Fists, Feet... And Revenge

by **Tierra** on October 1st, 2017, 6:02 pm

25th Fall 517

It was several days before she had her second reporting with her 'employer', the first day wasn't but it was long bells the girl was not use to doing something that didn't involve scrubbing, dusting, or otherwise manual like labor. This was all mental work and it was exhausting. It was here and now that Tierra was about to regret her lack of attention to her surroundings since her introductory meeting with Sayana last season. It was still early in the morning – a bell past breakfast – and Tierra had her notebook in hand, but it was just there. The girl was not reading it, writing in it, just holding it. She had some downtime between breakfast and her class time and as such wanted to go and sit down in her bed and just think.

Tierra could hear the usual shuffling and talk coming from her fellow orphans, so overall she ignored them, this was the start of her mistake truly. If she wasn't so tired and mentally exhausted Tie might have spent more attention of the talking and movements of the other orphans.

One of the larger orphans came to the forefront of her attention, knocking it out of the haze of exhaustion, it was a typical tactic of bullies that emerged. He reached out and knocked the notebook from the hand of Tie. It hit the ground and skidded away. As such, Tie did the typical response, she dropped to her knees trying to grab a hold of her precious compilation of knowledge. Granted it wasn't all that spectacular in notes, but it was her's. As her hands reached out to grab a hold of it, the tips of her fingers managing to take a hold of the edge with little stretching effort the bully's shoe came down on her hand, the grinding impact of his shoe's treading rubbing aggressively into her hand made Tierra yell out in pain and attempt to pull it back out from underneath his shoe – forgetting her notebook in the pain.

That is when the next act came, one that Tie was completely unaware of – this one came as a blow to her back from behind. Right between the blades of her shoulders. This was accompanied by a cry of pain, a brief arching of her back to remove the source of the pain from her back before she crumbled forward. From here it became a flurry of shoes and fists all around her body. The little girl could catch the small talk that came. It didn't make sense, it was bully talk for something, of what though Tierra had no idea. She didn't understand their native tongue, even when she wasn't the one being targeted by hands and feet. Feet pelted at her back, sides, chest, legs, arms. Tierra did her best to protect her face though, curling up in a ball and covering her face with arms as the blows fell on her.

She was no longer crying out in pain now, now it was just yelps and grunts, cries and please to stop. It seemed to have taken forever though. Sometime during this one of the large boys sat over her body and with his meaty hands pummeled at her hands and face, hitting hard enough to press and smash her protective cocoon of her arms against her face. She could hear him asking someone to pull her arms away so he could teach the little wanna-be city worker a lesson. It was when her arms were being pawed at to yank them from her face is what grabbed Tierra's attention back into the here and now. She struggled against her assailants, Tie couldn't stop the feet and blows against the rest of her body but she could fight against the arm-puller and the oaf that sat her.

It was too late though, as soon as her arms were yanked away enough to provide entry to her face the fist came down. With eyes closed as a results of protecting her face though Tierra couldn't see the fist as it came. As is came smashing in Tierra could feel the boy's knuckles shifting underneath his flesh as it came in contact with her right eye. She cried out loudly, as he pulled the first back, releasing the tension between source and her face Tierra tried frantically to pull her arms away, it was struggle that she nearly failed at, though she did manage to get one arm pulled down at her face. It took some effort but without opening her still good eye she blindly leaned up and bit at the arm of her arm-captor. It was covered by a sleeve – a note that Tie would fail to remember later on, but the retaliation was enough to cause a yelp of pain and the subsequent release of her hands.

She was nearly free, at the very least she now had a chance to defend herself.

“Sum one comin'. Sum one comin'.” Tierra heard the call, it was a lookout. This was something Tierra was well versed in knowing about: be it for stealing desserts from the kitchen around mealtimes or other such moments as this. What happened next left Tie in a blur of confusion as the blows ceased to stop immediately, the weight on her body had vanished – not without a final thud of a foot against her stomach though. And then she was left in silence.

Groaning she sat up, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to even sit up. Whoever the lookout thought was coming had showed themselves yet. Breathing heavily though Tie opened her good eye, looking around for her notebook. It was kicked, stepped on, battered and flung to a far wall. She didn't have the energy or will to stand up so instead she did her best to crawl over to it. As she reached out her hand to move herself forward Tierra could see the red going purple shoe stamp on the top of her hand.

It took the girl several ticks to reach her notebook. Picking it up even caused the girl to wince and whimper in pain. Grabbing the flimsy bundle of paper she pulled it close. Tears ran down her face as she huddled there. Finally, she could hear the foot falls of whoever it was that was noticed before that dispersed her attackers. It was another orphan, one of the older ones that Tierra didn't know.

They just kept going though, ignoring the little orphaned girl against the wall as they went on their way. Struggling to stand after some time though Tierra made her way back to her bed, just wanting to crawl under the covers. When the adults came to rouse her for class time Tierra would ask to stay in bed, not wanting to face the other kids right this moment.

All it took was a brief look at Tierra's face and body to see the blossoming bruises. “No infirmary. I just want to stay in bed.” It took several more ticks but final the caretaker just left Tierra be. Still clutching her notebook the girl watched the adult leave her alone... In her bed... In a room all by herself.

“I will find those that did this and they will pay.” She whispered as tears rolled down her face.

WC: 1230

by **Tierra** on October 12th, 2017, 5:09 pm

It took Tierra several bells to finally crawl out of bed and limp to the chamber pot and water basin to wash. Seeing the reflection of the beaten and battered little girl in the rippling basin made the orphan want to cry. The entire right side of her face was swollen and colored with bruises already. The eye was nearly swollen shut, this was even obvious to Tierra as she could barely open it and it hurt. That was where the hand came smashing into her face, the markings around that eye were prominent and well pronounced, she stared at them, Four sausage like fingers. Wide at the bottom of her eye socket -- the fist came swinging from above and behind, so her attacker’s hand was palm up, this made plenty of sense to Tierra and knew who she was going to target first – the kid that pried my arms away.

Tierra recalled the scuffle as well as she could, most of it she spent with her eyes closed and shielded behind her arms. Her arms were bruised and battered, her stomach ached something fierce due to the abusers’ attempts to blow apart her organs with the beating she received. There was no telling though who did what to her body, it was just going to be a waiting game to determine who did what and then exact her own version of revenge.

‘Sum one comin’. Sum one comin’.’ That voice... The lookout. She grimaced, staring down at the unrecognizable face in the water. She knew then that her original decision to pick the arm-remover first was changed. The lookout. Send a message to the whole lot of them. No one is safe, not even the lookout. She set her face to as stony of a look as she could, but it hurt and it caused the girl to wince in pain, shattering the would be attempt to protect her dignity. By this time other orphans were filing into the room, their voices immediately falling to a hush of murmurs, Tierra knew they were talking about her. Don’t let it get to you… She just wanted to cry though.

With a strong inhale and accompanying exhale Tie tried to regain her dignity and nerves and turned to face the crowd of orphans. Her assumptions were accurate; they were looking at her and whispering to each other. She eyed each one of them, trying to see any markings of a scuffle earlier. There was none that she could see. All Tie had to go off of was the bruises on her own body. Well, that and her notebook. Glancing over at her bed it sat there half buried by her blanket. The dirty smudges of footprints and shuffling from being pushed away were visible and that gave some solace to her. Maybe I can get some details off of those. She limped back towards her bed. No one tried to stop her, no one tried to assist her… They just watched, like she was some kind of animal at a zoo. Those that she neared shied away from her, no sympathy given. Tierra picked up her notebook, cradling it carefully against her chest before she started limping out of the room, trying to find a place where she could think.

Anywhere away from all them… Eyes. All those useless morons. Each door that she found though opened up to other orphans who just stared or locked. She went upward, eventually finding herself on the rooftop, staring out at the sun and the city below. “The lookout… With his whiny voice.” Tierra was certain it was a boy. Young too, that much was clear to her, it was never an older child being a lookout. They were too ‘privileged’ to be lookouts. Opening up the notebook she found that she had managed to leave a pencil in the spine crease. With shaky fingers she picked up the pencil and leaned down to steady herself and paper.

With a bit of thinking, she did her best to recall the key she been using. AZ, BY, CX… Twenty-six letters in the alphabet, in half is 2, rotates on… A is one, B is two. She whispered each letter and the numerical equal to it. “…J is ten… K is eleven… L is twelve… M is thirteen. The key rotates on the pairing of M and N.”

With some thought she started to write down, slowly and carefully writing down the letters she needed to use. F is the sixth letter in the alphabet, meaning I need to go backwards from Z six letters. Z. Y.X.W.V.U…, six letters back from the letter Z was the letter U, so this was her starting point. I is the ninth letter, so three letters before the letter U is… “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU… T… S… R.” R went down next to the letter U. This went on for some time, each letter she mentally went down the alphabet, it wasn’t long until Tierra could recall some of the letters without much difficulty, as they were easy to rotate: M and N, O and L, K and P… A and Z… B and Y… C and X… D and W. It made sense though; they were the ends of the alphabet and the middle were it rotated.

It was also noticeable to Tierra that this may not be the hardest encryption for information keeping she could use, but it didn’t matter though to her. It was what she knew currently. It took the orphan girl nearly a chime to write her full message out. Between the wincing pain from her stepped on hand to the mental exercise of determining what letter to letter match she was aiming for, well being careful to ensure that her message didn’t get message up Tierra finally had it figured out and written down.

URMW GSV OLLPLFG. DSRMB ELRXV. BLFMT YLB. HFN LMV XLNRM'.Find the lookout. Whiny voice. Young boy. Sum one comin'. was scrawled out in just recognizable lettering in her notebook. Placing the pencil back in the spine crease she shut the notebook and once more gazed out at the city below. With its canal and bridge system between floating platforms.

WC: 1028

by **Tierra** on October 23rd, 2017, 5:03 pm

Sum one comin’

Tierra frowned; she couldn’t shake that boy’s voice from her thoughts. It tore at her driving her to want to cry, to scream, to kick and punch the building. The girl even pondered the unthinkable as her eyes peered into the canal below. The thought though faded as quickly as it came though, it would do no good. Tie tried her hardest to recall some kind of the features of the boys that beat her. Were they all boys? Tierra assumed that they were but to truthfully she wasn’t entire sure anymore.

Her gaze fell down onto her notebook. The treaded prints across it echoed the assault on her being. Trodden on, battered, and abused. She tried to recall his face, his size… Anything. Closing her eyes Tie tried to remember whatever she could without reliving the whole nightmarish hell. Only thing that came to mind was his hand and feet. Hand as it came into her view and knocked the notebook out from her hand. It was a meaty hand to go with the big clobbering foot that smashed down on my fingers to prevent me from grabbing my notebook. Tierra frowned, there was not much there to work with. He didn’t say my name… He just… Appeared. The girl sighed and sat down on the roof looking out at the skyline of her beloved city.

“Rhysol, if this is a test of my loyalty to you I will show you. I will not bend and give up. I will not break. This will make me stronger.” She squeezed her hand into a fist, the tendons and muscles protested in pain as she clenched her fingers hard into her palm. The bruised fleshed appear across her knuckles and fingers, tools needed to hold a pencil still. The girl’s head cocked to the side, He KNEW I do a lot of writing. Maybe for my apprenticeship… She looked up and thought back to the day before she started her apprenticeship, she had a tried to recall it briefly. “I got the invite… It got all jumbled… Then I decoded it…”

She opened each finger as she ticked off the actions. Got Inverted invite, finger up; message all jumbled another finger up; decoded it, another finger up. Something was missing at the end. Just before she was told by Miss Sonja to be ready – something Tierra felt she should know. Then it dawned on her – that petching little girl that came calling out about being in trouble. Charlotte Cairnswarren. “Stupid little girl!” Damn it.

Tie stood and turned to the door heading back down to the orphanage interior. She had a possible information source. “Who do you know little Charlotte that would want to hurt me? Who would be so jealous…” She clenched her hand again, grimacing this time at the pain before she released the hand and shook it gently to try and remove the pain. The orphan flipped open her notebook and scrawled down the letters:

Urmw Xsziolggv Xzrimhdziivm nzpv svi gzopFind Charlotte Cairnswarren make her talk Tierra stared down at the letters, she had no care in the world at this moment to ‘decrypt’ her thoughts, she knew what they said. The orphan was determined to get answers. Pulling the door open she stepped through it and into the belly of the Commorancy. Find her…

WC: 555

by **Tierra** on October 25th, 2017, 5:10 pm

Tierra had no intention of confronting the little petch that came hollering through the corridors for Tie, no instead Tie was going to listen, to see if she could hear any resemblance in the voice of Charlotte and the lookout from earlier. There was little hope in the lead, but there was still hope. Tierra wanted to get those responsible and she would stop at nothing to do so. Two flights down from the rooftop she could hear people talking on these floor– children to be exact. Rounding the corner of the stairs she could see a door directly to her right.

Tie paused at a door the orphan girl started listening in on the voices on the other side of the door. Muffled complaints and protesting of chores it was nothing of use. Tierra went to the next door - this one was ajar so the girl stood just to the outside of the doorway, listening in on the conversations within.

“Som ting …” More words followed but Tierra ignored them as they came drifting out of the room-- it sounded like the lookout… She closed her eyes and listened, trying to connect the words she just heard to the words she recalled. Tierra frowned, it wasn’t the same person. Sighing she kept walking, slipping past the door as quietly as she could to not disturb those in mid-conversation. At this rate the orphan felt she wasn’t going to find the look out.

“Sum one…” They sounded close, yet that was the only words she could hear. Tierra froze, that was the lookout. She was sure of it. Whiny voice little petcher was somewhere nearby. Tierra turned her gaze slowly to the left a wall; she looked to the right, also a wall. Where is it coming from? In front of her to the right was a corner turn, Must be that way… but why is it sounding so close?

“Comin’ I tell yah. Sum one….” There it was again! Still as loud as if she was right next to it. Tierra looked around again. This time more animated in her search. Her eyes scanned the wall on the left. No doors, no shafts of light on the sides or bottom or ceiling to show evidence of a hidden door. The right wall showed similar results. She looked to the floor; there was a grate that went between floors that acted as a heat source for the upper floors. Scrambling to the grate and got down on her hands and knees and crouched low, she could hear voices below. With some straining in her gaze she could see that the grate was opening into a room, the carpeting revealed it to be a side room, usually used to host classes or potential adopters.

“Lil Tierra nevah saw it comin’ I tell yah… Sum one…” It came again, but it didn’t come from the grate before her. Tierra stood, grimacing at the pain in her muscles and joints as she did so. It was coming from above. She looked up at the ceiling; sure enough right above where she was standing was another of those grates. It was coming from up there. The floor she completely bypassed. Damn it. She turned back to the stairs and started for them. Limping as fast as she could to hopefully catch them before they got away Tierra had no desire of letting them get away until she could see their faces. They are talking to someone -- one of my attackers, it has to be.

Tierra growled as she took to the stairs, wincing at the pain as she pulled herself up them one by one in as fast a pace as she could. Her desire to find the owner of the voice outweighed her desire to curl up in a ball and cry until the pain subsided. She felt that if she let the pain win she was never going to get the information she wanted.

WC: 664

Solo Fists, Feet... And Revenge