Kre nodded and sighed, “There’s an awful lot about this world that I’m still learning, but one of the key themes seems to be this idea of prejudice against those who don’t look like you.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed again, deeper this time. “Hells, before this little adventure of mine, I had never even known there were other people in this land aside from the Tehynshins and the Ylveryan.”
“My people are luckier than most,” Ras commented softly, “we tend to look like Tehynshin children unless you get really close to our faces. It’s just the ancestral faerie blood from who knows how many generations ago.”
‘Vile halfbreeds,’ the voice in Kre’s head spat. ‘Father says they were the downfall of our once great civilization.’
The mix of revulsion and confusion must have been clear on Kre’s face, even in the firelight, as Kre watched Ras gasp and involuntarily flinch as if struck.
Before Ras could make a comment on what he must have thought to be Kre’s reaction to his admission of his ancestry, Kre blurted out, “I’m sorry… it wasn’t you! It was my stomach going all wonky again.”
“Case of poor timing then,” Ras comfirmed, a little too doubtfully for Kre’s liking.
Kre nodded and held a hand to his stomach to help complete the excuse. “I think your friend Dain hasn’t quite perfected his herbal treatments.”
Even Ras had to smile at that one, “It’s true. He’s only just starting to work on his herblore. Last year he was all about crystals and the year before that was working with wands. I’m sorry you still aren’t feeling well. Hopefully by morning.”
Kre nodded and turned over in his blanket, not daring to look his friend in the eye while he worked out what was going on in his head.
‘Hello?’ he thought to himself, as silly as it felt to do so. He wasn’t sure if he was more worried about feeling dumb for this attempt, or if he was concerned that he might actually get a response.
‘Can you hear me?’ he offered again mentally. Perhaps the conversation was simply one-way. Perhaps he was just imagining the whole thing. He was pretty tired after all and partially poisoned from Dain’s earlier attempt to force truth from his lips. It wouldn’t surprise him if one of the aftereffects of the mushrooms was hallucinations.
‘Or,’ he wondered as his train of thought started to derail off the tracks of logic and reason, ‘I’m simply going insane and this is just one of the stages of insanity that I’m going through. Curious though… what was my first step into crazy land? Was it when I ran off with that elf? Was it when I made a deal with that magical squirrel.’ He only had to consider the question a bit longer before he settled on what he believed to be the actual moment of his descent into madness.
‘It was that moment when I took Terync’s life. That was definitely it.’
‘Stop.’