Long Live

Chapter 13

Hey, guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter and happy reading!

It took all of Jack to not jump up at that moment and confront Galaxy, but one big thing stopped him: he didn't have the strength. After he had almost gotten killed by the griffon, it had left him severely drained and weak. It took a lot of work to get him bandaged up and to stop the bleeding. But to his persistence and since he was feeling much better, they all agreed to start moving again.

While walking, Jack was going to practically run to Galaxy when a voice called him out.

"You know she won't talk about it."

He turned to who the voice was coming from. It was Hannah.

"How do you know?" he said quizzically.

"Because I know her," Hannah said. "I've known her for a long time. She wouldn't even open up to me about it until a long time later."

"Y- You knew?" he said. 

Hannah nodded.

"W- Would you mind telling me about her?" he asked after a long moment of silence.

Hannah smiled at him. "Sure. But you'd better be prepared. It's kind of a complicated story."

"I think I've got time," Jack said, nodding to the path ahead of them.

"Suit yourself," Hannah said.

"She was born in a small village called Aurorea," Hannah began. "Don't ask me where it's located because it's nowhere to be found on any map. Her parents were blacksmiths, just regular people like us. Anyways, she wasn't born with her abilities. It was like she grew into them at the age of five.

"After finding out, her parents were confused but ecstatic," Hannah said. "They thought that it was a gift from the heavens themselves given to her. They wanted her to embrace it, not fear and despise it.

"That was kind of hard though later," Hannah said. "Not long after her and her parents found out about what she could do, the other villagers did too. Nobody but Galaxy herself knows why, I'm not even sure if she knows it either but, the villagers started developing a hatred towards her and her family. They accused her parents of raising witchcraft, of raising something evil. Her family lost almost everything after that, the parents lost their job, their way of earning money, food. Galaxy couldn't even go to the local school because of how much the teachers and children hated her. Her parents spent a lot of money for her books and they took a lot of time out of their day to help tutor her.

"But they made changes to their way of living," Hannah continued. "And even though they lost a lot, they still didn't blame Galaxy. They still taught her to love herself for who she is, not hide it.

"But that all changed when she was fifteen," Hannah said solemnly. "One night, all the villagers came to the front of their house, holding weapons. Galaxy's father tried to calm them down, to get it through their thick heads that they didn't mean any harm to any of them. But the villagers wouldn't listen and so they shot him. Not long after that, they set their house on fire and ended up killing her mother as well. Galaxy barely escaped alive. She told me that on that night, she had to do horrible acts to the villagers. She said it even hurts to remember it now.

"After a year of hiding, and she was sure that no one from her village was following her, she enrolled in the knight academy," Hannah said. "That was when I met her. We've known each other for two years now, but it seems much longer than that.

"And that's her story. All her parents had tried to teach her to love herself for who she was, to never think of herself as something horrible, she just...doesn't see it in herself anymore," Hannah turned to Jack.