Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4260378.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      Other
  Fandom:
      Steven_Universe_(Cartoon)
  Relationship:
      None
  Character:
      Amethyst
  Additional Tags:
      dark_fantasy_AU, Death, Slavery, Child_Abuse, Branding, Abuse, Gore,
      Violence, Blood, Body_Horror, Vomit, Cannibalism, sort_of, Attempted
      Rape/Non-Con, Sexual_Abuse, Pedophilia
  Collections:
      My_sword_shall_wield_for_thee
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-07-03 Chapters: 2/2 Words: 9891
****** A stray tail ******
by Rain_wander
Summary
     ((This was meant to be part one of a multi part dark fantasy au but
     given how unpopular it was when I original posted this first (2
     chaptered) part I don't think I'll be finishing this.))
     Amethyst started out as a slave in a foreign land, her childhood was
     hard, harder then most of the time. This is the story of that
     childhood and how Amethyst managed to push through it and start a new
     life.
Notes
     This was meant to be part one of a multi part dark fantasy au but
     given how unpopular it was when I original posted this first (2
     chaptered) part I don't think I'll be finishing this. I think I made
     it to dark honestly. I dunno if it gets more attention maybe i'll
     pick it back up again.
***** Chapter 1 *****
The day was a grim, sad one, in more ways than the weather. Men tainted by
greed, driven to smuggling and slavery worked tirelessly, tying off ropes and
docking their ship as they prepared the poor chained souls they called “cargo”
for unloading. The sound of a baby crying rung out among soft sobbing and
muffled moans of sorrow from the lower decks as the armed men tried to get the
last chain of shackled slaves on their feet.
One of the slavers stormed through the lower deck, sword in hand and fuming,
determined to find the source of the racket and end it. Heavy leather boots
thumped through the wood of the ship, the pounding creating a beat to accompany
the chorus of woe flowing through the decks. At the end of the line of broken
people lay the body of a woman, limp and curled around a child no older than
two. The man kicked her and she rolled over, lifeless as the baby cried on for
its lost mother.
“We got another dead one. Theres a baby too! Which one of you idiots took a
woman with a baby?? Who’s gonna buy a kid?”
“Some one will! We can market the kid as a raise your own slave, just give it a
few years.”
The man scoffed and picked the child up by it’s leg, the rags it wore falling
up around its face an muffling its cries.
“Tch, and it’s a girl. How much more useless could this kid be?”
Frown deepening he practically tossed the child in the arms of a nearby slave
and turned to leave.
“It doesn’t really matter how useless it is if you mess up and kill it.”
With a click, the locks on the shackles of the mother’s corpse were removed and
he ushered the line forward.
“Just keep the fucking thing quiet, will you?”
The chorus of woe had shifted, the beat of heavy boots on wood, sobbing and
muffled cries still present but now, among the sorrow there was soft singing
and hushing in the place of the loud crying of an orphaned child.
 
~Two years later~
 
“Get in line!”
A slave driver’s voice boomed outside the tiny shack they had been crammed into
and seemed to shake the very rotting wood it was crafted from. Broken souls
shuffled to their feet and poured out of the sorry excuse of a shelter, bare
feet and sores scraping across the stone riddled dirt outside. The slavers got
to work, the familiar routine of chaining the slaves up and taking them into
town to be sold was the same every month. Swords and daggers kept the slaves
moving into the open back of a horse drawn cart with a cage mounted atop it’s
worn oak frame. The door was locked and men piled into the front and with a
crack of the reins the trip began again.
Slaves of all ages, from multiple foreign lands, curled up and sat awaiting
their fate. Most sat alone or in small groups, families who had lost one or
more so far. One small group stood out among them. A woman, two men, and a
small girl. Conversations were held in the quietest of tones and lowest of
whispers for fear the slavers would hear and strike out at them, or worse.
“If someone buys me, you’ll watch out for Amethyst, won’t you?” The oldest,
most beaten looking man of them asked the rest. The child in question watched
them all curiously with big wide eyes.
“Of course we will. We agreed. All of us did in the beginning, didn’t we?” the
other man said, his voice hoarse from overuse.
“You’re right… I wasn’t the first to take care of her. I was just making sure.”
The women of the group was younger than both men, yet looked more tired and
worn, as if time spared her aging only to take its toll on her mind itself. Her
tired eyes looked between the group, from the small child, to the younger man
and finally the oldest. Quietly she placed her hand on the eldest man’s
shoulder and forced a smile.
“I hope if any of us are bought we go to nice places…”
“Yeah…”
The child looked between the adults curiously and frowned as she moved to rub
her sore left shoulder.
“Amethyst, try not to touch your brand. It will heal faster if you leave it
alone. It’s mostly healed already,” the younger man said as he noticed her
trying to sooth the pain.
The cart paused for a moment at the gates of the town, muffled speaking coming
from the front, the slavers asking to be let inside. As per usual, the gates
soon opened and allowed them entrance, the guards glancing sidelong at the
unkempt and uncivilized looking slaves in the back of the cart with a scoff.
It wasn’t much longer before they were set up, standing in lines, chained and
made to stare forward so that those with the coin could purchase them. People
browsed the slaves like items, prodding, poking, looking closer as if shopping
for produce. A few slaves Amethyst had known, not well, but known, were bought
before a few men whispered to each other and stepped forward to purchase the
young woman and man of Amethyst’s group. The small child put on a brave face
and when she thought heads were turned away, snuck a small wave goodbye to
them, hoping they’d be treated well, however unlikely that was.
“Hey kid! No moving unless you’re being sold!” a slaver barked and made a
beeline for her, already pulling a crude stick like weapon from his belt to
discipline her. Amethyst closed her eyes and flinched, preparing for the pain.
“Hey what the- Listen lady, unless you’re going to buy a slave don’t get in our
way.”
Amethyst opened her eyes to see a woman and her family, two young boys and
their father. The woman had grabbed the stick and stopped the slaver in his
tracks, and he was looking more and more like he was about to hit her.
“Maybe I am going to buy a slave. Maybe I want that one, and I don’t want to
take her home beaten and broken.”
The slaver frowned, but lowered his arm and put the stick back on his belt. He
motioned at Amethyst and the small girl started to panic a little. No one had
even considered she would be purchased, not until she was much older. No one
had prepared her, or told her what to expect, what to say or do, and now here
there were strangers already bartering gold for her. She watched the husband
groan softly as he handed the slaver a few gold and some silvers, before the
slaver ushered Amethyst forward. The oldest man, the only one left of
Amethyst’s group glanced down at her, but did not dare move more than that.
Amethyst nodded, the closest they would get to a good bye.
Through the cramped narrow streets of the town they walked, the couple making
small talk as they headed to where Amethyst would be working and living as long
as they needed her. The adults discussed various things having to do with where
Amethyst would sleep, how she would be trained to do what they wanted of her,
and other related topics. Amethyst struggled to follow along, listening and
paying attention to try and get an idea of how she might be treated, but the
new sights, sounds, and curious young boys eyes proved too distracting. She
briefly caught something about wanting to teach her how to read and write,
something highly unorthodox, but both adults agreed it would make her more
useful. The oldest boy, about ten, noticed the markings on the skin of her
shoulder peeking out of the loose rags she wore and promptly jabbed at it with
his finger.
Amethyst gasped in pain and pulled away from him, catching the attention of her
new owners and the other curious young boy. Eyes filled with tears, she
sniffled and frantically wiped her eyes.
“S-sorry masters… M-my brand is still healing. I won’t make noise again.”
She stared at the floor and the two adults exchange worried, pity filled looks.
“Boys, try to be nice to her, alright? We payed for her to come with us and
help, but she’s not a toy.”
The two boys pouted and mumbled agreements as they looked away. The man kept
his eyes on Amethyst and she tried not to shrink back instinctively.
“Do you have a name?”
“Yes, sir. My name is Amethyst.”
“Well welcome to the family Amethyst. We’ll treat you fine, don’t worry. You
are just a little girl, after all.”
Amethyst smiled and stood a little taller.
“Thank you, sir.”
 
For three years the family raised Amethyst as more than just a slave, but not
quite their equal. Being significantly less kind and understanding about her
situation, the boys were Amethyst’s biggest trials to deal with. There’s the
usual one would expect, given the situation, and the young girl deals with it
all with humor. Amethyst learns to laugh at the things that hurt, the things
that scare her, and taking away their power. For three years she feels like she
has a home, like she might even have a family here, until a silly childish game
went much too far.
It was the time of year when the heat died down and the trees stripped
themselves bare, the beginning of autumn and harvest. Busy helping the family
prepare for the cold season, it isn’t until mid week that the children are let
out to simply play and be children. Amethyst is even told to go with the boys.
“Your job will be to serve them like you serve us and keep an eye on them. Our
orders always outrank theirs, so make sure they come back before dark no matter
what they tell you. Oh, and for heaven’s sake, don’t let them go wandering off
in the woods, there’s been rumors…”
“Yes, miss!”
Dismissed, Amethyst ran off to watch the boys play. Meeting up with a few of
the other children in the town, the little rag tag group of boys and girls ran
off to the outskirts of the town, where the woods were only a half hour’s walk
away. They clamored and crowded around a little club house they had thrown
together from branches, spare boards of wood, string, nails, and whatever else
they could salvage from the town and the edge of the woods.
“Alright, who wants to play swords!?” the oldest boy shouted, being a sort of
leader of the group. Most of the boys, and a few girls, including Amethyst,
yelled their enthusiasm for the idea and ran off to find sticks they felt
suitable. Those who didn’t want to play broke off into their own little games
of pretend.
After a bit of searching, Amethyst found a few sticks she thought would work
well and excitedly handed one to each of the older boys she had grown to
consider family. They organized themselves into teams. The group Amethyst was
in consisted of her owner’s two sons and one other girl, calling themselves
mercenaries. The opposing team consisted of three boys and one girl, and they
called themselves bandits.
“To war!!” the younger brother yelled. They charged forward, sticks swinging,
imagining themselves on a grand battle field. Amethyst had two sticks to
herself, one just a bit smaller than the other and held in her left hand,
“blade” back. She ducked and rolled, blocking with the smaller stick and
tapping lightly at the opposing team. It was considered against the rules to
swing hard enough to cause harm, and if one broke the rule they were punished
by letting the injured party snap their “sword.” The only other rule was five
taps to your body and you were “dead”.
They played a few rounds without incident, but once it was the tie breaker
match, the eldest brother accidentally swung his stick right into the bandit
team’s only girl’s hand. Crying out, she dropped her stick, held her hand, and
started crying. All the other kids stopped their game to run and check on her.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”
“Waahhhh!! M-my thumb!!”
“Can I see?” One of the boys reached out to her and reluctantly the girl placed
her hand in his. Her thumb was a little red, but it didn’t appear any more
harmed than that.
“Can you move it?” The elder brother asked nervously clutching his stick. The
girl sniffled and tried. Her little thumb wiggled and she nodded meekly.
“I dun wanna play anymore…” She wiped her eyes and snapped her stick. The other
kids looked at the elder brother knowingly and he sighed and broke his as well.
A blond haired boy on the bandit team sighed.
“Well at least we’re even still. One for one.”
“But I still wanna play!” The elder brother frowned and whipped around to face
Amethyst.
“Go into the woods and get me a big stick, yours are too small. You can drop
out instead, I wanna keep playing.”
Amethyst dropped her sticks without argument and tried not to look a little
down that she had to stop playing. The blond boy spoke up again.
“Hey that’s not fair. Amethyst is really good, and she didn’t mess up.”
“Yeah, well, Amethyst isn’t even like us. She’s my family’s slave and has to do
whatever we say. See?”
He grabbed Amethyst’s arm and she grunted and fussed a bit as he grabbed the
loose sleeve of her tunic and held it up to show off her brand. She looked
away, down at the bricks and pouted, not wanting to see their faces.
“Oh whoa, we’ve been playing with a slave this whole time?” the other bandit
team boy mumbled.
“Gross! Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” the final member of their team
agreed with disgust.
The eldest brother let Amethyst go with a bit if a shove and pointed at the
woods.
“Now don’t come back until you found the perfect stick for me!”
The younger brother, the quieter of the two, piped up.
“We’ll go home without you if you don’t come back before dark.”
Amethyst was half grateful for that. At least if she was late, there wouldn’t
be any punishment waiting for her. She huffed and pouted as she turned to walk
towards the woods.
“Alright, alright, I’m going.”
With a little jog, she headed for the woods. Her owner’s warning about keeping
the boys away rung in her mind and Amethyst huffed again. She hadn’t told her
to stay out of the woods, and she was going to find him the best stick ever,
even if she had to climb a tree and break the branch herself.
However, once Amethyst had actually walked into the woods, her bravado wavered.
The rarely traversed brush and thickly wooded area swallowed almost all of the
afternoons warm sunny light and Amethyst let out a small shiver. She couldn’t
go back, no matter how much she wanted to.
Taking a deep breath, she balled her hands into fists and steeled her nerves.
Amethyst turned away from the forests edge and walked deeper, keeping her eyes
out for any stick that would be good enough to allow her exit. Unfortunately
most of the ground was littered with very small, very thin, or very bent
branches. Deeper she went, until she seemed to be surrounded by nothing but
thick wood and dim light. Annoyed at how fruitless her search was turning out
to be she looked up to see if any of the large trees could be climbed, and
huffed angrily when she realized she couldn’t climb a single one.
“Darn!! Why do I gotta have such short arms and legs?”
Amethyst cursed her fate and turned to walk more when she realized how utterly
lost she really was.
“Oh no…help!! Someone!?” she yelled, only to hear a deep terrifying growl much
too close for her liking. Amethyst broke out in a cold sweat, picked a
direction opposite the growling, and took off as fast as her stubby legs would
go. Whatever growled was suddenly crashing through the woods after her and
Amethyst started crying and trying to run faster. White hot fear gripped her
very core as the thing behind her thundered through the woods, plowing down
trees and ripping large stones out of its way to get to its newly found prey.
 
“Boys you’ve been home for an hour now, where did you send Amethyst that she
wouldn’t came back after dark for this long?”
The brothers both twisted their tunics and looked everywhere but at their
mother and father.
“Boys.” Their father’s more stern tone broke the younger brother’s resolve.
“He got mad and sent her into the woods and said not to come back until she
found a perfect stick for play sword fights!” He pointed at his older brother
and got a shove for his efforts.
“Snitch!”
“You did what?!” Both boys froze at their mother’s sudden worried tone and
their father quickly turned to her.
“Honey, we don’t know that anything happened to her yet. She could have just
gotten lost. In the morning I’ll get a search party togeth-”
There was a loud knock at the door, sounding like the butt of a sword. Turning
and nodding to his wife the man left to answer.
“Yes?” He pulled the door open and there stood a town guard holding a small
body, covered in dirt and blood, in his arm, half against his chest.
“Night watch found her at the edge of the woods. I was going to take her to a
healer, but I saw the brand and decided to bring her to you first. She’s been
bitten by something massive. One of the other men said he saw a huge shadow
carrying her entire body in its mouth before it dropped her and left. She’s in
really bad shape.”
“Oh my god, give her here! Why didn’t you bring a healer with you?!”
The guard shrugged as he handed Amethyst over to him.
“She’s just a slave. It’ll cost more to heal her than to just buy a new one.”
The man of the house held Amethyst close to himself and scowled at the guard.
“Thank you sir.” Turning back into his home he called back.
“Hun, Amethyst was attacked, can you get her cleaned up while I run to fetch a
healer?!”
“Of course! Put her down, dear!”
Worried and guilty, the boys both cleared off one of their beds and ran off to
get some warm water and fresh clothes.
 
Everything was hot and hurt so very, very much. Amethyst’s legs ached along the
sides, ached from running, from kicking and fighting. They ached were large
teeth had cut into her soft flesh, and they ached all the way to her feet. Tiny
busted toes and sores from rocks and sticks cutting into her shoddy boots. Her
small arms cut up and bruised from tree branches and falls to the forest floor.
Knuckles scraped, palms rubbed raw and scratched up, futile attempts to fight
back. Worst of all was Amethyst’s chest. It seemed as though the seven year old
was just a little too tall to fit in the mouth of whatever beast attacked and
carried her off, so its massive sharp fangs had cut into her small chest
terribly, the worst of the puncture wounds nearly going through the center of
her chest, just missing her heart.
Nearly three times what it had cost them to buy her was the price for
Amethyst’s treatment, and even then, the healer wasn’t sure she would make it.
The town gossiped about the family being out of their minds, how they should
have simply gotten a new slave instead. The other kids tease the young boys for
caring so much and the elder brother got into a few fist fights before sulking
off home and talking to Amethyst while she slept, pleading with her to wake up.
Weeks passed, until finally Amethyst’s eyes slowly started to open. Everything
was foggy, and she could hardly remember the attack, mostly running and being
horrified and then being in the most pain she had ever felt in her life.
It was another week and a half before Amethyst could get out of bed or move
around and the family she was meant to serve spent their time helping her
recover. The eldest brother apologized more times then Amethyst could keep
track of and she laughed it off. She forgave him and realized that the day this
family had purchased her, she became quite possibly the luckiest slave alive.
These people had become her family now. They cared for her well being, clothed,
raised, and educated her, and Amethyst decided that if she could help it, she
would serve them for as long as possible and at her very best.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t very long…
 
About a month after Amethyst only had scars left to show for her ordeal. She
woke up feeling off, very off. Noticing the odd behavior, the adults checked
her temperature and alike. She was a little warm, weak, and craving raw meat
like a wild hound, making the family exchange concerned glances.
“You should take the day off Amethyst. This is very odd and we’re worried. I’m
going to try and see the healer today and speak with them about this.”
“Alright. I guess I’ll stay in bed and rest then.”
Amethyst shuffled off to bed with a sinking feeling in her stomach that
something much worse than anyone thought was afoot here.
That night she woke up to the same pain she had felt during her attack. Eyes
shooting open, Amethyst shot up in bed, clutching at her chest just over the
largest scar in the center. Something was wrong, very, very wrong. She had
spent most of the day napping and eating, and now she was wide awake and aching
so terribly she could hardly stand it, yet some strange primal fear gripped her
tightly and sealed her lips shut. It wasn’t until she struggled to stand on the
bed to look out the window and check the time based on the placement of the
moon in the sky, that the gravity of what was truly happening hit her full
force.
The light of the full moon struck her so deeply she was frozen in place, her
pulse quickened and Amethyst could hardly focus on any single thing. She was
vaguely aware of a strangely numb pain, an ache in her joints, her bones and
muscles, in her everything. There was a loud crashing sound and she couldn’t
tell if it was her own bones or the bed frame under her feet. Vision only grew
foggier, in fact all her senses seemed to keep dimming, and suddenly she was
reminded of her attack and the feeling of passing out. This was oddly similar,
but at the same time not at all. Everything was wrong, off. Her body felt
completely different, not at all like it was her own. It felt like she was in
some sort of massive costume, something huge and heavy. All her limbs were
impossible to move, yet she did somehow and had no idea where she was going.
Everything was black, no smell or sound, no touch except for the sudden
limiting of moment, then suddenly even more weight. Was it on her back?
Amethyst couldn’t tell and tried to focus, suddenly becoming aware of a strange
cold spreading from the back of her skull and through her being. How long had
that been there? The strange feeling of trying to move in a suit shifted oddly
and she seemed to be losing more and more control. Was it moving her now? Where
and how?
Crashing through the dark cold mute on her senses was the sudden intense pain
of starvation, and Amethyst felt herself trying not to retch at the need to
fill herself with something, anything. Then there was more weight on the
strange suit, air blowing passed her? She wasn’t sure and her hands, its hands?
Were they even hands? The suit was holding something, something so warm and
nice, at least that was all Amethyst could guess, and oddly enough none of this
scared her at all. The initial feeling of wrongness, of unease, seemed so far
away. Everything now was dark and cold except for this thing, whatever it was,
in front of her, of this suit she was trapped in yet part of.
Everything seemed to move, like gravity shifted. It- she had fallen? Bent over
perhaps? A deliciously warm addictive taste flooded her senses with such force
Amethyst could hardly hold on to what little control she still had. That taste
was like heaven, forbidden flavour of the gods filling her like an addict
needing their fix, and it was to this that the young girl finally lost herself
completely. The starvation demanded satisfaction and she, it, they, craved more
of whatever had her lost in this strange cold blackness.
There was no way for Amethyst to tell how much time had passed, how long she
had been lost in that abyss. It all felt like a strange dream that she knew was
real. As the world slowly came back into existence around her, Amethyst first
became painfully aware of two things: The feeling of being so satisfyingly full
she almost wanted to take a nap, and everything being much smaller. It felt
like the physical plane was rebuilding itself around her, only it was all too
small, everything seemed off.
As more and more awareness returned to her Amethyst realized her entire body
was much heavier and warmer. Her face felt different and there was something
hanging from her lower back. Amethyst decided to simply stay laying ware she
was and wait until her senses fully returned to her, and was greeted with a
migraine and feeling terribly dizzy.
She briefly wondered if this was what it felt like when adults drank too much
ale before she dragged herself up to her feet. There was a loud slamming sound
when her hand hit the wooden floor and she looked down confused only to see
massive, white, half paw half hands, with huge black claws at the ends.
“RAaah?” She froze. Amethyst had meant to say ‘what’ but her mouth was
different, her hands were different. She panicked and felt around her mouth
with her tongue. Her teeth were like steak knives. Her tongue itself, she
realized, was flat and her face felt longer. Amethyst briefly inspected her paw
like hands before feeling her face and only growing more panicked.
“Rrrrrr!?? RRRRrrrr??!!” Amethyst couldn’t form words, her head felt like
something completely different and, she dreaded doing it, but she looked down
at herself and was horrified. She was no longer a small seven year old but now
covered in white fur and from her chin down to her now muscular stomach said
fur was stained with blood. Unable to tell if it was her own or someone else’s,
Amethyst stumbled awkwardly over to a pail of water she spied in the corner of
the room. In the surface she finally saw her reflection. Her chubby face,
smushed button nose, thick lips and big bright eyes were gone and staring back
at her was a massive white cat beast with still wet blood covering its muzzle.
Without thinking, Amethyst grabbed the bucket and frantically started to wash
the blood from her fur. However, instincts kicked in half way through and she
caught herself licking her chest clean and stopped abruptly. Crouching there,
Amethyst stared at her large paw-hands, numbly wondering what she even was
anymore.
After what seemed like forever of examining herself and wondering what was
going on, Amethyst finally stood again, suddenly wondering what had happened.
She wasn’t in any pain and after a thorough check Amethyst was sure she wasn’t
harmed. so if not her own, then whose blood was all over her?
“Roo…” Her eyes grew wide with panic and she was a thousand times more
terrified than she had been that night in the woods. Her new body on high
alert, she sniffed the air of her home and finally took a look around.
Everything was a mess and there was blood everywhere.
“Rooo!!”
Frantically she searched the home, furniture smashed to bits, claw marks, HER
claw marks all over the walls the floors. Blood spatters and pools stained the
carpets and wall hangings.
“ROO!!”
She growled in panic, tearing through the home, her chest heaving as she slowly
feared the worst, her eyes filling with salty tears.
A huge set of paw-hands lifted the ruined door of the boy’s bedroom, and
Amethyst found what was left of the man she had grown to think of as a father.
Barely anything but bones and gore in a pool of blood staining the floor. In
mute, stunned horror, Amethyst checked the rest of the home for her family,
hoping in vain that someone might have been spared.
She found the eldest brother and the woman she had grown to think of like a
mother in much the same condition, barely anything left of them. The youngest
brother she found under his bed, following a long smear of blood across the
floor. His back gorged open, the cuts matching her claws. Amethyst finally
broke down right then and there. The shock wearing off and the realization of
what happened last night hitting her like ton of bricks.
She remembered feeling so hungry, then waking up overly full. Amethyst roared
and collapsed to her knees. Disgusted and repulsed, she retched several times
on the blood stained floors, emptying her stomach of its sinful contents and
sobbing violently.
By the end of it all, Amethyst was on her hands and knees, somehow back to her
human form. Lungs heaving, eyes burning, she stared down at the mess beneath
her and a thought dawned on her. Someone must have heard something. People
would be coming. They would come and they would see what she had done, what she
had become. She started shaking and shot up to her feet. She didn’t want to
die, and she was so sure she was about to.
Frantically she ran around the home grabbing anything she thought useful in her
half crazed state. She dressed in the first clean articles of clothing she
found, a bag one of the boys owned, stuffed with random items she could get her
hands on. It wasn’t until her hand graded the butt of an expensive dagger that
was displayed on a shelf that she was pulled from her madden state by a painful
burning sensation.
The dagger was made of silver, and it burned to touch it. Amethyst recalled
stories from late at night when she and the other children of the house
couldn’t sleep and she knew what she was now.
Grasping the dagger by the leather handle, she put it in the bag as her final
item and left via the back door. The youngest brother’s clothing fit almost too
well over her small stubby limbs and made her guilty get-a-way easier on her
small heavy heart.
Amethyst ran for the woods, vision blurry from her tears as she quietly sobbed
and sprinted as fast as she could away from the only home she had ever known.
***** Part 2 *****
Chapter Summary
     The end of her childhood, a step into her teen years.
“Come onnnn…”
Amethyst stood in a shallow stream, trousers rolled up and tunic tossed to the
grass just behind her. She had lost track of how long she had been out there on
her own, and she definitely looked the part. Her hair was an overgrown matted
mess, no longer the short bob cut she had during her days under ownership. Her
clothing was just as dirty as she was, and what little suppose she had stuffed
into the bag was long gone. All she had left was the clothing she had run away
in, the bag, a small worn blanket, an empty pouch, a knife, and the silver
dagger she hadn’t touched since she left.
“Stupid fish! Come ooon!” she mumbled into the water angrily, annoyed that her
food was being so difficult.
Amethyst had learned the hard way how her transformations worked. Every time
she was afraid enough, starving, hurt, angry, there was a full moon, or even in
enough danger she transformed and woke up with that same terrible headache and
dizziness. At first she had no idea how to change back and simply waited,
thanking her luck that while transforming she had enough sense to take off her
clothing before she destroyed it. But now Amethyst was nearly sure that she
only had to calm down and relax to change back.
The young girl was still unsure of how to feel about herself now. She felt like
a monster, she was a monster, but Amethyst was slowly gaining more and more
control over herself in her huge beast form, and even tried to change on
purpose a few times. That, however, always ended with her stuck as a tiny,
helpless, snow white kitten, and she hated it.
Any time for mourning her previous life or family was suppressed, pushed deeper
and deeper so Amethyst could focus on the task of surviving which, as it turned
out, was proving easier than Amethyst had originally thought.
The frequent changes into her beast form had altered Amethyst’s human one as
well. Her senses were sharper, reflexes faster, her limbs more flexible than
ever, her eyes now a bright purple, and her tongue rough like a cat’s. All of
this made her survival easier, and with the added aid of becoming a much larger
cat beast, Amethyst was doing rather well for herself.
After filling up on whatever she could catch in the river, the small werechild
adjusted her clothing and bag and started walking towards a road she had found
days ago. Last night Amethyst had lain awake thinking on where she would go,
what she wanted to do from here on out and, still not having an answer, she
decided that starting fresh somewhere else was the best option.
Amethyst hummed a little tune to herself as her little leather boots padded out
a beat for her along the worn dirt road. She headed in the direction she had
seen a few merchant’s wagon’s travel, carrying various goods and wares for
sale, reasoning that there must be a town somewhere in that direction. To her
young, hopeful mind, this plan seemed flawless, and so Amethyst smiled and
hummed louder, nearly singing in her little content state of glee.
Days of traveling down this dirty road had done nothing to spoil Amethyst’s
mood at all. She found food in much the same way she had when lost in the woods
for all that time, and would rest a little ways from the road side in the grass
and slept with her bag as a pillow.
It wasn’t until a cloudy afternoon a few days into her trip that Amethyst’s
little hopeful bubble was abruptly popped.
There was a shape in the distance, far behind the direction Amethyst had been
traveling in and coming from one of the branches in the road. She had only
spotted it because she stopped for a little rest on an old tree stump and she
felt an odd sense of worry. The past few days she hadn’t seen anyone else on
the road and counted herself lucky. After all, what would she say or do should
she see someone before she got to town? Amethyst shook away the worry and chose
to think of this more positively. Perhaps this person would help her, maybe
even give her a lift to the nearest town and help give her a little kick start
to her new life. She ignored it for now, reasoning that whatever sort of wagon
it was would catch up sooner or later and she would deal with it then.
About an hour into walking again, she heard the sounds of wooden wagon wheels
and a horse behind her. Turning, Amethyst tried to tell what sort of wagon it
was from the side of the road, in case they didn’t stop.
The wagon was being pulled by a very healthy looking horse, and for a moment
Amethyst wondered how tall her beast form would be next to an animal that size,
but shook the thought from her head to try and focus. The wood looked new, and
very well maintained, but the back was covered in a tarp, and there was a
single tall, older man driving. His clothes were nicer than anything she had
ever seen anyone wear, and he looked cleaner than most men she could remember.
A merchant! Amethyst realized. A merchant with a lot of money! She waited a
little longer and noticed him spot her and slow down.
The wagon slowed to a stop next to her, and there was a brief moment where the
two simply looked at each other, the only sounds coming from the horse.
“Well good day, little one. You don’t look like most people from these lands.
Where are your parents?” His voice was oddly smooth and dripping with honey,
something about it made the worry return to Amethyst’s gut.
“I don’t have any. Never did.”
“So you’re all alone then? You look pretty beaten up.”
For the first time Amethyst noticed the differences between herself and the
man, a native of the country. He was tall, and she suddenly realized nearly all
of the children her age had been taller than her. His skin was pale, while
hers, although a little more sun kissed than before, had always been a little
darker than everyone else’s. Her eyes, nose, lips, and face were even shaped
extremely differently, and in place of the light browns and blondes, her hair
was a very pale lavender. For the first time Amethyst realized that the only
people she had ever seen that looked similar to her were a few of the slaves
she could barely remember from her infancy. It wasn’t simply her brand that
gave away her status here, but how very different she looked, and Amethyst was
starting to hope and pray the man wouldn’t see her brand and pin her for a
runaway from a traveling party.
“Nah, I’m good. Just trying to make it to a town. Start off my life there.” She
tried to act casual, thinking that maybe if she seemed relaxed enough, it
wouldn’t end in disaster.
“Well, I’m headed back home in the nearest town. It’s small, but there’s some
work there if you need some coin to get started.” He moved over and patted the
space next to him. “Would you like a lift?”
Amethyst eyed the empty spot next to the man and tried to ignore her strange
sinking worry. The werechild could use the ride, and it would save her time.
She shrugged and climbed up next to him. Feeling the sleeve of her tunic hiking
up, Amethyst quickly moved to pull it down, nearly falling in the process. The
man grabbed her by her left forearm, the branded arm, to catch her.
“Are you hurt?”
“N-no.”
His face hardened and he grabbed her right hand that still held her sleeve.
“It’s fine!”
“What are you hiding little one?”
He yanked her sleeve up and Amethyst stared up at him hoping he would just let
her go.
“A slave. I knew it!”
“Please…”
“What a lucky day. I’ve been needing a new slave, but didn’t want to spend the
coin.”
“Please!” Amethyst struggled against his strong grip, trying to get away. The
man used his free hand to reach back into the small opening of the cart to
retrieve a metal set of shackles and collar.
“Stop struggling. This is your life, your fate. You’re a slave, and now you’re
my slave.”
“Let me go!”
Wordlessly, he lifted Amethyst clear into the air. Her stubby limbs kicked and
flailed in the air as he shackled her.
“Wait, you don’t want me. I’m sick!!”
“I’m no fool. You look perfectly fine to me.”
“No really. I have lycanthropy!! You’ve heard the stories, I turn into a big
monster on full moons!”
The man scoffed and fixed the chains behind her back. Now Amethyst was hardly
able to move at all, save for bending her legs to sit and walking.
“Then change now.”
Amethyst growled. The only thing she could do now was change into a kitten, and
that wouldn’t do her any good now. Her age transferred oddly to her kitten
form, and once she changed Amethyst was just a tiny, blind, and helpless
kitten.
“I can’t.”
“Of course. Now shut up and sit still, or I’ll make you.”
Despising this man already, Amethyst spat in his face, earning her a beating
before he tossed her into the back of the wagon.
Amethyst winced as she felt her body slam into what seemed to be every hard
object in the world. Groaning, she tried to curl up into herself, and was
rewarded for her efforts by a sharp pain in her shoulders. If she kept trying
to move so much, she was sure something would snap or pull apart. So Amethyst
gave up and laid on the various objects the merchant had in the wagon.
The wagon stopped, jolting Amethyst awake. She couldn’t remember passing out or
falling asleep, but she smiled when her tongue ran over her previously split
and swelling lip to find it was perfectly healed. She smirked and listened to
the merchant walk around the wagon and call for his other slaves.
“Beat me all you want. I heal super fast, donkey face,” she muttered under her
breath while her eyes burned into the tarp covering the wagon, in the direction
she thought he might be in. She struggled a bit more against the chains and
winced. Her shoulders hurt every time she tried anything more than very small
movements, and for a moment she wondered if transforming in this would break
the metal or strangle her. The mental image was enough to scare her into
deciding that getting out of the shackle and chain trap was top priority.
The man opened the back of the tarp abruptly, and two of the scariest looking,
positively massive, scarred and branded men grabbed her, and the tallest of the
two held her still once she was out of the wagon.
“You know the drill with female slaves. Get to it.”
Wordlessly, but with regretful expressions, the two men got to work. Amethyst
had no time to look around, she was far too busy trying to fight back with
everything she had. She was however vaguely aware of being in a yard of a large
home with trees all around her.
One of the men ripped off her small bag while the other used a very crude knife
to cut off the tattered clothing Amethyst wore.
“What are you doing?!” She tried to kick, thrash around, anything, but the
slightly shorter slave had her held fast.
“Getting you cleaned up so I can have a good look at you,” the merchant
answered with the slimiest smile Amethyst had ever seen, and suddenly something
in the air shifted. This man felt like an entirely new kind of dangerous, and
she felt her instincts take over. Her body thrashed around in the large man’s
grip with new found strength, but it was short lived once he was ordered to
keep her still again.
“How did you heal so fast little girl?”
Amethyst started breathing a little heavier from effort, and from trying to
keep herself calm. The last thing she wanted was to start feeling that familiar
cold in the back of her skull. Not now, not while she was still bound.
“I told you, horse ass, I’m a lycanthrope!” She yelled and spat at him, but he
was just out of reach and she growled.
The larger man that held her dropped her to her feet but held the back of the
chains. One small jerk in any direction and Amethyst was sure her arms would
come right off, so reluctantly she stayed still as her shredded clothing was
torn off of her.
Never before had Amethyst felt wrong or vulnerable when she was nude. It wasn’t
something she had ever viewed as a problem or a reason to be embarrassed, and
no one had really bothered to try and make her feel or think otherwise, until
now. This man, the way he was looking at her, made Amethyst’s skin crawl and
her hair stand on end. Instinctively she hissed at him and growled from low in
the back of her throat, only to be thanked with an entire bucket of cold water
splashed in her face. She hissed again, got another bucket, then again and
again. Six more times before the smaller of the two male slaves was ordered to
stop and leave Amethyst to stand there freezing in nothing but chains. She
resisted the urge to shiver and thanked whatever gods and goddesses there may
be that it was mid summer and the heat in the air would warm her soon. The man
took care in just how close he got to her as he slowly walked around to leer at
her, like some sort of bird of prey at a helpless rodent in an open field.
Everything about him, about the entire situation, felt so wrong. Amethyst felt
so helpless, and the beast within her was screaming to be let out and destroy
this threat. She felt the cold feeling in the back of her skull prick up just
as he stepped in closer, but she bit her lip and tried to force it back. The
man stopped his advance and casually motioned to the house behind him.
“Get her in with the rest. I like what I see enough to keep her.”
Amethyst was about to say something when the larger slave shoved her forward
and she nearly tripped in her effort not to have her arms violently dislocated.
He ushered her around the side of the house, the other slave trailing just
behind him and the moment they were out of view of the man the larger slave
sighed.
“Gods be, I’m sorry child. He ain’t never grabbed no one so young ‘s you.” He
muttered quietly.
“If you’re gon’ speak, best be quite, eh?” The second quickly informed her, and
Amethyst realised they had to have been from a different place than this
kingdom too.
“You guys talk different.”
“We never ‘loud ta speak.”
“We do and we get nothin’ but pain for it.”
“That sucks donkey tail.” Amethyst commented with a half smile. Making friends
when she was in need had always proven useful in the past, so why not now. Her
little comment got a small smile out of them as they made it to what looked
like a heavy, locked cellar door. They opened it and motioned for Amethyst to
walk down the old worn stone steps, no longer holding the chains but standing
behind her.
“Don’t suppose you guys could let me loose so I could run for it?”
“Last time we did somethin’ like that, we lost our little brother. Sorry child,
but we don’t wan’ lose another.”
“Right.”
Amethyst changed her tactic to one of planning and strategy. She kept her eyes
open and tried to take in as much as she could.
The walk down into this place wasn’t very interesting. The ceilings were low,
so low that the larger man had to bend to walk. The walls, floors and ceilings
were all made of the same old, worn, gray stone, and it felt oddly smooth and
comfortable against her bare feet. She was just looking back up from the floor
when one of the slaves stopped her short march with a hand on her shoulder.
“Hold there, child. He ain’t gon’ see now, so might as well let you out early.”
He reached behind her, and with a few loud clicks, the chains and shackles fell
away. Amethyst busily rubbed at her offended skin and turned to say something,
but her mouth hung open when she saw the smaller slave pull off his dirty rag
of a shirt and hand it to her.
“Here, child. Gods know he ain’t gon’ give you nothing for a while.”
Amethyst took it with a quiet “thank you” and threw it on, never more thankful
to be clothed in all her life.
Their walk continued on, the walls pocketed with small cells, making the place
seem more and more like a dungeon as they went. Inside a few rooms Amethyst saw
other slaves, mostly women, and most badly scared, beaten, bruised, or sobbing
quietly. However, the ones whom disturbed her most were the few women sitting
silently near their doors, staring out at nothing and looking positively
broken. She also noted grimly that the most broken of the slaves all seemed to
be the oldest of them, and no female pasted her mid twenties could be seen, as
far as Amethyst could tell.
“He likes ‘em young, though none so young as you, child. ’M sorry.”
Amethyst didn’t want to know what he meant, but she had a sinking feeling she
was going to learn the hard way.
It didn’t take long for Amethyst to start to learn the rhythm of the place
after the first night in her own, cold cell. The two slaves that had brought
her in interchangeably brought her food once a day, and every two days she was
dragged outside with several of the other female slaves to be violently
splashed with buckets upon buckets of cold water. She had been brought out a
few times to do standard manual labour, and for the most part Amethyst was left
alone. The man she had first been so wary of seemed to simply forget about
anything more sinister she had been afraid of. She did catch him giving her
uncomfortable glances every now and again, but that was all, and she counted
herself lucky.
Amethyst did, however, notice that every night there were always one or two of
the female slaves left behind, and when she was woken the next morning, they
always returned later in the morning before the other slaves were even brought
out for their morning work. What worried her most was the sobbing when they
returned. Crying was something she was used to, something she had seen a lot
being born into this life, but the women crying, there was something different
about them, and that worried her. Something he had done that was out of the
ordinary, and Amethyst knew it had something to do with the sinister feeling
she had gotten from him on her first day there.
Amethyst had been there for a little over a year before her fears became a
reality on one cold night in the winter season.
Amethyst was in the main hall of his home lighting the lamps as the sky
darkened outside. There was one other girl helping her, one much older than
Amethyst, and taller too. Amethyst needed to use a small wooden log to stand on
each time she lit a lamp, and she wanted to groan every single time.
“Child.”
Amethyst practically jumped out of her skin at the sound of the pet name she
had been given here. Turning, her purple eyes widened a little as she was met
with her owner, standing just a little closer than he normally would.
“Yes, master?”
“Hold old would you say you are now?”
Amethyst was taken aback by the question and actually had to think about it for
a moment.
“It’s a little hard to remember, master. Close to nine, or maybe I’ve been nine
for a little while now. I’m sorry master, the days seem to blend together.”
He paused and thought for a moment, then nodded at her.
“Nine, you’re a young woman now.”
“Yes, master.”
“It’s about time you learned about a woman’s duties to men.”
“Excuse me, master?”
“Come with me.”
Amethyst felt her gut sink, but she followed him, knowing what would come if
she didn’t. The walk with him through the halls only made Amethyst all the more
concerned once she realized they were headed to his chamber.
Inside the room, Amethyst felt even more on edge, and the soft click of the
lock in the door made her hair stand on end. He ordered her to stand closer to
the bed, and in seconds he was over top of her. Amethyst fought him tooth and
nail, her stubby limbs flailing and kicking, and she was sure she got him
really good in the ribs with one shot. But in the end he was a full grown,
sizable man, and Amethyst was a short, chubby, poorly feed, nine year old, and
eventually, even with her slightly boosted strength, her owner had her hands
pinned above her head with one hand and was holding her hips in place with the
other.
“You. Are. Mine.” He leaned down and kissed the now exposed scar just above the
centre of Amethyst chest when she finally felt the cold spark in the back of
her skull.
“NO! No I’m not!” She half yelled half growled and he scowled down at her.
Before he had time to say or do anything in response, Amethyst felt her form
starting to change. The world flooded with numbness, only feeling things as far
as pressure, and only vaguely aware of what was happening.
The suit was on her again, but now something was different. After all the
strange sensations of moving yet being still, of everything getting smaller, of
becoming totally numb, blind, and deaf, she was suddenly able to see, feel,
hear, and most of all, Amethyst was in control. Gone was the feeling of being
trapped in a suit, skin controlling and moving her based on instinct, fear, or
blood lust. She was one with it now, and it was one with her.
Still getting used to this sudden shift in power, Amethyst flexed her large paw
like hands and looked up at her owner, sniveling and shivering in the corner of
the room.
“Y-You’re a monster! You really weren’t lying when y-you said…”
Amethyst couldn’t help but smile at that and by the loud pitiful whine that
came from him she guessed her smiled didn’t look much like a typical one.
She walked slowly towards him and grabbed him by his shirt as he started
screaming and pleading with her.
“My…bag…” She growled and screwed up her face at how difficult speaking was in
this form.
“W-When I first picked you up?! I-its in the chest, i-in the ssst-st-storage
room! Everything is still inside, I swear!!”
“Gooolldddd…”
“I-in the strong box under the bed. My life savings!! A-All of it, take it!!”
Amethyst quickly checked under the bed, then pulled the door from its hinges
and dragged the man down the hall with her as he sobbed like a small toddler.
The slaves still in the house that she passed either ran in terror or stood and
watched with grim satisfaction.
Amethyst dragged the crying, whining man all the way to the storage room, where
once again she ripped the door clean off before stepping inside. She tossed him
into a nearby crate, and he understood what she wanted without explanation. He
quickly stood and fumbled for his keys, then fumbled with the lock of the chest
nearest the door before opening it and handing her the old worn bag. A single
strap remained whole, so Amethyst shoved her massive arm through it and grabbed
the man again.
More whimpering, pleading and crying followed them on Amethyst trip to the
dungeon like basement, and once at its doors she placed her bag down on the
ground and threw him down the stairs. He yelped and Amethyst barreled in after
him. She jumped over him and pinned him down, face pressed to the cold stone.
“Free!!!!” She roared and jammed her claws into his shoulder. He let out a
blood curdling scream as Amethyst’s razor like claws ripped his arm from its
socket.
“No more…hurt us!!” She picked him up by his only arm and ripped all the cell
doors open as she ran down the hall and threw him into the wall.
“FREE!!!” Her voice echoed and the slaves all poured out of their cells. Most
ran, but the ones Amethyst had seen never cry, the ones who simply stared into
nothing, they stayed and approached her. The large cat like beast before them
didn’t matter. They knew who she was, and they knew what she was giving them.
“You do…anything…” her voice rumbled out low and filled with power and she
stepped closer to him one last time.
“Now….you know…how feels.” She turned to leave, his screams of agony and
desperation falling on deaf ears as she let the slaves at him.
As she picked up her bag and headed back into the house, Amethyst slowly
changed back into her human form.
“I can control it now…I can’t change when I want, but I can control it.”
She smiled and collected all the gold she could pack before deciding to raid
all of the man’s belongings. After all he didn’t need any of them now.
Out fitted in new (albeit baggy) clothes, a new bag, all the gold she could fit
inside of it, as well as the same silver dagger she had kept all these years.
The slaves had all run off now leaving Amethyst alone, sitting atop a tree
stump near the home.
“I’m not your’s…” Her voice was soft as she spoke aloud at the now empty
building.
“I’m my own. Not your’s, not anyone’s! Not now and not ever again!!”
She shot up to her feet and dug into her bag, pulled out the silver dagger, and
yanked off the sheath with clenched teeth.
“I won’t be anyone’s ever again!!” She screamed up at the sky and lifted her
left sleeve, and with groans, teary eyes, and a clenched jaw, she cut the brand
from her arm. The sliver burned like the hottest fires, worse than she could
remember the brand burning, but when it was over she bandaged her arm and threw
the marked skin to the dirt at her feet.
“I’m Amethyst, and from today on I’m free forever!! I’m no one’s!!”
Falling to the ground she dug a hole in the dirt with the dagger, shoved the
skin inside and stabbed at it over and over again. Eyes burning with tears she
stopped, panting and tired, the dagger dropped to the ground.
“I’m free…” she breathed and buried her brand in the dirt, before standing up
starting her journey anew.
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