Once upon a time, in a land far away filled with magic of all sorts, there was a type of creature called a Farlen.
Now, the Farlens looked like exceptionally short, skinny humans in shape, mostly. But that was where the resemblance ended. You see, they had shining scales of deep turquoise all over their bodies. And they had soft, downy feathers going down their backs, all of a similar colour. Their small hands and feet ended in long, curved claws of dark blue, but the claws were blunted and could do no harm. They also had a long, skinny tail that extended from their bodies and could curve and bend. On their heads they had a bowl. And in that bowl was a magical orb. This orb looked like a semi-translucent pearl. It was iridescent and shone soft swirling rainbows when the light hit it at just the right angle.
This orb was the source of all their power. You see, the Farlen had incredible strength and vigour. They also had the power to heal anyone or harm anyone to whatever extent they wanted to. And for this power, they were much feared. But this was not the only thing magical about them. The blood that they bled, when it hit the sunlight, would turn into a grand host of rubies, one ruby for each drop.
This land also had many humans in it, humans who built their towns and houses and lived their lives in relative peace and tranquility. These humans rarely saw any Farlen, for the Farlen secreted themselves in the forest and were rare to behold.
And so it was that a human man named Mark was walking along the forest path. He had left his wife and his baby child at home, and was going to the market in order to buy flour, and milk, sugar, and meat, and vegetables, and many other things.
The way to get to the shops in town cut through the woods. Now, usually this would not be a problem, but it is easy to get lost in the woods and on this day that is precisely what Mark did. He wandered through the trees, trying to find his way, but he could not. And he thought that he would die here, out in the wilderness, with no way to get home.
It was at that moment that a Farlen named Gray came upon him and asked him what he was doing. Mark saw the Farlen and knew that he had come upon a rare and treasured sight. He made a plan in his head about how to make the most of this encounter.
He told the Farlen that he was lost, and Gray pointed him out in the right direction in order to get to the town. Mark thanked the Farlen, and invited him over to dinner at the humble house Mark shared with his family. Gray graciously accepted and so the two beings went their separate ways.
Mark bought flour, and milk, sugar, and meat, and vegetables, and many other things from the shops. He also went to the herbalist and bought some very special herbs in order to make a potion that would send any being into a deep sleep after being ingested.
He then went back home to his wife, Shay, and told her of the strange encounter that he had. He told her of the Farlen and, most importantly, he told her of his plan. And together they prepared dinner for when the Farlen was to arrive.
Gray came to dinner and they all had a jovial time together, talking and laughing and joking about their lives. Gray suspected nothing, and ate the food that he was given with much savouring and appreciation.
But Gray began to feel more and more tired, and before long he was asleep on the dinner table, his orb exposed and vulnerable. Mark and Shay smiled, for this was exactly their plan. You see, they had put the sleeping herbs in the Farlen’s food, disguising it amongst many other flavours so that the Farlen could not tell.
They took the beautiful orb from his head and locked it inside a metal chest. This metal chest they buried out behind their house, under layers and layers of dirt. They were sure that nobody would be able to find the chest there. And once they were satisfied with their work, they went back in and waited for the Farlen to wake up.
When Gray finally did wake up he saw that his orb was gone. Terrified and betrayed, he tried to attack the couple. But without his orb, he was pathetic and weak. Mark caught him and pushed him down to the ground. While he was there, down on the ground, Shay tied him up with thick ropes so that he couldn’t escape.
They carried him to their cellar and they locked him there in the darkness. Alone, without his orb, tied in the cellar of strange and cruel people, Gray felt very afraid indeed. Very afraid and very hopeless.
The couple went into the cellar each day and they drew a bowl of the Farlen’s blood. Gray was too weak to stop them. He was too weak to do anything except bleed out into the bowl while Shay held a knife to his skin and flesh and Mark held him down.
The couple then spread the bowl of blood out into three large trays and they put them out in the sun. Each day they did this, and each day the scattered blood on the trays turned into many many red and shining rubies. They then gathered these rubies up and sold them, and grew richer and richer.
Their child, Charlie, had grown into a toddler by the time the couple had amassed enough money to buy a rich new mansion with its own fields and orchard. They took the Farlen and chained him up with real chains in the new cellar of their mansion. And they bought many pieces of furniture and many beautiful items to decorate their new house with. They also bought enchanted brooms and dusters and mops and rags, and ovens and stoves and pans and boards and knives, and washing buckets and washboards. These expensive enchanted items would do all their housework for them, so that they did not have to lift a finger.
Every day, they unlocked the door to the cellar and harvested from poor Gray a bowl full of blood.
Gray was hopeless by this point. He thought that there was no way that he would ever become free. He thought that this was his life now, and this was all that he would have for all of his days and for the whole of his future. He sank deeper and deeper into a great, all-consuming depression as his will to live faded from his heart.
He tried to avoid eating the food that Shay and Mark gave him, so that he could die. But whenever he refused the food, they would beat him until he couldn’t move anymore. And so he had to eat their food. For he wasn’t strong enough not to.
Now, over the years little Charlie grew up into a child. They were a spoiled, demanding, obstinate child, because they had grown up with everything that they could ever have wanted. But deep within their heart was a piece that was thoughtful, that was kind, that knew innately that something was deeply wrong with the situation that they were growing up in.
One day when Charlie was fourteen years old, they were out exploring all the mansion grounds. There they saw the door to the cellar, locked with a large, thick, heavy lock. They grew very, very curious. For they knew that they were never allowed inside the cellar. Not under any circumstance. But they did not know why, and they did not know what was in there, locked away from all the world.
They resolved that they would go and find out. So, that night, when their parents were asleep, they oh-so-softly padded into the grand bedroom where their parents slept. Oh-so-slowly and oh-so-gently they cut the string around their mother’s neck, the string that held the key to the cellar. And they slowly, carefully extracted the key and walked off with it.
They opened the cellar door and went inside into the darkness, with only a small lantern to illuminate their way.
There they saw the figure of the chained Farlen, cowering against the wall. Something in their heart thudded in horror and sympathy. They knew that this was not right, whatever it was. And they knew that they had to help this poor being, who was so obviously so afraid.
They introduced themselves and promised that they meant the other being no harm. Gray did not believe it at first, but Charlie showed him that they were on his side by cutting their finger with the sharp end of the key and swearing a blood oath to him.
It was after this that Gray introduced himself, and told Charlie of all the things that had happened. He told Charlie about how Mark and Shay had tricked him and stolen his orb, and how they kept him chained up and harvested blood from him every day. He told Charlie about how miserable he was and how he wished he could die.
Charlie listened to his story and knew in their heart that it was true. They had also seen their parents putting a tray of red liquid out in the sun every day, and had seen that red liquid turning into rubies. They were horrified to learn what their parents had done, they were horrified to learn how they had gotten everything that they had.
They swore to Gray that they would set him free, however they could, whatever it took.
They asked Gray if he knew where his orb was. Gray replied that he didn’t, but that it was probably somewhere at the old house that the family used to live in before they moved to this mansion. Charlie promised that they would get the orb, and then they made a plan in their mind.
They snuck back to their parents’ bedroom and placed the key on the large, ornately carved bedside table. Then they went to their room and pretended to be asleep, the thoughts of Gray tumbling through their head in a terrible and screaming symphony.
When their mother woke up, she wondered why the key to the cellar was on the bedside table rather than around her neck. Charlie replied that they had found it on the carpet beside the bed and had put it on the table. Shay said that perhaps the string snapped and the key fell while she was changing. She thanked Charlie for placing it on the table.
Later that day, Charlie asked if they had lived anywhere before living in this house. Their parents replied that yes, they had lived in a humble cottage before they gained their wealth and moved to this lovely mansion. Charlie acted like they were very curious and interested in this house, and they asked if they could see it. Their parents replied that yes, they could, and took the youth to see the cottage later that day.
In the nighttime, when their parents were asleep, Charlie got a shovel, a bag full of tools, and a torch. They walked to the site of the old cottage and scoured its insides for any sign of Gray’s orb. They did not find anything, so they hunted the parameters outside.
There they found a patch of grass that was thicker and bushier than the grass all around it. Putting their torch out, they worked by the soft light of the waxing moon, digging and digging until they hit something hard. They excavated what they found and they lifted the metal chest out into the moonlight.
They shook the chest and knew that it must contain something special, and so they placed it in their bag and walked home, arriving just before dawn.
They pried open the floorboards under their bed with their tools and hid the box under their floorboards.
After breakfast, when their parents were doing their own things, Charlie locked themselves in their room and tried very hard to open the box. They tried breaking the lock, they tried sawing the lock, they tried breaking the walls of the box. But no matter what they did, they couldn’t open it to find the treasure inside.
They realized that they needed help. So, when their parents had left the house, they took the box, put it in their bag, took some gold coins, and went to the blacksmith. They asked the blacksmith if she could please open this box for them, and the blacksmith, named Sarah, said that yes, yes she could. Charlie thanked her profusely and handed her the gold coins that they had brought along with them.
Within three hours, Sarah had broken the lock. She gave the chest back to Charlie and they thanked each other and bade each other goodbyes and blessings.
Charlie rushed back to their house, with the broken lock and the chest safely hidden in their bag. When they arrived home, their parents asked where they had been. They answered that they were out playing with their friends in the town, and the parents took that answer at face value and believed it. For, what reason would they have to disbelieve their own child?
Charlie hid their smirk and went back to their room.
That night, on the third night of their adventure, Charlie carefully and gently stole their mother’s key again, now hopefully for the last time, and they snuck back to the cellar, clutching the chest with one of their hands. They opened the door and said hello to Gray.
Charlie and Gray opened the box together, and inside it they found the orb, as smooth and as shiny and as beautifully round as the day that it had been taken from Gray. Charlie put the orb into the bowl on Gray’s head.
But there was a problem. The orb had been so long disconnected from Gray’s life force that it did not have the power necessary to give Gray his powers, and Gray was still weak. Gray told the child that the orb was not working, probably because it was cut off for so long from his life force.
The child was devastated, and vowed to do all that they could do help. For, you see, the child had made a blood oath to Gray that they would do whatever it took to free him. And so they had to do whatever it took to free Gray. No matter what. No matter the resulting cost.
And so Charlie put both of their hands on the orb. They closed their eyes and they concentrated. They concentrated on finding all their life force and letting their life force flow to the orb. They meditated very deeply, and they felt a steady stream of their life force leaving them, they felt a steady stream of their life force entering the orb.
They grew weaker and weaker. They sank down to their knees, and then they sat down, and then they lay down on their side, and then they lay flat. But still they kept holding on to the orb. Still they kept transferring their life force to the orb. Gray sank down with them, and finally he lay down with them, so that Charlie could keep their hands on the orb.
Finally, the orb flowed with Charlie’s life force. The orb flowed with life force. And because it flowed with life force, it was strong enough to connect to Gray’s life force and flow with the life force from Gray, the wheel of life and energy and magic and power ever turning.
Charlie was almost dead, but not quite. They held onto their life with both hands as they lay there on the ground, weak and exhausted and struggling against all odds to stay alive.
The first thing that Gray did with his newfound strength and power was to break the chains holding him captured. With many great hard twistings and wrendings, all the chains lay shattered and broken on the ground. Finally, finally, Gray was free.
The second thing they did was to use his powers of healing to heal Charlie. He healed Charlie and gave them back their life force, for now Gray had his own to flow through and power the orb. Charlie quickly got stronger and stronger, and soon they could stand upright on their own as if they had never become weak to begin with.
Charlie and Gray emerged into the soft silvey light of the full moon and there, outside the threshold of the cellar, they smiled at each other. Their smiles were joyous, victorious, and full of love for each other.
Charlie asked him what he would do now, and Gray explained his plans to the young teen. Charlie listened to them intensely.
Gray went into the house where the mother and father of Charlie, Mark and Shay, who had caused Gray so much misery, lay sleeping oblivious to all the events that had happened on the grounds of their mansion that day. Gray strode into their room and he used his powers to kill them both.
Gray felt no sense of remorse at having killed them. For they had killed his spirit, his hope, his freedom, and his will to live. They had drained his blood again and again and again and again. And they would have continued doing so for as long as they lived, if Charlie had not interceded.
Gray told himself that he was strong now. That he would never let anyone take advantage of him again. And he was strong now. Much stronger than he had been that first day that he had gone to dinner with Charlie’s family. And he was much wiser too. He would do whatever needed to be done in order to protect himself and the people who he loved.
He knew that he did not deserve yo be chained up all those years. No-one deserved to be put through what he had been put through. And he knew that he had to get revenge. For revenge was what his heart was calling out for. And he knew he had to make it so that the evil of Mark and Shay would be gone from the world forever.
He then went back to where Charlie was waiting for him, wearing their shoes. The two of them exchanged some soft words to each other. And then, together, they walked off into the night. Hand-in-hand. Underneath the silver light of the full moon that coated the dark blue landscapes all around them.
They walked away from the horrible cellar where Gray had been trapped. They walked away from the large, fine mansion where Charlie had been raised. They walked away from the corpses of Gray’s captors, Charlie’s parents. They walked away from all of it, from all that their destinies had laid out for them.
And they walked towards the forest, wild untamed and free. And they walked hand-in-hand. They walked together.
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