This is the fastest I've ever uploaded a piece-most of my pieces are ones that I've written a while ago but this was something I've been working on since this morning. Hope you enjoy!

Healing Pains

Years of outdoor activities had left her hands feeling callused and rough. From the time she was old enough for the "big-kid's playground" she had been swinging on monkey bars and climbing up trees. Unfortunately she was not graceful as a little kid and her first attempts of scaling trees resulted in scratches and bruises from falling out of said trees. The youngest of five children, only one other of which was a girl, however had taught her to be tough, as did having three older brothers who felt it necessary for her to learn how to fight and defend herself. By the time she mastered the art of tree climbing and the basics of self-defense, she had years' worth of bruises, cuts, and injuries to show for it. Nevertheless, she loved every moment of it and learned to ignore the pain, at least for the time being.

If you're being attacked or if you get lost in the woods and you're injured, you have to focus on protecting yourself or getting out before you let yourself get incapacitated by the pain, her brothers would always remind her.

It always fascinated her to examine her cuts and bruises. She marveled at the human body's ability to repair itself, to mend a cut, a broken bone, a bruise, and it made her feel better to be able to see her injuries and know that they were healing. Her brothers often joked that if she ever became a doctor, she would have to be treated as much as she treat others and while she would roll her eyes, she knew that it was partly-true, if only because she was so accident-prone.

She learned of a different kind of pain from her sister who believed she should know how to be ladylike at times. The scraped knees and black eyes, she decided, were no match for the aching feet and huge blisters that developed on the back of her ankles from a whole night of wearing heels. Being ladylike, she also decided, was a lot more dangerous than falling out of a tree. Still it fascinated her to watch her blisters go down and she was satisfied when they had disappeared entirely and swore to never wear uncomfortable shoes ever again.

Even so, the blisters were nothing compared to the time she burnt herself, the product of making a stupid mistake while learning how to bake from an old boyfriend. The initial pain had, of course, hurt the most. After that it hurt less and less until the pain was gone altogether, although the incident would forever remain imprinted in her mind and on her arm as a scar. Sometimes she swore the pain would flare up again whenever she got too close to an oven, but at least she learned to be more mindful because of it. After that, her brothers began a new joke that while she could handle herself if she ever got mugged, she was too fragile to be ladylike and domestic.

She was so accident-prone that it became nothing new when she found yet another cut or bruise. In fact, by the time she noticed them, they were already days old and she remained clueless as to how she obtained them. Her family was convinced that she had trained herself to be immune to pain completely.

Nothing prepared her, however, for the pain she felt at being left at the altar with absolutely no warning or reason. It was actually the second time it had happened, which somehow made the pain even worse. It hurt worse than her cuts and bruises, worse than the blisters or the burn, and much worse than falling out of a tree. Distantly she couldn't help but wonder what kind of injury her heart had sustained. Would it be cracked and broken like her wrist when she slipped off that tree? Or would there be a limp when it beat like that time she sprained her ankle? Or perhaps there was now a long scar forever engraved across it with a pain that would lie dormant until she sensed danger like her burn. Perhaps it would even be all callused and rough like her hands from years of rough treatment. But she knew her heart probably looked exactly as it always had. And as she sat alone in the chapel, she wondered if her body would even be able to repair an ache that wasn't there.

I wasn't sure if the ending bit about her emotional pain was too sudden and unexpected, but hopefully it fit relatively well in. As always, reviews and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!