Sarah Acker (old)

Sarah is the 'adopted' little sister of Zoe Acker and fourth member of the Elite Four.
==Appearence==
Sarah is a short 8-year-old girl with black hair and light green and light blue eyes due to complete heterochromia making her eye colors different. She wears a grey double breasted coat that is too big for her and a purple skirt under that with purple stockings, a purple bow, and black flats.
==Personality==
Sarah has a very childish and bubbly personality, expected considering her age. She is very curious and creative. She is known to make conversation with random strangers at times, no matter how busy the individual is. She is very attached to Zoe.
==History==
So far, all that is known of Sarah's past is told in a short story titled Sarah.
Sarah
Zoe Acker was doing her usual patrol around Yarrin’s Homeless sector. She had seen the usual sights that she had grown to become used to seeing here. People begging on the sides of the street, others scrounging around for food, lots of broken bottles… But today was different. Today, a little girl around the age of four was begging. Most of the people she’d see on her patrols she’d either recognize from seeing them at the homeless shelter or from, well, her patrols, but this girl she didn’t recognize. Curious, she approaches the girl, bending down to her level.
“Ello luv,” Zoe says. 
The little girl says nothing, but keeps her palms held out.
“Not much of a talker I see,” Zoe says. She reaches into her jacket and pulls out a gold coin, dropping it into the girl’s palm. “You know, luv, you should stop by the Homeless shelter sometime. You look like you could use a good meal.” 
The girl shook her head.
“Why not, luv?” Zoe asks.
The girl stays silent for a few seconds before saying. “Don’t know where…”
“You don’t know where it is?” Zoe asks. She was answered by a nod. “Oh, well, allow me to take you there, then,” Zoe says, standing up and offering a hand. 
The girl shakes her head again. 
“Don’t want to miss anyone?” Zoe asks. 
The girl nods.
Zoe thought on this, then dug in her pocket and pulls out a lead coin. “Here, I’ll give you this if you come with.”
The girl looks up at the coin, and Zoe was able to see her face. She was dirty, with dirt all over her face and two light blue- no, wait, one light blue and one light green eye. Zoe gave the girl the coin and offers her hand again, this time the girl grabbing it.
They start walking toward the shelter. “So, what’s your name, luv?”
The girl was silent. She looks around the streets.
Zoe took the hint and continues guiding the girl. They eventually arrive at the shelter, entering the place. The place was pretty busy, as it usually is. Zoe guides the girl around the back to where her squadmates were. “I’m back,” Zoe says. “And I’ve brought a guest.”
Natalie and Thalia turn to Zoe, then they both look down. “Who’s this?” Natalie asks.
“I dunno, I found her on the street and brought her in. She wouldn’t say her name,” Zoe says. “She could use some food.”
“Right,” Natalie says. She grabs a plate and begins putting the usual on it, being some oatmeal. She then pours a cup of tea for the young girl, then passes both to Zoe. 
Zoe turns to the little girl. “Come on, luv, let’s find us a spot to sit,” she says. She then begins walking toward an empty table reserved for Swordsmen. The little girl follows close behind, looking at the many people. Zoe places the plate and cup of tea on a spot at the table and then sat across from it. The little girl sat where the food had been placed and stares at it, then looks up at Zoe.
“Go on, luv, it’s yours,” she says.
The little girl looks back at the food, grabs her spoon, and begins somewhat sloppily eating her food. Zoe just sat there and watched.
----
It was evening now. Zoe had just laid the girl down to bed. She wasn’t able to fall asleep in a room full of others, and so Zoe’s superiors thought that her place was the best place for the girl to stay for the night, considering she had been the one to bring her in. After being sure the girl had fallen asleep, Zoe exits the room.
“So, finally get her to sleep?” Natalie asks. She had been watching from the doorway
“Yeah...” Zoe says, looking back at the girl. “She still hasn’t said much, not even a name.”
“She’s probably just getting used to things,” Natalie says. “She’s pretty young. She’ll probably warm up eventually.”
“Yeah, hopefully she will,” Zoe says.
After a bit more conversing, Natalie left. She had some duties to attend to somewhere else, and couldn’t spend all night talking with Zoe. As Zoe walks past the door of the room the girl had been sleeping in she heard a faint whimpering.
“Must be just a bad dream…” Zoe says to herself.
----
It had been about a week and a half now since Zoe had brought in the girl. Everyday had been pretty much the same, the girl ate, talked little, and cried in her sleep. 
“I’m starting to get worried,” Zoe says to Natalie. “I wish I could know what was wrong so that I could help, but, she won’t say anything...”
“I can always take a look if you want you know, Zoe,” Natalie says.
Zoe sighs. “I don’t know… It just, doesn’t seem like the right thing to do…”
----
A couple more weeks passed. The girl had taken a bit of a liking to Zoe, in the sense that she would follow Zoe and hide behind her legs when she was scared of something. She still, however, was relatively silent, saying very little throughout the weeks, one of these things being her name: Sarah.
Sarah also hadn’t changed much in the sleeping department either, still crying in her sleep. Zoe was getting desperate. She felt that Sarah had become her responsibility, and wanted to help her but didn’t know how. And so, she decided to take Natalie up on her offer.
“Just, look in there and see what she’s dreaming, but… don’t tell me what it is. It wouldn’t feel right…” Zoe says.
“Never thought I’d see the day Zoe cared about me reading someone’s mind,” Natalie says. She walks into the room and sat in the chair next to Sarah’s bed. She then put her hand on her temple to aid her reading the sleeping Sarah’s mind.
A few minutes passed before Natalie came back out of the room. “So..?” Zoe asks.
“Things a four year old should never see. That is some deep scarring that won’t be easily healed,” Natalie states.
“Well, is there anything I can do to fix it?” Zoe asks, saddened.
“Nothing you can do will ever be able to undo her scars,” Natalie says.
“There has to be some way…” Zoe says.
“A good enough Mystery Mage could probably erase her memories, but we don’t have a Mystery Mage in our ranks,” Natalie says.
“Oh…” Zoe says. “What about the Monks? Don’t they have a Mystery Mage?”
“I believe one of them do. I think her name was...” Natalie says. “Lidia.”
“Do you think she’d be willing to help?” Zoe asks.
“Considering our standing with the Monks, I’m sure she’d be glad to,” Natalie says. 
“Brilliant, I’ll send a letter right away,” Zoe says, a mix of happiness that she may be able to solve the issue and sadness that the issue was this bad in her voice.
----
A letter was set on the raptor’s desk as she was reading a thick book. If one were to look closely at the ornate gold lettering on the spine, they would see it was written in a language so ancient that only the dragons, and apparently her, might still know what it said.
She placed a ribbon and leather bookmark in the ancient tome and set it down. She picked up the letter, and began to examine its envelope. Thin paper and sloppily sealed wax stamp- probably sent in a rush without much thought for how it got to her, just that it did. The handwriting with her name on the outside was clean and neat though, so perhaps this person wanted to impress her.
She was most intrigued by the official Swordsmen stamp though. The Seygahd Monks received so few letters from the Swordsmen. Without further wasted time, she opened it. The handwriting looked rather shaky. The raptor didn’t like that; it carried too many possibilities of dread.
She set herself reading it with concern on her face.
When she was done, she set it down with a sigh. The monk that had delivered the letter gave her an inquisitive look. “I have to visit Yarrin,” Lidia said. “And it’s urgent.”
“Shall I prepare a carriage for you?”
“No, a horse,” the raptor replied, standing up and setting off to gather what she would need to travel.
----
It had been five days since Zoe had sent the letter to the Monks, and she was getting impatient. She knew that news only traveled so fast, and that it would probably be at least a week before the monk would arrive, but she couldn’t help herself.
Sarah had shown some minor improvement. She had started to draw. Though only scribbles, it’s better than what she was doing before, that being nothing at all. Her sleep hadn’t improved; she was still crying throughout the night, making Zoe’s impatience worse. 
Currently, Zoe was waiting by the door to her place, as she had been everyday since she had sent the letter. She was waiting, of course, for the monk to arrive.
----
And the monk soon did arrive. At first, the horse rider would look like that and nothing else. Often one could look out at the horizon and see some urgent message being carried on horseback to some unknown destination, so this would seem nothing out of the ordinary. However, after a while it would become apparent as the rider drew nearer that they were headed towards Yarrin, and not some mysterious destination far off.
The horse was charging at full speed, too. It was obvious there was quite an urgent purpose of this visit. Soon, the horse and rider pulled in close to the town’s gate. The horse practically skidded to a stop just two feet away from the iron lattice, and reeled up on it’s hind legs before turning around and trotting away a couple of paces.
The rider slid off of the horse, pulled off her riding hood and mask, and grabbed the horse’s reins as a lead. She looked impatiently at the gatekeeper, her fierce golden eyes piercing to the back of his skull.
“I have been summoned by Zoe Acker,” she said shortly.
----
Zoe had gotten herself some tea and went back to her spot at the door, waiting. She felt like today would be when the Monk would come, but to be fair, she had thought the same yesterday. 
----
Lidia followed an old map through the streets of Yarrin, and eventually found her way to the address she needed to get to. She noticed the stark differences in the city’s quality of life as she got closer to her destination. The area she had been summoned to was no friendly place, and she had to push away a couple of beggars. Her horse did not like the narrow and crowded streets, but unfortunately that was the only way they could go.
When she eventually turned onto the side street of the small house she was summoned to, she breathed a sigh of relief. It took her a while to reach the house once she turned onto the street, but when she saw the woman waiting outside for her, she couldn’t help but smile.
“Where can I tie up my horse?” she asked as soon as she was within comfortable earshot.
Zoe turns toward the voice, and was happy to see that the monk was the bearer of it. “Oh, I’m so glad you’ve come,” she says happily. She walks toward the monk. “Well, I would say the fence post, but it’ll most likely get stolen no matter where it’s tied.”
“Don’t worry about him getting stolen. I just don’t want him to damage anything,” the raptor replied, leading the horse to the fence and tying the reins to it. The knot she tied would puzzle anybody trying to undo it. She then placed her hands on the horse and muttered a few words under her breath.
“Nobody will even see him now. He’s safe,” she said. “Shall we go in?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Zoe says. She walked back toward the door to her house, opening it and letting the monk enter. 
Lidia entered, then let Zoe lead her to where they needed to go. She looked around as they walked and quickly learned the small house’s layout. Kitchen on the left, bedroom on the right a little further down, and then living room straight ahead. The bathroom was probably connected to the bedroom.
“So would you tell me in more detail what is going on now?” Lidia asked, pulling at her collar to loosen it.
Zoe sighs. “A bit ago back I found this girl, Sarah, begging on the street, so I brought her in,” she explains. “She has trouble sleeping, crying all night. I had Natalie take a look into her dreams and she said that she’s experienced some… things in the pa-” Zoe cut herself off as she noticed that Sarah had been staring at the two from around the corner leading into the living room. She must’ve heard the two. 
Lidia looked down at the small child, and an expression of concern fell upon her face. “I see. Will you give me about an hour to get to know the girl? If I try to do anything with her before she learns to trust me, I could do more damage than good.”
“Oh, o- of course,” Zoe says. She backs away into the kitchen and stands in the corner, nervously biting the tips of her nails. “I hope it goes well…” she says to herself.
“Thank you,” Lidia said as Zoe departed. The bird anthro took off her cloak and folded it up in her wings. She walked over to Sarah and crouched down near her. “Hello. My name is Lidi, and I’m here to scare away any monsters that might be creeping around. What’s your name?”
The girl stayed silent for a few moments before answering. “Sar-ah.” she says with little emotion.
----
“Zoe, I’m ready to actually work with her. What would you like me to do?” Lidia asked in a hushed voice as she entered the kitchen.
Zoe turns to Lidia. “Well, um… I’d like you to… remove… all her memories of her scarring if possible…” she says. “I don’t want her to have to live with them her whole life…”
“Do you want to watch?” Lidia asked, starting to walk back to the living room.
“N- not really…” Zoe says as she follows. “But, I feel I should. For her sake.”
“Sarah, can I braid your hair?” Lidia asked when she got back into the room.
Sarah looked up from the paper she had been drawing on. After a few seconds of processing what she had been asked, she simply nodded then went back to drawing.
Lidia sat down behind Sarah, and started brushing her hair back with the two fingers she had available to her on each wing. As she worked on the hair, she closed her eyes to focus. When she had finished putting all of the little girl’s hair into a neat tralian braid, she opened her eyes. She nodded at Zoe as if to say ‘it’s done.’
Zoe nods back, then crouches down and looks at Sarah. “Sarah..?”
Sarah looks up from her paper, looking in the direction Zoe’s voice had come from. Seeing her, she got up and ran to her. “Zoe!” she says, hugging the mage.
==Relationships==
===Zoe Acker===
Sarah is really attached to Zoe. 
===Mr. Bunny===
Sarah thinks Mr. Bunny is really fun to play with.
===Fionny===
Sarah thinks Fionny is fun to play with as well, but less fun than Hugh due to her getting bored of his games.
===Ms. Nice Cat Lady===
Sarah thinks Ms. Nice Cat Lady is nice, as she tucked her into bed that one time.
===Momo===
Sarah thinks Momo is pretty and was very happy when Momo had called her prettier.
===Connor===
Sarah remembers meeting Connor once as a little kid. She finds him funny.
===Mr. Wisp===
Sarah thinks Mr. Wisp is cool looking.
===Ms. Strong Lady===
Sarah was impressed by June's ability to lift her sister. She was also fascinated by her knitting.
===Mister Big Kitty===
Sarah was fascinated by his fighting capability when she watched him fight her sister before she fell asleep. When she actually met him, he didn't leave that strong of an impression, though Sarah believes he just didn't get enough sleep and was feeling a bit grumpy.
==Gallery==
ZS_Piggy_Back_Ride.png
Category:Female
Category:Humans
Category:Feminine