Okay I remember a lot about this book actually but cannot remember the name or find the title from typing the description online anywhere.
I believe it was a green softcover book with illustration on the front. Definitely fantasy.
So in the beginning we see a village boy who is out hunting for small animals. After a long day he starts to walk back to his home along the trail and as he turns the corner he sees the Kings son and his friends on the trail. He freezes in his tracks and wants to hide but they spot him before he can do anything. He continues to walk and tries to ignore the Kings son and his friends but they start to tease the boy. The boy had traces of elf in his blood so the Kings son and the Friends tease him about being an elf to the point where they hold him down and say something along the lines of, since you have elf blood you might as well look like one too. The Kings son start to cut the boys ear into a point and just as he starts cutting the boy stabs the Kings son with a blade. The Kings son falls and the boy runs back to his home.
He tells his guardian what has happened and they decide the boy must run away, so the boy runs into the forest and the Kings men are on his trail, keeps running and they get closer, some gaps in my memory but he escapes.
The boy ends up meeting an elder who is a wizard and the wizard teaches the boy over the years how to learn magic and inscribe spells onto rocks or runes or something.
I can't remember much else but I believe after some time the boy tries to go back to the village and castle and face his past.
Does anyone know this story?
I almost want to say the word rune or quest or saga is in the title but I could be totally wrong.