Fennrin is a shadowforger, a type of az-ari who have mastery over shadows. But all it's ever brought him is misery. People are afraid of the power that he himself barely understands, seeing his shadows as omens of bad luck and death.
Forced to bare...
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The next several weeks flew by in what felt like days as they kept going from town to town, helping out where needed, earning goodwill with the locals. And Fennrin had to admit, he did feel less and less unwelcomed as they went, the word clearly traveling ahead of them.
Even Snowflake was doing well, despite the fact that she wasn't young anymore, at least ten years old. Fennrin had had her since she was a kitten, but only for a year before the...incident. But he was immensely glad that Ain had stolen her away from his parents. There was something so comforting about having her around, and in the wooden, cushioned transporter box they'd acquired from a shop owner in Lor-Lyntera, she seemed to be handling all the traveling fine. Though she did often demand to be pet by loudly meowing upon stopping. That and a nice piece of fish did seem to always placate her.
But as okay, sometimes even pleasant, their trip had been so far, now Fennrin was filled with dread. Because they were about to enter the town Ainreth's family lived.
And yes, Fennrin knew he would have to meet them eventually. Though, maybe have to wasn't a nice way of putting it. Perhaps get to was better. He was sure they were lovely, but it was all just very intimidating. Surely, Ain's parents had already heard of him, and they were surely expecting great things. But when Fennrin put aside his az-ari abilities, he wasn't very impressive at all. He was simply a very average man, and not one with any money or remarkable feats to his name.
Ainreth kept telling him how his parents were going to love Fennrin, but he couldn't help but doubt that. What if they decided he wasn't good enough for their son? That would be a danger if there were two parents, but there were five. Five people he needed to impress.
Fennrin wanted to dissolve again. Just hide as a shadow until Ain gave up on trying to convince him to go through with this. But he couldn't do that. Hiding from this would just make Ainreth's parents think less of him. No matter how bad of a first impression he made, this one would be the worst.
And so he took a few deep breaths as they passed through the town gate, large and dark, keeping his head down, as if afraid that among the people who were now watching them, there would be Ainreth's parents, judging him.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't mess this up. He just couldn't.
He just followed behind Ainreth, not daring to look up, especially not once they stopped in front of a large, two-story house with many fir garlands decorating the door and windows. That did make him look up a little, wondering how long those lasted for. It must have taken quite a lot of time to get those there, and they would wilt eventually.
He remembered why he'd been so nervous when Ain in front of him jumped off his horse, walking to the door and, using the little metal knocker on it, he knocked twice. It didn't take long for the door to swing open, revealing a short, middle-aged woman with long dark hair hanging loose over her shoulders and a brilliant smile on her face when she saw Ain.
