Beginning Again (Cont.) }{ {Meeting a Night Elf}

[Summerchika]

"No.... I don't need anything. Reixou's first words made Ainutsa's heart plunge. She was convinced that she had offended him or scared him somehow. But as he continued, Ainutsa began to realize that it was in fact something else that bothered him. Becoming slightly confused at his words, Ainutsa tried to meet his eye, wanting to understand. She strained her attuned Elven ears, trying to catch the meaning of his words.

When Reixou looked up and met her gaze, Ainutsa recognized the look in his eyes. Though he held back his tears, the moonlight that he had brought down into the clearing illuminated his glistening eyes quite clearly. Though even without the moonlight Ainutsa would have recognized that deep sorrow. She had seen it many times before. But she did not know what had made him so upset.

Feeling as if she had accidentally stepped on an emotional land mine, she advanced carefully, trying to decide what was best to do. Not quite knowing what to say, but knowing she had to say something, she opened her mouth to begin. Making sure to keep eye contact, she spoke.

"If you are different, I would not know. If red skin or not eating or sleeping is not normal, it would be difficult for me to understand what that means." she explained carefully, trying to find the right words. "But whether or not you are different from Night Elves does not change anything for me. You have been good and kind; that is all I need to know."

Waiting before going on, letting that settle into the relative nighttime silence, Ainutsa smiled a little, trying to gain his trust. "I will be honest with you though. I would be more than honored to know why you have become so upset. Sometimes telling someone can help a great deal."

Wanting to help Reixou somehow, but not knowing how made Ainutsa feel quite helpless, a feeling she very much disliked. He had been more than kind to her; what he had taught her and hopefully what he would continue to teach her would change her life. She hoped she could return his kindness somehow.

[Reixou]

She had an understanding and simple nature that Reixou was extremely thankful for.

"I....don't think you can help me. There's nothing to be helped. I'm....I was...." He looked down. "I turned against my nature and became who I am now. But I am a wraith. I was turned into one, and forced to do the will of a great overlord." He turned back to her quickly, attempting to clear his name. "But I betrayed him, I went to the light, I don't want anything to do with my past-" Realizing that he was raising his voice, he stopped. Turning away again, he continued softly. "I will never forget what I've done...and I will never let anything make me do it again."

[Summerchika]

Trying to follow Reixou's explanation, Ainutsa found herself needing a lot more knowledge that she had at that moment. But that didn't hinder her from understanding that Reixou was in pain. The more he spoke, the more Ainutsa felt the heaviness of the burden he must be carrying. As he raised his voice, trying to defend himself of something, Ainutsa found her eyes filling with tears, shocked at the force of his pain that was so tangible and so raw.

When he looked away from her, Ainutsa felt a tear escape from the outer corner of her eye, but she wiped it hastily away. She did not have the right to cry. Getting up quietly, she walked over to where Reixou sat and knelt in front of him. Taking his hand, encasing it with her small ones, she whispered a few words that her non-Elven grandmother had taught her. Her hands became warm and seemed to glow with an inner light that made Reixou's red skin shine like a ruby in the dark.

Explaining what she was doing, she whispered softly, "When I am haunted by my past -- when it becomes so painful that I want to run from it, this forest gives me the strength and the warmth I need." She gave this strength and warmth to Reixou. Reaching up to the moonlight with one hand, she willed it to comfort Reixou like it had for her that night three years ago. "When my grandmother died, leaving me alone again, this moonlight comforted me, giving me the strength to continue living."

Hoping the forest's deep strength and the moonlight's soft comfort affected Reixou in some way, she lowered her raised hand. "Whatever you were forced to do is in the past. There are consequences, I am sure, but you should not be held accountable. That is the true and pure way of the world."

Replacing her hands in her lap, she looked down at the soft glow of her skin that was slowly fading. "You are a much better person than I. Your loss and your pain are deep, but your kindness and strength are even deeper." Looking up at him again, she smiled sadly. "I admire you." she stated simply, looking him in the eye.

[Reixou]

Reixou could not believe his senses when she took the next actions. For one, she approached him. She's not scared.... Then, she took his hand. He almost pulled it back, but decided it would be more rude than humble, when she cupped her hands around it and began to transfer some type of energy.

Her voice was kind and gentile, full of sympathy and understanding. As she gestured and spoke of the moon, he smiled slightly.

When she sat back, he turned to her and looked her in the eye. Her eyes were glistening as well. "Oh...I..." He reached to wipe away a tear trying to free itself. Trying to decide what to say, he moistened his lips, opened his mouth, then shut it again. Finally, he settled for a small smile.

This stranger had become a friend, a trusted companion, in a matter of a few hours. He could not fathom why, or how, she did anything she had, but he had a feeling that fate had something to do with it.

"Thank you...I...I do not have evil existing within me any longer, but people are always so afraid of my past. Afraid that it'll surface. Or they condemn me for what...." He looked away for a moment, but then back. He owed her the truth. "What I did." He stopped, savoring the moment of silence, searching her vibrant green eyes.

After a few minutes, he spoke again, barely above a whisper. "I brought the destruction of our city." His tears flowed freely, knowing he could not stop them, but he never changed his neutral expression. "The Night Elves. Our whole great city was destroyed because I was enslaved to the overlord, but those who had left survived. Your parents must not have been in the city, otherwise you, too...but she was there." His eyes closed tightly, and he swallowed hard. He opened them again, "I lost her. All those years ago."

"The overlord enslaved five; five Elves, each from the great Elven cities. Five Elves, transformed into wraiths, changing their skin color and way of living. We became immortal, we became scarlet, smoke, azure, emerald, and blanc. Red, black, blue, green, white. All forced to do his will."

"When each of us were finished with our task, we remained in the ruins of the cities for a period of time after. I was left alone with my thoughts, and with something that I had betrayed the overlord to keep...the only one who understood what I had been put through."

"I had taken her, restrained her, and carried her out of the city to a place in the mountains, not unlike this." He looked around at the trees. "I knew that something was coming; and though I could not tell her, I knew she would be safe there. Each night I would steal away a prayer to the moon, to keep watch and guard her. After the city was destroyed, I went to her. I could not tell her what had happened, but I knew that, some way, she knew. She stayed in that place, and I came to visit her each night. One night, she was gone."

[Summerchika]

When Reixou reached up to wipe away a tear that was on the verge of falling, he brought to her attention the tears that she had no right to shed. Wiping her eyes quickly and apologetically, she returned his small smile. She had been able to help him, her first real connection to life outside the forest.

As he searched her eyes for something, Ainutsa searched his eyes in response, wondering what he was searching for. When he spoke a few minutes later, Ainutsa began to understand what exactly he was carrying on his shoulders.

Feeling as if he was entrusting her with this knowledge, she listened intently and silently, watching as he battled his past. His tears flowed freely, giving away what his face did not show. The loss she had felt when he had told her about the destruction of the cities beforehand returned, but at a deeper level. He mentioned her parents and how they must not have been in the city, but Ainutsa did not know if he was right. She had never known them or known of them, like she would never know what the Elves were like in their might.

"But she was there." Furrowing her eyebrows in worry and confusion, she watched as he battled this memory fiercely, shutting his eyes to push a wave of pain away. Questions surfaced in her mind as he explained about the five enslaved Elves and the overlord, but she pushed them away, somehow feeling as if she should not interrupt. How strange this all was. And how incredibly sad.

Assuming the woman he had taken was precious -- a family member or a lover of sorts, she listened intently, naively hoping for a good outcome. His last words, however, left little hope in Ainutsa's heart.

"To where had she gone?" she asked just as quietly as he had spoken, not wanting to disrupt the flow of his speech. She asked the ground once more to give him strength, wanting to help him somehow but, again, not knowing how to.

[Reixou]

"It was not of her own accord. I went to the overlord immediately, rage building inside of me, burning through every fibre of my being. I knew it was he who had taken her. But the black wraith was there as well, with her in restraints. I attacked the overlord, my sword held to his neck, demanding to know where she was. He laughed. A sickening, reproachful laugh. Then, pointed. I glanced over at the black wraith, turned back to the overlord, and cut his throat."

"The anger in me could not be held back. I could not allow him to live; not after what he'd done, and then taking her after that. But as I turned....the black wraith tightened his grip with one hand, reached the other to the moon, and blackened the sky. White tendrils crept from his hand to her face, and kept spreading. I ran to her, separating them as fast as I could, and killing the black wraith; but I was too late. She turned as white as that lily was in my arms, then dissipated, just as it did."

He closed his eyes once again, and sat, breathing unevenly, for quite a period of time. Then whispered, "Inairayea...my only love..."

[Summerchika]

Ainutsa listened to his words in shock and horror. She remembered the lily that had been in her hand a few moments ago and how it had been so beautiful. She looked at her hand now, seeing that lily disappear in her mind's eye. A tear drop fell onto her open palm and then another.

Closing her fist, she looked up. Her cheeks wet from her tears, she watched his face as he recovered from this memory. She was not crying simply from the story, though it was sad enough. She was crying from experience. The experience of losing the only thing you cared for in the world. She knew that well. She had known that well many times over.

As he whispered his lost love's name, she swallowed her tears. She placed her hand on his arm, just below his shoulder, wanting to help him with his pain. "I know." she whispered. "And I am sorry."

She did not stop her tears, but she did not succumb to them. She did not make noise after those words, she just waited for him to recover, hoping that her presence helped in some way. Any other words now would seem to desecrate Inairayea's memory.

Instead, Ainutsa simply repeated again, meaning every syllable, "I am sorry."

[Reixou]

He looked up at her again, seeing the tears on her cheeks. She understood what he was going through. She knew everything. And still, she had this ever-present air of trust and respect.

"Thank you." He said, "For everything. Not many people would trust me after hearing that." Reixou saw no fear, no hatred, no aggression, and no regret in her eyes. Only a deep connection and sentiment, because she had lost something before as well.

He took the hand that was resting on his arm, and held it tightly between his. "I will teach you anything you wish to know. Even if it is about my past. You can trust me with anything. I have nothing but my knowledge; and it is yours."

Reixou released her hand, reaching into his jacket. He pulled out a small intricately carved pendant, hanging on a silver chain. "I found this in the streets of the city, in the ruins...I want you to have it. It may be the closest thing you ever get to seeing it as it was."

[Summerchika]

When he thanked her, she shook her head; there was nothing to thank her for. She did nothing. As he took her hand, grasping it tightly between his two, and offered to teach her anything she wished to know, Ainutsa's words left her. She did not know what to say. What had she done?

"You are truly kind." she finally managed as he released her hands. She could trust him with anything. That was truly a kind thing to say and she had no clue how to respond in a meaningful way.

When he pulled out the silver chain with the beautiful pendant that he had found in the ruins, Ainutsa blinked. It looked familiar somehow. The fact of its origins made it seem even more beautiful and precious to her.

"In the ruins...?" she asked quietly. Entranced by its preciousness and how it looked in the moonlight, she stared at the delicate pendant uncertainly. "I-I don't know if that should belong to me..." Tearing her eyes from the oddly familiar pendant, she looked at Reixou. "That is something far too precious."

[Reixou]

She seemed short of words. Reixou smiled kindly at her uncertainty, and insisted.

"You of all people deserve it the most. You've listened to my story and comforted me the best you could. You don't know anything about the great city and all its' glory, but this is a small reminder." He unfastened the clasp. "Please accept it, it is a female's pendant anyway. I have no business wearing it." The delicate chain swung freely as he moved it toward her, awaiting her consent.

[Summerchika]

Touched by his sentiment, Ainutsa smiled gratefully. "I am honored." she said in acceptance. "Thank you." The pendant's intricate and delicate design entranced her as it swung. There was something about this pendant that made Ainutsa's soul feel differently.

Reaching to meet the swinging pendant with her fingers, she traced its design and felt its coolness as it dangled above her open palm. "It really is gorgeous." she whispered.

Trying to place why the pendant made her feel so oddly, she imagined it in the ruins of the great city. To whom had it belonged? Thinking about its origins made her both sad and awed. Looking at it made her feel as if she should remember it. She decided to ponder it later. Perhaps before she slept next so it might direct her dreams to better places.

[Reixou]

He smiled, and fastened it around her neck. Reaching once again to the moon, he harnessed some of the light in his fingers. "All of the Night Elves' artistic relics like this react to moonlight..." Directing it to the necklace, it wrapped around and through the carvings, illuminating the pendant.

"I'll hold the moonlight for a while, as well. It's carved from the rock that surrounded the city, one that does not wear away from water or ice. Parts of the city were crafted from it as well. When the moons came out, it lit the city until dawn. No street lamps, no candles, just the moonlight residing in the minerals." He looked up from the pendant, to her face. "Perhaps one day you'll see the ruins. They still glow at night." His eyes danced with a fondness for the ancient city.

[Summerchika]

Moving her hair out of the way as he fastened it around her neck, Ainutsa looked down at the pendant. It fell a few inches below her assumed mother's keepsake necklace that itself rested just below the dip of her collar bone. Together, the necklaces made a picture of who she was, or rather who she was supposed to have been.

Then Reixou manipulated the moon's light to illuminate the pendant, making Ainutsa take in a sharp breath of surprise at its beauty. She imagined an entire city being light by this gorgeous rock. The image sent shivers down her spine. It must have been so completely gorgeous. Seeing his eyes dance as he recalled how the city must have looked, Ainutsa felt a deep sorrow that she would never see the city.

"I would love to see the ruins." she said, a sudden yearning building in her heart. Making do with her imagination would not hold her for long. She knew her curiosity well. She knew she did not have a good control over it. "These cities' ruins... Where are they all located? What other kind of Elves lived in or built them?" she asked.

This knowledge seemed more important than it had a couple hours before. Somehow, as he had shared his past, Ainutsa became desperate to learn about her own mysterious one that was missing so many puzzle pieces.

[Reixou]

Reixou smiled at her ever-present curiosity.

"Well, the ruins of our city is high in the mountains, the others I've honestly never been to. They are spread out over the land, in various places. The other four races of Elves are the Wood Elves, which have an even stronger connection with the forest than you; the Snow Elves, that lived even higher in the mountains than we did; the Sun Elves, or Blood Elves, that lived in a low valley that is now charred; and the High Elves, the great fair-skinned creatures that had such a presence as none other."

"Each had slightly different homes, mostly pertaining to what they were named after. For example, the Wood Elves lived in a city made from great intertwined trees and houses made of oversized bushes; as they had control over how they grew."

[Summerchika]

Yes, Ainutsa's insane curiosity was reigning once more.

Glowing ruins high in the mountains. Already a plan of travel was forming in her mind. A thrill ran through her as she thought of how far she would have to go. The village just outside of the forest being the farthest from the forest she had ever been, Ainutsa's stomach flipped from excitement and nervousness as she thought about the travel. Of course, she would have to take some time to prepare and plan. Leaving the forest for such a long period of time and so far away was a large decision that needed much thought.

The cities of the Wood Elves, Snow Elves, Sun Elves, and Blood Elves sparked her curiosity as well. She would definitely want to visit their cities; they could give her more clues on both sets of her parents. However, more thoughts than those of travel fought for her attention.

Reixou's description of the Wood Elves' homes made Ainutsa wonder. Other questions fought her to be asked, like where the remaining Elves lived or what their powers and houses looked like. But the one that she decided to ask felt as if it was somehow a direct puzzle piece to her past.

Turning the thought over in her mind, she decided to just ask. "How did you know I was a Night Elf? How are you convinced?" she asked him. She seemed to have more in common with the Wood Elves, probably because she had never left this Forest in her lifetime to the best of her knowledge. Even so, she trusted Reixou's instincts as a Night Elf and as a friend. She wanted to hear the truth.

Sitting back, she crossed her legs in story-time mode. She liked listening as he explained things; he did it incredibly well.