Feather

Can’t even defend yourself…Lousy excuse for a…Never knew what you were getting yourself into…

“Kian?”

Kian lifted up his head wincing when late afternoon sunlight spilled into his vision. A shadowy form in front of him moved closer and he felt a cool palm on his brow.

“Lavi…?” Kian levered himself up with his arms as the hand was removed.

Recent memories started to float lazily around in his head. Wasn’t he supposed to have been stabbed? But when he felt around his midriff there was just smooth warm skin. Who had stabbed him…?

“Not now Kian. Listen,” and Lavi bent her head to sing an old childhood song,
“Weakness is not honourable but neither is the light
Do not want for the power of the darkness child
Do not step into the shadow that is casts,
for behind the smiling face of dark lies a heart as cold as ice.
Look towards the light, child, looks towards the light
because while you walk in it you do not wish to fight.
But step into the shadows child, step into the shadows
and you cast away your right.
You cast away your right to own your soul.
There is no honour in darkness
but neither is there honour in the light for then you do not fight against the ever present night.”

Kian awoke to a splitting headache still on the verge of a dream that he couldn’t quite grasp what it had been about. He tried to sit up but someone pushed him back down.

“Don’t move, I’m still busy.”

“Lavi?”

“No, you idiot, I’m Yin. Remember? The moon elf who’s currently trying to save your pathetic suicidal self,” Yin muttered and removed her hands from Kian’s stomach. “That should do for now, but it’s a self learning spell; it goes on to work long after the spell caster has finished, so I advise you don’t move, unless you want to tear yourself open.”

“Calm down Yin, he just went against someone no one else has ever gone against head on with before. He was extremely brave.” Haung placed a hand on his sister’s arm.

“Was part of his mission to try and get killed by a maniac? No, it was to bring a certain storyteller back so we could end this whole thing!” Yin wiggled out from her brother’s grip and scowled down at Kian who looked back dejectedly.

“Sorry?” he offered.

“Not good enough,” she crossed her arms and sat back against a stone wall. Kian realised they were in a cramped cave with the only light coming from a small opening to his left. “We didn’t ask you to attack Sephir because we knew he’s no match for you, for anyone in fact.”

“I can be,” Kian whispered almost too softly.

“What do you mean? No training could prepare you for a battle against him. The only way to kill him is to make the whole forest turn against him and for that we need Leylia but since you−”

“Do you know why my kind is feared?” Kian interrupted.

“In case you haven’t noticed we’ve been stuck in this forest for quite a while and haven’t made contact with the outside world−”

“Shush Yin, let him say what he wants to say,” her brother interjected clearly annoyed with how his sister was going on.

“Dark elves were banned from the Court a few centuries ago when a few of our spell casters wentransformed into monsters and destroyed a whole section of the city on their own. We’ve always known our kind was capable of transforming into monsters but we kept it to ourselves for fear of banishment,which eventually happened when a some of Sephir's kind eventually killed them off. It is something present in every dark elf but can only be triggered by unlocking a seal.” Kian winced when he tried to sit up and decided to remain lying down. “If I can rediscover what the trigger was then I can defeat Sephir.”

There was a few moments of silence then Haung said quietly, “What makes you so sure you can beat Sephir if his kind managed to kill those spell casters of yours?”

“They were only four dark elves against a platoon of twenty of Sephir’s. The dark elves managed to wipe out half before they were beaten down by sheer numbers.”

“A platoon…?” Haung said incredulous.

“Okay, so you can become amazingly strong etcetera. What of it? You don’t know what the trigger was.” Yin turned towards him frowning.

Kian smiled grimly, “I have to become a monster."

"How?" both Haung and Yin said together.

Kian turned his left shoulder towards them and smiled grimly. On the skin of his arm, just above his elbow were two tiny arrowhead tattoos facing each other, so small that they were barely noticeable.

"My entire tribe has a tattoo like this and to unlock the seal," Kian whispered. "I have to burn these off."