Feathers -eng ver-

Chapter 10- Old Legends

After Estel had left, time seemed to stand still. Everyone was worried for the two boys away from home and exposed to the evil of the world and people. They knew that the dark-haired man was able to protect himself and stand up on his own feet, but the idea that he could hurt himself was always present in the minds of the three men who had parented him for those past eight years.

However, they were trying not to burden Len with that situation as well, because they had noticed that a fondness had sprung up between her and the boy who, until not too long before, had only looked at her with the intention of disintegrating her. And just to distract her from the situation that was surely new to her, Han invited her for a walk in the woods. He intended to explain to her -as no one had done before- the way that reality really worked.

«Do you know why Noya and Estel no longer live with their families?» He casually began the speech, looking firmly and calmly into the girl's green eyes.

She frowned slightly. «I know that Noya had been kidnapped when he was eight years old, and that Estel at some point in his life could no longer stand the situation he had at home and ran away, but he didn't specify anything.» She admitted, returning the major's calm gaze. Suddenly, she realized how little she knew about the men she lived with. Or more accurately, how little she knew about their past, what had made them the men she knew.

Han nodded and resumed speaking. «Some secrets are best to keep as such, but I think it's better to tell you since you live with us, and we trust you.» He explained, bringing his eyes to Mook's slender figure walking a few steps ahead of them. «Noya was not just being "treated badly". He saw the worst part of humans, and it affected him strongly for several years. He still continues to be affected by it, although in a much milder form and manageable enough to deal with it himself. However, what he went through has marked him deeply and made him the person he is today -and will continue to influence him probably for the rest of his life.»

Len gritted her teeth and flattened her lips into a tight line, wondering how hard and unfair life had been to her friend.

«When he arrived at our home alongside Estel, he began to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks: the distance from the place where he had lived led him to believe that those who had bought him were looking for him to bring him back there. Mikhael is an excellent Wizard and a brilliant Healer, but neither with his magic nor mine were we able to get to the bottom of Noya's mind.» He said, letting his gaze run down the path as memories resurfaced in his memory.

Twitching his nose slightly, he wrinkled his lips and continued his speech. «When these trance-like moments of his took over him, we had to spend whole hours beside him, trying to calm him down and convince him that no one was after him. I can't tell you what kind of disorder it was, because it's rare to meet a Wizard or a Healer who understands anything on the psychological level and can explain it to you carefully; but from what I understood, these crises of his could be called "trances" or "dissociations". Basically, he would shut down and withdraw from reality, unable to separate his surroundings from his imagination, getting stuck in a mental limbo from which he found it particularly difficult to get out.» He explained with a distinctly perceptible melancholy note in his voice.

«He has no memories of those nights.» He finally concluded, putting a period to that story so confusing and irrational -and above all unclear- that one could hardly believe it. All the names and definitions used by the Healer, who in the first months after the two kids arrived, had helped them understand what was happening to Noya, he had not really understood. He had never really understood and assimilated the meaning of the explanations about the blond kid's complex mental processes.

It was too difficult for him to think back to those events without feeling a stab in his heart, so he had always and carefully avoided them. The only thing he knew for sure was that, during those "trance moments", Noya became like a puppet of his real self, a shadow of his real personality, a distant memory lost in the darkness of his past.