Alannah, now the only child left at home, was left to her mother and to tutors. She was raised to behave like a young lady, her parents would parade her around at dances, show her around to find just the proper suitor, one that would not only enhance their wealth and to make the perfect breeding material. Yet Alannah wanted nothing to do with the prim and proper lifestyle she was supposed to be living; with her two favorite brothers gone, being proper took a back seat. She could be rough and tough with the best of them and then change into a ball gown and dance with the Governor the very same day.
Being the only daughter of the Governor of a small town and a controversial weapons dealer, Alannah felt as though she had no choices. Her entire life she had been led to believe that her family was part of the Royal family; she was told that the reason that they never communicated with the Royals was that their family was exiled from England because of something Great Grandad did; yet when she found out the truth she was mortified. She began rebelling against the wants and wishes of her father and every time she did, she paid the consequences with a severe lashing. Her father nearly broke her, nearly.
"Father, looking at you saddens me," Alannah said during one of her calmer moods. "I can't believe that you would lie to me, to ME!"
"Alannah let me expl…"
"No father, no more." With that Alannah started to walk away from him, her father grabs her arm forcefully turns her to him and slaps her face so hard that she falls to the ground.
"You will learn Alannah not to speak to me in such a manner, I am your father Alannah - and as such I demand your respect." With that, he reached for his cat-o-nine tails and whipped Alannah until her back bled from every welt. When he was done, he walked away from Alannah, leaving her to lie on the floor bleeding and crying. The scars he left on her back were unlike the scars on her soul. Her back would heal eventually, leaving only ugly white reminders of the beatings she had endures, but the scars on the soul do not heal the pain remains even deeper than the physical.
After Alannah had recovered from the beating, she ran from the family home. Her tears blinded her so she paid no attention to the storm that was on the horizon; she was not thinking about anything at all. She was hurt, angry and most of all she wanted to find a way of getting back at her father. The back of her dress ripped to shreds from the cat-o-nine tails her father used on her and her back was bleeding profusely. She had never felt so humiliated in her life.