Diamond Heart

A Girl Called Melissa

A little clarification here.
I had tried to steal from a monk and got caught in the process, now he took me "prisoner" and through a strange black desert called Eldriza to his Monastery. Someplace called "The Diamond of Dust".
I had met the Grandmaster, or GrandMonk if you may, obviously the monk of highset rank in the monastery, but wasn't even given as much as an audience, instead I had been taken to my "Chambers" and fed with the "Finest food in all the 6 kingdoms of HinterFell" which explains how I got drugged and woke up with a crazy brain.
I looked down at my palms, they were moist with worry. They always got moist whenever I worried, and I was doing that excessively.
I cringed inwardly. Why would people want me because of my diamonds? Why couldn't I have any real friends? Why did my family cast me out and abandon me? Why did the shaman gift me this curse? How did I wrong the universe? How did I deserve any of this? Was there any god at all who would care to answer?
Or, was I forever alone?
The door creaked open and Melissa walked in, as if to answer my question.
She gave me a cursory once over, and seemingly satisfied with what she saw, sat on the mattress, close to me. I shifted uneasily - stupidly trusting that stupid Monk had stupidly got me in this stupid prison!
"You know we don't want to harm you" Her green eyes sparked.
I weighed through her words, then spoke mine
"That's what everyone says, usually before they bring out the knife"
She smiled, taken aback by what I said.
"You're observant" she grinned, then slid out her short sword, the polished metal glinting in the rising sunlight of the beautiful morning.
"But I don't really need a knife or anything of the sort to kill you" She surmised, placing it in the space between us, the hilt facing my moist palm. I was severely tempted to use it and try a breakout. But Eldriza's desert was still there, goading me to make my move.
"Maybe," I replied instead "Beautiful girls like you kill a thousand men all the time"
Her cheeks blossomed pink and back again to the original colour, without a trace of the instant change.
"Maybe," she shrugged, "But that's not what people fear the most about me.
"Remember when I told you what we do here in this monastery?"
" You collect rare items"
" Exactly, we gather people from around the world. People with gifts. People who have no friends, no relatives, no family, no one to care for them. People who has been forced to choose their gifts over being loved. People who have been rejected for doing what they can do. People like you" Her green eyes looked intently into mine
"People like me"
Her slender hand found my moist palm, taking it in such an affectionate way I'd forgotten felt wonderful.
"You know, when Grib told us he'd found a gifted we thought he was joking. No one has ever found a gifted since 10 years now, and I was the last one they found."
" Who's Grib?" I asked
" Delgrib, the monk who brought you here, he's gifted, like us"
The way she said those words made me relax, comfy. I realised I hadn't been so relaxed with another person in a very long while, not since I left home. But I felt I was dropping my guard because that was all I had ever desired in this life; a shoulder to cry on, a place to cry, without having some grumpy old man splashing me with rotten water of washed dishes, or some grumpy woman screaming my ears off that I was a whimpering rabid dog disturbing the neighborhood.
All I ever wanted was someone who could tell me "you're welcome here" and mean it, without desiring to backstab me for my diamonds.
That was just the simple thing I wanted - A place to call home. So if I had let my guard down and opened my heart, I guessed I should be cut some slack.
"One of us" my trembling lips managed to get out. This was where I belonged.
This, was where I belonged.
She lifted my hand to her chin, using it to stroke the smooth surface just beyond her full, seductive, vermilion lips.
"Do you want to hear my own story?" She asked
I nodded, drowned in so much "feel good" moment, unconcerned about what really went on about me. Only Melissa mattered at the moment.
"Silly!" She giggled "Silly, Silly, Silly" She pouted her lips, before saying.
"But, I'll tell you still"