The Ageless One: Beginnings

The Ageless One: His Secret

In Halhor when a gisler turns fifteen he stops ageing and that is when he becomes a man. Most Gislers would get excited during that time.  Most gislers would be very exited.

Doelan, a young fourteen year old boy from Halhor, was not.

And he stood at a lake skipping rocks with Liri, who noticed.

“Doelan,” said Liri, skipping a rock three times. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” said Doelan, who only managed two skips with his own rock. 

“You say that every time I ask,” said Liri. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you.  You seem distracted sometimes, like your mind is somewhere else.”

Doelan didn’t answer at first.

The truth was Doelan did have something on his mind, and had for a while.  It was that problem that had come up when Liri left on his last trip.  The feeling that things weren’t real, that nothing he saw should be the way he saw it.  He couldn’t explain it, and it baffled him.  That is, until he started seeing goblins around the village.

That’s when it truly frightened him.

It was as if something was hiding these goblins, and he was seeing through it.  Horrible creatures they were, with those big, round, bald heads, thin yet muscular bodies, compound eyes and wings like a dragonfly.  They wore loin cloths and carried swords, and most of all…

Doelan was more afraid of them than any other creature.

Still, he had learned to shut them out.  As long as he didn’t think of them, he wouldn’t see them.  But then he would remember his feeling that nothing around him was real and start seeing them again.  It didn’t happen often.

But he didn’t want Liri to worry.  Even though Liri had come back from his trip, Doelan hadn't told him for that reason. “It’s nothing,” Doelan said after a moment.

“Okay,” said Liri uncertainly.

That happened a few more times.  Liri would ask if something was bothering him, and Doelan would say no.  It didn’t happen too often, after all Doelan didn’t see goblins frequently.  He figured he would keep shutting them out, and he did.  He did for the longest time, right up until Liri left again for another one of his family’s trips.  Even with that deadline, he put off telling Liri anything.

At the Halhor border, in that field of flowers, with marble guard towers linked by fences, Doelan said goodbye again.

“Goodbye Liri,” he said.

“Goodbye.  I promise I’ll be back for your birthday.  Fifteen years old!  A man at last.”

“Then I’ll be up to speed with you.  It’s still hard to believe you became a man so recently.”

“I know.”

“Uh huh.  You also know that my birthday isn’t far off.  It would have to be a short trip.”

“It is.  I’ll be back soon.  If I’m not, you can…push me in the river.”

Doelan grinned, “Alright.  Deal.”

They shook on it, said goodbye again, and Liri left with his family.  Doelan watched, knowing he would miss him.  The last time Liri had left, he had been so lonely.

And that’s when he’d started seeing goblins again.

No, Doelan thought.  Don’t think of that.  He pushed that thought away as he watched Liri leave again, and even as he realized he should have told Liri sooner.  Even though he was afraid to.