The Things That Are Lost
1327 Words
RINEI
"What's this?"
A cherry pie, I sign, sitting down cross-legged on the porch. He lowers himself to the spot across from me, still holding the box with a skeptical look.
"A pie? Do you mean a sarieh?"
...what?
I tilt my head. Did elves not eat pies?
My brother made it for you. He said that he was thankful that you give us food every week.
Then I glance at the closed back door. Aemin would be asleep right now, exhausted. He'd told me that he'd decided to search for the medicine himself in the Western Forests yesterday.
I didn't think it had gone well from how battered and tired he'd come back tonight.
Not to mention he'd been acting a little weird since yesterday night after he'd come back from the market.
His eyes go wide.
"He knows about me?"
I shake my head. You're just a nice mysterious person to him. He doesn't know that you're an elf.
Then I point at the box.
Have you ever had this?
I take out a slice when he furrows his brows uncertainly. It's still crisp and golden, and I show it to him with a smile.
Then I promise you'll like it. He's a really good baker.
I'd tried some just this morning, from the batch he'd made for us. And it had been so delicious that I'd ended up nearly eating all of it by myself.
Kaz takes the slice hesitantly between his slender fingertips. I watch him with an excited look as he chews, his gaze serious for some reason. His jaw is so tense that the excitement I feel slowly turns to worry.
Kaz...?
But then he smiles.
"Send your brother my thanks." He tells me. But then he gets to his feet, the glowing gold of his skin looking a little pale.
"I need to go, love. It's nearing sunrise."
I look up at the rising light of the sun. And my expression dips a little in disappointment— time just passed so fast when I was with him.
I didn't want to let him go. But I also didn't want him to get in trouble with his father just for my selfishness.
So I wave my hand in goodbye.
Come again.
"I will." He murmurs. "And please. Let your brother know that he doesn't have to do this for me."
"I do this for you, Rinei. Not for anything in return."
His fingertips wrap around mine in a quick squeeze before unraveling.
Then he disappears into the Forests, the woven colors of green and brown swallowing him up until I can't see even his fading silhouette.
_______________________________
KAZIER
"Your Highness, you're a fool."
River shakes his head as I heave myself up from the ground, wiping the corner of my lips with the sleeve of my cloak. I'm so weak I can barely speak without losing my voice.
"River...do you respect me as your Prince in the slightest?"
He gives me a glance. "Not anymore. Did you really eat what that outsider just gave you knowing that it was going to make you sick?"
I sigh. Then I nod, making my guard throw up his hands in disbelief.
"Unbelievable. She's going to be the end of you and you're not even going to know it when that happens."
I breathe.
I'd known that the thing she'd called pie would do this to me. But how could I say no to her when she'd offered it to me with her expression all bright and excited? How could I ever say no?
It would've taken out the stars in her eyes.
River passes me water.
"For the millionth time," He says, blue eyes firm. "Us elves cannot eat anything other than fruits, plants, and sarieh. Anything else will make us violently sick. Repeat after me—"
I squeeze my eyes shut. "I know, River. We learned that when we were children. You don't have to tell me again."
He makes a face. "I wasn't sure. I thought you'd forgotten."
"Or do you really love this outsider that much?"
"I do," I reply, pulling the cord free from my hair. My long, dark golden locks spill past the lines of my shoulders, and I brush them over my ears as I get into bed.
River glanced at the gleaming light of the sun.
"You have twenty minutes, Kaz. Before training starts."
Wake me up then, I sign with a single hand. I'm too exhausted to even speak, with my eyes already closed. My body still feels sick and drained.
It'd been a while since I'd felt this tired.
"Fine." I hear his low whisper. Then I hear him mutter a sentence even softer as I fall into the beginning of light sleep, my breaths evening.
"You really are such a lovesick fool, my Prince."
______________________________
RINEI
My hands are clasped behind my back.
And I listen to Aemin, my heart beating inside my chest as he argues with mother. They can't see me, with my back pressed against the wall around the corner.
Aemin thinks I'm out by the river.
"Mom, you need to eat." He says, his voice both pleading and angry. "Just...I know it's hard, but you can't just stop eating. Do you think dad would be happy if he knew?"
"I'll eat when he wakes up."
My body shudders when I hear her weak voice. I hadn't heard her speak at all the entire past week.
"Mom!"
My eyes widen in surprise at the sound of Aemin slamming the table with his hand. But then I hear a deep sigh, and a quiet apology follows.
"I'm sorry. But that's just ridiculous." My brother murmurs, his breathing rougher. "Please. Do you hear yourself?"
But my mother just repeats in her blank voice.
"I'll eat when he wakes."
I start shaking harder. Then I shift off the wall before I hear anything else, rushing off the porch and away from the house. I run to the base of the oak tree near the forest border, where I keep the bow and arrows.
I sling the quiver over my shoulders, my fingertips clammy around the curve of the bow.
Everything's falling apart.
Father wasn't getting better. This sickness was slowly taking him, and it was taking mother too.
What if— what if...
Stop.
Stop.
The whistling of the arrows as they cross the air fills my mind as I go through the quiver, forcing my thoughts to focus on nothing but pulling the string and shooting.
Thump. Thump.
Thump.
I go through all twenty-four in less than a minute.
And when I reach for the tip of another arrow and find nothing, I look up. In the center of the thick oak that I'm standing from, there's a dark clump of arrows all embedded in a cluster.
Not one arrow had flown astray.
Finally, after days of practicing, I'd gotten it perfect.
But it doesn't matter.
The bow drops from my hand with a dull noise against the forest ground.
So what if I had finally done it perfectly?
Just because I'd gotten good at shooting arrows, what difference would I make?
I still couldn't keep my family together. And I could see it already— the fracturing. It was happening, and I couldn't do a single thing about it.
I can't do a single thing about it.
Tears blur my vision. I didn't want either of my parents gone. It had been hard enough to see father alone, but now...
Was I going to lose my mother too?
Just a few weeks ago, I'd never have believed this would happen. Father had always been the strong rock in our family, and mother was the light that filled the house with the delicious smells of her dishes and the sound of her beautiful laughter.
The tears turn to sobs.
But now.
Would I ever see either of them smile again?
- Writer
