The Gelfling with the Darkened Eyes

1. the beginning

The city of Ha'rar glittered from the light emitted from the three suns of Thra. Cova squinted from the bright day. And he was not enjoying it. However, if it kept SkekSeg happy, then so be it.

The stonewood gelfling stood out from the pale Vaprans of the snowy capital. For one, his tanned skin and green markings did not conceal him as great as they did like in Stone in the Wood. Cova's dark brown hair cut in a rough bob was out of the ordinary for any gelfing, stonewood and vapran included. However, the thing that stood out about Cova was that he was traveling with a skeksis.

The Reaper was the omen of death to the gelflings. He predicted the deaths and his counterpart, UrGi, laid the gelflings to rest. However, no one knew why Cova traveled with him. And Cova was fine with people not knowing. It was none of their business after all.

While the skeksis was busy with another gelfling's death, Cova noticed someone peculiar in the crowd of Vaprans; a young Grottan with a blindfold over his eyes. It wasn't something the gelfling had seen ever before. The stonewood gelfling had only heard stories about the gentle Grottans from SkekSeg.

Cova looked back at where his mentor was and looked back to where the Grottan was. To the gelfling's surprise, the other gelfling was gone. And Cova had a theory to explain the sudden disappearance.

The dark haired gelfling noticed a small alleyway where the blindfolded Grottan was and immediately began to speed-walk over to it. Cova heard shuffling behind him and knew his mentor was following him. But that wasn't going to stop the stonewood.

Sure enough, Cova found the Grottan. He was curled up on the ground, covering his sensitive eyes. The blindfold was ripped to shreds. And there stood the culprits; three male vaprans, with their ringleader in the center, dangling a necklace that must have belonged to the gelfing on the ground.

"Hey! Leave the poor Grottan alone you bastards!"

Cova shouted towards them without thinking. He knew he just got himself into some deep shit.

The leader of the other two Vapras looked up from the beaten Grottan and took a good look at the gelfing who just tested him. He stepped over the boyfling and stepped up close to Cova. He was a good foot taller than the short stonewood gelfing. His platinum blond hair was swooped to the side of his face. His cold, ice blue eyes looked at Cova's small, tan demeanor.

   "What did you say Stonewood? Couldn't quite hear you from down there,"

The Vapra teased before getting a dagger to his throat.

   "Leave the poor Grottan alone before I shove this dagger down your throat."

Cova replied coldly. He only carried the dagger for emergencies, and this was definitely one of those emergencies.

"Make me,"
The male blue-eyed Vapran  threatened with a glint of anger.

And with that statement, Cova snapped. He slid the dagger across the gelfling's cheek quickly and side stepped around him. The Vapran gasped in vain and held his hand to his cheek as a sliver of pink blood slid down his face.

Cova pointed the dagger at the other two Vapras as the stepped back away from the Grottan looking up at him.

The stonewood gelfling heard the familiar shuffling behind him and knew he was in trouble. He watched as the three Vaprans ran off due to their fear of death.

Then Cova turned towards his disappointed mentor who had taken care of him for years.

"I'm sorry... but these Vapras were hurting a Grottan! They didn't even hurt anyone!"

Cova argued with the skeksis but all that the creature did was quietly shake his head with disappointment. The dark haired gelfling closed his mouth before he said another word. The Reaper had taught him how to deal with conflict without violence. And he had just blew his chance to prove himself.

Cova knew he had a bad temper but he didn't expect it to be this bad. The stonewood gelfling thought he was getting better at this.

Cova looked back at the Grottan, who was attempting to get up but falling back down due to the beatings he endured.

"Are you alright..?"

The brunette gelfling asked as he helped the Grottan stand steadily to his feet.

"Other than the humility and beatings, yeah, I guess you can say I'm ok,"

The gelfling responded as he looked up at the Reaper with his big brown eyes. The skeksis began to take out his medicine pack that he always kept on hand for Cova.

"So uh, my name is Myte, what's yours?"

The Grottan spoke as he was getting bandaged by SkekSeg. The skeksis kept quiet as Cova looked back over to them after picking up the necklace.

Cova hesitated to reveal his name. He didn't know Myte, nor did he want to know him. Not that he hated the Grottan , it was just that Cova wasn't a social type.

"...it's Cova... and my mentor is called SkekSeg, but he usually goes by The Reaper,"

The stonewood gelfling managed to finally spit out as he handed Myte the necklace. Cova noticed the skeksis take out a piece of cloth and offered it to Myte. However, the gelfling politely refused.

"My eyes are a lot more used to the sun now due to those rude vaprans, but thank you for your offer,"

Myte kindly said to the Reaper. SkekSeg just nodded and put the cloth away.

Soon enough, Cova and his mentor said farewell to Myte, wishing him safe travels. The stonewood gelfling looked back at his mentor, who was proud that he made up for the mistake of violence and for getting out of his comfort bubble. Cova felt like he was still doing something wrong, but he didn't know what.

Before any words were spoken, a few vapras stepped forward with spears in hand. And they were all pointed at him.

   "Stonewood gelfing, come with us peacefully or we will have to use force."