Avalon wore a short sleeved black t-shirt and loose fitting jeans. His hair was out of the pony tail and hung wildly just below chin level. His jet black hair was semi curly, creating the image of chaos carefully framing his prominent two-dimpled grin. My suspicions from earlier were confirmed and I could make out green tattoo ink tracing his forearms up to his biceps and beyond the shirtsleeve.
I shut my engine off and exited my car as well. Still in my school uniform, I felt oddly out of place next to Avalon, who looked like he belonged in a juvenile detention center. A chill ran up my spine reminding me of Saturday night and the last time I was in a wooded area. Images of murderous men flooded my memory and I shook my head to bring myself back to the present.
“What’s with all of the ink?” I jutted my chin at Avalon’s sleeved tattoos, hoping I sounded a little bit cool.
“What, this?” he held up his arms and shrugged. “I guess I like to define exactly who I am.”
“Ok….” I wished I knew what he was talking about.
“Like this,” he pointed to his right forearm and then suddenly took off his shirt. Although I was surprised by his gesture, I finally understood the strange markings on his arm. The entire right side of Avalon’s torso and arm were covered in an intricate and large tree. The tree was amazingly defined and detailed.
The branches of the tree started at his shoulder and wrapped themselves around his arm and to the front and back of his body. The branches and trunk of the tree were thick and gnarled looking. The trunk of the tree wrapped itself from his lower back, around to the right side of his stomach, covering his rock hard abs.
The tree’s branches had no leaves, and were barren, but strong. One branch in particular wrapped its way down Avalon’s arm and to his forearm, breaking off into smaller branches along the way. It was as if someone took a beautiful painting and wrapped it around half of Avalon’s body. The image was powerful and beautiful at the same time.
I walked closer to him, letting my fingers trace the lines running down his forearm. “So what does it mean?” I asked, a little breathless. I had never seen such a vivid tattoo before, although I was not completely sure why it was so powerful to me. Maybe to see such a detailed image on a human body was unusual.
“A tree is the symbol of Eternity, or Immorality. It has been since the beginning of time,” his own fingers traced the lines of the branches.
“Ok, so what is on the back of your neck?” I remembered the first tattoo I saw from that morning.
“Oh that?” he lifted up his hair in the back and revealed the two strong wings I had seen earlier. In the middle of the two wings was a snake wrapped in a circle eating its own tail. The same image of the snake eating his own tail wrapped around his left wrist as well, creating a tattooed bracelet.
“What does that mean?” I asked, not sure if I was grossed out or in awe again of the detailing that went in to each of his tattoos.
“That literally defines who I am. Someday you will understand,” he spoke cryptically and I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to understand.
“Ok, so this one is pretty self-explanatory,” I pointed to his left forearm; a picture of a beautiful bird rising out of an intricately drawn fire. The bird looked commanding and angry; its wings were spread, but remained close to his body as the tattoo sat long on his skinny, but muscular arm. The one wing reached out across his chest until the image of the tangled tree met it and the other one across his shoulder blade.
“Is it?” he asked and cocked his head a little to the side.
“No, I guess not. I mean at least I know it’s a bird,” I responded defensively, realizing that I had no idea what the meaning was.
“I’m just giving you a hard time,” he gave my shoulder a rough but playful push. “This is a phoenix,” he pointed to the bird; “It’s just another symbol for Immortality.”
“But we’re not really Immortal, right? I mean we’re not really going to live forever?” I remembered Principal Saint telling me that Immortal was not a literal meaning for our people.
“No, we’ll never live forever as long as Lucan is in charge,” Avalon spat on the ground in disgust. I searched my memory for Lucan and remembered that he was supposedly our King…. my King.
“What do you mean?” I asked innocently.
“As long as Lucan tries to control the magic and keep our people separated, we will never live forever. Our magic isn’t strong enough. But he doesn’t care about us. He only cares about himself, his bloodline and his damn prejudices,” he spat again and I was more confused than ever.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I tried honesty. Maybe Avalon would give me some explanation.
“The King,” he said, frustrated. When I gave him an even more confused look he continued, “Lucan is the one who has taken away our freedom!” he exclaimed heatedly.
“We’re not free?” I asked in a very small voice.
“No we’re not free, and we’re dying as well. As long as we live under his bondage, we will continue to die. But he could care less. All he cares about is that his blood remains pure, and the blood of his line. The Monarchy must never become tarnished,” I could almost feel Avalon’s disgust as an oppressive force weighing down on me.
“Ok, you need to explain…. now,” I tried to be forceful, hoping that he remembered I was new to this whole thing.
“Sorry,” he grunted, not sounding sorry at all. “Derrick is the King that outlawed intermarriage, well for everyone but his precious line. This happened a long time ago. Derrick was the first King, the first Immortal to rule our people. The people cried out for a King and they were given one. Too bad the first thing he did was execute the Oracles.”
“The who?” I interrupted; trying to stay focused and keep my head from spinning out of control.
“The Oracles, they were something like prophets or advisors to our people before the King. There were four of them and they represented one of each of us, and together they were all powerful. They were also the first to die. So anyway,” he shot me a serious look that let me know not to interrupt again, “After Derrick executed the Oracles, he banished the Shape-Shifters. He claimed they were deceitful and manipulative because they were able to take any form. He turned the other Immortals against them and those who didn’t escape were hunted and thrown into prison until their magic was weak enough that they could be killed. And since the Titans had pledged their allegiance to protect the King before one had ever been elected they were forced into service and remain there today as nothing more than glorified prisoners.” He took a moment to spit on the ground once again. “The only free people are the Witches and Mediums, but I would hardly call what we have freedom. We live under tyrannical rule and a King who is just as heartless and sick as his forefather. And who knows what the next King will be like; he seems even more clueless than those who came before him. Our people are going to die and they do nothing about it.”
“But what could they do about it?” I thought about Kiran and found it hard to believe he would actually want us all to die. He may have been immature, but he was not a ruthless killer.
“They could break the ban on intermarriage for one. They could allow the full magic to flow between us and they could release us from their dictatorship,” the whole Monarchy thing might have been new to me, but I knew enough about world history that if what Avalon just told me was true, then I also knew that what he was saying could probably get him killed.
“What marriage ban?” I asked, feeling more confused than ever.
“The one that got us into this whole mess to begin with. We are not allowed to marry outside of our own kind.”
“You mean, like humans?”
“No, well, yes, but mainly a Witch has to marry a Witch and a Titan has to marry a Titan. They keep us compartmentalized that way, and they restrict the flow of magic. See before King Derrick, an Immortal could marry whomever they chose and no matter who they married their child was always unique. Like a Witch could marry a Titan and then have a Medium for a child. It was all allowed and the magic flowed freely. But since Derrick, our magic is deteriorating and the royal family could care less,” Avalon laughed bitterly.