Soon, the group had fun talking and eating… But once dinner was over, Damon looked rather grim. There was a bit of an awkward silence.
Azanor and Eve remained silent. They had found out about Damon opening up, so they were there to listen to their new friend too. After some time in silence though, it was uncertain whether he was going to actually tell them anything or not.
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.” Kazius stated. After all, he had so many secrets of his own. Azanor probably had even more than him. Keeping secrets did not make him less trustworthy, in his opinion.
Damon looked down apologetically, his expression showing a great amount of internal anguish and conflict.
“I’m sorry… It isn’t that I don’t want to tell you, I just don’t want you to hate me.” Damon admitted in dismay.
“I don’t know what you did, Damon… But I doubt we would hate you.” Alice said with a shake of her head. Honestly, she probably found the very idea of hating someone like him to be ridiculous. The man was an overgrown puppy at his worst. A very lonely one at that. He also practically wore his heart on his sleeve.
It was probably a sentiment the whole group shared.
“I can’t hate a friend.” Eve confirmed happily.
Azanor seemed to be deep in thought, not saying anything at first before shrugging.
“I’m a Demon. I bet I have done worse… What did you do? Steal candy?” Azanor joked with a slightly mocking grin. It probably sounded rather insensitive for him to joke like that, but in his own way, he was trying to reassure Damon as well.
“Don’t mind him. The fact he is mocking you like that means he cares. It just shows he doesn’t think you actually did anything bad.” Kazius assured Damon as Azanor huffed a bit. Perhaps Azanor wasn’t entirely thrilled about being understood by them.
Damon looked quite touched at their words, gazing down, ashamed it seemed.
“Well… It is about me…But it isn’t something I did…I… I am sorry for not telling you sooner… I… My father was the previous Chief… But you already know that… He… He was not a good person… He was one of many pups my grandpa had… He wasn’t even the oldest… But he was the strongest… With the worst attitude out of all of them…” Damon began grimly, his expression showing how miserable he was at the subject, but he still continued. Seeing such an expression on him felt wrong.
Still, it wasn’t the first time Kazius saw that Damon was hiding a lot of pain and grief.
“He had been upset because my mother, the woman he wanted as his wife, ended up marrying an outsider… He didn’t think outsiders belonged here… He hated them and he thought our people should only marry our own people… He refused to accept that she was actually married… But my grandpa did not agree. My mother even gave Zelphar a sword… We don’t use rings like other places… Wind Werewolves impress our wives with our strength and then if they want the man, they give him a sword… And he has to accept it… That is how proposing works for us… And it is how a man shows he is married, he will always carry that sword… Men in our Tribe are not allowed to touch a sword until they are married, we use spears and our Werewolf forms in fights anyway… And Zelphar had followed that rule… But that was not good enough for my father…” Damon continued.
As he continued, Alice grimaced, clearly not liking where his tale was going.
“Years passed… And he continued arguing with my grandpa… But… One day… He realized that my mother never received a rock from Mount Cyklon… Instead, she had a ring… To show a woman is married in our Tribe… The men are supposed to grab a pebble from the highest place they can get to in Mount Cyklon…” Damon continued.
It seemed Damon making it to the top was indeed a big deal… He spoke so casually of his climbs…But perhaps they were even more impressive than what he led on. Clearly, making it to the top was not an expectation at all…
Then again, Kazius had experience Mount Cyklon… He knew how tough it could be.
“When he found that out, he lost it… He said it was proof their marriage was fake… Sometimes men wait until they can make it higher up… To show their love…But it had been years… And Zelphar never did the climb. So… Even though Zelphar and my mother had two kids, he… Demanded my grandpa’s support…. It ended up making my grandpa very angry with him… He told my father he was crazy… Unstable… That he was supposed to become Chief… But even though he was the strongest out of his pups… He was also the most hateful… And angry… So, when my father refused to drop it, my grandpa told him that he would never become Chief… That his attitude was too awful to become the leader of the Tribe… ” Damon continued on, his face showing quite the amount of anguish.
“That only made my father decide to take what he wanted… So… He decided to start killing everyone in his way… My grandpa, his siblings, his family…” Damon carried on.
The emptiness of the massive home they were in was growing jarring. It was like a looming presence now… As were the clothes they wore.
A total massacre had occurred in this house….
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Still, as awful as this was, Damon had not said a single thing he had done himself… This was all his father’s actions, not his.
“He had a strength no one had ever seen in our Tribe… And he was the last descendant of The First Chief… No one could argue against him becoming Chief… And then once he took the position… He… He killed Caleb’s dad… And… Well…” Damon seemed disgusted as he spoke.
“I was born… Not long after… My… Mother named me Demon… She knew about them from the stories Zelphar told her… My father liked the name… Thought it sounded strong. Caleb was the one that gave me the nickname Damon… I prefer Damon a lot more… No offense, Azanor… But… I don’t blame her for naming me that… I know she didn’t want to have me…” Damon would finish, looking ashamed. Clearly not wanting to say the words, but it was clear what his father had done.
Alice was horrified at what she heard. Of course, she knew people did such things, but still…
“Damon…” Alice would begin. She seemed to hesitate to say his name, likely having mixed feelings over the nasty origin of it.
Kazius too could not hide his shock, his eyes slightly wide. It was clear that the circumstances around his birth were downright awful… But just because his father had done something so terrible… Did not mean that Damon needed to think of those actions as him… Yet he seemed to equate them with his own existence… This also explained Damon’s mixed emotions when he found out what Azanor was.
Damon equated his origin to who he was and it seemed Luna did so as well… But that did not mean the way she treated Damon was right at all. One thing was to not want anything to do with him… But another was treating him the way she did, trying to make him regret being born when that wasn’t even something he could control…
This was Damon’s answer as to why everyone hated him, but that also did not make sense to Kazius… Perhaps Zelphar could have been very loved… But how could not a single person not give him the benefit of doubt? The way The Tribe hated him in perfect lockstep and agreed with Luna was almost unnatural.
After all, it was clear Caleb was perhaps awkward with Damon, but there was no resentment there. If his brother didn’t hate him, then at least a few villagers could not hate him… yet that did not seem like the case at all.
Damon looked worried, clearly expecting the worst due to their lack of words.
“None of that is you fault.” Alice stated, looking at him in concern.
“Were you taking that upon yourself this whole time? That isn’t you… That is how you came about, but that isn’t you.” Alice followed up, tearing up a bit.
Kazius at this nodded.
“Was your town blaming you for that the whole time? You aren’t your father, Damon… You can’t blame kids for the crimes of the parents. Especially you… You try so hard to be friends with people, you even helped us… Even though we were strangers not that long ago… Heck, you are even training us… You aren’t that… Honestly… I feel like I should have a word with your Tribe… They are allowed to not want you to be their Chief, but how they have been treating you is unacceptable.” Kazius admitted. He sympathized a bit with Luna, but at the same time… The Tribe and her were acting absolutely unhinged.
Eve of course was crying quite a bit.
“I-I don’t really understand a lot of that story… But you didn’t do anything bad… T-THAT IIIISSSS SOOOOO SAAAAAD! I-I promise I will be your FRIIIIIEND!” Eve sniffed out, even getting snot on her nose. She was definitely an ugly crier, likely partially due to how sensitive she could be.
Azanor seemed to think for a bit as he comforted the Elf, but then shook his head.
“I take no offense…. You know… Stories like that are not new to Mortals… Zelphar was no saint… I promise you that… There are a lot of nasty people that do terrible things regardless of what they are… But there are also good people that do terrible things… And nasty people that do good things. I personally find forcing yourself on someone like that is particularly distasteful, but it wasn’t you who did that. If you want to hold up such a standard… Then by that rule I have more than enough reason to kill Caleb and Luna for what Zelphar did to me… But the thought never even crossed my mind. I probably fall on the nastier and terrible end of people, but such a thing is beneath even me.” Azanor stated with a scoff at the idea, clearly hoping Damon understood how ridiculous it was to hold himself responsible for such a thing.
The story did look like it had caught Azanor a bit off guard though. After all, Zelphar was a Wizard of legend… Damon’s father had to truly be strong. Then again, considering how strong Damon naturally was, it was no surprise. Though this brought to question… What happened to Damon’s father? Kazius decided to not pry further unless he spoke of it himself. This conversation was already very hard enough on him.
At their words Damon was silent for a while.
Before any of them could say more though, they were scooped up into quite the bear hug. Considering Damon’s stature, it was surprisingly easy for him to hug all of them. Kazius and Alice both would be surprised at the sudden hug. Eve was very happy with the hug… As for Azanor, he clearly was not used to close contact with anyone that was not Eve. Despite looking uncomfortable, he accepted the hug.
It was clear that their words meant a lot to Damon.
After all, his origin had clearly been tormenting him for a long time… And his father… If he had such an awful character… Kazius realized Damon, Alice, and himself probably did not lack in similarities in their upbringing. Kazius had just been lucky he had not been at the worst end of High Priest Jordan’s verbal abuse. Seeing as how Luna and the Tribe treated him… Kazius could not help but wonder about what sort of abuse had the Werewolf suffered…
He also seemed to try and mention his mother as little as possible. He had not mentioned her until today… Then again, it sounded like he felt like all the hatred his mother felt towards him was justified. During the whole story, he never directed any sort of displeasure towards her except at his name.
Regardless of what he dealt with, it was okay now.
They were here for him. They were his friends. Kazius was not alone anymore… Neither was Alice… So, Damon would not be alone either.
“It is okay if you cry.” Alice assured as she looked at Damon’s expression. Still, the Werewolf refused to cry during this all… But the grief and relief on his face could still not be any more obvious.
“Don’t worry… You won’t be alone anymore… We told you the sort of burdens we carry too… We can all carry it together. Even if we leave Vargstam in the future, you are coming with us. I hope you know that.” Kazius assured.
“When I say friends forever, I mean it!” Eve chirped happily.
Azanor was too embarrassed to say anything, the Demon for once quite speechless. He did nod though. He was still trying to get over the hug.
Damon finally released them after that, looking at all of them.
It was then that he smiled. It was a wide and goofy smile that was such a genuine grin that it exposed how forced the ones he had done before were.
There was no doubt about it.
They had truly made their new friend happy.