Part I: The Feud

Chapter 2

Blue Boy

A long, long way back…a little boy lived in a normally peaceful community of magical people, where he decided to go out for a walk…alone. He felt a bit nervous…for two reasons. In first place, this was something he'd never done before; he would always have an adult with him. In second place, he looked rather different from everyone he knew. He had some similarities: large, bright eyes, pointed ears with stripes, and dressed in long robes. But this child was anything but the same as the others: for some odd reason, he was born with bright blue skin and an abnormally large nose. He never really minded this though, and was still a perfect child to his parents.

Little did he know that this would all change that day.

At one point, he grew rather curious and wandered into an unfamiliar part of the village. Here, many people seemed to just stare at him, some of which looked horrified. This made him a bit more nervous, but he kept going onward. Soon enough, he found a small, rocky pit with a group of children chatting amongst each other. Very curious, the boy slowly approached them. It was the first time he saw other children. But before he could even wonder what they were doing, one child looked up at him and whispered something to the others. Then they all seemed to glare up at him, making him feel a bit intimidated.

One rough-looking boy dressed in green robes floated out of the gathering and pointed at him. "Just who do you think you are?" he growled.

The blue-skinned boy tried not to look too nervous. "I-I'm sorry…I d-didn't mean t-to d-disturb y-you all…" he stuttered, unable to control the tone of his voice. "I-I'll just leave if you w-want m-me to…"

"Leave?" replied the boy in green robes, who the blue-skinned boy assumed to be the leader of the group. "You should consider leaving the planet, parasite!" the other children laughed wildly.

"Look at his giant nose!" cackled another child.

"He must've pasted it on his face!" taunted another one.

He then realized that these children were older than him and did not welcome him, as well as how different he was from them; they all had deep brown fur covering their skin, while his bare skin was blue! And his large nose…none of these children had anything like that. But what really stunned him was the sudden realization that there wasn't a single colored hair on his head. He wanted to make a run for it, crying on the inside…yet he refused to show this on the outside.

"Cut it out, all of you!" he shouted. A silence then fell among the group. "Look, if you don't want me to be here, then fine, I'll just go home!"

"Go home?" smirked the leader. "We think not; you clearly don't know us, alien parasite. In this club, our goal is to eradicate any non-Galaxy Wizards from our colony. And for a giant-nosed, blue-skinned parasite like you…" he grabbed a large stone from the ground, "you're a shame to our race!"

Now was when he began to trail away. But then, he felt something pelt him in the shoulder and knock him to the ground. It was the group's leader throwing that stone at him with full strength. "Don't let him get away!" the leader ordered the rest of the children.

Now the boy began to panic. He rushed to get up, feeling more rocks hit him, especially in the back of the head. One struck directly behind his left ear, which felt very sharp and made him scream. Yet he managed to get back up and make a run for it before any of the children could catch him, tears in his eyes. He made a direct run home, not caring if anyone saw him.

"Pheonyx, are you sure that was a good idea to let him go alone?"

"He'll be fine, Tyama. He'd never wander too far."

"But you know him! He's always curious about everything; he could get distracted easily! He might even run into the Galaxy Mages!"

"He would never wander that far, darling. And besides, he has other Galaxy Wizards to aid him. Who could possibly-"

"MAMA! PAPA!"

The boy's parents snapped out of their argument to see their young son with a face covered in tears, one of the last things they wanted to see.

"Hyness!" both parents exclaimed.

Their son, Hyness, ran into their arms as quick as he could, eyes like waterfalls.

"Son…" began his mama, "what happened to you?"

"The Galaxy Mages didn't do this to you, did they?" his papa wondered aloud in slight anger.

"No, Papa, it was other wizards!" Hyness wailed. "They threw rocks at me!"

His papa looked to his wife. "Tyama, do you mind heating a bit of milk for our little prince? He feels cold."

She nodded before heading out of the room.

Hyness' papa took his son -or prince as both parents often called him- to his room, where they both sat on Hyness' bed. "Tell, son…" his papa began, " what exactly happened out there?"

Hyness sniffed, wiping his eyes with his long sleeves, and proceeded to tell his father in a broken voice. He teared up as he spoke, especially at the point when the other children called him a "parasite" and a "shame to their race."

"When I tried to run away from them and get help, they started throwing rocks at me!" Hyness concluded. He then buried his face into his papa's cloak and broke down into a sobbing mess.

Right then did his papa see just how bad this was; cuts and scratches were all over his head and ears, and dirt on the back of his cloak. But what really upset his papa was a huge open cut behind his son's left ear, as if it was hit with a sharp object. It was bleeding more than the rest of his wounds combined.

"Why those children…" his papa grumbled, "I'll curse every one of them if they do anything like that again!"

"Now, now, Pheonyx…" Hyness' mother walked in, "Don't get too angry; we'll figure something out later."

At the soothing sound of his mama's voice, Hyness pulled his face out of his papa's chest to gaze up at her, still crying a bit. She held a damp rag and a roll of bandages in her right hand. In her left, she held a bottle of her son's lifelong comfort food: milk. Hyness' eyes sparkled at the sight of it, no longer in a weeping mess, although still slightly teary.

"Here, Hyness." she offered him the bottle. "Have a bit of milk to calm yourself."

Without the need to question, Hyness took the milk bottle, lifted it to his invisible mouth, and began drinking it quietly and slowly to savor every drop, feeling the warm, creamy, delicious liquid trickling down his throat. As he savored the rich liquid, his parents cleaned the dirt and scrapes on his head with the damp rag, followed by bandaging the open cut on his left ear. It felt rather uncomfortable for Hyness when they cleaned off his head, and nearly unbearable when they did the same to his ear, making him tear up more, but he didn't fuss and stayed focused on his milk. By the time the last of the bandages were wrapped, his bottle was empty. Hyness' mama took it from him and both parents brought him into a warm hug, drying away his remaining tears.

"Don't let those children bother you, son." his papa told him. "You're the best child we could ever have."

"You're perfect in every way possible." added his mama softly.

Hyness nodded, comforted by his parents' words, and let out a small yawn. His parents pulled the blanket of the bed out and let Hyness lay on his back, drawing the blankets over him. His papa gently stroked him behind his right ear as he gazed at both parents with sleepy intrigue. Beneath the blanket, Hyness pulled his hands out of his sleeves and placed them over his full tummy, feeling it give out a small, quiet groan of satisfaction. He felt the warm milk inside of it, warming his entire body, lulling him to sleep. He enjoyed the feeling of this and the strokes behind his ear until he dozed off into dreams.

Over the next few days, despite what his parents had told him, Hyness was far too afraid to go outside at all, even with his parents. The last thing he wanted was to run into those children again; who knew what they would do to him? He didn't even want to think about that. The closest he would get to the outdoors was peering out the windows of his home. He greatly feared that he could never go outside again without fainting at the sight of those children. But luckily, his parents came up with an idea. The whole family made up a game to search the house of any scrap fabric they could find, and Hyness' mama made him a long hood out of them to cover his face. Although that face was very precious to his parents, they knew that this was what he really wanted.

At first sight, Hyness liked the idea, but felt a bit unsure about it. But when he tried it on, requiring a bit of help in the process, he thought he looked wonderful; the white cloth and gold trimmings matched his robes perfectly, so it barely looked like a clear disguise. Along with that, it made his face look much darker with only his golden eyes visible. In a mirror, he could almost mistake it for someone else.

Perfect! Hyness thought. I'm sure that no one will notice me now.

And that was what he thought for many years to come.

A/N: so, at this point in the story, I tried to make Hyness…let's say a 4-year old boy, and as cute as possible. That being said, he doesn't have the weird chameleon eyes like he does in the game. Man, those eyes gave me a heart attack…I think I might be traumatized.