Mrs. Myrlyn woke me abruptly to start my makeover. Something I only had to endure once or twice a year with Maple, but that was for the holidays or when the town threw this huge party, for a successful harvest. Unfortunately, neither were the case and today the 'special treatment' was all mine.

It started out with a cold bath and a quick scrub down, to remove any dirt and junk. After the water drained, she poured heated candle wax all over my body. When it was almost dry, she rolled it off to remove all of my body hair. I winced as my skin was sensitive and my nerves flared in pain from the pulled hair.

Next, she took some scented sand, she got during a trip long ago and scrubbed my skin. I felt like a weathered down stone, smooth and clear of any impurity. She even scrubbed my scalp to remove dandruff and dirt in my hair. Inevitably, it left sand in it instead. After a mud facial and yet another wax down, I was finally able to take a nice heated bath.

The problem was, I kept trying to scratch my head, but either Mrs. Myrlyn smacked my hands away, or I accidentally got wax in my hair. When I was younger, I wasn't so worried, and purposely dipped my hair in it to be antagonistic. Then I would wait until she left to find scissors, and used my control over water to remove the wax before she returned. Now the placement of the scissors was beside the door.

I glanced around to see if Mrs. Myrlyn was near. She was not and I quickly removed the rest of the sand using the water, and relieved my itchy scalp. She came into the room and tightly braided and wound up my hair.

She forced me to get out of the water. I reluctantly complied, so I would not look all wrinkly, not that I cared that I would look like a shriveled up prune in front of my soon to be fiancé. I sat down at a small desk with a mirror and she grabbed my hands. With pro like skills, she filed my nails down, blessing me for never chewing them off like Maple's bad habit. She rubbed them with some sand and polished them off with a strip of old worn silk.

She took this concoction to whiten my teeth. I did not know, nor want to know for that matter, what it was. It just tasted nasty and cheaply scented with floral stuff. As a child, I refused to let her use it on me, but she would pin me down and force it into my mouth.

I rinsed my mouth several times with soap and vinegar. A little extreme, but anything tasted better than the stuff previously used. Afterwards I ate an apple to clean out the taste of the soap and vinegar, because that was still nasty. The crisp apple seemed like the best thing in the world at that point.

Finally, that part was over and onto the dreaded hour of my silk corset; made with a combination of whalebone and ivory. With the assistance of Maple, tugging and pulling it tight, Mrs. Myrlyn swiftly knotted and wove the corset together. This was usually a thirty-minute process, just as long as the silk cords held. We snapped three this time around.

"How are you holding up?" 'Father' asked, checking up on us.

"Pointlessly abused," I thickly replied with an icy undertone. He laughed as if I told a joke.

I slipped into an icy blue silk dress that complimented my willowy figure. Mrs. Myrlyn sorted out and tied up all the dark blue ribbons into bows. I noticed the bare shoulders. I glared at her menacingly, selling me to that man, what was she trying to accomplish. Classes separated into five categories in this society. The lowest level was slaves and immigrants. The next class was the poor and unfortunate. Middle class, the one we lived in, were the well to do business owners, and farmers with lots of land. If it wasn't for mine and Maple's powers, we would not be so fortunate. Above us were the nobles and knights, mostly snobs and the popular crowd. Finally at the top were the royals of the Ruby kingdom, they pretty much said that they can control everyone else and no one said otherwise. The strange thing was that one can upgrade to a higher class through marriage, and can down grade in class by a variety of things, mainly bankruptcy.

"Uh, isn't it a little cold for strapless?" Not that I cared it was winter. The cold still had no affect on me, but she never believed me before. It was more the fact it was uncomfortably revealing.

"Darling, you never let it bother you before. I thought to add a bit of your flair into making this," she cried astonished. She was willing to go that far to marry me off. That was how bad she wanted me gone. She smiled lovingly, "But if you want sleeves, I could manage a way to…"

"It's fine!" I cut in, before I ended up having two more hours of complete torture. 'It's not the cold I'm worried about,' I thought to myself.

With needle and thread at the ready, she examined the gown and fixed any oddity. Finally, she finished and gestured me to sit at my desk. It was time to start on my hair. She carefully unwound my hair and it fell into stringy waves down my back.

It was still damp. "Oh goodness me, I seemed to have forgotten something," Mrs. Myrlyn exclaimed in a tiny bit of horror. She squeezed my shoulder and left the room. That was her way of saying she was turning a blind eye for the moment and this chance would not happen again.

I raised my hands to my hair. Slowly, I pulled them away and the water seeped from my hair into two orbs of water that formed in my hands. I connected them into one condensed orb, which I held in front of me. I gracefully stood and strolled to the middle of the room. With a smile, I released the water and watched it hover and shatter into tiny droplets that shot out like fireworks. The droplets burst in symmetrical arrays until the water dispersed equally throughout the room.

Mrs. Myrlyn returned and I was already back in the chair, waiting.

She looked at me with curiosity, "did something happen to bring such a rare phenomenon to your face?" She referred to the fact I still smiled, so I quickly frowned instead. "There we go, nice and dry. I don't suppose I need this thing then." She tossed her old metal ringer to the side. A nasty contraption that thing was. The last time I let her use it on me was the last time I got an unexpected, nor wanted, haircut.

She lightly combed my slightly curled hair and brought it back into a loose ponytail. She placed a circlet on my head with several strands of blue beading. At the end of each strand was a pearl.

With ice blue eye shadow, thick lush eyelashes, a soft blush and rose red lips, my makeover finally concluded.

Maple had on a less flattering dress with light eye shadow and lip-gloss, nonetheless still breathtaking as always. She looked at me and her eyes widened.

"Brook!" Astonished, she gasped, "You're as flawless as fresh snow!" I slipped on some shoes that matched my dress. I smiled and linked her arm around mine.

"I never thought you loved snow that much, Maple," I told her. I watched her flustered face briefly.

"I do not! It's so cold, but it's quite a sight when everything is crystal white."

We walked out and down the steps. All the men stopped and stared at me, as I strolled down to the first floor. The man I saved was still on the couch, wrapped tightly in the blanket. Finnick sat beside him talking about something unimportant, but when they saw me, their jaws dropped.

'Father' stepped up and guided me away from the stairs and to 'Uncle' Robert, who hugged me delicately. I noticed he was not wearing a fancy suit like Finnick and 'father'.

"You're not coming?" My distress broke in my voice, and I quickly tried to recover by clearing my throat. He sadly shook his head no.

"Pure-blooded humans only, Halflings were not tolerated in high-end banquets."

"But you're family!" I pleaded to the giant, and I wanted this engagement to go as far south as it possibly could and hit rock bottom before the night was out.

"Doesn't matter, someone has to take care of the poor fellow over there, and your mother has to go."

"She is not my mother," I quickly replied under my breath so only he heard.

He ignored the remark, "I convinced your sister, Maple, to go for your comfort. I know she is uncomfortable around the Lords and Ladies of the castle, but she is willing for your 'happiness'." He knew better that I would be much happier as a single old maid for the rest of my life over this marriage.

Mrs. Myrlyn was suddenly beside us, wearing a leaf green dress and her hair wound into a tight bun. In her arms were three neatly wrapped boxes; gifts to my betrothed, one from my 'father', one from Mrs. Myrlyn, and one from me. I pressed my mouth shut, as not to ask her what they were. Knowing her, they were pretty expensive to keep up appearances.

It was customary for the father, mother and significant other to give an engagement gift to the other partner. Mrs. Myrlyn probably picked out all three of them, mainly in fear that my gift would be something condescending and insulting. I was once invited to a birthday party by a girl, who merely invited me to play cruel tricks on for the others enjoyment. So, I took my present I gave her and switched it out with a beehive. Wrapped it up all nice and pretty too. Sure, I got stung, but her screaming and running down the road was amazing.

Mrs. Myrlyn glanced at the man, "you're going to be all right here by yourself and with Robert?"

"Madam, everything you have done for me is quite enough," he humbly thanked her with a wide smile. I heard the slight sarcasm in his voice and twitched the corners of my mouth up slightly. His eyes flickered to me then turned away. He seemed highly upset about something.

Finnick placed his arm around my shoulders and leaned against me, "frankly, I'm quite jealous of this onyx guy." I elbowed him in the stomach, and he keeled over slightly. The man laughed.

"And I suppose that should be taken as a proposal and you will sweep me off my feet and fight for my hand against a trained warrior under the full moon of the great protector's servant, Mithra?"

Finnick took a few steps back, got a good long glance at me. He gave me a lopsided smile, "Brook, with you all dolled up, the whole damn army would fight to the death for your hand. Him included," he pointed at our strange guest.

The man gave a hollow laugh and stared him down with cold eyes, "so not funny."

I sat down next to him, and tried to look into those odd captivating eyes that could not bring themselves to look at me.

I felt tiny needles jab within my chest, but before I could talk to the man, Mrs. Myrlyn snagged my arm and dragged me out the door. I could not even squeak out a goodbye before she closed the door behind me. I maliciously glared at the woman.

She smiled sweetly at me, "don't you worry about him. He is in safe hands with your uncle Robert."

Yeah, that was the reason. This woman made it her sole purpose to ruin my life before I even had the chance to live it. How can she smile so innocently when she knew, it was not what I wanted.

The horses harnessed to another carriage again were Aqua and Maple's horse, this time it was fancy with velvet seating and ebony wheels. I reluctantly took 'father's' assisting hand to step up into the carriage. The dress did not allow me all the free movement I liked.

Maple, Mrs. Myrlyn, and I sat inside while the boys drove the horses away from the house and into my own personalized comatose. I wished I fell into comatose over this.

The overcast seemed to agree with me, the sky dense with clouds and the cold wind, frosted up the windows. Deep winter was upon us and soon snow would fall.

"Oh, I hope this will clear up later on." Mrs. Myrlyn pleaded looking out the window with distaste. I secretly concurred, the last thing I needed was to be lock joined in the 'blood hounds' kennel for a night.

I continued to stare out at the sky until it started to rain lightly. The carriage jolted and splashed through forming puddles on the road.

I closed my eyes and focused on hearing every droplet of water giving off a sweet and sharp sound like plucked strings of a harp. They played an appropriately sad lullaby to go with the setting, as we approached the cold grand walls of the bloodhound's manor.

The carriage slowed dramatically to a stop, and a servant opened the door in haste. Finnick hopped off the driver's seat, helped Maple out and escorted her inside. 'Father' left the carriage to another servant and accompanied Mrs. Myrlyn inside as well. Finally, I stepped out, ignoring any hands of assistance and strolled by myself inside.

Two more servants held the doors open for me and the other guests, who showed up for the engagement party. I felt their eyes, but they held their tongues, such a well-trained group of staff. I pitied them for having to work for such cruel masters. I rather than smile more, for an odd reason. It seemed more comforting when everyone rich and poor was having a grand time doing what they do. It seemed more natural than the mute staff and their cynical stares.

Once safely inside, maids took coats and had towels to dry off guests, before allowing them into the party.

Everyone else entered before me, as I tried to badger one into wiping off the makeup, insisting my face was still wet. Mrs. Myrlyn must have told them not to touch my face before going in herself.

I stepped out into the main hall, again without an escort. I heard people laughing and merrily talking from below. I walked over to the edge of a balcony overlooking the dining hall. Several feet away was the grand staircase that led to the floor beneath me.

A large banquet was set on a long black table, but no one was there yet. I saw Finnick trying to resist the urge to run to the table and help himself to everything. A large fire burned in a huge fireplace right behind the table, warming the room. Maple sat in front of it, looking around lost. She looked around at the walls, wide eyed with horror. I took a brief moment to look also and found the most disturbing of decorations.

Heads of monsters, animals and beasts hung across the whole wall, all of them dead and surely stuffed. Oh yes, the bloodhound's sure knew how to show off their power. Each head held a silent threat, you will die if you were the target. I didn't ever want to be the next one hunted down by them.

I glanced away, before I ended up staring in horror, the first emotion I wanted them to see was indifference, and never fear. I saw that besides Finnick and Maple, everyone else gathered in groups as if they waited for something.

I walked over to the stairs and started to make my way down when over the mindless chatter someone loudly asked, "Is that her?"

What followed that person was immediate silence, as I became the center of attention. Their expectant eyes were not unfilled; only a fool would remain unimpressed. I glared at them with a special kind of hatred brewing inside my heart. Foolish humans, pigs, they saw what they wanted, but they would never get.

I would see to it that they suffered for this mockery.