Leafia's POV
I really did not want to ever return to this village. I wanted to just go back to the human village with Emily and Gray but Laurel had a point. There were some things I had left behind. I was packing light after all. I did not want people to know that I was running away.
I was only a few years old when my mother passed away. She was pregnant with her second child but they both passed away shortly after my brother's birth. I was only 10 or was it 12 at that time. I can barely remember them.
In my father's eyes, I was old enough at that point that my father did not feel the need to leave me in anyone's care while he went to work. I was left alone all day to wander the village, going further and further from home. When my father learned that I was not just sitting and meditating or sewing all day when he was gone, he was furious. I tried to change to be the girl that he expected me to be, but it was too late. I found that I could not stay locked up all day.
Even with having free rein I did not have fond memories. Many of the other kids knew my father did not approve of me being out of the house. I would just be in more trouble if I told him people were picking on me. All he would care about was that I had left the house. The bullying grew to be awful.
As I entered the village the looks I received were painful but I did my best to ignore them as I headed to my house. I do not know why but I knocked on the door when I got there. I guess that goes to show I did not really think of this as my home. I was not surprised at all that there was no answer. Father was never home.
Reluctantly I headed inside the house and packed up my winter clothes that were folded up in the back of the closet. I looked around the room. There really was not much else there. The room was even less adorned than some of the inns that we stayed in. Not even a little doll from when I was a girl. I had no one show me how to make them. Seeing the barren room made me depressed.
I did a quick tour around the kitchen to see if there was anything that I would need. But we had procured all the needed equipment along the way so it was fine on that front. I thought about packing some food. After a quick look at the food stores I realized that this would not work. The thing is Elves did not go on adventures. They had no need for field rations. The closest thing I saw was a cache of nuts and some potatoes. But neither of them were all that great for traveling. And they would be just as easy to get in the human village. Also, this would feel much more like stealing. My father had procured that food. I did not want to give him any reason to think that I owed him anything.
Well, since I had already grabbed my clothes and since there was no food to pack, there was really nothing else keeping me here and I might as well head out. I should feel something leaving my home for the last time, even if it was the second time I had thought this. But all I felt was an empty echo inside me. Time to go.
Right as I put my hand out to open the door the handle moved on its own. I looked up to see my father standing in the doorway. I froze in shock not knowing what to do. Of all the people in the village he was the one I least wanted to see.
"Can you get out of the way," he said coldly, ripping me out of my stupor.
I hastily moved to the side to let him enter. It should not have hurt that he did not say hello or glad to see you. I never expected such a reaction from him but there was still a pain in my heart. I was gone for more than a month and the only acknowledgment that I got upon coming home was that I was in the way.
"I won't be staying," I said, fighting hard to keep the quiver out of my voice. "I just came to grab a few things before I set off with Laurel, I mean the Forest Mother again. We are setting off from the human village first thing in the morning."
"I see. You are running away again," he said coldly as he walked into his bedroom.
"I did not run away!" I shouted full of rage. It was true that I was going to run away. But I didn't. I was helping Laurel. This might not make any difference to this sorry excuse for an elf but it made a big difference to me. I was not running from here. I was going to make my home with people who cared about me and accepted who I was.
"If you did not plan to run away, why did you take so much with you the day you left?" he said, sneering at me. "It is just a happy coincidence that the Forest Mother moved right when you were going to run. To me you might as well have run away. I feel shame just thinking about what you were going to do. I do not want to see you in this house again. The only reason I have not told the village elders is to not bring shame to our family."
Why was it that nothing I ever did was good enough to please him, I thought as my insides writhed with anger. "Our family? You never once treated me as family." I glared back at him. There was some shock on his face. I don't think he ever imagined the day would come that I would finally stand up for myself and point out his selfishness and conceit. "You are just trying to make sure that people look at you with respect. This was never once about me. You are just happy that you do not have to invent a coverup story. Why could you never treat me as your daughter?"
"Why would I treat you as my daughter? You have never done anything but disgrace me." He spat on the ground.
"If you do not like the way I have grown up maybe you should talk to the people who raised me. They must not have been up to your standards seeing that I am such a disappointment."
His eyes narrowed and his fist clenched. I stared at him with cold eyes. I could see him fighting with himself, deciding if he should hit me. Part of me wanted him to. I wanted a reason to hit back. We stared at each other for a minute before his fist relaxed. It did not seem like he had calmed down; it was more likely that he remembered that the only person in the village that could stand against me if it came to fighting was Istan. "Take your things and get out. I never want to see you again," he glowered at me.
This was the first thing he had ever told me that I completely agreed with.