✧The Earthe of the Elves✧

21

"Ok," I finally chime in. "How long have you guys known each other? It's obvious that it's been a while."

Halion points me in a matter of fact way. "Correct. Well, Knox and I have been friends since we were born, so 17 years. Flint we've known our whole lives too, but he's the old man."

"Hey! I'm not that old," Flint cries, giving Halion a playful shove.

"How old are you..?" I ask, not sure if it's rude to ask or not. Knox smiles slyly and raises his eyebrows at Flint as he leans towards me, his shoulder brushing mine. My heart jumps involuntarily.

"He's two hundred," Knox stage-whispers, still looking at Flint. Halion throws his head back and explodes with laughter, laughing even harder at my shocked face. Flint's mouth drops open an he gives Knox a very offended look. Knox just shrugs and does that thing- you know, smiling but while running their tongue along on the bottom row of their teeth- a movement that is obviously subconscious on Knox's part-but happens to be very attractive to me. I look back down at my plate and shove a piece of bread in my mouth to distract myself.

"How rude!" Flint laughs, turning to me. I look up at him.

"I'm not 200 years old," he grunts, looking over at Knox, "Liar. I'm 50. And that's really young for an elf."

"But- you look like you're eighteen," I reply after swallowing the piece of warm, chewy bread in my mouth.

"Well thanks," Flint replies. "That's normal. Age isn't a big deal here."

Knox mumbles something in elvish, looking up at Flint. It must mean something offensive, because Flint's mouth drops open before spreading into a smile. Ok, by the way: Elvish is a gorgeous language- Like, whoa.

"Hey!" He calls, which leads to the three of them bursting out in laughter again. It takes a lot of willpower to not start laughing and choke on my food.

By the end of lunch my stomach hurts from laughing so hard and my lips are tired of stretching so wide from smiling. As I part ways with them and head back to my room, the feeling of happiness never leaves.

Who knew elves could be so much fun?

-

The following week I head to- you guessed it- practice. They go by quickly, and I find that I'm getting the hang of my knives fairly quickly. I only get a few cuts, which still hurt. A lot. But I try not to complain about it- I'm probably just being dramatic. I didn't manage to take down Knox today, but I got close a few times.

After practice today I meet Elanil for lunch, catching her up on my training and anything else that's new. Which is basically nothing.

As we're leaving the library tree and stepping out into the winter day, I smile as I notice fluffy snowflakes falling from the grey sky, landing and melting on my cloak and hair. They are the kind of small, fluffy snowflakes that fall slowly, forming a thin layer of white on top of tree branches and on the stones of the path I'm treading down.

"Snow is so pretty," I remark out of the blue. Even though it's probably about 20 degrees out, the only thing cold right now is my nose. I have gloves on, and the woolen winter layers under my dress and the cloak over it all is surprisingly warm.

"There's supposed to be a snow storm tomorrow. Good thing Winter Solstice is today."

I look at her for a minute, trying to remember when Winter solstice is.

"Wait... So it's only December twenty-something? I've been here a few weeks now, I thought I left after Christmas."

El looks at me quizzically. "Winter Solstice doesn't have a set date."