Painful origins

Before she walked down the stairs to leave the house, Natasha decided to pass by Matteo's room, which was now temporarily the room of Dana, to check how she was doing. It was not like she was scared that she escaped or at least she tried to, she just thought it would be good to do so as she intended to leave without alerting her.

Thanks to their discussion of yesterday night, they were close enough for her to know that she would never attempt to run away. Even though Dana didn't confess to her the reason why she needed Jamal to save have or what was he supposed to protect her from, she shared a lot with her. For example, she talked about her social complex which caused her to lose control of her emotions when she was involved in a too stressful situation.

She confessed that despite her miserable childhood with neither family nor friends she had managed to survive without diving into the criminality or the evil in general. Contrary to Matteo, who was firstly raised in an orphanage and ran away to start living by himself while working for some companies and stores to provide himself all that he needed to survive, Dana didn't get that luck. At her very young age, she was abandoned not in an orphanage but the streets and she quickly forgot the names and faces of those who threw her away.

To survive she first started to panhandle for money to the passersby in the streets of Short-river or just for food in the few restaurants which would not drive her out by throwing soiled water on her. When she grew up a few years later she decided to get a job, but she was not good enough to enroll in adult jobs as she didn't know how to read or write, instead, she applied for housework and she succeeded to get hired in a rich family household where she worked until she was nine.

But though it seemed to be good news for her at first sight she confessed to Natasha that it turned out to be one of the most horrific experiences of her life if it was not the most. Natasha figured out that it would be painful for her to talk about such a traumatic souvenir so she didn't want to force her and told her to take it easy but for some reason, the girl seemed to be enough at ease to speak so Natasha just tried her best to be a good confidant for her.

Dana started by saying straightforwardly that when she reached that age, something awful happened to her what forced her to run away from the rich family she used to serve. She told her that when she was working in the house of the rich family, the father of this family tried to rape her regardless that she was very young, nearly at the same age as his daughter.

One day she was doing her routine duties of taking care of the house, the father came earlier than usual and since the mother and the daughter were out shopping, they were both alone there. She said that he suddenly jumped on her and tried to restrain her from moving while he would be doing his awful action, she struggled to beat him back and she, fortunately, managed to release herself and run away.

When she went to see the police and talked to them about what the rich guy attempted to do to her they simply rejected her accusation and preferred to believe in his version of the story instead. He told them that she was lying, that all what she said she invented it to blackmail him and obtain money from him and even the mother of the family went to support his case by creating lies of her about the behavior she had while she was working for them. She shouted, screamed and even cried that they were the ones who were lying but no one would believe in a poor orphan girl instead of a big and rich man, so she just run away again to return leaving in the street.

But hopefully for Dana, one week later while she was cadging, a woman who seemed to be about 25 to 30 years old approached her, she sat down just beside her, and without introducing herself to Dana, she directly told her that she heard rumors about the young girl and she wanted to know the truth. Dana was surprised and confused but anyway explained to her that despite all what everyone was saying to her, the rich man really attempted to rape her, she said that it would be one week since she was starving to death as no one in the area accepted to give her some food because they were all convinced that she was just a slut and a liar.

When Dana finished her story the woman told her that she was believing her and from there she made the promise to take care of her. Dana knew that she shouldn't trust anyone anymore but she was too hungry to turn her down so she followed her. It turned out that the woman was teaching martial arts in a dojo which was also her home, she ordered her to stay hidden in the other rooms the morning while she would finish teaching to youngsters of the city who were registered and then after the courses it would be her turn. Dana understood that if someone saw her in her dojo she would give bad publicity and would mess up her business, so she obeyed without complaining.

She lived a peaceful life with her with no problem even though she never left her house. The woman did not only teach her how to fight but also how to write and read and all the stuff people learned at school. She enjoyed this life with her but her happy and peaceful life didn't last long because on the night of the tragedy that kind woman, who so gently took care of her, disappeared with so many other people.

Her loss kept hurting her even after two years but Dana was still able to find the strength she needed to move on every day.

Natasha figured out that it was painful for her to tell about the story of her childhood what didn't miss to move her even more and to enhance and to strengthen her sympathy for Dana. When she asked her for the name of that woman who raised her, she refused to respond, not she didn't want to reveal it to her but it's just that she was not ready to pronounce her name one more time, so Natasha didn't insist, instead, she asked how she obtained the name of Dana if she was all alone since her youngest age and she revealed with a smile of pride that she found it and named herself.

Natasha intended to share with her some slices of her life too but she was too sleepy, so she reported it to another day and they went up to go sleeping.

Now she was in front of her door and was struggling to open it the most silently possible to not wake her up when she saw that she had enough space she inserted her head but she saw that the inside of the room was completely dark, [ so she sleeps in the dark with no any light on ] Natasha noted. To not disturb her, she closed back slowly the door and walked down the stairs, she passed by the kitchen, took two fruits, and left the house from the back.

At the moment she was about to open the gate of the garage she heard some noises coming from behind her, she sighed and said " I thought you understood that you are not allowed to go out until today night or tomorrow morning? " then she turned to see Dana coming out from her hideout.

" I didn't plan to escape, " she said, " I just wanted to know where are you going and to do what ".

" Even for that reason or anything else, you're not allowed to get out, " Natasha refused, the girl tried again with cute and supplicant eyes but the answer was still the same. " Come on, I won't disturb anyone, just a spot where I can observe. I just got one day to be with you and don't want to waste it by looking at the walls all along the day " she stared at her until Natasha gave up, " OK you're coming, " and Dana jumped on her, hugging her tight go thank them.

So they headed together to the barrier and on the road, Natasha explained to her about how they built it to protect them from the outlaws, a little more detailed, as she only had one unclear version of the story, she also talked about how Jamal used to wake up very early at the morning, just like they did, to go inspect the barrier and chase after those who succeeded to cross it. During the previous night, she had the time to reveal to Dana that Jamal left the city for one week as she became too suspicious because of the call but although she didn't tell her the reason for that mission she wanted to let her know that she was the one who was replacing Jamal with his daily tasks so she profited of that occasion to do so.

Once they arrived Natasha taught her the different steps of the patrol; the inspection of the barrier, the report if they found traces of someone who crossed, the reactivation of the security system, and the chase of the outlaws all over the city which She didn't detail too about it as the esteemed that the girl could guess by herself what they had to do during it.

That day too there was no problem. Natasha could still not talk with Dana about the real situation they were confronted, neither about her powers, she just told her that lately the number of outlaws who crossed the barrier diminished dramatically and that was why she accepted to bring her. There was no risk of danger.

When she told her about her training of the sword the young girl insisted to join her as it was one of the many martial arts she had been taught by her benefactor, she didn't expect to be as good as Natasha but she assured that she could be a great help and like that she could train herself as well. She accepted and when they were at the control post, she went in to look for the wooden sword Jamal used the last time, fortunately, she found that there was a second one, which was perfect as she could abandon the idea of using a wooden stick as a substitute. They stayed there, crossing the woods until the time came to leave, as she had said, Dana was a great help as she got the occasion to learn the moves they teach in conventional dojos, and for the latter, she was just happy to have found someone with whom she could be almost totally at ease.

They returned home where Natasha quickly prepared to go teaching the youngsters how to protect themselves. Once again she decided to not take a shower as she intended to go sweating further. Now Dana accepted to quietly stay at home without complaining, she even decided to cook for them for when they would come.