Lashing Descent

Melisande choked on her blood as it poured like a great rain down her throat. Her sentence was to be carried out by her dain- her husband to be. They were to be the next clan leaders. As Melisande looked defiantly up through her blood soaked hair, she couldn’t stop the hate that festered in her heart for her dain. Never again would their bond be the same and it was not because he was currently torturing her, it was because he did not listen to her as a dain ought to. It was a clan’s Dain that led with ruthlessness and his Daima who kept him from mercilessness. Without Mel guiding him by his side their clan was doomed to horrors untold.

It was Yara, Mel’s sister to whom the hate had already loomed and to whom Mel could thank for the current torture taking place. Mel disobeyed the Dain- her chief and husband to be, and rode out with the Lordess- the riders of death, to warn another village of a peaceful clan of dangers. Mel foresaw darkness in her Dain and knew of his plans to conquer the other tribes. She warned them and now upon her arrival back, it was to see her sister beside her Dain. She smiled cruelly and striped proudly from Mel her duties as Daima.

Yara didn’t even declare the punishment, no that had been her Dain. He knew Yara was a ruthless woman and he has been lusting after her since they were children. He’s rutted her already, Mel knew and likely had Yara with child. This offense if found out by the people would be enough to have him put to death. There is no way this wasn’t planned, either way Mel thought as the whip came thrashing down, she would do it again. It was her born job to protect her people and not just the ones in her tribe. Fearing Melisande would tell the people her suspicions, Roku had her gagged and bound to the post.

One solitary post, Mel clung to it like a drifting piece of wood in the middle of an ocean of blood soaked mud. The lash again and again ravaged her back and still she never cried out. To do so would bring great shame to the Daima line, so Mel hid her pain and just watched the new Daima and her Dain with hate in her strong heart. Mel very much doubts even if she was lucky and was blessed by the mother with the ability to change into the great Henna- wolf. The henna blessed may be enough to gather her people’s courage. The males of the Dains have always had the change, the females however have not. Only some have been blessed with this ability.

That is how Yara was able to take Mel’s place without too much trouble from the people. Yara claims to have the blessed Henna ability, which if true would allow her the right to the Daimas place. Most, however, do not believe Yara processes this ability. Most of the Moha people know of her scheming. Yara is vicious though, Melisande can understand why they stand and watch Mel’s blood sweep in graceful acrs in silence. Jada, Mel’s friend and broodmate, stood up to Yara- she now lays unconscious, maybe dead at Mel’s feet.

It’s this thought of Mel’s true friend and sister, possibly dead, that has Mel’s knees at last after sixty lashes, giving way. They sink unceremoniously and without warning into the frozen mud. The thud of her defeat has the people shifting uneasy and many start to feel their tears slip loose and caress their cheeks. Mel’s panting and labored breathing is the only sound as the Dain steps forward. Roku looks down to her with loathing, not a hint of the bond that was supposed to be felt between a Dain and his Daima. Maybe he blamed her for his loss of that bond he so vehemently thought belonged to him. Melisande is secretly glad her duties to him will never be fulfilled.

He turns to see the people’s reactions to their once great Daima. He growls in disapproval and whips his head back to Mel. He didn’t see what he was expecting out of the people. He thought they would be happy to hear his new Daima had the Henna blessing, not the grieving people over their “disgraced filth.” He stares down icily at Melisande and silently curses her for her ability to win their hearts. Not once does he wonder how she won their loyalty, just glared at her for her having won their hearts. “Your punishment is not done. You have clearly hidden your sister’s abilities from me and this tribe of great people. I want to watch you suffer greatly for it. At least you are finally where you belong- on the ground kneeling before me.”

Lifting slightly glazed eyes up at the man who has brought and will bring great suffering to the people she has sworn to protect, Mel couldn’t - wouldn't kneel before him. Huffing a pained exhausted breath through her blood soaked gag, Melisande took her shaking quivering legs and put them under her and stood. After a few moments she sagged against the pole she still clung to, but she was standing and refusing to kneel, an act made all the more impressive by her condition. Her eyes were filled with such defiance and ire, that her Dain looked away in submission, before he could even help it and realize what he had done.

Yara started yelling, “You bitch, don't you dare place yourself higher than your Dain.” She stepped forth and slapped Melisande. Something cracked inside Melisande and she knew that if she lived through this however unlikely she would kill them. If not only for the danger they put their tribe in, but for her real sister lying motionlessly at her feet. Melisande’s blood long since pooling around her friend and possibly drowning in her blood. Her clothes had the blood seeping through and Melisande worried as her friend struggled to breath on her side that her blood would choke her. If she died everything she had done and was about to do, was for nothing