Note: In order to understand who Everly is and all that good stuff, a part of her past had to be revealed. This is a major part that will come to play in future chapters and a tiny glimpse to who Everly is. It's late so this is all you're getting until the next part that will let you in on...well I guess you will have to stick around to find out what happens next. I would like to thank Calla Mae for lending me her ear when it came to this story. I much greatly appreciated it -Check out her stories; they are fantastic to read.

Reviews are great and wonderful; flames are not tolerated.

Chapter One: The Escape

It was dark and cold. The faint smell of mildew and death lingered heavily in the surroundings of the steel cage. Locked away deep in the cave, not a sound except for the echoes of dripping water. Not a light but the faint flicker of the torch that hung on the ridged rocks.

The occupant of the cage sat to the far right of the door that trapped her inside. Her arms were wrapped around her knees holding them tight against her small body. She shivered from the cold, she coughed when the dust kicked up when the cool breeze crept in from the entrance of the cave.

Her stomach growled from the lack of food she didn't have. Her mouth was dry to the point that her lips cracked and small pools of blood trickled down her chin. She could not cry nor could she speak when it hurt just to breathe. Her clothes were rags, tattered and torn and unable to keep her warm. Dirt and grim was smeared on her pale colored face and on her exposed skin. Her hair was a tangled mess, caked with dirt and dried blood from the sharp edges of the rocks when she tried to sleep.

It had been a week or more, she had lost track of time and space, the lack of reality and what was real, since he came to see her last. Things blurred together into a blob of darkness. Her head mostly spun out of control. She would lay across the cold metal bars, crawl into a ball and wish for this to end and if she was lucky sleep would take over.

No one knew she was there, far away and deep into the mountain so no one could hear her cries for help. No one would be able to find her and save her from her fate. Her cruel fate to die alone, locked away as some animal.

She didn't quite understand why she was there, it's been the only place she's ever known. All she could remember. She would try to ask him why. Why would he do such a thing to her when she's never done anything wrong.

His words hurt and stung, shattering her tiny heart when he looked at her with such hatred and anger towards the child and said: "You took her away and now you will be punished."

"I'm sorry, daddy" She pleaded with him, her hands clinching around the bars. Tears spilled down her face, leaving streaks as her tears washed away the dirt. "I'm sorry, daddy. I didn't mean too. I didn't mean too..."

"Shut up!" He roared, dark eyes glaring back at her. They flickered with blackness that made her fall back against the bars. "Just shut up. You deserve nothing. NOTHING, YOU HEAR ME! You killed her! I should have killed you when I first laid eyes on you."

"Daddy, please." She hurried to the other side of the cage. She huddled in the corner clenching her body as she saw him reach for the lock on the door. She cried, shielding her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

But nothing happened, the jiggling of the chain stopped. And when she looked up, he was gone.

That was the last time she saw him.

Until now...

The shuffling of his footsteps she grew to know echoed as they became louder with each step he took. His breathing was unsettling and unsteady. She could hear the beating of his heart pounding heavily in his chest. He was distressed and the same hatred he showed her last time, she could feel it in her gut. There was a scrapping sound that began ringing in her ears. She tilted her head up, blinking her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Sparks were ablazing from the object he held in his hand, dragging along the rocky floor.

"My dear Everly..." Her father's voice filled the emptiness coming closer to the cage. He swayed in his steps. He was a much larger man; he towered over her small height, his hair was long and dark as midnight, the torch light cascaded a shimmer of blue. His eyes were dark almost black and full of sorrow and hatred that it makes her own heart weep because she knew all that pain and anger was directed towards her. His hands were bigger and full of calluses. She felt them whenever he would touch her.

The object he held in his hand was long with the reflection of the light hitting the metal just right and she saw just what it was he was carrying.

A sword.

Deadly and sharp.

She swallowed the rising lump in her throat, grabbing her knees to her chest tighter. She couldn't move, she was frozen in fear. The thought he came to kill her finally came to play and there wasn't a thing she could do. There was no escaping.

"My sweet Everly..." His voice was deep, powerful as thunder, rumbling as he spoke. "It is such a pity...your life..." He stopped in front of the cage using the sword to lean on. "You were never suppose to be born but she wanted you. How could I deny my beloved's hearts desire?" His sadness filled his words when he spoke about her mother. "We were happy and I started to warm up to the idea of having a child; a son. He would have been perfect..."

Aurak looked through the cage at his daughter. His eyes gleamed, tears forming in the corners of them. His lips parted as if to say something more but he didn't. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the key.

"You remind me every day of your mother. Every day how you tore her apart from the inside. How much pain you caused her; all the blood that came from her as she tried to give birth to you."

"No more will you have power over me, sweet Everly. No more will I let your eyes play me. I will NOT be consumed any longer." He stuck the key in the lock and turned it. He removed the lock and chain and tossed them to the side and pulled the door open. "You will feel her pain. You will bleed and beg me to have mercy.

Their eyes met.

"There will be no place for you to go. You are a beast...an animal...a killer. I will not mourn or feel pity...I will not pray nor do I care too. Your life is nothing. I will take as you have taken my beloved from me."

Aurak propped the sword against the side and stepped into the cage, reaching in for Everly. She tried to fight off his hands taking a hold on her but when it came to her father, Everly had no chance against him. She swatted and grabbed the bars tightly until her knuckles were turning white.

He grabbed her and yanked. She cried out feeling her shoulder pull and pop.

"No, no...please daddy." She pleaded, her words were rough and scraggy. "Please, no..."

"Do not speak!" He back handed her across the face.

She screamed and flew at him, pushing him back away from her. She tried everything that she could to escape him. She bit his arm and dug her nails in his face, leaving marks on his cheek. She kicked and thrashed as she pushed her way through until she was able to free herself from his grasp. She scrambled to her feet and started to run.

But he was too quick, snatching out his arm and tripped her. She fell hard, crushing her hand beneath her weight.

Snap!

She cried out as pain traveled through her fingers and up her arm. She whimpered, clenching her hand to her chest. It was so unbelievably awful. She never experienced such a horrible pain that rendered her gasping. It flooded her mind, almost forgetting that her father was trying to kill her.

His death like grip slamming down around her throat, squeezing the life from her lungs as he pulled her up to her feet and dragged her back towards the cage where the sword laid beside it. She wheezed feeling her life slipping away. She wiggled and squirmed, racking her good fingers against his hand. The faint smell of crimson filled her nose making her stomach turn with disgust. She knew blood was drawn.

She continued to struggle and fight him, hoping, praying that he would loosen his grip and she would fall. Her strength began to fade into nothingness, slowly her movement stopped. Her eyes lost all focus, spinning out of control...falling...falling...falling as she started to slip away unconscious.

"NID!" She bellowed out, her tongue releasing the word she did not know.

The warmth started at the tip of her toes and started to make its way through her body until it reached the top of her head. Her skin grew hot, fire burning into the pit of her stomach to the outwards of her skin. Her eyes shot open, dark and black. She panicked and shook as she didn't know what was happening to her. It overwhelmed her, consumed her.

Aurak was just as surprised as she was when he felt the heat that radiated off her. It burned the palm of his hand and it was enough for him to drop her. "What the..." He muttered, looking at the scorched, red area on his hand. It stung and blistered.

He only got a glimpse of her blacken eyes and raging creases before she took off running. Whatever that happened to her had given her the strength that she needed to run.

She ran as fast as she could go, out the cave and down the short path and into the woods. Her father's faint threats were only in the mist, leaves swirled around her, broken sticks snapping beneath her bare feet; some cut the sensitive spots under her foot. Bushes and tree braches reaching out to her slicing into her flesh along her arms and face.

She slipped and slid through the muck until she reached the small hill just above the path that would take her to one of the cities for help. But the night before rain shower made the ground muddy and slippery; skidding to a halt she lost her balance and tumbled down the hill; smacking her head against the rock and she lost the battle of consciousness.

Translation

NID - No