Legend Reborn

Chapter 23: Childhood

My first memories aren't of actual things like most people. The first things I can remember are feelings like loneliness and desperation. I can't remember what my parents look like, or if I had any. I can't remember the first time I saw the sky or my favorite kind of flowers. My first memories are of feeling alone.

My clan elders told me that I just appeared in a small village one day with no name and no memories. They couldn't even get me to talk for the first few months. I don't really remember that clearly, but I do remember what happened the first time I talked.

I was staying at the home of a seamstress that had several other children of her own. She and her husband worked during the day and the kids went to school while I was left alone at their house. They came home one day to find the house empty, so they went out to search for me.

The seamstress is the one who ended up finding me. I was in a small patch of grass just outside of town crying my little eyes out, and on the ground in front of me was a dead mouse. She immediately assumed I'm the one who killed it since I had blood on my hands.

"Why did you do this?" she asked me as she grabbed my wrist.

I couldn't answer her. All I could do was cry. She started shaking me to get an answer, but I still couldn't say anything.

"Why? Why?" she practically shrieked in my face. She kept on shaking me until I thought my arm would fall off.

"L-like me," I finally gasped.

She was so surprised to hear me speak that she let go of my wrist. "What?"

I pointed to the dead mouse. "Like me," I repeated.

This scared the seamstress. Scared her more than she already was. She dragged me back to her house and locked me in a closet for a long time.

I didn't kill that mouse like everyone thought. I saw it being attacked by a cat and tried to save it. Some of the blood on my hands was probably my own from the many scratches I had received during the rescue. I felt pretty proud when the cat finally ran away, but then I saw the mouse. It lay in the grass dying despite my best efforts to keep it alive. In the end I didn't make a difference and that's why I cried.

I cried for the mouse, and I cried for me.

That's why I said the mouse was like me. We were both alone with no family to keep us safe when someone tried to pick on us. We had no friends to speak of, and nobody to tell us they love us. We were both scared, and too weak to help ourselves. I wanted to help that mouse, but in the end I couldn't.

The elders came after that and took me away from that village. I kept telling them that I didn't do it, but I could tell by the looks on their faces that they didn't believe me. I ended up going to a bunch of different homes after that, but never for long. Each family would make up an excuse why they couldn't keep me.

I got used to it after a while. Years went by, and I still didn't have a place to call home. I managed to remember how to talk and what my name was, but I still didn't have any friends or family. I would get teased at school for having weird hair, or for not being able to manifest a spirit animal, or for being an orphan. I learned to ignore it, but that didn't mean in hurt any less.

One day, elder Methuselah came to visit me. He told me that my family couldn't afford to take care of me anymore. I knew it was a lie because they had just bought all of the children, except for me, new clothes and shoes for school, but I didn't say anything. I didn't cry or shout how unfair it was. I was too used to being an outcast at this point.

"You are going to be coming with me to the capital city," elder Methuselah had said. "The Council of the Eagle has decided you are old enough to live on your own now."

I hadn't been expecting this. My eyes had widened, and I was told that for the very first time, elder Methuselah saw a sparkle in my eyes.

I can confidently say that living by myself was probably one of the best things that happened to me. I wasn't teased at school for being the charity case that's staying at someone's house. I wasn't treated like garbage when I walked around town anymore. I had finally found somewhere that I wouldn't be hated for being different.

It wasn't easy living by myself, and I didn't make a lot of friends either. I didn't mind though. As long as I was free, I was happy. It almost didn't matter that I was a nobody.

Then one day I made a friend, but not in the normal sense. There were a lot of stray animals in the capital of Eagle Territory, so it wasn't unusual to see cats and dogs roaming the streets. What was unusual was seeing a large group of animals all at once. They usually avoided each other, so I thought it was odd to see a whole bunch of them together.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I went to see what was going on. The circle of cats and dogs were surrounding one small dog with a torn ear. They barked and hissed at the poor thing while ripping out chunks of its long fur with their teeth and claws. I wasn't sure what to do at first, but I knew I had to do something before they killed the whimpering dog.

I took off the cloak I was wearing and started to shoo the animals away. They got scared as soon as they saw me coming at them, which left me alone with the injured dog. I knelt down beside the small thing to see if it was okay.

"Hey, it's going to be fine now," I told the dog. "I'll take care of you."

I carried the little guy to my house all wrapped up in my cloak. I set out some food for him to eat, but he was too wary of me at first to even approach the plate. In the end his his hunger won out, and he became much friendlier. I decided to name him Kip, which the little dog seemed to understand immediately. He was the nicest dog I had ever met. He would walk with me to school, then pick me up again in the evening. We were inseparable.

I could always tell it was him coming up the street because one of his pointy ears would flop ever so slightly as he walked. It had been torn by the circle of animals and had never healed right, but I didn't care. Our scars are what sets us apart, and I loved him for being a survivor like me.

But it didn't last.

One night we were walking home late when a drunk man stumbled into us in the street. He paused to look at me and Kip with blurry eyes.

"Why doncha watch where yer goin', eh?" he said in a loud, slurred voice.

I didn't want any trouble, so I quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry. Please excuse us."

"Whatsa cute lil thang like you doin' out hee aw lone?" I didn't like the looks he was giving me.

"We're on our way home," I answered nervously. Kip started growling as the man took a step forward.

He seemed to notice my dog for the first time. "Whacha got deer? A lil pooch? Ya got a probm wit me, ya dumb mutt?"

Without warning, the man kicked Kip across the street with a drunken laugh. He started to hit my dog with a half full bottle of alcohol. I tried to grab onto his arm, but he threw me to the ground with an angry yell.

"Don' get in da way, gurl, or I'll hit ya next!"

Kip got to his feet in the time it took the drunk man to shout at me, and he bit the man's ankle. The man roared in pain and started to hit my dog some more.

"Please stop!" I shouted as I tried to grab the man's arm again.

"Git offa me!" he yelled as he threw me to the ground once more. "Yer not worth da trouble." He kicked Kip off his leg and stumbled away in the dark.

I quickly got up to check on my dog, but it was already too late.

"C'mon, Kip. It's going to be just fine," I said through my tears. The little dog whined once in my arms before going still. "Please...not again," I whispered to whatever deities were listening, but it was too late.

My little dog was dead, and I couldn't stop it. I was just as useless as that day I couldn't save the mouse. I was weak and pathetic, and I hated myself for it. My life was worthless.