Hope

Chapter Eleven: Knowledge is Evil

Jing just stared at Zack. "What?" She was too shocked to completely comprehend what he had just said, though she had gone through the possibility in her head.

"You heard me." Zack's voice had a bitter ring to it. "I am an elf."

Just then, Tasha poked her head into the wagon. Her eyes were wide with disbelief. "Did I just hear what I think I heard?" she asked, shocked.

"Yes, you did," Zack snapped irritably. "How many more times do I have to say it? I am not human. I never was and I never will be. There. Is that enough for you?" He glared at Tasha and Jing in turn, his eyes accusing.

"Zack isn't human?" Stan asked from behind Tasha. After a bit of shuffling, Tasha moved over so Stan could poke his head in. "Am I missing something here?"

"Not too much," Tasha informed him. "I think he just claimed that he's an elf."

Stan whistled. "That's got to be difficult. As I recall, humans don't generally take kindly to elves."

"Are you forgetting that you are human?" Tasha asked Stan.

Stan shrugged. "No, it's just that I'm more into machines than people. They're a lot less complicated and they don't hate you because of what race you were born into. I find it hard to believe that anyone can find it so easy to hate others just because they're different."

The scene could almost be comedic if it weren't for the scared and angry light that was in Zack's eyes. "Humans find it easy enough." Zack's eyes bored into Jing's, full of accusation. "They manage to not like anyone. Not even themselves."

"Don't look at me like that," Jing said. "I am not representative of the human race. And I'm not sure I believe you."

Zack glared at her and slowly his hand reached up to his hat. Even more slowly, he took it off, wincing as it chaffed his sore skin. He then turned his head to the side so there was no mistakening the shape of his ears. "Is that enough proof for you?"

Everyone's eyes widened as they beheld the delicately pointed tips of Zack's ears and the rash that marred their beauty. Mine also widened, because even though I knew he had a nasty rash on his ears, I didn't think it would look that bad. He had green and blue mottling on the delicate skin of his ears and it looked... raw. It was obviously painful despite the herbs he had used on it and it hadn't healed at all. If anything, it was worse.

Jing was the first to get over her shock. Her healer instincts took over and she carefully examined the rash on his ears. She then leaned down and grabbed a handful of herbs. She then crushed them until she made a sort of paste and then she began dabbing it on Zack's ears. Zack stared at her. "What are you doing?"

"You have a rather bad case of wool rash," Jing informed him. "The skin needs to heal or your ears could become infected. I don't think that the green and blue mottling is natural, anyway. Is it?"

"No." Zack winced as Jing poked a tender spot on his left ear. "But I don't understand. How can you be doing this when you know what I am?"

"I swore an oath," Jing said tightly. "I swore to do no harm and to heal whenever I am needed to heal. Elves are no exception to that rule." She then crushed some more herbs and dabbed them on Zack's ears, making sure that she covered every nook and cranny. "There are no exceptions." Her face tightened as she worked, growing more angry with every smear of the paste on Zack's pointed ears.

Tasha was the next to recover from her shock. "Great. We'll have to tell Rebecca somehow. I don't think she's going to like this."

Stan was still staring open-mouthed at Zack. "I know. That rash looks horrible."