Hiraeth

The Earth under me was cold. Grass tickled my nose and painful screams could be heard coming closer. It took me a moment to remember I hadn’t been forced to sleep outside again. I could sleep in my cupboard, with my torn teddy and spider friends. I felt scared and sat up looking around. People were screaming at each other and I couldn’t understand what was happening. My body wouldn’t move as I saw fire heading towards me. I was dragged out of the way but not quickly enough. My leg was on fire and the person who saved me put it out. The man had long hair and smelled a bit, but so did I. He was wearing funny green pyjamas that looked too big.

It took a minute of him running with me in his arms for me to realize I was getting kidnapped, though it probably would be better than living with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

“Damn it. We need to find a safe place to hang out. I don’t know where I am. Where are we?” The man’s voice was gruff like he needed water.

I shrugged my shoulders knowing better at this point than to verbally answer if it required yes, no, and maybe or I don’t know. 

He nodded his head as if he knew what to do. “Let’s get further away, I don't have my wand to heal you or defend us.” 

The world whizzed by as he carried me out of the woods evading the fire and people yelling, making the fire worse. Before I knew it, we were being checked out with other people and being waved a stick. I looked wide-eyed at the stick as the tip started to glow in different colours. The woman who held the stick frowned and walked away. I saw her frown looking agitated and concerned before talking to the man who had picked me up.

It was a while before anyone talked to me. The woman came back and started to ask me questions in a weird accent. I didn’t want to respond to them. She wanted to know where I was from and the last time I ate. I was fine, my leg just hurt a bit. After a while of her question that went on and on she gave up. There was cream put onto my leg and it helped a lot. The pain went away almost instantly. I sighed and closed my eyes. 

~~~

I must have fallen asleep at one point because I was waking up on a couch inside of an office with no windows. It was weird waking up to a small thing looking at me with sharp teeth and pointy ears. “I am King Ragnuk. I need a bit of blood from you to see who you are. So, we can find out where to take you.” I don’t know if it was him telling me what was going on with a serious voice or if it was because he was a King. I found myself nodding and a knife was sliding over one of my fingers and a few blood drops landed on a piece of thick worn paper.

Words started to show up on the page and the King took it and read it. He looked at me shocked and looked up to someone who was out of my view. I turned around and it was the man who had saved or kidnapped me from the woods. I wasn’t sure how I felt about any of this. I looked back to the King who looked like he was about to cry. 

“Alizeh, I promise you have the protection of the Goblin nation from this second forward. Sirius, Lord Black, Mother Magic has deemed you as Godfather and Magical Guardian for Alizeh Prince. She has also found you innocent of your crimes. I will place this in your files. I will also need to contact The Tribe,” The king handed over more papers than I thought he was holding to the man named Sirius.

“The Tribe exists?” Sirius whispered his eyes wide. It looked like he was able to take a shower and had a new outfit on. It also looked like he was staring at the door that should never open, opening. I looked between the two waiting for Sirius to get yelled at for asking a question.

“Yes, of course, The Tribe is real, there is a reason why we have them as a secret and myth. They are there to protect Naw O Fywydau. Kind of.” He shrugged his shoulders and walked away to his desk. He grabbed something and came back to me and handed me a small dagger. “You need to carry that around, never leave it lying around, and don’t let anyone know you have it unless you have to use it.” I nodded not knowing why he was giving me a dagger. 

Sirius on the other hand was giving him and me a look I didn’t know what it meant. “Are you sure my point of view is that she was just a baby six months ago, barely a year old? Here she is eight years old and all of this,” he waved around the papers he was handed. “I can’t let her carry around a dagger.”

“She needs to. You never know what will happen.” I shook my head and my ears were ringing. Their voices were muffled as if I were being held underwater.

My head felt like I had just taken a beating against it. “Do you know what is going on? Right now as we sit here safe in the Gringotts Bank? People are fighting for creature rights. They want to get rid of creatures and separate them from the rest of the wizarding world. Or at the very least run a registry for them. They will put Alizeh on this list and track her movements once she finds her soulmates or turns 14 whichever one happens first. My vision started to blur and the pain started to get worse. I whimpered and moved my hand to my head.

Sirius came over to me and waved a stick in front of me. “She is in a lot of pain, can we get her some pain relief?” I shook my head not wanting anything. It always made me sick up the few times that I was given medicine. 

“I don’t have anything that would help her. Given that she is Naw O Fywydau, if I give her what we take it will likely be poisonous to her.”

My eyes widened, was I that different from them? “I just need a good night's rest, I can sleep it off.” My voice was small and raspy from not using it since I was four. I closed my eyes and leaned into Sirius’ hand. It was soothing with him running his hand through my hair. 

Something cold was placed against my lips. “Modified Sleepless drought, no flobberworm mucus. She can’t have anything from an animal or she risks accidentally poisoning herself. She can have any type of reaction from sneezing uncontrollably to throwing up, to running a fever. You get it.” I drank the liquid and it felt a lot better down my throat and I quickly fell asleep.

~~~

What do you do when you wake up and relive it all over again? The Earth under me was cold. Grass tickled my nose and painful screams could be heard coming closer. It took me a moment to remember I hadn’t been forced to sleep outside again. The events of what happened just before I fell asleep, slowly made little sense as if that was a dream. People were screaming at each other and I couldn’t make out what they were saying and when I did, I had no idea what it was about. My body wouldn’t move as I saw fire heading towards me. I was dragged out of the way but not quickly enough, again. My leg was on fire and Sirius saved me and put the fire out. He smelled just as bad as he had in my dream or was it yesterday?

“Do you know what is going on?” I managed a ask in a small whisper.

“No.” He dodged a colourful light, “Damn it. We need to find a safe place to hang out. I don’t know where I am. Where are we?”

“America. Same as yesterday… I think.” He carried me dodging dozens of trees. We made it into a tent which looked smaller on the outside. Pain in my leg started to make itself known.

“What happened?” The same woman from yesterday started waving her arm around. “We better get you fixed up little one.” She went to grab me to pull me to the bed. I shook my head no. My fists holding onto Sirius pyjamas.

“You need to let her do an exam on you,” Sirius whispered placatingly.

“I always get sick when there is anything with animals in it. I was asleep for a whole month once and my aunt told me I needed to breathe properly or she was going to stick me outside because of the noises I made. That was the last time I tried a piece of bacon.” I whispered to Sirius not wanting to upset the lady. Sirius had fixed me up in the King’s office.

“That doesn’t sound right.” Sirius chuckled but I wasn’t getting the joke.

“Is she a creature or a full-blooded human?” The witch was stern when she started waving the stick around again.

Sirius looked at me, I could feel his head turn to try and get a good look. “Ask for The Tribe and King Ragnuk.” I knew I should say anymore a pit in my stomach made me unable to say anymore.

“She is requesting The Tribe and King Ragnuk. Is that possible?” His voice was low and the sound of several things clattered to the ground. 

~~~

A haughty laugh came from the Goblin who was looking at Sirius and me. At least that’s how I interpreted it, Sirius looked like he wanted to cover his ears and cry. “Young one it would just as I thought it would. The last-minute effort did save your life. You know you are very bright. Best Wixen the Goblin Nation has seen in quite a while.” He handed me the dagger from before. “We will look after the young one, now.” He looked at the woman who had been waving a stick at me.

“I think you should clue me in on what is going on,” Sirius said, his face not breaking from a mask of non-emotion. A man who I didn’t recognize or know spoke up.

“I second that statement King with no disrespect you know of our practices. Why would we take in a child and their magical guardian?” 

The King waved his hand, “When we get…” His nose scrunched before he spoke again. “Home I will explain and will have proof of what I speak of. I am not daft and know asking for anyone other than these two would be the cause of the breaking of a several-millennium treaty.” He looked over to me and then to my leg. “Good, they haven’t treated it. Fortunately, it will scar, it’s a proud thing for us Goblins we pride ourselves on the scars we get from war.”

Sirius scoffed, “You talk as if we are in a war, there are no current or past wars in America.”

The Goblin King tsked, “Lord Black, your wizarding world turns a blind eye to history. For this fact, you won’t be able to change what is or has happened because one can only be bound to repeat history if it is not known.” He was all right growling at the end of his speech.

~~~

It took several days for us to get settled in a tavern in Greece. There were lots of yelling from Sirius and the King until Ragnuk finally produced the paperwork done on them, again. It was something to get used to for sure. I didn’t speak Greek but The Tribe members were slowly teaching me every day. A routine was established I got up and ate ladenia, which is a flatbread with tomatoes. I worked in the garden and was taught the words for each vegetable. I then was brought into the tavern and had a history lesson, which was always confusing because Zeno was constantly switching between three different languages, English, Greek, and one I didn’t have a clue as to what it was. When he spoke no one was allowed to translate. I cried more than I had out of frustration. At lunchtime was either gemista, a stuffed vegetable such as a tomato, bell pepper, or potato, or fasolda, a bean soup. I went exploring after lunch with Sirius close behind me until dinner when I either ate a salad or a sandwich, my favourite was an eggplant sandwich. Desert followed right after and was always baklava because it was the only dessert I knew and it was instantly my favorite. The only thing that made me curious and upset other than the confusion at the language barrier was that the only person who gave me a high five or a hug was Sirius.

As the months went on I started becoming fluent in Greek and they started to teach me more about the wizarding world. As more practices and beliefs were explained to me, it became clearer why they kept their physical distance from me. There was an ancient practice that some Wixin still used and typically was for a pureblood to decide on their tenth birthday. They could decide whether or not to follow the Rite of Anima Mate. This was that only immediate family or Godparents could touch you and that you wore a white bracelet, for recognition. Not a lot of people did this as they thought it was silly and didn’t work. But it was respected nonetheless by others. I nodded my head at this. Especially, when it was told the history of Naw O Fywydau who didn’t follow the Rite, found their soulmates but by the time they realized it, they were lost. The Naw O Fywydau had passed away within two hours of realizing it. But no more information was given on how they died.