OOOOOOOOOO. Its a Jasper story.

Long ago in my human years, I'd found that what I enjoyed the most was helping people. The way I did that was through herbs and teas and medicines of that sort. I was known as Catharin the Healer, the Savior, the Survivor...among the colonies anyways.

In England I was faceless, they had their chemists with their fancy solutions and tests. Well not only that but also the fact I was a woman, it was really only out in the colonies that I could get away with having such a vast knowledge on plants and their many uses.

When the smallpox sickness spread among the colonies, I was the only one that realised it could be stopped through the carnivorous plants I found through the help of the natives. I did say they helped but eventually people just wanted the cure, they could care less about where it'd come from.

I suppose where my story really begins is in the summer after my betrothal to Elias Watson, a mere blacksmith. We were modest but we were happy. I found I was showing signs of carrying a baby with a belly growing rounder and rounder. I was already 18, however so the baby seemed that it was doing very well. Children from women 3 or 4 years younger than I seemed to do better but we were so hopeful, I'd even made it past the quickening and felt the child move. I was more happy Elias hadn't run off to join the confederacy, I didn't know if I was strong enough to go through birth alone and I found their cause to be rather ridiculous, though I'd never say it out loud.

I'd been sitting in our small store below the house tending to some of the drying herbs that particular day. Sometimes people came in only to have them to cook with, Nasturtium and Chia helped give foods a sweeter taste but lasted longer if they were dried.

I looked up, startled, at the sound of the door opening and slamming shut. He was fast moving, seeming to almost blur in front my eyes. It was again startling and I dropped the glass vial in my hands. It shattered softly as he banged on the counter, trying to say he needed service as I shuffled towards him, being nearly 8 months pregnant had me moving slower than normally.

"Your name, sir?" I asked him cautiously, Elias was far away in the metal working area lower down the street. He looked up at me and I took in the pale skin and blood coloured eyes. He was beautiful but still I could feel my heart beat kick up as I wrapped a hand around my belly. Something seemed rather odd about him.

"Will Reeds, Ma'am." He spoke like all the men around here but he looked as though he came from some where much farther away with less sun. I nodded as I shifted myself around the counter.

"And your malady?" I questioned, trying to feel more comfortable with him as I was closer now.

"I was bitten by a man earlier and felt an extreme pain, now I just feel thirsty all the time but the water will not quench my thirst." He motioned to the side of his left shoulder, teeth marks were clearly imprinted upon his skin. I nodded and shifted myself back around the counter, looking for snake root and the prairie verbena. I'd used them before to treat a number of things, they seemed to almost be a cure all. Occasionally people came back with stomach pains but it could be taken care of easily.

I grabbed them and turned around. I was met with the same blood red eyes but now so much closer, he'd moved so silently behind me. He was just staring hungrily between me and my stomach. It was terrifying and unsettling.

"S-sir?" I asked cautious again. There was just something not right about this guy. He growled and grabbed my wrist, I heard it pop and the vial shatter on the floor next to us before I felt the pain. I yelped out in pain as he swooped out of site and I felt my legs lifted. Suddenly we were moving, we were out of town and in woods. I felt positively ill as he threw me back on the ground.

"Please!" I begged as I tried to shield my stomach. I was so close to having a child. So close I could feel it, I just wanted the baby so badly. My mother wasn't around for most of my childhood I was begging to change that with a child of my own. I wanted a happy, simple life with my herbs and my baby and Elias.

"Forgive me, lord. I could not stop myself." He looked towards the sky as he made the sign of the cross over himself. I let out a scream as he jumped and pierced my collar bone. It felt like a stone had dumped itself on top of my small frame. I could hear my own bones crack as the fire in my shoulder burned on and felt the pain as his knees hit my belly. I wish he'd just have ravaged me and be done with it all. I expected it to come soon, my clothes being torn off and ruining me. Instead he seemed to only want my life.

Eventually I felt him stand and say a small prayer before it sounded like he walked away through the burning sensation. It steadily streamed from my shoulder and seemed to only work it's way down, I could feel it attacking the child within me. It was killing it and me. I squeezed my belly through the haze, trying to stop the poison from harming my baby. It wasn't working! I could still feel it.

It seemed that the pain went on for ages as I felt my child's soul leave me. I was in utter anguish between the pain working itself around in my chest and the loss of my baby. I could practically hear his heart beat die as mine did as well. How could god do this to me? What had I done wrong? Why was I not allowed to have my child? As my constant questions continued I felt the fire die down. I opened my eyes for what seemed the first time in years of pain, I wasn't sure how much time had passed and it was dark out. I sat up, expecting myself to have to watch out for my belly when I looked down.

My baby was dead. It'd just gone, it was like I'd never been with child in the first place. My chest ached with it's loss. My dress hung loosely in blood covered tatters as I stood shakily, now accommodating a much slimmer body.

Everything around here seemed greener and louder than I'd last remembered, I couldn't tell which way town was anymore. It all seemed to swirl around me and I didn't particularly care if I ever found my way back. I felt like I'd died with the death of my child. I began to simply wander, picking one place to walk until my legs gave out and I finally truly died. I didn't want to see Elias or the town, I wanted to curl up and feel the gates of heaven take me in.

I did wander. For many days. I wandered until I couldn't do anything but focus on the burning in my throat. It was consuming my anguish and pain, leaving behind only hunger. I was still in forest but I could smell an animal. After the eighth day, I gave into my hunger and chased down what seemed to be a large black bear.

He gave me quite the fight and I found I was rather weak but I could still snap it's neck. I gave into the instincts telling me to drain it and did so, it seemed to have quenched my thirst almost entirely. However as it did, the sadness came back in all it's fury. I looked back down at my dress, tattered and ripped nearly through and thought about taking it's skin before I decided I'd simply find water to see if I was really all that disheveled.

I heard the water and walked closer, looking into the reflective surface. My eyes were blood coloured now and my features had only been polished by the poison. However my course yellow hair was now simply shiny and straight as always almost touching the water's surface, it'd lost it's bindings long ago. The pink calico cotton dress was torn down the middle and I sighed at the sight of my pale stomach showing through the gash. I had no sewing needles and honestly didn't feel like mending the thing. It only served to remind me of what I'd lost. I cleaned the blood off of me and stood, deciding to continue my death march.

I came across a road after another bear and another week had gone by when I smelled something incredibly enticing. I walked slowly in the sun, it was beating down but I felt nothing of it's warmth. There appeared to be a confederate soldier up along the road, he was riding a horse. He looked back at me as I walked behind him, staring. He looked startled as he turned his horse 'round towards me. This was the first time I met the man known to me then as Jasper Whitlock.