She woke up to an eerie darkness, and the sound of a fire burning. She felt something cold directly against the almost entire part of her front. Looking and slowly gaining her bearing, she realized she was nude and seated, chained to some large cold metal object.

“Oh, you woke up eh? Good on you, we were just about to begin.” The voice of one of the two men from earlier caused a spark of fear to expand within her. The man turned around, holding a blacksmith’s tong in one hand, it in turn holding a red-hot lump of coal. He grinned, and dropped the coal into the metal object. Immediately, the heat caused the girl to scream.

“Not enough… The sweet tone wasn’t there… Oh well.” The man picked up yet another lump of coal, and dropped it in, the temperature rose sharply in the metal, the heat forcing out yet another shriek of pain.

“So, who are you? What’s your name kid? Don’t wanna talk? Oh well.” Another lump of coal was unceremoniously dumped into the cauldron, and another. The heat of the metal began to sting, and burn marks began to form on her skin. She screamed her lungs out, but her struggles were merely met by yet another lump of coal, causing the metal to sear her skin and into her flesh. The pain soon caused her to black out.

Her eyes opened sharply as a torrent of cold water was thrown on her body. Immediately, a small ventilation shaft was opened, and a cold wind entered the room causing her to shiver and huddle herself as her body warmth left her. One of the men entered with a metal pot of hot water.

“Here’s some warm water, all you need to do, is to beg us…”

“P-please… I’m… So, cold. Allow me to…” Her words were cut short by another wave of water, this time from the metal pot. The boiling water scalded her already bruised and hypersensitive skin. She tried to beg once more, but her whole body screamed in pain. One of the men approached her, raised her up by her arms clamped in chains. Once she was suspended in the air, he took a small flask of liquid, and despite her feeble protests, poured the content into her mouth. Immediately, her body convulsed, she let out a deafening scream as her eyeballs began shaking wildly, causing her sight to blur into the unrecognizable.

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“Do you feel it? This is some lovely Dullweed isn’t it?”

Immediately, she was thrown into what felt like a momentary darkness.

She woke up. Almost every inch of her body felt like it was on fire. She felt her arms suspended above her, and the skin along her butt and hind legs felt a little cooler on the cold stone floor. She felt some fabric covering her eyes, its contact with the skin around her eyes causing her no small amount of pain.

'Crack'! Out of nowhere, the end of some sort of staff hit her on her head, causing her consciousness to drift momentarily. Whap! The next strike hit her directly on her cheekbone. Three more strikes impacted her, one flat over her collarbones, the second hit left a searing pain on her thighs, and the last strike once more impacted on her head. From the sound, whatever had been used to hit her had shattered, and soon she felt a hot trickle of blood flowing down from her head and into her eyes, further blurring the texture of the fabric covering her eyes.

From under the rim, she could barely make out a pair of feet. She tried to focus on them, but lost sight of them as her head was violently thrown to the left by a hard impact. Her body would have hit the floor without her arms being chained up. She tried to blink but the pain only intensified. Her mouth began filling with the taste of iron, and she coughed several times, sending spurts of blood and teeth splattering against the floor. Another hit landed on her left, and once more, her consciousness faded.

“This is… Hey… Sweetie? Wake up…” She could her a strange voice from far away. Her body felt unresponsive, her vision momentarily blurred, then sharpened, then blurred back. In a moment, she caught a glimpse of a face riddled with concern and sadness.

“How awful… What did they do to you?” She felt drawn to the voice. It felt sweet in her ears, and so strangely familiar. She tried to say something, but her jaw remained unresponsive.

“I will save you… Somehow.”

She felt the person touch the burnt, scalded and cut skin of her cheek. She felt no pain, rather a feeling of warmth, and… Something familial? Her mind began to play tricks with her again.

“Believe in me sweetie… I will save you… Trust me. I’m your friend… I’ll save you…”

“Hey! What are you doing here? Get away from her! She’s evil!” A man’s angry voice resounded throughout the room.

“No! She’s just a child! I’ll set her free!”

'Smack!' The sound of a hand striking skin silenced the other voice.

“Now come along!”

“Trust me sweetie! I’ll save you, I promise! I’ll come back!”

She heard the door close. She felt like crying. She wanted to shout back, to reaffirm this person that she wanted to escape. Desperation began to set in, but her body refused to move even a little. Her vision blurred out once more.