The Broken

XII.

Im dizzy. I haven't had water in hours. I had fallen asleep some time after the creature left and woke up with rats nipping at my feet and a dirty cup of water.

I sit against the wall, hoping the support of it will stop the spinning.

"Hello?"

I flinch as a small feminine voice rips the cloth of silence. I scramble away from the voice, pressing my body against the opposite corner of the cell until I'm a tight ball.

A dull glow suddenly appears in the cell next to mine. Revealing a young girl, no older than sixteen, crouching on the ground, rags clinging to her bony frame as she cradles a glowing sphere in her dainty hands.

I close my eyes as the light stings them and pray the wall will swallow me whole.

My eyes trail to her face, her deep brown eyes are sunken, yet carry an innocences, a warmth in them that calms my racing heart.

I sniff at the air, picking traces of oakwood and wild berries.

A witch, and by the lack of runes tattooed on her skin, a weak one.

Her thin lips stretch into an awkward smile, as if she was just learning how to. One of her front teeth is chipped.

"Hello" I murmur back warily.

"Hi, Im Sarika, but you can call me Rika!!"

Her excitement raises her voice to a higher pitch than it was before, I ponder silently whether I should share my name with her, she is after all only a child and I have nothing to lose.

"Lillian."

I try to invite the silence back but she quickly interrupts it.

"You don't talk much do you?"

I shake my head. It's not that I didn't, it's that I couldn't, my throat was too dry to even swallow properly.

Her eyes soften in understanding and she points towards the cell opposite to mine.

"That over there is Max."

The dull light only shows a silhouette of someone lying on the floor, the person grunts in acknowledgment, I instantly tense and curse myself for not having sensed him earlier.

"He also doesn't talk much."

Not knowing what to say I only nod and lick my cracked lips, tasting blood.

"Oh! I'm a witch by the way, and Max is a werewolf, he is harmless though..."

I drown out her rambling as curiosity starts burning in me. Werewolf's don't usually come anywhere near civilisation. And if we are anywhere near where I was taken, he must have also been near my town. They usually prefer to stay in their packs, how did he end up here...

Maybe the war forced him to venture here, if that is the case, the battle is closer than I hoped. I tuck away that information and bring my attention back to the witch.

"......you?"

"Water nymph" I answered, hoping that is what she had asked.

"Wow, I've never seen one before!" Happiness causes her eyes to shine.

I remain silent as my throat starts to burn.

"Can you control water?"

I nod, dizziness and exhaustion finally catching up, causing my eyes too droop.

And before sleep can take me, I hear a rough male voice rippling through the silence "Rika that's enough with the questions, let her rest"

________________

When I awake, I hear a scraping of something on the floor.

Rika creates the light again when she hears me crawl to the corner of the cell, she flashes her chipped smile before pushing two rusty cups of water towards my cell, her hand reaching across the bars as far as they can go, I stare at her suspiciously.

She speaks softly as if speaking to a wounded animal.

"Our rations of water..."

Before she even finishes speaking I'm already shaking my head and reaching over to push them back. My body screaming in desperation as the water swishes in them and spills onto the floor, my pride and greed clashing vigorously, causing my head to throb warningly.

"Drink the water, nymph" a rough voice commands from across me, Max.

A couple of weeks ago I would have meekly done as I was told, but now I stare at the werewolf's silhouette clenching my shaking hands, stopping them from snatching the cups of water and downing them as fast as I could.

Who did he think he was......

"Don't tell me what to do."

My voice cracks due to the dryness of my throat.

"If you don't drink that water you will die, you imbecile. " Rika flinches at the anger in the deep timbers of his voice.

"I don't care!" I shout at him, rage like I've never felt before starts scorching my insides. I feel it burning hotter as I think of my situation, of why Osoe betrayed me, why Azrael came back, I had been happy, I had been free, and now choking in my nightmares. Alone.

why!

Why !

WHY!

The anger that burned to brightly evaporated into something thick and sticky that covers my thoughts like tar.

My home, my family have crumbled away like ashes, what is there to live for.

I will never feel the water running through my fingers, or the thrill of training with Osoe, or the delicious food Sam prepares that makes my mouth water, or the wisdom Ercos shares that leaves me wide eyed for days. I will never be able to mock Ragnar again, or sunbathe with Kat, giggling about our life. I will never be able to finally beat Tarken.

And even if I managed to escape, something in me had changed, something in me had died, the second that I stepped out of that tavern, the second I had woken up in this black cell.

So even if I managed to find myself back to them, they wouldn't accept me, now a stranger. The air rushes out of me as I mourn the loss of that kind, naive part of me, that part of me that I had managed to build with their help is now gone.

I keep losing parts of myself, they slip through my fingers, leaving me an empty, broken canvas, with no paint to bring it to life.

Who wants a broken nymph?

That dark voice gladly replies "Nobody."

"I'm already dead" I whisper brokenly before I collapse, my head hitting the floor as dizziness turns me inside out.