Chapter one

fantasy

    I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was a woman’s face. She was blonde, had green eyes and a smooth young face. The woman’s face looked to be about 24. She was barely clothed. Next I looked over to my left and saw an older man. He had stubble that had just started graying. He also had red eyes. As well as slightly tipped ears.

    “Charles, look at our daughter, she's beautiful!”, the woman said. Daughter? But I'm a male. I look down at myself. There's nothing there. I try to speak to my newfound mother but all that comes out is crying. The man who seems to be my new father just walks away. Then I hear screaming, screaming from another baby. Then I pass out from tiredness.

    When I came to, I was in a cradle covered in a blanket of course fiber. The fiber felt like hand woven cotton. I looked beside myself and there was another newborn looking at me. This one had long elf ears and had red eyes. On my other side there was yet another newborn. This girl had kicked off her covers in her sleep and was wailing. Then came in a maid of some sort.

    “Oh, don’t cry mistress Callie, don’t cry”, she said. Apparently, the girl on the right was called Callie. She too had long elf ears. As well as violet eyes.

    Then my mother in fancy-bet-well-worn clothes came in. Then I cried to get my mother’s attention. She was holding a bottle in her hands and came over to me while asking the maid who seemed to be a friend of hers. She brought the bottle to my mouth, and I drank mouthfuls. I was hungry.  But there was something strange about the bottle. It was copper colored. Maybe baby bottles were made of copper in this world? That wasn't that strange.

    While I was talking the maid brought Callie to her now semi-bare chest. I just glanced at my bottle. When the bottle was empty my mother put me in my cradle. I reached out for my mother with my baby hands. I missed being more up and tall. She obliged and carried me up in her arms. I looked around while in her arms.

    “Aw little Zilleff wants to see the room”, my mother said. Apparently, I was named Zilleff in this world. She then said, “I’m bringing her out into the courtroom, she seems curious”.

    “Okay malady just doesn’t get in the duke’s way”, the maid responded.

    “Oh, Charles is silly he should see his first born even if it's she.” my mother said in response while smiling at me. We then went to a hallway outside the nursery we were in. The hallway led to a large room with an eye shaped table in the middle. I assumed this was the courtroom. It seemed we were interrupting a meeting seeing as my father was there talking to an elf. The elf in question had longer ears than Tolkien's elves, as well as dark black hair and red eyes. The elf seemed to use words like.

“Brother dear stop blathering, the births of three children from the Zallickan dynasty means a lot to particular no one in this dumb and stupid kingdom!”

    But my father simply said, “says you Calek, the rest of the dukes want my children married off to their own newborns or toddlers.” this meant nothing to me other than I was in a stupid feudal system world. I hated feudal system governments. They were based on nothing other than false power and bravado. But my uncle just said.

    “That is because your first born is related to the lineage of the old humans, which we all know is what all other races are derived from.” At this my father scolded and looked away, right at us. And his frown deepened. Calek just smiled and spoke 

“hello”. 

“Hello, Calek, how are you doing?”, my mother responded. I ignored them as they started talking about politics and I looked at my father.

“Why does she not have long ears?”, my father asked. He was looking at me while he said it. The scowl on his face seemed to bore into me and he came over to me. Then he held out his hands like he wanted to hold me. My mother complied and he held me in both arms. And squeezed me a bit. Like he was trying to figure out if I was real or not. He squeezed harder and harder until it started to hurt. I started to cry, very loud.

“What did you do to her!”, my mother yelled. He just shook his head and sighed, then handed me back not to mother but Calek.

“Why did you squeeze your daughter and my niece till she cried”, he asked. Father just left the room. After that Calek handed me back to my mother. Mother looked back at him with, was that love in her eyes? Was she in love with Calek? Well whatever, it mattered little to me right now. I’m a baby after all. Then mother took me to the hall and down to another large room. This one was not as large as the courtroom but there were people bustling about all over the place, but I couldn't see the main parts of the room. Just the odd person here or there. Although I smelled smoke and cooked pork and venison.

“Tallifa”, my mother called out.

“Yes malady?” an elderly woman called back.

“Oh thank god you’re here, what is for dinner?” she asked. They kept going back and forth like this till Tallifa noticed me in my mother’s arms. Then she asked if I could be held and got the go ahead. She then tickled my nose until I laughed.

After a heartwarming interaction with the cook, we left the kitchen and went back to the nursery. 

After that the maid came over to feed me. When another maid came in and said that the duke Charles wanted Zilleff or me rather to sleep in his room along with the other children he cared for. Me being a baby they had to bring my cradle. When the maids had moved me, and I was done feeding I fell asleep. Then I woke up to crying. It was Callie. She was the one crying and father had not come back to the room. It seemed he stayed up late. Then a woman in a nightgown came in. The woman had the same long ears that Callie had. Now that I saw her, she looked exhausted. Like she had just done a workout. Then came in father. He did not look exhausted. I think I know what happened. They were doing the deed and it woke up Callie.

“We woke up poor Callie”, said the woman who seemed to be Callie’s mother. She seemed a bit disconnected from Callie. Then came in another woman WHO WAS COMPLETELY NAKED, why the ever-loving Christ was she naked. Well, they had just done the deed. It seemed father was a bit strange. Well strange was the mild way of putting it. The person in question was the maid that had brought the cradle and alarmed the other maid that was about to feed me before I moved rooms. Strange, very strange, the simple fact that my father had multiple brides and could sleep with the other maids and not my actual mother was scandalous. I then passed out from tiredness.

The next day I heard father talking to mother through the wall. “You’re marrying off our 3-day old daughter to some random noble's son?”, my mother said

“Yes, yes I am”, father stated, “she is not of direct elf blood, so I am taking her out of the succession rights”. The rest of the day was just spent watching the maids and butlers grabbing my stuff which I did not know I had. Most of the stuff was presents from family I did not know, nor do I think I will ever know.

Then mother came with a regretful look on her face and said “now, papa wants to marry you off to a very young and kind boy. Huh, who am I kidding other than you? He's only 2 months old, not much older than you in the grand scheme of things.” she continued, “well at least you won’t have to worry about the royal court.” I personally saw this as a sneaky but obvious way of getting rid of me in the line of succession. I did not care other than that. Well maybe other than the fact that I had just been married off and I had no say in the matter, whatever.