An · Immortal's · Cursed · Life

At the age of fifteen, Puberty had already struck. Unlike most human children I did not suffer such atrocities as Acne, Inappropriate Erections and Wet Dreams. As a halfling, my pubety was a tad different. 

After I had been given a name, I hit the road again. I changed into the outfit that Lily had made for me and instead of running, I strolled. As I strolled down the worn roads of the town I'd apparently spent a lifetime in. I didn't want to forget a life I'd had. I tried to memorize every tree, flower, animal, person and home that I passed. I burned the images into my memory because I was starting to realise that my life was not going to be as short as a humans and I didn't know how much time I had. How long do halfbreeds live?

Once I was out of familiar territory I began to run again. I ran for 3 days before I stopped from hunger. The beautiful shirt Lily had made me was torn in the sleeves. The pants had a few rips, but not anything I couldn't stitch up with some thread. I'd have to look for some when I looked for food next.

I still had my knife on me and I'd become adept at hunting small game with only my knife, my agility and my speed. After my stomach had objected one too many times I began to run to try to find food. I ran so hard and so long that I hadn't noticed my body begin to change. As I ran I found myself amongst a herd of deer galloping across a meadow. I'd shifted my form to match those of the animals around me. I looked exactly like a deer, so much that the other deer didn't notice.

 Suddenly we were ambushed by a shower of arrows. We all ran in seperate directions. I ran as fast as I could, but I felt myself slowing down. I looked behind me and saw that I had been struck twice by arrows. One in my shoulder and one in my thigh. The next things I felt was a last arrow hit me in the back between my shoulders and then myself hit the ground. My face had landed in a stream I was about to jump. It became difficult to breath and my body slowly turned back into my own. I could feel the blood draining out of my body when I heard the footsteps approaching me. "We've hit someone! Oh No!" "Is it alive?" "I think we hit a girl. Turn her over. We have to help her." Then I heard nothing. 

Apparently when they turned me over they were shocked to find that I was not a girl, but in fact a feminine-looking young man who was very injured. I gasped for air one last time, my eyes flashed towards the sky and then I passed out.


I awoke slowly to the sound a girl singing in a distant room. I lifted my head slowly and looked around me. My head felt like bread dough after a good kneeding. I felt broken and bruised. Turns out, I was. I had arrow wounds in my right shoulder, my left thigh and between my shoulders. I also had a broken cheek bone because when I fell I landed on a rock that broke my face. I imagine I looked pretty aweful. I found myself in a large bed covered with warm, soft animal pelt as blankets and a pile of pillows made from soft fabric. 

I quickly realised, when I tried to get out of the bed, that I was chained to it. My right ankle was chained to the bed post, as was my left hand. They'd left my injured limbs free. On my right side was an intricately carved wooden bed table with a red clay bowl filled with water and a white lily in a small red clay vase. The room looked like a small cave, possibly built near a tree, because the walls had vines crawling down them. The room was sparcely decorated. It had essential supplies for someone living there and few decorative pieces; like flowers, stones and the occassional lovely fabric draped over something. My eyes fell on a distant wall and I saw a female figure's shadow dancing. The shadow grew smaller, which meant she was getting closer. I closed my eyes and waited to see what this msytery voice did next. 

I was very quiet and very still. I played dead basically. The singing turned to humming and I felt warm water touch my face on the fingertips of someone very fragile in frame. The sensation of being touched so gently caused a physical reaction in my groin. I felt the fingertips touch my cheek as water dripped down my lips and my eyes flew open. I scrambled towards the top of the bed as best I could while being chained in place. I startled her so much that she stumbled backwards. "OH! You're....awake?" I looked at her and realised that she was more scared than I was. It was the girl with the fire-red hair and the violet eyes. She looked at my face, traced my features with her eyes and then smiled at me. She relaxed a bit. "I won't hurt you. I promise." I said to her. She cocked her head and looked at me strangely. "My name is Gaedyn. What is your name?" She raised an eyebrow. It occurred to me that she had no idea what I was saying. We didn't speak the same language. I understood her, but I didn't know how to talk to her. I began running through the languages I knew. The more I spoke, the more frightened she looked. I thought about it from her perspective. --I was speaking in tongues. 

I thought back to when I was a child and my mother had trouble getting me to speak. Apparently I took a long time to speak as a child and was often quiet. I remembered my mother would communicate with me through drawings and hand gestures. I looked at the girl and motioned with my hands. I pointed to myself. "I am" How the heck was I going to spell out my name? My face dropped. "Gay-deen?" I lifted my head and smiled. "Close enough!" She smiled. She pointed to herself and said "Ta-veen". Her name was Tavyn and she turned out to be the village's only Healer and she would turn out to be my first love.

Current Location:	The Cavern AKA my room
Current Mood:	awake
Current Music:	grunge

From the time that I ran away, I learned quickly how to be a thief. Its not something I'm proud of, but it is a survival skill I have always treasured. I've always managed to rely on the unwitting help of strangers. 

I got my daily exercise from running everywhere. I got most of my education from the animals in the forests and meadows I travelled. What I didn't learn from them, I picked up from people I'd met on the road. I ate what I could find on my journeys or what I could steal from towns I passed. When I stopped to eat or sleep, it was usually in a tree or near a stream. I taught myself to fish by standing very still. When a fish would go by my feet I would grab it and hit it with a rock. Brutal, but effective. After I obtained a knife, I easily converted it to a spear in order to spear fish as they went by my feet. I would use my toes as bait. Thankfully, I only stabbed myself in the foot once and I quickly healed from it. 

I had aged a few years and my body began to mature enough to match my age. I began to look more like a twelve year old, than a five year old. I felt more like an adult now that my body was catching up with the rest of me. I began to grow hair in strange places and my dreams took an erotic turn, often leaving me wet in the morn. I had no one to explain to me what I was going through, so I tried to ignore it as best I could. The first morning that I woke up with an erection, I thought I was going to explode in agony. I felt a strong tightness in my groin and I felt like my pelvis was full of hot water. After I urinated, my erection would go away. So it became part of my morning routine to pee right after I'd woken up. I managed to figure out most things by myself. Figuring out my own body turned out to be a very long, strange experience for me. I thought I knew what to expect as I grew older, but I kept forgetting that I wasn't fully human. Things were going to be different for me because I was a demon halfbreed. I began to wonder if I would grow horns in my forehead or possibly wake up one morning with a tail instead of an erection. Neither ever happened. My body grew stronger the more land I covered in my travels. I found myself running daily. When I wasn't running, I was exploring. I taught myself to climb, swim, fish, hike, and without realising it, fight.

One time I ran to a land where the earth was white and grainy. The tree line ended abruptly and was filled with white coarse earth. It felt like very fine wood shavings under my bare toes. I'd never felt such ground before. I revelled in my discovery of a new ground until I saw the largest amount of water I'd ever seen. It was the most amazing thing my young eyes had ever witnessed. It was so large that, at first, I was frightened of it. I thought that maybe if I was very still and tried to pet it, like the animals, maybe it would come to trust me. I walked towards it and it began to give chase. When I looked back, it had retreated. Every time I walked near the water's edge, it came towards me and when I ran away, it retreated again. I told myself that this new animal was playful. I tried to speak to it, but it only made rushing sounds to me. I didn't know its language, but I knew what playing was. It had been so long since I'd played with anyone, I didn't see the harm in playing with the sea. I played all afternoon and into the evening. 

When night fell I laid on the white earth and listened to the water. The song of the sea lulled me to sleep as I stared up at the stars that night. When I awoke the next morning the sand was covering my body and I was wet. It seemed that the tide had come in, but I was far enough away from the sea that it had not dragged me away with it. I bid good-bye to the sea and ran along its shore in search of food. 

I had a fairly free spirited adolesence. My parents were dead. I had no other family that I knew of, except a few relatives I'd heard about. I was a boy on my own. No friends, no family. I didn't even have a companion. I began to make up stories in my head to entertain myself. I didn'[t speak very often, but languages interested me. I wanted to know as many as I could contain in my little brain. I learned speech from the different people I encountered on my travels. To this day I can fluently speak over 1,500 different languages, but about three/fouths of those languages are dead now. 

As I grew older and my body matured, I found myself needing new clothing almost constantly. I was growing faster than a tree sapling in Spring. When I'd stopped running long enough to realise that I needed new clothing, I noticed that my last outfit had been worn down to a pair of shredded leather shorts, a sheath and knife strapped to my thigh, and a pair of worn out ankle boots. I'd learned to tie my hair back with a strap of leather from my shorts (they'd once been leather pants). I found a village that seemed to be prosperous enough to afford me some new clothing and perhaps some lunch for a few days. 

I am very fond of lunch. It falls perfectly in the day. Its never too early or too late and everyone usually is hungry for lunch. 

I managed to find my food first. I crept quietly around a pile of barrels marked with the word "ALE". I looked down the main road and surveyed the village and its contents. The main road had many little shops and a lot of fruit, vegetable and goods stands where well-dressed people haggled over items they wished to trade for.  The hustle and bustle of this little town made it ripe for the pickings and I was just the hungry guy looking to score some food. I did happen to notice, just before I almost walked away,that there were very few men on this road. Almost none of the people trading were male at all. Even some of the hunters I saw were women clad in leathers with weapons strapped to their bodies. I had heard tales of tribes of wild women, but these women did not look wild at all. They looked rather delicate and beautiful actually. They wore intricately sewn outfits that were more functional than fashionable. These women wore shiny trickets from their hair, ears and around the necks. The colors of the clothing and the jewelry bedazzled me. For the first ime I felt Greed. I thought of all the food and clothing i could trade for if I owned just one of those pretty trinkets adorning a woman's neck. My eyes grew wide and I slowly backed away and tried to remain focused on my mission for food. I could not think of anything except the fact that I was hungry.

Normally, a thirteen year old male would find this to be Paradise on Earth, but this worried me. If there were practically no men then I had a lot of questions and I had already learned that "questions" lead to "trouble". I figured on getting my meal and hitting the road. I followed my nose to a bakery. I knew the smell of bread being baked, but this bread was a bit different than anything I had ever seen before. It looked like a braid of hair, but...a LOT of hair. I looked through the back of the bakery and saw a young woman braiding dough from a metal hook above her. The hook made me think of my parents. My step-father had made specialty items like that for people if they came in with a design and explained the function to him. I'd seen him make such wonderous things in his smithy. I missed him very much. 

When the woman finished braiding the bread, she took it down slowly and put it on a plate and then shaped it into a circle, smushing the ends together. As she whirled around the table the bread was on, I noticed that the bread she woven was very much like her own hair. I hadn't noticed it before because she wore a purple scarf over the top of her head while the rest of her hair fell out the bottom of it and flowed down her back. Her hair reminded me of burning logs. Such play of light yellows, dark oranges and bits of burnt brown twisted into a contained braided chaos of curly hair. 

As I began to daydream about her I realised I was feeling very hot, too hot for just the weather or the bakery. I was experiencing my first erection while awake. I began to panic and knew I had to leave before I was caught there. I didn't know if urinating would help me this time. I'd never dealt with an erection while really conscious. I tried to walk backwards and stumbled into a tower of reed woven baskets. The baskets fell over and so did I. When I raised a basket off of my head, she was staring at me with the most enchanting green eyes. Her eyes bore into me like a spear. I was caught. 

"Arr yah al'right, then?" she asked me in what I now know is called an Irish accent. Her name was Lily. She helped me to my feet and introduced herself. I stumbled out an apology as I tried to clean up her baskets. "I'm so sorry. I smelt your bread and...and I just...I was just so drawn to the smell. I didn't mean to knock over your....um,....baskets. I'm sorry.I should go."  I mumbled.  I was so incredibly embarrassed and I'd never spoken to a female, besides my mother, before. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say much. 

She giggled at me and offered me a place to sit and a piece of braided bread that she'd baked earlier. It was good. It melted when it hit my tongue and it tasted like warm milk. Lily asked me my name and I told her I didn't remember it. It had been so long since anyone had called me anything besides "Boy" or my mother calling me "angel", that I'd forgotten what my birth name. Lily decided that she would give me a name. She told me that I looked thin and if I wanted to eat for a few days before I left, I could work for her in exchange for food and a warm place to sleep at night. She seemed pleasant enough, so I agreed. 

During the days Lily taught me about baking. She taught me about recipes (I needed a bit of help with the reading, but got it eventually), measuring, mixing, baking and decoration. I started with little things like assisting her in making breads, pastries, and what she called "Poofs", which are now called "Pop Overs".  I learned to clean, pick ingredients, and prepare foods. Lily taught me about food. I ate very well when I was with her.

In the evenings I helped her clean up her stall and we moved into the small building behind the stand, which turned out to be the actual store where she sold or traded her baked goods. After we moved the supplies inside she would go into a small kitchen and begin to cook. I learned that Lily traded her breads for other foods to eat. If she had enough food, she traded her breads for goods, such as clothing, or supplies. People liked her breads and you could tell by her home. It had many trinkets and do-dads that she'd traded for. It seemed almost as if she had too many things in her home. 

After my first day of work Lily rewarded me with a pair of old leggings that belonged to a brother of hers. They were a bit big for me, but she'd made a belt for me until I grew into them. She also gave me a shirt made of something she called "cashmir". She told me that she'd traded a special pastry recipe for the fabric from a small man with small eyes who travelled from a place called "East". She had used the fabric to make the shirt for me. I put it on and felt like I was wrapped in a shirt made of sheep, but softer.

When the evening meal was prepared we sat on small stools in front of a fire that I usually started. She would tell me stories about herself and her family and I would intently listen to her voice. I'd never heard an accent like her's before and within seven turns of the sun, I had inherited it. 

The second week of my stay she began to call me "Silent One". I began to feel bad that I never had anything to say to her. I didn't feel very interesting compared to her. I didn't know much about who I was, or where I was going. I wasn't much of a talker anyway, so I began to hum a song as I worked. After the first day of my humming I noticed her smiling when I hummed. I only knew one song to hum to, so thats the one I hummed everyday. The song was the one my mother sang everyday, but I could never remember the words right.

On the third day of humming Lily called me into her bedroom. She told me that she had a gift for me. I'd never been given a gift by anyone I wasn't related to. I stood in her bedroom and looked around. It occurred to me that Lily was very lonely. Her bedroom was sparse. All it contained was a small bed with one pillow and one sheep skin blanket. It had a wooden table with three drawers in it that she held clothing in. Atop the table was a few meager possesions. There was nothing else in the room. She went to the table and opened a drawer. She pulled out a small package wrapped in deer pelt and tied with a piece of braided bread. She told me that I needed to go now and when I was beyond the village limits, where no one could see me anymore, that is where I should open my gift. 

I looked at Lily and truly saw her for the first time. Lily was very old by human standards. What I thought of as days, was to Lily, years. I had only matured, physcially, about three years, while Lily had aged decades. I had spent a lifetime with her and didn't know it. She'd never married or had children. I soon realised that Lily loved me more than anyone else she knew.Lily had spent her life with me alone and I hadn't even matured enough to be a proper mate for her. I felt guilty for not being older.  I gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek. I never knew how fraile she really was. I felt her begin to cry as I walked away from her. I felt the tears welling up in me and I broke into a run. 

I ran as fast as I could. I ran so fast the tears streamed across my cheeks and into the wind. I ran so fast that my black, stringy hair became wet with my tears. I ran so fast that the leather band in my hair broke and my hair flew about my face so I couldn't see. When I had no tears left, I stopped running. I fell to my knees and screamed. I felt her heart stop. Lily had died. She didn't want me to see her die and she sent me away. I felt as if I'd taken her life away from her and because she loved me so much, she wouldn't let me see what I'd done to her. I'd made her old. I made her alone. I made her heart break and thus, broke my own.

When I finally stopped screaming I hung my head and felt the tears fall down my face into my lap, where I held the little package she gave to me. I wiped my tears on the sleeve of the torn cashmir shirt and noticed my torn leggings that I had somehow managed to outgrow. I broke the bread and stuffed a small piece into my mouth before unwrapping the deer hide. She had remembered that I liked nuts in my bread and she'd baked them into the bread for me. I smiled as I chewed. The deer pelt felt as soft as water. She must have traded highly for it with the tanner. I didn't know much about the value of things, but I knew a deer was hard to catch and damned near impossible to kill. 

I unwrapped the hide to find that it was in fact a pair of deer leather pants with a sewn-in sheath for my knife and a piece of paper that read in small delicate writing "I dub thee Gaedyn, the Silent One. -your dearest Lily"  Her last gift to me was my name. She named me Gaedyn (pronounced Gay-din). I was  fifteen years old and on my own again.

Current Location:	The Cavern AKA my room
Current Mood:	accomplished
Current Music:	Shrek sndtrk