Corin Legard

;;Corin Émile Legard…

Once upon a time in a far away land….

Nah, I’m just kidding you. This is my story. How I came into this world, how I became what I am and how I got where I am today.

It all started with a man and a woman, it always does. Henri and Adele Legard were French aristocrats living in Paris in the late 1700s. Unlike a lot of couples whose parents had arranged their marriages, Henri and Adele were madly in love. The only thing missing from their perfect life was a child. For whatever reason, Adele just couldn’t get pregnant, and when she did, she miscarried. Finally on September 24, 1771 she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She gave birth to me. Not only was I the child they longed for, I was the son they needed to inherit my father’s name and fortune. Never in history had a child been so loved and so doted upon by their parents. I was treated as if I was a prince. I was given anything I could ever want and more. Any sniffle or cough resulted in a team of doctors called in to treat me. As I grew older, I came of age to serve at the royal court. I became part of the King Louis XVI retinue. I spent my days hunting and riding with the King and flirting with the ladies of the court. I was always well loved and easily at the center of attention.

My one flaw that my mother and tutors repeatedly scolded me for was my tendency to daydream instead of paying attention to my lessons. Not that I still wasn’t a great student, just that I preferred to imagine myself anywhere besides sitting there, staring at a Latin book. I preferred to spend my days in the library reading books of my own choosing. Ever since I was a child, I had a vivid imagination. I would read and be able to see myself so clearly in the place I was reading about. When I told stories or read aloud, the people around me felt this same transportation effect. It was this story-telling ability that put me in the center of every gathering and party and made people listen to my every word.

Outside of the royal waiting rooms, I learned how to fence, fight, ride, hunt and everything else a young man was expected to learn. I grew lean and muscular and was the object of many of the court ladies’ affection. However, my mother was reluctant to marry me off. She didn’t believe any girl to be worthy of me. This arrangement was fine by me as it allowed me to continue my bachelor lifestyle.

And then came the Revolution. It was 1790 and I was 19 years old and everything I had, all the people I loved, were ripped away from me. My parents and I were imprisoned, stripped of everything my forefathers had worked to give us. We were jailed for simply having more money than others. My father died for that reason. He was one of the first to be subjected to the guillotine. They built the scaffold directly outside of our jail cell. We could hear them working night and day, and when the hammers stopped, they took my father away. My mother cried for a week straight. She stopped eating and soon she caught some illness or other that had made its way through the prisoners. She wasn’t healthy enough to fight it off and within weeks of losing my father, I became an orphan.

The loss of my parents is the worst thing I’ve ever been through. They were my life and without them I didn’t care to live. I can’t remember if the starvation started by choice or by force. Either way, suddenly I wasn’t eating any more. I have no idea how long I sat in that jail cell, rotting away, wishing for the day they would send me to the guillotine, praying for a faster death. I spent my days half delirious, dreaming that I was somewhere else, anywhere else. My mind was still enough intact that I could escape and be back at Versailles, in Paris, or back at my home. I don’t know if I sat there for weeks, months or even a year.

But I remember that last night vividly. I’m almost positive that had they not found me, I would have been dead the next morning. I think they were sent to see if any of the prisoners showed promise as guard members. Whatever the reason, she saw me and took pity on me. I thought she was an angel. I had already been hallucinating, conversing with my dead parents. I just figured that the end really had come. I saw a man walk up behind her, whispering something nearly inaudible in Italian to her. She slowly walked up to me, telling me she was going to save me, telling me she would take me where I belonged. She knelt next to me, quickly crossed herself and pressed her lips to my neck. The next thing I knew I felt I was on fire. She called to the man who had accompanied her to come grab me and we left the prison. Somewhere deep inside, I knew this was a delusion, too. I figured that I was being burned to death by the revolutionaries. I tried to keep my screams inside as much as possible so as not to give them the satisfaction of hearing me suffer. I knew the burning took too long, but I stopped caring. I just wanted it to be over. And suddenly it was. I opened my eyes and thought I was at the palace in Versailles. I was positive everything I had been through was merely a dream brought about by a fever. Then I saw them standing there. I looked up and saw Renata’s face, peering at me, worry etched in her features. Behind her, Felix was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking bored. As I opened my eyes and sat up, Ren called him over. He stood defensively in front of her, like I was something dangerous. I started to laugh at the thought of a pampered aristocrat like myself being able to even touch him, let alone pose a threat to him, when the thirst hit me like a ton of bricks. Renata was prepared, however, she handed me a goblet with a red liquid that I took to be wine. As I drained the glass, I smelled it and realized that I had just drank blood. What disgusted me even more was that I loved it and wanted more of it.

I looked up at Renata, the unspoken questions in my eyes, when she began to tell me what had happened in broken French. She told me about vampires, about the Volturi, that she and Felix were a part of their guard, and that I could be as well. She offered me a life similar to that of the one that had been taken from me. One of wealth and luxury and, most importantly, family. I gladly accepted the offer, not even bothering to think twice about it. From that point on I gained back a little of what I had lost. Renata became my older sister in every sense of the term. I’d even go so far as to say she became almost a mother to me. I learned later that Felix first thought she wanted to change me because she wanted me as a mate, but really she just saw a broken boy who she wanted to save.

As for Felix he became the older brother I always wanted and never had as a mortal. He was the one who trained me in combat and I always looked up to him. He came from a much different background and was (is) admittedly a much better soldier than I could ever be. I looked up to him, still do. I mimicked his mannerisms and behaviors and followed him everywhere, just like a kid brother should do. I know I annoyed the hell out of him a lot of the time, but I think he secretly liked being idolized.

Anyway, that was my life for a while, learning about my new existence, training to become a proper guard. A few months after I was turned, I started missing my parents and home again, really bad. Sitting in the library in the palazzo, I was daydreaming that I was back at my own home. I closed my eyes briefly and when I opened them, I was there. Granted, it was changed. All the fineries had been removed, the house was no longer bustling with the activities of the servants, the constant flow of visitors. My mother no longer graced the hallways dressed in her finest gowns. My father was not at the desk in his study, receiving ambassadors and dukes. I was so caught up in my memories that at first I didn’t even question how I came to be there. When I finally realized that it was real, not just in my daydreams I freaked out a little, but only a little. Then it dawned on me just how awesome it was. I pictured myself back at the palazzo, sitting inside the library. I got close, but that was the day I got my self stuck in a wall. Felix still won’t let me live that down.

After I discovered my power I put all my time and energy into discovering how it worked and its limitations. It works best if I’m trying to “jump” to a place I’ve already been. I can aim for places I haven’t been before, but I’m usually pretty far off. I also have a distance limit of about 1,000 miles, but I’ve learned to do several successive jumps quickly to the point where it only feels like one. As for transporting with other people, that’s more difficult. It’s easiest if I know the person well and if they’re relaxed. It’s hard to describe, but it’s almost like I have to enter their mind and pull them with me. I can use my ability in battle, but it’s much harder and I can’t usually go very far. As for inantimate objects, my ability to transport them depends on the size of the object. Smaller objects are much easier than larger ones, although I have yet to find the size limit on what I can transport.

Anyway, so that was basically the last 200 or so years of my life, training with the Volturi, learning about my powers and then becoming a full-fledged guard.