A/N mild blood warning. Also time to shatter my boi

Thorn pulled his blouse over his shoulders, covering his torn up back. The blood had long dried, the scars didn't look like they'd ever heal, but they had surely seen much worse days.
The cuts were deep...far deeper than any wound of this size Fern had seen.

"What the heck happened to you?" Fern asked, rushing over.

"That's none of your business." Thorn hissed, with his usual less than enthused scowl.

Fern shook her head.
"I don't care if it's none of my business. You'd better tell me."

Thorn looked like he would snap at her again. But he didn't. He just looked down at the floor bitterly.

Fern put her hand on his shoulder.
"Thorn-"

"Are you an idiot?! That burns!" Thorn hit her hand hard and Fern pulled it back.

"I-I'm sorry..." she apologized immediately.

That was why he jumped whenever Carnation touched his shoulder or back...that must hurt, Carnation's touch was unintentionally harsh.

Thorn ran a hand over his five rings.
"Whatever...it's just from an incident with a...friend a long time ago."

Fern was quiet for a moment. She knew Thorn wanted her to leave, but maybe he needed this more than even he knew.

Fern took a moment to think.
"Does it have to do with your...adopted brother?"
Thorn had said they weren't friends anymore. And that he was his only friend. But how...Fern didn't know.

"I don't have an adopted brother." Thorn said monotone. He continued buttoning up his blouse. He was almost finished.

"Yes. You do." Fern insisted.

"I think I know my own family." Thorn snapped.

Fern grabbed the high heeled shoes from under her bed. That's what she came to get and if Thorn wasn't talking there was nothing she could do about it.

She lingered for a moment before turning towards the door to give Thorn whatever space he needed.
"If you're ever ready to talk I-"

"His name was Clover." Thorn's voice was quiet but strong. His hands trembled as he held them against the last button on his white shirt.

Fern, surprised at the response, took a seat on her bed, facing Thorn. This might be a long story.

"Clover was easily my favourite of my four siblings. Despite the fact that he was only a few years older I looked up to him as a real hero.
He was strong and loud, excited and bold, happy all the time...Clover was everything that I wasn't."

Thorn laced his hands together, and breathed in.
"I like to think that I was his favourite too."

Thorn wasn't crying at all, but his eyes seemed glazed, tired, dead.

"We would always play together as kids. Clover practically had to throw me onto the hay bails since I was so short." Thorn smiled sadly to himself as nostalgia flooded back in a wave.

"Our life seemed perfect." He said.

Fern interrupted in a low tone
"Did he..?"

Thorn seemed to snap back to reality. His eyes widening and posture straightening. He wasn't alone in this room...and maybe he wasn't alone in life...
"Did he what?"

Fern inhaled slowly and looked Thorn in the eye.
"Did he die?"

Thorn was about to say something like
'Unfortunately not' but he couldn't bring himself to. He clenched his fists and released.

"One day, when we were young teens, we went further in the field than we usually did. Right on the edge of the forest that I found you near."

Fern nodded. This happened near her old home. Maybe growing up Cliff knew Thorn. Small world, she thought to herself.

"Things were going fine. We were joking around and just being teenagers. Until suddenly Clover stopped. It wasn't like he ditched me or anything. He just froze there for a solid minute. Completely unresponsive."

Thorn shook his head, lost in thought.
"He never ignored me. He was my best friend."

Fern sat in silence, she knew it would all be downhill from there.

Thorn sat in the chair in the room's corner. He was leaning forward and Fern could see his back.
With his blouse on, the wound was hard to see, but if you were looking for it you could make out a dastardly scratch in the way the slightly transparent material seemed a slightly darker colour than it usually did against Thorn's pale skin, or the way the cloth folded ever so slightly inward.

Perhaps this explained why he wore so many layers despite the fact that it wasn't too cold out.

Fern put a hand to her head.
All these little things, quirks, they could mean absolutely nothing...or they could explain everything.

"I asked Clover if he was okay." Thorn said.
"He didn't answer until I had insisted on taking him to the local doctor. He grabbed my hands and told me in a very serious tone that he wished to run away into the woods."

"I told him no. But he persisted, saying that it was to 'save' him and 'end the wars'.
I told him he was crazy. But he just kept repeating his request over and over. His grip on my hand tightened with every repetition, it was like he was begging me, but his tone of voice...like a broken record. You see..."

Thorn looked at his hands. Their long, white, silk gloves. He shivered and quickly moved his hands from his sight.

"Clover always wore the leather gloves mother and father bought him for Christmas. So when he squeezed my hand I could feel that leather almost burning against my skin.

It wasn't the pain, it was some amalgamation of fear and trust that made me finally promise my half-brother
'I'll do anything for you.'

So Clover started running towards the forest. Faster than I'd ever seen him -or anyone else run. I couldn't keep up, but I tried my best anyways.

Stumbling over branches and pebbles I got a few scratches but that didn't matter in the moment. My brother mattered beyond anything else in the world.

I would always be there for him because he was always there for me.

Every time I caught a glimpse of his face...Clover looked so scared. I'm not sure if he was afraid of what he was running from or what he was running to...but he kept running. I followed, for his sake.

Finally, we reached a clearing where he stopped running. I took the time to catch my breath.
'Clo, please tell me you've thought this through...' I coughed.

It was hard for my parents to raise as many kids as they did and run a farm on top of that.
So, we couldn't always get what we wanted.
That sucked, yeah, but Clover had never said anything about wanting to run away. He had always been so thankful that our family got him out of a horrid orphanage. That we had helped him find God and a family! And for the record taught him how to make some great tea. We'd been so good to him.

I didn't see why Clover of all people would want to leave, after all, he had seen so much worse than we had."

Fern hadn't thought Thorn to ever justify 'you can't always have what you want' as he seemed to have everything he wanted. Lots of money, nice clothes, a good job, good company, status...

"When Clover didn't respond I realized he was frozen again. He was turned away from me at first. I got closer, and I asked him if he was alright. As he turned I was able to take in the sight of my strong, happy-go-lucky hero with a myriad of tears running streams down his face.

Despite the tears he hardly looked sad at all. There was...This look in his eyes...just pure hatred. He looked terrifying, downright rabid.

He quickly assumed a posture that of someone in a fight. Knees bent, hands out in front of him, bearing his teeth. He turned and glanced quickly all around him, as if surrounded by invisible enemies."

It was strange to Fern...Sage had been through a lot...he couldn't go a sentence without stuttering. Thorn could let out his life's entire bloody story without stumbling over a single word.

His speech was like a book, written and rewritten within his mind until satisfactory, maybe this was years in the making.
Just waiting to be let out, so that for just a moment Thorn could be relieved in the fact that another person knew what he was feeling.

The burning pain in his back had long ceased, but in his mind he could still feel it, it lingered eternally.

Thorn's expression was hard for Fern to read. Usually it was very easy to tell how he felt (annoyed usually) but right now he wasn't expressive. He looked stiff and cold as he continued his recount.

"Once again, no matter what I said Clover wouldn't respond. And then I watched my brother crumble to the ground with an agonizing scream. He tried to cover his face with his hands but he moved almost mechanically, as if restrained, chained to the ground. He cried out again and fell for his knees face first into the ground as though kicked down with great force.

I rushed over to him to help, there were tears streaming down my face too, because I was afraid, I didn't know what was happening and I was in the dark."

Thorn hit the dresser next to him hard.
"Just like-" he yelled, now crying, though it couldn't be heard in his enraged tone.
"I was always in the dark! Living in the shadow of all my talented siblings!"

Fern flinched at his yell. Thorn's fingers tapped against the dresser, he ran a shaky hand through his hair and breathed out.

"Somehow, I would carry him, all the way home and to a doctor.
I promised I would keep him safe. I tried to lift Clover off the ground, and begged him through sobs to be okay, to not worry.

He stayed down, his gloved hands dug into the dirt, until he shakily lifted one towards me.

He had wrapped it around my neck in a second. Clover had such strength that it caused me to fall back, but that didn't free me from his grasp. He fell forward with me, his one hand around my neck nailing me to the ground.

He used his foot to push me further into the ground, the jagged rocks and metal below the grass. I couldn't scream, not with his hand around my neck, and I had never seen so much hatred and loathing on one persons face as Clover, my favourite person in the world hissed
'I hate you!'

The rocks pierced my skin and my tears flood faster.
'This battlefield is pitted against me...but still...' Clover removed the hand from my neck and placed it to the ground and the rocks grew in size much faster than ever before.

Even without him holding me down I was too weak and wounded to run away, or scream, I hacked and coughed in order to breathe, but nearly forgot with that metal tearing me apart.

'Fire and Earth mix in an interesting way, huh?' Clover said with a self satisfied smile, that cursed smile...
'Metal! Phenomenal!'

The ground shook slightly as he tried again to bent and grow the metal in the Earth, but suddenly Clover jerked back. He looked down to his hands and shook his head, stunned.
'Get out of my head, kid!' He yelled, his hands over his ears. After a few more flinches and jolts he shakily put out his hand as he had before.

But he fell back, clutching his heart and coughing as I had not long ago. The fall knocked the wind out of his lungs and his arms quaked trying to stand up, he couldn't.
Clover looked like he was in deathly pain.

How could he be in deathly pain, though?
That's what he put me through.
If anyone had the right to be lying on the ground like that, it was me.

I told myself I needed to get up and run as far away as I could. But I couldn't with my brother lying on the ground crying and flinching violently like I had never seen.

My back...I was so scared that I hadn't had time to truly put my mind to how badly it hurt. It was the worst pain I had ever felt, still to this day...it hurt in a way that I can't describe as anything but death.

'What have you done!?' Clover yelled to himself. He looked to his shaking hands.
'What have you done!?' He screamed, louder and more painful than before.

I knew it wasn't long before he went back to attacking me. I could still feel pieces of rock in my back, but there was only one in the palm of my hand. I knew it was large and sharp.

Of course, a rock of its size wouldn't buy much time. But I wasn't thinking straight and all I needed was a second.

As I lifted it in my hand I came upon the realization that it was no ordinary rock, but a bright green crystal. I threw it at my brother as hard as I could and was about to get up (despite the pain) and run.
But when it hit him...he let out a scream.

He touched his arm where the gem had broken. Half was next to his foot and the other half had sliced into his skin, thankfully it wasn't deep, not even deep enough to bleed.

The gem began to glow, and the glows pulsed, through his veins.
'Dirty rat...' He drawled, stumbling a step closer to me as he grabbed the stone from his arm and tossed it to the ground.

Still, when both of his fingers touched it he hissed lowly like it burned and made sure to throw it as fast as he could.

I nearly trembled out of my skin as he approached again.
Clover looked me in the eye and leaned forward. There was so much sweat and tears running down his body that he didn't even look like himself anymore. His dust brown hair fell over his eyes and his sharp teeth were more noticeable than ever.
"Tell me..." he started.
"Am I a real person?"

Thant's when I ran. Through all the agonizing pain I got my legs to move and I ran all the way back to the farm without stopping once.

I didn't dare turn back.

I never saw him again. Maybe he died, maybe he's still alive in that cursed forest."

Thorn repositioned his rings, looking at their stunning green jewels.
"My parents were heartbroken, but hardly surprised he 'ran away'. They searched for a while, but they didn't hold a funeral. They said 'that's the way with orphans, you'll never be their real parents'. But they didn't count on him being my real brother."

Fern closed her eyes, almost exhausted from just listening.
"...What did you do?"

Thorn looked at himself in the mirror and waved a weak hand towards his reflection.
"I built myself up from nothing. I was no one and now I'm someone, now I'm untouchable to anyone who isn't someone."

Fern wasn't 'someone'...she was probably the biggest nobody in the kingdom. She wasn't much good at anything, Cypress had proved that when he proved her one talent sub par.
The only noteworthy thing she had done was kill a princess, and that wasn't a good thing at all.

Fern didn't know what to say. She wanted to hug Thorn but considering his injury...that might not be the best idea.
"I'm so sorry..."

Thorn was silent. He draped a purple vest over his shoulders and started to button it as if nothing had happened.
It came upon Fern that this was how he coped. His annoyance, his disdain, his isolation...all of it was a facade to hide his trauma. To be able to live with it.

"Do you...miss him?" Fern asked quietly.

Thorn nodded as he turned to her. Their eyes didn't meet.
"Y-Yes. But...I'm glad he's gone...is that wrong?"

Fern had never thought she could feel so protective of Thorn, wasn't it his job to look after her?

"For someone so proud...put yourself first, dang it!" Fern said.
"Why can't you just be glad that you're okay, instead of worrying about everyone else?!"

Thorn looked surprised, Fern herself was.

When she first met Thorn...she thought he only cared about himself...but his actions showed otherwise...his whole life was built around serving other people.

After taking a breath Fern snapped her fingers and smirked.
"You know what? Stop worrying about me. Carnation can help me adjust to life in the Earth Kingdom."

Thorn scowled, Fern was glad for once that he did.
It was good to see him looking like his normal, disgusted self.
"It was over ten years ago. I'm fine."

"Man, I don't think you are." Fern prepared to leave as she slipped into her shoes.
"I'm really sorry about your unstable brother."

"My brother wasn't unstable." Thorn hissed.

Fern waited for him to clarify.

"He was a mix, Fern."

Fern grunted. This again.
"Mix or not, we're all elves. And what happened to him wasn't natural."

"You're wrong, Princess." Claimed Thorn.
"Come with me."

In a few minutes they were in the library-observatory. Fern hadn't seen it before, and though she wasn't a big reader, she was blown away by the sheer number of books, shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling, and a staircase that led beyond that, into the observatory.

Once at the top of the staircase Thorn swiped a gray notebook from the desk.
"This is my room since you took mine."

Fern felt bad, as if it were her fault.
"So you sleep on a desk?"

Thorn shrugged as he handed her the notebook.
"You get used to it."

Fern opened the notebook and was surprised at the amount of words crammed in tiny letters onto every page.

Reports to the guard. They came from various sources, dated at various years.
Obsidian of ErnGrove,
Copper of Elm's Land,
Rain of Thunderbrough...
The list went on.

"What...is this?" Fern flipped through what seemed to be hundreds of pages, scrawled upon in deep blue ink.

"These incidents have been occurring to mixes and only mixes for one hundred years. The last sixty years or so all became obsessed with that very forest."

Fern rubbed her neck anxiously. It was a huge forest. Third biggest in Earth's massive territory. But still, to think hundreds of mixes could be running wild in there...why hadn't she seen them? Was there something in the middle? Were there hunters? Had none of them succeeded in getting there?

"Is this why you hate mixes?" Asked Fern.

"I don't hate them. But I'm never letting myself get close to one again. I'll keep the peace, I'll end the pain by letting them know to stick to their own kind."
Thorn grabbed the notebook and tossed it onto a large stack of books about mixes.

"Because next time I might not be so lucky. Next time I might be dead."

Fern nodded. She couldn't argue with that.

But still...the thought scared her, not that she knew any mixes.
It was just...the fact that this was something that happened...
"Why did you call Cl- that man at the bar a mix? You don't know him."

"I know a mix when I see one."

Fern paused a second before asking
"You're saying he looked like your brother?"

Thorn sighed.
"My dear, they all do to me."

After a moment a small smile crept onto Fern's face.
"If you're telling me all this...does that mean you trust me?"

Thorn laughed.
"Never."