The child thought they were human, until they began to enter their teen years and certain things began to manifest that showed they were not. Small scales, occasional flame, they were frightened. Then a kind hand reached out to them and stated "No you're not a freak, or a monster, but child, you are changing. It's time you learned your heritage." -- Anon Guest
Everyone knows that things can happen to a body growing into maturity. For Humans, the usual speech is hair in strange places, or discrete hygiene rituals. For Hellkin, it's all of that and warnings of emergent abilities and how to control them. Elves have to have an education about physical maturity versus social maturity.
Nobody warned Kaelar about the little quirk in hir family line.
So when ze discovered scales instead of pimples on hir face, ze kind of panicked a little. Ze didn't scream, at first thinking one of hir siblings was playing a joke with small flakes of gemstones. By the time ze realised that they were part of hir, Kaelar had gathered enough wits to refrain from screaming. Ze watched in slow horror as another one gradually eased its way to the surface of hir brow.
Two things. This was real, and this was not stopping.
And then Kaelar coughed out a lick of fire. Hir head filled with dread visions of turning into a monster and laying waste to everything and everyone ze ever loved. So ze did the only logical thing: Ze crept back to hir room and packed whatever seemed useful before sneaking out the window.
Ze had to get as far from civilisation as ze could, just to keep everyone safe, and ze didn't even know what ze was turning into. Kaelar ran until ze couldn't run any more, then walked until hir legs screamed for rest. Ze hunkered in the dry patch of a culvert, doing hir best to hide until ze could move again.
Occasionally breathing out fire was not help with Kaelar's stealth skills. Nor hir panic.
Ze did learn that only smoke came out when ze breathed through hir nostrils. Which would be better for living in the forest. Breathing fire would be useful for cooking. Assuming ze wasn't turning into the kind of monster that craved raw flesh.
Right now, ze was craving bacon and eggs. Or a cheese toasty. Or mama's super-thick pancakes. Dripping in butter and syrup.
No pancakes for monsters.
Kaelar, once rested enough, hauled hirself upright, and kept plodding along. Hood up despite the warm weather, and despite the crawling, aching itch at hir temples that might well be horns coming in. And to make things worse, there was an odd feeling niggling at hir coccyx.
"You all right, kid?"
Kaelar startled, flinching away from a wandering merchant driving the other way. His caravan advertised Laminar's Liquid Laughter in gaudy colours. So it was not even the hope of a cure-all. Ze said, "No," and turned away to run into the light scrub by the road. It was time to truly get lost.
Nobody would be able to find hir if even ze didn't know where ze was.
Kaer found a shallow scoop of a cave that was enough to keep the rain off and set up something passing for a camp. Ze had five muesli bars and a slightly stale sandwich. Nothing to hold water and nothing to boil it in.
It finally sank in that ze hadn't really thought about this.
Who knew how long it would take to really turn into a monster? Kaelar could be out here for weeks. Months. Maybe even years. Although... maybe dying of exposure or dysentery might save the world in the end.
Kaelar started softly weeping. Ze didn't want it to end like that. Without even a note. Mom would be worried sick. Dad... was a monster hunter. He might even kill hir and never know. That was a horrible thought. If they found out. How they might find out. It was all kinds of horror. All hir fault.
Did ze even know enough to carve a message into the stone wall? Nothing looked smooth enough to hold a message. So some of hir effort had to go into smoothing over an area. That was going to suck. Worse than starving, exposure, or dysentery.
"Had enough moping, kiddo?"
Kaelar clenched and froze. That was Dad! Ze snatched at hir hood, keeping it tight around hir head. Ze didn't need to ask how Dad found hir. He was a hunter. He could track down anything. Anyone. Tears stung Kaelar's eyes. "I did this for everyone. 'M turning into a monster."
"Aw, baby," cooed Dad. He shuffled into the short cave. Came up right beside Kaelar. "Let me see?"
Wincing and cringing, Kaelar pulled the hood down. Yelped when Dad just kissed hir cheek.
"You're all right, baby. It's just my Mam's blood coming up." Arms that had slain hundreds of monsters gently wrapped around Kaer. "You never met her, but she had good, strong, Dragon blood in her. It missed me, so I thought it might miss you. I'm sorry, baby. I should've told you. I... should probably tell the rest of the family. This was my fault. I never told you that you could become a dragon-blooded Sorcerer."
"I'm a what?" Kaelar was dumbfounded. It was like hir world had turned completely upside-down and rattled all the change out of its pockets.
"Dragon-blooded Sorcerer," Dad repeated. "You were born with magic in your bones, and now it's coming out." He sighed. "You're going to need a tutor, 'cause I can't teach you how to use that magic. My Mam was gone long before you came along. You're not a monster... and what you did when you thought you were proves it."
"Huh?"
"A real monster would have hung around to hurt people. Your first thought was to protect them."
[Photo by Niklas Hamann on Unsplash]
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