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!