I was born looking human in a community of those most call Unwanted. They treated me kindly and rarely mistreated me for my appearance. Save for a few with grudges who learned quickly it was wrong. So why do so many who look like me treat them so badly just because of how they look? -- Anon Guest
I grew up in ShadowCluster. A tumbledown community wedged into the crevice of Halgal Cliffs, the edifice that gave the city Myncloch its name. The crevice was too unstable to mine, but fully stable enough to shelter Myncloch's ghetto. Here there be Unwelcome People. People who are criminals just by existing.
I was six years old before I saw the sunshine without my mother hovering nearby. By then, I was old enough to wear the artificial horns and the mock tail that made me look like all the other Hellkin in ShadowCluster. I, like many Hellkin, learned to run home fast if I saw the City Watch.
I was eight when I learned I wasn't a Hellkin.
There were others like me who had brownish skin and freckles. There were others like me who had soft, thick hair. There were even a few who never grew their horns, or who had eyes with a pupil and iris. Nobody else was missing their tail.
And I learned why my mother was so afraid whenever I left our little apartment. Why she was so relieved when I returned to her. Why everyone else in ShadowCluster looked at me like that.
I was a Human in a ghetto that was mostly full of Hellkin.
I was taught to be wary of the Watch because the terrace people took Human babies off of Hellkin, on the presumption that those babies were stolen. Just like the abandoned Hellkin babies near ShadowCluster as some demented variant of fair exchange.
I knew why a few vendors glared at me when I tried to shop alone.
And it's why, to this day, I know conversational Voulspeak.
That's why I could speak to that so-called 'devil', Paladin. It's why I don't trust you to this day.
I'm not one of you. Not in my heart and soul. I've seen what people like you do to Unwelcome People. I've seen your bad side up close.
And it is ugly.
[Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash]
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