Half Breed
Summary:
Half-elf, half-human children exist throughout Alagaesia. However, they have become skilled and cunning at blending in with whichever race they choose to live among. Brother and sister, Kirian and Aine, are two children born of one elf parent and one human parent. Time and tragedy cause the death of their parents, burying the secret of their children with them. Alone but for each other in the world, Kirian decides to go and live among humans while Aine sets out to live among the elves. Every tenth year, brother and sister return to their old home for a reunion. The adventures and experiences they share while apart cause them to realize how disjointed and scarred Alagaesia has become under the tyrannical rule of Galbatorix. Eventually, they set out to find the Varden and take part in the events unfolding in the Empire.
The idea for this story came from a recent Q&A with Christopher Paolini and :
Mike: Last question - Guest123 asks: Have half-elves (human/elves or otherwise) ever existed? If so, do any exist now?
Christopher: They have existed, although most weren't able to have children of their own. As for whether any exist now . . . let's just say that if they do, they would have become very, very skilled at blending in with whatever race (elves or humans) they had chosen to live among. Half-elves, half-humans have much-extended life spans, but they aren't immortal like full-blooded elves.
Prologue
Kirian and Aine stood over their parents' graves. Their father, buried on the right, had died many years earlier of old age. But their mother, now freshly buried on the left, had died tragically. Mistaking her for a deer as she ran swiftly, almost at a blur with her inhuman speed, though the forests at the edge of Du Weldenvarden, two hunters had shot her with their arrows. One pierced her thigh, the other her heart. When the hunters had discovered that is was not a deer but an elf, the men had run away in fear.
Wild lilies slipped from Aine's pale hand, onto her mother's grave. She and her brother were alone in the world. They were of two different races, yet belonged to neither. Since their birth, their mother had concealed and protected them well from others of either race.
"Half breeds, they will call us," Aine whispered.
Kirian took her small hand gently in his. "No," he insisted, shaking his head. "We will each choose one race to live among. We will blend in, be one of them."
"But what of our appearances?" she asked, raising her soft brown eyes to his handsome, strong face.
"What differences their are between them and us we will alter with magic," he explained to her.
She nodded her head, glancing away at the forest. "Where will you go?" she asked.
He pondered her question for a moment. "I will go to the humans," he finally answered. "And you?"
"I will go live among the elves," she said, her voice full of sadness.
Together they stood in silence, surveying the small dwelling where they had spent their childhood, a small dwelling sung out of the wood of a tree as all elven houses were. There they had spent countless nights by the fire, listening to stories told by their old father. Countless mornings they had awoke to their mother singing. But not anymore. What once was, was no longer.
"I will miss you," Aine said then, breaking the silence. Kirian turned and pulled her into his arms, giving his sister one last tender hug.
"Meet here, in this very place, every tenth year?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"Yes," she agreed, tears streaming down her face.
"Ah, Aine," Kirian whispered, releasing her to wipe away her tears with his thumb, "elves never cry."
"At least, not in front of anyone," she countered weakly.
"I shall miss you, sister-mine. Take care of yourself, Aine girl." He smirked, then amended, "Aine-elf."
"See you in ten years?" she offered, sniffling to keep more tears from falling.
Kirian hummed, his dark eyes appearing even darker as a shadow of sadness passed over them. "Ten years," he repeated.
"Atra du evarínya ono varda," she began the elven farewell.
"Atra esterní ono thelduin," he continued.
"Atra guliä un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse sköliro fra rauthr," she finished.
Kirian let go of his sister's hand and turned to walk away from the home he always knew, out of the forests, and into a land of men he had never known. Aine watched him fade into the distance before she too turned away and disappeared into the mists of the forest, away from the only home that she had ever known, on towards a race she had never lived among. And, thus, brother and sister wandered away in separate directions to separate worlds, each to live among a different race of people.
But every ten years, they would return.