Capítulo 31: Half Elf?

After settling his feelings, Greyson blushed in embarrassment thinking about how he had cried earlier. By now it was night time and he was back in his room after a big meal to make up for the past seven days. He was still reeling in shock over the new information about himself and his parents, but, seeing as the people close to him did not care about his new looks, he decided to just ignore it.

Practicing in front of a mirror, it took Greyson about 2 hours to turn his eyes a specific color instead of the weird ongoing kaleidoscope of colors. Right now, he kept them at purple inspired by his new partner Zephyr.

Thinking again of this dragon, he took a quick glance inside of him and felt he didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. His "awe-inspiring" dragon was flipped on its back, passed out, and drooling. Zephyr's small figure and cute features made all his actions endearing, however, Greyson felt worried seeing his partner sleep all the time. If he was never awake, then wouldn't he become useless when there is an urgent need to fight?

As he was only at the intermediate level, his dragon had yet to really develop a separate intelligence. At this point, he was mostly just a projection of Greyson's magic then a partner beast. Greyson knew he would have to continue working hard and breaking through to the next levels in order to allow Zephyr to continue growing. He thought he should meditate, but a wave of exhaustion hit and he decided that he should just sleep for now after seven days of meditation.

Asleep before his head even hit the pillow, Greyson didn't wake up until well into the next morning. Seeing the sun showed it was a couple hours before midday, he stretched his body feeling refreshed. Lucius woke up along with him and they headed over to the hall bathroom to take a warm bath. One he was in the bathroom, Greyson took a good look at his face and hair while grimacing. Somehow he looked even more like a girl...

"I'm going to cut this abnormally long hair. A short cut would be better anyways, less people to mistake my identity. But, Sister Lily always trimmed my hair for me, I'm not sure how to do it. I don't want to look ridiculous if I try and completely mess up."

"I don't know, Grey, I'm kinda digging the long hair. Makes you look like a cute little girl. You should just accept the sign your body is giving you."

"And what sign is that?"

"That you were meant to be born a girl! I really would have preferred a girl contractor anyways. Who wants to hang out with a little boy all the time."

"OLD MAN LU!" Greyson glared over at the cat while gritting his teeth. His hands were itching to throw the annoying animal out the bathroom window.

"Alright, alright, it was just a joke. Maybe Lyle knows how to cut hair? He has sisters, right?"

"Wouldn't his mom just cut their hair?"

"Well it wouldn't hurt to ask just in case." Hearing that Greyson nodded as he left the bathroom.

Drying off and getting changed, Greyson walked out of his room in his academy white robes and knocked on Lyle's door. His roommate happened to be in so he asked him about the hair.

"Cut hair? Ah, sorry, Grey, I don't know how. My mother always does it for us." Although it was not intentional and he knew it, Greyson felt a bit of a stab of pain hearing about Lyle's mother. He always kept it buried in his heart, but he knew better than anyone how much it hurt to think that you were abandoned in some random tree in the forest. If not for that hunter, he could have died easily, was that all he meant to his parents? A mistake that they could just leave in the forest.

"Grey? Grrreeeeeyyyy..." Snapping out of his daze, he looked back over at Lyle who was trying to catch his attention.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, I don't know how to cut hair, but I do know how to get it all out of your face for now."

"Oh, really, okay!" With that he sat down on the chair at the desk and allowed Lyle to work his magic.

"There, done!" Lyle voice announced. Opening his eyes, Greyson looked curiously in the mirror. The top half of his hair was pulled back gently into a braid while the bottom half was allowed to stay loose. It did keep his hair away from his face, but somehow he felt that it looked kinda feminine.

"My sisters force me to braid their hair like this all the time since their hair gets in the way." He explained happily while admiring his work, "But, wow, you pull it off much better than them!"

Hearing that this was a hairdo for his sisters, Greyson was tempted to just pull it out and chop off all his hair. Enduring his anger, he decided to ask around for someone who could cut hair.

...

Walking out of the dorm, he wanted to make his way over to his teachers' places so he could tell them why he did not show up these past days.

"Hmmm... look who it is? Hey, what's up with your hair?" An annoying voice rang out. Greyson glanced behind him and looked over at a face he had not seen in a while. Arwen plus lackeys. Inwardly sighing and rolling his eyes, he wondered what they wanted this time.

"That color of silver... Are you an elf? Wait, but you don't have the ears or the tattoos... a Half-elf?" Arwen began to ask while the hate and disdain only seemed to grow with every guess. The tattoos he spoke about were the markings that each elf was given that signified their tribe, elements, and position. So most elves have black designs that covered their arms.

"Well there is that tattoo on your face, but elf tattoos are on their arms. So you must be a mixed breed then, right?" He spat the words 'mixed breed' like it was disgusting to even say the words.

"Hmph, you have been trying to hide your identity and pretend to be human all this time? Why stop now? At least it was better when I thought you were human, but to think I looked favorably on some disgusting mutt of a creature. Wow, when I think about it, I can't help but pity you. Abandoned by your parents and born as some thing of unknown blood and origin. Or maybe its better? Your parents were probably disgusting uncivilized commoners who didn't realize their relationship was an insult." His words only grew nastier and nastier as he continued speaking. Greyson's eyebrows furrowed in anger and irritation. The thought of picking a fight crossed his mind as quickly as it left. Was this Arwen an important enough person in his life to care about his words? Obviously not! He was just some obscure passing bystander that Greyson would forget about quickly. Thinking of this, he just turned around and continued on his way.

"Hey, wait! Stop!" Arwen shouted. Greyson just ignored him. If some stupid dog barked at you, would you stop and yell at it? What a waste of time and energy. Arwen and his group didn't end up following while Arwen stomped his feet in frustration. It felt like punching cotton, completely unsatisfying. Plus the crowd who stopped and was looking at them in hopes of witnessing a fight looked at him with ridicule. Their eyes clearly showed their thoughts: While you were jumping up and down trying to rile someone up, the other person was not even paying attention.

Once Arwen was far away, Greyson went to visit all his teachers to get back on track with his classes. Old Man Thraec almost didn't let him through the door because he was so angry while continually chucking tools and chucks of ore at him. He assumed that Greyson was slacking off and just decided to not show up. It took him a couple hours of pleading and proving that he had broken through before the old man let him in. Weary after leaving the workshop, Greyson headed over to his music teacher next thinking he would be hard to talk to as well.

As expected, Carlyle was extremely unhappy and disappointed, but he immediately softened up after Greyson showered him with compliments. His vain teacher was always vulnerable to flattery. Taking up less time than the old man, Greyson was able to walk out of the musician's association a little while later. He headed to his last location, the painter's workshop. Using the keys, he made his way in and found his teacher was still painting. Castiel was quiet and peaceful and just looking at him made Greyson calm down. Greyson sat down and continued watching his teacher paint. It was a beautiful picture of a pasture where the grass looked like it was coming alive and waving with the wind. Once his teacher was done, he wrote down two questions.

"Did something happen? Do you need help?" Greyson felt the concern and warmth from his questions and told him everything that happened. He even went a step further and spoke of his concerns and complaints. As much as he acted like an adult, he felt lost without Sister Lily as his confidant. His teacher Castiel's warmth reminded him so much of Sister Lily. Castiel did not interrupt, but instead quietly listened until the end. Castiel did not speak as always but this time he went closer to Greyson to give him a hug and pat him on the head. Suddenly, Greyson felt he was back at the church complaining to Sister Lily. The hug gave him relief. It was something small, but the hug helped him feel as if he had released all his complaints and feelings of injustice.