Monster

Unwanted

"He said no..." Kyle said with regret.

"It would have been so nice, though."

"Yeah, it would have been so nice. You would have been like our brother." Jin nodded thoughtfully, both of them lost in their daydreams and not noticing that Hero began to cry, until they heard him sniffling.

The young villagers blinked at the little Human in confusion. They had no idea how their words affected Hero. When they told him what could have been, what he very much hoped for but now could not be, only made him feel worse. He was already sad that they were about to leave.

"We're sorry. Don't cry. It will still be all right. We won't be brothers, but we can still be friends." Jin told the little Human, sharing a concerned glance with his brother.

They seemed a little taken back by Hero's reaction. They heard from the other children that Hero cried a lot, but they had not seen it since the first day of their visit, when they got him in trouble for using his magic.

Hero saw their puzzled expressions and hid his face in his blanket, ashamed of the brine water leaking down his face. He really didn't want to them to dislike him or think that he was ugly and gross. He startled when he felt them hugging him.

"Don't be sad." The older child said gently, patting his back. "Maybe we can come and visit again. Although it probably won't be soon." Hero tried to dry his face in his blanket and then looked up at them, trying to smile through his tears.

"Or, maybe one day you can come and visit us, instead. When you grow up, you'll be able to travel by yourself." Jin smiled encouragingly. "You can come and visit us any time you like!" He told him.

"Remember the name of our village. It's called Little Casins. Will you remember that?" Kyle instructed and Hero nodded, not trusting himself to speak because of the tight feeling in his throat.

The children both smiled at him again and let go of him.

"We will see you one day again, Hero. Goodbye for now." Jin said, confident and believing what he said fully.

"We will always be friends, we promise." Kyle said in a similar tone.

With another smile at him, both children slipped out of the barn and went to the house to sleep.

Hero watched the door for a moment as if hoping that they would return, but then knew that they wouldn't. He then hid his face again in his blanket and began to softly cry, trying to be as quiet as possible so all sounds became muffled in the rough thick cloth.

He cried and cried and the tears didn't want to seem to stop, his little heart breaking with sadness of it all. It was probably his own fault that no one among Jalil's visiting people wanted to adopt him. If he didn't set the forest on fire, then maybe they wouldn't have believed all the bad stories that the other villagers told about him.

From what he overheard made him seem like he was a disobedient, bad child with very dangerous magic, who constantly did pranks and even made his brothers bad, too, just by growing up with them.

It wasn't really true. Was it?

"Hero? Hero..." Grandpa Grake's voice sounded sad as he peeked into the barn and heard him crying.

Hero didn't move from his spot where he was laying down prone, his face tucked into the blanket waddled up against his face. A moment later he heard shuffling steps approaching him and Grandpa Grake's arms gently gathered him and held him, drawing him toward him.

Hero buried his face against the old villager's chest.

"Shhhh. It's going to be all right. It will all work out. You will see. As long as you keep trying to do the right thing, it will be fine in the end. Just don't give up." The old villager repeated what he so often told him before.