Chapter 38: Deana

I was reminded to visit my home since Vicente went over to his clan village, although my home in the forest village was a place that I dreaded. I went alone to not let anyone see what I was about to go through and headed off as some other travelers stared at me as I merely put my cloak on, hiding my ears and keep walking. There were a few more people who would look at me as I tried to ignore those people and kept on my way to my home and thought more about why I was even going back. I could only think about how useless I was before as I felt that something back home would be able to help me with the problem I have been having. I walked and camped as I didn't want to travel all night as eventually I arrived at the forest where my village was hidden, the forest was stingy towards non-elves as it would purposely make travelers lose their way. The forest has its own forest spirit which was the 2nd in command of the forest as it would handle the forest's will. He was a pretty kind and cheerful person as he took me personally towards the Elven Village as we talked and caught up as we finally reached the village. The elves were tannish pale as they were just elves unlike me, who was a dark elf. The dark elves were an endangered race as I was the only dark elf left after my parents died to take me here, where my normal elven parents raised me as their own since they had trouble with making one of their own. Not many people knew about the Dark Elf Village and one more thing since I didn't want to make my friends worry or treat me differently. The other elves who saw me only stared as I looked towards them, only for them to look away or move away from me as if I was some beast. I lied when I said that the village called me Dean, it was only a nickname that my parents used when I visited or when I still lived here. I decided to ignore the people who stared and seemed to fear me as I walked towards the building where my parents lived in, as both of them jumped onto me. They were people who always gave me a lot of affection which I assumed was their way of trying to give me enough affection for everyone in the Elven Village as they seemed to either hate or fear me.

     "Oh sweetie we missed you all sooo much!" Dad and Mom said in unison. 

     "Yeah I missed you two as well. Mom, Dad was there something that my parents left with me before they died?" I went straight to the point as my parents let go and seemed to look worried. I wasn't really sure why they seemed so worried as it almost seemed like they have been dreading this very moment for their entire lives. 

     Dad sighed as he went upstairs while mom opened her mouth,"We hoped this day would never come since we don't know what it is. On the day that we took you in, your mother was bleeding and most of her chest was gone as she was running on willpower and whatever power she had. She held you in her right arm as a book was in the other as she desperately seemed to be trying to continue on to no avail. Once she saw us, her face lit up as she gave us you and the book which she said to only let you see, she pleaded to us to take care of you which we agreed to already, but she didn't seem to trust us when we said it the first time. We tried to save her when we took her in, but no one could help us and she seemed to be almost dead already as she died on the bed. We looked toward you and the book as neither one of us looked at it the whole time we raised you, and soon enough we were raising you. The people in the village wouldn't treat you fairly, so we decided to love you enough for everyone in the village so you would never feel alone with us around." I teared up a bit as Dad finally came down with a book covered in a cloth as he put the book in my hands and turned along with Mom as they didn't want to be hated by me as I only looked at the book. I slowly unwrapped the book which seemed to be in perfect condition, no doubt by the carefulness they had with the book as they would give me this book one day. Once I tried to open the book it didn't open as I tried even harder and it didn't open until I used my mana to open it. The book had skills as it seemed to have one for each page which seemed like a lot to me since this book was at least 400 pages as I flipped to the end to see if there was something there.

     *Dear Deana, if you are reading this, then I have died and I couldn't be there to take care of you. I'm sorry, your father and I are the last royal dark elves as well as the last dark elves, ever since the hunting of our kind by many other races and monsters. Your father and I loved you very much and not being able to see you grow, will be the only regret of my life as we loved you more than you could ever know. We will always watch over both of you, and this book will one day call to you as it will protect you with its skills. This book contains every skill from our race, from the day our race began to now. Once again, we love you and wish with all our hearts that you never have to see this. Signed, Dia Moon.* I finished reading as tears flowed towards my eyes and hugged my parents as I let it out for some time. My Dark Elf parents really loved me, my Elf parents really loved me, they gave me this book to protect me as they even wrote me a letter in the back of the book just in case.