Among Races

Chapter XXVII: Malevolence

            "Human!" Cry rolls his eyes as he stops from making his way to his seat in their room before class starts. He sighs at the familiar voice he just heard behind him and takes one last bite of his sliced mangoes. He turns around and asks in a sluggish manner, "What?" A bushy browed elf with grassy green eyes approaches him. "I heard your old man admitted it!" Jean tells him. Angela, already on her seat, starts to worry as she hears them all the way from across the room. "Yeah, so?" the young human replies, "Haven't you learned your lesson already?" Suddenly, the elf mockingly laughs out loud. "I knew nothing good will ever happen to a human like you, but I never thought Sir Björklund the knight was dumb enough to take in someone like you!" This struck a nerve in Cry as he widens his eyes in unrelentful anger. "I bet he was even crying when he saw you! Maybe that inspired him to call you 'Cry'!" he continues. The human boy starts walking closer to the elf, who is going over the line, and stretches out a hand to grab him by the collar. Jean harshly grabs his wrist before he does and says in a firm threatening voice, "I'm not afraid of you, you useless outcast." With this single hold, he violently throws Cry on the floor. "Cry!" the little gnome shouts as she starts to run towards them. "DON'T TALK ABOUT MY FATHER THAT WAY!" Cry screams at the top of his lungs as tears quickly start to form in his eyes and drop one by one due to extreme frustration. The elf replies, "What are you going to do about it, human? CRY about it?!" "AHHH!!!" Cry screams out loud as he suddenly stands up and tackles Jean down. Jean kicks him off of him and quickly goes on top. He raises a fist, aimed at the boy's nose. Cry pushes his torso upwards and headbutts the boy. "Agh!" Jeans shouts as he falls on the floor. Cry goes back on top of him and starts punching him in extreme anger left and right. "STOP," he punches. "BOTHERING," he punches again. "ME," he punches once more. "AND MY" he says with another punch as Angela finally reaches them and shouts, "Cry, stop!" "FAMILY!" he finishes with one extra hard hit. "CRY!" shouts their teacher as she enters the room. The boy wakes up from his blinding anger and suddenly gets off the sobbing elf. "I- I- I..." the human boy mumbles in fear. The elf teacher quickly runs at the almost bleeding young boy on the floor. He carries him with all of her strength. She says with a tone of authority, "All of you, take your seat!" All the elves and gnomes start following her instruction except for Angela, who runs to the human. "Cry..." she says as she raises a hand to put on her friend's shoulder. "You too, young lady!" the teacher yells. She, then, follows. "And you!" Cry closes his eyes in shock of the sudden volume due to being too vulnerable at the moment. "To my office!" She leaves the room with Jean whose face is starting to swell. The children look at the boy in fear as some of them whisper things like, "The human beat him up..." and "I knew outcasts can't behave properly, even if they're raised by nobles."

            The little human boy arrives in the office and sits down on a chair in front of their teacher's table. Emotions begin to sink in and he starts sobbing. Even though he hated Jean with his whole being, he's still ashamed of what he's done. "Dad..." he mumbles to himself in tears, missing his old man. Just then, the office window six times the boy's size suddenly opens as the strong wind enters the room. It blows on Cry's face and runs through his hair. The young boy covers his face with one hand, but peeking through it as he walks forward to the window, wanting to see what's going on. He was finding it difficult to go forward but as he reaches the window, he looks up at the black cloud-filled sky. It starts to get darker and darker. Cry looks at the room's clock; 9:00 am. Class was supposed to start. The numbers on the clock disappear as darkness eats it whole. The kingdom is now in complete darkness.

            The dwarfs are walking away from the Kingdom of Solljus, ready to begin anew and leave it for good. They are about a mile away, but still close enough for them to see it. Maze turns around to take one last look at the kingdom. She sees the horror before her and yells, "Drae!" The older dwarf turns at the call of his name, then quickly notices the presence of thick dark clouds above the Kingdom of Solljus. He widens his eyes and without thinking, he drops his things and begins to run back towards it. "Drae, what-- Hey! Drae!" the little dwarf calls out to him as she tries her best to quickly put her stuff down and chase after him.