Sage was a bit surprised to hear the girl's voice, though not enough to jump out of his skin or anything like that. He gave the girl a sheepish grin and shrugged. "No one else was up and I was bored." He set the axe down, leaning it against the side of the little shed and took the plate from the girl. He was a bit hungry...he supposed getting up and doing a lot of heavyish exercise would do that to a person. Whatever, he was still glad he'd done it. It was nice to help the family out, and he did, admittedly, feel better when he was active rather than just sitting around. It just made him feel better, on top of making him think about things other than what he would normally be drawn to think about if he didn't distract himself.

The girl gave a bit of a nod in response to the boy and went to sit next to the cat, giving her a little tickle behind the ears... it was a nice day, and she could see the appeal to be outside... she didn't think it'd been so warm in a good few weeks now. After a moment or so, she found herself scanning his back and chest... she's seen scars before, it wasn't exactly uncommon to see them down here... but this man had so many. They were everywhere. She had them too, but it looked like the scarred skin had been opened and healed over time and time again. Though, her eyes eventually fell on what seemed to be some sort of... symbol, maybe, on his collar. Still, she didn't expect it was something he'd particularly want to talk about, so she just kind of went back to fussing the cat, who by now was rolling about in the dust.

Sage stood and nibbled at the food for a bit, but soon enough decided to go sit down next to the cat and girl. He really had no reason not to. Well, he was kinda sweaty, but the cat didn't mind. And he assumed the girl had seen people covered with worse things if she'd been helping out in the doctors ward, especially after the rebellion took the castle out. He could feel her gaze running over his skin, which made a light blush creep over his cheeks. He wasn't quite sure why he felt like that, or why he was now wondering what she thought about his skin, and scars, and muscle tone....really he should stop thinking about that. But he couldn't help it for a moment or two. He soon enough distracted himself watching the cat.

Mari watched the cat for a moment before her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she looked back to Sage with a cocked head, her eyes falling back on the symbol thing on his collar. "Sage," she murmured after a moment before kind of gesturing towards the little mark, her brows ever so slightly furrowed. "What's... what's going on here?" The girl reached over to run her thumb over the scar before pulling back again and looking back to the boy, her thoughts kind of running as she thought about what could have possibly made it happen... but there wasn't anything that she could think of. Of course, he didn't have to answer if he didn't feel like it... but she was definitely curious.

Sage was rather surprised when the girl spoke up again ...not at the topic of interest but because he wasn't really paying attention to anything but the cat. He felt a blush on his face deepen when the girl ran her thumb over the scar, and really the only thing he could think of was how nice it felt on his bare skin. Then he felt kind of ashamed for thinking that way, since they were just friends. He lifted a shoulder in a type of shrug in response to her question though...he'd tell her the truth, he did trust her. "That would be my father," he admitted. "He was higher than mom and I, so when I was young he carved this into my chest." He chuckled slightly, though it was rather dry. "Whenever it faded, he'd do it again. Wouldn't ever let me forget I was the lowest of the low." He shrugged slightly and set his now empty plate on the floor, reaching out to pet the cat when she stretched her nose out to sniff at the crumbs left on it.

The girl nodded quietly as the boy spoke, and she couldn't but feel her heart dropping for him... and it all started when he was young? And someone he was meant to be able to love and trust had done it to him? She felt awful for him, but he didn't seem to care anymore... and she hated that this man had gotten to that point and that he'd been through so much... she couldn't have been much higher up than him rank-wise, and she'd had it rough in her younger years, but she'd always had a kind and supportive family behind her, driving her forwards... Sage had never had that, not other than his sister by the sounds of things. She couldn't even fathom having such a little heart to be able to do something so... awful to your own child. "What a horrible man," she murmured after a moment or two of silence. Sage was so... good, he really was, but he'd been put into the wrong situation, and she didn't think he deserved any of the awful things that had happened to him. Her eyes fell down to his torso after a second or two, looking over the whip-like marks. "And the rest were him too?" The girl murmured quietly.

Sage hummed in agreement at the girl's first comment, and nodded slightly at her second. "A lot of them," he admitted. "A lot are from the tavern, and a lot were just...fights from the street." He lifted his shoulder in a type of shrug. "Guess I just got used to it after the first few years. That and I was too afraid of what he'd do if I tried to get away or fight back." He pursed his lips slightly, thinking for a moment. "I guess it toughened me up enough for the tavern," he sighed, though he still didn't exactly appreciate it. Well, either of them, but still. The man had been awful, but he'd been right about a lot of things too. Well, it seemed that way, though his friends seemed to argue with the things he'd said that his father had always said. He'd always thought that was true ..but then again, he knew that if you heard something enough, you started to believe it. "He had the right," he eventually hummed. Both from rank and being his father.

The girl nodded slightly... he had a point. After everything his father had put him through, life in the slums must have almost been easy... well, not easy, it would never be easy, but she still wished he didn't have to go through that. And he had gotten away... he'd gotten to the castle. And his father had still come to get him, still dragged him out to the slums, ready to beat the living daylights out of him before she and the doctor had managed to get to him... and from what she'd heard, this had happened a couple of times. All she could think was that thank god he was dead. Sage was out of his reach now... the boy could live, and he wouldn't have to be scared of his own father anymore. What she didn't agree with, though, was that his father had the right... no one had the right to beat and torture their child the way he had. "No, don't say that," she murmured as she leaned over to put a light hand on his shoulder. "You were a kid... his son, and he didn't have any right hurting you the way he had. You deserved so much more than that... he was just a horrible man," she murmured to the boy, looking at him with an expression that was obviously sorry for him... she really did wish he hadn't gone through what he had.

Sage looked over at the girl, quite visibly surprised at her comment. He'd had every right...through ranking, through the dominant position he'd held over him, through other reasons he probably had too. "But..." He trailed off then, not really knowing what to say or how to argue with that. So, he just leaned into the girl slightly with a sigh. His father was horrible, but so had everything and everyone else been out there, except for Liz. "Liz helped a lot," he admitted quietly. "I don't know if I'd tried to survive so hard without her here." Even once she'd been gone, he'd stayed for Anya, or for Att. Then again, once he was back out there, he'd been more than ready to die. He wasn't entirely enthused with being eaten by rats as he was dying, but that was just part of it, really. He didn't have anyone to bury him or anything.

The girl let the boy lean into her and she gave a bit of a smile before running her fingers up and down his arm and shoulder once she'd wrapped an arm around him. She saw him start to retort but he just seemed to give up, and that was almost a good thing. The fact was that she was never going to make him feel better about anything that had happened to him... but she could try and get him to stop seeing himself in such a negative light. She nodded when he mentioned his sister and just gave a bit of a smile. "She really was your world. wasn't she?" The girl asked with a light smile to the boy before wrapping her other arm around him in a weird side-hug kind of deal. "Well, you're still alive, aren't you? Surely you'd already be dead if that was what you really wanted," she reasoned with a soft sigh.