I Our skinned lord

Father told me the day I was born mother passed, he never told me she did it herself when she saw me. It was a blessing though, it allowed him to marry into the Dannan family, considering he was a simple fairy with a sick child, being married to Boann, younger sister of Nuada allowed us to become part of their family. He never stopped loving mother, in fact he never forgot her, he married because he wasn’t sure I would even be able to survive.

The moment I was born I cried and had to learn to live with the pain from that moment, the world’s mere existence, the wind, the sun was all pain to me. Mother could only last for three days after she gave up, father though, decided to raise me, he was unsure the small skinless baby would be able to even grow up to call him father, yet he tried. He held me in his hands so small that I would fit in them, gasping for air to cry, fully knowing the touch of his skin hurt less than the blankets.

Using his sorcery he made the worms produce a filament so thin, so strong it could make a strong fabric soft enough to hold me in without causing that much pain, he weaved it himself and wrapped me in it, the white fabric turned red the moment it touched me, but it was the first time I stopped crying.

Most of my childhood I expended indoors, reading along with father which made my brothers resent me. When left alone they wouldn’t waste a chance to simply spit on me, their saliva being particularly hurtful in my body. I learned later on that to make them stop I had to retaliate, Derg, my older brother had taken one of my notebooks and began to make fun of the way I write, how messy and bloody the pages were.

His mother tried to separate us, but she was thrown away by accident, something I never fully understood, had she tripped on me? Why was her arm bruised? One of the guards came and gripped me wrapping his arms around me, I tossed and turned, I kicked but ultimately, he had me. After cleaning Derg they were outraged at the fact that some of the blood that covered him was in fact his own.

Father tried to tell me why what I had done was wrong, it wasn’t about defending myself, it was about losing myself to rage. Apparently I had grabbed Boann by the arm and tossed her away, something she did not expect, Derg was in pretty bad shape too, we fairies heal quickly but he had sustained major hits, I expected that, he was younger than me but Boann?

It was worth the punishment, being locked away for a month did feel great, I had nobody to bother me, nobody to hurt me which to me was a reward. The same went with the rest of my brothers. Honestly, they could have retaliated, but Boann had made them promise not to try to harm me directly, which was why they were bothering me in the first place. Perhaps she would had chosen her words differently if she knew the outcome.

Boann was in any form of manner my mother, neither did she try to be, though she genuinely tried to maintain me in a rather safe environment, or what she considered safe to be honest. To avoid me the pain of going to war, she arranged a marriage with the Fomorians, that way I could remain neutral in the current conflict.

With father I found a way to cover myself with leaves, using them as skin of my own, it wasn’t as resistant, it hurts all the time, but it made the world more bearable. That made my late childhood a time I fondly remember, no fear of my brothers, no fear of touching anything. Which allowed me to go out more.

I loved going out to find new types of flowers and collect their seeds, categorizing them and writing about them in my own made up language. One day I found lotus flowers in a pond, something rare as I came to learn later, it was the first time I saw one of those, a miracle considering I was in a planet where there had never been a Lotus.

It was out here in the open for a reason, even when it shouldn’t be, it should have died in this environment yet there it was. I brought father to see the flower, he in turn brought Boann, they agreed my idea of going out to see the world was for the best, but they also handed me a seal of the royal Suryan family, this way I could act as an envoy and nobody would dare to attack me. Father crafted me a staff with copper casings on the edges, I was not old, or capable enough to gain my own weapon so this was the most they could do.

Father handed me a silk cape, which was already colored red, as all my clothes were so my own blood wouldn’t show as a stain. Still as a child but not old enough to gain my weapon I decided to leave and see the world, find a cure for my own illness or a way to survive.

I thought they had given me a great amount of food, later I learned all of it would quickly spoil, in fact Boann nor father expected me to actually leave. Knowing that out in the open I would just bait dragons I decided to travel through the forest, when it ended, I was met with the sea. I had never seen the sea, it was majestic but the wind it brought over made me feel particularly uneasy. I’d ride a kelpie to cross it but from old tale a kelpie would feel tired and fall asleep during the way, I wasn’t willing to become a fleshy bait in the sea either.