Legends of Belariath
Ickis
It was a storming night, so no one heard the screams of the feline mother giving birth and likewise, none but her heard the wee cries of the goblin halfbreed. Much to her dismay, the child was green, certainly a trait of his breeding. Once he was quiet enough, the woman slipped into the local tavern of Burly Bob's Brews. There by the hearth, the child was left in a blanket. She likewise slipped out unnoticed and the child went overlooked until a roar of thunder caused him to cry. Burly Bob found the repulsive babe and he wasted no time in locking up for the night, taking the child to the local orphanage.
"Eeew.. he's green.."
"How come he's fuzzy?"
"Ugh that tail doesn't have any hair! It's like a rat's!"
"He's so... icky.."
"Icky!.. Icky!.."
He survived infanthood, but life at the orphanage was not easy. They named him Icky, as it was the only thing children called him, and thus what he grew up knowing, not knowing it was a term of.. disgust.. His tusks came in at an early age, resulting in even more isolation for the lad. He spent most of his time alone, usually finding things to tinker with, such as forgotten puzzles or fixing rocky furniture with thin wood or cloth wedges. His only respite was a friendly drak that came by, to teach the children basic skills and treat them to toys, to test his wares. Malvik used his findings to design new and different toys to hold interest, and was one to collect old broken toys in trade. He found it strange that the old toys handed in were often.. repaired. Some children even walked around with toys that no one knew where they came from. It surprised him when the little halfbreed offered a toy that the drak hadn't made.. but the boy didn't want a toy in return.. he wanted blocks of wood. The trade was made and Malvik watched over time as the boy built multiple things with those blocks, never once fussing when other kids would tear them down. Things like that stood out. Malvik found himself watching the goblin halfbreed more and more at each monthly visit. The largest turning point for Malvik was when he brought some wooden puzzles, to test out intelligence for helping to place children in proper classes based on knowledge. To his shock, it was the cat-gobbo who not only finished the puzzle, but did it first.. and wanted another!
Those monthly visits turned into weekly visits, which turned into bi-weekly visits, and more and more time was spent with the boy. Malvik watched as children came and went, but noted that not a single person ever once even gave the halfbreed so much as a glance in consideration-- just disgust. It happened one day, when writing classes for names was going on, that Malvik lost his normally cool disposition. The workers of the orphanage put a namecard on the boy, "Icky" which was a blatant label to what he was. The drak had thought the boy's name was Ichi, short for Ichibod or some-such, and the kids tormented him with tease because of it. He didn't know that they literally named the child such a cruel thing. Malvik left that night and stewed over it. The thought then came to him, gifted by his Dragon, Thorin: be a father. The dark world didn't have enough active parents, and drak sen could never give birth to have their own offspring as parents. Being a parent would be a true unique experience to record! So the next day, Malvik went to the orphanage.
"Your name may be pronounced as Icky.. but we're going to make a slight change to it. You'll spell it with two i's.. No more y. Do you know why? Because the question of your life is not a why, but a when. You'll understand 'when' we get home... Come on, my son.."
Icki's life changed drastically. Malvik lived in the same town as the orphanage, but it was primarily human. While most didn't mind the eccentric drak and his unique, odd contraptions and toy-making, anything of greenskin was another matter.. let alone anything that resembled the catsluts that were kept in collars. Malvik gave Icki a true home, complete with his own room and daily classes of mathematics and creation theory-- basic engineering and planning. Icki helped the drak with most of his creations, and Malvik took time to do the little things-- like finger-painting with his child, sledding out in the snow, and bedtime stories at night. He grew rather protective of the boy as well, especially when they went out to the market where slurs and insults were slung with rude commentary. Malvik worked to give Icki the tools to deal with people socially, to show them what was on the inside and look past the green. As Icki grew, he was actually not bad looking, not hideous or deformed, but actually.. cute. It was a quality Malvik saw in Icki from the start, seeing the boy as a child, not just a green halfbreed. It was the boy's intelligence that surprised him.
Things were not always cakes and rainbows though. The goblin blood in Icki stirred quite a temper. Although he was non-violent by choice, his temper tantrums caused physical rage within Malvik's shop. There was also the catling aspect, such of the halfbreed having a total distain for water-- and thus baths. Plus that catling curiosity! It was fine when pertaining to things Malvik was expecting or knew how to handle.. but when Icki began asking things beyond it, the drak grew frazzled-- as any parent would. Life was good however, and the drak taught Icki all that he could about the boy's heritage. It was all book-learning and word of mouth, as well as understanding the racial slurs that came from those who didn't accept him. Malvik was at least knowledgeable enough from his travels to teach Icki the goblin language-- something he felt would come in handy for the halfbreed who had no other connection to goblins. With good social skills, good life-skills and high intellect, Malvik eventually felt it was time to let go. He sent Icki out into the world to find his place in it. Of course being a father, ties were not cut. Malvik still contacted his son and expected letters-- records and reports, just like he made for his own Dragon.
Icki came to Nanthalion with hopes of learning about his heritage, of both catfolk and goblin. He tried to get close to a goblin tribe known as the Haac Draar, however it quickly backfired on him when he went to introduce himself, and was taken captive instead. Being a halfbreed, they treated him even worse than the humans had. Icki had gone for knowledge and understanding of his blood, but got beaten and raped instead. Everything he did was just.. wrong. No matter what he tried. He was told to stand up for himself and did-- up to the wrong goblin of high rank. He was told to fight and did-- and got his ass beat and creations destroyed, glasswork he was doing for another, higher ranking goblin. It was only by sheer luck that he managed to get deathly ill with fever of infection, to the point the goblin tribe had to take him to a healer in town. The healer saved his life, but became livid when a slave of the tribe broke Icki's finger for his ramblings in delirium. She locked Icki away and wouldn't let the tribe take him back... Eventually he was better, and slipped off under the radar of the chaos of that day. From that day, Icki grew. He decided to better himself and find his place in the world, rather than trying to force himself to be what others wanted him to be. Not cat.. Not goblin.. just Icki.