“Get out!” I flinched out of the reach of my father’s hand as he swung at me. I glanced at my mother behind him, she couldn’t even look at me. I stumbled back toward the door, not breaking eye contact with my father's grey eyes.

“Father, please! I’m still your son!” My voice shook at I cried out to him.

“Meeks! Please don’t leave us!” My brothers’ voices sounded from behind my mother. The tried to run for me but she grabbed hold of both of them.

“He is no longer part of this family!” My mother's words cut deeper than my fathers. I shook my head and opened the door. I gave them one last look before I stumbled out into the cool desert night. They slammed the door behind me and the lights within our hut went out, leaving me in the dark.

I took a few steps back, my foot slid on the sand and fell back onto the ground. I took the moment, just to sit there and take everything in for the last time. Where I teased my little brothers, where I learned to walk and run, where I watched my parents distort the air and wind currents to create little sand funnels for me to chase… where I learned I born a druid and not a nomad. It was all gone, my parents didn’t want me anymore because I was an abomination.

No one knows why I was born with abilities connecting me to the earth and not to the air. My mother had been faithful and loyal to my father and nomad blood has run in their history since the beginning. I was just the anomaly and they couldn’t handle it.

I fell back into the sand, warm despite cool night air. There was no moon, just the bright stars above me. Where will they take me? I could go south, see where the desert takes me, or north and attempt to find forests where I learn my abilities. I don’t want to learn my abilities though. They are the reason I was abandoned.

Groaning, I jumped to my feet, with one last look at my home, my old life, I turned and walked away from it.

“The journey was long. I stopped at oasis and practiced my earth magic on what I could. It took me a year to escape the brutal desert, by then I mastered and connected the flora I’d come across. I never truly came across any animals or creatures that weren’t human. By the second year I reached the thick Tepindian forests. I was happy to be surrounded by trees and forests, I felt at peace even though I didn’t feel loved or wanted. The timorous didn’t like me, I was too different.” My voice shook as I spoke to the older man before me, he looked thoughtful.

“Well, you are welcome with us. We are the druids of gem orchard, and we will always be your family. May not be by blood, but by the earth.”