“Yeah sure, I’ll come.” I say but the sadness in my voice can surely be heard.
“Let’s go now, we’ll walk together.”
As we go home everyone takes their usual place around the table. The guys are bragging to their parents about how well I did. Did they not feel the same panic that I did?
Where I feel ashamed they speak with pride, Jenna and Ian also brim with pride as they speak about how they found out how the entire town sees me as some sort of amazing powerhouse, apparently most of the people in town have said that they would like to see me in action, while the older more powerful immortals would like to test their strength in one of the sparring rings.
Today was traumatizing for me, how can what I see as a curse be a blessing in others eyes, I don’t know, I don’t particularly like being able to break the bones of an 800 year old immortal without even trying to. The evening went on and we spoke more. I explained to the family how I feel and how embarrassing it is, though they don’t see it that way.
“Laya, do you know how extraordinary you are, your gifts and powers are amazing. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, you fought with him fairly, and on a level playing field and you came out the victor, there is nothing to be embarrassed about, you didn’t even intentionally injure him, and it was an accident, besides when you saw him hurt, you even had the ability to heal him. That is amazing. Be proud sweetie and don’t let anyone else make you feel otherwise.”