desperation **open**

[natalia]

Normally Nat entered the Greenhouse at a rushed pace, but today was different. She had been in the greenhouses just the night before, and wasn't going to risk being caught out past curfew again. And at a terrible cost. She had felt it the moment she had woken up, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat. Nightmares. She hadn't had one in years. And she knew why. Her finger was bare, the sapphire ring, her family heirloom was gone.

The sun was barely up and she was scrambling in between every pot she had been touching last night, careful as she searched for it. She was still exhausted, barely having had any sleep with the images of water pouring in on her, threatening to drown her, an image she thought she had escaped years ago. She was beyond caring of the grumpy grumbling of her stomach or that she hadn't used the typical potions for straightening her hair. No sane person would be out here at this ungodly hour.

She grew more frantic as nothing came up, refusing to close her eyes. Every time she did that nightmare haunted her. She had become dependent on the magic of the ring. She had become dependent on the security it offered. She wasn't strong enough to be without it. Hadn't that been why she had run? Why she had taken refuge behind books all those years, because she hadn't been strong enough for her family? Why she had to be rescued like one of those pathetic damsels in distress. She was on the verge of tears by the time she had given up, burying her face in her hands, refusing to cry.

Of all luck in the world she heard footsteps, causing her to straighten, dashing furiously at her tears, but it did little to quell the burning feeling.