Meeting Fen

For all intents and purposes, Eris was beautiful. Even from a young age she had this certain air about her that seemed other worldly and her features always seemed to draw people in. That though, was exactly why the humans we wary of her. She was beautiful, too beautiful for a child. She always held with her an air of unnaturalness, something that was off, but only just enough to cause unease in the humans around her. To be fair, her unnaturally pink hair and eyes also didn’t quite help with blending in.

So it seemed, when she was ostracized from the people around her, Eris had it coming. Not that she knew that. Young little Eris didn’t understand why people were so strange around her. The clerics and other religious figures in the temple she stayed at didn’t hate her, but they always walked around eggshells with her. They were kind people, yes. They took her in when she was orphaned on the streets at a young age, discarded by her human mother, and for that she was thankful.

But… with every side eye, every whisper behind her back, Eris couldn’t help but feel unwanted. Sure they took care of her, they raised her and taught her their ways, but that didn’t always mean belonging. It was no surprise when the small girl began to find solace in places alone.

Her favorite place was always the small pond hidden among trees behind the temple. It was fed by a small stream of water that came from a river nearby and had fish that always sparkled in the light of the sun. Add a book and some snacks (even some bread for the fishes) and she had a recipe for a secret oasis of comfort.

Despite her shy deposition at such an age (the very small and tender age of 10), the half angel girl was not the slightest bit happy when a little boy her age, a tiefling as well by the looks of it, tumbled his way into her sacred place and began to wash his battered up body in the small pond.

He didn’t give her a single glance, as though ignoring her, and washed the blood and grime off of his cuts and bruises. Despite the state he was in (and herself being a healer in training at the temple), Eris could only grow more agitated at his blatant disregard for the beauty and serenity of the pond as he continually destroyed it with his disgusting mess.

“What do you think you’re doing?”  She asked in a quiet voice, but the seething rage was palpable. It seemed the boy hadn’t actually seen her, as he nearly tumbled into the pond with a screech before looking back up at her and yelling.

“When the hell did you get here?!”

Were all boys this unobservant and dumb? Small rosy pink eyes rolled and Eris closed her book. “I’ve been here… for a good couple of hours actually.” Her eyes drifted up to the sky, noting the sun’s position for confirmation. “Now answer my question.”

The small boy’s eyebrows knit in confusion and he looked around for a second before his eyes finally landed on his wet hands. “Um… Cleaning myself?”

With a twitching eyebrow, Eris sighed. “No offense,” She definitely meant offence, “But I’d rather you didn’t wash your dirty body in this pond. You’ll ruin the water.”

Whomever thought ten year olds couldn’t be assholes was wrong. This strange boy would definitely agree with that. “Who are you? The pond knight? Dedicated to keeping the pond nice and clean? You don’t own this pond!”

The pout on Eris’ face would have been cute if it hadn’t immediately turned into a scowl. “Are you an idiot? I’m telling you not to take a bath in the pond because if you ruin the water it wont have anywhere to go and it’ll stay ruined!” She was kind of bullshitting, but he didn’t need to know that. “The only exit for the water to go is the stream, and news flash idiot, but the stream is flowing into the pond, so unless water miraculously decides to start running like a two way road, this water isn’t going to become clean ever again. There’s a reason people clean themselves in rivers.”

Honestly the amount of bullshit she was spewing was astounding. There was no way for her to know if any of this was true but it was better than telling the boy that she just straight up didn’t want him to hurt the fish with his grossness. Those fish breath that water!

The boy had the decency to think on the statement before clicking his tongue and standing up. “Fine. If you want to be so rude I’ll just leave.”

Good. She wasn’t going to stop him.

Her eyes warily followed as he began to walk off down the stream, away from her and her pond. Hopefully he wouldn’t come back and she could read in peace. It wasn’t often that she got a day off from her lessons so the time needed to be spent wisely.

Finally, Eris was able to get back to her book. It was about the Draconic language, one she was interested in learning. As she read along and made little notes in the margins of the book, she murmured under her breath, practicing the new and foreign words.

She was so focused she almost didn’t notice when a figure came out from behind some trees. Although, any focus she had was ruined by the prepubescent voice of the same annoying little tiefling.

“There. I’m clean now.”

Yes, he was ‘clean’ now. At least he wasn’t covered in dirt and dried blood anymore. That doesn’t answer though… “Uh… Why should I care? I didn’t ask.” It seemed she could only get more bitchy.

Little boy’s exasperated expression only wanted to make her laugh. “You’re the one that kicked me out of here because I was messy! Now that I’m not I can stay, right?” His arms crossed over his scrawny chest and she couldn’t help but notice the small white scars on his arms that were running across them.

“No.” She still had no mercy- scars or not.

He seemed to sputter before frowning and stomping over to the tree she was sitting under and plopping himself next to her. This only confused- and unsettled her.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

He only pouted and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, which, now that she was closer to him, she noticed they were a mossy green. A silence fell over them as she waited for him to answer, but he never did. All he did was sit there and stare at the fish swimming around in the pond before them. 

As put off as she was, Eris was just as reluctant to deal with him more and instead went back to her book. She really tried to ignore him, really, but it was pretty hard when he began to lean closer to her to get a look at the book she was reading- which at this point was almost completely in Draconic. Not to brag, but Eris was pretty good with languages and was pretty far along in this one.

“What the heck are you reading?” God damn it.

Releasing a groan, Eris eyed the boy. “A book.”

“I see that, but why is it in a different language? What is it?”

“It’s a book for learning Draconic.” Now please shut up was left unsaid. Though it was implied with her look, the boy continued.

His eyes widened a bit and his mouth formed a circle, letting out little ooh and aahs. “That’s so cool!” Eyes shouldn’t sparkle like that for sure. That’s not natural. “I only know common, but you’re learning Draconic? That’s amazing! You must be really good at languages, huh? Especially since this looks to be written completely in Draconic!”

Oh no. Ego stroking. Her weakness! It was probably blatantly obvious too! The tanned skin of her cheeks were gently covered in a reddish tint at the compliment. Eris never got praises. Never. She was only ever satisfactory, and if the words of her teachers were anything to go by, it was just barely so as well.

“It’s really nothing…” Her voice was a small mumble now and her eyes were averted to pay attention to the book once more. Although her eyes simply kept rereading the same sentence over and over again, more focused on the boy next to her now.

“No really, it’s super cool! I can’t even understand a single lick of this!” He leaned in a little closer, his chest touching her shoulder just barely as he tried to read the book. “Hey, do you know any other languages?”

Eris bit her lip and nodded all the while trying to lean away from the boy who was way too close for comfort.

“Really?! Which ones?”

“Um… I know Celestial fluently- and obviously I know a lot of Draconic, but I’m also working on learning elven on the side…” Her fingers were fiddling with the edges of the book’s pages now, growing more nervous as she spoke more about her interests and as this kid kept up the compliments.

“Woah, Celestial?! Isn’t that the language of the angels or something?”

She nodded, “Yeah. My dad was an angel. He didn’t teach me, but it was really, really easy for me to learn. I kinda felt like I already knew it as I was learning it.”

The elven boy leaned back and whistled before coming back in close to her. “So you’re an aasimar, yeah? Is that why you’re hair is such a pretty pink? And your eyes too!”

Holy shit he needed to stop. Had her face not been so turned down with her hair doing some shielding, he might have noticed the her face grow reddened at his words. Thankfully for her, he didn’t.

When she didn’t say anything (she was kind of too occupied with her mental screaming to respond) the boy continued speaking. “Hey, if you’re learning elven, do you think you can teach me? It would be cool to learn the language and speak fluently!”

Taking in a quiet, but deep breath, Eris looked at the boy, hopefully with a cooled off face. “We can learn together I guess… but I don’t even know you. Do you even live around here?”

It seemed that her question wasn’t the best one to ask, because she only seemed to spark a frown on his face as he leaned away from her. His enthusiasm seemed to dim down.

“I don’t really live anywhere. I live on the streets in the town nearby.” His lips turned into a grimace as he continued speaking. “Not a lot of tieflings live around here and this is really a human-centric town so I don’t have anywhere to stay.” Those mossy green eyes drifted back to her. “You’re an aasimar. Not human… Where do you live?”

Eris turned her body to point in the direction of the temple, though it was more so to hide the saddened look on her face before she gathered herself and turned back to the boy. “I live in the temple. It’s a temple of Isis, and she’s the mother goddess so the people there are very nurturing and about family and such… They took me in a couple of years ago.”

With her gaze lingering on the boy, Eris hesitantly spoke. “You know… they might take you in too.” Fingers fiddled with the book pages with more intensity as his gaze turned curious and dare she say it, hopeful. “They’re always willing to help others and I’m sure if you mention that you live on the streets and they see…” Her words trailed off and she vaguely motioned to his beat up and scarred state. “They’ll probably do it. I don’t see why they wouldn’t.” For a second, she was worried she crossed a boundary or had offended him, but as he grinned widely at her, she realized how wrong she was. 

Fen, as he would later introduce himself, would follow her back to the temple come sunset and just as she said, would be taken in. The head priest was excited to have another child in the temple, especially since he seemed to get along with Eris, and was always willing to spread the worship of Isis to more people. 

Fen would fit in just fine, and Eris would have a friend.