did you ever wonder ....

   It had been a week since Thal had returned, and the excitement and shock in the community had died down.  Oddly enough, no one had mentioned Kael or wondered where he was. 

   Eldrin quietly looked over Lyri's shoulder at what she was reading, and whispered thickly in her ear, "T'was a hot midsummer's eve and a storm was brewing on the horizon."

   Lyri let out a scream and spun quickly in her chair to punch El in the face.  Stunned, El fell backward, holding his eye where her surprisingly hard punch had landed.

  "Why on earth would you do that, El?!?!  You scared me to death!"

  "Well, if I'd known you were going to punch me in the eye I wouldn't have.  I was just wanting to see what you were reading.  Didn't you hear me calling you?"

   Embarrassed now, Lyri blushed a red that would put a tomato to shame.  "No.  I didn't.  I was just reading this piece of paper that I found washed up on the creek edge.  It looks like a page from a book, and I wish I had the book now because I'm intrigued.  And I'm sorry, Eldrin.  I didn't mean to hit you.  I'm just a little on edge with what Thal told us about the gnolls, and you almost sounded like Kael when you whispered like that."

   "Wow, you sure know how to hit a guy when he's down.  I sounded like Kael.  What a horrible thing to say to me!"

   "I didn't mean... I meant... It's just that..." Lyri stopped when she realized that El was just teasing her.  "Well, I hope you have a black eye!  It would serve you right, scaring me like that."

   El laughed at how red she continued to blush.  "Aww, I'm just kidding, Lyri.  Look, if you want me to go look for more pages from that book, I can do that for you.  I think I still have some that I found a few months ago that had pictures of an island."

Newry Island borrowed from Lee

  "An island?"

  "Yeah, sandy beach, water, weird looking trees.  Flat boats."

  "Flat boats?"

  "Yeah, sort of like a wide canoe."

   Lyri looked thoughtful for a moment.  "El?  Have you ever wondered what it would be to live somewhere else?"

  "You mean in another forest?"

  "No, not really.  I mean, I've heard there are places that don't look anything like our woods.  Places that are so hot and dry that there are scarcely any trees.  Places like your island, that are green all year, and some places that have mountains so high the snow never melts.  Do you think that there are elves in those kinds of places?  Maybe island elves?  Or snow elves?"

  "I didn't know you were the adventurous type, Lyri."

  "I'm not.  Really.  I've just been wondering what we would do if the gnolls found our woods."

Oh, but to live on a tropical island ... with Words for Wednesday

unanswered questions ...

   What Thal had not seen before he lost consciousness, and what Kael had not been aware of before his panicked dash into the forest, was just how many gnolls had been waiting in the woods.  They had been packed, shoulder to shoulder, like herrings in a can, behind trees, bushes, and rocks.  The fact that Thal had not been trampled to death in the melee of the battle was nothing short of a miracle.

  Lyri had listened intently as he told her what he could remember of the attack and his long journey home.  At times, his voice would become nothing more than a whisper as he tried to make sense of that day.  She would ask gentle questions every so often, feeling like a detective trying to piece together the puzzle of his missing memories, not wanting to see the occasional pain in his eyes as he tried to answer her.

  When he had finally fallen asleep, she had slipped out of the house to find Eldrin and let him know that Thal had returned.  He had felt responsible for Thal's disappearance, knowing that if he hadn't told him about Kael meeting with the gnolls, Thal wouldn't have gone after Kael to find out what he was up to.

  Lyri found him at one of the small taverns at the edge of their community, trying to drown his remorse in a flask of beer.  Not wanting her parents to find out she'd been in the tavern; she managed to persuade another elf going in to give a message to El that she needed to speak to him immediately.

  El stumbled out of the door a few moments later, and Lyri almost instantly regretted asking him to come out to talk to her.

  "Lyri!  My besh friend's girl!  I'm so shorry for telling Shal about the ..."  Lyri quickly put her hand over his mouth before he could say another word.

  "Hush!  Oh, why did you have to get drunk tonight, El?  Please don't say another word.  Just come with me."  Dragging him by the arm, she took him the back way to her parents' house, hoping that the muffled sobs he was making wouldn't draw any undue attention to the two of them.

  She stopped just short of the house, realizing that her parents were at home, and she had no way to sneak El in without them seeing.  It would be hard enough to explain Thal being asleep in her room if they hadn't already discovered him, but to sneak a clearly inebriated Eldrin in right under their noses would be asking the gods for more than just the miracle they'd already done in keeping Thal alive.

  Thinking quickly, Lyri saw a basket of overripe peaches that her mother had put outside and shoved El's face into it.  When she finally let him up for air, the mask of gooey peach not only hid his identity but also covered up the smell of beer.  She pulled on of her mother's shawls off the line and threw it around his head and shoulders.  Now El's loud sobbing completed the disguise.

  "Shhh, shhhh, there, there now.  It will be alright."  Ushering El past her astonished parents, Lyri whispered to her mother as she passed, "You remember Mallys, don't you, Mama?  Her boyfriend just broke up with her, and she is heartbroken.  I'm going to take her to my room and see if I can comfort her."

  Without giving her mother time to answer, she shoved El into her room and quickly closed the bedroom door.

Hellooooooooooo!  It's Words for Wednesday again!

finally Friday ...

   If I were to say this has been a challenging year so far, I'd probably be talking about just this week.  Granted, there have been other weeks with more ... or fewer ... challenges, but this week has felt just a tiny bit more "extra" than others.

Quince buds budding!

  Whether it is Mercury in Retrograde, the lunar eclipse, or just "it is what it is," I think I am a little more grateful than usual for the weekend.  Quite possibly it is the fact that all the snow has melted, the weather has been warm enough to have had the house windows open three of the five days this week, and I'm currently wearing a pair of bunny ears that my neighbor put in an Easter basket for me.  Could be all of the above.

  The dumpster fire in the White House that the current administration continues to pour gasoline on and light with a flare gun aside, there are some interesting unrelated career changes in my future.  I recently decided it was time to make myself a priority for a change.  My last day with my current employer will be 1 May, and after taking the month off to "get my house in order," I'm going to see what else the Universe will put on my dance card.

  I'm toying around with opportunities for a podcast, or a YouTube channel, finding another work from home job, maybe a local face-to-face job, or a virtual bookshop that celebrates self-published authors.  Something like what I had planned to do in WV the year I didn't die after all.

  But whatever it is that the Universe has waiting for me around the next corner, you can be assured that I will drag you along with me for the ride.

Let the adventures begin ... Ci💚

Spring has finally sprung ...