The Lout's Pet Squirrel (og alcale)

Part 1

He never would have thought it could get this bad.

No, that wasn't true. He'd feared most of his life that it would become an untenable situation but he'd always thought that his meticulous preparations were enough to avoid such a tragic fate.

He'd never thought he would fail.

Fear was to be overcome, not lived through.

It was the second time in his life that all of his fears came into fruition.

The first had been the day his mother died.

As a young prince of low standing, the son of a concubine and without any of the political protection that his brothers were provided by their maternal sides, Alver Crossman had always been painfully aware how close he danced on the pinhead of death with his every movement. Despite his mothers every effort to protect him within the palace, he knew that failure meant death.

But the boy hadn't feared death. Not for himself at least. He always feared that he would lose her. One mistake would give the queen all the justification necessary to depose and dispose of the concubine.

It was a terrifying childhood upon reflection but it felt normal back then.

So he was always careful about hiding his features, just as he'd promised his mother. Always careful to be the perfect prince and please his father. To maintain favor within the palace and uphold his mothers values. Aside from one short mistake in his youth, he'd never revealed his true self to anyone.

He wanted to be the perfect son.

He wanted to keep her safe.

He failed.

He failed and she was gone forever.

So he strove to be everything she wanted him to be. Even with less support. Even with the queen waiting at any moment to strike him down and provide her son with a clear path to the throne.

He'd survived through guile and indignity and he thought he would survive through it all.

...but then the king passed away...

No one knew how or why it happened. It shocked Alver how much it didn't hurt him to hear the news. He thought he loved his father and craved his fathers love but when news of his death reached his ears, he couldn't feel anything.

Losing his mother had felt like the entire world crumbled around him.

Losing his father had felt empty.

It was a horrible way to realize that his father was nothing but a stranger.

If that was the worst thing that happened, Alver would have survived. Would have succeeded in adversity just as he had done so many times before. Alver would have proven, once more, that he was a worthy son. The rightful heir.

He would have shown just how worthy he was.

Yet, everything spun out of control so quickly.

Before he'd really had the time to grasp the untimely death of his father, before he'd even had an hour to speculate on his course of action. To anticipate the movements of his enemies.

In less than an hour, the queen held in her hands the secret of his birth.

Alver didn't even have the time to learn how or why. His maternal family had to be evacuated. He needed to retreat. In no time at all, Alver lost everything he'd ever worked for. Instead of the promising first prince, whispered to be the heir, he was an insidious entity that infiltrated the palace.

A plague upon the kingdom.

An omen of death and a curse on the royal family.

In one horrible day, the entire kingdom learned that Alver Crossman was part dark elf.

And he lost everything.

Alver curled up in a tree, his heart still pounding with adrenaline and his body aching painfully from the escape. The palace had immediately implemented mana suppressing measures to stop the escape of the curse but Alver was clever enough to plan for that.

At least, he was clever enough to get his family out.

His aunt wanted him to come with her but he refused. He regretted that now. Now, in the cold forest without a soul in sight, he couldn't help but fear that would be the last he ever saw his aunt Tasha.

Alver hadn't been ready to let go.

Yet, the disgust in the eyes of one of the few humans he'd trusted within the palace walls made it all too clear.

There was a reason he'd spent his whole life in fear of the world learning about him. It wasn't just losing his right to the throne. It wasn't just to protect himself and his allies. It wasn't even just to uphold his promise to his mother.

Those were all important to him, dear to him, so precious in his heart that he was loath to ever let them go.

But this was different.

Discrimination wasn't something that Alver had experienced firsthand. He'd been warned about it and avoided it. He'd hated it and known about it.

But there was a difference between knowing that people would look at you with disgust and experiencing it firsthand.

It shook him.

All thoughts of staying to fight. To protect his dignity. To maintain his right to the throne and defend himself against the 'erroneous' allegations fled his thoughts and Alver ran.

Perhaps it was lucky that Alver didn't just have a single secret to hide.

He wrapped his tail around his shivering body and tried to calm down the panic inside of him. He still needed to get as far away from the capital as possible. Possibly leave the kingdom. Find his aunt and live in the desert or some other place where he could never be found again.

But his body felt weak and after running and teleporting for hours dragged out into days, he didn't have any strength left.

His tiny body dropped down from the branch he'd attempted to nest in and he didn't have the strength to do anything about it. His eyes felt bleary and his heart was heavy with the knowledge that everything he'd ever hoped for was meaningless.

Despair crawled into his heart and he hoped the drop would kill him.

Warm hands caught him midair and Alver blinked open his eyes blearily to look at the culprit, fear gripping him that he'd been found.

He was met with puzzled reddish-brown eyes.

"...never seen a squirrel drop out of a tree before. You a clutz or something?"

If Alver had more strength, he would have been legitimately offended by the accusation. As it was, the last vestige of strength finally left him and Alver fainted in the hands of a stranger.