apparently not everyone got this one...its about malock's past and will help to further later plot lines...

Malock sat in the council chambers, deep within the Citadel. He felt the worms searching for a way to pierce the island’s defenses, and he knew it would happen soon. He had lived through the last war with Mu, and he knew their capabilities. “You see,” he said to the empty room, “My life has always lacked the simpleness that most mortals take forgranted. It seems that no matter what I do, it ends in failure.” He found himself smiling, back still straight and eyes staring intently forward. “Time,” he said aloud, “That has always been my greatest foe, because it can not touch me I have no sense of it. It passes as it pleases.” He sat there, staring across the black table and at the gigantic double-doored enterance to the chambers. Hours passed into days. He didn’t notice. Someone giggled in his ear, no one was there of course. The female voice mocked him, she did that sometimes. She was rather capricous in her attitude towards him, but she had always been with him, since the beginning….

“Get up,” her voice hissed in his ear. There was nobody to the voice, it was one of the many insanities he’d been forced to bear. He still couldn’t quite figure out why he was so cursed, why life had to go so badly for him and no one else. So he sat there. Rivulets of rainwater coursed over his body as the water continued along it course. He could feel its sharp, icy caresses against his skin. His back hurt too, the numb, fuzzy pain one feels when they’ve slumped in a bad position for too long. A soft breeze flirted through the alley, and where it touched his exposed skin sharp icicles pricked and jabbed. He opened his eyes and the cold bit at them too. He blinked a few times as tears welled up in his eyes. “Its because of the wind,” he whispered to himself. At least the voice was gone.

He turned his head ever so slightly to peer further into the dark alley. He’d heard some of the homeless in the back streets mutter about the darkness, not being able to see and about stumbling into things in the dark. He always thought it strange when they said such things, because he never had trouble seeing in the darkness or the light, it was all the same. He always guessed it must be like having your eyelids closed, but he’d never know for sure. There was a way, he reminded himself, but that scared him more than anything and he pushed the memory of being inside the mind of another person away. That memory made his stomach heave and churn with butterflies.

There were many things different between him and them, so many, too many. He didn’t fit in here, but here was the same as anywhere else and at least he could pretend that the voices that caught his ears as people walked by where meant for him, that someone cared about him. He sighed, his small body heaving and expelling a breath.

Someone coughed further down the alley, but he didn’t move. He didn’t really feel like moving and he wasn’t really afraid of the street trash around here. They’d learned not to bother him, that he was like the rich people who could use magic. He couldn’t do many things, make someone have a nightmare perhaps or see something that wasn’t there. He healed a cat once, it was laying in the gutters heaving slowly and softly. Blood trickled out of its closed eyes and a few flies flew over head. Even now, reliving the memory, he couldn’t help himself but draw closer and lay both of his long fingered, lithe hands upon the creature. His breath rapidly matching that of the feline’s until he felt the creatures body as if it were his own. And then he took its pain into himself, it was always easier to do it that way. He could bear the pain easier than others. He had watched with amazement as soft silver light spread over the cat. His body tinged and his hands felt really fuzzy and strange. The cat’s black and white fur seemed to burn with an eerie iridescence wherever the light touched. Its breathing grew stronger and then it whipped its body smoothly up to its feet. He moved to pet it, but the cat dodged his grasp and sprinted down into the shadows at the end of the alley and was gone.

He sighed and watched his body. There wasn’t much there, this form was weaker than his other one but this one no one ever took note of. He was practically invisible to the rich people and the bum’s didn’t really care about a small boy anyway. He glanced at his wrists, small delicate things. He flexed his hands, they were more like elven hands than human ones, little palms all finger like strands of rope attached to a small bottle cap. He didn’t stand very tall, just past the waist of most adults. He reached a hand to the hair on his head, it never seemed to grow longer than to his shoulders. He let his arm plop down upon the alley floor. A brief sensation of cold water and grit rushed up his hand and then faded as his hand grew numb again.

He heaved another sigh and glanced at his feet. Cloth wrapped around them to stave off the cold, or at least that was why other bums wore them. He felt the cold, but never as keenly as some of the others. Snow didn’t bother him too bad, but he’d see others with purple lips and goose bump ridden skin, shivering in the cold winter nights. Some cities regulated their temperature but this one didn’t. It was huge, it took him a day to talk from side to side but there were others far bigger and grander.

As usual, when he’d finished looking at his pale body and thinking about the people he lived with on the streets and how different he was from them, his mind turned inward and he shut his eyes again. This was darkness, not being able to see and it soothed him. The darkness was nice, in it no one existed, nothing mattered and he could forget about the present and just remember the happy times. The cold rain faded until he was almost in a void of sensation. Blue light engulfing him, everywhere was blue light. This was his favorite memory. Things still seemed safe and secure, he still felt loved. He couldn’t remember anything before this, just vague memories of his parents and a beautiful place. But both his parents and the place were so hard to picture as to be abstract. So he just rested in the blue light and basked in the feelings he used to feel.

Was that a foot, there it was again. He opened his eyes and blinked back a few tears. Snow filtered down from the sky like white tears. He liked the snow, it made everything look so pure and beautiful. Stooped over him was an obese man by human standards, garlic and grease stink assaulted his nose.

“Hey kid are you alive?” the man asked, rubbing his large noise before running a chunky hand through greasy hair.

Time had pasted again. How long he wondered. It didn’t matter, he hated the annoyance of it. It couldn’t touch him so it loved to rush by him sometimes when he had his eyes closed. He wasn’t hungry but still, for snow to have fallen a significant amount of time must have passed. “The leaves,” he asked softly, “Have the all fallen to the ground?”

The man stared at him for a few moments before standing upright again. “Eh?” the man said, scratching for a few moments at the lanky hair, causing it to flopping about like a fish on dry land.

“The leaves upon the trees. I asked the question in the attempts to ascertain whether the season had changed or if this was merely a random weather condition.” the boy replied.

“Yeah, its winter. Well seeing as you’re alive, I should be moving on.” The man said, the waddle underneath his chin wiggling as he did so.

“Explain, if you can spare the time, what you mean. Do you search for dead bodies?”

“Pretty much. They did a survey and people don’t like the dead bodies in the alley’s and its best to collect them early before spring arrives.”

“Curious.”

“Hey,” the fat man said, leaning now against the closest wall rubbing his belly with an idle hand, “You don’t sound much like most of the street urchins.” The man left the rest hanging in the air.

“True,” the boy replied. The man waited a few more moments but didn’t move. The child stared at him, unblinking.

“Has anyone told you not to do that?”

“What might that be, if I may so inquire?” the child asked.

“Stare with those eyes of yours.”

“My eyes?”

“They’re black, just black.”

“Truly? Not like your eyes?”

The man shook his head, “You’ve never seen your eyes.”

“No memories come to mind.”

The man scratched his head, “You’re strange kid, kinda fun to talk to. Never really talked to no one quite like you.”

The child nodded, “Likewise.”

“Welp, I’ll tell you what. If you help me out, I’ll buy you a bite to eat at a tavern close by. My shift only lasts for another few hours.”

“The prospect of fine dinning is quite tempting, but I will pass as the prospect of aiding in the carrying of dead bodies is not very appealing.”

“Oh don’t worry, I just tag them. The night crew hauls them out of here.”

“Very well.” The small boy rose to his feet smoothly and stood waiting upon the fat man. And they walked, a strange sort of silence filled between the two of them. The fat man had tried to start up conversation a few times, but was always met with quiet, polite replies. Where are you from? I wish that I could remember, unfortunately the memories are too dim to accurately relate. What’s your name? I have never really considered the question in full, I must apologize for not being able to tell you. On and on. After the meal at the tavern they stood outside.

“Thank you for the company,” Sam, the fat man, said.

“You are most welcome. The meal pleased my palate quite well, for which I must thank you.” The small boy inclined his head and then turned, walking away.

“Wait, uh, will you be alright? I feel kinda bad just leaving you here,” Sam said to the boy’s receding back.

“Worry not Sam, I will be rather fine.” And that was all, he never saw Sam again. He had considered continuing their acquaintanceship, but he got strange feelings from the man, despite his kindness. Still, as the boy lay in the alley his thoughts wondering he remembered the meal and the companionship. It had been nice, perhaps he would have to seek out someone to be his friend. He shrugged and stared at the wall as the darkness deepened and then slowly gave way to dawn and then dawn brightened to afternoon.

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