A Battle-Beaten Heart

Why Such a Title?

The title chosen for these tales of our young lady is such, for a rather obvious reason. Life is a constant battle through many ups and downs, ins and outs, hots and colds, and so on and on. And our young lady has faced many battles through her short life span. Through all such battles our young lady has both tasted the sweetness of victory and the utter disgust of defeat. That pretty much sums up the battle part of the title, and some of the beaten part as well, but what about her heart? Well I'm getting there.

Our young lady is sweet, tender natured, caring, and kind hearted.... Ah, the heart, such a fickle thing, and can be quite troublesome. For our kindly and sweet young lady, she tends to wear her heart on her sleeve, and let it be known that the sleeve is not the safest or most responsible place to keep something as delicate as a heart ( I speak of it metaphorically of course). Though with her upbringing in her specific family she had learned to keep her hand over her sleeved heart, due to her family not being very approving of a surplus of emotions.

Any time our young lady would get overly emotional as she grew her family would not comfort her, but instead, give her a disapproving and irritated look. Such a look was crushing to her, especially in such a sensitive state. So she learned to keep a lock on her emotions, so much so she to this day is unable to cry a single tear at a moving song, sad movie, tragic book, or anything of the sort, no matter how much she may want to.

Our young lady has kept her heart shielded to most things, with only a few exceptions. Those exceptions being close family members, close friends, animals and pets, and a few fictional heroes. Though, even with her hand to guard and hold her heart, if someone were to charge at the covered sleeve just hard enough it can still wound the delicate item within. Not too many strangers have ever been able to get in a blow to her guarded heart. The only ones that have ever been able to deal a great battle wound to her heart are those that are closest to her. The shield is weakened and even open to those she holds closest, which leaves room for disaster. Yet it cannot be helped for her heart, however guarded, is still large and overflowing with love for those she holds dear. Such a thing cannot be contained no matter how much she may try.

That should cover the heart part in the title, as well as quickly summarize the reasoning for the choice of the title. The further in the story you read, the further in-depth of an answer, you should find.