Tales of Eldelórne Page 10

  "Yes, we can speak as friends EJ," she replied solemnly, having almost given up on him.

  "I wanted to die," he said flatly.

  "I know... but I would miss you..." her shoulders and her frown sunk even further.

  “The wizard told you to say this so my heart would be tricked."

  Fionna looked up and was startled to see him thoughtfully staring straight at her.

  "No! ... no," she said the word calmer the second time.

  "I am sad that you have suffered this pain." She was otherwise at a loss for words. He continued to look into her eyes as if searching for something.

  "I am weak again little one, and broken… however, I see you are truth to me." He sighed as he looked away with narrowed eyes.

  "Hey, wait... I am older than you EJ," she said shyly.

  "Not as the crow flies," he turned and their eyes locked.

  "Well, truth… as it travels in a straight line, but you have not done so ... you kind of cheated on that one."

  "Are you calling me a cheater?"

  "Um…" She blinked and wasn't sure what to say. Too much silence passed between them, so she asked meekly,

  "Are you… a cheater?" Then she realized that was a stupid thing to ask.

  "No Fionna, I am not." He sulked, bruised by her words.

  "Okay," she said in return.

  "Okay, then." He defiantly folded his arms.

  They stared at one another for some time trying to read each other's faces.

  "I do miss you, EJ."

  He sensed her beginning to cry again.

  "I do not wish for you to be sad," he looked at her with concern, wanting to put his hand gently on her arm to comfort her, but then he thought better of it.

  "I can not help it," she said.

  "You pity me then."

  He turned away, staring harshly up at the ceiling again.

  "Noooo... I am sad for what you have been through, but I pity myself for being orphaned and losing you will make me feel it even more."

  She couldn't bear looking at him anymore. The sting in her nose signaled more tears on the way. She wanted to drop everything on the floor and just run out of the room.

  "Oh… ?" EJ placed his hand on her just in time before she bolted. He peered into her drooping face as she hung there barely noticing his gentle hand on her wrist.

  "I had not thought of that," he admitted.

  Eijlam looked back up at the rafters letting out a slow breath of resignation. He rubbed his face with his hands and sat up in the bed. He was himself again but, this time he was no longer the helpless elfling she had been taking care of.

  "I am hungry Fionna," he quietly said, putting his hands out to take the bowl of stew she had brought for him.

  There was a resigned seriousness in the days that followed. As weeks passed, Eijlam decided to eat and live. Fionna was relieved that he wasn’t going to try to harm himself today. The wizard seemed unfazed by the recent events and continued making potions to heal the ills of humankind.

  The song of Ilmatar rose to a beautiful crescendo of joy, but nobody with mortal ears could hear it. A warm breeze floated in off the plains to the east and it smelled like cactus blossoms in bloom. EJ felt homesick for Eldelórne but he did not wish to go there and find it abandoned besides, he thought staying here with Fionna was as good an idea as any.

  “You speak good Elvish, girl,” Eijlam said one day poking fun at her playfully.

  Her eyes flashed at the loaded remark as she hung the wash on the line to dry. EJ watched closely for it ... and there it was, she narrowed her eyes and glared at him. He narrowed his eyes right back at her.

  “Do you suppose it is because of your red hair that you are so fiery-tempered,” he teased.

  “I have heard such a thing is truth.”

  She squinted as she countered and shot back, “If you are you trying to teach me something about elven culture again… just say it.”

  The words came out harsher than she meant.

  “I am just making fun Fionna,” he frowned, actually feeling a bit bruised this time.

  “Oh,” She suddenly got very quiet. Her heart felt crushed in her chest every time he came near her.

  “Ej, how can I live with this pain inside my heart,” she whined.

  “Sleep with me. I will comfort you,” he gently said.

  “What!”

  “I am speaking truth. It is the way of Edhellen.” He was dead serious.

  “You do understand, that you could say anything is, the way of Edhellen, and I would not even know the difference?” She spat in exasperation at her own ignorance.

  “I do not practice deception Fionna,” he said quietly. He looked down into her face, and she saw how genuinely handsome he had become. Her insides clenched up, and she felt like throwing up on him. Instead, she childishly echoed his words with greatly exaggerating mouth movements and rolled her eyes as she pushed herself away from him.

  Attempting to be humorous again, he said, “I will let you keep your clothes on ... if you must.”

  He mimicked her posture and rolled his eyes. “Like in the bathing pool...” he innocently blinked, as he added that last thought. Eijlam tried to pull off a most elegant courtly stance, comically bowing for her to accentuate his words. He never smiled as he did before his breakdown. He made a sweet puppy eyed face as he gestured, which almost made Fionna smile. Instead, she only sighed watching him, and felt sad again.

  These days were not so filled with as much playful teasing, and there was a seriousness everywhere. Fionna didn’t understand his intentions were honorable, and every time he tried to speak to her, his words seemed to come out all wrong. Eijlam only spoke the truth. Touching gestures were not taboo and innocently sleeping in the same bed was customary to soothe and heal among an Elven clan. Eijlam could only watch as she walked away to continue her daily chores. He didn’t go with her anymore because it seemed to make her even more solemn and un-talkative.

  Eijlam felt even more alone than ever. “Humph, if that is even possible,” he said to himself as he watched her walk away from him again.

  Fionna spent her nights trying to find rest, and all she managed to do was grow bags under her eyes and make her mop of hair even wilder.

  “Stop touching me!” Fionna shook out her fingers as if she was trying to flick away something sticky on her hands.

  “Do you truly wish for me to leave,” he asked with real hurt in his eyes.

  “Nooo, I am sorry. I should be the one to leave,” she said sadly.

  “This is all my fault. I need time to think, but I am afraid to leave you alone,” she said in frustration.

  He blushed, showing awkward embarrassment for her sake.

  “Fionna… I am the one who is truly sorry now. I have burdened you with feelings of fear for me. I am not going to hurt myself any longer.”

  His self inflicted wound was long healed, and time had shown Eijlam some purpose in this new life. He took her hand earnestly and placed it where his heart would be on his chest and held it there. She could feel the steady thump of his strong heartbeat beneath her fingertips as he spoke.

  “I can see how the weight of my past actions has disturbed your peace. You need not think on this. If you desire to leave I will be here when you get back... sincerely.” He blinked his beautiful, odd-colored eyes as he made his vow to her. She could almost feel his breathtaking smile, but it never came.

  Instead, he said, “Let me share with you one last tradition of my family.” He gently sat her down at the table and began to comb her tangled hair as she had done for him so many times before.

  “Elvenkin, even the smallest of elflings, all know how to braid each others hair when it is needed. You cannot, after all, move through the trees if your wild tresses keep getting caught in the branches,” he explained the reasoning behind the tradition in the way his mother had told it to him.

  EJ’s fingers easily plaited the sides and created a web of intricately woven braids.
It calmed the tangles into long beautiful strands.

  “Each clan has their own style of braiding,” he went on calmly. “This is also the way our whole family would wear our hair for gatherings and seasonal festivals.”

  She didn’t know why this upset her so much. She just politely smiled at Eijlam and kept her thoughts to herself for later. She planned on leaving as soon as it could be arranged.

  +++

  It seemed like a good idea to travel to her family’s home village of Vehlevar to see if there was anything she could learn about her lost clan. She had always held the thought of someday making the journey. It had been hundreds of years since her papa found her there, so she had little hope of learning anything. It was as good an excuse as any to get away for a while. From the wizards home in Drustnlach, Vehlevar was many leagues east to the Vodla river and then north.

  “I will miss you.” Eijlam echoed her own words, feeling already orphaned and alone at the sight of her leaving.

  She could see the pain written all over his worried face.

  “I will miss you too,” was all she could muster as she warmly hugged him goodbye.

  “Stay out of trouble,” her papa cautioned as he handed her the hat that would cover her ears in human company.

  She kissed him on the cheek. He suddenly looked very old and tired. Fionna mounted her white pony and rode away, leaving all her troubles behind her.

  Ej tried not to think about how his heart felt at that moment. It seemed like her leaving was sudden, like his mother's departure.

  “This is nothing like what happened before,” he angrily told himself blinking back tears in the bright sunshine. “She is not gone from this realm.

  Nínion ne gwad dhîn, my Fionna,” he whispered under his breath. “I will wait... to see you again.” He sadly stood by the gate watching down the empty road for a long while, before he finally turned around and went inside.

  Fionna’s Lament

  Chapter Fourteen

  Fionna was sad when EJ’s beautiful braids came apart, and her hair had a mind of its own again. The loose curly hair hid her ears better, so humans regarded her as one of their own, and she didn’t have to wear the hat as much.

  She joined a family with two small children that were traveling to the tiny settlement of Camloo. The town was just one day's ride south of her destination. Fionna was glad for the company and the safety for herself and her pony while out on the road.

  Vehlevar was a small fishing village along the icy cold ocean. The people there were merchants, hunters, and fishers by trade. The place had become a human settlement, and there were no elves to be found. Fionna asked around, but many of the people didn’t even know what an elf was. She wasn’t going to waste her time in frustration, trying to describe one, so she decided to search the woods for herself.

  It was sunny most of the time, and there were yellow clay cliffs and sandy beaches around the edges of the town. A chilled wind blew in off the ocean, keeping Vehlevar a fair place to live most of the year. Fionna felt sad that so much was lost to the generations of humankind. Now she understood what Eijlam was trying to say about remembering history, having lived through it, and the Elven viewpoint of the certainty of another day. How humans live with such short lives, she couldn’t fathom.

  She had lived among the wizards that were also immortal as she. Not much changed in her lengthy, predictable life.

  “Until Eijlam...”

  She suddenly realized he had invaded her thoughts again. Fionna shook her head, trying, unsuccessfully, to get him out of her mind.

  Fionna stayed in the Banjul-Hyoffar Inn. The sign that hung above the door was as wide as the front of the place. It was not much more than a two-story shed squeezed between a saloon and another sprawling bare-walled roof. It looked like it had been tacked together and was somehow, miraculously, still standing. She guessed the open space was where a daily market took place. The ragtag mess made up the whole of Vehlevar’s main street.

  “Well Fionna,” she said to herself, “you cannot get much farther out than this…”

  The small shacks behind the main street were crowded around narrow paths. Nothing was made to last long, or maybe it had all been here through too many generations that did not remember how their ancestors had built or maintained their homes.

  “It is better than nothing.” Fionna paid the innkeeper. “It is nice to have a real bed rather than sleeping under my pony on the ground. I should be thankful,” she snorted at herself, feeling uneasy about the many faces of strangers who were going about their business. She suddenly felt far from home, and a chill caught in her spine.

  Fionna decided to search the surrounding woodlands for elves that were perhaps hiding somewhere unknown to the humans. Her first day in the forest, she discovered how the yellow clay cliffs got in the way everywhere. She had to turn back many times because the pony could not make its way through the terrain at all. Darkness cut short her explorations, and she returned to the inn.

  The next day she decided to go on foot using her staff as a walking stick. Having grown up in a paved city, she was not used to this kind of territory either. She was surprised at how fast her legs carried her easily over dead tree falls and rocks. She began to run, and was moving at a quick pace when she was tripped up by something on the forest floor. She went crashing down on her face, red hair flying, eyes wide; arms flailing.

  “You should roll!”

  She heard a man’s voice shout at her as she thudded painfully down on her chest. Looking around, still dizzy from the fall, she saw no one.

  “You should also carry a weapon out here,” it said.

  “Are you my teacher then?” she shouted to the trees.

  “Idiot… does he not know what a staff is for,” she groused to herself. She was straining to see where the voice came from while trying to stand up.

  “Look out!”

  She ducked as another man came flying over the trap, only this one did dodge roll in one smooth motion and continued running.

  “Who are you? What have I fallen into,” she demanded still trying to figure out where the voice had originated.

  He was already behind her, pulling her aside. Just in time too, as the next human came running through the opening in the woods. This one didn’t trip. With one smooth rollover, he kept going.

  “It is a race. My recruits are training for the guard,” his voice was quieter now, almost whispering.

  The man had dragged her backward into a blind where they hunched down next to each other to watch the rest of the recruits from hidden safety.

  “Oh,” she said, relieved they were not bandits, or worse.

  “My name is Fionna,” she tried to sound polite.

  “I am Commander Roevash of House Isokian. You have found the Royal Vehlevar Guard Training Post. You were moving at an impressive rate before you fell. You might consider joining our ranks. We could use fast runners.”

  “I am a wizard,” she said, not thinking, as if being a wizard made her exempt from running.

  He turned and tried to look at her more closely in the cramped space they shared. Her face was obscured by her hair as she half turned away, not looking at him, watching the woods for more runners.

  Suddenly, distracted by a man who just flipped on his face in front of them, the same way she had, he yelled, “Roll!” Commander Roevash grunted, planting his hand over his face, shaking his head at the disgrace of such a blunder.

  “Y-yes sir,” the young man howled as he righted himself and scrambled off again.

  “Wizards are men,” he said, finishing the conversation in a frustrated voice as if he was the final word on the subject.

  “This one is not,” she said, distracted by the runners as they clamored past. The sudden feeling like she had this conversation before swept over her, and she shook it off. More recruits ran by together. One fell as another laughed and quickly rolled over the trap. Shouting gibes at each other, they all ran away together.

 
“That will be the last of them,” Roevash said in his most formal tone.

  “We should clear out before the night comes. The woods are dangerous after dark.”

  Fionna shuddered at his words. “Hiisi?” she asked, feeling nervous at the thought of ever seeing one.

  “No, they have long been extinguished from this place. Small wild ogres are still here in numbers though, and they can become troublesome.”

  He looked at her puzzled.

  “How is it you know of hiisi?”

  Roevash had spent most of his earlier life battling those monsters.

  “They killed everyone in my village,” she answered him.

  “What!” He was confused now.

  “It was a long time ago,” she said, trying to match his loudness.

  “Yes,” his voice rose to an even louder pitch, “it would have been as the last hiisi were driven underground over one hundred eighteen years ago.”

  Now he really looked confused at her. He grabbed for her hair with his gloved hand and flipped it back.

  “You are Elderhis!” He was shocked, seeing her ear.

  “Yes, am I alone, or do you know of others?” She demanded. Her eyes flashed angrily at him for being so brash with her.

  “Female-wizard-elf, most unusual.” He glared at her thoughtfully and then loudly suggested, “Follow me,” as he turned to get up and lead them away. He was accustomed to ordering men around, so his request came out sounding more brusque than he meant.

  “No!” she became suddenly defiant, planting her hands on her hips, frowning at him.

  He narrowed his eyes frustrated with her tone. He turned back around to look at her. She was standing eye to eye with him in his sitting position. Roevash was not going to leave a woman there alone in the woods or worse yet, linger there arguing in the dark, so he rose up from his sitting spot, quickly scooping her up under his arm in one smooth motion. Fionna’s staff dropped out of her hand as she struggled, pounding a fist at his arm.

  Roevash ignored her complaining as he ran swiftly to the safety of the fort. Fionna hardly knew what was happening as she sputtered and found there was no use fighting his firm unrelenting grip.