Unwelcome People

A 12-post collection

Challenge #04349-K331: Unappreciated Comparison

I feel utterly worthless.

"You're a weed waving among the brick and stone."

See? Worthless.

"You ability to thrive truly has shown."

What .. do you mean?

"Your strength, my dear, I'm so proud you've grown!"

There among the bare gravel, where there's very little that's green, a lone dandelion is visited by a butterfly. -- Anon Guest

It's easy to devalue yourself when nobody else finds you worthy. It's easy to not wish to be part of a world that hates you for drawing breath. It's therefore no shock that a Hellkin found herself on the edge of a cliff, pondering the fast and deadly path to the bottom.

Truce almost got the life scared out of her by a voice behind her. "Long way down."

"Why do you care?" she snapped. She'd almost leaped to her death without any deeper thought into the matter than unadulterated panic. Nobody had cared about her existence before today, and she doubted this stranger cared about her at all. She suspected that, in a moment, she would hear all about how her presence was polluting the purity of the picturesque view.

"I live in a set of caves under this cliff. Picking up dead bodies from the bottom is grim, messy, and smelly work. I'd really rather you didn't give me more of the same. Besides, you're not going to give them the satisfaction, are you?"

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Challenge #04290-K272: There's a Moral Somewhere

The sacrificial one was shoved into the chamber, the door behind them sealed. The gods demanded this, if they disobeyed, the city would be destroyed. The youngster, shakingly, put their hand on the door. "Shhhh, what the elders don't know won't hurt the rest of us. Let's go." -- Anon Guest

For centuries, it had maintained peace. In the town, there was a temple dedicated to the Established Order. The temple, partially carved into a mountain, had a portal that people only

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Challenge #04286-K268: For the Safety of Others

Those that discriminate against the unwanted races in this nation take a page from the lands of Whitekeep. They are not killed, instead sent to a large school where they are forced to learn about whom it is they hate. And the worst part is? The bracelets they must wear. Until they "graduate", they are no longer capable of telling any lies, especially, not to themselves. Kids are easy to teach lessons of kindness, respect, and diversity, it's the older teens and

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Challenge #04276-K258: The Pothi Carie

For their kindness, and because more people were seeking their aid, the ones that lived in that small village came together. And, in a show of solidarity, built a clinic that contained quarters for the hellkin and the kobold, and several rooms for patients.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04191-k173-one-good-turn -- Anon Guest

It had to happen sooner or later. There was a new building in the village. It had a garden and a greenhouse for the herbs, and a huge workshop

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Challenge #04204-K186: Not Like Other Rogues

I was born looking human in a community of those most call Unwanted. They treated me kindly and rarely mistreated me for my appearance. Save for a few with grudges who learned quickly it was wrong. So why do so many who look like me treat them so badly just because of how they look? -- Anon Guest

I grew up in ShadowCluster. A tumbledown community wedged into the crevice of Halgal Cliffs, the edifice that gave the city Myncloch its name.

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Challenge #04191-K173: One Good Turn...

They helped the poor farmer who, after a time, made a mostly full recovery. In addition to giving them the rock that nearly killed him, he made very sure everyone knew these two were life-savers. He might be poor, but he was well liked by those around that area.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04081-k063-willowfine-poppy-and-a-sharp-knife -- The New Guy

The operation took most of a day, careful work, and specialised tools to extract the starmetal fragments from Farmer Ansley's head, and all

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Challenge #04150-K132: Blame the Bully

A kind individual helps a younger individual learn that the bullying and mistreatment they've suffered is NOT their fault, they didn't do anything wrong. The ones who were in the wrong were their bullies. -- Anon Guest

"Devilborn! Devil-bred! Go and cry and wet your bed!"

There were worse things the children of the town could be doing to him than their daily chant. They could throw anything, including punches and hard objects. Or soft objects.

If he was fast enough. Wily

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Challenge #04128-K110: Unwelcome in More Places

Several humans from a larger nearby polity, learning of the city of Middenden, try to go and subjugate it. It's filled with "filthy monsters" after all and "devils". Their heavily armed soldiers, and their leaders, quickly learn these beings are not weak, and are tired of being treated like this, they deserve respect too, damnit!

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03642-i354-unwelcomed-experiences -- Lessons

The real problem with People of Import is that they have a great influence on everyone who knows them.

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Challenge #04121-K103: What You Give...

A cruel lord tries to make the temple of helping hands illegal. They come to regret it and repent. -- Anon Guest

"Encouraging vagrancy and generating an atmosphere of listlessness," Pastor Tolerance read the highlights of the notice in her hands. "Sheltering the criminal element... if the building remains, I'll be arrested for masquerading as a woman of the cloth?" She passed it to Bathild, the Priest of Freja.

They had to don their reading glasses to examine the myopic script. "Charity

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Challenge #04081-K063: Willowfine, Poppy, and a Sharp Knife

They called the traveling Hellkin, "teuf'al", and the kobald a col'by. They were not trying to be rude, but, sadly, illness had made speech slushy. So while it sounded like insult slurs, it was, in fact, an unfortunate speech impediment. They hoped people would understand. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Changed a couple of words in the prompt to make it align better with my fantasy world]

In a world where certain people are unwelcome, it's natural that they find a way to

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Challenge #03743-J090: Essential Education

The unwanted, the hidden, less.... liked.. species, had a place. Here their children learned self-defense. Self-esteem. How to care for themselves, and for others. How to undo traps, and avoid harm. And most of all, learned there were those out there that truly cared, no matter what species they were. -- DaniAndShali

Over a stretch of cursed ground that birth monsters and host phantoms, inside a mountain that howls whenever the wind blows, beneath a crevice lit only by rare and dangerous

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Challenge #03642-I354: Unwelcomed Experiences

This was a city nearly completely without humans, though all other races, especially the so-called "unwanted" and "unappreciated" ones lived in peace. When humans came, they were often met with suspicion at the gate. After all, many of those who dwelled within had once dealt with... "human hospitality" the hard way before they made it here. -- Anon Guest

They called it Middenden as a joke, and the name stuck. Those who made it were, after all, those thrown out by the

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