The day I learned what freedom was, was ironically, the closest I had ever come to death hy then. Born to a cage of shame, small for my salamander like people. We were normally very tall, ranging from twelve to fifteen feet hy maturity, yet I would likely mever break nine. Father made me a mockery as much as he could to hide his own shame. By blood, I would be heir, but he would never let that happen.
Years spent growing in those dark places. The first few knew my mother, but the soft song left me soon after my third year. I could still hum it, if I tried. By my seventh, I had become a village toy. Passed around and prettied up for the warriors returmed home with hunger in their throats. Gender was not something my people understood, and even today, it is a unique trait I possess that I am proud of. It did not ease the pain of what they did, then.
By my tenth year, I had become embittered. I snapped on warriors, servants. I had been muzzled, often beaten when I disobeyed or rejected advances of one my father collected enough coin from. I was not worthy of suiting, but I made a fine pet for his negotiations. By my fifteenth, I had tried to flee seventeen hundred times in my life. I had never succeeded.
By twenty, I was mostly living out of bars. I had grown too arrogant or stubborn or whatever word he used then. Food was whatever excess I was offered, or expected to swallow. It was... a painful life.
"Hey, did you-" I heard the slice of metal on flesh more cleanly than ever in my life. One of the more violent guard's, the cry of his voice was like music to my aching mind. My hurting body.
"What the f-" Another slice as a flashing glint of black iron caufht my eye.
"Call the guard! The king!, everyone!" A flash of metal as three heada fell, but flames and shouts could be heard in the distance. I wept a little, knowing the pain would be laidnon me for their deaths. But it was not to be so.
The front of my cage snapped as a loud slice tore through the metal, followed hy the soft shink and split of my shackles. I fell, landing to the metal flooring as I shook in shock. A hand appeared in my blurred vision as the flames grew closer.
"We will have your vengeance. Soon." I looked up into pained eyes. Icy blue messes of conflict, yet assurance for me laid in them somehow.
"....Ok."