Tales of Eldelórne Page 16

  Fionna, in understanding, put her arm around his shoulder, and they sat down quietly among the rocks to enjoy the sunshine for a while. The garden was profusely populated with multicolored mounds of wildflowers and young spindly trees. Everything was thin and weedy looking.

  “This surely is not the grandeur of song and legend this place had once known,” EJ whispered knowing she could always hear him.

  Ej watched a bird land on a nearby branch next to what looked like an old abandoned nest. Feeling a growing anxiety, he decided to look around rather than bake on a rock in the sun. Half hidden by a layer of the brambling brush, near the water’s edge, they found the broken down, hollowed remnants, of the vast Mallorn trees that had once lived there.

  “I hope our mother’s home has not suffered such a fate,” EJ mumbled to himself remembering the life the magnificent tree once shared with him and his brother.

  Fionna’s fingers squeezed his hand as a reminder of her support. They looked sadly into each other's eyes as they ambled on in their investigation of the place. They came upon the cooling spray of a single water spout splashing down off the high cliff. It felt good in the broiling sun. They didn’t hesitate to let the shower engulf them. Roe arrived just in time to see his brother starting to smile again as Fi kissed him in the falling water. Roe was touched by the sight of their beautiful shapes together as he waited for them to finish cooling off.

  “No, I do not wish to be wearing damp clothes,” Roe smiled at the soaked pair as he declined the invitation to join them. “Too soon the steam will rise and make you sorry in this heat, but we are not far from our home now, so it matters not.” He faintly scowled to himself as they headed out of the garden.

  Village of Trees

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Eijlam and Roevash’s family home lay straight west of them, just across the Vodla river. It sat among a small group of forested hills on the sandy southern ocean shore. This is where their clan had called home for thousands of years. The old footbridge had collapsed long ago, so to get cross, they were forced to climb down into the riverbed. Much of the water ran in shallow streams through built-up silt that made up the, once rich, river delta.

  “It is like another land down here,” Roe said as they forded the main river to the other side. Just as he’d predicted earlier, he found himself soaking wet.

  Ej and Roe took off their shirts and tied them around their waists. Fi opened the front of her top to let in some air. It was still sticky hot, but she hardly noticed with the two half-naked guys glistening in the hazy sunshine. EJ saw the look on her face and made a muscled arm motion. A smile bloomed on her lips. He cocked his eyebrows and kissed her sideways on the cheek.

  “Soon enough, my love,” she heard his words inside her mind. She smiled to herself as they started to climb the western bank of the river.

  “I hope this was all worth the effort,” EJ said out loud as he pulled himself up over the top of the grassy edge.

  Roe reached down and hauled Fi quickly up by the arm, and she landed next to them on solid ground.

  Their minds were immediately set at ease at the first sight of their home trees. Eldelórne stood silent, and abandoned, but still in its full glory. Fionna had never dreamed of such a place. The tall, sturdy trees were as large, or even more massive than the whole cottage where she once lived.

  The first tree that was the gateway into the upper canopy had an ornate archway in its base that magically appeared as they approached. The door opened only to the Edhellen.

  “It remains hidden to humans or otherwise,” EJ said to Fionna, who was still stunned at the size of the place.

  Before they entered, Roevash honored his vow by kneeling before the tree in the spot where his little brother had disappeared. He humbly gave thanks for the return of his family. He could feel his mother smile again in his heart.

  Eijlam took him up in his arms and hugged his big brother soundly for a long while, letting the years of sorrow wash away. The music of Ilmatar flowed like waves of glowing light through the canopy of the trees above them, lighting their way into the home.

  “What beautiful sunshine,” Fionna thought, looking up, not realizing what she was seeing.

  +++

  The massive trunk opened up into a circular stairway that followed the inside edge of the tree. The three made their way quickly to the top. Vine covered walls climbed upward around a scuffed gray slate floor that was an open reception area.

  “This space was once one of the many places where the younger elves learned lessons from the Eldars,” EJ said to Fionna. There was no one left to be found, and it was quiet as a grave.

  “It is too quiet,” Roe was the first to notice as the hairs on the back of his neck bristled.

  Ej drew one of his swords. The zinging sound it made echoed across the emptiness.

  “Yesssss ... someone or something is here,” Fionna hissed, her eyes shifting around as her staff magically appeared in her outstretched hand.

  “I can smell it,” Roe growled.

  “Ogres!”

  Just as the word left his mouth, three ape-like creatures leapt down upon them snarling and grabbing for loose rock or branches to bash them.

  “Aiii!” EJ yelled as he swung his blade upward through the lower jaw of the first one, impaling its massive head. The force of it knocked him sideways as the beast fell past him taking his buried sword with it.

  He drew his bow.

  Fionna hit another one with a fireball as three arrows slammed into its chest.

  Roevash was busy decapitating the third with one precise cut of his two-handed sword.

  The elves in unison skewered the last one that lay on the floor still struggling to fight. The wild ogre was oozing hideously, where its flesh and hair had burned away. It looked like a pincushion covered in EJ’s arrows.

  “Now I can smell it,” Fionna wrinkled her nose.

  “Yes,” said EJ, “I will not soon forget that stench!”

  Roe just smiled his knowing smile and tried not to breathe through his mouth until he was well clear of anything that might splash out at him.

  “They are filthy,” Fi was disgusted, “how did they get in here?”

  “They must have climbed over the top,” Roe said looking up to see if there might be more of them.

  “Can we eat it?” EJ said, his face deadpan.

  Fionna cringed with a look of utter horror.

  “I am joking with you, Fionna. You should know that by now.” He shrugged at her. She shook her head at his silly face.

  “I am hungry, though,” he couldn’t help saying.

  He raised his eyebrows and looked around as if a table might be somewhere. Much to his disappointment, the place was still barren of food. He sighed deeply as he retrieved his arrows and sword from the smoldering ogre’s corpse.

  By the time EJ caught up with them, Fionna and Roe had made their way across a woven branch walkway to the old home. The path widened in front of it in a small landing before entering the carefully carved door. The rooms were inviting and warm with life.

  “I could live here forever,” Fionna said with her eyes wide in amazement.

  The floor levels seemed like they were hewn flat into the trees own golden-brown wood. She marveled at how ornate and yet comfortable everything was.

  “These are our trees, Fionna,” EJ said. "They are alive, waiting for the life of the Edhellen to fill them.”

  “It is an ancient pact that they desire to be with us so,” Roe added, and as an afterthought he said, “It seems smaller in here than I remember.”

  Roevash turned and went out a second door to look around outside, in case more wild ogres thought to make this their home as well.

  “It is so sad that no one else is here,” Fionna said with a furrowed brow, “do they feel it?”

  “Yes, they feel the loss,” EJ said. “It would be the same desolation as when you tried not to be an elf and refused to sleep with your own kind. They feel it too, t
he emptiness.” Ej looked into Fionna’s fretful eyes.

  “Can you hear it... a humming? Is that its voice?” Fionna heard the tree in her mind. It was whispering to her ever so faintly. She thought the tree voice felt sweet like honey draining across the back of her tongue.

  “How strange,” she thought as she realized their language was partially like a taste rather than only sound.

  Fionna wanted to touch each part of the tree inside as she instinctively rubbed her hands along every wall to let this living creature know it was not alone.

  “I think it knows you care.” EJ smiled as he watched her explore the house. He could not help but notice how she made her way along the walls, touching it much like his mother had when she would greet their tree.

  “Your comforting actions are surely appreciated,” he assured her.

  “The orchards are still here... and the place is all clear of any more ogre signs,” Roe said as he stuck his head sideways in the door, and tossed a full clump of large green grapes at EJ, and a giant peach to Fionna.

  “I am starving," EJ said, stuffing a grape in his mouth.

  They followed Roe outside onto a large platform created by tree limbs. They were surrounded by a garden of vines and branches that intermingled, making it easy to harvest the fruit. The floor was woven together so tightly, a dropped sword would not even find a spot to fall through. The top of the wood was worn smooth by centuries of bare elven feet. The whole village of tree houses was chained together by wide hanging walkways. It was breathtaking to Fionna. Roe still thought everything seemed smaller than he remembered as he bit into a juicy red apple. EJ just quietly smiled and was glad to be home.

  As evening crept in, each of the guys went to their old rooms to rest for the night.

  “Can we stay here?” Fionna begged.

  “Forever?" EJ asked her enthusiastic nodding.

  "I am sorry, my love." He shook his head. "It would make our brother's life a misery to leave us here, and I am afraid he can not abandon his fort just yet.”

  Fionna stood there pouting at him; her lower lip was sticking out sadly. He was hanging up their clothes in an attempt to dry them in the sultry evening.

  “This damp air is why we never bothered with such things as clothes,” he said, happily naked again.

  Fi went to the window and could see fireflies milling in the darkness down below. They looked like twinkling stars near the ground. She leaned dangerously over the open windowsill.

  “How will Roe explain our returning with him? They will think he lied to them. That cannot be good,” she frowned.

  “He will just tell them the place was not fit for us to stay. It was a question to be answered after all,” EJ assured her.

  “We could come back sometime, couldn’t we? Even to stay a short while and visit. The trees...” she looked concerned for them.

  “I am happily surprised our home is still here,” EJ said thoughtfully.

  “Fionna, you know I would be joyed at seeing such happiness in your eyes again upon returning whenever we can.”

  She squealed and danced around him like an elfling in her gleefulness. He could only smile at that. How different she had become from the dutiful and serious wizard’s daughter he had first met.

  “I can only think that I have rubbed off on you in some small way to give you such joy...” EJ started to say but was interrupted by a redheaded elven girl who pulled him firmly into her lips for a long warm kiss.

  “You know I cannot refuse you...” EJ sighed quietly at her with half-open eyes. They crawled into the bed together, nose to nose.

  “Ned i postog a nin, ni bant,” she breathed softly in his ear.

  And Back Again

  Chapter Twenty Three

  “Wait! There is more to tell...”

  They all laughed so hard they couldn’t hear Roevash finish his story. Roe and EJ were so contented in their old home. They all lounged comfortably naked in the warm, humid southern air enjoying the orchards, and flowers, and each other's company.

  “This must have truly been the greatest paradise among all the clans,” Fionna said letting out a slow breath. She felt the mild tingle of the sun’s rays as it warmed her skin.

  “How many days has it been,” she thought to herself, “since we arrived here…” No one answered, but the distinct buzz of a fat beetle that zoomed past.

  “You have not seen Ettenfahls or Caras Eldarhon yet dear sister,” Roe said quietly reminiscing.

  “Every elven settlement has a beauty of its own, but I have to admit our mother’s home is dearest to me.”

  Fionna finally broke into the overly happy idleness, “We need to search that island sometime soon. The one both Dakein and the wizard Sibelast mentioned. Is it far from here?”

  “Just beyond this is the water’s edge,” EJ casually pointed south.

  “What, so close?” She stood up and strained to see over the treetops. It didn’t work. She was too short from where she was standing.

  “I am getting my gear to go. Are you coming along?”

  She could feel her agitation fighting through the fog of laziness that had set in. The guys were leaning back in their chairs with mildly curious looks on their faces.

  “We grow fat,” she blurted out with an accusing look in her eye was all she needed to get them both to sit up and pay attention.

  +++

  Down by the edge of the water, there was a landing for small ships.

  “This is the beach where we swam as young ones. Swimming was fun as elflings, but there were also times for serious training,” EJ told Fionna. Roe just looked at EJ and made a grunting noise and shook his head. Eijlam smiled at his brother as he looked out at the ruined docks.

  “These boats were not here before either...” EJ trailed off.

  Two out of the three boats moored to the docks were sunken and rotting in the pier just from sheer age and neglect. One looked salvageable.

  “You are saying, somebody built a harbor here since you have been gone?” Fionna asked.

  The brothers both nodded in agreement as they walked forward to investigate.

  Hiding underneath the far edge of one dock was a thumping sound that turned out to be a small rowboat still tied with rotting rope. Roevash looked top-heavy in the tiny craft as the others crammed in practically on top of him. The island did not seem too far away, and he was keeping his eyes glued on it as he readied the oars. He hoped they would make the passage there quickly as he glanced down and saw the dark and unforgiving water all around them.

  “Thank the Lords the water is quiet today,” he mumbled in a low, ominous tone.

  “I did not know how much you feared water.”

  “It is not the water Fionna. It is the vastness of this kind of water, and what swims below...” Roe’s eyes betrayed his fear.

  “I hope we can find a larger boat on the island then to come back in,” she looked concerned for him.

  “I do agree,” he said.

  Roevash steadily pulled the oars that propelled them forward. Within moments, they were close to the island beach.

  They felt the tiny craft hit the sandy bottom.

  Roe quickly leaped onto the shore in one stride. EJ threw him the rope, and he dragged them, boat and all, up onto the sand.

  Fionna heard EJ whisper in her mind, “It is from our youth, his fear is my fault.”

  She immediately knew not to ask as they gave each other a sideways glance. She busied herself gearing up her weapons and pack.

  The underbrush and vines were thick, almost impenetrable. Breaking through the wall of overgrowth was slow going. They thought of giving up and trying the other side of the island.

  Toiling for over two hours, they finally tunneled through the greenery.

  “Ugh, it is as if it fights us,” Roe growled, straining his muscles to break down a last stubborn tangle of vines.

  They were already worn and sweating when they entered onto a great manicured span of flat green, well-kept
lawns.

  “Time stands still here,” EJ sensed it. “There are magics of some kind.”

  “Where is everybody,” Fionna asked quietly, not expecting an answer.

  There was a drowsy mist in the air that made everything look soft and inviting as they stepped forward into the garden. All manner of colorful flowers grew in mounds across the many edges of the place. There was one main path that led back to a structure made of stone and wood. It looked like it had been a dwelling at one time. As they drew closer, they could see it had rotted and tumbled down from the passage of time.

  “Strange,” Fionna observed, “all the rest of the place looks freshly tended.”

  As they strolled behind the fallen dwellings, they came to an opening in a field of strange white stones scattered throughout wild grasses. Their minds turned numb with horror as they realized what they were looking at. The ground was littered with a sea of elves.

  “Hundreds… or maybe even two hundred or more,” Roe mumbled out the numbers his mind could not comprehend. Fionna ran to the nearest one and fell on her hands and knees, trying to pick up the body, but it had grown heavy and stuck deep into the soil.

  She cried out and tried to dig into the hard ground with her fingers. Eijlam took her gently by the shoulders; pulling her back to her feet before she bloodied her hands. He held her firmly in his arms as they moved slowly on. All three of them gasped in bitter sadness at the sight of so many elves. They had all decided to lay down and die in this manner.

  “Why did they give up this way?” Fionna cried out, half folded over in Eijlam’s firm grip.

  “See their faces...” Roe said, pointing out the facial expressions, “they show a calm sadness.”

  The air was thick with a cold damp fog that surrounded the field of bodies. The three carefully moved deeper into the place. Some of the elves lay on their backs with hands folded over their breast as if accepting their fate. Some lay on their sides with arms sadly stretched out across loved ones. Mothers and fathers held young ones, and elflings huddled to each other as if in fear.

  “I cannot believe these little ones could agree freely to this,” Fionna said through her tears.