(Gore Warning. Skip to next parenthesis to avoid.)

I stood stunned next to Noel. Noel was breathing heavily but quickly, like she was forcing the air out of her lungs with every breath. I turned back to Priest Oxi’s impaled, lifeless body, and felt a wave of nausea coming over me. The Dragon’s Tooth wasn’t an actual spear, since it didn’t have a single pointy edge. Instead, it was more like a wooden stick with a bunch of sharp rocks embedded on one end. When something like that went through human flesh, it left an awful mess, with blood and guts all over the place. The wall of elfin skulls was showered in crimson blood, which combined with the dancing shadows cast by the fire, made everything even eerier.

“Why did you do that?” I whispered, barely able to get the words out of my mouth.

Noel didn’t reply. She let out a loud grunt and ran all the way to the back of the cave. I reached out a hand to stop her, but my body didn’t react quick enough. Noel leapt onto the stone shelves around the old priest’s body, and grabbed the Dragon’s Tooth. She heaved with a cry, and pulled the weapon out.

In a frenzied rage, Noel proceeded to destroy the old priest’s body. I stood with my mouth agape, still unable to process what was going on. I was just about to let the old man down, after he rejected the history of his tribe to give me the answers I was looking for. And now, he was being minced up by my best friend?

“Noel,” I shouted, “stop!”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she just kept going. My nausea intensified. The scene was just too gruesome for words. I cried again for Noel to stop. I shouted enough, enough, enough, but she wouldn’t stop. I saw young Kelser, from the corner of my eye, lean to the side, looking sick.

I grit my teeth. I took a deep, steadying breath, and shot my magic hands forward. I gripped the back of Noel’s tunic and yanked her, as hard as I could. She barely budged. My magic hands were not as powerful as my real ones. I fought the goosebumps and shivers that were threatening to overwhelm me, and strode forward. I tried my hardest not to look at the gruesome sight ahead of me, as I grabbed Noel by the sides, and pulled her off the wall. She fell to the ground, and gave a little yell, before rolling to the side and giving me a nasty glare.

Her reddened eyes matched the blood splattered all over her face, lending her a vicious visage. The Dragon’s Tooth had fallen near her feet. Pieces of flint lay shattered in the pool of blood oozing from the wall. The Dragon’s Tooth had been splintered in multiple places. I was surprised the accursed thing wasn’t broken, considering how hard Noel had been using it moments ago.

(Continue reading here after gore warning.)

“Noel,” I said, “what happened? Why did you do this?”

She didn’t answer. She was looking over my shoulder at the wall. She was still breathing heavily. Her eyes darted to the Dragon’s Tooth. I used magic to quickly push it away. She met my gaze again.

“You didn’t need to do this,” I said, gesturing at the wall without looking at it, “this was cruel, Noel. Cruel and unnecessary.”

“Cruel?” said Noel, her voice high-pitched. “Unnecessary? You’re saying this was cruel and unnecessary? What about how they murdered my whole tribe? Don’t you think that was cruel and unnecessary? What about the wall full of bones! My family’s bones! Uncle Sharun, elders Starry and Vell, don’t you remember them? There’s even some children’s skulls over there. One of them could be little Carol!” The Dragon’s Tooth flew through the air and landed back into her open palm. “I guess you wouldn’t care. It’s not like you ever thought of them as your real family!” She slammed her palm against her chest, aggressively. “But I did! They were my family!” She gestured wildly towards me and at the wall behind me. “You don’t get to tell me this was cruel and unnecessary. You didn’t even care. You were talking about history, and learning magic, and all sorts of—”

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“I’m sorry,” I said, quickly interjecting, “I should have been more sympathetic. I should have tried to comfort you more. Of course I care, the Jora tribe treated me like one of their own, seeing what happened to them fills me with anger and sadness too, but that’s no excuse for doing something like this. He was an old man, strung to a wall and tortured before we got here. He didn’t kill your family, his ancestors did. The poor guy even rejected his ancestors for us. He was cooperating. How could you possibly think that killing him was okay? Not to mention how cruelly you did it. I’m feeling sick just thinking about what you did! And look at little Kelser over there. The poor kid’s gonna faint after seeing all this!”

Noel’s eyes darted to the side. She glared at Kelser, who didn’t even know that she was looking at him, since he was staring determinedly at the corner of the room. “He didn’t kill my family? His ancestors did? That makes no difference!” She slammed the butt of the Dragon’s Tooth on the ground. “Torture? Pity?” She chortled. “My family lies in disassembled pieces behind you, I doubt they were sent off humanely! That’s not how these humans work, is it? They’re evil and barbaric. They don’t care about things like honor and peace. They met a type of people that they could not understand, who had powers they did not have, and as soon as the humans had those powers too, they used them to kill the strangers. To kill their guests and benefactors! If the elves had the same instincts that these vicious animals do, they would’ve wiped the humans out as soon as they’d seen them.”

Noel snarled. “I’m not going to make the same mistake. I’m not going to let them go. To let them get stronger, learn more magic, and come back to kill me the way they killed my family! And I’m not going to be naive, like my family. I’m not going to trust them.” She stepped forward and continued speaking, softly. “And I’m not going to make the same mistake that old priest did. I’m not going to forsake my ancestors. I will avenge my family.” She stepped forward again. I realized, she wasn’t stepping towards me. My eyes went wide.

“Stop!” I said as I got between her and Kelser. “Noel, listen. You need to calm down!”

“Calm down?” said Noel. “Calm down?” she repeated, louder. “I am not going to calm down! My family is dead, Cas, they’re dead! Long dead! My entire tribe, wiped out for being too nice, and too trusting, of these worthless, two-faced, brutish humans!” She stepped closer. I was within range of the Dragon’s Tooth. “My ancestors are crying, Cas.” She began to whisper. “Can’t you hear them? They’re bawling their eyes out like toddlers. Their sorrowful din is overpowering. Can you not hear them? Were you never, truly, a part of my family?”

I caught my breath, and stared into Noel’s eyes. I gulped, involuntarily. “Noel, this isn’t like you. I thought you were more level-headed, more rational, more calm and collected. I’ll listen to your grievances, I’ll comfort you in your sorrow. I may not understand exactly how you’re feeling, but I know what it’s like to lose family, too. We can get through this, together. Just calm down, put down the spear, and we can talk it out.”

Noel stared at me. Then, she closed her eyes, and slowly shook her head. “You can’t hear them after all. You never considered yourself a member of the Jora tribe.” She chortled. “You know, after staring at your face for so long, I’d almost forgotten you weren’t from this world. I’d almost forgotten that before you became an elf like me, you were just like these filthy, brutish murderers.” She opened her eyes. “It seems you were always a human, on the inside.”

She thrust the Dragon’s Tooth towards me. No, not towards me. She was aiming to the side, for the only other living person in the cave. With burning anger, and raging hatred, Noel thrust her family’s vicious weapon at the shell-shocked young Kelser’s throat.