10. Something Worth Calling

10. Something Worth Calling
It didn’t take Pierre long to discover that I was the Crown Prince, nor did it take long to see how I was being treated. At one point he nearly got into a full-blown fight with Taewon when he demanded that I be treated with the upmost care and respect since I will one day be their king, but before the fight could escalate, I stopped it with a calming force that I didn’t realize I had used against them.

Just as it had just been with Cho Cho back in the stables and when they discovered what I had done, no one would come near me and it left Pierre confused. I was afraid I may have lost the only friend I was able to make while on this journey.

It’s now been a month since we started traveling together and while he was reserved around me, he didn’t ignore my existence like all the others. Even though him and his companions were ridiculed and laughed at by the nobles and some of the guards of my people they all took it in stride as if this was something they dealt with every single day.

But even their treatment was better than mine was.

While every night I had to eat alone and sleep further away, the French had started to join me, even though they were cautious it felt nice to have someone to be around at night and it was less lonely. We had made our own little camping circle and I was grateful for that. At least they spoke to me.

I had asked Pierre if we could speak in their tongue since I never got to use it. Hearing my request won me points with the four of them and every chance we got I honed my skills in the language.

Then one night Pierre asked me the dreaded question I was hoping he would ignore. We were sitting around the small fire, while Lumiere roasted two rabbits on a stick. Julien softly played a flute and Jacques stared into the flames looking as if he was ready to pass for the night.

“Why is your name Jilsaeg?” Pierre quietly asks next to me.

Hearing the question everyone stops and looks over to us.

Swallowing with difficulty, I say, “I think it’s pretty obvious.” I stare into the flickering blaze of the fire afraid to see the pity in their eyes.

“I have been meaning to ask, is it true what the nobles are saying about you? That you were born from the fang beast that bit your mother?”

My fingernails dig into my palms, trying to calm my racing heart. “My mother was heavily pregnant with me when the Lycan attacked her. She was bit and only kept alive to birth me. My father, the king, was hanging onto the hope that the poisonous venom of the beast would have left me alone, but the night she was to take her first shift she went into a forced labor. I was born with these eyes and because I have these strange…abilities, I was named Jilsaeg.”

Pierre suddenly breathes through his nose with heat. I look up at him to see the anger blazing in his eyes as he looks anywhere but at me. I didn’t know what he was thinking and after hearing my story we all went back to our own thoughts.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Pierre walks up to me and stares me down with a look that showed purpose. I was currently feeding Cho Cho a carrot before we were to head off again, but sensing something in his aura I knew there was something he wanted to say.

“Azure.” He says bluntly.

I blink with confusion. “What?”

“That is to be your new name.” He grunts with satisfaction.

I frown, not understanding. “Azure is the french word for blue, like a cloudless sky.”

“Exactly. You’re not defined because your eyes are violet. Nor are you an abomination.”

I face him fully, feeling the pull of something I have never felt before. “But why Azure?”

“Because like the blue cloudless sky your spirit holds a calm peace that accepts oneself. You don’t let your nature, nor your abilities to hinder you. Regardless of how others treat you, you accept who you are and that is why you stand out more than the others. Your kind, generous, and trustworthy to a fault. You could have treated us differently, but you didn’t. I have met many others that were shunned by their own people and still looked down on me and my brothers. But you didn’t. You accepted us with no reservations.”

He then looks up at the sky, that was surprisingly clear blue today. “Like a cloudless blue sky, it accepts all.” He looks back down to me and smiles. “And that is you. Which is why from here and out, we’ll be calling you Azure.”

My eyes begins to water and I blink them rapidly. No one had ever said anything like that to me. Not even Hye-Si Young, not this deep anyways. But to have someone like Pierre to give me a new name with purpose and meaning, I just didn’t know what to say.

Azure.

A name I will hold my head proudly to be called.