ELO Read online

  He caught her glance and started stuttering as he became self-conscious. He said, "I- I was- I was, a child when I found the forest. I've aged...but I'm not sure how much exactly. The last time I asked Joltrun how old I was, he said I was barely into manhood. Truthfully I died when I found the forest and the Spirit of the King, God, he resurrected me. I drank from his spring. I suppose I lived a long time since, but time isn't normal here, so it's difficult to measure." His face darkened. "I'm not grown up, according to Joltrun. I haven't passed his silly tests." Bree's brow furrowed. If time moved differently in the forest, then how much time had passed since she had arrived? She chewed her lip nervously. Her first night awake, she had walked into the woods. There had been snow on the ground. Now the air was thick with sunshine—plants where blossoming, and nature was rutting.

  Elo called from higher up in the trail. She was nosing a massive fallen log. "I found some mushrooms, hurry up, you two!" She shifted to her human form and lifted the dead tree.

  Bree squeamishly watched as a centipede ran out from under the log and into the undergrowth. Insects wiggled in the dark soil, Elo ignored them unperturbed. She cracked the wood in half and exposed the growth of mushrooms. Bree laid her sling down, and Elo began to fill it.Faelorn crouched and began helping them gather fungus. Bree gingerly picked through the log, avoiding the many crawling insects. As they cleaned and plucked mushrooms, Faelorn quietly said.

  "Joltrun might be able to fix your voice. He has all sorts of tonics. It doesn't hurt you, does it?"

  "No." Bree mouthed shamefaced, wringing her hands. She lost her voice long ago. If she tried, she could use it, but it was painful. She could whisper, and she could scream if she were in great pain. Bree wasn't sure if she would ever talk or sing again. She missed singing the most.

  As a slave, people preferred that she couldn't speak. It made her a favorite among sadistic men. Bree closed her eyes, pained. At least she didn't have to endure the humiliation of enslavement. At least she was free even if her voice was almost gone." Bree? Bree!" Elo called concerned. Bree realized that she had been lost in thought, staring at the wiggling worms in the rotted log. Bree looked away and mouthed, "Sorry."

  Faelorn and Elo both stared at her. Bree shivered and walked away; Elo touched her shoulder following her. She said, "Are you okay?"

  Bree nodded, and the knot in her throat disappeared. She had always been quiet and hardly spoke unless she was spending time with her grandmother. Having a voice was something Bree had taken for granted as a free woman. Now that she was liberated from slavery, she found her lack of voice to be frustrating. Elo gave her a brief hug, whispering, "It'll be okay, love."

  Faelorn called from where he was still gathering. "I-I think we have enough mushrooms. Sun-sun down is still a while away, I keep a wild garden not far. We can gather more there then head to my home."

  Bree nodded, hugging herself. Faelorn carried the enormous mushroom pile in Bree's sling, Elo transformed back into a deer and bounded to Faelorn’s side. She said, "you should tell her about the elfish ruins. Maybe we can visit them."

  Faelorn lead the group up a winding trail. He headed east of the bramble tree, away from the spring and deep into the evergreen forest. Elo offered her shoulders for Bree to ride, and Bree mounted, glad to get off her feet. Elo trotted up to walk beside the forest guardian.

  "W-well," he stuttered as he caught Bree's curious stare."The elves lived there once," he blurted nervously. Elo laughed, "obviously, are you nervous about escorting a pretty lady like Bree?" She playfully nudged him. Faelorn ignored her, meeting Bree's gaze nervously. Elo pranced cheerfully; she said to Bree, "If you think the forest is magical, the ruins are twice so. The elves used to sing there, imbuing the stones with their voices! It was lovely to visit, but nasty goblins try to nest there on occasion. Joltrun drove them out, so it should be safe to visit."

  Faelorn growled, "goblins still try to roost there, but I'm the one to keep them out now." Bree listened quietly, her mind buzzing with curiosity, Faelorn walked ahead of the woman and the doe. He was dappled in the sunlight that filtered through the canopy. Bree stared at Faelorn's bare back as Elo carried her up the steep hill. She noticed the way his muscles moved and the way sweat made his skin glisten. Bree blushed, embarrassed by her attraction. Distracted, she almost fell when Elo randomly bounced over a boulder, sprinting to the trail's top.

  Elo gasped, "Sorry, dearie, I can't carry you anymore, this hill is murdering my legs." Elo lowered Bree gently to the ground. Bree slid off, catching herself roughly with a grunt. Elo stretched and said, "we're here, anyway." Faelorn ran up the hill attempting to catch up. His face was red with exertion. "W-w-wait up; you're supposed to let me in front so I can protect you." Elo rolled her eyes. "Ah, don't be daft. I can protect you and Bree, my legs were hurting, so I hurried ahead. Your paranoid, who would be hiding in your smelly house waiting to ambush us?."

  Bree stared at Faelorn, still red faced. She couldn't take her eyes off of his scarred handsome face. He stopped taking a deep breath, noticing her gaze, he stuttered. "I-I usually live with Cael and his people, sometimes-sometimes- I stay here." He gestured to the clearing around them.

  Surrounded by the mighty green forest was a house made entirely of peat. It was constructed from the earth, and though it was squat, Bree could see that it was cozy. Faelorn placed the mushrooms on a crudely built table in the corner. A firepit was dug outside of the entrance. Firewood was already chopped and ready to use. There was a small peat bed in the corner of the hut. On that bed, someone had left a small burlap bag. Elo, in her deer form, squeezed into the peat house, she nosed the bag. "Joltrun was here, it smells like tea. He must have left it for you." Faelorn scolded her.

  "You can't barge into my house Elo, you'll take the roof off again, with your big fat dear ass." Elo annoyed, "Well, I'll teach you; I'm burly, not fat. To Bree's shock, Elo threw her weight onto Faelorn, who gasped and half caught her, straining for all he was worth under the deer's weight. He collapsed, and Elo smugly sat on him. Bree stared; they were fighting like children, a deer, and a strange wild-looking man.

  Elo laid on her side, and Faelorn grunted with exertion, unable to hold her. She said, "my Faelorn, what a comfortable pillow you make, I should fall asleep." He gasped for air turning beet red; he could hardly breathe with the enormous deer on top of his chest. He gasped,"alright, Elo, I'm sorry...I won't bring up your weight again, I promise…." Elo got up cheerfully. Faelorn gasped for air, Bree stifled her giggles.

  Elo said, "You better not, I'm right strong even when I was a normal woman. I could lift a bale of hay all by myself. I would do more chores than all of my brothers, including milking eight dairy cows a day all by hand. My father had quite the farm..."

  Faelorn playfully tugged the deer ears, he said slyly, "well now you weigh as much as a cow" Elo boxed him in the stomach, and he collapsed winded. She growled playfully, "you're such a bastard!"

  "It-it was worth it," Faelorn said wheezing. Bree laughed; she couldn't help herself. It was ridiculous to see them behave as if they where competing siblings. She laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. Elo nuzzled her. " It's lovely to see you laughing." Faelorn stared at Bree for a moment, he said. "Your laugh, it's... different." Bree wrung her hands ashamed. Her laugh was horrible, like the sound of broken music or a dying animal. Bree caught a pair of shiny black eyes staring at her inside of Faelorn's nest of dreads. Cael had been sleeping curled up behind Faelorn's neck and intertwined in his hair. The little woodling was oblivious to their journey or to Elo's play fight with Faelorn. He grinned a naughty grin spotting the pile of mushrooms, he dived headfirst into Bree's sling and began helping himself.

  Elo shooed him away," git out of here, you pest." Cael leaped from the table and onto Bree's shoulder. Bree startled as she had not expected the woodling to be so curious. She held still nervously staring at Cael, who perched and began eating a mushroom cap. The fairy pretended to ignore her, glancing to see if she was still watchin
g him with fascination. Faelorn leaned close to her, offering a hand for Cael to leap onto and sit upon. The fairy jumped from Faelorn's arm then to his head, were he sat surveying the group. "He normally isn't this forward with people. I-I think he likes that you are fascinated with the fae." Bree got a good look at the severed stubs on Cael's back. She scrawled on her paper with her charcoal and asked, "He doesn't have wings?" Faelorn said, "N-no, his wings were taken a long time ago." Cael bristling at the mention of his winglessness, he hissed at both Faelorn and Bree. He leaped onto the table to sulk with a fresh armful of mushrooms. Faelorn muttered, "best, we do not mention it anymore; he's sensitive to that kind of talk."

  Bree's brow furrowed; who could have taken the little fae's wings? Elo began prepping the fire, lighting it with flint from a tinder kit that Faelorn kept over his bed. She ordered, "Why don't you and Bree go pick vegetables from your garden? that way, we can add them to this stew."

  Faelorn emptied Bree's sling onto the table then strapped it on to his shoulders. Elo began cleaning the mushrooms in a bucket of water and prepping them for her famous soup. She called, "Now, hurry, you two, the water in the cauldron will be boiling soon."

  Faelorn took Bree's hand and lead her to his garden. The garden lay behind the peat house. Quietly, they picked vegetables, and Bree stopped to whisper, straining her voice with all she was worth. "Faelorn, how did you turn into that creature?" Faelorn gathered a massive squash and pulled a handful of wild carrots from the soil. "W-w-well," he took a deep breath. "The Spirit of the King gave the power to me. So that I-I would be more akin to nature. It's my job to keep everyone safe. If I were only a man, I couldn't take care of creatures like the fae or guard the entire forest."

  Bree's voice burned painfully, she asked her last question straining.

  "Are you like... Elo?"

  Faelorn said wistfully, "N-No, I'm like you. In between life and death. The spring brought me back. Joltrun saved me, and I became his heir. Joltrun was the last forest guardian before me."

  Bree quietly contemplated his words as together, they filled the sling with luscious vegetables. The sling was soon full of little green squash, purple and orange carrots, and loads of tiny red fruits that Faelorn called tomatoes. Bree ate a small tomato, pleasantly surprised when it popped in her mouth. It was so sweet that she grabbed and ate a few more handfuls before returning to Faelorn's peat hut.

  They brought the vegetables to Elo and cleaned them together under the water pump. Elo chopped the vegetables then added them to her broiling stew, stirring vigorously with a wooden ladle. Faelorn and Bree sat next to Cael, who was still eating mushrooms. Having forgotten their earlier transgression, the fae leaped onto Faelorn's shoulder, were he settled comfortably. Faelorn affectionately handed the fae a tomato that he had slipped into his pants pocket earlier. The fae ate ravenously, tomato smeared onto the sides of his little green face.

  Elo looked up at them, wiping sweat from her head with her forearms she exclaimed: "Whew, this would have been harder if we had to hunt some poor creature." Faelorn teased, "Well, we could go catch a deer in the forest." Elo almost hit him with her ladle, she balked. "Your one to talk; how about I pick one of the mushrooms that grow on your back when you turn into a rutting beast." Bree looked at them, disgusted by the talk of back fungus. Faelorn embarrassed checked his back for mushrooms said. "I'm only teasing Elo."

  Elo threw her hands up in the air. "I have no qualms about you eating fish. The lord ate fish… but I won't cook venison for Bree." Elo dug into Faelorn's handcrafted cupboard for supplies. Finding wooden bowls and spoons, she continued. "When I was alive, I ate loads of meat, milk, and cheese...I still miss cheese… but when I turned into a deer after I died. Well, you can't exactly be okay with eating a creature that looks exactly like you." She shivered disgusted, "I regret all those bowls of venison soup I favored back home. Ahhh...and bread. I would eat bread now, sometimes I still have dreams of waking up in a bakery and eating loads of loaves." As the stew bubbled and broiled, the group settled around the firepit. Elo asked, "Bree, you have that scroll. Why don't you tell me where you come from? It's only right we all get to know each other. We were all young when we died or were resurrected. I, for one, am sick of all the stories I hear from the herd. I want to hear your story, then...Faelorn can go next." Bree fidgeted, holding her scroll and charcoal pen nervously. As Elo washed vegetables in a bucket of cold water, she said. "Faelorn can read me your story..."

  Bree wrung her hands; she felt shame redden her face. Her lower lip trembled gently. She sat at the table, Faelorn stood next to her peeling carrots with a knife from his cupboards.

  Elo quickly said, "Oh, don't get upset. You don't have to tell me." Quietly with shaking hands, she wrote on the bottom half of the paper. Tears welled in her eyes, but she did not cry; she handed the paper to Faelorn, who read it aloud. "I grew up by the great mountains, it is a gray, misty place. I lived most of my life in a fisher village by a lake and a great forest. Life was normal. My brothers worked hard, my sisters married well. I moved to live with my grandmother, and...I was kidnapped by slavers who came and killed everyone in my village who did not escape in a fishing boat. I was a slave for a few years, then Faelorn saved me. Now I am free." Faelorn stared at her words, quietly re-reading them. Bree hugged herself ashamed. There was so much more to her story, but she was too afraid to say it. "How'd you lose your voice?" Elo asked as Faelorn handed Bree her paper. Bree took a deep breath and wrote down her answer. Faelorn read,"I drank something that was bewitched. It didn't take completely, but it still makes it hard to use my voice." Faelorn's brow furrowed when she spoke, and absentmindedly he said "I could hear you scream in the forest, your voice sounded normal."

  Tears streamed down Bree’s face to her surprise; Cael hopped onto her shoulder and cooed at her. He wiped her tears with his tiny green hands. She laughed half delighted and hysterical that a fairy was wiping her tears away.

  Elo looked troubled, she said, "bewitched? That can happen, I suppose. I thought your voice was getting better." Bree shrugged and scrawled, "Yes, but it never really heals. The potion I drank was enchanted, and the curse has never been broken." Silence hung in the air for a long moment. Finally, Faelorn spoke, "well, why don't we talk about something different." Elo brightened mischievously. "How about I tell a story about...the witch that lived in the forest of my homeland."

  Faelorn shivered, "Elo, do we really have to." Elo grinned mischievously,"Ahh, who doesn't like a scary story. You like stories about the fae. What if I told you a story about a witch that lived outside of the forest where I grew up." Bree couldn't help it, she nodded, and Faelorn looked nervously.

  "Well...fine. But you can't tell that story at night. You don't know what's out there, and I don't want an old wifely tale giving me nightmares."

  Elo pinched Faelorn's cheek. "Ah, but we dainty lasses have the mighty Faelorn to keep us safe. You deal with monsters all the time, are you scared of a little witchy tale."

  Faelorn swatted her hand. "Fine, I ain't a coward." he bristled, and Bree was confident that antlers were about to sprout on his head for a moment. Elo started eagerly, and Faelorn settled at the table next to Bree. "Well, on misty nights in my village. You could hear a woman crying in the woods. My father always said that it was animals, a bear, the wolf's call, or simply the cry of a fox. My mother being religious, always warned us not to go into the forest at night, for it might be Satan, the devil himself, trying to lure us away. Well, I never bought into any of it. I thought it was all hogwash. Well, me being the oldest girl, it was my job to watch the little ones. My youngest brother was six years old, and what a blighter he was...always running a muck. He never would listen to me. One night my parents had to travel to town, and they left my eldest brother in charge of the farm for the weekend. Well, the great lout was lazy and just ordered all of us about and did nothing himself. It was his job to watch my brother while I tended to all the other children. It was a simple task, all he had to do was g
uard the door, but the arse fell asleep. My brother Micheal, or Mich as we called him, wandered off to the woods. It wasn't long after I realized that Mich was missing that I began to hear the crying from the woods." Bree and Faelorn were huddled together, and Cael sat in the middle staring at Elo who's face was brightly lit from the fire. She bent over eagerly, the fire making her face look ghoulish as she grinned. Bree swallowed her, nervousness her attention on Elo storytelling. Elo said, "So I took the only weapon I was allowed to have, an old broom, and I went into the woods. My older brother didn't even try to stop me. He's so suspicious and scared of everything..." she continued taking a breath. "Well then the woods were covered in thick fog, I could hardly see a thing. I made my way into the forest. It was almost pitch black, and I followed the sound of crying. 'Mich' I called over and over again. I wandered for an hour until my parent's cabin was no longer in view. The crying was loud; I was as pasty as raw dough. I was so scared, but I kept going. Then I saw it, a figure in the dark, it was tall and dark and wore a thin veil over its slender body."

  Faelorn and Bree were on the edge of their seats. Faelorn though he had heard the story before, asked.