(Centuries Ago)

In the Kingdom of Wilsburj where elves peacefully dwelled. The Orinie Royal family ruled supreme. Their word was law and everyone obeyed without objection. The elves were proud of the beauty they had been bestowed with and considered them superior to other races.

The Elven King Namius Orinie had a beautiful elven wife and two daughters and a son. Although the eldest daughter and son were picture-perfect and proper-looking elves the youngest daughter had a hooded nose, yellow eyes and black hair.

King and Queen, were extremely displeased because of her appearance. She had shamed their name by being born, different.

Soon the gossip started and everyone labelled her a witch. Her siblings looked down upon her and shunned her. Even the servants were afraid of her and no one wanted to go near her. They treated her like an untouchable.

Her name was Hildara and she had been bestowed with many otherworldly gifts except beauty. Unfortunately, no one understood her and she was sidelined and shut off in one of the towers of the castle, with only one window. Her only companion were books, she would read all day and gather knowledge.

’Knowledge is Power’ they said so she gathered as much knowledge as she could.

Hildara was unhappy. She was discriminated against based only on her features. It saddened her and she wished to leave her family and castle behind.

The yellow-eyed girl requested her father to let her go so she could make her abode someplace else. She promised to not tell anyone that she belonged to the royal family and will spend her life in seclusion.

Her father took the opportunity and she was sent away. No one tried to stop her, her family was happy the cursed witch was leaving and this broke Hildara’s heart and unknowingly she cursed the proud and beautiful elven race.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she threw one final look at her family and their heart sunk, for her eyes shone with an energy none of them had seen before.

Her heart was broken and she wished that they would stop looking down upon others because of the beauty standards they had set. She wanted them to feel a fraction of her pain. Her prayers were heard by a Higher Entity and everything took a turn for the worst. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Soon after she left the castle and made a small cottage at the edge of her kingdom. Children with black or brown hair began to be born in the Kingdom of Wilsburj.

Even Hildara’s beautiful sister gave birth to one such baby. Although he had red hair and blue eyes he was still considered an abnormal child. Because not only these children differed in appearance they needed something else to grow and nourish. They needed blood.

These children were not violent even when they needed blood, they were pretty docile and none of them had any supernatural powers. Their blood thirst developed when they turned one year old and their teeth developed. Their canines would grow abnormally.

They were labelled abominations and people developed an incessant fear of them.

The children craved blood and found themselves drawn to their families. Some incidents occurred where children bit their parents and siblings because their families were elven and their blood had a sweet and fruity taste to it. Kids found themselves to be drawn to it.

Hildara’s brother got married and was expecting his first child. Another elven noble family The Wilfrids were expecting their third child as well.

Both kids were born on the same day, and Hildara’s brother was blessed with the arrival of a beautiful daughter, whose appearance perfectly embodied the ethereal beauty typically associated with elves.

Unfortunately, the Wilfrid family did not share the same fortune in their offspring’s appearance. A cursed child with pitch-black hair and blue eyes was born and the whole family freaked out. His mother couldn’t bear to look at him.

"We have been cursed. We have been cursed by the witch that lives on the edge of our kingdom," she wailed. Mr Wilfrid tried to calm down his wife but she was beyond pacifying.

The child was named Armaros meaning ’The Cursed One’. No one wanted to love him, he was given goat milk and the blood of different animals as his mother refused to breastfeed him.

Armaros grew up to be a happy child. He always had a pleasant smile on his face even though people avoided him like the plague. His siblings refused to play with him and mostly he was left to fend for himself.

His ocean blues were full of warmth and sparkled like waves under a bright sun. His cackles filled the house as he wadded throughout the house on his tiny feet. He would go and hold his mother’s lacy dresses but she would always reprimand him and snatch her dress away from his tiny grasp, leaving him wondering what he did wrong.

"Bad Armaros, don’t touch me," she would scold with a wrinkled-up nose and scorned eyes.

He grew a bit and reached the age where he could communicate. He loved flowers and would occasionally bring them for his mother and sister.

"Mother! I brought you a flower," seven years old Armaros ran to his mother with a yellow daisy in his hands. She shot him a loathing look as he tugged at the helm of her skirt and held it out for her. She didn’t take it and walked away without a word.

The flower fell from his tiny hands and his ocean-blue eyes flooded with tears, which tipped out and flowed down on his chubby cheeks. His eyes trailed his mother, who walked toward her other two kids and smiled at them.

A smile so beautiful like the flower he had brought for her and yet it was never meant for him. He wiped his tears and went outside.

"Tsssk! Even Wilfrid Family has a cursed child," someone whispered behind him.

"That witch condemned our kingdom. We are not safe anymore. Our women keep birthing these pests," a handsome elf whispered to his friend.

Everywhere Armaros went, the whispers followed. People made way for him, no one wanted to be in his path. No one wanted to talk to an abomination. No one wanted to touch him or to be touched by him.

He peeked at their faces, hoping to find a single soul who would talk to him, but he found none.

~Clip-Clop~

The sound of a majestic open carriage painted white and golden was headed their way. The Royal family crest had been embedded on its side doors.

And then he saw her coming his way sitting inside the carriage. The daughter of the crown prince of their kingdom; Princess Elsaine.

In her baby pink fluffy gown with laces and bowties, with gold in her slightly curly hair which had been pinned to perfection and led down on both sides of her shoulders, she was the epitome of beauty. Her green eyes showed like emeralds reflecting the light rays.

"Awww! How beautiful is our princess," people revelled in her beauty and stood stunned, leaving their everyday tasks.

They were born on the same day and yet fate had been cruel to him and kind to her. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid his eyes on and his tiny heart fluttered at her sight.

’How could someone be so beautiful?’ he wondered not taking his eyes off her in case she disappeared.

The royal guards cleared the path and he was pushed back by their rough hands. The boy with blue eyes hit the dust, a million particles flew in the air and sparkled under the sun as her carriage passed by and their eyes met.

He offered her a small shy smile which she returned with a derisive one. She wrinkled her nose at him as if he was the same filth on which he had fallen. She held a hand fan and she covered her face with it, not wanting to breathe in the same air he was breathing.

Her head held high she averted her gaze and waved at the people who were gathering on the sides of the road to peek at their princess. His vision was obscured by several pairs of legs as people clamoured to watch her. No one paid him any heed. He was just a speck of dust in the sea of gems.

"Princess Elsaine! We love you."

"She is so perfect."

"What a beauty!"

People smiled and shouted at the princess as her carriage passed. Armaros slowly picked himself up and with a lingering glance at the disappearing carriage, he walked away from the crowd.

"One day, I will win the heart of my mother and the princess too. One day people will love me too as they love her," he whispered to himself and kept walking in an unknown direction. Unaware that fate had other plans for him, plans so cruel that the world will shudder one day.