The burden of a curse

I need to do something! I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to do something, anything. So, I made up my mind and decided to search for water. It would be terrible if I encountered a monster or something but since the chances were slim, I took the risk.

The air felt stagnant. Yet I could hear trees creak and croak. Honestly, I was terrified of forests by now- even green ones. And yet there I was, all alone in the middle of nowhere pretending and trying to be useful.

I heard a streaming sound nearby. For a moment my mind sank. Finally water! I rushed toward the sound with my aching body. There was a large river there. But there was something else as well. A pair of bright black pulsating eyes glared at me. Why the hell didn't I listen to her?

A pale humanoid creature caught me in its gaze. With little clothing, it lay close to the water. Without even thinking about anything else, I drew my sword. It was already starting to get dark and I didn't want to take any chances.

But this creature was different from goblins although they shared similar traits. Of course it was much taller than goblins and perhaps taller than most humans. With a longer and skinnier body than most humans this thing appeared very skinny- to the point where I could even see the bones. What I could tell from my observation that it possessed intelligence as it didn't attack me head on. The ears looked similar to that of an elf or something close to that. Should I attack it or wait for it? For a second I didn't know what to do.

"It is okay human. There's no need for caution. I won't attack you," With a human like voice the creature answered; a voice which seemed profound. Maybe it took my staggering as a warning. Perhaps it was warning me instead.

"What the hell! You can talk!" It shouldn't have surprised me at this point, but maybe my brain was going haywire after all the thrashing it took in the last few days.

The skin of the creature was muddy in color and it behaved almost humane. For a moment I even considered the possibility of it not being a monster. But I couldn't trust something which looked like one- I just couldn't. Besides, its eyes were a pure shade of red, just like those pesky undead.

"I believe it is more astonishing that you can understand me. I talked in old human tongue without even considering that almost all humans can't understand me in this era." His withering silver hair flowed with the wind. He almost felt like a noble for a second. I'd never met royalty or nobility. But I saw countless movies and I knew how those folks talked. This thing in particular was talking like that. Maybe he was once human or something like that?

This era? How long have you been alive? "What do you mean? Why should I trust you?" I still had reasons to doubt it. Besides, his eyes were still giving me the heebee geebies.

"I'm not a big fan of human meat. Too salty for me," he said. For a second his eyes flashed a glint of red darkness, if that made sense. He was serious. Which meant, he already ate humans before.

That's not something I needed to know. Although the creature didn't seem to lie, I didn't trust it. At this point I lost the ability to trust anything that looked monstrous. "Were you human?"

"No. I was born a high elf. But through…." It sighed. "I don't plan on boring you with this nonsense. After all, I've wrought this unto myself." He turned around. I could see his spine. I could even count most of his bones. It sent a slight chill down my bones. "Anyway, I will take my leave now. Just a warning. There's a demon camp at the base of this mountain. If I were a human travelling with an elf, I would definitely not get the elf tangled in my business." His voice trailed off. He seemed…almost sad.

"Hey wait, what do you mean?"

The creature left without any delay. Its last words resonated with me. Demons meant trouble and I knew it. However it was also true that it was my problem and not Lianne's. If the creature was once an elf, then it meant he'd care for his kin. Maybe that was why he warned me. As I thought about it, the sun went down for good. Oh shoot the water! I'd almost forgotten about why I came here in the first place.

I had my water pouch with me. I filled it up and headed for the camp. Yet again I didn't encounter any monsters.

Lianne was, already back at the camp. She was skinning a wild deer. My heart skipped a few beats. Was it excitement to seeing delicious food or was it the terror of Lianne using a knife- probably the latter. She didn't look at me. Yet she knew it was me. "Where were you? I was about to go search for you…"

It was kind of scary how she was skinning the deer. Her eyes were red and glistening and yet…. She was calm and composed.

"Just gathering some woods. I got some water from the river too. But …" Of course I tried to be as nonchalant as possible. But when I remembered about that creature, I kind of stumbled at my words. After all, it had warned me not to drag Lianne down.

Lianne stopped. She looked at me. "What did you see?"

Why are you looking at me like that? I didn't have any excuses, so I came out clean. "A humanoid creature…"

"Looked like goblin but bigger, and had red eyes?"

"How did you know?" Did she happen to meet him too? Lianne acted a little awkward. Till then I didn't see her talk like that. You're not going to attack me because I saw something I shouldn't have, right? It was a weird assumption but not an implausible one. Nothing was impossible in this world and that much I knew already. But the though only made me feel cruciated. I sweated. My chest felt tight. If Lianne turned into my enemy, I'd probably end up dead.

"Tha-that is the fate of my kin." But Lianne answered. She didn't attack me and didn't even look at me. Her questioning voice was gone and it was now filled with sadness.

"What?" I wasn't prepared to hear that. Why would elves become monsters? That was the question. But if I recall correctly that thing did say something like it was a high elf. I thought it was probably cursed or something but come to think of it, so was Lianne. So it did make sense, in a way.

"All elves in my lineage will turn into that before their deaths. Elves live long lives. But you see, my lineage, the lineage of high elves live significantly longer lives but when this life comes to an end, we will look like that."

But, Lianne was a high elf? I didn't know the difference, but I didn't really pry into it either. It was surprising but made sense. After all, it was a curse. "Because of the curse?"

"Yes…"

"…" I couldn't say anything- I just couldn't. After all, there was nothing left to say.

She didn't say anything for a few minutes.

The deer was still being skinned. "What did he say?"

"He warned me about a demon camp at the base and then left immediately. He also-"

She cut me off. "I see. Let's boil the water and afterward cook this meat."

"Alright. He said-"

She cut me off again. Now I understood that it was intentional. "I know…" Lianne looked at me and smiled. She paused for a second. "That was probably my grandfather."