36 - No Longer a Boy

While Coldin was asleep, the owner went to him to inspect him. She found that his outer appearance now resembled an adult with short stubble growing on his face.

Seeing this alone made her feel down and upset but what made her break down was inspecting his bones. She'd done this before when they first met, that's how she knew how old he was even when he was so large. After doing the same she found something peculiar.

Coldin's bones showed that he should be 18 years old. Some how on his trip to fix the islands he'd aged by 9 years.

Dropping to her knees she began to sob quietly. To her Coldin was a nephew first and staff member second. So after finding out that he'd somehow lost 9 years of his life span she broke down.

Just to drive the nail in her heart deeper, Coldin woke up and looked towards her. At first she tried to put on a brave face forgetting what Min had told her minutes ago.

As she looked into Coldin's eyes she noticed the lack of a pupil, while Min had guessed that Coldin was blind, the owner knew he was but she also knew that this isn't what a normal blind persons eyes should look like.

"Boss. It's good to see you again" said Coldin with a soft smile lingering on his face.

"I'm sorry....I should have come with you..." before the owner could get out her next sentence Coldin interrupted.

"It's okay boss, it was my decision and I'm the one who was impatient. What's happened has happened"

Looking at Coldin's smile apart of the owners heart broke slightly. "No....Coldin you don't understand. I've just checked your bones age...your body says it's 18...."

Confused Coldin asked "so I'm 18 what does that mean, is something different?"

Not sure how to break it to him the owner remained quiet.

"Boss what does it mean?" Asked Coldin as a sense of panic began to brew in him.

"Shrek....there's an age limit for the entrance exam..." these words tore through Coldin. His delicate smile vanished instantly as tears began to flow from his eyes.

"T-t-that can't be true" he said in denial. While he new full well it was he didn't want to admit it. This was his only chance at finding his father....his one true family.

Watching the tears flow the owner didn't care about anything else and hugged him, it didn't matter if he was still gigantic, it didn't matter if she didn't like physical contact with people, all that mattered was that this boy had just lost his chance at being in a normal family and she couldn't watch the same boy from the past year, who always had a smile on his face break down.

It was at this moment that she swore that she would make shrek except him no matter what.

The following week the inn set off again with Coldin being its footman. They easily passed through where the two islands use to be and beyond.

New customers had joined at the previous island while some old ones decided to stay till they got to the other continent.

One thing the older customers noticed was that Coldin's previous joyful and happy mood had turned cold which with finding out he was now blind made them feel great pain for the extraordinary boy.

Coldin marched on with no goal in mind, he only marched to carry on. His mind was blank, void of anything, the only reason he was still walking was that this was his job.

While the customers noticed Coldin's a new attitude, others noticed that the owner had disappeared, not once appearing unlike before when she ran the counter most of the day.

Both Lee and Min continued as normal but made sure to look after Coldin and even the owner, both were pushing their body's to a breaking point.

Coldin's body now had scars from where he'd knock against jagged rocks or trees due to not feeling the need to move.

The redness of the scars stood out from his pale skin and many customers began to fear him, this also earned him the nickname of The Savage Giant.

This continued for months. Until they finally reached the other continent. Min had finally managed to get through to Coldin and told him that while he maybe unable to enter shrek that didn't stop him from finding his family.

This alone while simple was enough to give him hope. On the other hand the owner had locked her room two weeks ago, never leaving it nor letting anyone in.

Coldin, stood at the coast of the new continent a changed man, no longer was he a boy.