Standing up to leave, she tried to avoid the situation by acting like it never happened. As if playing along, the boy turned into fog before disappearing. Unsure of what he was playing at, she ignored his behavior. While they had only been together for a very short amount of time, she had always been quick in forming habits. Since he hadn’t stayed, she picked up the sword and had it disappear. While originally she had thoughts of throwing the sword somewhere, it wouldn’t really work.
Sealed in her arm would not just be a failed product, but an angry failed product that could physically interact with the world. Nevertheless, even without the ability to harm her, she wasn’t willing to press her luck. She had tested her dragon blood, from her blood magic to premonitions. Without testing, she wasn’t willing to believe that the boy that had lived for an untold amount of time would not have thoughts that were outside her imagination. It was too risky, so she made sure to quickly form the habit of keeping the sword with her.
As they spent time together, she had started to accept his existence. It was no secret, even if he wanted it to be, she was the owner of the seal and held the upper hand. The boy was rough at first, without delay and almost joyfully letting her know that he couldn’t help her in any way. Having a large amount of information on the laboratory, from being able to read the gray stone to having lived inside it as a being that wasn’t suppressed by the restrictions in that place. It was unknown how much he understood about failed products.
Having the impression, he knew about the special abilities that they were supposedly endowed with. His actions in the end were things she could ultimately contribute to him helping her. His words in the beginning held a unwavering place in her heart. Without the slightest hesitation, being in a state that just a simple throw without adding much force but the already applied gravity. The blade cracked so badly it was possible to see through the blade. And still he said it, “I already told you the wall is fake, figure out the rest yourself. If you can’t then go take my body back to the stage and finish walking down one of the two side paths. I don’t wish this isolation on just about anyone.”
During the moment, it was only antagonizing. But after leaving, the heaviness of those words continued to become more vivid in her mind as she stayed in contact with the seal. The fact remains that outside of some inappropriate behavior, he hadn’t let the insanity and madness leak out from the center of his soul. In exchange, he was emotionless, and never expressed himself emotionally.
“What is it? Don’t tell me your tastes have changed… Or have you not been eating breakfast to the point your body is not used to it anymore?” His words started out with concern before becoming increasingly harsh as it was clear he was becoming more upset.
Looking up, she noticed his concern gazed as they sat at the table. With a conflicted smile of reassurance, “No, it is just that I experienced something crazy…” As she took a bite of the pastry, she took up her fork to pick up some eggs and bacon before taking a bite. Only once she finished swallowing the food did she continue under his inquisitive gaze, “You know that legend of Green River City?”
With a book on the table, it was closed and out of the way. Now he was eating across from her with a gaze of interest. It was the same expression he always showed, regardless of the topic. He probably didn’t care so much about the words, but the act of holding a conversation with her. Hearing this, he looked up from his food for a moment before speaking, “You mean the one about the peace? Now that I think about it, I don’t think it has been attacked or seen much destruction for a long time.”
“Partly, I stopped by there before coming here.” Seeing him look at her with a bit more interest in the conversation itself, she knew he wasn’t interested in Green River bit, but the reason she showed up completely exhausted. “The legend speaks about a dragon, I remember when you told me the story when I was little. I didn’t actually believe it, but I think it is true.”
She didn’t notice as she looked at her plate, however, there was a bit of a squint in his eyes, “Why do you think that? Dragon’s are very rarely seen. They don’t often leave the mountains.”
With a bit of hesitation, she was surprised herself when she thought back to that terrifying moment. It filled her with so much fear when she experienced it. On the way back, she didn’t stop once. Outside of sleeping, she continued to run here as fast as she could. That was how large of an impression that experienced left her with, only now, she didn’t feel any fear. Home was really a magical place.
“For one reason or another, I think I somehow provoked someone…” Explaining her experience as vaguely as she could. The underlining of the story went from running away from death to comforting the unease she experienced for somehow provoking that existence. Her journey fueled by pure desperation and fear was turned into a sightseeing adventurer to clear up any misunderstanding.
The old man didn’t ask anything else. He only paused slightly at the end of her story. She didn’t meet his eyes, even when she tried, it was like an unwritten rule. He tried not to barge into her life, as she was now an adult. On the other hand, just because she was an adult didn’t mean he didn’t care about her anymore. She likewise didn’t want to lie to him and cared for him as equally.
Thus, this action became a reoccurring event in this house. When one said something that the other didn’t believe, they would silently watch the other. If they could meet their eyes even if they didn’t believe them they would take it as truth, as time went on it was likely if she met his eyes he would believe anything she said. If she was in his shoes, if he met her eyes, she knew that he was hiding something, but every word he said would be true.
Since she didn’t meet his eyes, she just quickly stuffed her face before picking up her cup of tea. It was the one thing she didn’t like. The tea was never as flavorful as she could get from a different drink. Only, as the old man was a doctor, the tea was never just tea. Every time she came home she would take the tea regardless if it was sweet, bitter, or tarty. It never clashed with the time of day or food. And the result in the end would always be beneficial to her in more ways than she could even know until much later.
Standing up as she excused herself, she went back to her room before quickly coming out not five minutes later. In that time, the old man had cleared the table and was sitting with a book in hand. Seeing her exit, he couldn’t help but look up. She had a black cloak on, very easily seen as a traveling cloak, “Are you going to go to your uncle’s place?”
Stolen novel; please report.
Stopping in between the old man and the door, “Yes. My daggers were damaged, so I want to go over and get them maintained. I will probably stay for a bit, probably go into the dungeon. You haven’t forgotten our deal, right?”
Standing up, he had his back to her as he heard what she said. Pausing slightly when she finished talking. Taking the last few steps, he picked up something from the bookshelf before turning around. “No, of course not. Your decision isn’t too bad. Of course, don’t go into a dungeon so half-heartedly. If you’re going to go in, no matter how low the danger, never underestimate anything or anyone. Here take this. I have been meaning to make a trip there, so this will save me a lot of trouble.”
After picking up the package, she didn’t try to shake it or anything. She moved towards the door before turning around, “Thank you for breakfast.” She exaggeratedly waved her hand with a goofy smile. This action still caused a great looking smile on the old man’s face. What she tried to hide was that she had been staring at the chair the old man had been using. Unlike her chair, that one was old and very poorly made.
She had repetitively told him not to use that chair anymore. It was over ten years old. The biggest issue is that it was poorly made to begin with. He would always accept all her complaints and the next time she showed up he would still be sitting in the now even more shabby chair. Still, she couldn’t just throw it out, as he showed so much love for it. It was the chair she had given to him, she had made it herself when she was a kid. As one could expect from an eleven-year-old, without any experience in woodworking. It was ugly and horribly put together.
Leaving the house, she quickly saw a familiar face. Aderyn was moving towards her with a happy smile and a basket. “Jessica!” Waving her empty hand, she ran up to her with a bright smile. This quickly faded when she saw the black traveling cloak she was wearing, “You’re leaving already?”
With a gentle smile, she replied with a soft voice, “Yes, did you forget my promise? Promises are important, so how could I neglect the promise I made to you?”
As one could expect from a child, her shifting emotions were fast. In record time, she had a bright smile on her face once more before she paused and hesitated. She was looking down at the basket in her hand with a conflicted expression. Seeing this, Jessica couldn’t help but be curious about what was in the basket but didn’t ask as it seemed Aderyn would tell her very shortly.
Soon her mother appeared next to her before ending the conflict her daughter was having in her head, “Aderyn has been helping me in the garden. In exchange, she was given a small plot and grew some strawberries. She has been waiting for you to come back so she could share her spoils with you.” As she looked down, the fake smile on her face turned more genuine, “Let’s give it to the doctor. Once Jessica comes back, she will be able to enjoy them.”
With a sharp intake of air she clearly had a epiphany as she laughed happily to her mother's great idea, “Mother, you’re so smart!”
Turning to look at Jessica, she laughed as she spoke, “I will give these to the doctor, make sure you come back soon so that he doesn’t eat them all!” Once she said that, she quickly ran towards the isolated house as she excitedly knocked on the door.
The mother and her just nodded at each other. It was at this time the boy reappeared next to her before giving one last look at the village as they left. “You don’t need to answer if you don’t want to, but, what is with that village?”
Looking up at the sun, she kept changing her direction ever so slightly before she was estimating their path to the desired location using the sun. It appeared having to come and go from a village hidden in the woods wasn’t without its perks. Once she was done, she finally answered as he had been waiting patiently, “I am sure you saw their ears.”
“Yeah, most of them have fairly long hair, including your old man. But the little girl was too animated, it made it easier to see. What are they?”
Pausing, there was a type of disgust she wasn’t expecting from him when he said that. It wasn’t like he was trying to bash them, but it was clear he found them to be unsettling. It was a common reaction, however, she didn’t expect him to be showing the signs so quickly. The only one he had really seen outside a glance would have been the old man, and he was clearly different.
Feeling her hesitation to his reaction, he tried to clarify as he too drew a conclusion between a glance and the interactions between her and the old man. With a bit of speed he made sure to put his clarification in stone, “Don’t get me wrong. I am not bad-mouthing your old man. While he makes me feel uncomfortable, even I can see he truly cares about you. And I don’t even have to guess the feeling is mutual. This isn’t the first time I have seen their kind before.”
It was still strange for her to hear him sigh so heavily. As his words were being interpreted in her head, it gave raise to a strange and completely unique experience when he only expressed himself with emotional like sigh. It didn’t take much of a guess to understand what could have happened, and low and behold, his story wasn’t very much different than expectations.
“Disgust is actual a very common description of elves. One has to remember that elves and dragons are the closest beings to nature. Dragons outside of their powers, they themselves breed fear because they’re not just powerful, but also devastatingly cruel with that power. Elves are different from dragons in that it is far easier to see them as people instead of animals, therefore even though dragons have the same intelligence, elves bring a stronger sense of alienation.”
Trying to find the best way to summarize the information as objectively as she could, “If one looks at it from a logical perspective, it makes a lot of sense. In nature, emotions are present, but many believe with intelligence you leave behind nature and will naturally join society. So in fact, trying to use your own perspective to understand them is wrong from the beginning. In this sense, elves are the heaviest discriminated against race on the continent.”
She tried to remove all her emotions from it, but she couldn’t help it, she had grown up experiencing it, so it was hard to not have strong emotions about it. Even with being able to feel her emotions, he couldn’t determine her feelings on what she said next.
“Elves start out like any other intelligent race. While they live in a society, they live in a gated community as a way to protect their children, not just from the outside. This is also to make their future decisions easier. Like with most animals in nature, elves only protect the young, though as an intelligent being they don’t just abandon them and are closer to how pack animals live. Only, their pack is very, very small. They also share their gated community with other packs to ensure their safety in numbers.”
Without looking back, she continued with an unreadable expression, “So while that village looks normal from outside, and you probably didn’t notice that the houses were segregated. While the children play, I am sure you noticed a number of adults watching them. Each one of them was from a different pack. They don’t trust or feel anything for another pack. So even if another pack’s child is in danger or dying, they likely wouldn’t care.”
“This has to do with the biology of elves. As children, they are the same as most others. Only once they reach puberty do you see the reason they’re one of the closest races to nature. Once an elf reaches puberty, they stop developing the same way as other races. There is only themselves and their pack. If progressing normally, the only thing an adult elf cares about is their immediate family, the only exception to this is a spouse. If an elf doesn’t found a spouse before puberty, they will never feel anything for anyone outside their immediate family.”