Mira's View (4 page)

“I know. I heard some of the villagers
talking about it on my way over here. Apparently, they’re sending
Shorva and his family off today.” Elenio became very interested in
a small dent in the table, picking at it as Galena took another
bite.

Galena sighed; glad she would not be there
for the burning of all the elves that she had once known and then
seeing their ashes blowing in the wind in hopes to join the realm
of the gods. Something about seeing ashes made up of elves didn’t
give Galena the warm fuzzy feeling of hope that it seemed to give
everyone else. She fought back the tears as she thought of the
little ones that they would be sending off today.

“Not a very good omen for the start of a
marriage,” Elenio said glumly.

Galena blinked as she looked at him with wide
eyes.

Noting her look, Elenio smiled at her as he
rolled his eyes. “Really? Have you forgotten that your cousin is to
be married at the end of this week?”

Galena was shocked to realize that a month
had gone by since the announcement of Clovia’s promising to Morak.
It seemed like only yesterday that they were announcing it to
family. She hadn’t even been asked to help with the preparations
for the feast afterwards, as most of the family members were
required to do. She must have been spending more time training than
she originally thought.

“To be honest, I had forgotten all about it,
especially with the recent events,” Galena said sheepishly.

Shaking his head in disapproval, he reached
across the table, and snatched the apple from her hands. Before she
could protest, he set the fruit on the table and reaching across
the table once more, he laced his fingers with her own, forming a
sort of bridge with their hands. Galena gasped in surprise. All she
could do was stare at the point where they joined.

“Would you do me the honor, of accompanying
me to the commitment ceremony?” Elenio asked as he gazed directly
into her eyes.

Galena felt her pulse quicken until it was
dancing in her chest. She thought he must been joking, because he
had never shown an interest in her that way before this moment. She
pulled her eyes away and focused on their hands again, trying to
determine if this was real or not. He had played so many pranks on
her before that she would hate to jump up and down like a silly
teenager, only for him to laugh at her. She swallowed the thump in
her throat, her mouth suddenly dry.

How was she going to answer this
question?
Trying to decide whether or not she should respond,
she looked everywhere else, but at Elenio.

Sensing her hesitation, Elenio let go of one
of her hands and placed his finger under her chin, lifting her face
so that she had to look at him again. “What are you thinking? Do
you really not like the idea? Or are you going with someone
else?”

“I’m trying to decide if you’re playing a
joke on me,” Galena said quietly as she shook her head.

Standing up, Elenio walked around the table
to where she sat and grabbing her hands, he pulled her to her feet.
He bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips. Her heart beat
loudly in her ribcage, desperately trying to escape. She felt that
any moment Elenio would laugh at her for it, because she was
positive the sound of it carried to his ears.

“Galena, you are my best friend. The one
person whom I have confided in about absolutely everything.
Although I am unsure of when it began, I have come to realize that
I have fallen in love with you. You asked me yesterday what was
bothering me, and it is simply that I have been struggling with how
to tell you about my feelings. I realize that you may not see me as
a potential commitment partner now, but I’m hoping that you will
someday.”

She couldn’t help it; she began to tear up
with happiness. This is what she had dreamed about for so long, but
had never plucked up enough courage to do anything about it.

His eyes widened and his mouth froze in a
frown at the sight of tears streaming down her cheeks. He looked
her over, his face clearly showing that he had no idea what was
going on. Elenio dropped her hands and made to step back, but
before he could get very far, Galena threw her arms around his neck
and buried her face in his chest. She felt him tentatively place
his hands on the small of her back, as if he was unsure of what was
happening.

“You don’t realize how long I have dreamed of
you saying something like that. I was so afraid that you would
never return my feelings that I never spoke of them to you,” Galena
whispered into his chest.

Elenio tightened his embrace, releasing a
ragged breath as he did so. Burying his face in her hair, he kissed
the top of her head as she continued to hold him.

“I was so afraid that you would reject me or
would not be able to see me as anything, but your friend. The mere
thought of being sent away has kept me awake for months. I thought
when you didn’t show up this morning to train that you must have
realized what I meant to say yesterday and decided that it would be
better to stay away.”

The grin that lit up his face was contagious
and she felt herself smile too. Pulling him closer, she rested her
cheek upon his chest, savoring the feel of him so close to her and
in that moment, Galena knew without a doubt that this was where she
belonged.

Chapter
Four

The day of the Clovia’s commitment ceremony,
Galena rolled out of bed and smiled at the warm sunshine streaming
in. It looked as if it would be the perfect day. The actual
commitment ritual would be held in the evening, so the heat would
be bearable. The feast afterwards would be held in the pine
clearing where there would be ample amount of shade surrounding the
gathering place.

Stretching out like a cat, Galena fondly
thought of the last commitment ceremony that she had been to. It
had been her brother Melan’s and she hadn’t been old enough to
really enjoy it. Sure, she had been old enough to attend, unlike
the younger children who were staying in the care of an elder elf
who was no longer able to work in the mines, but she still had to
stay by her father's side.

And what kind of fun was that?
she
thought, shaking her head slightly. She also had to go home with
him when he left for the mines. Laughing as she got up, she thought
of how annoyed she had been then. She had argued left and right,
trying to convince her father to let her stay, but he stood his
ground. She knew why he had to leave, but she didn’t think the
narooks would come for her like he had told her. Shaking her head,
she realized now that he had been lying about that part. The
narooks would have come for him if he had skipped work, but she
would have been safe.

Oh, the many things parents will tell
their children in order to get them to listen,
Galena thought
while rolling her eyes at her father’s tactics.

Galena found her thoughts wandering to
another one of Rau’s evil creatures. She sighed with weariness,
thinking of all the vile things that filled her world. What she
wouldn’t give to be the bringer of freedom. The narooks creeped her
out with their looks. They were creatures that naturally lived deep
within the ground. Tall and skeletal thin, their gray skin was
stretched tight over their bones. Their arms hung to their knees,
with their long fingers dragging on the ground. They were cruel,
and often punished elves for simply being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Not only were they natural enemies of the elves, but
Rau had also bestowed special powers on the narooks that made them
even more feared, and the perfect slave drivers. With that and
their ability to sense when an elf had a short time to live and was
therefore pronounced finished mining, made them creatures worthy of
a wide berth in her mind.

Galena shuddered in disgust, turning her mind
back to the beautiful day at hand.
Why ruin a perfectly good day
with thoughts of disgusting creatures?
Shaking her head, she
removed all the unpleasant thoughts from her mind and thought of
all that she wanted to accomplish today. She figured if she kept
busy enough, the day would fly by, and then the party could begin.
Smiling she looked at the dress that she would be wearing, and
giggled with the thought of what Elenio would say when he saw her
in it.

She let her mind drift off as she did her
chores, to Elenio and all that had transpired in just a few short
days. Her whole world had shifted and she loved it. She replayed
particularly happy moments over and over in her head: Them
announcing their promising to her father, his reaction to the news,
and the stolen moments of soft words and gentle touches they had
shared. She sighed in contentment at those images. However, even
their promising could not sustain their happiness through the news
of two more torlic attacks on the other villagers.

As the sun hung lower in the sky, Galena
began to get ready for the ceremony. Drawing enough water from the
well, she filled the large bathing basin before taking a cold bath,
not wishing to light a fire on the stove just to warm up the water.
Bathing quickly because of the icy cold, she stepped out, gingerly
dried herself off with a bit of old clothe, and then she dressed
for the ceremony. Instead of her normal leggings and tunic, she
pulled her pale, green dress over her head and into place. It laced
down the back where she tied it tight at her waist. The bodice fit
perfectly, showing off her slim figure. It was sleeveless with wide
straps connected to the bodice. The top half of her dress ended at
her waist where she had fitted several strips of fabric, no wider
than twelve inches, all around it. Each piece overlapped other
pieces and they were all different lengths, creating a flowing
skirt that ended at different points along her calves. Twirling
around so that she could see the effects of it swirl around her,
Galena giggled. She had made this dress long ago, but had never had
the chance to wear it until now. She had been looking forward to
showing it off ever since she learned of Clovia being promised to
Morak.

She heard her father come in through the
front door and head toward his own room as she began working on her
hair, twisting and braiding it until it lay at the nape of her neck
in an elaborate bun. Looking this way and that in the mirror, she
made sure that it was exactly as she wanted it before she headed
out of her room to see if her father was ready yet. He was waiting
for her by the table, dressed in his finest dark blue tunic with
dark, brown-colored leggings. He had his tan boots on and his white
hair pulled back in a tail. He smiled down at her with pride in his
eyes when she walked into the room.

“You look beautiful, my dear,” he said as he
extended his arm for her to grasp.

She took it, smiling broadly at him. “You
look handsome as well.”

Together, they headed out the front door and
down the road toward the mound that the villagers used for special
occasions. It was a large boulder with a flat top and had steps
carved into the front of it for the purpose of easy ascent and
descent. Grass and flowers grew all around it, decorating the
ceremony stone more beautifully than any elf could. It was the
perfect spot for all the elves to see as the two promised ones went
through the commitment ceremony.

Finding a spot near the front of the plateau,
Galena and her father stood side by side as they waited for the
other elves to join the crowd. Elenio wrapped an arm around
Galena’s waist as he stepped up beside them. He smiled down at her
when she turned her face toward his. His eyes shone with pride and
something more, sending goose bumps racing all over her body.

Blushing furiously, she turned to look at her
brothers and their commitment partners, who had joined them on the
other side of her father. Together, they stood proudly waiting for
the ceremony to begin. As the last elf found his place in the
waiting crowd, they began to hum a sweet song. It was the same song
hummed gently at every commitment ceremony, signaling the two
promised elves and the elder that they were waiting and ready.

Slowly, one of the elders made his way toward
the plateau; elves sensing him would step aside, allowing him to
progress through the crowds without hindrance. Behind him, hand in
hand, Clovia and Morak continued looking to the ground as they
approached. The elder climbed the steps, followed closely by the
couple, and turned so that he could face Morak and Clovia, as well
as the waiting crowd. In his hand, he held the commitment ribbon,
made with all the colors under the sun.

Each newly committed elf couple added another
section to the commitment ribbon until over the years; it had
become very long and held multitude of colors. She found her mind
drifting to what color Elenio and she would choose, not wanting to
jinx their whole commitment to one another by not adding to it.

I wonder how that whole tradition got
started,
Galena thought, shaking her head at the idea of a
commitment collapsing because the couple had ‘failed’ to add their
thread to a ribbon.
The things we convince ourselves of for the
idea of a happy life.

The elder began the ceremony by talking of
the first elf union and all that had happened, because of their
commitment. He told of the elf commitment history and its endurance
through the good times, and more recently, the hard times. He spoke
of the importance of the love that Clovia and Morak shared, and how
in a world so wrought with evil, it was the key to surviving. He
ended the ceremony by asking both Clovia and Morak if they were
willing to pledge their love to only each other for which, they
both agreed. Then turning, he asked all the surrounding elves if
they were willing to do their part to support and love these two
through the rest of their lives. Everyone agreed and as he wrapped
the commitment ribbon around the couple’s joined hands, the elves
began to hum again, causing the forest around them to quiet as it
listened to the gentle melody. Turning slowly, the witnesses left
the clearing and headed to the area where the feast would commence.
There they sat as they waited for Clovia and Morak to take their
place at the head table. The two walked in together with an arm
around each other’s waist, smiling to everyone that they passed.
Taking their place, the feast began.