Moonlight's Guidance

CH6: An Ugly Duckling

3rd POV:

It was difficult to understand for Cardin. He never understood why his family hated faunas so much. He never understood why the faunas hated them so much. Growing up, he was surrounded by hate.

Had things been different, he might have become one of them. He might have become one of those monsters that his blood tied him to. It was torturous to think about, even imagining looking at a person and hating them because they had extra limbs or ears, it shook him to his core.

That's why he never understood his family. Their hatred for faunas was like a burning fire that couldn't be escaped nor put out. Cardin's biggest question was what sparked that fire?

He had asked his parents this same question time and time again. Each time was a similar answer. It was because his great grandfather was assassinated by faunas during the race war. His son, Cardin's grandfather, hated the faunas with his very being, and dedicated his life's work to fueling the war with whatever it needed. In fact, the Winchester Manor was the primary reason that the faunas lost.

Cardin was only allowed human friends because of this. Not because his parents forbid him from having faunas friends, but because they saw him as a freak who's family was the reason for their suffering. The faunas at Cardin's schools couldn't yell and hit the police out of anger for their conditions, but Cardin was just some kid that hardly knew how to fight.

So growing up, Cardin was beaten to a bloody pulp almost every day at school. Normally, the teachers would inform Cardin's parents and the children would be suspended. However, his elementary school teacher was a wolf faunas who lost his mother in the race war, so he silently ignored the beatings at recess.

His home life was horrible as well. He was an outcast to everyone but his mother, who married into the family and didn't share the hatred for faunas. She understood Cardin's problems because she had them as well. Growing up, she was often beaten because she chose to stay by his father's side. Apparently, the Winchester family was quite the bad place to be born in.

Why was his home life so bad? The family thought he was a disappointment. Cardin always refused to openly insult the faunas because he didn't want to end up like them. He feared that if he acted like them at home, then it would leak out into public and he would end up like his father. A racist asshole who's only goal is to prolong and win the cold war with the faunas.

Come middle school, Cardin had gotten used to the beatings, but he has also became a damn good stream fighter. He always had to take care of himself, so he was an expert at grappling and pinning someone so that he could beat their liver into collapsing. It was brutal, but so was what he endured.

Most people that were put under this condition would break down and consider suicide. But as much as he hated it, he was a Winchester. Although he never inherited a burning racial bias, he inherited a will of iron and had the cunning and brutality of his great grandfather.

Cardin held his ground and braced the storm of life as a child, and because of this, he learned to tame it. Faunas still hated his guts, but he made sure that he would spill theirs if they tried to take advantage of him. The moment he realized that he could make them feel as he did, he took the chance and never let go.

He was heading down a dark path in middle school. He had no friends in the 7tg grade and was seen as a freak by the faunas and a monster by the humans.

Fortunately, Cardin's mother saved him. Every day when he came home, she bandaged his wounds and trained him. Cardin didn't need the training, he had learned to fight like a Mayan by the time he reached the 6th grade, but spending time with his mother was the highlight of his day. She was his pillar of hope, his light at the end of the tunnel.