Odd Family Reunion (special preview)

When I was young, family was everything. I was the eldest son and I felt it was my responsibility to look after everyone. None of us knew who our father was, or more likely fathers. My mother was a temple priestess and consorted with dark deities in order to give predictions and wisdom. From these sessions she gave birth to me, my brothers Odd and Emil, and our baby sister Ainsel. 

It never occured to me what a strange lot we were until my sister was born. My mother decided to quit being a priestess and we left the temple in the middle of the night. I was ten and mom was heavily pregnant. She didn’t want to give birth to another baby in the temple and she didn’t want us growing up there to the whims of the priests.

We ran first to the temple of oracles high in the Dormant Mountains where Mother had grown up. We were accepted in and it is there that Ainsel is born. I remember being around the oracles and how they doted on my brothers and me. Emil was always shy and wanting to hide, Odd loved it and welcomed the attention. It was different than the temple and I could understand why Mother wanted us to run. Here, they felt more like family, back at the temple it felt like we were merely tools or props and not real people.

“Tieflings have a hard time out there,” one of the oracles told my brothers and I. “It is best you all grow thick skins now.”

“How thick does a skin need to be?” Odd asked with wide eyes.

“Skin thickness varies all over the body,” Emil perked up at the chance to show off his strange knowledge.

The oracle smiled and tucked us in. “You’re very lucky boys to have such a brave mother,” she says. “You all will face hardships in the future, but you will always have one another.”

“Is that something you see?” I asked.

The oracle was strangely quiet and she snuffed out the lamp. As we lay in darkness I could hear Emil sniffling.

“Aemilius,” I whisper. “Are you crying?”

“Why are Tieflings considered bad?” Emil whimpers. “Why will people not like us?”

Odd scoffs. “Our dad is evil.”

“What?” Emil whimpers.

“Odd, shut up,” I snap at him.

Odd mocks me under his breath. “Make me, Blink!”

“Are we evil?” Emil asked.

I sigh and hit Odd with a pillow. “No. You’re not evil Emil.”

“I am for sure evil,” Odd laughed. “I’m gonna be so evil when I grow up. Just you watch. I’m gonna do things.”