A few days after the party, Rayla squats down next to me as I lie down breathing heavily in the training grounds. It's kind of funny, with the angle of the sun right now it only one of her eyes glows, so right now one eye is blue while the other is a golden yellow. Poking my face, she asks,

  “You know you’re not supposed to be able to do it all in the beginning right? I’d say you’re already doing pretty okay for someone that doesn’t work out.”

  “Huff Yeah, but Uli said I should go until I get to my limit every day until I get there.”

  “Yeah, but we’re also going out looking for herbs today, if you keep going any longer I’ll have to carry you to the fields.”

  “That’s…A good point. I’m just gonna lay here for a bit more and then we can go.”

  Sitting down next to me, Rayla looks up at the sky before giving me another glance,

  “Hey Thoma Ahad…Can I ask you a bit of a personal question?”

  “Sure.”

  She seems nervous when she asks, “Do you…Not feel creeped out by the guildmaster at all?”

  “Creeped out? Why would I feel creeped out?”

  “Well…So, for me…And some others I talked to! I-it’s not just me. She’s just kind of creepy to look at. I know it might sound a bit racist but Elfs creep me out. I know it’s probably just because I’m not used to them since they’re a rare race to begin with and they mostly live in the south but I just don’t get how you can be so…Unphased by her.”

  “What do you mean? What is creeping you out about her?”

  “Well…It’s one thing to look very pretty but it’s another to look like you just stepped out of a painting. Also the way she moves it’s just…Too smooth. Despite having a wooden leg she still has better posture than me, everything she does just seems so…xxx? Like she’s a mannequin or something. Also her eyes, they’re so pure and intense, it’s as if she’s looking right through me.”

  Feeling very confused, I ask, “Are you…Jealous of her appearance? I’m not sure I understand.”

  Scratching behind her fox ears she answers, “No that’s not it…Although… I don’t know, maybe it’s part of it? It’s just…She seems like she’s not part of this world, like she doesn’t belong here. I heard Elf’s are distant relatives to spirits, I was told that some of the High Elves even have fairy-like wings. So maybe it’s just that the bits of their ancestry from that place weird me out? Gaaah! I feel like I can’t explain it at all, do you have any idea what I’m trying to say?”

  “Hmm…I never felt something like that from Uli before but I have felt it from you.”

  Almost jumping up in shock, she looks me in the eyes and asks, “From me!? Why from me?”

  “Well, you do have beast-like eyes and fangs. So sometimes, especially when you’re angry and you look at me or it’s night and the candle light makes your eyes glow I feel this deep fear. Like looking into the face of a dangerous animal for a second. So I think I know the feeling you’re talking about but it’s not something that creeps me out all the time.”

  Looking away, her ears and tail droop down, “Hmm…I guess that makes sense. So I remind you of a wild animal?”

  “I dunno…Not really. I guess…Most of the time I look at you I just think Rayla and not Beastman you know? Although it’s not like I don’t notice, to be honest I often think about how I want to pet your head and fluffy tail, haha.”

  Seemingly pleasantly surprised she looks at me again, “Oh, I don’t mind if you do that. As long as you ask first.”

  “Huh? You’re okay with that?”

  “Yeah, it’s common in our tribe to hug each other's tails for greetings. Also cuddling with friends and such is not weird either. But I know that for people not of my tribe those things are courting behavior so I don’t let them do it to me.”

  “But you’d let me do it?”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yeah, you’re a weirdo but I don’t feel like you have any attraction to me in that way. So as long as we keep it as only a thing between friends I don’t mind.”

  “Wait…Am I a friend to you Rayla?”

  A bit flustered, she stutters, “A-Are we not? I mean, if I overstepped any boundaries I’m sorry if you want to just be-”

  “N-No! Not at all! It makes me very happy! I just never had a friend before!”

  “Ahhh…Young love.” Bernhardt, an older Dwarf that works in the kitchen, says theatrically as he jogs past us, almost tripping over his long beard trailing on the ground.

  Rayla rolls her eyes and hands me her hand, “Let’s go, we have a job to do.”

  “I thought we were going there at night.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to hang out here while people make things awkward. Do you want to go window shopping with me in the meantime?”

  “Sure, but I don’t have much money.”

  Rayla gets a mischievous expression on her face, “Kekeke, that’s the beauty of window shopping, we’ll just look at the stuff and pretend like we’re buying it but then we won’t!”

  “So…You want to steal stuff?”

  “What? No! We’re going to try out products and look at them, completely legally, and then we’re just not going to buy them and go to a different shop to repeat that!”

  “I see…So we’re going to be like the street urchins smelling the food they can’t have so that they can at least imagine they were eating it in their dreams!”

  “That’s a lot darker than what I’m thinking off but sure.”

  “Okay I’m in!”

  —-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Meanwhile in the guildmaster’s office.

  The guildmaster is looking out of the window watching Thoma Ahad and Rayla leave for the city as Sarah the secretary enters the office.

  “So? What did you find?”

  “Nothing.”

  Turning around with an annoyed expression, the guildmaster asks, “What do you mean, nothing?”

  Putting a pile of document on the table, Sarah answers, “The kid is an absolute enigma. It seems his story about being found at the docks two years ago is true but all the information we could find is from that point onwards. There are no missing people's reports, official documents, birth certificates of fourteen to eighteen years ago matching his description or any people that have heard of him.”

  “What about the street urchins and criminal underground?”

  “Nothing. From the data we were able to find he might as well have popped out of the ground two years ago. The only thing I’m mostly certain of is that he’s not from this country. But seeing as this is a port town he could be from anywhere.”

  Sitting on the windowsill, the guildmaster crosses her arms, “Have you found anything yet on the curse markings?”

  Sarah pushes up her glasses and gets a little closer to the guildmaster, “Yes and no. We found that some of the cults that have been popping up use a symbol that looks like it in their holy texts but since the churches are focused on eradicating them rather than imprisoning them, information is scarce.”

  “What about the dark magic research team of the mage tower?”

  “They said that they don’t know what it means but they’d be more than willing to take him in as a research subject.”

  Forming a fist with her hand, the guildmaster bites down on her thumb, “Yeah…I’m sure those bastards would love to experiment on something other than animals for a change…”

  “Guildmaster, if I may ask, you seem quite invested in this kid. I understand that his situation is peculiar but I don’t understand why you seem to care on an emotional level as well.”

  Loosening up a little, she turns around and takes a look out the window, “Sigh You have noticed it as well, haven’t you? The kid…He treats me like kin. That paired with him speaking Elvish with a Highborn accent makes me think he must be related to our kind.”

  “But isn’t that reaching a bit? The kid seems overly friendly to everyone around him and if he is from one of the more southern countries it’s not weird if he speaks Elvish.”

  “Even if that is the case, the only people who would speak Elvish so fluently would be nobles, slavers, academics and kin. I’m ruling out that he’s a noble or an academic. It’s possible that he’s the child of a slaver and just happened to become a good person after he lost his memories but it is also possible that he is kin to me.”

  Walking up to the window, Sarah gives her a an almost diappointed look, “But guildmaster… Even a blind man would be able to see that if he had elven blood in him it would be extremely diluted. He looks closer to being part Orc or Beastman than Elf to me.”

  “Even so…Let’s say he is only 1/8th Elf or even just a Human adopted by one.”

  “Alright? Let’s say his grandma is an Elf and he was raised under Elven traditions, so what? Why does that concern you?”

  Looking annoyed, the guildmaster takes on a pained expression, “Of course you wouldn’t understand, you’re Human. Your kin were the winners of the great war four hundred years ago. But my kin…We nearly got wiped out by the dragon kingdom. Despite us having been helpful to our neighbors for centuries, none of them helped us rebuild. Once the fighting had stopped, we had our allies enter our gates thinking they had come to aid us but instead they ransacked our treasuries, forced us to sign unfair labor contracts spanning centuries and some of the unwilling ones were forced into slavery. Our people were scattered, many were orphaned. They wiped an entire country off the face of the earth… Additionally with our birth rates being as low as they are, what takes Humans a hundred years to rebuild takes us a thousand.”

  “I’m sure that must have been tough for the people back then but I don’t understand what that has to do with anything.”

  Looking visibly offended, the guildmaster bites down on her teeth, “No…Of course you don’t. Leave my office, cancel all appointments for the day I wish to be alone.”

  “My apologies guildmaster in case I offended you I was just trying-”

  “I said, leave!”

  “Eeek! Of course guildmaster, right away!”