A cruel joke, but is it by fate, or someone I know?
Brother and Sister
She glided through the trees, staying low to the ground. The dense grouping of leaves above provided ample shade. She was permanently in the shadows, just as she liked it. Her pointed ears could hear every sound in that forest, from the insects in the trees to her prey up ahead; a dear grazing at the edge of a meadow. She resisted the urge to draw her arrow. She wasn’t close enough. Not yet.
She stepped forward lightly, hardly making a sound. She had tracked her hunt thus far using a combination of footprints, broken twigs, and a familiar brown substance that she knew would disgust her aristocrat superiors. She was getting close, and by now her keen elf eyes could see the deer in the distance, even through the trees.
She tightened her bowstring, just a little.
She was just within range. Her dark green tunic and brown pants hid her well enough, but it was her patchwork cape that she was really proud of. It had patches of dark green, brown, and black. It had been too thin for a bed-sheet when she was young, but she had always like the look of it, and now it made a decent hooded cape. It certainly worked as camouflage, hiding her in this forest.
She reached for arrow. Her quiver was really just a wooden tube with room for but one projectile, but when she reached for it an arrow grew from the quiver like a plant. This arrow had leaves instead of feathers and a thorn for the point. It grew as fast as she reached for it, making a slight creaking noise. She made sure to draw slowly so as not to make too much noise, and then she got her arrow.
She aimed her weapon at the deer, pulling the arrow and string back slowly. This was it. It was over. She had hunted greater prey than dear as an elven huntress, and now this hunt was over. She pulled her string back even more, and then let it go.
TWANG!
It sped through the air and struck the deer straight in the heart…
And the deer screamed.
Perhaps it sounds funny to you, but you’ll have to imagine her position. She hunts what she thinks is an ordinary deer, only for that deer to scream, just like a man, when she strikes it through the heart. It terrified her.
The creature fell on its side, moaning in pain. “Why? Why?” she could hear it say, over and over. She just sat there, frozen, wondering how this could have happened. Had it been enchanted to talk? Was it some species of deer from another land? Had some poor soul been transformed into this form? All these questions raced through her mind…
Until she heard laughter. Very familiar laughter and it was at that moment she realized that the deer was also familiar. Very familiar.
She stood up, suddenly becoming very angry.
“Alright Hilner,” she said quite loudly. “Come on out. I know that deer. That’s the stuffed deer from home.”
A tree branch, as if on its own accord, bent down, and sitting on it was a small elf. He was so small that you might have mistaken him for a child. True
enough, he was young for an elf, not quite a man, but he wasn’t entirely a child either. It was hard to tell whether his childlike laughs were due to his youth, or merely his disposition. Hilner came down, laughing uncontrollably.
“I should have recognized it sooner,” said the woman.
“You know what else you should have done,” said the smaller elf. “You should have seen your face. It was priceless! I would have found a way for you to see it, but I figured that placing a mirror in the forest would have made you suspicious.”
The branch he was sitting on lowered some more, and he dropped to the ground. Now that they both had their feet planted their heights were quite obviously different. She was almost six feet tall, while he was a mere three feet. Both were elves, with pointed ears and a very slight green tint to their otherwise normal hair, but they were very different all the same.
“Such a waste of magic,” said the woman.
“What would you know of magic Alaisa?” said Hilner. “You gave up your magic for a few more inches of height.”
“Yes,” she replied. “And great speed and strength. Just as you gave your height away for more magic. Look at you. You’re not an elf, you’re a shrimp!”
More branches bent down as if on their own and Hilner stepped on them. He then walked up them like a stair until he was at eye level with Alaisa. He looked her in the eye with a gleam in his own. She just stared at him sternly.
“Don’t look down on me sister,” he said. “I know the limits I must place on my powers.”
“None, obviously,” she said with irritation. “You’re so immature.”
“And you’re so boring. Then again…if I am so immature, why do you keep me around?”
“Who else would take you in?”
“You know full well uncle Jenxsen would.”
“He’s as immature as you are. That’s a bad influence.”
Hilner grinned. “Well, that’s a reason I suppose. I suppose a lot of things that people consider fun are a bad influence.”
Alaisa looked at him shrewdly. “If uncle Jenxsen is so fun…why do you stay around me?”
Hilner laughed. “He’s fun to play jokes with, but he laughs at them, so he’s not fun to play jokes on.”
“Hmm. Speaking of your joke that stuffed deer had better be back home by the time I…”
“It’s on its way now.”
Alaisa looked and sure enough her keen elf eyes could not detect any sign of the deer. She had to admit. She was impressed.
“You’ve gotten better with that magic of yours,” she said.
“A compliment!” he said brightening up. “From you! I could die happy now!”
“Don’t get used it,” she said with a slight chuckle and grin that lasted for a mere split second. “Besides, shouldn’t you be at the magic academy right
now?”
“Actually, I was sent by senator Kilvan to come get you, so I do have a reason for being here. He wants us both.”
“Us? What’s that old aristocrat want us for?”
“He said he’d tell us both when we got there. Not hard to imagine the reason though. I’m a magician, top of my class, and you’re in the hunter’s guild,
best of your league. You know you hunt bigger game than just deer don’t you?”
“I know.”
Still, something about this unsettled her. There was no war going on, so there were no war beasts for her to hunt down, and aristocrats didn’t leave their homeland Elfas, so they shouldn’t have any trouble from the usual beasts. Something was up.
“Well,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“Let’s go,” he grinned. “Remember…you could always send me to live with uncle Jenxsen if I get too annoying.”
“And you could leave home whenever you wanted. Nothing’s stopping you, so this isn’t all on me.”
“Ah! But who will crack first?”
He ran off laughing, and she slowly followed, grinning just a little, and only for a moment, before returning to her serious demeanor. She walked
under the shade of the trees for a few steps when she spotted something in the corner of her eye. It was a painting of her with a particular face…probably the same face she made when the deer screamed. As a magician, it wouldn’t have been hard for him to make such a painting instantly. She turned ahead.
“HILNER!”
To Be Continued
