrenaline fills her body, her heart pounds, she loves the feeling.  He doesn't answer and she twists it up even more.  She sees clumps of her blue hair in his hand, it just makes the anger worse and she twists his arm even farther.

The man is trying not to yell.  She rips a strip of fabric off of the bottom of her shirt, the men whistle and cheer her on.  She ties the mans hand up where it is, he probably could, under normal circumstances, break it, but not with his hand where it is now.  He can't move his body with out risking breaking or dislocating his upper arm, and he can't reach the fabric with his other hand to untie it.

Venus walks away, back to the door, she thought she saw a pile of steel bars, to replace and fix broken bars in the cells.  She gets back and sure enough there is a pile of them.  She grabs one and walks back.

She slides it behind his back and bends it around his wrist making it impossible to get free with out assistance.  She twists the ends of the bar together. "Anyone else wanna touch me?" she asks the other men who are in an uproar as the man stuck to the cell wall curses up a storm.

The door to the jail opened, "What's going on done there?" She hears a man ask, she doesn't recognize the voice as Zeke's so she doesn't respond, she really doesn't know what she should do, what if she gets in trouble her first day here.  The men get silent, "What's going on?!" the man is already annoyed.