Silent Symphony

Chapter Nine: Elves Are People Too

I laughed along with the elf uneasily. Something told about his nonchalance said that he would tell her just to spite me. It was what elves do after all, they wet tricky, selfish, and easy to annoy. Despite this, I asked, "Who are you then, Master Elf?"

   "They call me Taurus," he replied. His face broke into a disturbing smile once again as he pulled a bundle wrapped in leaves out of his pack. He quickly untied the string to reveal several strips of dried meat. His glowing, slitted eyes flashed between me and the meat, as he were trying to remember some sort of etiquette he had long forgotten. He took a strip and held it between his sharp teeth for a moment, before offering me a piece. I stomach was not settled enough to be hungry and I told him so. "You should eat," he prompted and waved the food in my face. "I understand it has been a long day for you." His eyes caught the light of the fire menacingly.

    I didn't take my eyes away as I reached to grab a strip. "What is it?"

    "Well it's not human flesh if that's what you mean," Taurus said as he started tearing into his own food. The way his teeth ground through the meat made my stomach turn. Below all the myths of their culture and intelligence, elves were also known to be stealth predators with superior speed and senses to any human. Among the stories my father told me was those of the elves that hunted and ate children for their own sustenance. Those stories m may have been just that...stories, but good tales always have their way of sticking around. Taurus seemed to catch me staring and glanced up in annoyance. "You have obviously never seen an elf before in your life, have you not?"

   I shook my head and looked down at the strip of meat in my hands.

    "You mustn't judge an entire race on a story that was told to scare you. Many of those things happened many and many a moonfall. Some of things never even happened, but your kind insists on soiling our name with your fairy tales and horror stories." His lips drew back in annoyance and a low growl rumbled up from his throat.

    "So..." I started tentatively as I scrambled to collect my thoughts.

    "So our kind doesn't eat humans. We have criminals just like every other race that runs this world of cold and fire," his shoulders rose and fell unsteadily, as if he were penning up a steady anger for societal ignorance.

    I nodded slowly and tried to put forth a welcoming face. Taurus let out a sigh. "My people are hardly any different than yours, or the dwarves, or the Vales. We look different, we hunt different, and we speak a different language, and practice a different, but humans have the same inconsistencies -- and you all manage to get along. But we elves," he laughed under his breath. "We are reduced to story material, forced to live in places that no other decent creatures could survive -- and survive we do. We are not the born savages of your best tales, nor the joyful fairies of your worst. We are people, who enjoy life, feel sorrow, and though many refuse to admit it, make mistakes. We are not so strange a manner to wrap one's head around, but sadly, the way we're seen, is not the way we are."

    "I sympathize that you must live that way," I said slowly before taking a bite out of the meat. It was tough and chewy, but salted with spices that were hard to come by in the mountains. "This is rather good," I nodded and took another bite. "Out of curiosity, what is it?"

    "It's elf flesh," he replied without looking up. I gasped and started coughing wildly to get the meat lodged out of my throat. Taurus widened his eyes and threw his water skin in my direction. "I was jesting, kid, it was a tease. Good Lords, child, you take everything too seriously!"

"My name, is Elias," I wheezed and glared at him through tearing eyes, while fully ignoring his water skin. "And I'm sorry if my humor does not meet your elvish standards, but my entire village is gone and my family has been captured by a bunch of conspicuous pipe players! If I seem inconsiderate, I might be a bit distracted. "