Grann Desert...
I stopped aging when I was sixteen. That was... three years ago? Four? The point is, I'm going to end up like that girl Ena. I'm going to look like this for a few hundred years at the very least, won't I?
I can't keep this hidden from Ike forever. Sure, right now, he doesn't know I'm twenty. He doesn't know I'm older than him. But five, ten years down the line, when he's twenty-nine and I'm still looking sixteen, there's going to be some problems. Even if there aren't, I'm going to outlive him by far. If I stayed, I could easily watch over his grandchildren's grandchildren.
Grann Desert...
But beorc and laguz... hah. Who am I kidding? Ike isn't here. My only friend isn't here. I'll use the language I'm used to. Humans and sub-humans. They can't cope with the Branded. It's too much of a radical move. It's all the same to say they want humans and sub-humans living together in peaceful harmony. Is that so? I'm the product of that so-called peaceful harmony. When a Goldoan slept with my mother, that was this great co-existing at work. When I was raised by that awful woman, when I was told that my 'father' left my mother, that was this ideal in practice.
Humans. Sub-humans. If there's anything the two have in common, it's that they won't accept this. Someone has to be entirely human or entirely sub-human. It's as simple as black and white. Any differing shades of grey is blasphemy and both sides will make sure you suffer for it. Only Commander Greil took me in knowing what I was. Ike? Ike never learned.
Grann Desert...
Can it be true? There's others? Like me? I must admit that the idea was foreign at the time. But then... he showed me his brand. He told me that depending on what sub-human was in the blood, the different the type of brand. We, the ones with dragon blood, simply have the family rune branded on our face. But he didn't say anything about the beasts or the birds. Perhaps he's trying to pique my curiosity. I must admit, it's working.
It's hard to believe. That other people made the same choice my mother and father made and gave birth to a new generation of the Branded. I almost want to see for myself.
I don't want to leave Ike, though. Not yet. I'll wait until he grows suspicious about who I am. Until then, I'll stay by my friend's side.
Grann Desert... compared to my lifespan, it won't be long.