Potential War

Chapter 7

We stayed at the village for three nights. Ullume couldn’t calm down. He was jumping at every sound and human that approached. I couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t unusual to see glares from humans coming from the inside of houses.

I was sitting at a table after giving classes, sighing. The humans were yelling at me to teach right. I kept arguing back that my lessons were more accurate than a race that went back to the stone ages. The lessons they had been providing for the children were war lessons. The only education soldiers ever learned. One of my arguments was with the General of the small army. (Turns out I ended up fighting the General when I first arrived)

~

“I will teach these children in my own way.” I stated as he accused me of teaching them useless knowledge.

“The stuff your teaching them can’t be used to survive in a battle! What if someone attacks the village?!” He yelled at me like it was the only thing important in this world.

I rolled my eyes at his idiocy. Knowledge is power, not a sword.

“I want to create a world where our children will never have to pick up a sword for our past mistakes.”

His face turned purple as he stomped away in defeat.

~

What was going to happen to these children? I looked at all the sleeping bundles that swelled up my heart. I had to protect them, and their futures, but to do that I had to be alone. When I was teaching the children history, the General finally put his foot down.

“WHAT?!” He screamed as he came to check up on me. It made the children and I jump. I had to stop in mid-lecture so he could talk to me.

He pulled me out of the room and shut the door. “What the hell are you teaching them?! This isn’t our history!” He screamed. I placed a hand on my forehead and said. “I only speak the truth.” His eyes were bulging out of his head. His face was now the color of an apple. He tried to calm down a bit so as to not let the children hear. I highly doubted the elven children couldn’t hear, but he lowered it anyway. “I don’t want to scare the children either but we need to learn from our mistakes. Just let them accept the fact that we have always been enemies.” I sighed, was he never going to learn? “Come with me.” I said walking out the door and into the glaring sun.

The General followed me, wondering what was going on. “I may not look it, but I am fifty years old, more or less.” I said to him as we walked together to the entrance of the village. “I know that the humans and elves have had a rough history but it wasn’t always like that.” I walked right out of the village and to the cliffs that toward over us. I touched the wall and rubbed away the dust. “W-wait, this is supposed to be a sacred elven wall.” I glanced at him and then continued my dusting. “More accurately it is the Crying Wall.” I continued dusting as he was looking at me suspiciously. I sighed and then stepped back to let the light hit the wall. Crystals that were engraved in the wall shined and glowed blue as the sun’s embracing light covered them. “This honors elves and the battles they have fought together over the years. On the left side are the names of elves and on the right . . .” I did one last dusting with a swish of my sleeve. The dust flied everywhere revealing the second part of the wall. It shined purple as names disappeared and reappeared. “ . . . are human names. The names of humans who they have fought with side-by-side. There are many of these walls around each village that is older than your history books.”

The general’s eyes were wide and filled with tears. The crystal’s powers were filled with the memories of the soldiers who died fighting one another. “W-what was that?” He asked. Suddenly he was ten years younger with eyes that were clearer and ever-seeing. I smiled weakly, knowing he wouldn’t be able to take all of the True History without crying. “For thousands of years elves and humans have been living in peace. Until one human country became greedy and attacked the Moon Tribe for their power and secret of never aging. They took prisoners and used them as test subjects for experiments. When the tribes found out about this they planned to break them out of their hell on earth. The other human countries heard a rumor that they were planning to attack ALL human countries and immediately went to action.” I picked up dirt from the ground in my hand and threw it at the wall to hide the crystals. They were more valuable than any diamond and I didn‘t want any thief taking them.

I started wiping the dust off my hands as I continued. “So they fled, never rescuing the Moon Tribe and always in shame for not doing so.” I started walking back, the General was crying, but he was also in deep thought. “Why don’t you hate us then?” He asked looking at me with watery gray-blue eyes. I stopped walking and paused before I said anything. “My . . .brother was half-human.” His eyes widened as he stopped in his tracks. A half-breed was feared among the humans, because you could never tell which side they were on, and they were usually more powerful than a normal human. “My mother considered him an accident. She had sperm injected in her for an experiment.“ I stopped and closed my eyes to think about the moment Ullume was born. “At first I hated him for existing, for ruining our family, but the moment he was born, the moment he looked at me with big golden eyes. I couldn’t hate him.” Now I was crying. “My mother died giving birth to him so I named him.” I started walking again. “We grew up in cages and I took care of him as best as I could. His father was also a prisoner, his cage was right next to ours.” The General followed me, I knew he had a million questions and half of them I could not answer. “Why were there human prisoners?” I kept going as I answered his question. “It turns out the facility wasn’t made by the country, it was made by an organization that strived to research the differences between humans and elves. Both humans and elves were prisoners and even some famous scientists were forced to participate in this cruel event.”

We reached the entrance of the village. The General wiped his tears away and straightened himself up. “I just need to warn you that the prince will be hear tomorrow. You will have to keep your hood up all day and warn Ullume too.” I nodded, He scratched his beard and then said, “It might be a good idea to keep Greta near you also, she will be able to lessen the suspicion on you, the way she clings to you.” I nodded again, with my hood up I would be able to let the disguise spell fall so I could conserve my energy. With a bow, he then walked away with his head held high, ready to lead his troops.

I went over to the little tent that they provided for me. Inside Greta was arguing with Ullume that he needed his hair cut. “It’s too long,” She complained as she held scissors threateningly. “NO WAY!” He said, dodging all of her attempts at cutting his hair. I touched Greta’s shoulder and she jumped at my sudden appearance. She gave me a bright smile. “Welcome home, Taure!” She exclaimed giving me a big hug. I hugged her back and then said, “Let him keep his hair Greta, it protects him from the sun.” She pouted at me but ended her sassing. I took off my cloak, revealing my new outfit. I had sowed it together myself. It consisted of white trousers and a shirt that was like a robe. It was easy to move around in, but it was a strange way of wearing cloths to the humans so I kept it hidden. “Ullume, Greta.” I said trying to get their attention. Their heads snapped up, they knew I had something serious to say “The prince is coming tomorrow. We are going to have to keep hidden. Greta you can stay in the open but be close by the tent, just in case. A battle looks very possible so I have a plan. No blood, no foul, right?” They nodded in unison. If they were the same species they would have been twins. “I will have to go alone though.” I said just to make sure they understood. “Both of you will lead the children to the woods, and protect them. I will do the rest.” They looked at each other uncertainly, but nodded. They were going to obey me. That was good. I sighed and started preparing.

I went outside and to the well in the middle of the village. The moon was out and so I couldn’t hide my hair and eye color, but it was fine because no one was outside at the moment. I looked at my reflection. My hair was too long to be a male’s and so I look out my knife and started cutting it. I cut it so that there were only two long strips of hair in front of my ears. I took out my father’s golden hair holders. He had always worn these when he was young and gave them to me even though I wasn’t his son. They were like tubes, but were engraved with the symbol of the Moon Tribe and the elven writing could only be seen in the moonlight.

I clipped them to my long strands of hair and looked at my reflection. My face didn’t look male and neither did my body. I was going to have to fix that. I took out my bandages and set them out so I could take off my shirt. Pain in my back erupted as it touched the night air, but it was soon gone. The reason for this pain was unknown, but I knew the only reason I had it was because of the torture at the facility. The people there were at first only humans. They figured that since elves were considered animals we would be compatible with other animals. They injected the elves with animal genes until they died. Since I was a child they only injected three genes in me. A swan, an arctic fox and an angel fish. They wanted to make us more graceful apparently, the only reason these experiments stopped is because elves joined the facility. They were afraid of insulting them, but it was too late for me. I already had the ability to awaken the animal blood inside of me. I could fly as well as any bird, swim without needing air and I could fight like a savage fox, but the pain and concentration for such a thing would leave me unconcious for days. 

I felt fangs grow in my mouth as I tried to steady my breathing. I quickly bandaged my breasts down and put my shirt back on. I looked at my reflection one more time. I looked more like a delicate boy than a man. It was the best I could do though. Before moving I looke toward the bushes in the back of the poorly built wall the soldiers created. I had thought I heard a rustle but it might have been my imagination. I turned and started walking back to the tent, ready for a hell of a day to come.