Introduction
Hi, my name is Cassy
I know, I know it sounds like such a cliché starting my story by introducing myself. Since I started it this way, might as well run with it.
Let us try this again. My name is Casoritania Chrishinkiano Jouberten, but most people call me Cassy for short. Everyone, that is, except for my parents. Basically, everyone that I consider close personal friends and all-around "cool" people. Not that they are terribly "uncool", but, well, I am a teenager so I will never admit to that. It is our job as their offspring to make them feel old and outdated, as it was when they did the same to their predecessors. An obligation of sorts.
I am a 16-planetary cycled-young college student following my dream of studying… Let me keep that to myself, I do not want to ruin the entire story.
Supposedly we are pretty much the same as most of you, not to sound presumptuous. The only difference between you and I would be my sharp pointy ears, my weird eyes, and well, my curse. You see I am what you would call an elf. Pale skin, big eyes, pointed shoes, the whole shebang. Not to be confused with fairies. For one, those guys are weird, with their wings always flapping about trying to act like us. Please note that no self-respecting elf will ever act the way they do. Ever.
I am currently attending a small, somewhat unpopular community college. This is my second cycle and to be… honest, I have no idea what I am doing here. I could be in the best schools, but no my parents wanted me to have a, what is the best way to put this? A “normal” upbringing. If one can call it that. You see I am a princess. Not a very well-known princess even though my dad is like a king of the, well he is the king enough said, but my sister and I were raised in what some would call isolation, far away from the royal life you would imagine a princess to have.
We were raised similarly to most kids, by playing outside in the mud, climbing trees, and crafting bows and arrows from twigs and string. Not by balancing old, heavy books on our heads so that one day we will be able to balance a 25kg crown. Thank heavens for that! With my slim neck that might just turn out to be decapitating. Just so you know elven crowns are actually lighter than a feather. Not a phoenix feather, but almost as light as a pixie's. So basically, you hardly know it is there.
There were no extravagant balls or ball gowns. As we never had any balls. What would be the point as music was banned? We would dress as many other kids our age would. Maybe even worse, as our clothes were hand-me-downs and thrift store specials. To be honest, I quite enjoyed tailoring the old worn clothes into something new by hand. Knowing that there will only be one of its kind and no one could duplicate my look. It helped me develop my own style. Not just following that of the norm, and the pride that came with knowing you made it that way is quite a big confidence boost. It is not that we could not afford the better things in life, we are royalty after all.
Our parents wanted to imprint a sense of gratitude, respect, and honour. They wanted us to understand that we were not better than anyone around us, but also note that no one was better than us. We are all equal parts of this world and we must be thankful for what we have. That way we can appreciate what is to come so much more. Be grateful for what was given and even more so for what was earned.
We were both placed in public schools all our lives and, as you can imagine we were made fun of A LOT, or at least I was! Told that my parents did not love me and were ashamed of me because of the way I was raised. They just never understood where it was coming from. Try imagining this, we even had to take a bus, a bus to and from school. A stinky, smelly, boy sweat contaminated, germ-infested, on the brink of just falling to pieces on the side of the road, bus.
Our bodyguards drove in front and behind the bus to ensure that we got to the castle in one piece. However, they were never allowed to interfere, not even when we (by we I mean me) got into fights. Apparently, this would teach us to stand up for ourselves. Build character.
As much as I hate to admit it, I guess it kind of worked.
My sister, wait, I cannot keep referring to her like that. Nasteljè Chantenique Jouberten. I call her Nessy. That is an inside joke referring to one of our favourite stories our parents used to tell us about an old human legend. It is about a water creature and well my sister's birth element is water, but I assume you, being human should know it better than me, I’m pretty sure you have heard about it at least once in your life maybe more. If not, then you are probably one of those cave-dwelling humans. I have read up about those or you or whatever. The point is that Nessy my sister is equally as popular as that myth. Not that she is a monster… most of the time.
She got everything I did not. We are basically exact opposites. She has the looks, the style and she even seems to walk taller than me somehow, which is impossible, as I am about a head length taller than her. Most elves just seem to like her better than me. To be honest, I do not think she even knows the word bully. I once had a guy admitting that he only dated me so he could get to know her better.
We do not look nor act alike. It is kind of like autumn and spring. And I am autumn. I am clumsy and always falling over my own feet, dropping things kind of like leaves falling off an old Gray Reverent tree.
She has dark hair that shines when the sun hits it, it has a beautiful sun red shimmer. She has dark eyes that can stare into your soul. You are kind of scared to look directly into them because you might just get lost. Her eyes also do the same weird thing mine does, but she learned how to control hers. Maybe I will also be able to once I reach her age.
Our eyes change color depending on our moods.
Mine goes from gray to a striking blue when I am anxious, nervous, or fluttered. Hers goes from brown to green, but lately only when she gets tired.
Ok, so I am a princess and I get bullied a lot, like immensely, but that is ok because I do not get scared easily. For one, I love the dark. I feel safer in the dark. Shadows cannot find you in the dark.
I also own a variety of pets that scare most elves. One example is the Wolrainen.
(Wolrainen: Wolf-like creature with a large wingspan, non-venomous, though it might not seem it with sharp fang-like teeth. Its fur is short and has a gray-silver-like color underneath the body the wings are the only part covered in feathers but even they are softer than you can imagine. They have sharp pointy ears. Their legs are very skinny and very tall. It is extremely dangerous when threatened as it always bites to kill. They are very overprotective and territorial, so never keep more than 2 in one enclosure except for when mating, but even then, separate them immediately after mating as they will kill each other after conceiving. Also, the male carries the pups and obviously does the feeding. As mating is such a dangerous procedure you can imagine that they are ridiculously hard to come by and a luxury to own.)
I still remember the day my father gave him to me. He was such a small pup. The runt of the litter. He was still asleep in my father’s hands when he passed him to me. With tears of joy rolling over my cheeks. The feathers on his wings were so soft and fragile that I was afraid of hurting him. For the first few months, he slept in my bed next to me until he became too big. As I mentioned they are very overprotective and that is the way he acts towards me. Like my own personal guard. I cannot imagine my life without him.
Sometimes I feel like I connect better with my pets than with other elves or even humans and dwarves. I must admit I love my pets, not as humans do. Humans keep cats, what’s up with that? “Let me buy an animal that will ultimately enslave me.”
Humans are strange creatures!
I had one once, but my mother said I could not keep it. She could not handle the smell and said that they ate too much. We eat to live they live to eat.
Just kidding! Mostly….
Our castle is exceptionally large. One can get lost easily. That is the best part of my life at the moment. Getting lost in a dark part that almost no one knows about and can take forever to find.
We have a lot of dungeons and dragons. Not the role-playing game as you know it, no, actual dungeons and dragons. And just so you know dragons are nothing like what you read about in books. They can’t talk and they are definitely not friendly, no matter how much we would like to pretend they are, or so we have been told. I have never had the honour of meeting one in real life.
They are here to protect the castle and that is it. My parents will not even let me go anywhere near their training yard. It is separate from the training yard I use for my pets. Much bigger. That is saying something as I own some of the most dangerous creatures one can find, and guess what, I trained all of them. Every single one of them all by myself. Just saying.
They are “apparently” extremely difficult to train. Dad said that he has lost numerous of his best soldiers in the process. Whatever. Who am I to judge?
