Between Two Worlds

5

The elf man leads me up winding staircases of auburn stone and I pass other elves who... yes still look at me like I'm an alien. The room I am introduced to is I suppose the same as the other High Elves but it looks like a fairy's paradise. The walls are made of stone, but are carved so beautifully that it is completely smooth and rounded with designs that resemble branches and leaves, and winding roots. The walls curve in around the room and the floor is just as smooth.

I enter and the servant leaves. I see the bed in the corner carved from woods to look like great antlers and a beautiful bed frame. The sheets seem to be made of silk or something perhaps softer. I have never even touched silk in my life. But when I trace my fingers across the fabric I only think of what my mother told me about it.

I look up to see a candle chandelier at the ceiling and a wooden wardrobe on the south wall. There is a private loo with a royal bath tub inside, carved out of the smooth stone. The whole place just makes me think of a fantasy land. Every little girl's dream... well most anyway.

I look up when I feel a breeze and notice a hole, a skylight perhaps, in the ceiling that revealing white light from the late day sun.

I look over my shoulder when I sense a presence. There stand two elven women of a lower rank perhaps. They hold pitchers of water in their hands. "My lady. We were ordered to draw you a bath," one says with a bow.

"Oh yes that would be very nice thank you," I respond with much gratitude.

They enter and once the bath is ready they leave. I make sure the door is shut tightly then pull off my jacket and toss it on the bed. I strip out of my shirt, boots, and trousers, tossing them aside. I don't think I can wear them again. Plus what is the point if no one else does. I'll have to start wearing what these elves wear.

I unwrap the bandage on my arm and reveal where that travelor knifed me. It's only a scab now.

I stand there after I take a breath and stare at my reflection in the tall mirror, looking over my fair-but dirt covered-skin and wavy white hair that reaches past my chest. I was built to survive an apocalypse. My body has always been able to retain muscle and the right amount of fat to survive. I suppose I still need to eat more. But I am not too defeated by my figure, not too thin. I have muscles on my arms and legs, large hips and chest, with small but toned waist, and little hands and feet. Ryohnin always said that no matter how tough I tried to be, my hands were always so dainty looking to him, said they still showed a glimpse of a child in me. An odd observation, but I seem to saver his words now that he is no longer here to say them.

Which reminds me that like his family, my eyebrows are dark to not match my hair, and a little thick as well. I liked them that way.

I strip off my undergarments and toss them aside in the room before I walk into the small room that is filled with steam from the hot water.

I remember stories my mum would tell me of when women would have to shave their skin, using a blade to constantly remove body hair. It sounds time consuming. In the year 2087 they had invented a lotion you spread on your skin that kills the hair and remarkably makes it so that it would never come back. So us girls used it on our faces, legs, and some on their arms or anywhere else at age thirteen and never had to worry about it again.

So I, unlike the people here probably, am completely hairless all over... except my head and brows obviously. And then it hits me, perhaps these elves are the same way. I didn't see one of them with any kind of facial hair at all.

I step into the pool carved into the stone and let the warm water soothe my weary body. My skin hasn't been cleaned in a while. I look to the glass bottles of soap that sit on a wooden tray and pick one up, sniffing it. I didn't think it would smell that good, to be honest but the smell of peaches perhaps it is, fills my lungs. I use that to scrub my body of the dirt. I pull out the braids that held my hair back for so long and run my fingers through my entanglement. I pick up another glass bottle closed with a cork and use it to clean my long, white blonde locks.