Mount Apikuni go then, there are other worlds than these

Grezig's fears were not misplaced. The thought that he might turn into a foul creature that sought only revenge was closer to the truth than anyone would ever know. There were things that boiled under the surface of the savage young boy that seemed to have roamed the earth for thousands of years. It was just under the surface of a composed facade. Illidan knew, though, and he felt all of those things within him. He merely lacked the ability to be able to act on them. The life had been sucked from his bones. The hooded child knew nothing of what would happen to him, or the others that traveled alongside him. He knew only that there had been one constant in his existence, and that was turmoil.

When Grezig spoke, it seemed that she used words filled with passion. Illidan squinted at her, watching her features contort in concern and then determination. He had never seen expressions like that before, and so he did not know what they meant as well as he should have. His own parents had only ever been wild to him, and so he knew only the feral nature of existing the way they were intended.

Her words should have touched him. They should have made him feel as though he had finally found a home that would accept him.

Instead, they made him feel worthless.

Clenching his jaw tightly, Illidan turned his gaze away from her and his frame stiffened. He could no longer stretch himself out in a leisurely position. No, he was forced to sit up and swallow the heavy pill that was being forced down his throat. The more that he got to know the wolves who had taken him in, the more he had started to realize that he did not belong there. Illidan was not like them; he did not possess the same kindness – the same caring spirit – as they. While he should not have been able to realize such things at his age, it was beyond the point of simple understanding.

The nature of a savage was embedded in his marrow.

Kindness did not have a place in their world. Illidan may not have known much, but he knew that the earth revolved beyond their control. And there were things that could never be changed or rectified. Grezig was a logical being, but she did not see things the way that he did. Perhaps, there would not be a soul who could.

When the boy finally returned his hawkish gaze to the woman, it was without expression or emotion. He had fought against the anger once more and had managed to smother it down. Still, he felt as though her words required some kind of response. Swiveling a single ear atop his crown, the boy in the dark hood shook his head and breathed a sigh. “I would have left me,” he admitted to her in a voice that shook with the weight of his repressed fury. After all, hadn't he left his family already? Not because they were weak, but because he believed himself to be more capable than they. In some ways, he had been correct. It was not the child's body that had washed ashore some decrepit lake.

“I don't know if that makes you better than me, or worse.”