Days later the young teen girl was clumsily shooting a crossbow at a herd of deer, her shots wild and imprecise. Eventually though from plan luck she brought one down and at least in this task fared better skinning the deer. The meat would feed her and her father for many days to come and would allow the girl to use the fang saved from not buying the meat directly to purchase much needed medical supplies and herbs.
She had offered her services to the guard as a healer, but after several days she still had heard nothing back from them. She stood carrying the hunks of meat over her shoulder when a odd tongue sounded from nearby. Suddenly she felt a gripping fear enter her mind, and she dropped the bag of meat and ran cowering inside a tree hole.
The next several hours were a blur to the teen, pain, fear, and an odd unnatural sense of calm washed over her body so quickly she lost count of it all. Eventually though her mind cleared enough for her to see a bone face being leering over her. "...Your father will be mind dearest one, death shall be sweet to him." With a cackle the being disapered from her vision and florence ran from the cave finding it near noon time by now.
"FATHER!" She thought in panic then ran as fast as she could to the southern farm lands. On the way she ran into an outlander man who followed her as she ran explaining quickly what had happened to her. As she ran and looked about calling for her father she still felt occasionally her mind blur in confusion, this same assement also gave her the feeling that some physical drug had been used though what it was exactly she was not sure.
Eventually to her relief she found her father tidying up the tools and placing them back into the work shed. "Father!" Florence said happily rushing up to him and embracing him with a hug. Her father's large hands reached around her shoulder and for a briefest of moments she thought he was going to return the hug. But no instead savegly he pushed her away a few feet then delivered a savage smack across her face sending her sprawling into the mud. "URGHH!" She groaned wipping the blood and mud from her face.
"...Weak girl, where's your fangs!" He snapped glaring down at her after delivering another savage kick to her ribs, which florence absorbed with a grunt and cough. Mutely she heard the outlander shout for him to stop but her father ignored it.
With shaking hands Florence handed over the small bag of fangs she had been given for treating a broken leg at the orphanage the day previous. Her father greedily snatched it away counting it. "...Umph, hardly enough here for a good drink and whore girl!" Her father said. "...fact, that aint such a bad idea you get to doing that you hear!"
Florence looked up to her father dutifully and nodded realizing that in a way he was right, she was weak, and with the cultists taking so much of her potential customers away she would have to resort to other means for fang, even if she did not like it. Nodding her head to him she said. "...Yes father as you say."
Florence's father then stalked over to the outlander who was trying to stop him from beating her again. Recovering herself she stood shouting as her father started to beat the outlander man. "...Father no stop!" She said rushing and trying to drag the large man off him.
A savage push with his left arm sent her sprawling and dazed her for a moment as she stared up into the cloudy dark sky. "Momma I'm sorry I cant, he's to strong." Her now foggy mind said as the last wisps of the drugs took her mind into thinking her mother told her to stop her father from causing suffering to the man. Slowly she got to her feet again biting her lip as she watched the large man beat the life blow for blow out of the outlander. "Fathe stop please! I beg you!" She said.
"...Kill him!..." An unknown voice whispered near her ear, Florence's angered, pained, and drugged mind took this as her own. And finally a red haze drifted down over her and she drew her scapal. "STOP STOP STOP IT!" She screamed charging and slamming the scapal into her fathers neck just below the brain stem. The blow did not kill him but instead paralyzed him. Then with the red mist still over her eyes she drew the scapal up around the skin slowly skinning the hair and scalp off. Finally digging it in deep into the brain and putting all her strength into it she drew it down his spine snapping all life from him.
Her father grunted in this swift action that took no more then a few seconds. Falling dead on top of the outlander as she ripped the blade from his back. Florence stumped back blood coating her hands as she stared in horror at what she had done. "..I...I..." she said slumping to her knees and stared at the blood of her father.
The outlander pushed the dead wait of her father off him and stood backing away from Florence in shock, surprise, and vaguely Florence realized fear. Silence then dropped over the area as she continued to stare at her hands. But it was soon replaced by a soothing feeling, of doing the right thing. "...You did well my daughter, you did the right thing." Kept echoing in her mind, it was comforting to the teen like when her mother would hold her tightly to soothe her from a raging storm, or after enduring one of her father's beatings. She was so caught up in this she did not notice the blood seep into her hands. As she stood still feeling that warmth she felt, stronger, and healthier. Her head hurt but she reasoned that was from the last effects of the drug that the witch, yes witch she finally realized had used on her.
The outlander just stared at her then as she coolly wiped the scapal clean with a cloth then sheathed it. "..You should do something with the body there." He said.
Florence nodded, feeling joyful in having righted a wrong deed, and ending forever the torment and pain her father had brought to her and her mother. With ease she lifted the large man onto her shoulders. And turned to head for the thoull caves. Once there she gave a dark cold grin that made the outlander step back away from her. With effort she stuffed her father head first into the large cooking pot outside the cave mouth. "...Enjoy your stew father, dinner is ready." She cackled a bit laughing.
The outlander she learned shortly after was Ramionus and he figured that what was done was done, no sense in him reporting this to the guard. For this Florence was grateful as it meant she would not have to needlessly kill him to preserve her own skin, "...Still I will have to watch him, just in case." She thought. The two parted then the outlander heading away at a fast jog and Florence heading into the warehouse district and soon making her way to the Slums.
The rain by this time had washed away any trace of blood from her clothes and skin, at the house though stood the tax collectors of Valiki. "...Where's your father girl?" The one asked. Florence had started to appear dispirited and quickly told them how thoulls had killed her father. She knew what was coming next but did not try to stop it. "...How is not yours then girl, no family, no house, less you can pay the taxes for it?" He asked.
Florence shook her head. "...Then get lost girl, this aint yours anymore. You got ten mintues to get whatever you need of yours from here and get lost. Understood?" He said to which she silently nodded.
Florence quickly packed a few sets of clothes and a satchel of her mothers for around her shoulder to carry her medical supplies. Then assembled a pack for further carrying. Finding her mother's old set of scapals and vials also helped as well as her book on medical studies. With that she left the house with a curt nod to the collectors and his guards. She was now on her own, homeless, without a family, and only a few fangs to her name. Still life was not so bad. "...Father's torment is over, now I start anew." She thought a grin and smile crossing her face.
With that Florence headed for the one place she knew she could have a remote chance of finding work, that being among the outlanders at the Ladies Rest.