Changeling
Legacy Name: Changeling

There has always been something missing, hasn't there? You cannot really explain it but there is an emptiness within you, something...wrong, but not really wrong, it doesn't hurt its absence is... just there.

It is all too easy to ignore this small feeling in the world of humans. Each day you feel the warmth of your relationships, the taste of food in your mouth, the stress of your job or school and between all of this experiencing you hardly ever even get to think about the feeling that sits in the bottom of your gut, but it is there, persistent even though not perceived.

When you were young, you used to sneak out when it was storming and dance in it. The raindrops made intricate patterns on your skin, the lightning was your spotlight, and the thunder was a distant beat. You would dance until your parents would scream at you. You learned to be afraid of thunderstorms and their unpredictability. Now that you are older you stay inside, bundle up, and drink a warm drink and smile with your friends. That is what people do, after all. Every once in a while you allow yourself to open a window during the rain just for a moment to feel the drops against your face and you yearn. It is just nostalgia.

You used to have dreams so vivid, you could swear they were memories. Blinking lights, sweet songs, surrounded by friends that you could not see but knew were there enjoying the last few moments they had with you. If you thought hard enough you may just remember where these friends lived. Just imaginary friends, you learned. Just dreams, they taught you. Now you dream in hazes and forget them when you wake up, you live in the here and now and take each day as it is presented to you not as it may be.

It was Halloween, one of the first Halloweens in which you would be allowed to pick out your own costume, definitely a momentous occasion. Your parents obviously had an idea of what they thought you would choose as they led you down the aisles of pirates, ghosts, and zombies. As you turned the corner, you stopped, transfixed. Maybe it was the bright colors or the glitter, but something about it grabbed you and wouldn't let go. You approached the fairy wings, ran your hands over them and made your choice excitedly. Your parents looked at each other and in retrospect you think that they might've recognized the something in you too. That year, despite your protests, you were a pirate. Funnily enough, you never went back for those wings.

One day in the near or far future you will accomplish everything you have ever wanted to accomplish and when you do, that is when the feeling will be at its worst. Despite the wonderful memories and people you will still feel like something is missing. You will be confused, you will be able to tell yourself you are being silly and it will work for a time. But then finally, you will admit that you were never meant to be here forever.

They will return for you then- the ones you forgot. They will come under the cover of thunderstorms and for the first time in a long time you will step out into the rain and dance. You will finally be able to see them again and you will realize that you have always known. Then comes the hardest part.

It is time to come home. They will tell you.

But home is both here and there. There are people who love you and you love them and the little human things you have collected over the years have meaning to you. You think of your parents, how they loved you even when they knew. What will happen with you gone? They will have no closure, just...a feeling.

You will have to make a choice and it will be final. You will cry as you make it but they will not judge you. When the rain stops you will either be gone with them or they will be gone to never return. You will either leave unanswered questions behind, or live with a "what if" of your own.

That is the tragedy of the Changeling.