Poison Ivy

Taking a moment of her day to sit down in the sun for a brief five minutes, she had her pen and was quietly drawing a familiar pattern over her hand, once this place had been such a pleasant place for her and now well, she'd been set aside as if she was nothing. Perhaps she was, whatever she was she'd felt so frustrated, so resentful and above all alone that it'd felt good to make Tia feel just as worthless as she herself felt, the resentfulness was dark and black, it was eating away at her leaving only an emptiness in its wake. Digging the pen deeper into her skin without realizing it, she pushed the entire room away while she used her ever brief rest break to do the one thing she had left. She didn't have her parents, as much as Tori had claimed she did, letters would only be lies and out of all the people in the world her mama and papa were the ones she wanted to be truthful to, about what had happened what she felt, what she felt she was. Not hearing footsteps, lost in thoughts and the careful rules that said the mandala must be perfect, flawless, even if nothing else in her life at this moment was. Being set aside had been quite the wake up call, now she was highly aware that she'd been manipulated, in a way she'd been warning Tia that it was likely she too would be set aside like she was trash. Courtney had taken great care to keep everything to herself, going out of her way to appear like she was shallow and nothing more, it was safer to be that way, shallow people didn't get hurt, pretending to be narcissistic meant she appeared like she wouldn't be hurt. Tensing when she heard her name in the familiar voice, she didn't look up at him instead adding a few more lines, doing as she was told, the brunette tucked her pen away. Guessing whatever was about to happen wasn't going to be good, she followed slowly as he'd never said anything about pace, if irritating him by being cunning got some sort of attention then it was worth it. Staying back when he hugged the princess and sat down with her, Courtney simply started drawing on her hand again, ignoring them both, she'd heard bits and pieces from other pets and was quickly putting together what was going to happen to her. She'd be discarded a second time, 'trained' and sold on, to whomever payed the highest price, disgust and disdain for faeries and their beliefs that they were better than her. Arrogant yes, prideful yes, willful yes, she knew she was far from the perfect pet and she had no interest in becoming one, all what would happen is she'd become boring again and be passed on.


Sitting waiting and sipping tea, Katherine stood and hugged her friend an dwatched as he sat down, her gaze flicking to the human that interestingly had several mental walls up that kept anyone from really seeing anythign apart from a self absorbed shallow bitch. It was goign to be fun to peel back those walls and see what she could see "Its good to see you as well Tori, this is the girl you were telling me about? Pretty little thing, worth a fair bit looks wise at least" going out of her way to already treat the girl like she was nothing like a thing or possession her gaze remained on tori while speaking to him.

Of course he'd never forced her, it wasn't in the nature of faeries to force, no they manipulated and used people, making out like she was not listening in the slightest she took the liberty of sitting down and crossing her legs ignoring the fact that she was sitting in the dirt she switched from her hand to drawing along her calf adding details to the ivy plant that she'd half way done late the night before. Katherine listened calmly as her young friend explained that the pet he wanted to sell to her had the knowledge to be a good pet despite his lack of keeping up with her training. Going on to say that the girl was a challenge, he warned her that the girl drawing on herself had a bit of a meanstreak "She sounds like a delight, get her to stand and stop drawing" already she was figuring out parts of how the girl worked, for now she was happy to take away the girls control via Tori. "She's not worth much with all those flaws, however there is potential so i'll be generous and offer you a couple thousand for her her silver eyes were subtly keeping an eye on the girl although it was out of the corners of them. Kit potentially could be the social bridge that helped the girl that realise that life could be quite nice being owned by a faerie, however she wasn't afraid of taking everything from the girl, food, privacy, clothes even that pen that she clutched so tightly in her hands. Lifting her hand to brush some strands of hair out of her face, the princesses silver gaze returned to the girl wanting to know just how she ticked, how could she manipulate her, sink her hooks into her, a slight smirk slipped onto her features betraying slightly just what she would do to the girl. She was well known for harsh methods, but it usually produced better pets that were all the more eager to behave for their new masters as they were usually kinder than her.

Pausing when she heard her name, she counted to ten while finishing off as much of the ivy and once she'd reached ten, the girl got up and walked over quietly holding the pen in a tight grip so that neither of them could take it. Standing out of their reach, her green eyes lifted to watch the pair of them sharply, there was an arrogant defiant lift to her chin and squaring of her shoulders. Katherine smiled and tapped her fingers on the table "Excellent, I do believe we have an agreement then" reaching into the pocket of her coat she drew out a rough collar woven together of uncomfortable fibers that'd undoubtedly scrape against the sensitive skin of the girls throat. Setting it down on the table for the girl to see she continued "Tell me what she likes, the dislikes I'll find out soon enough" silver eyes briefly met green, the silver gaze regarding the girl as if she was nothing to her, just some little speck of dust in the universe that had no real purpose. What she wanted to know, what were her skills, what was she good at, what could be used as a reward and what could be used as a punishment, when her gaze flicked back to Tori her features communicated that to her friend who was far younger than herself.

Folding her arms and listening, she ended up using her pen to clean underneath her nails and flick the dirt underneath them that had gathered on the pen tip at Tori "Mean-streak? Please, the girl had the right to know that she's a manipulated little teachers pet that will be dumped as soon as she becomes boring. Perhaps you should take the time to look up in a dictionary the difference, I'm sure your mommy has one you can borrow when you next run to her to hide behind her skirts; she does spoil her mommys boy after all dosent she?. Arrogant twat" Appearing to bristle slightly when he referred to her as being like most females, internally she was somewhat smug and perhaps very privately hurt that was all he'd really understood. She wasn't like everyone else, she was special, she was loved she was unique, that was what Mama had always told her when tucking her in when She'd been very small. Thinking of mama made her hands pause as homesickness swept over her, and at the same time anger at both herself for letting herself be manipulated and taken away from them and at Tori for being the manipulator. Returning to using the pen to clean out underneath her nails, the woman was paying special attention to where the dirt was being flicked, starting to aim for his tea.


Listening to Tori, a smirk briefly flicked onto her lips at the girls words, to her they weren't exactly wrong even if they were rude, "I'll take her now" Katherine had no intention of giving the girl the attention that she wanted, instead focusing on Tori and without words suggesting he do the same. Standing, she offered the girl the rough collar that had been prepared "Put it on, Ellie was it? Not short for Elizabeth perhaps? Hm Hm You'll go by the name of Nelly while you are in my service." despite her tone being light, it was quite clear that there was no choice about the matter. Studying the collar, Ellie looked up back at the Princess and didn't make a move, however her entire body stiffened visibly when Kat just sighed and tutted before taking the pen out of the girls hand and placed the collar in it instead "You want it back you'll put that pretty little necklace on for me". Ellie considered snatching for her pen although uncertain if the princess would hit her or not, the brunette thought better of it and instead slowly donned the collar, leaving it loose. Her pen was returned to her, and as she snatched it back kat moved and tightened the collar until it was tight enough that every time she took a breath or swallowed she'd feel the rough prickly fibers of the collar digging into her neck.  

Seeing the familiar leopard, the princess's face gentled a little, brushing her hand along Kits head affectionately, he'd turned out to be a fine pet and was on his second to last collar. Glancing at Ellie briefly Kat spoke "Kitten darling, this is Nelly she's here to learn how to be a good pet. Nelly through that door is your room" she'd gotten the girl to tell her her name on the way home and so the princess was content to let the girl adjust to the fact that things would be different for a short while. Ellie took the words as an excuse to get away from the woman and headed into the room that was to be her space, slamming the door behind her. Shaking her head Katherine simply walked over to the door and took it down to store beneath her own bed, if she was going to slam doors well then she didn't need one, the next mistep the girl made would result in loss of food privileges and then the same for clothes. Moving back over to the leopard she bent over to stroke him likign the feel of his long soft luxurious fur, he was a good pet and the other girl would become just as good even if it took a couple of years.

She didn't know how long it'd been anymore, her bed was gone and replaced with a blanket and a woolen blanket that scratched on her skin, food was given sparingly although she always had acess to clean water. She'd behaved for a week and so she'd been given clothes, they were old and ratty but they felt like protection, in the small bathroom that adjoined her room, the door had been unlocked and she'd just had a shower for the first time in two weeks. Feeling clean would be spoiled by the feeling of the old clothes, so she kept the door shut and stood looking at herself in the mirror, thin and gaunt, unhealthily pale. Taking her pen up off the vanity she carefully took it apart to reveal the skinny blade she'd put there for safe keeping, she didn't want anyone to know about the guilty secret habit that had started to blossom. Every time she did it she told herself she'd never do it again, but the relief and release it gave her was like someone was shooting her veins with some kind of high. Another part of it was about the control, she had no control over any part of her life, so being able to control a part of that pain and mastering it, she couldn't think of words that could describe it.

Fairly certain that the leopard would be able ot smell blood she'd checked that he'd be going along with the princess before they'd left, thankfully he was so she had time to let it out. "Sorry Mama, Sorry papa" the soft whisper was barely heard even to herself before she sat down on the cold tiles and chose a spot on her upper thigh, already there were several healing cuts, the behaviour swiftly becoming a ritual she'd do whenever they were out. The best way to hide it was to continue to do it over the same spots although it meant she had to cut deeper and deeper into her skin, and then she'd clean up the blood and go about like everything was fine. Dangerously close to breaking, it was with each slice into her flesh and the euphoric feeling that came with it that a way to cope began to come together in her mind.

She'd appear to break, to submit when in reality it was merely adapting, adapting and pretending was better than actually breaking, she had a chance this way, it wasn't much of a chance but it was better than the alternative. Leaning her head back against the wall as thoughts and feelings rushed through her system, what would her mother and father think about her now? Would they be ashamed of her? She couldn't help but start to listen to what the princess told her, that she was nothing and unless she behaved bad things would happen to her, all she wanted to do was go home, back to her parents. Ellie missed her fathers hugs and her mothers cooking, and as more memories and feelings surfaced tears began to leak down her face, her jaw ached as the girl began to sob gut wrenchingly.

It took an extreme amount of energy for her to get herself up off of the floor and cleaning up, hiding the blade in the pen and tending to the blood. Pulling clothes on a part of her was thankful that the ugly heavy old things soaked up blood, she'd use period pads taped over the deeper cuts. Before the leopard had the chance to poke his nose into why she smelled of blood she'd blamed it on having a heavy irregular period, that'd resulted in more things to tend to the cuts and less questions. Curling up on the mattress having opted to sleep and be cold instead of having the itchy wool blanket, she continued to cry, wanting her parents, wanting to feel safe, wanting to actually believe she was special like they'd claimed instead of the black emptiness that continued to take the princesses words and used them to reinforce its own argument that in reality she was less than nothing, bound to always be used and then dumped. It was only about ten minutes that she'd finally ceased her crying and had fallen asleep before the princess walked through the door, the noise snapping her back to being awake again and wiping her cheeks clean of tears.



In court once again, Katherine was unaware and uncaring of her pets plight, she had Kit with her in his leopard form at her side and thus was content. Noticing the trade master who rarely came to court making his way over to her, she took another sip of the sweet wine that'd been made in the faerie vineyards to the south and waited patiently to see what he wanted. he had in the past purchased pets from her, to add his own training to and then sold on, the girl she had currently was far from being ready to be sold on, she still had Sofias bedwarmer training to add as well as some manners and plenty of other bits and pieces as there were some disturbing holes in her training. Tori had much to learn about training a pet properly, thinking of him her silver gaze flicked over to where he was, not too far from his mother with his recent ginger pet at his side. That one seemed to be much more obedient and well trained so perhaps it was just different personalities and Ellie had been too much for him, she'd found out about ellies skills and was pleased that she'd learnt how to handle the Cerns while belonging to Tori as that'd elevate her price. "Master Niko, Its been some time since I've seen you about, how are you?" A stickler for manners when things weren't urgent, she offered him a polite smile while her free hand gently rested on her leopards head liking to have the creature near her, even if it was a little hard to admit to anyone that she cared for her pet in ways a princess shouldn't, it was something she kept between herself and kit there wasn't much she could do about court gossip except to wave it off as bullshit.

Continuing to stroke the leopard, Katherine responded with the correct response "I'm glad to hear that, I also am well" Keeping eye contact as was considered polite she listened as he soon got onto the conversation topic as to why he'd come over to her. "I do indeed, She will be trained in the ways of bedwarmer and she'll come with extra skills, cost however has not yet been decided, I estimate her to be ready in about four months at the longest. I am happy to let you know as soon as she is" the girl was almost broken after all, it wouldn't take much longer to do so and then the real retraining would begin where she'd remake the girl into a humble quiet girl not the arrogant defiant bitch she'd presented forwards. Out of those four months she'd spend a month and a half with Sofia learning the ways of how to please men, that'd naturally add more to her cost but with her looks alone she was worth more than the two thousand she'd paid for her. Confident in her abilities to change the girl, she didn't see any reason why the girl shouldn't go to him.

The next four months had gone well, Ellie had gone away to Sofias and returned even more well behaved when she'd returned, she'd passed her final test a few days before and that night she'd penned a letter to the trade master and had quickly received a reply. The girl had been given a nice dress and shoes to wear, and had behaved enough that she'd earnt a nicer collar that didn't itch her skin as much although it was still very tight. Katherine hadn't bothered to order that the girl scrub the pen off, she'd seen what had happened when the pen had been taken away and she'd been forbidden from drawing, it was better to let her have that small liberty although it was up to Niko what she'd be allowed to do. Sitting in her chambers going over some plans for a function that was happening next full moon, meanwhile Ellie was sitting on the floor in a patch of sun carefully detailing her ivy plant that she had creeping up her arm.


Able to hear Kits pencil scratching on the paper as he fufilled yet another client order for a tree house, she kept the tenseness out of her body like she'd been taught by Sofia and her friend Sarah. It'd been such a blessing to be able to have a friend like her, it'd helped and Sofia had been kind to her as well. She had no knowledge about who was wanting to buy her, taking a long breath she focused on doing more details onto the leaves trying to escape th eworld she was in by entering another by drawing. A knock alerted her to the fact that a servant was at the door "Your Highness, Trade Master Niko is here" listening to Katherine tell the servant to allow him in and then greet the faerie, her green eyes remained on the task at hand, detailing the ivy plant

Happy to leave the girl where she was for the moment, Katherine responded to him in kind "Quite well, and yourself Master Niko?" once he had replied she looked over at the girl and spoke "Nelly, come and stand over here" knowing she was on display and didn't have much of a choice, Ellie stood neatly and tucked the pen behind her ear since it was one of the safer places for her to keep it. Walking up to them she lifted her chin and studied the male quietly. She was internally surprised that he was black, she'd never heard of a black faerie before in her dealings with faeries, resisting the urge to fold her arms defensively she went for clasping her hands together behind her back. More than aware that he'd be looking her over now, she watched his face for a while before selecting a spot on the wall to watch closely not willing to risk getting Katherine angry with her.

Well aware that he was the type who wanted to know as much as he could, Katherine paid attention to his first few questions "She's been trained as a bedwarmer, and has some skill with mathematics, in the past she assisted her human father with book keeping with his business. She's also experienced with tending to Cerns, cooking and cleaning naturally too. She was taken from the streets and made a pet at age 21 nice and fertile. She's been a pet for roughly sixty years and i've had her for about ten months, Isn't that right Nelly" listening while she studied the wall carefully, Ellie twitched slightly when the name Nelly was used, how she hated that name. Wrinkling her nose a little and pouting a little, Ellie knew better now to say anything, it was best to act broken while not actually being broken, "yes your highness" her gaze flicked to the two faeries before she returned her gaze to the wall, one hand slipping up to grasp her pen and hide it behind her back to fiddle with it.

Katherine didn't care at all that the girl didn't like the name Nelly, it was what she'd picked and so the girl could deal with it, "no children as of yet no, she had a few bad habits along the lines of being out spoken and rude however i've made certain that its no longer a problem. Her previous owner reported possessiveness over him which could work in your favour" as far as she was concerned she'd sorted out the rest of the issues that the girl had come with. Despite having an inkling that the girl wasn't totally broken her behaviour had improved enough that she felt comfortable selling her to Niko, if anyone else had shown interest in the girl she would have made them wait longer so as to train the girl up more. However the dark skinned faerie was good with pets and training them to suit him, what he did once she'd sold the girl was none of her business, studying him for a few moments she spoke again "You've brought a fair few pets from me over the decades, I was going to have her for sale at about thirteen thousand, but i'll offer her to you for Eleven thousand" she wouldn't go any further down than that as she was't in the mood for haggling after in her opinion being very generous and offering him a large discount.

Listening carefully she considered him going over the numbers again, a little disgruntled that he wanted to lower her offering price by another thousand. Plenty of nobles would have paid the thirteen to get a pet trained by the princess, however he had brought many from her in the past, yet she was still reluctant to shave another thousand off so after contemplating it she spoke again "Ten thousand eight hundred" she wouldn't accept ten she'd decided and would see if he'd pay a little more than the ten he'd just offered as tiresome as haggling was not to mention boring it'd serve a purpose. The girl would be sold and gone and she could put the money into something else, Ellie continued to fiddle with the pen behind her back, letting her gaze wander over the wall.