The Elf and the Boy Page #4

I wrote this story because I was inspired by Celtic music and folklore about elves and other magical creatures.

• Fantasy

								

“Don't doubt me. Elves trick for reasons too many to count, but mine was meant for good.”
                       “But it scares my village. You can do good, without trickery.”
                  Princess Ervina smiled, running her hand through Lagi's soft black hair.
              "You'd be surprised. There are a great many of things we can do, but elves do not stop anything for anyone. Have you ever seen a lazy elf?"
                     "In books."
            "In books! Of course!" She laughed and spun around again. "No human has seen our faces with our eyes!" 
                Lagi pursed his lips and considered this. Even when Ervina had first spoken to him, he considered her a rare species of animal, one who blended into the green-black backdrop of the forest. One who flickered with the orange flame of foxes. One who blossomed with the brown roots of deer. Not a creature of her own kingdom, and especially not the leader of elves with eyes and hearts as clever as hers.
                            “Speaking of humans,” he said, “I know I’m the prince, but I have family up above. Would you mind if I visited them?”
     Princess Ervina raised a thin silver eyebrow, twisting her lips into a scowl.
                                              “You can’t do that.”
                                   “Of course I can! You can come with me; Mama would love you, and she makes the best chicken stew!”
                        “And how would human parents help with your duties as elf-prince, Lagi?”
            He clenched his teeth. He was no elf, and it was high time the princess realized it.
                          “I’m still a human, Princess!” he snapped, “I need my Mama!”
                                “You have me.”
                                “Yes, but...!”
                             The elf swept her brittle white hand across his face.
                               "We can go exploring together, just you and me."
"Well...I'd like that." 
She nodded.
"Thank you. Come here, boy, let me show you something...."

                  Princess Ervina swam toward the vine-wrapped ivory ruins and dove deep within a crack in one pillar. Lagi began to follow her, but stopped. What this princess hid wasn’t worth the extra breath.
                                    “I’ve found it!” she gasped, rising from the depth.
                         Lagi froze. Ervina held a large, curved shell in her hands. It was a smooth, glossy white, with a hard clump of barnacles stuck to the rim. She passed her fingers over the shining middle, and a dark-green blur rippled across the shell.
                                     “What’s that?” Lagi asked.
                                      “Keep watching, dear.”
                         He rubbed his eyes and focused. The dark-green blur sharpened into tall, slender trees and plump little bushes. It softened into fat mushrooms and pale-blue flowers. The forest! It was alive with nature-- tiny red birds chirped from the trees, lean foxes scurried after big tawny rabbits, a soft brown doe curled into a ball and fell asleep....
                                                            Huh?   
But it wasn’t a sleeping doe. It was the crumpled body of a plump, bronze-skinned woman. Her neck was twisted sideways, at an angle that even hurt to look like. Lagi’s heart pounded. Mama!  A constellation of flowers glowed in her black hair. Tiny pink blossoms rippled into the ghostly petals of a forgotten bloom. No amount of moonlight could bring her back, but no shadow could keep her as long as something grew. 
                                 “See, Lagi,” Ervina purred, “You have no human mother.”
                                   “Th-That can’t be, can it?”  
                                  “It can and it is. It is tragic-- she had such a life ahead of her.”
                            Lagi couldn’t answer. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. His stomach sloshed with nausea, and his throat burned with the constant pouring of tears. When he looked up, the sea was a white haze. A white haze that was somehow...cleaner. Purer. Newer.
                               Yet somewhere, deep in his heart, he felt a tremor. He heard Mama shout, “I am here, and I have never been more alive!”
                                     
                                                                  XXX
                  Ladina’s heart hurt. It had been a long day, tripping over big gnarled roots of ancient black trees and slipping in cold slimy mud puddles-- all while hoping and praying to reach the musical lake Auntie Bathilde showed her. But the more she worried, the more angry she became. Who is this elf princess, and how does Auntie know about her? she thought, The second I see that heartless little imp, I’ll shake the life out of her! That’s it! And I’ll carve something phallic into her grave! That’ll show her!
                     Tears stung her eyes. Lagi was a good boy, usually, but his adventurous ways wouldn’t save him from the water-elves. Good, obedient Lagi would learn all their ways of etiquette, all their ancient, throaty songs and dances-- not for the sake of pleasing his captor, but to satisfy his own curiosity. And I know what they say about curiosity...!
                 Ladina took a drink of water from her round dark canteen, and trudged onward. A faint, blue-white glow caught her eye. This glow was big and round, like a flattened planet. It was at the very end of the forest, glistening like water and bone. It reminded her of an old riddle from the Facade: “a wonder on the wave/ water becomes bone.” Her heart pounded. This had to be it.
                   She left her water on an old tree-stump and slid off her shoes, knowing full well this lake had powers beyond the necessities of this world. Breathing deeply, she set the tiara on her head and lifted her arms high. Lagi, here I come...!
                             Spa-loosh! She dove deep into the glowing water, feeling the chill creep into her bones. Yet the longer she fell, the warmer she felt-- or was that her way of numbing herself to the cold? When she reached the bottom, she could hardly move. Dark-green vines coiled around crumbling ivory ruins. Elves and mermaids rippled through the water, laughing and chatting as they stroked their glossy, endless hair. Her toes curled into hot, gritty pockets of sand while a cold wind shot through her throat. Gold-white sunlight danced over every fish she saw.... 
                                                     “M-Mama?”
            Ladina twitched at the familiar voice. She looked up and down and side to side, calling her son’s name-- but all she saw were the wispy figures of water-elves, floating in and out of her eyes.  Fear sizzled through her veins. She stepped toward an oval table in the ivory ruins, where several female elves sat chatting and combing their hair.  Her hand flew to her throat--  holes! Four long, slits!  She gasped, then looked back at the elves. They had the same long, straight slits on their throats. Gills, like the mermaids, she figured, walking even closer.

								Rate this book:0.0 / 0 votes