>>Hael (Age 11-13)
Three other days passed. The house had no more food supplies left and I sat by the river wondering what I could do.
Do I leave? But where do I go?
I kicked my feet in the water. It feels weird now that she's not here either. I felt better than this when she was here. What is this strange feeling? I rubbed my chest. It's like I'm missing something.
I felt like my brain was shutting off my feelings. Like there were more things I had felt before but now I couldn't.
I tilted my head
What was happening?
I've never left this place. I looked back at the cottage, then looked at the sky, where a family of crows flew by, I watched them fly above me and then disappear when they flew above the forest in the distance. Then I looked back at my feet.
What do I do? I have no idea what to do.... If I don't leave, soon I'll start getting hungry.
That's when the wind increased. The leaves rustled and the fallen one flew, making me half close my eyes and shelter them with my hand.
!!!?
It concentrated on one place in the field, near the house and I turned my head to look at it. A white symbol appeared there and I recognized it. I read it in a book. It was a teleportation spell.
Right the next second, there was a flash that made me close my eyes. But when I opened them, I saw a woman standing there. She looked a little like my mother. She looked around the place and her eyes landed on me.
"You're Hael?" She asked
"Yes," I stood up, "And who are you?"
"I'm Helena, your mother's sister," She answered. So she's my aunt?
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"I'm here to take you with me," She offered me her hand to take, "Come on, I'll take you to your mother."
I stared at her, "Why would you take me to my mother?"
"Why not?" She asked, "Don't you want to see your mother?"
I shrugged, I didn't know if I wanted to see her or not but one thing was sure, "She doesn't want to see me." I said and Helena froze.
"Why would you think that?" She asked,
"Because she abandoned me," I replied, "Isn't that something someone does when they don't want to see a person. She left because she doesn't want to see me anymore, right?"
She blinked at me, unsure what to say, "Your mother is-" She paused, "...She's going through a hard time." She shook her head, "She loves you very much." She gestured to me with her hand, "Come now, let's get you to a better place." She glanced at the cottage, "A middle of nowhere isn't a place to live," She let out a sigh as she stared at the house, then looked at me, "You're going to live with me from now on," She smiled, "And there are many elf kids your age too. It will be a far better place than here."
I stared at her, she kept her hand out. I turned to look at the cottage, the only place I had known for eleven years, then I looked at her again and walked over. There was this strange feeling inside of me when I grabbed her hand and she hugged me.
A weird sense of warmth mixed with a hollow feeling.
***
"I'm fairly new to the ruling seat," Helena said, "But I'm the current ruler of the elf kingdom." I looked at her and nodded. The elf kingdom had giant trees and houses built along those trees but the most impressive thing was the palace and how it was infused with the world tree.
We made our way into the palace where my mother was standing, "Hael," She called out my name as we both stood in the guest room. She stared at me, then tears started coming out of her eyes and she turned around, only to leave the room.
"Hestia!" Helena called out to her sister, "What are you doing?" She ran after him, "You can't behave like that in front of your child!" Leaving me alone in the place.
I knew it, she doesn't like me anymore. I wonder if she ever liked me.
I turned around and left the palace, it wasn't hard to remember where we came in from and I just followed the path to go out. The forest was lively, there were much more sounds there than in the fields and the weather was pleasant.
I reached the ground where I saw some kids. The laughter of the other elf children echoed through the trees. I watched them as they played a game with a football but it was a game I didn't recognize.
Helena said I could play with them.
With hesitant steps, I approached the group, my breath catching in my throat as their laughter faltered and their gazes turned upon me. Their eyes narrowed with disdain, their whispers like venomous serpents slithering through the air.
"What's he doing here?" One of them sneered, a cruel twist of his lips betraying the malice in his voice.
"Isn't that a human,"
"Look at his ears,"
I stopped when I heard them, then touched my ears. Clearly, they were different.
"Hey!" A kid said, "A human isn't welcomed here," He held the ball in his hands.
"Yeah, go back to where you belong, human," Another taunted, his words like daggers aimed at me
"I- I'm not human, my mother is an elf," I said, "She's an elf princess," If Hestia is the Queen, that should make my mom a princess.
"Liar!" They said, "You're not an elf!"
"Maybe he's a half,"
They all laughed, "That's even worse!" They pointed fingers at me, "It's a half bastard! Nobody wants to play with a halfie!"
"Half bastard!"
I stood there, rooted to the spot, my cheeks burning with shame as their rejection washed over me like a tidal wave. I tried to speak, but I had no idea what to say, the words caught in my throat, choked by the weight of their disdain.
"But I just want to get to know you all" I whispered, my voice barely above a whisper, my heart breaking with each syllable.
"Half bastards aren't welcomed," A kid came and pushed me, making me fall back on the ground.
The other children laughed, a harsh and mocking sound that pierced me to the core. "Play with humans, then," one of them jeered, his tone laced with scorn, "You look like one anyway halfie,"
My chest constricted. I felt bad but something in my mind was making me angry rather than focusing on the sorrow. I stood up when the boy with the ball threw the ball at my face. It hit my nose as it made me fall back roughly.
They all laughed while my nose bled. I felt hurt, something inside of me cracked a little. It was like my entire existence was being made fun of.
"Hey!!!" A familiar voice came.
"Shit! It's the Queen!" The kids began to scramble as Helena came over, "Oh My God!" She came and sat down next to me," She placed her hand over my nose, "Oh! Those kids!!" A soft soothing glow came out of her hand and my nose stopped hurting.
She casted a healing spell!
"Come," She helped me up, "I'll show you to your room."
"Okay," I held her hand
"You're a brave boy," She smiled, "You didn't cry even when they tried to hurt you."
...
Ah, there was this sorrowful feeling that came up but then my mind chose not to focus on it. I wasn't welcomed there, so it was fine. I didn't want to feel bad because of people.
And my mind chose to shut the feelings out before I even got to understand them.
***
I spent most of my days in the palace library, that was the only place people didn't stare at me. I felt the chill of isolation seeping into my bones, a gnawing emptiness that consumed me from within whenever I went out and met other people.
"He's a human isn't he?"
"How would he fit here?"
"He's growing like a human too,"
"Wouldn't he look like Ezio in a few years?"
"Oh poor thing,"
"He's a human after all," Their gazes held some sort of malice I couldn't understand.
"He's a half,"
"A bastard? That's even worse," Their ice cold gazes didn't make much sense to me.
Their whispers, like venomous serpents, slithered through the air. I learned that elves looked down on humans because they lived such short lives and they hated humans for how they still made such grand lives for themselves.
The other elves, both young and old, regarded me with cold and distant eyes. So I chose to stay away. Nobody wanted to be with me, so I chose to not be with anyone. My mother didn't come to meet me again but Helena did.
But each time she visited me, she lied to me, saying that my mother was going through a hard time and needed some space. She would tell me she loved me but I knew she was lying.
But if she wasn't, was this how love is supposed to be like?