uncookedconchas

You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”

“Oh I just, uh..” I stutter, tensing up. I eye the crone, then back outside the tent. For a moment, the air thickens with anticipation, until I finally demand confidence to enter my body and cleared my throat. “Well…” I began as I sat down on the cushion she seemed to have ready for me. “I am Leilatha Hazelgrove, a Ame”, “I come from a common Elven family, with beliefs close to nature and constantly practicing religion”. I knew she wouldn’t be satisfied with that from her expression since the beginning, so I decided to add a more personal touch to my story. “Despite Elves being known for their skilled art of using the bow, I've always was poor with it. As the youngest in my family, there was a lack of need for me to use it for purposes such as hunting and combat. I do favor melee weapons though and do not mind spears and longswords”. I fully met her eyes, expecting a response. The only one that came was her twisting her face into an expression that demanded more out of me. My practiced story wasn’t enough for her. I sat there for a moment wondering what I could say, until I simply let words fall out with uncertainty. “I, uh.. Have always yearned for adventure and knowledge so when I was seventeen I left my home with a close friend of mine to find our calling”. I looked up, hoping that the twisted face was gone but it only softened. “After a while, they started to um… Get more demanding of me, constantly forcing me to do things I didn’t want to”, something seemed to light up inside of me when I remembered that face. “They seemed to control me like how a puppeteer puts on a puppet show, made me a fool in front of everybody just to keep them in the light”, the fire grew inside of me. “Then..Then one day I finally confronted them! Then just with their two hands, they started to hurt me and…”. My voice grew wobbly and unstable. Just as quickly that fire lit inside of me, it just as quickly died. Almost being washed away with the water in my eyes wanting to escape. “I ran back home to my family..” My throat tasted coppery with embarrassment knowing I overshared. Despite it, I straightened out my back and met her eyes, trying to grasp the last bits of her idea of me being a strong Mali’ame. “After I turned nineteen I decided to head back into the world and become the best Elf I can be, or break apart doing so”! Her face was unreadable, “I see.. Tell me, what was their name?” her aged voice rasped. “I cannot speak of their name as it would surely bring them back to me,” Her eyes had satisfaction in them, I knew she got everything she wanted out of me. “Well then, anything you search for?” she questioned, “I desire to become an apprentice of a mage,” I confessed. She nodded and put her attention elsewhere. So I started to get up and leave before she stopped me. “Be careful with your travels, people like you tend to not make decisions of your own wants, in fear of upsetting others. Do not let your ‘best version of yourself’ mindset get the best of you. As you will end up hurting loved ones along the way Leilath Hazelgrove”. I looked at her then walked away wondering.. How easily she could read me like a book.