Chapter 1: The mark

This is the story of a lover, a musician, an artist and mostly my beloved. Our story
begins in a small village west of the city of Graybridge. The village which was located
next to a small forest was adequately named Woodville. Woodville consisted mostly of
humans, but you did see the occasional dwarven trader or daring adventurer. There
was also a church in this town. It belonged to the god of protection. The church wasn’t
spectacular in any way, but it was the primary source of healing for the town and so was
at its center. From this church the sounds of a baby crying seemed to echo through the
village. A baby was just born. Everything seemed right with the baby, but after the priest
was able to get a better look he saw that the child had a particular mark on its face.. The
priest explained to the mother and father that it could cause no harm, and might even
fade away over the years. The parents who saw the priest as a dear friend believed his
words to be true, and without fear they took little Oscar Brown home.
But unlike what the priest had told them, the mark grew and grew. And eventually half of
Oscars face seemed to be covered. And the truth, the priest was not even right about
the harm. Because even though the mark did not hurt Oscar directly, the world did.
“Hey Oscar you have to get up for school” these were the words that were echoing
through Oscars mind. His mother needed to wake him to go to school nearly every day,
“his internal clock must be broken” is what his father would say on the occasion he was
home when Oscar woke up in the morning. Oscar gathered all his fear of being late for
school again and got up, he put on his clothes, anything that he and his parents could
find that contained some color. And he headed to school. He walked his normal route
past mister Robinson’s bakery when he heard an scream coming from inside. It
sounded like it came from mister Robinson, the baker of the village. Running out of the
building he saw a young girl. Her skin colour seemed to resemble a tree-like colour. She
looked at him and said “Hey you, purple face, do you think you could help me?” Barmun
was flustered but he was able to mustered something up“Why did mister Roderickson
scream, did you steal something?”. The girl rolled her eyes and sarcastically answered
“Do you really think I would steal something that really hurts my feeling purple guy”. She
grabbed a guitar from her back and threw it at him “Catch”. Barmun was barely able to
catch the guitar before it fell to the ground. “Umm, I don't know how to play the guitar”
the girl smiled and said “It won't matter if you can just cause a distraction i'll be able to
run”. And she ran into the woods. Mister Roderickson came out of the shop covered in
baking flower. Rubbing the flower from his eyes he saw Barmun and asked “Hey
Barmun, did you see anyone come out of
the shop just now”. Barmun nervously shook his head and ran to school while the
confused gaze of mister Rodericksen followed him.

He arrived right after the bell rang “Damn Darin I'm late again”. He ran to his class but
the teacher told him he was done with Barmun being late all the time and he was sent to
the headmaster's office. The other kids laughed at him as he walked away. And he was
expelled until further notice. As he walked home he remembered the guitar strapped to
his back, and so not wanting to get an angry speech from his mom right in the morning
he started plucking some strings. After a short while he sat down on a barrel still playing
some tunes. But he stopped when heard a voice “Sounds pretty good for a first timer,
but you are definitely a first timer”. It was the girl from the bakery, Barmun laughed
“Thanks, you want your guitar back?”. She shook her head “I wasn't using it anyway”.
She handed him a small piece of bread as she took a piece herself. Barmun had
forgotten to eat breakfast and so he gobbled it up in no time but then he realised
something.
“Did you steal this?”. The mysterious girl laughed and said “Oops you caught me”. They
both laughed. “I haven't seen you around here before, are you new to the village?” He
asked her. The girl gave him a serious look. “My dad and I live in the forest just outside
of the village, we don't really like living with a lot of other people '' Barmun now realised
that this girl wasn't like the humans he had lived with his entire life. Her ears were
pointed and she of course had tree-like skin. “Oh, I don't really go to the forest,” he said
quickly. Barmun had gone to the forest a couple of times in his life but the last time he
went he was beaten up by some of his bullies so he had decided to stay away. “I'm a
half-elf by the way”. Barmun nodded and the conversation went silent. Until the girl
whispered “What are you?”. Barmun realised that the girl probably told him she was a
half-elf so he would tell her his race. He smiled “I am a tiefling if you were wondering”.
The girl seemed lost in thought thinking about what a tiefling could be. “Can I ask why
you stole bread from mister Roderickson?” Even though Barmun had laughed it didn't
really sit well with him that she had stolen. The girl answered “Well, because I live in the
forest I don't ever really eat bread so I wanted to see what it tasted like”. There was a
certain aura of sadness that surrounded that sentence, a sadness Barmun recognized
from himself on days when he was bullied more than normal. But the sadness
disappeared as quickly as it arrived. Barmun smiled “Then I guess it was worth it”. The
girl smiled “See ya purple guy” she said as she ran into the forest leaving Barmun alone
on a barrel.

Barmun looked at her as she ran away but then he remembered he still needed to tell
his mom he was expelled from school. Barmun started walking home going through the
town with a newfound happy stroll. But he was interrupted by the sound of laughter,
“Oh, if it isn't the purple idiot Barmun ''.
Barmun looked behind him, horrified by the voice. It was Kaz, his long-time bully
accompanied by some of his friends. The only thing Barmun was able to muster was“I-i-
i'm not an idiot”. Everyone laughed except for Kaz as he said, “No, you are an idiot. You
got expelled because you are an idiot”. Barmun, knowing that wasn’t true, angrily said
“That's not true, I was expelled because…” He didn't finish his sentence, as he almost
revealed the half-elf girl that was so nice to him. “Yeah, you don't have a reason except
for being an idiot, I knew it”. He looked Barmun up and down until fixing his gaze on the
guitar on Barmun’s back. “What is that on your back?” Kaz said. Barmun, scared of
being beaten up for not answering, said “It's a guitar, my guitar actually”. They all
laughed, “Give it to me” Kaz said while reaching out his hand towards Barmun. The last
time Barmun refused to give him something they beat him up, but this time he really
couldn't give up what they wanted him to give. “Hurry up you purple idiot, or are you
deaf as well”. As they all laughed, Barmun seized the opportunity to run away as fast as
he could. “Get him boys' ' Kaz said angrily and they all ran after Barmun. Barmun had a
small headstart but his long tail was dragging him down, and so one of the boys got
enough time to throw a rock at Barmun. It hit him straight in the leg and he tripped. They
quickly caught up to him as Kaz stepped forward, “You should’ve just given it to me”.
Barmun grabbed the guitar to give to Kaz, but then felt a pulse going through his body
heading towards his fingers and without him doing it consciously his fingers strummed
the guitar, and a wave of sound exploded from the guitar blasting Kaz and his friends on
their backs. Kaz stood up looking at Barmun with a scared gaze “My dad was right, you
really are a demon”. And they all ran away screaming and crying.

Barmun was once again left alone, he stared at his fingers not understanding what just
happened. He continued his path home but instead of the happy stroll he had before, he
walked with an absent mind replaying everything that just happened a million times in
his head. As he arrived home, his mother had already finished cooking dinner. “You’re
late Barmun, did one of your classes run a bit longer?”. Barmun nervously smiled, “Well,
I was actually expelled, and then a girl gave me a guitar and then I used the guitar to
blow away Kaz and his friends with some sort of magic”. His mother raised her eyebrow
“So you got expelled, because of a girl and then you had a fight with Kaz?”. Barmun
nodded. She shook her head “I really thought that the talk I had with his mother
would’ve helped, and I guess your dad’ll have to bring you to school so he can talk to
your teacher and sort out you being expelled”. Both of them heard Barmun’s father
close the front door. Finally they could eat. They began having dinner and Barmun told
his father the same story he told his mother before heading towards his room, normally
he would play with his toys and then fall asleep. But today he decided to go to sleep
immediately.

Waking up the next day because of his dad banging on his door, on a normal day
Barmun’s mother would wake Barmun up at 07:40 but today because it's his father’s
day off he decided to wake him up at 05:00. “Dad, why did you wake me up so early?
My school is literally around the corner”. His father nodded with a smile “And you still
got expelled for being late”. Barmun sighed and slowly began his morning routine, not
forgetting to eat breakfast this time. After about an hour he finished his routine. “And
Barmun? Nice having some time in the morning right?”. Barmun groaned. “It is sort of
nice I guess”. “That's my boy,” his father said with the same smile as before. Barmun’s
father is a real morning person, Barmun himself isn’t. “It seems about time to head to
school Barmun”. Barmun grabbed his guitar, put on his purple jacket and stepped
outside together with his father. They headed towards the school and passed the
bakery, waving towards mister Roderickson. They arrived at school but everyone looked
at them weirdly. Right before entering the school grounds Barmun’s teacher came out of
the school and walked up to them. Barmun’s father waved towards the teacher “Hello, I
heard from Barmun that he got expelled and I wanted to apologise to see if he could
come back to school”. The teacher nervously swallowed “I was actually coming out here
to talk to you about that, due to certain events that transpired yesterday afternoon,
Barmun is no longer expelled. Barmun is now no longer allowed to go to this school”.
Barmun’s father looked furious “Priest Walker told all of us that there was nothing
dangerous about Barmun, and you agreed that you would teach him”. The teacher's
face turned angry as well “The priest must’ve been wrong then, because yesterday
afternoon your filthy demon spawn. Blew Kaz and 5 other students from our school to
the ground using some sort of magic. And it's definitely not a coincidence that the one
demon in the entire town has magic”. Barmun’s father looked at him and said “Im sorry
Barmun, I guess everyone has gone insane”. They headed back home and Barmun
took his guitar into his hand.

Barmun decided to go for a walk to clear his mind. He took the forest path so that he
might be able to find the girl from yesterday. And as he had hoped, after a while of
walking he found her. He saw her taking some sort of carrot-like plant from the ground.
“Hey”. Barmun yelled. The girl was caught by surprise and jumped, but after noticing
him she returned to her work. Barmun walked up to her and said “What are you doing?΅.
The girl pulled the last vegetable from the ground and said “I'm collecting some root
carrots”. Barmun had never heard of root carrots and wanted to ask what they were but
had a more important question to ask first “I realized I forgot to ask you your name
yesterday?΅. The girl smiled “Yes you did” she reached out her hand “You can call me
Kat”. Barmun grabbed her hand “And you can call me Barmun”. They stood there for a
while just looking at each other. Barmun laughed "Now tell me what root carrots are"

Chapter 2: The biggest mistake of my life

Two years passed and Barmun celebrated his sixteenth birthday, he and Kat met up
everyday after Barmun's homeschool. They collected root carrots, played games and
they sometimes played jokes on mister Roderickson. During this time Barmun also
gained a sister named Rosalia, who was as Barmun would say "Luckily a human".
Barmun taught himself to play the guitar and he became pretty good at it. He was
hauling a bunch of root carrots together with Kat and bringing them back to her
father.Barmun groaned "Kat, why are the bags so heavy? Did you put rocks in here or
something". Kat laughed "Suck it up purple guy, we're almost there". They arrived at
Kat's house. It was deep in the forest, and her dad was already standing in the doorway.
He was a long wood elf, wearing what some would say were librarian clothes. "Kat,
Barmun. Good that you're back. The soup just finished". They all sat down eating the
root carrot soup. "Another good one, Lako," Barmun said while slurping down the soup.
Kat's dad smiled ¨Glad to see you like it" Barmun and Kat finished their soups and then
left to go into town.But Kat seemed distant, as if she was contemplating something big.
"Hey Barmun, who do you want to be in the future?". Barmun was surprised, Kat never
really asked deep questions like this. "Umm, i guess…..i want to play my guitar". Kat
nodded and sighed "But I mean really like think big, do you really want to just stay in this
small hole in the north of nowhere and south of nothing".The question felt extremely
important for some reason and so Barmun answered honestly "I mean, not necessarily I
do have my family here though. My sister just turned two". Kat looked him deep in the
eye "Would you come with me if i asked?". Barmun's heart was racing in his chest but
he could not answer. "I guess that's a no" Kat seemed disappointed
"Hopefully till next time Barmun", she said as she ran into the forest. Normally he
would've followed her. But this time he was unable to get himself to do it.

Another two years passed, and Barmun hadn't heard anything about Kat. Not where she
was or what she was doing just nothing. He thought about that conversation a lot,
especially how he should have followed her. He was sitting in his room when his mom
stuck her head inside "Can I enter?" He waved his mother inside. "How have you been
doing?". Barmun thought for a second "Fine, I'm fine". His mother knew exactly how he
was feeling, and it wasn't fine.