I nervously played with my silver hair; Lux had been gone for too long. She always did this and it made me panicky and nervous every time. I busied myself with making sure our camp was set up correctly and soon was sitting down again, nervously playing with my hair. I heard a wagon approaching and hid near our tent covering my face with my hair and pretending I was somewhere else. Some adventurer i turned out to be, I couldn’t stand going in villages because there were too many people and anyone other than Lux made my mind lock up and sent me into full on panic. I sat waiting for the wagon to pass, hiding beneath my lengthy hair. I counted to ten before peeking out to see if there were any more people approaching. I saw nobody else and sighed with relief. I tried getting up but ended up tripping over my hair. I flailed around for a bit before untangling myself and went to work straightening my hair again. Three more hours passed before Lux came back, I was ecstatic as she walked into the camp with cooking supplies and new clothing. As soon as she got everything packed away I grabbed her in a big hug.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re finally back” I said happily.
“Please set me down you’re making it hard to breathe” she said. I set her down and she noticed the knots in my hair. “Did you get tangled up again” she said mockingly.

I blushed and my skin glowed brighter. “N-no, I- I just tripped and- and got it messed up in some sticks.”
She sighed and started to untangle my hair. “You were hiding again weren’t you?”
I nodded.
She sighed again “Why do you want to go out and explore the world?” she questioned “Whenever a person approaches you hide away and you’re too afraid to go into any towns”

She was right and the thought made me upset. We kept having this conversation but I couldn’t change.
Lux looked at me before changing the subject. “How about we start cooking dinner, it’s already starting to get dark and we have hardly eaten anything today.”

I nodded, grateful that she had let the issue go. I helped out with the cooking and soon we were eating. We were just sitting there eating when a voice called out to us
“Hail friends” the voice called out. “Could I join in on your dinner?”
I was frozen with panic; I carefully set my now empty bowl on the ground and pulled my knees to my chest and hid under my hair.
I shook my head at Lux but she whispered to me “think of this as a learning experience”
I tried stopping her but she replied before I could do anything.
“Sure, come over its no problem.” She called out cheerfully. I glared at her from beneath my hair.
The man walked up to the fire and slowly sat down

Now i was curious, was he an elf as well? I looked for any sign of pointed ears but didn't see any. He didn't look like an elf of any sort, but only Ratlings, Goblins, Orcs and Elves were made unwelcome in most towns, he couldn't have been any of the others because he didn’t have any of their features. I guess he felt me staring at him and he looked over at me. I froze in embarrassment and fear. My skin started glowing brighter matching what my embarrassment felt like.

“Oh are you an elf too?” He asked “A Twilight Elf maybe?”
I shook my head and weakly murmured “N-no”
“Really, But your skin glows like one”
I squeezed my eyes shut before speaking, trying to build up my confidence “I’m a mix of Twilight, Ash and Pale elf” I said “What are you?”

That was pretty easy. It didn’t seem that hard. I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me. I cursed myself. No, no, no I can’t do it, I can’t talk to people
“Oh me?” he said “Well i guess I’m what you call a Shade Elf.”

He rubbed at his ear and I lit up blue before fading. In the place of where his ear had been were two black elven ears. His skin lit up as well and his skin turned darker.
I meekly acknowledged the change and went completely silent. Lux and the man talked for a while.
“Before i forget my name is Vasrun, what are your names?”
“I’m Lux” Lux replied “and this is Ashalanin” I weakly confirmed and wished he would leave soon.
They talked for a while. I kept looking out from beneath my hair. Vasrun kept glancing over at me. I shrunk away every time he looked over. They stopped talking and Vasrun stood up, approaching me.
“Excuse me could I talk to you for a moment?” He asked.

I panicked and glanced over to Lux.
“Oh, by the gods Ash, just go with him, he told me that he has something to tell you that can help you out” She exclaimed

She came over to me and pulled me up from the ground. She pushed me towards Vasrun and he led the way over to the river. He sat down at the edge and motioned for me to do the same. I hesitantly sat down far enough away that he couldn’t touch me. We just sat there for a while. I stared down at the ground and he just was gazing up at the three moons.

He started speaking suddenly “Lux told me some about you, you know. She told me that she is concerned for you”

I started in surprise. He noted my look. “She is. She thinks that it’s because of your past, you feel like the whole world is out to get you”

I moved away slightly. I didn’t want to talk about my past with anyone, especially someone I didn’t know at all.
He noticed me moving away and sighed “don’t worry I don’t want to know, some things should stay buried” he went silent again. We sat for several minutes before he began again “I know how you feel; I used to hide away from the world all the time” he glanced over to me “A bad thing happened to me a long time ago, probably about a hundred years now. I became the last of my kind on that day. I hated the world and blamed it for what happened, I hid away from everyone. I never trusted anybody, but then I met someone who showed me something that changed how I looked at the world”

I sat listening to his story. “Would you like to know what she told me that day?” I nodded slowly. “She showed me her past and gave me some advice. She said ‘sometimes you want to hate the world and that’s fine, but if you remember anything I tell you, it’s this. The best thing you can do… is let go’”
I looked at him doubtfully “what does that mean?”

“I gave her that same look when she told me that. I took her advice all the same and we parted ways. I didn’t know what she had meant until later when I thought about it, really thought about it. I think she meant to tell me that you can’t dwell on your past or you will come to depend on it.” He paused for a second gazing up to the stars “Here I want you to have this”

He took something out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was a card. It said:
  Order of the Nine.
“If you ever get in trouble rip that card in half and you will get help” he explained.
He got up and offered his hand to me. I shook my head and he nodded.

“Think on it before acting. That’s another piece of advice I find useful from time to time.”

He went back over to the camp and was soon gone. I saw Lux watching me in the distance. I waved to her and she waved back. I saw her go into the tent. I gazed at the moons reflected in the water and looked around. I saw metal shine on the ground and reached over to pick it up. It was a knife and wrapped around the hilt was a paper. I unwound the paper and it read Think on it. I thought about what I was going to do for a while. When I finished one of the moons had already set. I knew just what to do now; I took my hair and cut it. I kept cutting until most of it was gone. I held my disconnected hair out before me feeling conflicted. Part of me felt horror and shock, but another part, a part I hadn’t known existed, felt free. I finally let go of the silver strands and watched as they fell into the river. A single tear fell down my face as I watched the strands flow away like pieces of moonlight. He was right the best thing was letting go.