life is too short to drink bad wine ...

   Kael listened closely to everything his watchers were telling him, his face ripening to the color of a bright red tomato.  His stomach was in turmoil as he paced back and forth in his room.   He needed to figure out what to do about this situation that had quickly gotten out of hand.

  The fact that Thal had been Lyri's first kiss was almost more than he could stand.  He should have forced himself on her sooner, but he needed more time for his creation to take form.  Now, he felt forced to speed things up and stop pretending to be Mr. Nice Elf.

*~*~*

  Thal kept his hand over Lyri's eyes as he guided her through the Black Corinth vineyard that the elves managed.

  "Where are you taking me, Thal?"

  "Just one more minute.  I promise you will like it."

  Finally, they stopped, and he took his hand off her eyes.  She blinked a few times, then gasped at what she saw.  There in front of her was a small picnic lunch that he had prepared for her, complete with candles.

  "What is this?  Where are we?"

  "You didn't know that the elves had a small vineyard near the edge of the forest?"

  "Well, no.  I've never been out this far."

  "It's really not that far, you just have to know where to look.  In fact, if your father were to practice his golf shots, this would be within striking distance of his worst swing."  They both laughed at that, knowing that her father talked big off the course and on, but had a 54 handicap.

  Sitting down on the blanket across from each other, Lyri looked thoughtfully at Thal.

  "Tell me something, Thal."

  "Like what?"

  "What do you dream of doing with your life?"

  "Well, you know that."

  "No, I mean really.  What are you passionate about?  If you could do anything at all, what would it be?  Would you leave the forest?  I know that you've explored more of the forest than I have."

  "I thought I knew the answer to that once, but now I'm not so sure.  Things have changed... lately."

  "Because of me?"

  "Yes and no.  I never thought that you might feel the same way about me that I do for you, so I never expected to have to take anyone else into consideration when I was making plans for the future.  Now, there is a little more thought required before taking action.  I can't think about just myself and the forest.  I have to think about you and the forest."

  "Is that a bad thing?"

  "No.  But it gives a certain someone debilitating leverage over me."

  "You mean Kael."

  "Yes.  Eldrin has mentioned that he thinks Kael has been secretly meeting with gnolls outside of the forest."

  "What?!?!?  Why would he do that?  It's so dangerous!  You have to tell the Elders!"

  "Right now, I don't have any proof.  El means well, but he gets carried away sometimes by his own adventures outside the forest.  To accuse Kael of putting all of us, and the forest at risk, I need to have more than just El's suspicions.  I'm going to have to follow him myself."

~*~*~

The fun this week at Words for Wednesday really stretched my brain!