Tales of Eldelórne Page 8

  “I think it is time for a real bath… also, a haircut,” Fionna announced one day, assessing him with her hands on her hips. “You are beginning to smell, and not in a good way, seriously, you are stinky.” She looked at him, slumped over the table. “Honest to the gods EJ! You look witless, like the wobbly drunks I have seen in the village loitering outside the pub.”

  EJ’s face made a splatting sound as it landed on the table. He accidentally drooled looking up at her. Half-smiling, through a goofy wet face, he investigated the tips of his fingers. All this only accentuated her statement. Fionna wagged her head, staring into his blinking, happy eyes.

  Fionna had been the sole caretaker for Eijlam since he arrived three weeks earlier. She felt the burden of the extra work, and yet there was a strange joy at being near him. She still could not communicate, and that was frustrating for her. Eijlam didn’t seem to mind. If she didn’t know better, she might think he was a simpleton the way he just grinned stupidly at her all day long. She rolled her eyes at him, and he was delighted. It went on like this all the time. Farghal assured her it was only a phase. She wasn’t so sure about that.

  Fionna was sad that she had to cut most of his hair off. She somehow managed to salvage enough, so it almost touched his shoulders when she was done.

  “The thing about hair is it grows back,” she assured him even though she knew he didn’t understand a word she just said. He seemed happy as she brushed through his newly liberated tresses. Fionna was happy with EJ starting to look more normal, whatever that was.

  Fionna took Eijlam by the hand, and he followed her out into the sunlight for the first time. EJ cringed, putting his free arm up over his brow to shade his eyes from the bright sun. The walkway was paved with stone. The walls were stone. It was all stark reminders that he was in a very alien place. What he did not understand is the place was surrounded by walls for a reason.

  Master Farghal laid enchantments around the edges of the property that would make the house invisible to any who approached the area with bad intentions. The construct was built centuries before, to protect Fionna from harm. The only tree was in the small walled in yard because the wizard knew Edhellen loved trees. His small charge spent many hours climbing and sitting among it’s branches as she grew.

  Eijlam tried not to panic as he felt the blood draining from his lips. He gripped Fionna’s hand tighter, peering wide-eyed at the long red hair in front of him as they went through the door that lead to the large bathing pool. Fionna had become his anchor in this realm.

  Once inside, Fionna removed EJ’s bedclothes so he could take a bath. She did not intend to get naked in front of him, so she kept her underdress on. He paced around the edge until she lowered herself into the cool water. Fionna put her arms out to encourage him to join her. EJ stared at her soggy clothes with a funny look on his face. He thought it strange that she chose not to be naked. Eijlam slowly sat down so she could wash his hair. Fionna felt his fingers exploring her leg under the water, so she tapped him sharply on top of his head, looking down at him sternly, and it stopped. He blinked his long wet lashes and smiled to himself as he stuck out his lower lip and became the docile dutiful child.

  “Take your hands off the stew and back away slowly,” Fionna’s eyes narrowed at EJ and he froze. He had snuck up behind her for a taste, but it didn’t work for him. Her hands were busy, so she shoved into him with her hip. He giggled with glee, enjoying this game.

  “I am worried you will feel the pain of burnt fingers,” Fionna tried to explain but Eijlam was always hungry these days.

  She rolled her eyes in frustration at finding him back for another hip bump.

  “Here, smarty pants,” she handed him a spoon and set him to the task of stirring. EJ smiled triumphantly, tasting the stew off the spoon, several times in fact.

  Eijlam was caught between being elfling and adolescence. He didn’t know this because his memories had not yet returned. Teasing Fionna came naturally, but he often felt pangs of sadness or maybe it was loneliness, he could not be sure, and he didn’t know why. Fionna often saw EJ’s long face and wondered how she could cheer him up. Fionna decided to expand EJ’s daily routine. She decided to take him along next time she went outside to do her chores.

  Fionna handed him a hat and showed him how to put it on to hide his ears. He kept taking off and playing with it until Fionna got her own hat and put it on. She didn’t really need it because of all her thick hair. EJ smiled and patted her on the head as he put his own hat on. Then they went outside together.

  The wizard's house was situated just a half league outside the high wall of Drustnlach. It was surrounded by rolling hills and sparse trees. There were a few human homesteads like theirs scattered along the wide rushing river that ran alongside the city. Eijlam followed silently, taking in everything, and enjoying Fionna’s company.

  Beyond their walled home was a small stable surrounded by a large green pasture. EJ was delighted to meet Fionna’s pony who came running up to greet them. Her name was Daisy because she was pale white like the petals of the flower. EJ had always wondered where Fionna disappeared to, and now he knew. She had to feed and water her pony everyday, but more than that, Fionna liked to talk to Daisy. The pony knew everything, but she would never tell. That’s what Fionna loved about her. Eijlam smiled and whispered words in a long fuzzy ear as he watched in fascination at her soft muzzle munching in a bucket of oats. Fionna taught EJ how to brush Daisy and check her feet for rocks that might get stuck in her hooves and bruise her.

  EJ was surprised one day when Fionna jumped up on Daisy’s back and then motioned for him to join her. They rode tandem along the river among the shady trees. Eijlam finally had a reason to put his arms around Fionna. He felt the hum of their closeness resonate over his skin, and suddenly, he knew what he’d been missing. He pressed the side of his face into her shoulder and hoped riding with Fionna would never end. Fionna smiled as EJ squeezed up comfortably against her back. She sighed and felt a tranquility she had never known before wash over her.

  Half crazed chickens ran cackling indignantly in every direction as the pair galloped up into the garden. Fionna threw down the reins and Daisy immediately dropped her head to eat grass. She expertly swung her leg over the pony’s withers and dismounted leaving Eijlam sitting solo. He lay forward and enjoyed the quiet rocking of her warm back as she stepped around, slowly looking for fresh grass to chew on.

  “The green beans need picking for dinner,” Fionna said out loud not †expecting an answer as she bent down and started breaking the beans off at their steams. Eijlam, still not talking, showed up at her elbow so close it startled her, and she giggled at his nearness. Four hands worked busily side by side filling her straw hat. Fionna thought dinner tasted particularly good for some reason.

  One day, Fionna found Eijlam hunched over a bird that had crashed into his window and broke its neck. The poor creature lay flopping helplessly on the ground. He gently cradled the dying bird in his hands and held it to his chest. He turned his face upward with his eyes closed. To her shock, when he opened his hands, the bird had been completely healed and flew away.

  Fionna slowly helped EJ up off the grass, and hugged his sad, wet face.

  She dried his tears with the edge of her long sleeve and led him by the hand back into the house so she could talk to the wizard Farghal.

  “EJ just healed a birdie,” Fionna said with a questioning face.

  “That was very nice of him,” Farghal answered her, while busy working on mixing some sour smelling concoction.

  “No, I mean he brought it back to life.” Fionna started to feel frustrated with Farghal’s distraction.

  Eijlam just stood there looking curiously at the words that were coming out of both their mouths.

  “Uhhhh, a resurrection of the dead?” The wizard leaned over and took a closer look at EJ, still not very concerned about it.

  “Is this a normal elven thing,” she asked.

  “Magic comes in
all forms Fionna. We can assume healing is one of several desired practices among Edhellen,” was all the wizard would say.

  “Okay then, is there any magic that can help with this language barrier?” she asked smartly.

  “I still cannot fully communicate with him.”

  Farghal looked at her sadly.

  “Let him teach you his language,” he sighed as if she should have figured this one out already.

  “As if learning a foreign tongue is just going to happen in my sleep,” she grumbled. EJ somehow knew they were talking about him because Fionna was turning gloriously red in the face, and kept glancing in his direction.

  “Magics of a kind always surrounds elves,” Farghal tried to encourage her, looking through one bulging eye to accentuate his words. He turned and went back to his task on the table.

  “Uhuuuh…” she let out a breath, “You are sooooo… frustrating sometimes,” her eyes narrowed at the wizard, not saying what she was really thinking.

  Farghal only smiled at his glaring redheaded charge.

  “You can do this Fionna. You heard the words of your people from your mother as a little one. It will help you as well; to learn something of your elven heritage.” Farghal nodded in the direction of Eijlam. He was playing with a stray curl on her shoulder.

  “Oh, gods never-ending,” she exclaimed abruptly pulling back her hair; startling him and making him jump.

  “Can you not see he is… ugh, unusual,” she glanced at EJ not wanting to say the actual words she had in her mind.

  “He only just learned how to feed himself, He barely knows how to put on clothes, let alone speak coherently…”

  Her eyes narrowed at EJ. He quit hovering, and took a step back. She started pointing at him. EJ smiled at her.

  “I do not know if I want to handle this! Did anybody ever ask me if I want to handle this?” Fionna was really getting revved up now.

  EJ thought she was just spectacular.

  Memories Lost

  Chapter Eleven

  It was quiet in the back courtyard except for birdsong from the high branches of the tree. They sat beneath it in the cool shade at the long wooden table. It had been quite a while, and Fionna finally gave up arguing and decided to try to communicate. If nothing else, she would prove the wizard wrong and maybe get some real help.

  Eijlam smiled his biggest most brilliant smile, and all her troubles seemed to disappear. Or at least they could have. She wasn’t in the mood this time. She looked at him and just sighed.

  “I think you are enjoying this,” she was still more than slightly irritated as she mildly glared sideways at him and shook her head. They were sitting across from each other in the anticipation that something was supposed to happen as they looked around at leaves falling, bugs, grass growing…

  …

  “I do not know how to begin,” she honestly said, looking perplexed with him.

  “You do not even know what is going on, do you? This is hopeless!” She half-heartedly slammed her head down on her folded arms; burying her face and becoming a giant mound of red hair in front of him.

  Ej reached across and gently took both her hands in his, concentrating directly at her averted eyes. To her surprise, he began to speak slowly and fluently for the first time since he’d arrived. His voice was softly mesmerizing as he spoke.

  “Ni edhel, Me edhel, Ni veren an dhe ngovaned. Gellon ned I gelir chent gîn ned i laugh.”

  “What?” she said abruptly, looking up into his eyes, he continued.

  “Anneg vîr mi uren. My heart is glad, Gûr nîn glassui friend.”

  She broke in on him, “You could speak my language all along?”

  She was cringing with a horrified look on her face thinking of all the babbling she had done around him and tried to recall if she had said anything offensive.

  “No, mellonamin. You are now understanding mine.”

  “What?”

  “Now who is the addled simpleton,” he said demurely lowering his eyes, showing off his long lashes.

  “Oh, you heard me say that? Ohhhh… ohhhhh… ” she turned bright pink, “… I am soooo sorry. I did not mean it that way.” She was speaking fluent Elvish and didn’t realize it.

  “How does this happen?” she asked.

  “Elves are all a little magic,” he grinned, “mind-speak is only another practice. It is not common though. Some are better at it than others.” He shrugged one shoulder and did something cute with his face to emphasize his explanation.

  “Oh,” she said, still embarrassed by all he must have heard her say in the past month and a half.

  “How long has this been going on?” she asked with a mortified look on her face, not letting him answer.

  “Wait ... and you let me ... just babble on like an.. an…. idiot?”

  Her red hair whipped out in a sudden breeze over her right shoulder as if in slow motion. She stood up with her eyes flashing. EJ was genuinely delighted to see this and smiled even bigger. She wanted to tackle him and start pounding on his smile radiating face.

  “Stop it!” she yelled, and he clamped his lips shut, unable to stop feeling the humor of the situation.

  At that moment she wanted to hate him so bad but just sat down with a resigned sigh instead.

  “How did you do it,” she grumbled in a curious tone.

  “Mind-speeeeek,” He enunciated the word mimicking the way she had been speaking to him in the past weeks; showing all his perfect teeth as he did it.

  She stared at him, deadpan.

  “Noooo, I mean to heal the birdie,” she whined in frustration.

  He looked down thoughtfully.

  “I am not sure,” he said, furrowing his brow trying to recall the sensations. “I wanted the bird not to feel such pain, so I felt the pain... I do not know?” he shook his head, confused.

  Fionna’s hands went up over her forehead with her eyes boring a hole through the table in concentration. She dug in her mind, trying and recall if her papa had taught her anything like this.

  “Please,” he said in the most calming and gentle tones hoping to distract her.

  His voice was soft and melodic. He touched her elbow from across the table to get her attention and then taking her hands gently in his he spoke.

  “Tell me your story. How do you come to be in a wizards care? It will be good practice for you to say it.”

  His pleading eyes were irresistible, so she slowly began to recite the tale of her beginnings as it had been explained to her.

  “I was born in a small village called Vehlevar. It is along the farthest north central coast from here. I hear it is cold there and the ocean water turns to ice sometimes. I do not remember any of it.

  My family was slaughtered by a swarm of goblins and hiisi that had come down from the mountains. They burned the village to the ground. That was just over six-hundred years ago, about the middle of the third age.

  And then, only one hundred or so years ago," Fionna could see Eijlam was visibly disturbed by her story, so she cut out many of the gorier details as she rambled through it, "the history of man tells us a mad sorcerer, whom, by the way, controlled those same monsters that destroyed my village!

  Well, he tried to dominate the entire kingdom with some evil bid for power, but he lost his tower fortress and some magic baubles of some kind, rings as I recall, and he is gone now ... and so is my family... and my village," she sputtered slowly to a halt. EJ was staring down at the table where his hands were holding hers.

  "Master Farghal found me under a pile of debris. Starving and squalling in my blanket. I was just an elfling…” she sighed, wishing EJ would say something. "I only have the blanket I was wrapped in to know anything about my clan.”

  “That is an unhappy beginning for one so beautiful,” he sadly said, looking like he was going to cry.

  “I could show it to you if you like.”

  “I would like that,” he said.

  “Maybe some other time I will.”

>   Fionna smiled, looking down again at her hands that were being gently held in his soft grip. EJ rubbed his thumbs against her hands in a caring gesture.

  “So you have been taught by the wizard. Do you know wizard magics as well?” He changed the subject, trying to shake off the melancholy that was creeping in.

  “Yes, papa taught me how to light a fire, make ice and stone,” she tried to think if there was more, “... also, I can use a staff ... just a little. I have not had much practice lately with you here.”

  She took her hands back.

  “Then you are a wizard too?”

  He felt disappointed at the removal of her hands from his and sighed sadly to himself.

  “Yes, I can make someone fall asleep.”

  She coyly smiled at him. He gave her his cute face for that one.

  “Do you think I could learn that too?” she asked.

  “Learn what?”

  “Healing... I mean bringing back life or something like you do; through mind-speak or something.”

  She waggled her fingers up by her ears like weird antlers.

  “Can you teach me?”

  “I do not know.”

  He had a hard time keeping a straight face watching her.

  “Maybe it is a natural thing for elves to know…” He furrowed his brow, trying to remember something when a memory flashed in his mind. It lasted just a second beyond his grasp. It seemed disturbing or frightening, but he didn’t know.

  Fionna distracted him with, “...Also, I smoke the wizard pipe.”

  “No!” He looked as disgusted as he could, but it just wasn’t working for him with his good-natured expression.

  “Do not be so closed-minded until you try it,” she said smirking at him.

  “Besides, it is time to feed the chickens so let us go and do that, and we will talk some more." She was happy to be communicating at last.

  Fionna and EJ could be heard conversing in the words of the Edhellen in the days that followed. She grew to understand mind-speak is a link into one's consciousness that runs both ways so EJ could understand the common tongue as well.