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The Industrial Elf Ch. 01

By: TaLtos6



**This is supposed to be a short chapter. It's not an attempt to tease or anything, it was written originally for another purpose and I've added to it to make it stand alone as its own tale. There will be more very soon, but I think it's best here to keep this part of the elf's life a little bit apart from the rest and I don't want the reader to race past the ending of this one piece. 

As always, I welcome comments, and if it touches the reader in any way, please don't forget to vote. O_o

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Long before man ventured to what he would later call the New World, others had made the trip before him. There were elves here too. 

They lived for a time in pockets scattered in different places on the North and South American continents, and if the indigenous humans here knew of them at all, it was through their own misty legends. 

The elves themselves had already learned all they cared to about man and remained distant.

All of that changed as the human population exploded with the influx of people from Europe. Thousands and thousands of square miles of forests fell before a glittering rain of axe blows as the land was cleared by settlers. The elves retreated before the onslaught as they'd done in the Old World before, but some groups stayed longer than others. 

One particular elf thought about this long afterward with some bitterness. His own clan had been one of the last to be displaced.

The princess of his clan journeyed to seek for others and left the group in the charge of one very young elf - not yet fully of age, but whose bloodline was high enough to command. None of the group had known, but he'd always loved the young princess from afar. She alone was aware, and had told him to wait for they were both too young at the time of her leaving, especially him. 

As a sign of her acknowledgment of the stewardship that he was to provide, she'd tattooed her image on him herself, and he vowed to wait forever if it had to be. 

She smiled and kissed him softly, telling him that none could predict the future. "Forever is a long time, even for such as we are. Wait for me as long as you can," she'd said, "I will do my best to return to you. I am sad for the parting and I have my own want of you. If I could, I would proclaim more between us than only this stewardship. In my heart, I want you for my own. Only wait for me and we can begin when I return."

But time passed and no word came to them. The months became years. It took some time, but now and then the others of the clan would seek out their young leader to suggest that it had perhaps become time that they gave up their vigil and made their journey west. At last, he stood before a large group of them and listened as he looked down, considering. There was a long moment of silence, but then he ran his fingers through his long blonde hair once and looking up, he nodded his assent and allowed those who would travel to the mountains in the far west to leave. There was nothing else that he could do for them where they were.

While elves can always rely on their own self-sufficiency, they are still very social beings in their hearts and the young leader was torn. With a heavy heart he made his second choice and watched his people leave without him. 

He stayed to await the return of his ruler. He could stay out of the way of the settlers since the rocky ground there in their woods made it almost impossible to farm, and impassable to their wagons. 

The solitary elf had learned everything that he could - everything that he'd been taught, he'd absorbed and made the lessons his own knowledge. He'd been left with some writings and he pored over everything endlessly, committing it to his memory with the sad and desperate comprehension that these writings wouldn't last before they faded. With little to distract him, he went over everything and became even more accomplished at living, at survival, and most of all, at mastering the lore and knowledge of the magic of his kind. But it took only a little while before he ran up against the limitations of what he'd been taught.

After that, he worked to grow it into something that might have a place in this new age, something that didn't need the surroundings of the quiet woods to work for him, since the quiet woods themselves were in peril.

He knew that there were no others with which to trade and so he learned to make better bows for himself. The swords that had been left to him were all that he'd likely ever be able to get his hands on and so he cared for these blades better than he cared for himself. With none of his kind around him to help with anything, he did everything for himself, but at the end of every single day, he was faced with the same sadness as he waited for the one that he loved.

He came into his prime all alone.

What he wasn't prepared for was the railroads. The work gangs brought explosives and that changed everything. They could build their right of ways and trestles now, and if they had to move mountains of rock to do that, well that's what they did. 

The lone elf was torn and despondent, not wanting to stay, and still feeling compelled to in case his liege finally returned.

A settler built a mill at a nearby spot, and that turned into a small settlement of humans that the settler owned half of the industries and businesses in. The rails brought him more people and money every day. 

He had a young daughter who was sent off to school and who returned looking for an outlet for her desire to care for others. Her father gave her an opportunity as he built an orphanage in the town. As events transpired, her first worker was someone not entirely suited to the regimen or the intent of the place at all.

Madeleine loved to wander what forest still existed in the area. For all of man's advances and wonders, her heart was really in the wildness of nature. 

She didn't know it at first, but she was never alone as she walked in the wild places with her sketchbook for the elf followed, at first out of curiosity and wonder at the human female who walked the forest and the grassy hillsides all alone, and then out of a sense that she might need protection somehow. 

It had actually come to that one day since a few men from a track crew had noticed her going into the forest alone. Their dark intent cost them their lives.

When she could run no further in her heavy skirts, Madeleine turned to plead with her pursuers who now walked to close the distance. The young woman heard only a quick buzz past her ear from behind, but she saw the closest of the men fall with an arrow in his throat. A second man fell and then someone with light-colored hair flashed by her as he drew his bow a third time to shoot down the last one running for his life.

When it was over, Madeleine stood in shock straining for breath near the tree that she'd backed up against to face the men. Their bodies lay before her and a few paces beyond stood someone whom she'd always known had existed from the legends of the old country that her grandmother had often told her as a child. 

He scanned the forest and listened to be sure they were alone.

"Who are you?" she asked the apparition who now walked silently to each body to retrieve his arrows. One of his quarry still drew ragged breaths, and the elf impassively pushed his dagger through the man's heart from beneath his ribs before wrenching his arrow loose. 

He barely looked up as he struggled with her speech and wiped his weapons clean, "Not one, - for you to see, - or know of. I ask you – say nothing to others of this. Do not go back how you came here. Walk another way back."

With that, he was gone, and Madeleine picked up her sketchbook and walked on shaking legs to do as he'd asked. She often stopped to look around her, and would sometimes catch fleeting glimpses of him as he flanked her from a distance. She wondered if he did this out of a desire to be certain that she was safe, or if it was only to make sure that she actually left.

Before she left the woods, she turned to ask him if she might return to speak with him one day. He stood considering it for a few seconds before approaching her soundlessly. It amazed her how he could move with so much grace, never even bending a leaf on a plant with his passage if it could be helped. Another thing that came to her was how quickly he covered the distance between them without seeming to be in any sort of rush or haste. He looked as though he was wandering to her, but it took only an instant and he was in front of her again.

"I have trouble with your words," he shrugged a little helplessly, and Madeleine knew at once that his pauses were not based on his having to think anything over. He was doing his best to make himself understood. 

"Not again for the time of this moon," he said. "Others will come to seek the men. Your tracks will be gone to their sight. Say nothing. You can return next moon. I wait near the stream for you in morning-time – inside the forest." 

She thanked him, and was rewarded by just the faintest smile and a nod before he vanished.

There was an uproar over the missing men. When their bodies were found, there could be no conclusions drawn for the animals had already been at the bodies, but the searchers didn't stay longer than they needed to after examining the remains and carrying them out. The forest seemed very dark and foreboding now - even a little threatening. They looked furtively around them, but none saw the elf watching them from the trees above. 

It didn't take long for rumors to spread of the seemingly haunted woods.

Madeleine struggled as she waited for the time to pass, and walked to meet the elf on the first morning of the new moon. She sat and looked around her, listening. After a few minutes, the forest resumed its normal sounds as the woodland birds and animals decided that she posed no threat. 

She didn't cry out, but still nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned to find him there beside her.

"Sorry to frighten you," he said with a shy smile.

They spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon talking and she followed him whenever he suggested that they move. At first, she was a little concerned that he was leading her deeper into the woods, but then recognized that after a while, he was leading her back to where they'd met earlier in the day. He struggled, but managed to smooth out his English for her to a degree, and she learned that he was alone there. 

Over the time, she found that she grew fond of him very quickly, and was surprised that he seemed to make her feel more at ease in the forest than she'd ever felt before. For himself, he'd found a human that he didn't regard with distrust, and that was a wonder to him as well.

From that first visit, they became friends, and after a time, their visits together became nocturnal. He would wait for her outside her home in the darkness, and she would creep out after her father had fallen asleep, dressed in her riding breeches so as to be able to walk more easily in the moonlight with him. They'd sit on a hillside and she'd listen as he told her of the stars and the moon and how these things guided him and his kind over their lives. When it grew cold and damp, he'd pull a thin blanket seemingly out of thin air to wrap them up in and she wondered how such a thin thing could keep them so warm as they sat together. 

During the third visit, she couldn't help herself and kissed him. The elf responded, but cautioned her after she professed the strong love that she somehow felt for him.

"We can love, but I hold some of my heart for the wildness around us. I also hold some of my heart for the ruler of this elf-place that was, I wait for her though it has been a long time now. What is left, I can give to you if this is enough for your own heart."

Madeleine decided that it was, and they quickly became lovers after that, only minutes after she whispered her desire to him. He smiled at her a little shyly and taking her hand, he guided her to the soft moss by the stream near to where he worshiped. She felt the magic of the place at once and he told her that she was very different from the humans that he'd been near. None of them felt anything, he said. It was plain in their faces.

And so it was that Madeleine learned the ways of love from her elf as they writhed together on the soft moss. Every lesson was a wonder to her as he loved her so gently at first and only added the fuel of passion when she let him know that she was ready for it. Until then, Madeleine had only thought that there was only one way to do this, but he showed her where her error lay and it had little to do with only the position as she'd thought.

They stayed warm together in the autumn as the brightly colored leaves few everywhere but in the glade and the rain never reached them while it was still cold. Madeleine learned her happy lessons and took him in places that she'd never heard that it might be done and was eager for it once she knew. 

Even in the hardest screaming blizzard during the middle of the coldest winter in living memory, it was never cold there in the mist that rose from the only section of the stream that wore no icy covering. The small glade glistened magically in its covering of snow and ice crystals which formed almost a shelter around their mossy bed and it was always pleasantly warm there for them as she found her own ways to make him gasp. 

She bundled herself up on the coldest nights and found him waiting outside her door for her dressed no differently as he would on the hottest day in the summer. He would pick her up and carry her into the forest so that there would be no sign of their passage since he left no footprints on even the softest new-fallen snow. Inside the forest, they walked hand in hand as lovers anywhere have always done, but once inside the glade, Madeleine's clothing flew from her body as fast as she could throw it off her and she loved the way that it made him laugh to see it.

But once Madeleine had learned how the closures of his clothing worked, she never allowed him to undress himself. She always undressed him and told him that to her, he was someone who was deserving of her worship in this way. She loved to watch his desire for her mount as she teased only a little, and since he'd taught her so well, this was something that she loved to look forward to. She only wished that her tongue could be in several places at once.

Her father finally gave in to her request to allow the woods behind their home to remain there, rather than add yet another several fields to the many that he held. He was a bit disappointed that she never seemed to accept any of the suitors who came to call, but never got a satisfactory reason for her rejection of them. He turned his mind to other industries that would enrich him. It kept the worry for her farther back in his mind.

On the lot next to his mill, he erected the latest modern wonder, a water-powered generation station, and sold power to the little place. As he counted his money, he was happily ignorant of other events around him.

Madeleine was happy. She loved her elf and the ways that he loved her. She had no want or need of any suitors while she had his arms to hold her. When the orphanage was completed, she lived there and the elf helped as he could, sometimes dressing as a man and keeping a hat on his head. But the best times between them came when they walked back to the glade to make love there.

Rather than turn up his nose at the foul advances of man's industry, his curiosity drove him to learn how this new advance made light. The elves had always known about electricity, but how it could be harnessed continuously and diverted – well that was something new. He often stole into the station at night, casting spells to cause the night workers to sleep so that he could run the thing himself.

Though they were happy, the passage of time cannot be slowed, and Madeleine ran her father's enterprises after his passing. She found it easy to do with enough hired help, but it troubled her that she herself was aging now. The elf knew this would happen, but it didn't change how he loved her. In time she passed on the businesses to the others in her family who came - all except the power plant.

It had outlived its usefulness, though he'd enlarged it to meet the increased demand. When other larger power- providing firms came to the area, the users switched to them, but the long-running orphanage still got its power from the old plant at no cost, even long after there were no more orphans being cared for there. 

Only old Madeleine still lived there until she died with a smile in the arms of the elf who had befriended her so many years before.

With her second-last breath, she thanked him for his long love and friendship and the happy life that they'd shared. He smiled at her through his sad eyes as she passed.

The Industrial Elf Ch. 02



**The last chapter chronicled the passage of a lovely human woman through the life of a lonely elf who waits for his love to return to him. It's been centuries. For the Elf aficionados, I'm only going by the rules "kinda-sorta", but if you need specifics, this poor guy is a type of Moon Elf. I'm just an uncultured heathen of a writer and I've never played D&D in my life. I was always too busy making a living to have the time, and to tell you the truth, I'd rather be writing.

For any readers who believe that elves can only be good, I'd point you at any writings regarding the Drow and that ought to cure you of the notion. Maybe I'll write a hopefully good Drow tale, since I've just had the thought. If I have to be specific, Moon Elves as a type are categorized as "Chaotic Good". They're usually well-meaning, but sometimes ... don't get upset at some of the things that the one in this tale does. Well you'd get a little bored too if you were him. ;)

Moon Elves are known for their ability to see REALLY well in the dark, don't mind being solitary, though nobody's ever asked the one in this story, and they're rather good at magic. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this one has had a lot of time to perfect things as well as to amalgamate what he's learned from humanity into what he knows. It makes him a rather singular individual.

Comments are always welcome and please vote if this makes you want to do that. It's not a really big deal to me and for sure this one won't do it, but I think I'd like to crack the 4.9 rating barrier just once. O_o

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The lonely elf remained in the area of the now-protected woods that had been the home of his clan. As factories sprang up, he wandered into them from time to time to learn more of man's advances. Very few people ever saw him, and if they did, it was only a glimpse that caused them to wonder if they'd really seen what they thought they had. He integrated perfectly into man's modern age as he continued to wait. He unraveled all of mankind's secrets – well, any that he was presented with. Sometimes he hindered their efforts, but more often than not he helped, if he saw no harm in the helping.

He didn't think about it very often, but he knew that this hobby – this fascination that he had with human technology had helped him to increase his magical ability. His own particular people had much ability to begin with, and once here in the New World, their isolation from man had allowed them to perfect much of their skills. 

Left to his own devices and armed with his insatiable curiosity, he'd built on that. His time with Madeline had given him the chance to learn both English and French. If he found a process that interested him, he'd figure it out quickly. If he found a manual and engineering drawings as well, all of its secrets were his in no time. He hadn't only played at running the power station – he'd learned, within limits, to harness it to his will for periods of time.

He sometimes took human lovers if the mood was upon him, but each one was only fleeting to him. It made him a bit sad to think that his one lasting love hadn't even been an elf. He'd given Madeleine as much of himself as he could, but it was over far too quickly for him as the lives of these humans were so short from the vantage point of an elf. He never committed so much to a human ever again – the cost was just too high to him. He'd hang around and love them for a few years even, but would never again commit for the duration of their short life spans. 

To his deep sadness, his ruler had never returned to him. 

He would sometimes cause a small-scale disaster if he could manage something spectacular that could be seen for miles and could be done so as not to hurt anyone directly or hurt the landscape. He had a vague hope that his princess might see that he still waited near the flames of a suddenly ruined plastics plant or natural gas pipeline. But he always felt sad afterward for he saw no response. 

He would wander back to the old forest to sleep alone in the branches of the great oak tree where he'd been born. The magic circle was getting hard to see there in the glade. He sighed sadly whenever he thought that it had now been more than two centuries since he'd even seen another of his kind. He hadn't heard his true name spoken by another in all of that time. He wondered if there were any left, or if he was the last elf left on Earth. He knew that he ought to leave this place and make his own journey to the western mountains. He didn't know the way to take, but he felt the pull still there in his heart and that would be enough to guide him.

If he finally gave up, he wondered if any of the other elves who might live there in the west would even know him. He'd adapted perfectly to mankind, living as a renegade among them for so long. He didn't have any of the right 'papers' that humans carry, but he could drive a car, or ride a motorcycle if he wanted to. He'd done it before. 

He smiled as he remembered the few times that he'd been pulled over by the police. All he needed was a small diversion, and in the split second that they looked away from him, he'd be gone. It was easy enough to do. The electrical systems in their patrol cars would surge and everything would stop - the engine, and most importantly, the radios as their processors fried and smoked. It was hard to keep a straight face sometimes. 

The elf shook his head. He felt that he needed to do something and soon.

He walked in the evening gloom to a large factory and jumped easily over the fence. Making his way to the power switchgear room, he sat with his back to the wall, listening to the 60 cycle hum all round him. Humans had always been so hungry for one thing or another, he thought to himself. They always wanted more of everything and could never be happy with what they had.

He held up his hand and with a complex series of rapid motions, the sounds around him grew louder as the incoming supply provided for the new load – to power the glittering ball of electricity that he now held swirling slowly in his hand.

From what he'd learned of power utilities and the way that they billed for demand if it came as a spike, he guessed that the Accounts Payable clerk and the accountant in the front office here would fall out of their chairs when they got the bill for what he was doing now. This took a lot of juice and they billed at that level for the whole month on industrial accounts since it was demand and they'd had to supply, after all. If this didn't demand a bit of his concentration, he'd likely have laughed at the thought. 

It was a spark, true, but he'd learned that sparks could be given structure and made stable and lasting through his will. In the cable trays above him, the cables grew warm under the increased demand. He oriented the ball to point its axis to one large contactor near to him – one that was closed there behind its door, but drawing only a light load. He smiled a little as he diverted some of that to spin the little amusement he now held absently. 

He was careful not to look directly at it without the welding goggles that he wore on his forehead when he ventured into these places. He'd wandered into the libraries of the humans before and used the computers there now and then. He'd become aware of a word – an impossible term for one who lived surrounded with strange technology. Thinking now of how he must look with the welding goggles, he wondered with a small smile if he was now what some of them would call a steampunk.

He knew that he was damaging the cabinet in the panel, but he didn't much care. He might even repair it when the place shut down for the weekend if he felt like it. He wouldn't blow anything up, and they'd never figure out why the cabinet door had its paint burned off, since he'd learned to shield the case from the electrical arc that he drew. Without this, there would already have been an explosion since he drew from above the overload device that limited what could flow to him.

He considered the ball for a second through tightly squinted eyes . With a thought from him and a slight change in how he held it, he could lay waste to the building, pretty much. The incoming line had more than enough capacity for it.

But he'd never do that in this sort of circumstance, not while the plant was running, since there would be innocent lives affected and lost. 

The thought came to him as he stared that he'd led a wasted life, waiting for someone who hadn't returned to him – and likely now never would. His thoughts pulled themselves into the ball. 

He'd made the wrong decision. He should have gone west with the others and then likely, he'd have had a life worth living. Surely if the princess could make her way back to where they'd lived, she'd have been able to wend her way after them just as well.

If it were not for this sudden feeling of intense sadness, he'd have sensed that someone was approaching the door from the main part of the plant. 

The large sliding fire door had just begun to move along its overhead track when he noticed the motion. He'd have liked to just fade the ball out and leave stealthily, but he knew it was long past time for that. He pulled the welding goggles down with his free hand and diverted more energy to the glittering ball. When the door had moved enough to allow the person who stood there to almost see past the edge of it, he snapped his hand closed.

Though he was in a bit of a hurry now, he'd surprised even himself with the flash. His fingertips actually tingled this time...

The echoes of the thunderous bang that had resulted from the extinguishing of the ball covered the slight sounds of his landing on the cable trays above. He ducked and squeezed quickly through the opening in the wall up there before pushing the welding goggles up onto his forehead. Once in the main plant, no one saw his leap to the building beams and the open steel web joists. 

He looked around quickly, noting that some of the processes had stopped, likely from what he'd done. The plant would be in a bit of an uproar now as someone would likely interpret the intense light that he'd caused to mean a meltdown of some sort. The production supervisors wouldn't really know what was or wasn't going on, and might evacuate the building as a precaution now. He cursed himself for the half-second's inattentiveness that had caused all of this and turned to look back the way that he'd come. 

He watched the thin maintenance worker who had opened the fire door walk back into the main plant. He noted that she was not fearful or confused as she quickly looked around her. Since she was actively looking, he guessed that she'd not looked into the flash as her searching gaze went to the tray that he'd left the room on and looked then for the closest structural beam.

A half-second later and she was looking right at him.

It was a startling surprise as they stared at one another. For the first time in centuries he knew that he now was faced with someone who didn't just look, she knew how to see. It was a big step that most humans never could manage as they stumbled through life. They looked almost continuously, but really saw very little of the things around them, missing scores of details in every glance. He wondered if he could be wrong in his assessment. He had seen observant humans before after all, just not very many of them.

He watched spellbound as she deliberately turned away to answer questions from a supervisor and saw her point to the switchgear room. Then she turned and began to walk. He paced her along the beams and structural steel. 

Several thoughts came to him at once. She had looked away from him to prevent the now-gathering humans from following her gaze. He'd been in this facility before, and knew that she was leading him to the open shipping doors. He guessed that she couldn't know that he knew the layout of the place and her actions astounded him.

She was showing him the way out. 

He was on the floor and out the back before she even got there, but as he passed in front of her at a distance his eyes gave him an impression that he couldn't quite be certain of.

He guessed that just maybe there were longish ears there under her hardhat.

Outside, the elf paused for just a moment, perched on the top of the chainlink fence there in the yard and holding himself above the three rows of barbed wire without effort. He looked back over his shoulder as the maintenance worker walked out.

"Who are you?" she asked.

He wondered as he caught the slight Appalachian accent in her English. He'd never heard anything like that before and smiled. 

"Follow and see what you may learn," he replied quietly.

"I've got to replace the main section fuses that you blew out, and anyway, I have to work until midnight," she said. "Where are you going?"

He decided that he liked her voice and speech and he laughed softly, "I go where I would belong, and that is not here, though I can bear it here. If you cannot follow now, I will leave a trail - for one with eyes to see it." 

He turned to look ahead for a moment, knowing that she would likely try to come nearer - if she were human. They all did.

When he looked again, she hadn't moved. "If I find and follow this trail," she said quietly, "will there be traps?"

He jumped down silently and began to walk away, but offered a last statement over his shoulder to her. He knew that it would likely confuse a human at least a little and make perfect sense to one of his kind.

"If you know," he said quietly, "there will likely be none for you. If you do not know, then of course there will be traps. It is to be expected." 

He stopped to turn back in warning, "If you do not know HOW, then do not follow at all. It would be your death, and far too soon, I think."

He reached the edge of the industrial park and entered the group of decorative pines that had been planted there before he looked back. His eyes told him that even looking down slightly as she now did in thought, he could just see her smile in the darkness under the brim of her hardhat. The roaring of the chiller units for the plant's compressed air supply masked her quiet reply.

"Good." she said to herself, after marveling at how he could move so quietly in those workboots across a gravel lot and the pavement beyond.

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True to his word, he left a trail, well-marked at some points, and impossible to almost all humans in others. Now and then, he left no trail at all, unless the tracker was beyond human in ability. If he was wrong about her, he had no wish to harm her. Since she'd raised the issue, there would be a lethal trap here and there, and they were nothing that he wanted a human to bumble into. He left two markers for her. If she truly had eyes to see, then she wouldn't miss them. At last, he entered the wood.

As he sat and ate his light meal, he considered the possibilities. She might be human and he would then have been mistaken after all this time alone. She might be something else, but he had no fear of any nonhuman that he'd met so far, and unless she was his own kind, the traps would likely do their job. It was the third possibility that caused him to be hopeful. 

He hadn't wanted to make any of these preparations. He'd have rather just spoken with her, but how to do it in that place, with humans running around after the fuss that he'd caused? Besides, this way would tell him much about her, and it was more entertaining than what he'd been doing so far this evening.

In the sheltered old sacred grove, he removed his clothing and bathed in the cold stream. Once dressed in elven clothing, he finished the trail and prepared to wait.

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He judged that about an hour had passed since midnight, but then finally noted her careful approach in the distance to the point where his trail entered the forest. He had moved long before she entered it. 

Not far in, she froze and surveyed the area before removing her shoes to continue barefoot in the darkness. She was being pointed about it, he thought, as she looked around at ground level. It made him smile to himself - he knew she was also looking into the forest canopy for him without being obvious. On her back under the knapsack, he noted the hafts of two short swords.

So, he reasoned, what did this say about her? There was still a chance that she was human, though it could likely be discounted now. The more that he watched her, the more convinced he became that she fit into the third category of his earlier thinking. 

At last, she was near enough to his sacred grove to see the light of his fire. She stared for a long minute through the trees at the lone figure kneeling there before looking for and finding the path. 

To his slightly grudging surprise, she left the path and continued on top of the pine needles, dried leaves and branches without a sound. He nodded once in appreciation of it. Not even an elf could see the trap that he'd set there on the path from that angle. She must have decided that it would be what she herself would have done in his place.

He was a mildly surprised when she loosened her swords. He tried to judge her skill from what he'd already seen. He couldn't think of a plausible reason for it, but if she were here as an adversary, and she was good enough to have gotten this far, then she'd be good enough at this distance to sense it if he drew his bow now. He left it hanging on a branch and loosened his own blades before moving on.

She looked around her and then into the grove. Moving on after a time, she repeated this at several places before finally walking into the grove itself. He was startled as she sighed and ran her toes deep into the moss that grew there with a smile. She found the small shrine in the rocks and knelt beside the diversionary form that he'd placed there and bowed until her forehead touched the earth. 

After a time, he watched her draw her blades slowly and deliberately and place them carefully on the bank in full view before she set her pack down as well and removed the elven clothing that she had in it. She looked around herself once and then disrobed quickly to step into the sacred stream. He really could not say what pleased him more at this point - her beautiful form, or the long and lovely ears that he'd almost known would be under her ball cap.

She was lithe as all of their people were, and she was wondrous to his eyes. Her skin was of a slightly darker tone than his own and he marveled at this for a moment. The only other elves that he'd ever seen were similarly fair to him - even those who had passed through his clan's area when he was a child. Her long shining black hair had almost caused him to gasp when she'd loosened it to let it fall free. He'd only ever known one elf with hair that color. Whatever clan she came from, they were a different type of elf altogether. 

He came to the thought that with her skin and her hair, she must surely be one of the types known to his kind as Wood or Copper Elves. He was saddened that he had never had much of a chance to travel and visit the other clans now. Her soft voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Will you now watch me bathe as well, Elohan?" she asked the woods around her quietly, "Am I to have no dignity at all while I visit with you?"

He was so shocked that he almost fell from the tree that he was perched in. She knew his name!

To her surprise, he now knelt on one knee by the bank quite near to her pack - almost next to her. 

There was no disrespect in his voice as he bowed, "Peace live in your heart, and the stars watch over you," he said in greeting, "I have no wish to offend you, friend, especially as you know my name. I wish only to remove the threat of misunderstanding between us," he said as he reached into her pack to remove the throwing knives that he knew would be there. 




The Industrial Elf Ch. 02



He set them carefully near her swords with as much respect as he could before stepping a short distance away to set his own blades and knives down. When he'd stepped back from them, he said softly with averted eyes, "Please be welcome here. You may keep both your dignity and the thin blade strapped to your thigh there if you wish to see my desire for trust between us. Have you eaten?"

She looked and saw that he was not watching her and stepped out onto the bank, noticing the human-made towel that he had placed there for her use. "You make some use of human things, I see," she smiled, "and I have only eaten a very light meal as I left to come here. I would feel honor to eat with you. I am called Ilmare."

She watched his back as she changed. 

He shrugged, "They have a few things that are of use - especially since I have been alone for so long." When he turned back to her he bowed slightly in recognition of her giving him her name. 

She smiled at him as she returned his bow, "May much luck and happiness follow you and may you be shielded from misfortune, friend." Ilmare held up the blade that he'd seen and placed it with her other weapons. She stepped forward to clasp his forearm with a wide and genuine smile. 

He offered bread and some wine, and she was quick to produce two cans of soup from her pack. She laughed softly as she held them up for him to see. "We both do the unthinkable, you see?" He nodded with a grin and found a pot for the soup. 

"Why did you approach as though you were mindful of a possible enemy?" he asked her.

"Because I was being mindful of a possible enemy," she shrugged, "I did not know the state of your mind, friend. The traps that you set were masterful. I found enough to come here alive, but could not spring two of them without dying in the attempt. Why did you set out that dummy?"

He smirked a little ruefully, "I wanted to see if you were truly of the people. If you were human or something else and came here with weapons, I hoped that my poor friend there would take the arrow - or the blade in my stead. That you knew at once what he was told me enough, but still I waited."

As they sat near the fire, he asked what had been burning in his mind since he left the plant, and she explained at length.

"I come from the southeast. We lived in the old mountains there in peace until man found us again. We spoke to one another of leaving to go to the mountains of the west, but did not get beyond the talking of it until we were visited by a young elven traveler." 

"I was very young, but she told me of the ways of her clan, and of you, whom she had left while she searched for others. Though she stayed among us for almost two years, she could not abide that our own king could not bring himself to lead us to the west. She had been to every place where our kind had dwelt and we were the only ones who remained. At last she said to us that she would leave to return to her own people and lead them away."

She looked to him with some sadness as she continued, "The day that she left us, she walked through the pass, and - we had never seen the like of it before - but men were working a mine there, and the dynamite they used caved in the mine and one side of the mountain. The blast felled many trees, and loosened much stone. There was no place for her to run. We found your princess dead between a boulder and a blasted-apart oak. My king had seen enough then and the people left to go to the west soon after."

"Since she had taught me much about your clan, I was chosen to tell your people what had happened. I have traveled a long time. Your ruler did not say that her land was on the far side of one of the human borders. I wasted much time because of that."

He offered her more bread and she accepted, "In a direct line," he said, "I think it possible to go between our lands in only a few weeks. You took many years to get here."

"Aye," she nodded, "it took me some time to prepare and then to finally leave. I was told that she left here when she was 122, and you would have been 115 then. Remember that I was alone as well, and I was but a century old. It is young for the trip alone with no other bows at one's side."

"I left a year later, and I had ever to look for food and to hide among them. And Elohan, there was a war between them once as I journeyed. It made the travel harder for some years. The forests were full of men wearing first gray where I was and then blue as I traveled farther on. I am a little proud to say that I took much work along the way if I stopped for a time now and then. But tell me, what of the clan? I see no one here but you."

He sighed, "We remained for longer than our ruler lived, now I learn. After maybe five years, the others wanted to go to the mountains. They would not need me for this, and it was decided - mostly by me - that I would stay on to wait. My clan did not know, but I had already told my liege that I would wait as long as I had to." 

He looked sad and cast his eyes down, "I see now that it was folly."

She shook her head, "Not so, Elohan. Not folly surely to wait for one's ruler like this. That is what I see as duty, and I would have done the same." 

She held out her hair with a rueful smile, "There was a time when I could stop any young elf in his tracks, and this mane of mine shone like a black cascade. Slowly now I see that it loses its shine. But I am glad to find you alive at the least and at last, though I have spent so long in the looking for you. Looking to give you news that I see can only hurt one such as you."

She saw that he sat looking down, so she politely nudged his arm, "I know that it will give you only small comfort now, but your lady told me often that she wanted most of all to return your love of her openly at last. She wanted only to be your queen and thereby make you Elf-king, for she said that of all of her people, you were already mighty in strength, lore, and magic among your clan at such a tender age, and would only grow more so as time gave wisdom to your mind."

"Might," he said sadly, "in elvish terms means little here and now. One's ability in lore fades as soon as one leaves the forest for there is not much wild forest left. A little magic I can manage, but I do not feel very wise."

"You can manage a little magic?" she asked with a laugh. "What I saw this night, that was a little magic? I have never seen the like of it, Elohan. How did you do that?"

He shrugged, "I learned from them and added it to what I knew. I can do a lot if there is one of their cables nearby, even underground. I have had many years to learn to play with it all as I waited." 

He smiled softly, "In truth, I had a thought that it had come to something like this, for I knew - as she herself said to me - that she would do her best to return. That she did not could only mean one of a few things; that she could not, being a prisoner somehow, or that she could not, having passed from this world."

He brightened and smiled at her hopefully, happy to be near one of his kind again. "But now I think that we should not look with bitterness on our long duties, friend. I have never seen the like of you before. Your skin is a rich color to my eyes and your hair - it loses its shine, you say? I do not see it. In the time that I followed you in my wood, you stopped me many times," he smiled.

He saw her thanks to him in her polite nod and the way that she smiled. "What will you do now? Are you attached here, or can you leave this grove behind?"

He thought for a minute, and then smiled at her, "Now that I know, I can leave this place at last and make my journey west. As sad as your tidings are, I feel lighter now in the knowing. I have spent long years waiting, and you have spent as much time looking. I am in your debt for your journey, and happy that you did not give up searching." 

He turned and bowed deeply to her and sighed, "I have grown so weary of the waiting. And you? You have also discharged your own duty, though I am sad that you found only one of us. I can only offer my poor welcome. What will you do now?"

Ilmare laughed softly and reached for his hand. For a long moment, they stared wide-eyed at each other feeling the touch of another elf again. Ilmare recovered first with a grin, "Since we are the last of our kind here, Elohan, I think it only fitting that I go with you to the west. After seeing only human men for so long, I would be glad of a companion on the road as easy to look at as you seem to my eyes." She looked at him and reached slowly to touch his face, almost as though she was not certain that he was really there beside her.

"I saw for myself from your princess that the rumors of your kind were true, for she was fair. I was even warned by my own mother that you all were this way and that I ought to guard my heart if I ever found one of you. The princess made it even worse for me for she said that you were fine to look at and very handsome." She shook her head and chuckled, "None of it prepared me for the one that I sought for so long." She tried to suppress her quiet giggle, but failed and threw up her hands, "How to guard my heart when I sit here helpless?"

Elohan chuckled, "I am the same. I would welcome such a lovely traveler and the journey with one such as you. I think that I need for you to come with me just to speak our language again and more - much more since you must have found the best ways to travel among the humans, I think."

"I have!" she said grinning, "At first, I had only to give them some name if asked. Then they must have grown distrustful of each other, for they needed more proof that one is who she says she is. I took the name of a dead child from a grave marker and became her. If I worked for them, I used that name. When that person would surely have grown far older than I appear, I took another name, and left all that I had in their terms to the new name."

"I have done it many times now. I have the papers that they seem to love to demand of each other. I found that humans put their wages into places they call banks, the smarter ones among them. And so I have done this also. With my pay in a bank wherever I worked for them, it grows, and I have the most powerful traveling tool that these people have ever made, and I keep it with me always. With it, I can do almost anything in my travels!"

"What is it?" Elohan asked, intrigued now.

Ilmare's head went back as she laughed, and he thought it was surely the sweetest sound that he'd heard in an age. Her eyes shone merrily as she reached to her pack and held up a thing in the firelight.

It was such a small thing, but from what she said, he knew that it must hold some great power among the humans. 

"They call it American Express."



The Industrial Elf Ch. 03



**It's a bit of fun to try to fit creatures such as elves into everyday modern life. That said, it ought to go without saying that all persons in this are figments of my imagination as are any uh, corporate entities. 

I ought to point out that there's nothing much in the way of a love scene in this for a couple more chapters, so if you're only here for that, you'll be disappointed. O_o

--------------

They sat together for a while, happy just for the comfort of sitting side by side with each other, touching slightly as though they each quietly feared that it was an illusion. They took turns telling tales of their experiences and discoveries. He asked for details of her clan's skills and knowledge, having guessed that they were not far from his people's. 

After a time, he stood up and walked a distance way, returning to hand her his bow, "I have no gift to welcome a traveler such as you, Ilmare. Please accept my bow. It is one of man's best ones, and it adds to the strength of one's draw. It took me long to accept, but for hunting, it is better than any that I have made."

Ilmare stared at the thing in her hands, until he explained the function of the pulleys and the blotched coloring. She'd never seen one like it and bowed to him in gratitude. "The tufts on the bow string," she pointed, "these are talismans or charms? I feel no magic from them. What do they mean?"

He smiled, "Though we have ever looked upon humans as dolts - often rightly, there are some wise ones among them. These mean only that I wish the string to be silent when I loose the arrow. They are to muffle the sound. I think your draw might be shorter than my own, a little anyway, and we can cut back some of my arrows for you." He showed her the wickedly sharp tip on one of the arrows in the holder. 

She gently tried the draw, "Elohan, you can draw this weight? I will have trouble."

He smiled, "I can adjust it for you easily, and I have another, so when we tire of eating out of their metal containers, we may eat as elves again."

"This is a wondrous gift, Elohan. My thanks to you."

He shook his head, "A small thought for how long you looked for me."

"I think that you have suffered more in the waiting that I in the looking for you," she said at last.

Elohan expressed his gentle doubt, "I had only to wait, as heavy as it was, but I always had my old home here to return to. It is hard to be away from one's place, so I think your burden was greater. You did not know if you would find me, and every step took you farther from your home."

Ilmare nodded, "But I knew that there was one at the least who might wait for my news while you knew nothing of my coming. I must admit something here then," Ilmare smiled softly, "While I traveled, I had a thought come often to me. The thought became a wish just when I would have given it up, and it kept me on the road. When I doubted, I found that I could only stop for a time, maybe to work and gather my pay. But my wish had by then become a hope, and always my hope drove me on, and kept me from turning to the west."

She saw his puzzled look and continued with downcast eyes, "You had nothing but this, Elohan. I had my hope. And then one night, as I sat by my small fire, I thought that if I could find you alive, and from the tales I had been told, I knew I would have found one warrior still, and with some luck, perhaps... we could find our way west together. 

If then we find the others it would be one happy end to the tale. If we find no one,... well at least I would be alone with someone, and to journey with someone is far better than to journey alone, and would make finding no others at the end bearable, if it came to that."

He laughed softly at her shy smile and the possible double meaning in her words, "Perhaps, Ilmare. The stars will have something to say, maybe, and if we find your clan, will you not wish to be with them?"

"I may," she said, "would you not wish to go to your clan?"

He shook his head, "By now, they will have chosen another king, and much time has passed for anyone to want to abide my wishes or commands. It may be better if I do not seek them at all."

Ilmare brightened suddenly, "Then come with me to find my clan, Elohan! If they live there, you would be welcome, and that is a certainty. We had none who knew much magic. I myself know but little. You would find a place among us, and ..."

"I know," he smiled, "and we could find our way together, but I think you must say this because there have been no elves in your life of late."

She chuckled and smiled at him, "I believe that my fortunes improve suddenly. And it is said of my kind that we get what we wish for the hardest more often than not."

He looked up at the small patch of stars that could be seen through the canopy of the glade, "We have both been long in the wishing. The little I knew of your people, I knew nothing of their beauty, but I had heard that your kind is not shy in the asking for what they want and how it comes often to them. I see some truth to the legends now." They smiled at each other and sat in silence for a while.

She reached over sometimes to lightly rub the cropped hair on his head, liking the feel of it, "Why do you keep it so short, Elohan? I have never seen one of us like this, and wonder about its purpose. Did the others among you do this?"

He shook his head, "I kept it long for many years, but it became harder to hide among mankind for it had fallen out of their fashion. At length, I cropped it short like this. It stays out of my way and needs nothing from me at all. I see now that it is in some favor among them again to have it long, but not for one of my appearance."

"Your appearance pleases me," she admitted, "I have never seen one so fair as you in your color, not even your princess, and your light hair makes you look almost like a forest spirit to my eyes, and a fine one too. We are quiet in movement, but you are silent, Elohan." She took his upper arm in both of her hands and squeezed gently, "Perhaps might means less now among the humans. They need only move small things today mostly. But to my eyes, you are as mighty as your lady said, perhaps more, and that cannot be a bad thing - to a lost elf girl such as I am. Was there ever one for you as you waited?"

He nodded, "Once only, and for such a short time, for she was human. I have never really loved since. And you?"

"It was the same for me, Elohan. Once only. It hurts to care for one of them and then to watch their lives flash by them, no?. You have given me such a kind welcome in your way, but I would ask a boon of you if I could." She looked a bit uncomfortable, and he was quick to see it and tried to make her feel at ease, Taking a chance, he put his arm around her shoulder lightly, "Ask it then, Ilmare. Ask anything of me."

She looked up at him cautiously, "I do not have to be anywhere for more than two days now. Now that I have found you, I would that we could stay together, here or anywhere you say for the time. I get much comfort from the nearness of you, and, - if I could, I would be happy to sleep only near enough to touch you if you need a little sleep this night. 

When I do not have work in their places, I sleep as little as any elf. But when I spend time there, the noise and my tasks wear on me. Then I sleep almost as much as one of them."

He smiled down at her, "After this time, there is place only for one to sleep in the great tree's arms here. I would feel honor if you would sleep in my place. I will watch over the night."

"Nay," she said, "It would mean much to me to sleep only near to you. If there is but one place, then if you agree, I would sleep together with you. I have much to show you in the morning, but then it will be clear that to travel together, we will have to sleep like this anyway. In truth, I have never slept together with one of our kind, but I feel the want of it tonight. I come from a warmer land, and though I can bear the coolness here, I want to be warm this night."

"But we are not - "

"No," she smiled shyly, "we are not wedded or anything like that, Elohan. We have only found each other today, and I would only sleep. Who knows where the road will bring us? It may be that we cannot abide each other, or it may be a wondrous thing to be together. There is time for that, and it may be as well that we find that we are the only ones now, I do not know. 

The first elves had to begin somewhere long ago, did they not? I think the last elves must begin somewhere as well if we must and if that is what we are now. We have time to plan while I work a little yet, and if I must begin somewhere with you, I would that it was here - in a true elf-place, where I can feel magic that still lives." She smiled up at him and kissed his cheek. 

Even in the warm glow of the now-dying fire, he looked into the brightest green eyes that he'd ever seen in his long life and knew that with her here now, it marked a welcome change for them both. A long solitary journey - even for self-sufficient folk like them - could be a soul searching thing. But together ...

High in the oak boughs, Ilmare was happy as she pressed her back against him, and then pulled one of his arms around her. She carefully laid her head on his other arm and sighed, "I thank you for this, Elohan, and for being alive still for me to find. May the stars watch over us."

He pulled her tightly to his chest, feeling her hope alive in his own heart. For the first time, he felt that he now had a reserve to draw upon since his own hope had been fading for such a long time. It was a new hope now, but it shone brightly and he felt it. He raised his head slightly to kiss her ear. "May the stars watch over us, Ilmare. Peace already lives in my heart."

--------------

Ilmare opened her eyes and found that his throat filled her view. She pulled her head back slightly to look upon his sleeping face and studied it for a time as she asked herself a few questions. She found that she was pleased with the answers that came to her, even the ones which were not yet a certainty, and she was most definitely pleased that she'd turned over somehow in the night and was still in his embrace. It meant that he'd allowed her the movement and then embraced her again, really. 

That was before the realization of her own position came to her.

It was something of a shock to find herself wrapped around him with one leg high around his waist. She hadn't planned that at all, and knew that there was no way to untangle herself without waking him. She finally smirked at herself, but a small gasp escaped her as a distant memory came to her mind. Ilmare thought about that memory and she allowed herself - in spite of the awkwardness of everything - to chuckle silently once. She'd never thought that it would ever apply to her, but now it was something else to hope for, she decided.

Before anything else, Elohan heard the birds discussing the newcomer in the oak along with their usual chatter. It caused him to listen, and he wondered at the weight that he felt on his side. Another thought, and he felt her hand on his back and her other one behind his head. He decided that it was a moment to hold on to and enjoyed it - until she gasped. He slowly opened his eyes.

The eyebrows before him rose slightly, and then he saw her brilliant green eyes and the smile that began there as the weight on his side shifted quickly away. He'd liked her leg where it was, he thought, though he found it interesting the way it pressed on something else of his now.

This was going to be a bit strange for them both, since to get out of the rather intimate position that they'd somehow gotten into had only put them into another one perhaps just as familiar. He smiled in return and kissed her, deciding that perhaps their bodies were trying to tell them something. What he found odd was the comfortable sense of certainty that he felt with her now.

Ilmare's response to his kiss was instant as she hugged him tightly. After a second, he heard her soft laugh next to his ear, "You do not wake up all at once, Elohan. I have learned that your eyes sleep the longest. Your toes were up before them - but they were not the first."

Before he could even begin to feel awkward, her face appeared again in his field of view for a moment. 

"Do not feel shame," she whispered, "for I do not. We are not young elves here, you and I. I was in love once as I have said. I found that I had become a little bitter that I was not allowed the time that most elf-girls have to feel their first young love. I felt cheated somehow. It is how I came to take a human lover since I had seen no elves for so long. In most respects I know it was a mistake for we always argued, but I did learn much - enough to know how a male awakens." She pulled herself to him again and kissed his throat.

Elohan rolled onto his back, pulling her along onto him. He laughed a little as he said, "You were bitter, Ilmare? I cannot think how it must look on your face. Can you show me so that I know the warning if I see it?"

He heard her muffled reply under his jaw as she said, "Nay, for it would frighten the birds who now sing to tell each other of the strange cat in their tree today. And anyway, I cannot think that I would have anything to feel bitter about with you near to me. Tell me, did you dream this night?"

Elohan nodded, his eyes widening as he remembered. Dreams are not the same wild fancy to elves as they seem to humans. To elves, dreams often point to solid possibilities - what might come to pass as one of several possible outcomes. They are not so much predictors of the future, but can often guide an elf's actions in waking life to aim at the end in the dream. Dreams which come to an elf while asleep in the boughs of a tree in his home are considered especially important. 

Ilmare raised her head. Her hopeful smile twisted his heart. "And did you see trees?" 

He nodded again, "Not like these. And lakes and mountains that I did not know."

She laughed at his smile and knew there was more, "I saw them also! Before we climb down, warrior, you will tell me what else you saw, or I will not let you up. Tell me now."

He looked up the trunk of the ancient oak, "Perhaps I do not want to climb down yet."

She shook her head grinning, "You must tell me, for I know where to lie heavy on you if I must." She shifted until he groaned, "Say it."

"If you do more of that, I might forget what I saw."

She laughed at him, "Your thoughts are backward. If you tell me, I may do more of that."

He smiled, and said only, "Elflings."

Ilmare shook her head, smiling widely now, "It is not enough, Elohan. Did you know them?"

"Not all," he said, "for I saw many."

Rolling her eyes, she shifted again, "The ones you knew - whose, Elohan? Whose were they?"

He laughed, "They were ours, shining one."

"I saw them too," she sighed happily, "But I still may not let you up," she said it with a grin, "I like where I lie now." She put her head down just to hold him for a moment.

"I heard you laugh softly before I opened my eyes, Ilmare. Why?"

She shook her head, "I will not say it now in fear of ruining it. It concerns an old saying between elf-girls and their mothers. I will say if it has come to pass, and so you must wait for me. Come, let us climb down."

His hands stroked her back gently, "But you said you would do more of that."

She lifted herself up and climbed off of him to sit looking down from another bough, "That is so, but I did not say when I would do it." 

She looked around, "Come, let us bathe. We have to talk and be elsewhere for a time." 

He had a fine view of her face through her long hair as she laughed, "I see the fine trail that you led me now. I was led far, when the place where I first saw you is only there."

---------------- 

Dressed in human clothing, she led him into the town to the grocery store. The cashier recognized her and said, "You're always smiling when you come in here, Elly, but today you look like you're gonna get face cramps if you keep up that look. What's going on?"

Ilmare just shook her head as she put their purchases into her pack, "I just can't help myself today, Rita." She indicated Elohan behind her in the line with a toss of her head, "New boyfriend. Rita, this is, -- " she paused and Elohan quickly offered his hand with a smile, "I'm Jack. Pleased to meet you, Rita."

The young cashier grinned back at him, "I'm glad to meet you." Looking at them both, she said, "You know, you guys are different from each other, but you look great together - like you're the same somehow."

Ilmare smirked, as she spoke with her soft accent, "That's the funny thing about it, I think I told you before that I'm from the hills of Tennessee, right?"

Rita nodded, "Yes, I remember you did say that because I asked about your accent."

"Well anyway," Ilmare continued, "I come from a little holler up there, and Jack here - he's a old Ontario boy from Peterborough. Turns out we're both Finnish way back, and his people and mine all come from a little place right up near the Arctic Circle there. I mean like they lived only a few miles from each other!"

The rest of the short conversation was just pleasant small-talk and they were out of the place within another minute. As they walked, Elohan wondered aloud about how they'd manage the navigation of the trip, whenever they set out. He didn't really like traveling in a straight line, as it would force them to cross property and such. He also wasn't keen on using human roads to walk along. He hadn't noticed where she led him until she stopped.

"The best way that I have found is to use their roads. Almost all of them are marked on their maps, which we can get anywhere along the way." Ilmare said.

He didn't like it, "But to walk along their roads, Ilmare..."

She smiled at him, "Who told you that we would walk?"

He stared at her dumbly, until she pointed. 

They stood beside a camper van. 

"We ride as far as we can with this." As he stared at it, she unlocked the door and set the groceries down inside. He still stood there when she looked back, and she smiled as she took his hand and pulled him inside. 

"Come over here a minute," she giggled as she closed the door, put her arms around his neck and purposely spoke to him in her lilting Tennessee English, "You stand there like that much longer boy, you're just gonna have a mouthful of flies to show for it. Welcome to my home, Elohan."

--------------

With the groceries put away, they sat at the small table together. Elohan sipped experimentally at a cup of coffee that she'd prepared for him. 

"It is made from a bean," she said. "They drink much of it. It has no effect on me, I think, but I have it sometimes when I sit here and think on where to look next for you." 

She looked at her cup, "I like only the taste now." She stood to walk to the front of the vehicle and returned with a large handful of maps and a cardboard box that she set down next to the maps.

"I have used these to find the roads as I went. We have only to decide where to go, and then plan it with these. We know only to go west, I think, but my hope is that as we go, we will feel and know the way. These will help - and this also maybe." 

She indicated the box, "I bought this two moons ago. It is a newer way for them to plan their way, but I have not done anything with it, and do not know what to do with it, really. I cannot see how it will help us, but I see many of them in their vehicles, so I bought one. Do you know of it?"

He nodded, "Yes, Ilmare. I know about it and even how it works, but I have never seen or touched one. It is to be fitted to your vehicle here and can guide us too. I can do this for you. What are the boxes on the floor there?"




The Industrial Elf Ch. 03



"Parts," she said, "My little rolling house here is a bit old. It has served me well and will travel, but needs a little work now. I thought to stop here and have the work done only and then go on. But I stayed and found work. I know now why I stayed," she smiled, touching his arm, "I did not want to buy a new one because this one is not so much for one's comfort as for travel and toughness. I learned that this kind is often used by workers like me who travel from one job to the next. I wanted something to take me to the mountains in time, and as far in as it would carry me."

He smiled at her, and she liked the gleam in his gray eyes. She saw her hope and maybe even a little excitement there as he spoke, "You said that you would work a little yet. I can do what your house here needs, and I have even a place to do it."

-------------------------

Janet Dejardin had been torn with curiosity now for more than an hour after the cryptic phone call. A petite woman in her early thirties, she walked through her expensive home to answer the door and wondered what this was really about.

Opening the door, she found two people dressed casually in clothing that told her they were not near her own social standing, but the man's voice had been well-spoken and she recognized it as he spoke. They looked like they were house painters looking for work more than anything else. She wouldn't even have let them in, but he did mention a matter that had troubled her for a time and offered a solution, so she was prepared to listen if nothing else. She invited them in and pointed them to her kitchen.

"I must say, Mister, um.."

He smiled and she was instantly intrigued. 

"Please call me Jack."

"All right then, Jack," she said, "what's this about?"

The smile remained, "Dejardin Group is a conglomerate with a long history," he said, "I could recite what I know of it, and you would think that I had gotten a lot of it from the company's website. But I know much more of it than that, likely more than you yourself know. 

I'm here today to make you an offer. It concerns a long-standing agreement - one that I think you will be happy to see ended to your benefit. I can do that easily for you. There is a legend in your family that is handed down only from one corporate head to the next, since each one must be a family member in as direct a line as is possible. 

You are the fourth in that line who has been told of it and the third who has tried to overturn it without success. I know this because I know of the document that you would have been presented with when you assumed leadership. It's about two of the original holdings in this area, and the legal protection that prevents you from developing those lands. 

The law firm that protects the contract has been engaged until the stars fall and I am aware that you have planned uses for the lands, but have been unsuccessful at overturning and assuming the deeds. Yet you are saddled with paying the land taxes on them."

Janet's eyes opened wider, "You know a fair amount, Jack. I'm listening. Please continue."

He shrugged, "I'd love to, but I had asked when we spoke on the phone that you not use any means to record the meeting, and in this room alone I see a security camera and two webcams."

She looked a bit impatient, "I agreed to your request, Jack. They're not on right now."

He smiled and held up his hand. Janet watched his fingers move and stared at the tiny bright pearl of light that formed there. The room was lit oddly as he continued to look at her, and then spread his fingers wide. The pearl disappeared and there was a slight acrid odor which dissipated as soon as she noticed it.

"No, they're not," he said, "now." 

"Sad that you think this way, Janet. It's cost you your home's security system and it's drives to this point. Your ancestor set the properties up in this way in perpetuity for the benefit of one who had loved her and cared for her in his own way, an individual who did not really - fit in - shall we say. 

You have found that you can't divest yourself of the holdings as the living descendant of Madeleine Dejardin, and you cannot make use of them either while the agreement stands, for to do that costs you the corporation itself. There is one only who can help, since it requires your signature, his signature, both in blood only, and half of her old sketchbook. You hold the other half in your personal safe as demanded by the agreement. 

You cannot use any other blood in the place of his blood since it would never match visibly, and it must match perfectly. You also know that if the agreement is to be ended, he would need to provide you with certain bona fides as proof that he is the one."

She sat intrigued now. At first, Janet had been a bit frightened, then disconcerted. But that gave way to surprise, since only her attorney and she herself knew of the agreement's existence and its terms. 

She studied them both for a second, and thought that besides their clothing, they looked a bit odd the more she looked. The woman sat silent, looking mildly interested, but he returned her gaze with some intensity. 

Janet collected her thoughts, "The agreement cannot be ended, Jack, as much as I want for it to be. The individual that you speak of is dead by now, and can't provide the bona fides that you mention, or the blood and the signature."

He shrugged, "What were you told of the nature of that individual - in the verbal instructions that you were given when you assumed control?"

She chuckled bitterly, "I was told that he was an elf, Jack. Old Madeleine was slipping a few gears when the agreement with this fictional character of hers was set up."

Her jaw fell open when he removed his hat. The woman next to him removed hers as well and smiled.

"They're quite real, Janet," he smiled, "I can provide all of the bona fides required and end the agreement to your satisfaction and benefit, and it won't cost you a nickel. 

Like most people, you make some incorrect assumptions. You always make the same mistakes because humans are naturally arrogant, but I don't mind. I am the other party required to end this contract. I was there myself when it was drafted, Janet. 

The reason that you could never forge the signature is because the blood required is not human. I am not human, Janet. We live a lot longer than you. I was with Madeleine when she passed on. She died in my arms, Janet, and it would sadden her to know that her own blood would try to cheat. I told her of this beforehand, but she had faith and only the first director, her nephew, did not try to surreptitiously bypass what had been set out. 

The rest of you aren't worth your fine name."

Janet crossed her legs and shrugged, "Maybe you're right about that. But it takes a certain will and ability to run a corporation. I assume you're here to make me an offer. I will admit that I'm very curious, and until I sort out what tomfoolery you're using here to dazzle me, I'm at least prepared to listen to what you want."

He smiled coldly, "Over the years, I have helped your precious businesses many times to lay the golden eggs that the corporation is now built upon. I could have sat on my hands or even hindered it. 

I did it out of the memory of Madeleine's love. I saved her life the day we met by killing three men without a thought - just as I could do that here and now - without a thought. I need only a little time from you and in return I promise to end the agreement, providing all of the things that are needed to do it, including my signature in blood. 

I could easily part your life from your body instead. By the time the next relation assumed control, I'd have had more than the time I need. Again, I do this for her - not for you, Janet."

He sat forward, "I want three months or less. That's all I want. Three months to prepare to leave here where I was born long ago and have lived for centuries before you. When we're ready, we'll contact you again and then you and I can sign. We will leave, and you'll have what you want for nothing. 

I want no one, not you, or anyone working for you, contracted by you, not even a personal friend, to come onto the lands in question during that time. I want no attempts made to document our passing, or our comings and goings there. 

Abide by this, and you'll have an end to this at no cost. Try to hinder what I do, or interfere in any way, and you will begin to lose your precious golden goose - all of it - before I'm done. Are we agreed?"

"It would take me more than three months to keep trying to overturn this thing, Jack. I was going to have the lands surveyed and the building on one piece demolished, but I find that I can't even do that. I'm concerned for the ecological impact that the old place might have on the river there. I doubt you'd understand that if you're really an elf, but all right, you have your three months. To the day from today."

The two people stood up and he held out his hand. Janet offered her hand in return, but he clasped her forearm instead. 

"If you believed what you've been told, you'd know to expect this instead of a handshake as is your custom today. So I know what I'm dealing with. 

You presume to have knowledge and pretend to care for nature, Janet? Your ancestor cared deeply, but she was the only one that I ever really found here. That it how she and I met all those years ago. The rest of you care only about the possible liabilities that might get in the way of making a profit. Please show us the way out."

She led them to the front door and he turned.

Janet smiled, "I'm sorry to doubt you, but I believe that you'll keep your word, and I do agree. I think that under other circumstances, I'd be happy to get to know you better. I'm a bit sad that it can't happen. If you're who you say you are, then Madeleine was the richest of us all."

He turned, and pointed at the pole standing far away across the immaculately kept lawns and gardens. His hands were moving again. "It could have happened, Janet. Even we cannot predict events. But now after so long, we will leave here finally. I feel no enmity toward you, only sadness. But I am glad that you can see that you will have what you want if you can do as you've said."

He noticed that she stared at his arm and the portion of the tattoo there. He smiled, "Yes, that is the second bona fide that is required. So I assume that you believe a little more now perhaps. But like most of your kind, Janet, you're looking in the wrong place."

She looked at his face, and he indicated the distant pole with his head, "The largest part of Dejardin Corporation develops new power generation methods and sites. It is the largest golden egg that you have. If you cannot abide by what we have agreed upon here today, that will be the first one that I crack."

There was a bright flash followed by a loud bang as the transformer near the top of the distant pole exploded and the lines fell away to lie sparking on the road. All of the electric devices in the house fell silent. He turned to her and raised his eyebrows as she reached reflexively for her Blackberry. With a cry, she dropped the smoking mess that it had become to the floor.

"I apologize for that, but being human means that you naturally disbelieve the obvious for some reason. I wanted to show you that I use no tomfoolery as you have said."

Janet was surprised to find the pair gone the next instant. She hadn't seen them open the door, but heard the lock click as it closed behind them. Now she looked at them as they walked on the grass beside her long driveway holding hands. 

When they reached the tall gate, they jumped it easily and walked away. 



The Industrial Elf Ch. 04



They'd stopped for a few things at an auto supply store, and were now back at the RV park where Ilmare kept her camper. She sang to herself quietly as she made their evening meal. She wasn't certain of it, but she was pretty sure that he'd never had a vegetable stir fry before. Elohan worked up front, making a change to the wiring of the vehicle lighting.

"Do you really think that she will abide by your offer?"

He shrugged, "One can never tell with them, Ilmare. Mostly, you cannot trust them absolutely. If you try, many will disappoint you. It is their way. But if you assume that they will all try to trick or cheat you, there will always be one now and again who is true. 

I have always tried to learn what I could of each one of those who take control of the company. I know that Janet can be ruthless, she has been well-taught in their schools, but also she has learned at the hands of her father. She is very young for this, but she is in the family line, and her father died early, so she assumed control. I cannot say what she will do, and so we must be prepared for something anyway." He looked up at her, "I know only..."

Ilmare laughed, "I know what you know, Elohan. Janet Dejardin fell in love with Jack at the first sight she had of him. She is a good businesswoman, for she held it close to her heart, but it cannot be hidden from my eyes."

He shrugged as they sat down to eat, "That is sad for her, I cannot help who she falls for."

----------------

The camper drove along deserted roads later on. Ilmare drove as he directed her and continued to thank her for the meal and the surprise that it was for him. He asked her what her favorite thing to eat was. He wanted somehow to return the favor very soon. 

They talked as she drove on, until at one point, as they approached a turn off onto a little-used gravel road, he reached over and flicked the switch that he'd installed on the dashboard earlier. With the exception of the dashboard's dim glow, all of the camper's lights went out, and she turned down the rutted path. A few hundred yards in, she pointed and stopped.

There in the darkness facing them, sat a coal-black Acura ZDX near the weeded-over drive they were headed for. He didn't follow automotive trends, but he had no doubt this was the newest model available. 

Ilmare smiled as she noticed the slope of the road downward, and began to coast forward in neutral. She glided to a stop a meter away from the Acura's bumper. They could hear the muffled music from its sound system where they sat. 

Elohan walked to the rear door and got out. When Ilmare saw him beside the driver's door, she flicked the new switch again, and hit the high beams. 

Janet almost hit her head on the ceiling in surprise, but before she could do much else, Elohan opened her door. She recognized him, and shut off the ignition, "Jesus you scared me! Look, can we talk?"

"What about?" he said, "How in a very few steps you would already break my conditions?"

She shook her head, "Why do you think I was sitting inside my car, outside the property line? I didn't know if you were here, but I hoped to see you again. If you're going inside now, may I come along? I've never seen it, and I've been thinking things over, Jack. I think I can do better than just give you three months of time, but I'd like for you to hear me out. Please?"

He thought about it. "Fine," he said, "Climb up in the passenger side of the camper. My companion's name is Elly." 

He walked to the driver's door and Janet heard their brief conversation as she stepped over to the passenger side. She realized that she hadn't understood one word of it. Elly turned to her and nodded, so Janet climbed in. Elohan walked to the rusted gate and opened it for them. The camper began to grind its way along, pushing down the tall weeds. They watched his back in the headlights until he waved backward to them and Elly hit the switch again to kill the lights.

"What's he doing?"

"He's tryin' to get his night vision back to look for trouble spots for us. Doesn't look like there's been any vehicles here in a good long while," Elly said as Janet stared at her, "You can see here?"

Elly smirked and glanced over, "Um, we're good at that. I'm not from around here. Guess you can tell. But he is. Been here forever waiting while I've been forever looking. What do you want here anyway? I thought Jack spelled it out pretty plain."

"I want to see the place if it's ok with you two, and I want to tell you something. I called the number that he called me on, and found that it was a payphone. That's not going to do at all for what I want to talk about, so I thought I'd try coming out here, but staying in my car because of what I'd agreed to."

"Uh-huh," Elly said, stopping while they watched him remove a fallen tree across the path.

"He's a lot stronger than he looks," Janet said, "That's not giving him much trouble."

"He's a lot of things more than he looks," Elly remarked, "I'd heard about him back home from one of his clan, but we surprise each other about every five minutes, him and me. 

Look uh, Janet, if you're here because you can't believe that all he wants is time and nothing else, you're wasting a fine evening. Same goes if you're here to shorten it up any. You heard him right. You just have to sit tight for three months and it's all yours. We'll be gone and we won't ever come back here."

They pulled up in front of a large dark building. Elohan began to speak to something at the top of the door. 

"What's he saying?"

Elly chuckled, "He's talking to a racoon up there in part of the door thing there at the top. He's trying to talk her into leaving to go have her fun someplace else. Rolling up the door now would hurt or kill them in there. Hey, here she comes, and her boyfriend too."

A pair of racoons skittered down the frame, making unhappy noises as they ran off. Elohan began to pull the roll door's chain to open it. He stepped into the dark cavern of the doorway. 

In the dark, he walked first to the wheel well and listened. Satisfied that it spun in the current of the river, he eased the mechanical clutch in to set the gearbox in motion and spin the generator, and then he finally began to close a few rows of switches. 

Lights all over the old generator station came on, one bank after another, and he waved then inside. Janet got out and walked over while Elly found an open area to park. When she'd walked in, he pressed a button on the wall, and the now powered door rolled down. Before it was even halfway closed, his hands were moving. He wanted to offer no chance for Janet to see the plates on the camper.

Elly and Janet followed him as he stood by an old control panel, "I've got the generator on mechanically just to get it going. Now that I've got some power I'll bring in the eddy current clutch and pull out the mechanical one."

With that done, he turned to Janet, "All right, now you're here. I haven't made any changes since I cut off the orphanage after Madeleine died. I come here every week or so to clean off the dust. What's on your mind?"

She looked around, "This might sound hard to believe, Jack, but I've been thinking a lot since you two left my house. At first, I didn't know what to think, whether I ought to be pleased that you'd offer to end the contract, or pissed that I have no power, security system, and a fried Blackberry - or both."

"I'm sorry, Janet, but the loss of the security system is your own fault.," he said, "I asked that you not record the meeting. You lied to me when you agreed and then tried to record it anyway. The rest was to convince you that I was both genuine and sincere."

She nodded, "That's fine, Jack. It's my own fault, and I'm not upset anymore. There are advantages to my job. I'm probably the only one in town who can have a pole transformer replaced and the line repaired on a Saturday afternoon. I doubt the mayor could manage that. 

Anyway, as I was telling Elly in the truck there, I wanted to speak to you guys some more, but I found that I didn't have a way to do that. That's why I waited here, hoping to get a chance to talk to you. I have my reasons, and a few of them are business-related, but mostly, I'm here to offer my help."

The elves stared at her for a moment. "Why would you want to help us?" he asked.

Janet smiled, "First thing Monday morning, I'm going to call the company archivist with an assignment, but I'm already pretty sure of what I'll learn after he takes his sweet time researching. I can probably find more than a few instances where it could be said that the company's fortunes improved markedly at certain points due to possible outside influences. That doesn't really matter, but I'd like to figure out when you've helped. I have absolutely no desire to hinder your efforts to prepare to leave your home here, trust me on that.

I was thinking that I'd like very much to learn more about you and Madeleine, because I've realized that without that relationship, my family would certainly not have enjoyed the success that it has, and so I feel that we owe you a lot for that. I was thinking of restoring the old house for historical purposes, since it's still standing, and I want to set this station up as a museum for the past, as well as using it to point to water-powered generation as one green solution today in locations where it's feasible."

"In recent years, after a popular movie, more people know of elves as friends of the earth, but they believe that it's all fiction. I myself know a little bit better now, and I've thought of a very gentle way to exploit that. 

I can't push that elves exist today - I wouldn't do that anyway, but I think it would be a good business promotion to be able to say that if the elves DID exist today, they'd be at least somewhat pleased at our green power solutions. 

Also, to go along with that, I want to suggest a legend in the documentation of the museums that elves once did live here. Just something that nobody could prove or disprove, but that could be used as a low-key marketing tool for the corporation and an attraction for the museums for schoolchildren on day trips, things like that.

If you don't think it would bother you too much, I'd like to be able to get your input and more history at times during our agreed term here. For that, I've brought you a pair of phones so that we can reach each other. I'd be honored if you'd agree here. The accounts for the phones will be billed to the corporation, so you don't need to worry about the cost. And after you leave, if you ever find that you're stuck someplace out on the road, I'd sure want to hear from you if there's anything that I can do to help in any way I can."

There was silence all around as she wound down, the only sounds were the quiet gurgle of the river and the soft whine and hum of the lightly loaded generator. 

Ilmare looked at Elohan, who shrugged, "We thank you for your intent, Janet. I'm surprised, to say the least. I need to point out a couple of things and then I'd agree tentatively. 

Firstly, elves do not much care about mankind's green advances, as you call them, for we find much to resent in how we have been pushed out of your way. Our way and yours have nothing much in common. We live with the land, and you exploit it to your own ends. That is how it has always been, and it's why you wonder if any of us ever existed at all. 

I've found that in most cases, there is always another agenda, though I appreciate what you've told me of your plans. If you wish to point to a legendary elf named Jack who was known to Madeleine Dejardin, I have no issue, especially if it helps to keep her name alive so you can fill your boots in that regard. 

I can't stop you from stating that if there were elves, they'd be pleased with your advances - I really don't care anyway. But there's one thing that you must know here, and I want to see if it affects your offer."

"Well," Janet offered a small smile, "put it out there then."

He sighed, "Humans do not see the obvious most times, and if they do at all, then they certainly miss the subtle. Elves miss nothing. Both of us noticed something in your home, and we see it even more right here, so I have to say this. 

I was very much in love with Madeleine when she lived. I have never loved another human since her, and I have no intention of ever loving another human again. I like you Janet, in spite of your business acumen, and constant need for more success, whether to prove yourself to your peers, or just as a pillar of business around here. 

I like you a lot, and even more since you're trying to show us another side of you here and offer help. I - we appreciate that. But I cannot love you - and that is what I see as a strong personal desire in your heart. If that's your prime motivation for this, then I'm sorry, but it cannot be. 

I have been alone here for over two hundred years. Elly has been searching for my clan for almost all of that time, since long before Madeleine was born, knowing that at least I waited in vain for my dead ruler's return. 

Now the last two elves, as far as we know, in all of the eastern part of the continent have found each other. It might have been predictable and obvious to anyone, but we needed convincing, and that has happened. She already has my heart. I'm sorry if this disappoints you, and I'd understand if this changes anything in your offer."

She stepped closer to them both, "You're right, I admit it. I find you both fascinating, and as long as we're examining my heart here, I'm sad that I can't get to yours, as much as I'll admit that I want to." 

She laughed a little, "I'll tell you what, I don't know where you want or need to go, it doesn't matter. My offer still stands. I'll still develop these lands, move the corporate center here, and do everything I said that I'd do. There's one thing, though."

They looked at her as she grinned back. "If, when you get to wherever you're going, you find a gorgeous elf who might have an interest in dating the head of a corporation, you just make the call, Jack. The more that I think of what Madeleine had with you, the more I'd like to have that too."

They walked Janet back to her car, each holding one of her hands to prevent a fall. She handed them the phones that she'd mentioned and asked if she might set up a conference call between the three phones late the following week. The elves looked at each other as she drove off.

"I have found that there are humans whom I might trust, though I've trusted very few," Ilmare said, "I would trust Rita in the market a thousand times over before I'd trust that one. I believe that she feels she is being sincere, but her desire may affect what she does."

Elohan nodded as he turned on each phone, found the menu, and quickly turned off the GPS location feature. 

"I agree Ilmare. We don't need this help that she offers. I will only turn this on when I call her to meet with us, and the meetings will never be here again, but only in lonely places around the town. If we find the others, we can never reveal it." 

He turned the phones off and handed her one. They returned to the station and she pulled her van into the bay inside the door. Elohan had the station shut down and the door sealed with a charm within a minute.

As they walked up the road in the darkness Ilmare looked over, "My thanks, Elohan, for what you said."

He reached for her shoulder and smiled, "About us, Ilmare? The truth is the truth. She needed to know it, though I doubt her heart believes it yet. Did you need to hear that as well?"

She laughed as her arm wound around his waist, "Of course, Elohan! I already knew it in my heart, but it is good to hear the words, and often from your lips."

"Then you will hear it often." he said.

The racoons watched them pass and ran back to their nest in the darkness.

---------------

They walked together the short distance into the old wood. After bathing, they knelt together near the shrine and climbed high into the branches of the ancient oak. The clouds from earlier in the day had turned into heavy towering cumulonimbus formations and the elves sat together nibbling on some bread as they listened to the rumble of an approaching storm and watched the flicker of the lightning as it drew nearer. 

"I have always loved a good storm," Ilmare said, sitting with her arm around him.

"Aye, I have as well." he replied, "What is your hope for us, Ilmare, you and I?"

For a moment, she listened to the hissing of the rain as it began, and then to the patter on the leaves around them. The oak itself kept them dry. 

"Wishes, wants, and hopes? I wish for us to find others," she said, "I want to live with them and have the comfort of my own kind around me again at last. But I think you ask something more of me here, Elohan, if you want to know of my hope for us." 

She looked to him and saw his soft and hopeful smile. With a nod, she kissed him very softly as the wind moaned around them. 

"Very well then, I will lay my heart bare to you in this storm. It is an easy thing to say that the last two elves might fall in love together if they found each other. But I had thought of this long ago and I can say with certainty now that if I met you when times were better for our kind, I would still likely have fallen as soon as I knew you - unless you were a cruel or worthless elf. 

I have found for me a kind and strong warrior, and my heart has no chance to withstand you. And Elohan, though we all of us elf-girls say that we have a care for our hearts, I have always had reason to be more careful, knowing well that I might be the last. If we are the last two here," she said, "We may be the last anywhere just as easily. We do not know what has happened to any of the others. I think that we should just pair and then we do not need to think of this anymore, and only think about going forward together."

Their bough was limned in the fitful quivering light of nearby lightning strikes and the wood shook with the blasts of thunder. Their bodies became slick from the warm mist of the drops that were smashed on the leaves. The rain hissed and the leaves blew on their stems, but her soft voice still carried to his ears.

"Even if you do nothing, I cannot help myself here, and I see that you cast no magic for this. I feel it, Elohan. I feel my own hope for a love with you returned to me stronger in such a short time. Surely then we are for each other. Whether we find others or we do not, I hope to love you until we cannot anymore, until we ourselves are ended here. That is what I want for myself and for you. 

I heard you declare it to the woman. You did not use my fancy words, but I know it is in your heart, for I can feel it from here. I can feel it when you only look at me. If you need to hear it, my warrior, then listen; I love you Elohan - until the stars fall, I am yours. She was not the first to want you for her own at the first knowing of who you were, and I was not either, but I will be the last to hold you to me if it can be for my heart and yours until I am no more. What say you then?"

He sighed with a smile, "Then I say that you have me if I have your heart so strongly - until the stars fall, and they watch over us until they choose to. I have found over these days that I have such hope to have a love with you, Ilmare. We may be the last, but this is what I want with you. You say that you have little magic. I think you do not know what strong magic you have, being on the road so long must have caused you to doubt. I was badly hit when you spoke to me not knowing where I was but knowing that I watched you. From that instant I knew I have no chance here either, and would love you until death or the world is ended."

She held him tightly to her, and after their kiss, she smiled and licked some of the mist that stayed there on his cheek.




The Industrial Elf Ch. 04



"Can you wait but four nights more for me?" she asked, "No more surely, and I ask only to see if the saying holds truth for us. Then I would wed you, even all alone here, only us two, and be a happy elf-wife for it."

"I would wait longer if it must be, and four nights more is but a small thing. But I have no proper ring to offer you, Ilmare."

"I have none for you either, and it is perhaps a worse thing for an elf-woman to not have even one ring. But the first of us had none either, I am sure of it. All that we really need are our words to each other - and I think that we have just said them, though we did not think this was our betrothal. If you agree, then we can hold our words in our hearts as such, and though we usually set our date a year hence at the least, the time that I ask of you is all the betrothal time that I need, for we know of no one to invite to our wedding and do not know what a year would bring to us."

He reached for her and held her to him, "Then I would say that we are betrothed, and I am happy."

She kissed him then, and took his hand as she stood up on the bough to lead him to another one. He looked up curiously.

Ilmare laughed softly, "I asked only for the time for the one thing, Elohan, I did not say that we could not play at all. Among my clan, it is a hopeful custom for elf-girls to sleep with the ones they wish to have for them for four nights. If - during those nights, the couple find that they have joined - or very nearly joined as they slept, then the match is said to be a favored one. 

I think that most hopeful couples cheat at least a little and only pretend to sleep as they try to join. And anyway," she giggled, "it is just an old tale to keep elf-maidens chaste in a last-ditch way, it cannot really happen like this, can it? 

I said this first because I wanted more time to know you. I said it now because I wanted to see if you would agree just to make me happy. That is how I really know that you are for me. I could ask you anything and you would do it if you thought I would be happy for it. I will never ask you lightly. 

Let us begin this then, and think that our words are also our vows. I know what I wanted to learn from you and so I am ready now, and I think this is a fine night for our wedding tryst and now I want my husband."

They awoke together from the thunder long after, and smiled at how they found themselves even more intimately wound than the previous morning. They watched the storm for some time like this and then began it again, two lost and now-wedded elves making love in the warm rain.

By the early evening, they had the GPS installed. Most of the work on the camper was completed the next day, and it was finished by the time that Elohan waited for her in the pines of the industrial park behind the plant where Ilmare worked. As they walked home together, she told him that she'd given her notice, and they could leave in a week if they wanted.

--------------

Elohan stood in the pines waiting for Ilmare. He watched in mild curiosity as a huge dog paced the rear fence, looking for a way into the plant. The animal appeared a bit worried as he padded nervously. The elf had always had the same affinity to animals that his kind was known for, but he'd hardly considered himself to be as attuned to them as some of his clan had been. 

Still, there was something that he felt here for this one. He didn't know what it was, necessarily, but he'd noticed the town animal control van patrolling here the last few days and thought that he might now see the reason. He knew that the shift at the plant was about to change, and soon there would be more people around, even here at the back of the place. On a whim mostly, he let out a series of soft sounds.

"Pssh, pssh, pssh," 

Until that instant, the dog had been looking intently at the building. Now however, his ears were up and the great head swung around, looking for the source of the strange sounds. Elohan smiled, but as the animal turned, he noticed the wounds there on the other side and the smile faded to a look of concern. 

He looked off to the entrance of the industrial park and saw the same van turn in to begin its slow progress, looking for the stray that someone must have called them about, he thought. He looked to the dog again, and wondered about his chances at adoption, or even if he'd go with the men peacefully. Looking again at the marks on the animal, he doubted it somehow, and began again, "Psshh, pssh."

The animal wandered over with his head tilted and eased into the trees. When he saw the source of the noise, he stopped. Elohan smiled, and stepped back a pace, continuing the sounds to get the dog to follow deeper into the pines. After a few tries, they stood in the middle of the trees hidden from view, and Elohan chuckled softly as the dog cocked his head even further.

"I am sorry if you thought I was something to eat, my large friend," he smiled, reaching for the great head as he looked into the soft brown eyes. He saw curiosity there, but no hostility as the dog thought it over before allowing the long fingers to lightly scratch behind one ear. A large pink tongue came into view.

"Come and wait with me then," Elohan said quietly as he crouched next to the beast to look at the marks, guessing that the dog had been whipped maybe, he couldn't tell. But he decided that if they could escape the attention of the dogcatchers, he'd see what he could do to help the animal. He stood up cautiously just after the van had passed and watched until it had turned the corner heading away. 

Ilmare found them there a few minutes later, after leaving by the employee's entrance on the other side of the building and walking around. 

The big dog tensed for a second as he heard someone approach and stiffened, preparing to protect his new friend if necessary, but stopped when he saw her. Elohan could see that he was a happy beast now as he stepped to her with his head down, ears lowered and his big tail swinging widely. 

She laughed, "You've met my admirer, I see. He's been hanging around the last few days. I couldn't resist him today, and he got most of my lunch." 

She bent a little to fuss over the animal, and Elohan could see that he was clearly smitten with her. "Let's go," she said, "maybe I can help him in the wood. There wasn't much I could do for those marks of his in the middle of the day through the back fence."

They walked holding hands, their large canine friend falling into place on her other side. "Can you help him?" Elohan asked, "It looks to me as though he might have gotten caught in a fence somehow. I wondered if he had been whipped, but the marks are only on the one side."

"I can try," she said.

The dog surprised them both a little as they noticed that he didn't seem to want to range ahead of them as dogs often do, but stayed right with Ilmare, never more than a pace away, seeming to smile as they walked. In the woods, they ate the meal that Elohan prepared, and he made sure to provide some pieces of venison to the thankful animal. 

He sat regarding the two of them in a thoughtful sort of way, and then seemed to arrive at a decision for himself, for after this he seemed to be at complete ease with them. Ilmare prepared a salve from some plants that she found in the wood mixed with a little of the dried herbs that she kept in the camper. The dog dutifully obeyed her as she told him to stand in the stream with her. He allowed himself to be washed and offered no complaint as Elohan dried him carefully so that the salve could be applied and the wounds covered.

They found that he would stay sitting next to Ilmare as Elohan walked away, though he watched intently. It was a little more difficult if they reversed the roles, but he could be convinced to sit with Elohan as Ilmare walked away. They discussed their follower as he slept later on, careful to keep at least some part of himself in contact with one or the other of them as though he feared that they'd leave him. 

"Shall we keep him?" she asked with a grin.

"I think he wants to keep us, at least for now," he said, "I have some misgivings about it, but I can see that you have some feelings for him already."

Her gentle mocking laughter came to him as she looked with raised eyebrows, "Tell me that you don't like him, Elohan. I see that you seek to use calming words in our tongue with him and I also see how you are surprised that he doesn't need calming, but will do as you ask. He doesn't look like he belongs here with the people of the town. To me, he looks like one of their war dogs from long ago, but also he looks like he thinks about many things. He looks wise, somehow."

He nodded, "I like him, Ilmare, as strange as he seems. Maybe it's because he doesn't belong, as you say. But to take him with us means another mouth to feed, and his is a large mouth, though I wouldn't begrudge him the food. I'm only bringing it up because it needs to be considered in the long run." 

He reached down to stroke the large face, and was rewarded with a loud groaning sigh. The elves looked at each other and laughed.

--------------

Janet was a bit surprised at the location that Jack gave for the first meeting. It was only a set of latitudinal-longitudinal coordinates. She copied the numbers down carefully and read them back to him. "How will I get there?" she asked him, "Where is it?"

Jack suggested that she buy a GPS unit if she didn't already own one, and use it to find the place. He gave her 2 days time, and they met in the middle of a tall cornfield. 

Janet felt more than a little odd as she walked between the rows of cornstalks, staring at the display screen of her GPS unit. She felt a little lost at one point, not trusting the thing implicitly just yet. It told her that it had a strong fix on its current location with an accuracy of 3 meters or less - ten feet or so - yet she couldn't see a thing. She stopped and listened often. At first, she heard only her own breathing, but then heard other sounds in front of her, someone else's breathing, and it sounded like a bellows in a blacksmith's forge. 

She called his name once, and heard no reply so she called using her phone. Jack's voice sounded as though he had a sincere smile going as he told her that she needed a bit more faith in technology, since her unit couldn't possibly be showing her as having arrived yet. She looked at the thing, and saw that she was within 30 meters. 

She ended the call, and looking up, she saw a large dog standing twenty feet in front of her. A bit frightened now, she took several steps backward, but the dog turned away and walked off slowly. She began to follow it since she was going that way, but was uneasy. Her sense of unease increased as soon as she'd lost sight of the dog. She thought it even more odd, so she increased her pace.

Looking ahead, Janet saw the dog again, but was determined to meet with Jack, and with no sign of a threat from the huge animal she approached it. 

As she came near, the dog turned and it was then that she saw that the animal was trying to lead her. Another minute of this, and she saw Jack sitting on the ground sipping from a Thermos. 

He held another out to her with a smile, "It's coffee. Elly made it for you with milk." He indicated a place where she might sit, and so she did, accepting the beverage. The dog took a spot off to the side to sit and watch them.

"Quite an impressive pet," Janet said, "What's his name?"

Jack shrugged, "He's not a pet, really. We just seem to meet his standards for company, so he stays. If he has a name, he hasn't told us, so we don't know. If we address him, we call him Fricai - it means simply, friend."

"But he led me here," she said.

He nodded, "Yes, because I asked him to help you. What did you want to know from me today, Janet?"

She pulled the dollar-store notepad from her pocket, and for the next hour she asked him about Madeleine Dejardin and his memories of their time together. Jack paused often as Janet wrote. 

At last, she thanked him, "These notes will be a lot of the basis for the things that I'll set up in the house after it's restored. If we can do this again, I already have some preliminary plans for the park and greenspace. I'd be honored if you'd have a look at the prints I run off. We can mark up any changes that you think might be better so I can take them into account."

He nodded, and asked if she thought she might need the dog to lead her out. Janet didn't think so, but agreed anyway just to see if the dog would really walk with her. They said their goodbyes, Janet asking him to thank Elly for the coffee, and then Jack disappeared into the corn. 

When she turned around, she found the animal waiting for her. She guessed that he must weigh over two hundred pounds, yet he carried himself with ease and a fair bit of grace. As she walked, she saw the huge dog pacing her from two rows away. He never got closer or farther away than that until she reached the edge of the cornfield. She stopped and turned to him, "Thanks, um, Rover, or whatever you're called."

The dog only looked at her for a brief moment and then was gone into the corn. Janet had almost reached her car when she realized that Jack had given no command to him to escort her, but that's what he had done, exactly.

------------- 

They met on a secluded face of Canadian Shield granite the second time. This time, Jack gave her coordinates near the side of the road and the dog waited for her to get out of her car before showing himself. Again, he led her to Jack and Elly, and they offered her another Thermos of coffee, along with some light, barely sweet small cakes that she'd made. To Janet, they tasted better than the finest pastry that she'd ever had, and she said so. 

"They're simple to make, and you can substitute ingredients," Elly said, "Jack says you have a notebook. I'll tell you how to make them, and you can copy it down if you want."

Janet was delighted, and wrote everything down. When she was finished, she looked up, "So these are elven cakes, like from a traditional recipe?"

Elly laughed, "Well, kinda-sorta. Mostly, they're elven cakes 'cause an elf made them. 

I was sitting around one day, wishing for the light cakes that my mother used to make. Next day, I was still in the mood for them and was doing my grocery shopping. For once, I looked at the cake mixes, and found one that sounded good, but I didn't want icing or some of the other stuff, and I didn't have a big old kitchen oven. 

On the back of the box was a recipe that was something like what I really wanted, so that's what I made - but I switched up things to make it closer to my mom's style. Then I baked it in a pan over the grill on my campsite fire-pit, and you know? It's not quite the same, but for sure I swear it's the next best thing. Been makin' 'em like that ever since."

Janet was a little disappointed, "I was hoping to use the recipe to make samples for the museum or something."

Elly smiled, "Well who says you can't, Janet? It's not like the recipe is copyrighted, and really, if you make it like I told you, it's as close to elven baking as anyone is ever gonna get with the ingredients available. The smaller ingredients of the original, even I don't have anymore. I've been on the road for so long what I had just faded away, got used up or went bad, most of them, and I haven't had time to gather them here. 

It tastes almost the same even without them. The real thing is baked on a metal plate over a fire. These are best if you pour into a metal pan and bake them - over a fire. You just go on ahead and call it an elven recipe. That's what it is now." 

She winked with a laugh, "I'd bet my mom would like them and once she saw how easy they are to make, she'd probably never go back to her old way. I sure hope we can find her so I get the chance to show her, that's all."

They talked for a while and then Janet unrolled the tentative prints that she'd brought. Jack thought they were fine as Janet had laid it out, and only offered small suggestions now and then.

---------------------

When Jack called again, it was with specific instructions to meet with Janet at the offices of an old law firm to conclude the agreement. Though she made frantic calls to her own attorneys and broke a lot of laws in her hurry to get there, she found that he'd been there and gone hours before.

She was provided with digital photographs taken shortly before she'd arrived of the old tattoo on his arm. The member of the legal firm there who had taken the pictures was just finishing up her affidavit which attested to the validity – as far as she and the rest of the firm knew – of everything which had transpired. 

Janet was handed the other half of Madeleine's very old sketchbook and several copies of the document which handed her the control of the lands which she had wanted so very badly. 

His signature was there – in blood – and there was a separate affidavit, along with photographs which showed him obtaining his blood for the purpose of signing as well as the act of his signing it in great detail. 

All that she had to do was to sign the document using her own blood and it was done. Janet wasn't happy about it, but she signed. 

By the time that she left with her lawyers, Illmare and Elohan were long gone, her driving as Elohan tried to get used to the idea of finally leaving the place which had held him by his heartstrings for so long.

He sat looking out of the window as the landscape flashed past.

"Does this feel strange?" she asked.

"A little," he said, as he looked behind him, back into the main part of the camper for a moment.

Illmare did the same before turning her eyes back to the road with a soft laugh, "Our large friend there has the best solution for you, Elohan. Do as he does and try to sleep. I will drive and wake you when I stop for gas."

Elohan nodded with a smile and leaned back as he set his hat lower on his head over his eyes.

--------------

**I want to point out a detail which might have been forgotten, since it's been a while since I posted the first two chapters.

Illmare is a type of Wood Elf, and Elohan is a Moon Elf. They are very different between them, though they do seem to get along, don't they? O_o



The Industrial Elf Ch. 05



**A long way and a couple of years down the road, "Jack" is a lot more comfortable around people, though he's still cautious and doesn't trust many as he hides among them and works his way slowly to the place where his heart tells him that he must go. O_o

--------------

Reaching for the towel on the passenger seat, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, making sure to get the last bits which were hiding in his eyebrows. Until his travels had brought him to the southwest, he'd never sweated a drop in his life.

A last pass over his upper lip and he tossed it back. The engine temperature was holding in the heat, so he was good there, he thought. For the first time in his life, he'd have liked to use the air conditioning, but in this part of the world, he didn't know if he'd need the little extra range that leaving it off might provide.

He looked at the GPS, and saw that it had pretty much nothing but little dots here and there which represented towns and settlements connected by the thin line that he was riding. He knew full well that it was pretty much a coin toss as to which ones might be alive and well, and which could just as easily be ghost towns out here. The ghost towns outnumbered the living ones. He'd know which category the next one belonged in about another minute now.

It was a mild surprise to see what looked like a functional gas station up ahead and he hit the turn signal to pull in as he pulled his hat down. 

He waited at the pumps for some signs of life, but nothing happened for a few minutes until he noticed the old woman waving to him through the heavily-barred window, so he walked over.

"You pump your own gas here," she said in a distrustful sort of way, adding, "Pay first, then pump."

"That's ok," he said, "but I'd like to fill the tanks on the camper and then the ones on the bike there on the trailer. It'll take a little while."

"Pay first," she said.

He sighed and did the math before handing over $250 through the cash drawer. Twenty minutes later, he'd locked every tank and asked for his eighty-three cents change. She slid it through to him as though it was killing her to part with it.

"I could use a beer," he said just a little hopefully. He really didn't care all that much for what passed as beer here, but he'd found that stopping off to have one now and then could get him more information than if he'd bought the road atlas. Besides, he already had one of those.

The woman pointed to the bar next door.

He walked through the doors and found himself in another worn out old bar like about any other one that he'd seen out here in the past month. The woman who stood at the bar might have been the same one who ran the gas station if it weren't for her different outfit. 

He ordered his beer and took a pull on it, offering up a mild prayer that this woman had nothing to do with the ancient sign out front which read "Topless Entertainment." 

Since he was the only customer, he was already regretting his decision to stop in for a beer, unless he heard something interesting from her, he thought.

The waitress looked at the long blonde hair spilling over those shoulders topped by a lowdown Stetson. He was the nicest thing that she'd seen in a month of Sundays. 

A look out of the dirty window told her the direction that he'd been going in. "Where you headed, Handsome?" she asked him. "There's nothing much out that way until you get to Handen."

"That's roughly where I'm going," he replied, "but my GPS says there's another dot on the way there. Someplace called Tanglewood, it says."

"Handen's 120 miles or so," she said, "Tanglewood's just under 50 miles out from here. But don't you be stopping there, friend. That ain't no place to be. 

There's just a couple of old mines, they was for gold and lead, I heard back in the day, but that day's long over a hundred years gone now. There's a couple of people who live there still, but I don't know what's keeping them alive. They run a bit of a half-assed hotel, last I heard. I just hear bad things been going on there for the last fifty years or so. You'd do well just to keep motoring right on through there and don't stop if you're going to Handen."

He sucked on his beer and looked at her as he set it down. "What sort of bad things?"

She rolled her eyes, "Don't tell me you're one of them paranormal investigators or somethin'. We get them through here every once in a while and they ask, and then haul ass over to there, but we never see them come back through here."

"I'm nothing like that. I was just curious, that's all." He decided that he'd just finish the beer and get going.

She looked at him and decided that he sure couldn't be a bylaw inspector, so she poured herself a draft. 

"They say there's some demon that runs around out there at night. She catches you out there alone after sundown and it's all over for you, bud."

He blinked at her, "What sort of demon? What does she do to people that she catches?"

"Oh, hell, I don't know," the waitress said, "The stories been coming out of there since I was a young girl. I've heard everything from she rips 'em apart to she sucks out every drop of their blood to she screws them to death. Maybe it's all three." 

She laughed, "I'm just telling you not to stop off there for anything, that's all."

He slid a tip across the bar as he got up. "When was the last time that you were through there?"

"Oh, I haven't been there in I don't know how long. Must be forty years since I stopped there."

She looked a little sad and her voice turned a bit distant. "I was lookin' for my boyfriend. A bunch of us was shootin' the breeze one night, and his best friend said that he'd heard there was a really nice-looking girl there that he had it in his mind to meet, but we'd all heard the tales. My boyfriend went along the next day just to see if there was such a girl. Mostly he was going to keep his friend's courage up."

He'd almost gotten to the doors when she finished, "But they never came back," she said in that same distant voice, "neither one of them was ever heard of again. I went out with a few of my girlfriends a few days later. The place was crawling with Highway Patrol, but they never found anything."

He thanked her and walked to his camper. Starting the engine, he set the air conditioning on high and walked through to close all of the windows and latch them. He sat back down behind the wheel and pulled out, wondering if there was truth in what he'd heard beyond the bit that he'd felt in the waitress. 

He also thought that maybe she was just trying to kill off the competition for the very slim tourist dollar available out here. It didn't matter much, he thought. He didn't plan to stop anyway.

---------------

He eased up on the pedal as he neared the town line. He could see that it was a little place and had never grown much at all. There was the hotel, more of a large house, really, and it was about the only thing there with much of any signs of life to it. 

There were bright flower gardens all around the place and they looked well-tended and watered. He took that as something like a miracle in this climate. It looked to him as though somebody really gave a damn. The place looked as though it had started out life as a farm and then the town grew around it and had since died off. 

Not far from the house was a large barn, right next to a sign that offered power hook-ups for motor homes. It was the barn that gave him an idea, though. He pulled in.

He'd leaned on the bell for a while before he heard anyone coming. A lovely and petite young blonde woman of about twenty-one smiled cheerfully at him and stood behind the desk. "My name is Donna. How can I help you?"

"Pleased to meet you, Donna," he said, "I'm Jack."

He shrugged with a smile, "I don't know if you can help me yet, but I'm hoping, "he said. "If that barn there has about fifty feet of space in it, what I'd like to do is stay for a little while. 

I need a place to do just a bit of maintenance on my camper and my motorcycle. Nothing major, so I wouldn't have the things all apart, but I've got to change out the oil and all of the fluids. I've been on the road for a while now and that has to be done. I'd rather not do that pulled off the side of the road somewhere in the dust. I won't make a mess and I'll leave everything as tidy as it was. 

For that, I'd like to rent a room for about a week to ten days if I could. I'd pay you for the room, board if you offer that or have a dining room, and I'll pay for power hook-up and we can haggle over the rent for the use of the barn."

Donna considered, and then grinned at him. It didn't take long to come to a price. 

With the camper and trailer in the barn, he got right to work and had the bike done a little before it was time for supper. He was just finishing up and was washing up in the sink when he felt that he wasn't alone. 

He looked over and found a different young woman looking at him. She was just a little taller than Donna and had more of a darker complexion. He noted her large dark eyes and long black hair. 

Most of all, he noted that she didn't really like the look of him all that much from what he saw.

"Supper is almost ready in the dining room," she said, "I'll take you there if you are ready."

He thanked her and introduced himself, but got nothing back for it. 

Supper was a fairly quiet affair with Donna introducing her grandfather Tony and the other woman as Aggie. Tony was a blind man in his late seventies who said next to nothing. Aggie went all the way to nothing and stayed there. Any conversation which she chose to take part in had only Donna at the other end of it. If Donna engaged Jack, he saw only a barely concealed glare from Aggie once in a while. Mostly, she ignored him completely.

The dinner conversation, as strange as it was, didn't really bother him. He had a couple of other things on his mind. He'd seen a spring-fed stream out back of the barn and it offered a shady setting under the trees which flourished there. He spent a little time there after supper in reflection, thinking over his life for a time. Then he got up to close up the camper and head to bed. 

As he walked toward the barn he looked up, but not noticeably at first, only enough to see under the brim of his hat. He only looked up enough to see a detail. After seeing it, he looked up all the way and watched the detail disappear instantly. 

Donna and Aggie were walking to the stream. Jack wished them a pleasant evening, but only Donna returned it. Aggie's face was blank.

He walked on waiting to feel the glance on his back. After it had passed, he looked back himself and noted another detail before stepping into the barn.

-------------

The next day found him in the dining room after Donna served him breakfast. She was very pleasant to him, but Aggie only watched in stony silence. 

After a while, Donna poured herself a cup of coffee and asked Jack if he'd like some company. He smiled, and told her that he'd enjoy that. His glance at Aggie spoke volumes about the company that he didn't have as she sat almost directly across from him. 

"We don't get many visitors here anymore," Donna remarked a bit sadly, "I'm not really sure why that is. The town is almost deserted, but there's a lot to see around here. We've tried to make our place attractive and appealing. I don't really know what's wrong."

Jack looked over, "Could you stand just a little well-meaning advice?"

"Sure," Donna replied.

"You live in a ghost town," he said, "that presents its own challenges, but it could also offer a draw to some people. I'm not really here for that. I just saw a possibility to do some maintenance while staying at a charming place. And it is that, Donna.  

It looks very inviting when you're coming down the road. The town has some history to it that you might capitalize on, and part of that history seems to be a little dark, from what I've heard. One of your main difficulties is the people in the other towns. I heard a tale of unsolved murders from long ago, and was advised strongly not to stop here. I don't know what to offer as advice or as a solution to that, but I think that if you had a presence on the internet, it would go a way to get around things like that and let you reach more tourists who might have an interest."

He nodded at Aggie, "And I think that you need to work on a little more of a pleasant presentation, if you don't mind my saying so, Aggie. If you don't like the guests, then you just have to appear to be pleasant and interested until they're gone. You are after their business, after all."

"Thank you," the quiet young woman nodded. "I will consider your advice," she said as she rose to leave the room. Donna's face clouded over as she watched.

"She doesn't like strangers, and she's very shy. I'd like to talk with you some more a bit later if you wouldn't mind," Donna said as she got up. "I've got to get my granddad up."

Jack found himself alone. Finishing his coffee, he stood to get started on the camper. --------------

Before noon, he decided on a break, and strolled down to the stream. Sitting under one of the trees a bit away from the path, he just closed his eyes and thought of the love that he'd lost three years before. If he wasn't who he was, he felt that he might have been able to understand it better, but his people had always just tended to fall into a love and once it had been decided between the partners, it just stayed there for as long as they lived.

He opened his eyes again as soft sounds came to him. Jack didn't turn his head right away and when he did, it was very slowly, and then he wished that he hadn't come here at all, not wanting to be caught intruding. One of the things that he noticed was that Aggie was indeed capable of smiles and laughter. She seemed to light up when she and Donna were alone, but though he didn't listen, the feel of the tone that came to him was one of confused hopefulness from Aggie and very gentle and patient rejection on Donna's part. 

It took him a while, but being what he was, he was able to eventually creep away far enough to stand up and walk off without being noticed. --------------

He was leaning against the side of the camper with a bottle of water from his cooler when his attention was drawn by Tony. 

The old man was shuffling carefully in the dust holding out a cane, obviously going from memory. Jack watched in silence until Tony had gotten near enough to pass between the back of the camper and the trailer. Somehow, he'd missed running into the camper altogether. It was obvious that Tony expected to find no obstacles here and wasn't using his cane much. But in a few seconds, he was going to find the trailer tongue with his shin the hard way.

"Stop, sir, hold up a minute." Jack said, "There's the tongue of my trailer just in front of you. I can tell you that walking into that is going to hurt, take it from me. I've done it a lot."

The old man stopped and turned toward the voice. "Hello. I thought I'd come to see you. Donna says that you're here to fix your vehicle."

"Not really fix it," Jack replied, "I just want to change the oil, and check all of the fluids out of the sun and the dust. I've already finished with my bike on the trailer."

"Where you headed, once you leave here?"

Jack looked at the clouded-over eyes of age. "North, generally. I'm going to be heading roughly for the Canadian Rockies. I'm in no hurry, though. I always wanted to see this part of the country, so I'm just noodling around a bit on my way."

The old man's expression changed. "My eyes are shot to hell and they've been this way for the last ten years," he said quietly, "Are we alone here? Take a good look around before you answer."

Jack waited for a second and looked around before coming to a small decision. "Yes. I can't see anybody here but us."

"Then listen, Jack," Tony said earnestly, "Finish up what you need to do and get the hell away from here as fast as you can. It ain't healthy for strangers here."

Jack was a little surprised. "Why? I mean, I've heard a story about this town, but ..." he shrugged before realizing that the gesture would be lost on a blind man.

Tony lowered his voice. "There are lots of stories, young fella. And they're all true, pretty much. This town has been cursed for a long time. I was a boy when it started. The mines were still running a little then. You must have heard about the she-demon who lives around here. It's all true."

He paused to spit into the dirt in disgust. "She came here to kill, and she ain't never stopped. She's only slowed down, since nobody comes here much anymore. You'll be done if she gets it into her head that you're fresh meat."

Jack was a little amused that the old man had assumed that he was young, but he hid it. "Well, I don't know about any of that. I just need to get this done here, and then I thought I'd poke around the mines just to see them. I've heard that she comes out at night, and I won't be anywhere near the mines then." He tried to sound as though he was hearing Jack's warning and put as much friendly confidence in his tone as he could, "I'll be in my room."

"That won't save you," Tony said, "Look, I'm only trying to give you some fair warning. She used to live near the mines while there was easy pickings there, I suppose. She's lived right here since I was a twelve. You've met her. She's got some kind of hold on Donna."

Jack was a bit surprised, "You mean Aggie?"

Tony sounded very sad and bitter. "She's ruined our lives. Mine especially, since I wouldn't leave Donna alone here with her, not that it's made much of a difference. I'm sure that Donna is the only reason that the bitch hasn't killed me long ago."

He thought for a moment, and then said, "Look, you do what you want. I'm just telling you for your own good. If you've got a brain, then get the hell gone as quick as you can, that's all."

He turned and began to shuffle off. Jack walked over to guide him a bit, since he was going to miss the door by a good margin.

"Listen son," the old man said in a half-whisper, "things ain't what they seem here. Donna is only introducing me as her grandfather nowadays since I'm getting on. She used to introduce me as her father before, and before that, I was her older brother."

He stopped and whispered to Jack. "Donna is my sister, Jack. My older sister. She's nine years older than I am. That she-devil keeps her young somehow, that's all. If I was you, I'd run for my life before she gets hungry." They reached the door and Jack helped Tony through.

He walked back and picked up his water bottle from where he'd set it down on the trailer tongue. Finishing it, he leaned inside the back door of the camper to toss it into the small bin there before closing the door again. 

"Listen," he said to the far side of the camper, "I've got a lot of stuff to do, but I'll talk with you if that's what you want. I know that you've been there for a long while now. You can keep ignoring me if you want to, it's up to you."

After a moment, Aggie stepped around to the back to face him over the trailer tongue. "I came to apologize." 

She looked down and picked unhappily at a bit of lint on her dress. "Donna is very angry with me for being rude to you. Now that Tony has rambled at you. I have to apologize for something else as well." 

She still looked a bit aloof, but she also appeared very embarrassed for what she'd overheard. 

"I meant to speak with you before, but I had trouble forcing myself to do it. I'm just not very good with strangers. Then Tony came and I had to listen to that. I'm very sorry for all of this, Jack."

"Don't worry about it," Jack smiled at her a little, "People sometimes get pretty wobbly in their minds as they age. I've seen it before, believe me. I accept your apology, though that's making it sound pretty formal."




The Industrial Elf Ch. 05



He held out his hand, and after a second, Aggie grasped it to shake, since they were so formal now, she said. "Is there anything that I can do for you? I think that I have misjudged you badly and I'd like a chance to fix my mistake."

"Well there is, Aggie, but I'm not sure if it would be worth your time. I have this sense that you're not really up for it, but I could use a guide to poke around out here. I don't always want to stay covered in grease underneath this thing, and I thought that while I'm here, I'd like to see the sights a little." 

He pointed to the sidecar rig on the trailer. "Either you or Donna could give me the guided tour. I can even take you both along, one in the sidecar and one on the seat behind me."

He enjoyed the moment where she looked slightly horrified. It was actually why he'd made the offer. He didn't think that she'd take him up on it.

"You can do that?" she asked, "the streets here are in terrible shape, and the countryside is pretty rough. You'll get stuck, won't you?"

"No," he shook his head, "I'm not looking to bounce around hard. This thing's got two wheel drive, the rear wheel, like any motorcycle, and the sidecar wheel can be engaged as well if it gets rough. The original design was for a military purpose a long time ago. They still make these, and I love it."

There was a pause as she stared at the rig, and then Aggie looked over, "Could we do this tomorrow? I have to help Donna with supper soon. It wouldn't leave us much time."

He nodded, delighted, "Sure, but I would have bet a lot of money if I was a gambling man that you'd have declined."

"You are surprised then?" She seemed a little surprised herself. It was the first time that he'd seen Aggie smile at him. She was such a beautiful woman. They both were, he thought. 

"Donna has always told me that I should enjoy things more. I know that she is right, but I have such trouble." She looked at Jack cautiously, "I'm not sure how to say this, but I think that I should. I will go with you. I want to say that you should not feel ... hopeful with me for anything other than this, and..." Aggie looked as though she wanted to hide under his boot in her discomfort.

"You don't need to tell me the rest, Aggie. That wasn't really why I was asking," he said. "I really do want one or both of you as a tour guide, though I could probably manage alone. If you're up for it, I'm happy about that, and I don't mind waiting until tomorrow. But you ought to dress for it. Jeans would be better than a pretty dress like that."

Aggie nodded and walked away smiling a little, but it was clear to him that she was nervous about it. Jack didn't care. He started whistling as he got back to work.

------------

The evening meal was still cautious, but it was an improvement. Donna asked Jack what getting the internet service would entail and as he outlined it, he could see that Aggie sat with a bit of interest now and no hostility toward him. Tony had declined to have supper.

"So you need to take some pictures of the area, and then a few of what you'd consider to be attractions and points of interest, like the mine headstocks and things like that. Get at least one of the house from the front because it's very attractive, the way that you've done it up. The internet service provider usually will have somebody who can help with that." 

Jack thought for a moment. "You have to have your phone number displayed prominently, and your email address, so that people can make reservations ahead of time. I'm sure that would help you with your business." It had taken a long time to explain the internet to them both.

--------------

It was well after dark when he walked to the glade by the stream. He sat on the ground, leaning with his back against an ancient willow not all that close to the stream itself where the long thin branches would provide him some cover.

He had something that he wanted to do for himself since there was this place here, but he wanted to be sure that he was alone first, so he waited.

Not long after, they came. He wasn't surprised.

Jack stayed still, looking off through a gap in the branches toward the moonlit mountains as they sat and talked quietly on the bank forty feet behind him. Jack left quietly and walked alone in the moonlight for a time. It was a little under an hour before he looked and noticed that they'd gone. He went back to the stream bank and waited for perhaps ten minutes more before he began his ritual.

He took off his clothes and stepped to the stream. He bathed slowly and carefully, since it was a religious rite as much as a desire to actually cleanse his body. A few minutes into it, he noticed the small ripples in the moonlight reflected from the water that he could see between the bullrushes, but by then he'd begun and wouldn't stop unless he was actually disturbed. 

He didn't much care anymore. It had been a long time since he'd found a place where he could worship in the moonlight, and this one would do.

He stepped out of the stream and walked to the tree where he'd sat the day before and stopped where he had a clear view of the moon. Turning to face it, he knelt and placed his forehead against the earth there beginning to pray in the tongue of his people. 

He thought of his long life and the passage of the time. He thought about his princess, how she'd gone to find others of their kind, leaving him in charge of the small clan. He remembered the sadness on the faces of the others as they'd left to begin their journey to the west while he remained behind for centuries waiting for her to return, waiting for one who would never come back to him.

When he looked up, his silent tears had begun as they always did. Elves normally don't cry, but he did when he worshiped, a little, anyway. He thought about the human woman that he'd loved and how deep that love had been, though her human life passed him so quickly. His thoughts turned to the elf woman who had come at last with news of his princess' death long before. 

Jack remembered how it had felt to have the love of one of his kind for a time. But for all of that, she'd done what was unthinkable to his own people. She'd ended it once they'd found her clan in the mountains, being drawn to them rather than wanting him, since he was of a different type. He remembered her statement about wanting to have her own kind around her again. 

Though he was what they were, he was still an outsider and the differences were obvious.

It was the way of his people to have a number of small loves when young, but to make the final selection only once. What he'd been through was not the way of his own clan. No matter what the cause had been, each parting was as the death of the most important one in his life. Once was enough. The loss of Madeleine had felt like a grievous wound to him.

When Illmare had come to him to speak of how she felt toward an elf that she'd known as a child, he'd looked at her and asked her if she was certain. When she'd nodded, he'd wished them well.

She'd asked him what he would do then, and he'd only said that he'd travel to seek his own kind. Illmare had then asked that he stay with her clan, mentioning the names of several who would have wanted him. He'd smiled, and refused as politely as he could. Polite refusals between elves can take a long time, he thought back.

A week later, he was on the road, and he'd been traveling ever since. 

Mostly, he was cold inside, but whenever he found a time and place to worship, he felt the pain rise in him anew every time to some extent. It did help him, and that was one of the reasons that he did it. He sat up and felt his tears again as he spoke his quiet prayers to the moon and the stars. Finally, he bowed his head to the earth again. 

When he knelt back and stood, she was there not far off. He'd felt her presence before he'd seen the ripples.

He looked at her, and wondered how anything with this sort of beauty could have come to be here. She stood in the stream, long and a little dark, with her arms down at her slender sides. He noted the black hair down her back from what he could see of it, and how her long legs looked different from about the knees down. 

The breasts that he could make out in the shadow of the moonlight were little more than swells in her shape and her arms would be long for a human, but on her, they seemed to fit, though they ended in long claws.

Jack noted that one or two of them twitched a little, as though she was deciding something. The motions caused his eye to remain for a second, and it was then that he saw the end of the short tail with long hair similar to what he'd seen on horses sometimes though the tail itself was longer. 

It came to him that the tail wasn't all that short -- it only looked to be because of the hair that covered it -- and he could see that it moved, though not in the way that say, a horse's or a dog's tail might. Her tail was prehensile to a degree, or at least it appeared to be to him.

He looked at the face, as lovely to him as the rest of her, but her eyes appeared to be set a little far apart, though not excessively so. He'd seen humans like that, he realized. It took nothing away from her as he looked at the teeth there, not quite hidden. 

She stepped forward cautiously onto the bank, and he saw the short feet with their own claws and realized why her legs had looked different. The nearest feet that he'd seen like that were on a mock-up of a dinosaur in a museum. Three large clawed toes at the front, and one clawed toe at the back. It gave her a rather graceful appearance in her stature, as though she was on her tiptoes.

They stared at each other for several minutes, only breathing.

She went to the pile of his clothes as though drawn to something and, pushing them aside carefully a little with one foot, she saw the haft of his sword. Her eyes opened wide and she jumped back a bit with something like a quiet rumble in her throat.

"Why?"

It was a bit raspy, he thought, or just a little smoky. He supposed that he might have been astounded at her ability to speak with him, but he wasn't, really. She was obviously very intelligent and anyway, he'd already heard her speak - just not very often.

"It is a part of what I do now," he said, "One who makes their observance must lay down their weapons before beginning. I had to have a weapon with me to lay down. It can be my dagger or my bow as well. Tonight, I chose that."

It seemed to pacify her to a degree. "Hah," she nodded quietly in understanding, "Not for me."

He shook his head, "No."

The eyes went back to the way they'd looked before, very similar to a cat's visage. What he'd seen before had looked human, but now he knew that it was only a disguise of sorts. She was hiding nothing here, and that included her eyes. He watched as her irises widened and narrowed, depending on the brightness of what she was looking at.

He asked his question very quietly. "Does she know that you're not human?"

He saw no surprise or shame in the gaze that she returned. She nodded again and made the short and quiet sound, "Hah." 

He realized that from her it signaled understanding or agreement. In this case, it seemed to be an affirmative response from her.

She cautiously stepped over to him, very close now. It was obvious to him that she expected him to back away in fear of her or at the worst, to jump in fright. He did neither, and he could see that it made her very curious. 

She reached up slowly with those claws. "Is it permitted?"

He looked at that face, glancing from the teeth to the hair. His eyes settled on her nose and then stopped at those eyes again, the vertical slits there open fairly wide in the darkness. 

He shrugged a little, "Yes."

The answer seemed to surprise her for a moment, and then he saw her lips pull back into a soft smile. Her own fingertips ended a couple of inches behind the tips of her claws, but as her hand came up, he saw them retract, and she lightly ran her fingers up his long ear.

"You are not human either," she said, nodding once, "and now I know why you always wear a hat."

Deciding to test him playfully, she ran her fingers through his long blonde hair and then rested her hand on his shoulder. He watched as the end of her long tail rose to appear in the air there beside her. As it stopped, he saw the sharp end of a stinger extend slowly from the tip, about three inches long and pointed at him.

She raised her other hand to rest it over his heart for a moment. She looked a little bit surprised at what she felt there as well.

"You are not afraid," she remarked as she watched his hand come toward her. She hesitated for an instant, but then stood still to allow it. He reached to her face to lightly touch the skin of her cheek and then he brought his hand down to rest over her heart for a second. He felt tension there, but it eased off quickly.

"No," he said, pulling his hand away slowly, "I am not afraid. I am in wonder of you. I have never seen anyone like you." 

He smiled, "I hope that you don't mind, but I feel very fortunate that I have."

The statement caused her to smile a little more, though her wonder was still evident. "I knew that you were there behind the tree at first. I felt it and knew that you had gone after a time." She said it plainly, as though it was a fact beyond dispute. 

"It is hard for me to feel you near me, "she said, "not like the humans. I feel them easily from far. Even here with you, I have to feel very carefully to sense you. To know that you were here before took a long time."

He looked into the questioning eyes and nodded, "I was not there to intrude or to watch. I waited only for you to leave so that I could do this. I require water for this, enough running water to bathe under the moon. I knew that you came back. I thought that if I had waited for you, then you might wait for me to finish as well." He nodded a little once, "Thank you."

"I thought so," she remarked, sliding her hand down to lay her palm against his hip, her long clawed fingers curling around the side of him a little. "I feel no wish in you to harm anything. It is very different. I wanted to talk with you like this, though if you had shown fear I was ready to kill you."

It was another statement which she made as though it was irrefutable. "It would make me sad," she said as the stinger in her tail was retracted. "I have enough to feel sad over." Her tail disappeared behind her out of his sight.

She saw that his eyes were still wet. "Why did you cry?"

His expression changed and she instantly regretted asking him. 

"It's a long story," he said, "I have no wish to tell it."

"Sorry that I asked it from you," she said softly, "I see that there is hurt in it. Where do we go now, you and I? I think that we are both creatures which try to remain hidden from people here. I have found someone for myself. Donna and I love each other. She waits for me to tell her what I have learned here." 

She looked down and away, "She makes me sad now, a little. I try to understand what she says, but it is hard. She tries to push me away, but she does not want to hurt me. I have known this would happen for a time, but it is still hard for me."

He smiled and placed his hand on her hip, trying to feel from her as she learned from him. She turned to him, but didn't flinch or look uncomfortable. He actually thought that she looked pleased. "What have you learned?" he asked.

"That there is one here who is also different, and need not be feared as I had first thought." He noticed that she'd said it with a bit of a smile. "What did you learn?"

"The same," he nodded, "I feel some of what you say. I don't know what I can do to help, but if you want to talk about it while I'm here, just ask. I won't mind. I think that from what I can tell, you have trouble with the way that humans are sometimes."

He smiled, trying to look helpful, "I do too, but I've gotten more used to them than you, I think."

He took his hand away and she did the same, stepping back. She walked to the stream and stepped in, but she turned back after a second to regard him a little shyly. "I also learned that our visitor is as beautiful inside as he is on the outside. It makes me happy to know this."

Jack smiled at her and noticed that her long mane ran in a stripe over her spine and was not only attached at her head. He watched the sway of her slender hips and her tail as she walked away to disappear into the tall rushes.

He had the strangest feeling come to him as he stood. It didn't take much thought at all for him to know that her existence must have been strange and difficult if she'd been in this place for as long as he thought that she must have been, since what Tony had told him now began to make just a little sense to him at least.

He still felt very fortunate to have even seen her. She looked like nothing that he'd ever seen before, but he thought that she was beautiful as a creature. To find that he could converse with her had been another surprise.

He didn't really understand what she'd meant by her sadness about Donna, but he guessed that he could relate just a little anyway. If there was trouble between them, he hoped that they'd get past it. He thought that everybody deserved at least a chance to be happy.

Well, almost everyone, he thought, as he looked up at the moon again for a moment with a quiet sigh. 

He began to dress.



The Industrial Elf Ch. 06



**This was written a few years ago and I'm only doing a little tidying up here and there. If you think about it, you can see a little of the creature in "The Dream of the Unlikely Princess" in this. I was halfway through this when I realized it. ~shrug~ O_

-----------

By mid-morning, he was ready to stop for a while. He'd done everything at a fairly slow and careful pace and worked from a list, replacing filters and a few gaskets as well as the fluids. He supposed that he could have done it all in a day, but he had the time and it felt good to be off the road for a while. Now mostly, he wanted to clean up the old camper. For right now though, he wanted to get the kinks out of his back.

He stood at the sink and filled it. All there was here was cold water pumped right from the stream, but he didn't mind. He brought a bar of soap from the camper and looked around before taking off his hat and shirt. He was just about done in a few minutes and after rinsing the last of the soap from his armpits, he stuck his head into the sink and then thought about whether he cared enough to be careful to keep his work jeans from getting too wet. The nerves in his thighs told him that he'd left that decision a bit late, so he just lifted his head out of the water, still bent over a bit to wipe his face with his hands.

It was then that he heard the quiet gasp from behind him.

He looked up at the old mirror and saw the two women there. Aggie wore a broad smile and held the handle of a small cooler, and Donna's mouth was open for some reason. He thought about it quickly and decided that Aggie would have told her about his ears by now anyway. He stood up and turned, wiping the bit of water from his chest, and trying not to let any more of it get to the waistband of his jeans. Donna looked as though she was about to jump at the motion.

Her eyes were open wide, and Jack felt a little embarrassed, though he didn't know why. He wasn't shy about the way that he looked, he was only careful not to let most people see his ears. He'd worked among people enough to have lost his awkwardness around them. He realized then that he should have brought a towel.

He smiled, "Hi."

Donna looked as though she had nothing for that, until Aggie nudged her, "I think that you had something that you wanted to say to Jack," she said as a reminder, "at least, that is what you told me."

Donna's face instantly turned scarlet as she remembered. She sounded small and very concerned. "Jack, do you have a minute?"

"Sure," he said with a small grin, "that's why I'm standing here looking foolish. What's on your mind, Donna?"

Donna looked a bit worried and upset. Aggie just looked amused today. He decided that it was a good look for her.

"I'm sorry that we disturbed you..."

He shook his head. "I was just washing up. Please stop looking like you've interrupted something important."

Donna took a breath. "I wanted to talk to you and apologize for last night. I didn't know that you were there until Aggie told me after. We're very sorry that we disturbed you, and-"

He held up his hand with a smile, "I see no need for apologies here, other than I ought to perhaps apologize to you. I won't go there again without asking first." 

He looked at them, "Don't feel bad here. I already knew enough to guess at your relationship and I assure you that I don't care if that's what you're looking so uncomfortable about. Forget it, Donna. There's no issue here, other than that I'm very sorry if you feel bad in any way."

"Thank you," Donna said, looking relieved. "But you don't have to ask. Aggie said that it was beautiful to watch. I'm sorry that I didn't get to see it. I really wish that I could have." She looked a bit sad and still embarrassed.

"There's nothing much to see," he said, "I was only praying. As long as you don't interrupt me, I don't even think that I'd mind all that much. You can watch if you want to. There's nothing to it, just me kneeling, pretty much." He shrugged as he reached for his shirt.

"Aggie is here to guide you around." Donna looked at the sidecar rig a little apprehensively, but she decided that it wasn't that formidable-looking, since she was now looking at it at ground level. He'd unloaded it hours before. "Is it hard to use?"

He shook his head after putting on his Stetson, "You just have to be aware of the sidecar if you plan to turn right suddenly, since the wheel there can lift then. But once you're used to it, there's no problem. I could probably have you in it and ride around the yard with the sidecar in the air the whole time, but I doubt that it would be very enjoyable as a first ride for you. If you want later, I can give you a ride around and even teach you how to drive it."

"I was wondering about what you said earlier." Donna said. "Maybe this would be a good way to show guests around out here, I don't know. I do know that we have to do something." she said.

She helped Aggie climb into the sidecar and thought that it looked as though it might be fun as she walked to the rear doors to open them, wondering how he'd get it turned around with all of the old equipment in the way. To her surprise, he just started it and backed out easily. "It comes with reverse gear," he grinned. They drove off into the rough and she watched them cross the stream slowly before she walked back to the house.

---------------

An hour and a half later, they'd seen the town and all of the mines and were parked at the top of a bluff overlooking some of the plain below. A while earlier, he'd seen rabbits all over the place and asked her if she thought that she and Donna would like rabbit for dinner. Aggie had laughed a little at him.

"I can catch them without much trouble at night," she said, "but I have to be the way that I am and I will not do that in the daytime. I haven't had rabbit in so long, and never cooked. I left that behind me when we came back to live in the house. Donna knows how to cook them."

He opened the trunk of the sidecar and pulled out his bow, "Then you need to have rabbit for dinner."

It took him little time before he had three. Aggie was astounded and laughed a little nervously, "I have done it all of this time the hard way."

"Why are you looking so, I don't know, perplexed?" he asked.

She looked at him, "If one of the men who hunted me had used this, I'd have been dead long ago, I think."

"No," he said, "They'd still have had to be close enough and good enough to have done it in one shot. The surprise is only good for one time, like anything else."

Aggie reached into the sidecar and pulled out the small cooler that she'd brought along, "Donna made us lunch," she said, pulling out two cans of cola as well as a bottle of water with sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper, "She likes how we seem to be able to talk now. She was very surprised last night when I told her of our meeting at the stream, especially when I told her that we'd seen each other as we are."

When the sandwiches were finished, he smoothed out the waxed paper and dressed out the rabbits, placing the meat into the paper and rolling it up a little before putting the bundle inside the cooler. Then he washed his hands with the water.

"Thank you for agreeing to come along like this," he said, "I'm enjoying it."

She grinned and nodded, "I am too. I see now that she has always been right, that I should enjoy things when I have the chance. But I think that it took someone like you to get me to do that," she said as she looked off at the horizon.

"If you don't mind me asking," he said. "how did it begin between you?"

Aggie smirked, "It began as strangely as anything else for me here. I do not belong here. I was sent here to die in exile. I can never go back. The first time that I saw a human, he was frightened of me and his next thought was to kill me. I was quicker." 

"I tried to stay hidden, hunting little things as I could to eat and sometimes stealing to stay alive. It was a big day for me if I could steal a chicken. Then they all tried to hunt me for it, not knowing that I am no fox." 

She looked very sad as she looked off into the distance, "But I am very hard to hunt. It took a while for them to give it up. I killed any dogs which came close to me out of stupidity, two of the men for the same reason, and then I had plenty of dogs to eat for a little while. I kept the bodies in the coolness of one of the mines. I hated to eat that, but it was better than eating the men. I only tried that once and I couldn't. I would rather eat sand."

"Instead of leaving me alone, they hunted me even more. I had to kill now and then if I had no way out. It caused a panic among them. The humans are too stupid to leave well enough alone. There was always one who thought that he could hunt me and wished to try so that he felt himself to be a bigger male among them. I tried to stay hidden, but sometimes ...." Aggie looked down, "I never wanted to harm any of them."

She sighed, "I grew tired and felt worse every day. At least I knew why this world was chosen for my punishment then. I lay in the water and the weeds behind Donna's home one night and cried. I felt so alone and it had already gone on for a few years of the time here. She came to me wondering who wept there. She was running away from her home for her own reasons and she found me. I knew that someone was coming and I prepared to kill whoever it was. 

But she only wanted to help and tried to comfort me. I was surprised. I had never seen one of them so beautiful. As I began to feel better, she began to weep from her own unhappiness. I led her away to a safer place, and then we began to care for each other, since none cared about us."

"We couldn't speak to each other, but we did our best, and I learned her way of speaking. Donna's mother died giving life to Tony. He is her younger brother as he has told you. From her, I learned of her father, who had arranged a pairing for her -- a marriage, they call it. But the man was one whom she had already rejected out of his cruelty to her. The man had offered her father much money and land in exchange. When she tried to refuse, her father beat her for it and she ran as soon as she could. 

Hearing this from the only one who had ever tried to comfort me, I killed them both as they searched for her. This was after the mines were closed. I threw the bodies down the shaft of the gold mine, since it is the deepest one here. They dig deepest for gold, the humans. They are greedy by their nature."

She drank a little and looked down a bit self-consciously, "I see a picture in your mind of two females together. I see that you think that Donna and I are like that. It has happened sometimes, but I do not think that it is what you have in your mind. We have been so close as friends for so long, and sometimes we would, ..."

She shook her head, "But not very often and not anymore, I think."

She smiled in a bit of wonder at herself, "Look at me, Jack. I could not even talk much with you two days ago and did not want to. Now look what I have told you of myself."

"Well," he smiled, "I don't mind. I'm happy just to talk with you. My name isn't really Jack. It's only a name that I use most often when I have to deal with people. My name is Elohan."

She tried it, and he nodded. "Then you should know that Donna calls me Aggie so that we have a name that people might use as well. My name is Aksun." She reached over and pulled them together and as he looked at her, thinking to smile, she kissed him.

He was rather surprised.

"I did it to say that I am sorry," she said. Now he was really confused.

"I am happy to have found you," she said. "I want to tell you something that I think that I said that was wrong to say to you last night. I said that I was prepared to kill you if you had shown me the fear which I expected to see. I think that I said it in self-defense. I said it out of my own fear at finding one who could be so unafraid of me so close to them. I am sorry for that. I shouldn't have said it at all. I think that for the first time, I have found one here who could kill me quite easily if he had the will. It is a little frightening."

He shook his head. "I noticed it and I didn't argue, did I? Maybe I could. Maybe I couldn't. I don't think it matters. Before I could have the will, I'd need to have the reason. By the time that I'd figured out the reason with which to summon the will..." He shrugged.

"Donna and I think that you are so beautiful, but we now wonder about you all the time."

He looked at her, "You wonder? About what?"

She chuckled, "Well, you are so mysterious to us, and --"

He'd taken a sip of his cola and her comment had caused some of it to go down the wrong pipe. He choked a little and spluttered, "Mysterious. Me?"

Aksun nodded and he chuckled, "You're both looking too deep, I think. I'm pretty much what the world wants to see. I'm just a guy named Jack who's traveling. There's more to me, I guess, but that's all anyone needs to know, really."

"We wish to know more," she said, "You aren't like anyone we've ever seen, and your nice ears there under your cowboy hat are just the tip of your mystery to us. Donna's pretty mouth fell open wide when I told her that you aren't human, and after I laughed at her until I cried, I had to admit that I didn't know what you are any more than she did then. She says that she knows now, but I still don't understand. 

You say that you're traveling, but you do not say where you are going or why. I told her that I saw a little of your sadness last night, and now we are perplexed between us. We want to know what happened to you, but we don't dare to ask it plainly for fear that it would hurt you more, and above all, we don't want to offend you."

He made no answer for a moment, looking at the horizon. Then he turned to smile at her. "I'm not offended." 

She slid her hand into his, hoping to offer encouragement to him by the gesture. He looked at her hand and stroked it with his thumb once. He took a long breath and then let it out.

"I still don't feel like talking about it much," he said, "but I can offer you a little bit, since I think that you could understand it more than anyone. 

I'm traveling, Aksun. I'm traveling in a meandering way to a final destination. I don't know where it is, exactly, but I think it lies in the Canadian Rockies far to the north of here. That's where I feel that I'm being drawn to. It's not a strong pull on me anymore, but it's there. I have nowhere else to go now. 

Once there were many of us, some in Asia, and a lot more in Europe. We're different than men, and not really the same at all. Though we had many peaceful dealings with them, sooner or later it all turned sour every time, and so we gave up and moved to the west across the ocean, a few at a time. I didn't know it, but there are different kinds of us, just as there are of humans. I don't know why it never came to me, but it didn't. I was born here. 

The one who was our princess loved me, and I loved her, though we couldn't be open about it then. She left to seek out others, trying to get them to move west again, since humans had followed us here. Many of the clans had already gone."

Elohan stretched out his legs and drank a bit more. "I was left to lead our clan. She promised me that when she returned, she would make me king and become my queen, since I was royal enough for it. We were young, but we could both lead. None of that mattered to me, Aksun. I loved her. But she never returned. She was killed a year after. We didn't know anything about it, but after a time, the others wanted to go west, and I let them go, deciding to stay and wait for her."

He looked at the horizon again, "I waited a long time. One day, I met a human girl, and over a little time, she had my heart and we loved. But humans live for only a short time, and when she died, I felt worse. More time passed, and then a female arrived from the south. We found each other by accident, and from her I learned that my princess had died hundreds of years before. She was sent to find us so that we would know of it. She found only me.

But she said such pretty things to me about the moon and the stars and loving me that I gave my heart to her. We loved for a time and then traveled west, looking for her people." 

He smiled, "We even managed to find them after some adventure. But once she was back among her own kind, her feelings for me faded. I had a dream once in our old tree where I was born that we had young between us, her and I. But it didn't happen, and I still don't know why."

He finished his drink and set the can down. "So I gave her my heart, and after finding someone else for her own, she gave me her camper. That was three years ago and I've been traveling ever since. Her people wanted me to stay, but they only wanted me to teach them what I knew. There were more than a few females there who I could see wanted me, but I have wanted nothing from that clan ever since. 

I guess that is one of the differences between our clans. When one of us gives their heart, it is forever. When one of them does that, I don't know what that means."

Aksun felt some of the sadness in him and hugged him tightly. "What will happen if you find the place that you seek?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. If they even still live there, they would have chosen another one to lead them long ago. I'm fine with that. I don't care at all. But I don't know if they'd accept me anymore. So much has changed for us. And now, even if they're still there, I have no hope inside of me anymore. I may find that they were there once, and have moved again. It is such a weak pull that I feel now. I may get there and find that they're all dead. It wouldn't surprise me. Nothing surprises me anymore. I'm just like you, Aksun. I'm the only one of my kind."

He laughed a little bitterly, "I am royal of a clan which I believe is long dead. I came into my own as an adult all alone. I am far stronger than most of my kind, wiser because of what I have been through. But it's bought me nothing. If I find that my kind is all gone from the earth, what then? I guess I'd live there alone until I pass myself. A fitting end to an empty life."

Aksun looked at him sadly. "I'm very sorry again. I wish now that I hadn't said anything, Elohan, but, if you don't mind. What are you? What was it that the other clan wanted to learn from you? If I don't ask you this now, I'm afraid that I'll never find the nerve to ask you again. I see how it all saddens you." She hugged him tightly for a minute and then took his hand.

She found him feeling a little angry with himself. "They wanted to learn something which their kind has forgotten over all of the centuries. Mine has not ever forgotten it, and since I was alone for so long, I learned and found new ways to work it." 

He laughed quietly, "Maybe I did that out of boredom, I don't know anymore."

He picked up his empty soda can and she stared as it left his hand, floating upward and away from him. She heard him snort quietly and when she looked, she saw his smirk. "What I learned," he said in a self-depreciating way. He looked around and saw an old powerline nearby. It ran to a deserted old house not far off, but he could feel that the line was live to the point where it had been disconnected long before. 

The can was crushed together and began to spin there in the air, collapsing into itself a little more until it resembled a silver ball. When he closed his eyes, the ball began to glow. When he opened them again, Aksun jumped at the sound of the explosion. 

"I suppose that I could make a living performing magic at the birthday parties of human children," he said, knowing that she wouldn't understand his bitterness.

Elohan just looked sad. He took off his hat and she looked at the long ears there. For a moment, they reminded her of her own when she was in her natural shape. They had the same form, though his were longer. 




The Industrial Elf Ch. 06



He smiled sadly to her. "I am probably the last moon elf left on this earth, and even if there are others, I have been apart from them for too long to feel much kinship to them anymore."

He didn't know what he was expecting from her for saying this, but the tears that he saw made him feel worse.

"I'm sorry," he said, meaning it, "I didn't think that I'd cause you to feel bad. I just thought that you'd understand."

She sat with her face in her hands. "I do understand," she sobbed, "It reminds me that my happiness ends very soon, and I will be alone again."

He blinked at her. "I don't understand, Aksun. Donna loves you; it was plain to me the first time that I saw you both together in the same room. Why will this end?"

He got nothing out of her for some minutes, other than her quiet keening. He put his arm around her and brought his face near to her head. The soft kiss that he left there surprised him, but he went with it. He just wanted to learn what her trouble was. When she began, he had to listen closely.

"Both brother and sister are very old. He curses me constantly for taking his sister from him, though I've never done anything like that. All that I did was love her and help her with the work. He resents me for it, but without me, she would have died from the drudgery of taking care of a worthless snail like him long ago. 

He was not born blind. They are far older than they look. Both are over a century now. Donna was afraid to grow old and die. She worries for me and thinks that she has to care for me." 

Aksun sniffled and looked up. After a second, she threw her arms around him and wept for minutes more.

Her voice grew even softer. "He has never done a thing, never worked a day, and she has done everything for him, as her father did. As her mother would have, had she lived. When she first noticed that she was getting older, she was maybe twenty years and we had been together a year perhaps. It came to her that I did not age like her, and that we had only some time together before she grew old and died. It terrified her."

She sobbed again, "I knew this too, but we had many years ahead of us. Donna didn't agree. I did what I could, Elohan. My kind lives long and we live longer with a mate. I kept her young easily, but then her brother aged too after some years. 

She begged me to help him. Though I got nothing from him but his hatred, I told Donna that I could keep only one truly young. To help him, I had to tie their lives together. I do not think that you can understand, but it can be that way. But once tied, both need the other to live. If one dies..." 

She cried bitterly, "Both will pass at the same moment or soon after. I cannot change this, and he will pass very soon. I feel it."

He got nothing more from her for a long time. She cried so hard that it affected her control over herself. Though her legs didn't change, he saw a bit of a bulge along her back and knew that her long mane lay under there. Her arms grew a little longer and he could see the slight change in her skin tone. He just held her as she wept, rocking a little bit very slowly.

When her keening had petered out, he listened to her sobs and sniffles. When she realized what she looked like, she stopped suddenly and looked at him.

"It's alright, Aksun," he said, "I did call you lovely last night. I hope you don't think that I was lying. How long do you have left?"

"I don't know," she said quietly, "he has been very frail for some time, but now I think it will be very soon, days maybe. I feel almost no life in him when I am close. He is an empty shell who walks sometimes." 

She pulled herself up on him a little. "There will not be this hotel business very soon now. Donna only talks of going on to ignore what will come. I cannot run it alone. I don't know how, and I have no wish to."

"What will you do then?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I think then I will be back to eating what I can catch for myself." 

She shuddered with a leftover sob, "I have been lucky. I had someone to love me for this time. But it hurts now." Elohan saw that in her, this was a physical pain as well as an emotion.

She looked at him, and he saw a little bitter humor there. "From the time that you came and she met you, Donna has been pushing me at you. We have fought over it. I can usually bend her will in an argument. Not with my mind, but if it is not important, I can argue her into giving up. But not for this. 

She told me that she doesn't know why or how she knows it, but that I should show myself to you. She has a hope that you will take me with you, and that maybe you will care for me. I only say this to you because it is the truth. That is part of the reason that I came to you last night, because she was so stubborn about it."

He smiled, wanting to make her feel a little better, but also out of his own curiosity. "What was the rest of the reason?"

He watched her face and saw her indecision as he looked at those cat's eyes with their thin, almost closed-down slits from the bright sunshine. She wanted to hold up her palms in a helpless gesture, and then did it anyway, knowing that she probably looked absurd doing that in this natural form of hers. 

"I came out of curiosity at first and to have peace between her and I." 

She looked at the concern written all over his face. Her eyes went to his blonde hair and she reached to touch his long ear, feeling a little comfort from it. "Once I saw you like that, I stayed out of wonder."

She reached toward his chest and placed her hand there. "I have never felt this from any of them but her. You are not afraid, and you would not hurt me." He watched her eyes open wide in surprise and then she looked up. Elohan reached for her and pulled her to him, knowing what she'd felt. 

"Don't say anything Aksun, not a word. I come to things very slowly, and all of this has confused me from last night. I don't even know what to think anymore, but I know that I like you. I can tell that you're frightened to have to consider being alone again. But if it comes to that, then I think I can help. I don't think I really want to go on traveling alone anymore."

She wasn't sure of anything anymore either, so she put her arms around him because it made her feel better. Aksun was very surprised at what she'd felt. She wanted to ask him many things, but she didn't dare and she always had the thought of Donna and her impending grief. They were like this for quite a while until he drew back. 

She looked at him uncertainly, and he looked back at her with the same expression, but he did reach for her and to her surprise, he kissed her very softly for a moment. Aksun remembered what she now looked like and her eyebrows shot up. "Why did you do that, when I am here like this?"

He looked at her and his arms would only let her draw back so far. "I'm very confused, Aksun. I want to make you feel better. If you'd like me to, I can stay for a while, maybe as long as a month so that you have time to decide. If it's what you want, I can take you with me. Even I get tired of being alone out on the road. I kissed you because I wanted to."

She shook her head, "But ... I am like this. I am ..."

He interrupted her before she fell over or something. "Beautiful, yes," he nodded and almost laughed at her expression then. 

He looked down, "Don't ask, alright? I can tell that you're really confused and it would be nice if I could just explain it to you, but I can't. I just know that it's how I see you."

He laughed, and it made her smile. "Humans have always looked at us and made such noise about us being beautiful to them. None of us ever paid much attention to it. We all think that there's something about us that seems to blind them somehow. But it's different to me when you say it, because as different as we are from each other, we both seem to be able to feel from each other and I can tell that you don't have this thing -- whatever it is -- that humans have about us. We seem to be able to see each other clearly. So just accept it from me."

He looked at the landscape around them. "I don't know anything anymore than you do," he said with a shrug, "but I don't even want to think about you scratching out a life all alone here after what you had with Donna. 

Look around you. There aren't even any chicken coops - no chickens anymore, and you can't survive on rabbits. They don't provide enough nutrition by themselves. You could fill yourself up until you couldn't move and you'd still starve. Besides, it's hard on the rabbits."

They sat together in silence for a while. She couldn't take not knowing and so she asked. "You would take me with you?"

He nodded, "Yes. Don't even ask me if I'd take care of you. I will, Aksun. I look something like them and I have trouble now and then. It would be harder for you. Your best chance would be to live in one of their cities, but even then, sooner or later, they'd catch you. And they're not all stupid. They have much deadlier things than what they hunted you with before."

This was harder than ever for her. "Why, Elohan?"

He drew a breath. "If it's this way, what you said will happen, I think that you'll need somebody to care for you then. I guess that I'm volunteering. I was in the same place as you are now long ago. By our nature, elves are quiet in our grief. Somehow I think that you'll need me to be there for you then. I already see you as friends, both of you. I won't leave you out here alone. I'd much rather take you with me.

Once you get past some of it, we can see what you want as we travel to where I'm going. You're welcome to come along if you wish. I just don't want you to be all alone here."

It made Aksun feel a little better. "But what happens when we get to where you must go? If there are none left for you, you will be all alone too."

She waited for an answer from him but nothing came. 

She shook her head and looked at the horizon with an expression that he interpreted to be determination, "I will not leave you." 

She looked at him, "If you care about me like this, I will not leave you alone either. I have decided. But if there are still some of your kind there? They will not want me, I think."

"So what, Aksun? What do I need them for if they are like that? I wouldn't care what they want then. My kind has never left our friends before, if that has changed, I'd rather not be there."

She was about to offer another consideration, but he stopped her. "Listen. You have a rough time ahead of you. It will be bad for me and really bad for you. I just want you to know that you're not alone. I'll help if I can. I think I know what you were about to say. The answer is 'I don't know', Aksun. If it makes you feel a little better, I think that you're so beautiful, but none of that matters anyway for now. You need to face what will come. That's all there is to it."

---------------

That night, he walked to the stream again. He never knew when his travels would take him near a little place like this where he could worship. He could be alone with his thoughts any time, but he knew that he'd only have the moon full for another day before it waned again. He stopped suddenly. He could feel someone there ahead of him. The sense settled out for him quickly, and he knew who it was. It didn't matter. Donna had told him that he didn't need to ask anymore.

He neared the stream and knew that they were in the rushes. "If you are here to watch what I do," he said softly," you may as well be comfortable." They stepped out of the rushes a few seconds later. It caused him to smile, Donna looked like a young girl who needed to hold her friend's hand for courage.

He set down his dagger, removed his clothes, and began to bathe. They watched him, but said nothing. He knelt and placed his forehead against the earth, beginning the opening prayers in the old speech. He was a little bit louder this time for their benefit. He didn't mind. Donna began to cry a little, and Aksun held her as they watched.

This time, Elohan thought of his life again and where his travels had brought him. From time to time his tears ran again, but tonight it wasn't the usual torrents. He was pleased to do this for them and thought of their predicament.

Whether it was the time of the moon, or the time of year, or because of his spirit, he didn't know, but for some reason, the little place began to fill with the soft light of many fireflies. He heard Donna gasp and begin to sob. 

If they were here in other circumstances, he'd have been quick to point out to them that there could be different reasons for the appearance of the insects. He knew that sometimes they sought a mate, the females flashing from the leaves of plants in response to the searching flickers of the flying males. 

He knew just as well that in some places, there were females of a different type, who flashed to attract a firefly male and once he was close and hopeful, they ate him, being called 'femme fatale' fireflies. He didn't know the reason here, but he was happy that she liked it.

He began to voice his hope for Donna in Elvish, that she could be free of this and continue to live for the one who loved her so. He prayed out loud that if this couldn't be, that she would not suffer in her time of passing. Donna knew nothing of what he'd prayed, she only loved to hear his words in his beautiful language.

He ended it finally with his closing prayers expressing hopes for peace among all the clans of elves and men. They came to stand near to him when he stood up.

Donna hugged him tightly. "Aggie told me," she said through her tears. "I thought that you might be an elf, but I didn't think that there were any anymore. I used to read about elves as a girl. I'm so happy." She burst into tears.

He held her gently and kissed the top of her head, "Peace live in your heart and the moon and the stars watch over you, friend," he said, "It is an ancient greeting and blessing among us."

Donna cried even louder.

"I do not understand," Aksun said, "To me, you are wondrous and so beautiful to see, but I still don't know what an elf is."

He smiled, "Someone who has to hide his long ears, Aksun."

"No," Donna said, "That's not right." She lifted her head and stepped back. "Elves are a different creature from man," she said, "they're older and have been here a lot longer than man has, Aggie. I've never seen one before now, but from everything that I've read, they're magical."

"Don't get too caught up in what you've read," he said with a smile as he reached for her hair. After a moment of gentle struggle, he brought his hand back and showed her the little beetle in his hand which flashed the little organs in its abdomen. He tossed it into the air. 

"And don't give me the credit for these little ones. But before you grow disappointed in me..."

He raised his hand, and other tiny lights began to glow all around them. "For you both," he said, as his friends turned slowly to stare at the wondrous tiny pinpoints of light floating slowly. "Do not try to catch them. If your hand closes over even one, they will all go out."

Donna turned back to him and her fingers traced the lines of his tears. "She told me everything, Elohan. I don't know how much longer I've got. I feel like it's not very long inside of me now. But I'm so happy that I got to know you. Can you fix me? Can you make it so that I live a little longer?"

She saw his face, and her smile faltered for a second. "It's alright. I'm happy anyway."

"I can't undo this," he said sadly, "as much as I'd want to do it for you. I have prayed for it just now and I will continue. Unless I am wrong, I can only help to ease your passing and if there is pain, I will take it from you so that you feel nothing of it if I am nearby."

She nodded her thanks and then pulled Aksun to him by her hand. "I know that you meant what you said to Aggie. Please help her after I'm gone. She has a huge heart, and I know that you have one as well. Take care of each other."

Aksun began to cry, shaking her head. She held on to both of them.

Donna looked from one to the other. "I've never been anywhere on this earth but this little place, and it's been dead for all of that time, but I know that the world isn't all as lousy and miserable as this or the garbage little towns on either side of it. Please show her that all of mankind isn't like this. You both have to hide things from us, but if you can, and anything happens between you, she needs to see it from you often. I can already see some of it in your eyes, both of you, another thing I can be happy about."

She kissed them both and turned to go.

Aksun wailed and reached for her, but Donna shook her head. "I'm only going to bed, Aggie. I don't know how long I have, but I want to be alone for a little while tonight before you come to bed. Stay with him for a while so that I can have this time. I'll be alright."

When they were alone, Aksun stood there with her eyes downcast, sobbing quietly. He couldn't bear it and pulled her to him. Her long arms reached around him and she pulled him tightly and cried.

"I don't know what to do," she said looking up, "Donna told me that I should try to please you, but I have only been with a male once before, and --"

He stopped her with his kiss. After a moment, she sighed and groaned softly. He pulled back and they looked at each other's tears. "The first thing that you should do, Aksun, is forget about pleasing me. I don't know what will happen, but it's not the big issue. Think for a minute. 

I know what Donna is saying. She hopes that it will ease the pain of her passing when that happens, but I know that nothing can do that. I know enough about you already for that. For now, just be here with me and give Donna the time that she wants. Then go to her to give her comfort.

She's only saying this for that reason, and also, she hopes that if you do this, it will be like some kind of payment to me for taking you along with me." 

He smiled at her, "It's a payment that's not necessary, because I already care about you enough for me to do that, and you must know it yourself. Just calm down."

She looked down at his chest and the tattoos there. She lifted one hand and began to trace one of them with a fingertip, "These aren't a part of you. They were put here after you were made. Do they have meaning?"

He nodded, "Yes, every one has a meaning, Aksun. That one is a charm to protect me in battle if battle cannot be avoided. There are others on me, some of them are to make me desirable to female elves. Some are to keep my purpose noble. There are quite a few, most of them cannot be seen. Here."

Aksun saw the silvery glow of the one that she'd traced. She stepped back and stared at him. He had many that she'd never seen on him the night before and during the day. She stepped forward again and held him while he let them fade. "I am learning what Donna said. She told me the whole time in the kitchen after we came back that you are magical because of what you are. I see some of this."

He chuckled and she looked up. "What is magical here? I do these things which are normal for my kind and we do not call them magical. I did nothing just now but let you see the marks in the moonlight, where they were made on me, where they are only able to be seen. The hidden ones, I cannot show to you in the daylight. Magic is only something that another does not or cannot understand. If you know how, it can be called magic if you wish to use the word as a name for a power that exists on this world. Elves can use it. 

But you have your own magic, Aksun. You can change your shape if you wish, and I'm sure that you can do more than this if you kept Donna young."

He kissed her again for a moment. "You are magical to me. You are a wondrous person and so lovely."




The Industrial Elf Ch. 06



She looked at him for a moment. She couldn't think of another way to ask. "Then you like me as a female?"

He nodded, "Very much, but now is not- "

She shook her head, "Not now. I wanted to know. Because," she struggled for a moment, "I like you as a male. I don't know what to do with a male - I mean, one such as you. I mean, I know what to do but --"

"That's alright. You told me that you didn't know what to do with Donna when you began."

Aksun lowered her head and rested it against him. "I feel foolish, and I know that you would tell me not to feel foolish. You would tell me soon that if it happens between us, then it will happen. I know this, Elohan. I am not completely without experience. I know what my mother and my father did. I saw many couples pairing all around me where I come from. I have wanted it for myself."

She looked up, "and I have wanted it for myself with you from last night, but I think that it is wrong now. Part of me even wants it right now," she smiled shyly," just as some of you wants me now. I only ask because I know that I am ugly to most humans, but I am not ugly to Donna, and though she tells me that there are no eyes so sharp and keen as elves' eyes, you seem to think that I am beautiful to you. 

To me, you are very wondrous, Elohan. Now, I want to go with you when you leave. But I will not be fit to know for a time in my grief. I only ask your patience, and that you try very hard to think of me then as someone who is hurt. You do not even have to tell me now that you will, because I can already feel it in you."

Her expression stayed soft and shy. "I felt that you care very much for me today. I want you to know that I care for you as well. I want to go to Donna now if it is alright, but please, if you can, kiss me again?"

Her arms went higher up on him at his smile and she kissed him until his knees trembled, and both of them gasped when they pulled apart. He leaned in and kissed her again, teasing her lips for a moment with his tongue. Her mouth opened and she responded with a sigh. After a minute, he felt her teeth against his cheek as their tongues danced together. 

She pulled away and smiled, kissing him once in the middle of his chest. "It is a sign among my kind that I love your heart. It is far too early between us yet, Elohan, but I have hope."

She leaned back against his arms and he bent to kiss her in the same place. They parted with smiles and she went to see Donna.



The Industrial Elf Ch. 07



**Poor Aksun. Already beginning to feel a loss, not knowing what she'll do now and drawn to Elohan at the same time. Now that's got to be a bucketload of emotions all at once. Fear and uncertainty, a little bit of hopefulness, and yet a guilty sense to that just the same.

She can't figure it out, but she does know that she feels better when he's near her. Maybe that'll be good enough, maybe not.

Even in my fiction, my characters are at least a little real in terms of their fallibility. They're not quite perfect, just like everyone else, I guess. o_O

----------------

The next morning, Aksun came to knock on the camper door. Elohan came from behind her. He wasn't doing anything differently, he was only walking, but to almost all humans, his footfalls would have carried no sound. He'd just finished cleaning out the camper and had gone to dump the cleaning rags and paper towels in the bin out behind the barn.

Aksun turned around, "See? I am learning to feel it when you are near to me." But then he watched her face fall a little as she remembered what she'd come for.

"I will make our meal this morning."

In the kitchen, Elohan watched as she tried to prepare breakfast. He could tell that she'd likely done this a thousand times, but it looked like nothing was working for her today. She almost dropped the bacon. She'd made a perfect pot of coffee – for one which contained no coffee, since she'd been too distracted to remember to measure it out into the pot. When her frustration caused her to hold onto the handle of the frying pan, looking as though she wanted to throw it, he told her to sit and he'd make breakfast. She sat, looking miserable as he began on the bacon.

In a minute, Aksun began to speak quietly. "Donna does not feel well. She will let me lie with her, but she asks that I don't try to love with her. She says that she doesn't have the breath for it anymore and it makes her chest hurt her."

He could see that all of this was weighing on her, though she was plainly trying to put a calm face on everything and hold it together. It was quite plain to him that Aksun was upset and confused. The feeling that he got from her told him that she was torn in several directions, and didn't really have a handle on any of them. 

"She also says that I am to sleep with you or near to you now." Aksun looked down and stared at her human hands, "She says that it is important to her that I begin to feel like I belong with you now."

She looked up at the ceiling and he could tell that she was fighting back tears, "I do not want to do this, Elohan," she looked at him, "And yet I want to do it very much at the same time. I don't know what is wrong with me."

She looked at his back as he turned the bacon and spoke over his shoulder, "I know what's wrong, and it's ok. I think that besides not feeling well, she's pushing you away a little bit because she's trying to prepare you. I think that it's the only way that she can think of."

He set the bacon aside and drained the pan. "What you feel is a need to be comforted and loved in a setting where everything that you knew and were accustomed to is shifting under your feet."

He cracked her eggs, "I think that it's more important for you to do whatever feels right to you. Sleep with her and comfort her. If she gets upset at you for it, then go and sleep in the camper. I'll leave the door open and sleep in my room upstairs. If you don't find comfort like that, you can sleep near me or with me, whatever makes you feel best." He looked at her after checking the eggs, "I'm certainly not going to do anything but try to comfort you as much as I can and only if you want that."

She smiled at him a little, "I know that. I feel better when I am near you. Will you pray tonight?"

He nodded, flipping the eggs, "Yes. Tonight will be the last night when the moon is full. I want to pray for her and you both. It will take some time."

"You will pray that I will love you, after?"

He shook his head, "No, I'll pray that something happens and Donna gets better so that you can go on as before."

She shook her head, "That is not possible anymore, that we go on as before, but thank you for the thought. No, if something happens as you say and she gets better somehow, it will be different and very difficult. I know Donna and I know myself. We will embarrass you, because you will then have two females who love you and each other, and we both will not be able to stop ourselves from wanting this."

He stood looking at her and his hands slowly went to his sides. The look on his face caused Aksun to laugh in spite of how she felt. "Calm yourself, Elohan, it cannot happen that way, can it?"

She got up and walked to him. Putting her arm around him, she sighed, "She told me that I am to try to learn your ways from you. She said that I have to ask you to teach me the musical way that you speak in your language, and learn to pray the way that you do. I want this too, if you can even teach it to me. If we become a pair later as Donna wants, then I want this. I have had nothing to believe in the whole time that I have been here, other than Donna. If I can, then I would like to kneel beside you and help you to pray for her, if you would let me."

He nodded and smiled, "You wish to become an elf, Aksun? I think you'd make a lovely elf-maiden. Sure, I'll teach you."

They sat at the table eating breakfast. More correctly, Elohan was eating.

Aksun was only pushing things around on her plate, sniffling now and then.

She looked up for a moment, doing her best to try to be a little less miserable. She looked at him and tried hard to be objective and serious. She knew that they liked each other, and it wasn't even a very long jump to see that something could easily grow between them, as different from each other as they were. 

The thought came to her that based on what she'd seen on him as his reproductive organs, she didn't really know how it was to be done with a creature such as he was, other than the commonality of the insertion of the male organ into the female one. She knew that what had happened between her and Donna had been more good fortune and blind luck than design, and now she wondered about the mechanics of loving someone like him physically. They weren't exactly made for each other.

But she knew that she liked him enough to want this, and decided at last that if they grew close, then they'd have to see what was possible, and what wasn't. She was the odd one here.

She knew that even though he was different from humans, he was enough like them, from what he'd said that he could love one.

Maybe he could love her as well, she thought. She had already decided that she could love him on an emotional level somehow, so she resolved that if it happened, she would try to learn what it was that pleased him. Even if any sort of real mating wasn't possible, she'd do what she could, and hope that he'd try to help her as well.

If any of this came to pass between them, it was all the hope that she had to have something like a mate for herself.

That line of thought brought her to a crashing halt.

She remembered what he'd said about how the female that he'd loved had turned from him to love another. She wondered if it could happen to her as well. What if he found another of these elves – a female?

She had no better option. If this happened, she'd have to do her best.

Then she had a thought of the impossible. What would happen if she suddenly stumbled across a male of her own kind here? As far as she knew, she was the only one of her kind on this world, but, what if?

She looked at him as he picked up his coffee cup. She admired him for his impossible beauty and his heart.

She decided in an instant. It was easy. If it happened that he came to love her anything like the way that her kind loved, then she'd take him as her mate and be happy for it. She wondered if she ought to try to be more like what he would want, if he had a real choice.

"Can I ask something, Elohan?"

He set his mug down with a smile, "Of course, Aksun."

"What was different about the sort of elves in that other clan? How do the females of your kind look?"

He shrugged a little, "Overall, we are the same," he said, "but that kind appear a little darker in their skin than mine here, often with a little red on their cheeks. Ours would look pale beside them. Their hair is often a dark brown, and sometimes it's black. I even saw two females there who had red hair. These colors are possible among my kind, but it almost never happens. Most of us have light hair, like mine and even lighter sometimes, almost white. Sometimes, it is even a very warm golden color. Their eyes are sometimes green, but most often brown. Ours are green and blue, only rarely brown."

He looked away for a moment, out of the window as he remembered. "Our girls seem to me – as I remember it – to have lighter voices, where the wood elves' voices are fuller and, I guess a little richer. Our females sing a little higher, clearer."

She watched him as he looked off in the distance. "How long do they keep their hair, Elohan? Do they cut it short, and does it curl?"

He smiled, trying to remember as he looked down, "I have never seen a female of my clan who wore her hair short. Always, it was kept long, as though it was a point of pride for a girl to grow it long. I remember my mother sitting to begin to braid her hair. She had to, for her hair was long enough to reach to her thighs unbraided."

"What about the rest of them, Elohan?" she asked, "How were they made? Thin, thick? I try to see from what comes to your mind, but I like to hear you speak of them."

He chuckled, picking up the last piece of his toast, "To one of us, they all looked different, I suppose. There were thin ones, and some a little heavier, some with fuller figures, and others with little in the way of curves. And yet," he laughed a little, "that was to our eyes. To the eyes of a human man, they were all of them lithe and thin. The differences that I would see as wide were only subtle to humans. I think it is the same as how they all see us a beaut- "

His toast dropped from his fingers and his fork clattered down onto the plate as he stared.

Aksun smiled hopefully at him as she sat holding a hank of her hair in one hand. She looked at the very light blonde tone of it, perfectly matched to his own, her long ears showing through as the tips poked up. She'd used his features as her models and it made her happy to try. "I cannot have this as really long braids, like what you say that your mother had. I can only change so much. My hair is my hair," she said, "I can change the color, but not the length. I can change my skin to look like yours, but my body is still the same."

She reached for one of her small breasts through the material of her cornflower blue dress for a moment, "I only hope there are elves who have as little as I have."

Elohan's jaw fell open in wonder. "There is nothing wrong with what you have. I like them as I like the rest of you but why, Aksun? You looked beautiful to me before, but I am amazed at you now. Why have you changed yourself?"

She looked closely at him for a moment and felt what was in his emotions. She decided that he liked what she'd done, and it helped her.

"Because it makes me feel better to feel how you like this," she said, looking at the fairness of her own arm for an instant to see how closely she'd come to what she saw in his memories. "I must learn to be an elf-girl," she said, "I hope to be what you are and learn from you, and if there are others where we go, I want to be beautiful, just as you are to me."

"But, you were beautiful to me before, as the dark girl, and as you are naturally," he said.

"You do not like it?" Aksun began to feel a little foolish, and was about to change back, but he reached for her arm.

"Stop, Aksun," he said, "Don't change another thing." He looked at her for a long minute in silence with a small smile.

He chuckled, "I have to get used to you like this. It is a big change, but I like it. It has been so long since I saw an elf-girl as lovely as you are to me." He nodded once in appreciation and wonder, and then he laughed. "You look like my sister."

Aksun's blue eyes opened wide in her surprise. She thought that she'd done something wrong. "Forgive me, Elohan," she said, almost in horror, "I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't know that you had a sister. I'm so sorry."

He laughed again and kissed her hand, "How could I be offended? You make me feel as though I sit with one of my clan again. I like this so much, and anyway," he grinned, "I never had a sister."

Aksun threw back her head and laughed, knowing now that what she'd done had pleased him. It made her forget her own troubles for a little while, seeing him like this, without the cloud of his life hanging over him for once. She felt as though she'd accomplished something wonderful.

And she had, though she didn't know the extent of what she'd done for him. She didn't know it at all, but without even trying, the sound of her laughter thrilled him to hear that clear purity in an elven female's voice once more. He hadn't known how much he'd missed that music.

"So you like this? If you say yes, then I will look like this for you. I see how it makes you smile."

----------------------

After breakfast, he was about to wash the dishes, but she came to him, looking the way that he'd first seen her – a dark-eyed, black-haired beauty, though he could see that the magic that he'd seen had been diminished for a while.. "Donna asks to see you."

He nodded and walked up the stairs. He found Donna smiling at him a bit weakly. "There you are, Jack. Could you do me a favour very soon?"

Elohan nodded, already knowing what she would ask of him.

"I need you to dig me a hole," she said. "If you can, and if it's alright, I'd like to be under the willow tree near to the stream, but not too close. Just under the shade of it. It's always been my favorite place here. Could you do that for me and say some of your prayers for me?"

"Of course," he nodded, "Am I to bury Tony there as well?"

She frowned, "I hadn't thought of that." 

"No," she shook her head, "he's had his way all of our lives and been miserable. I wanted to leave here with Aggie and try to make a life for us away from here, but he told me that I had to take care of him. A man like him with me doing everything for him his whole life.

I'm not going to miss him at all," she said, "only Aggie and you. It was a mistake to beg Aggie to keep him alive. Leave him in his bed. Put him wherever you want, but not near me. Throw him down the mine shaft so he can be with Dad, for all I care. I leave that up to you. He's been nothing but misery for me. If it wasn't for him, I might have seen some of the world. I'm sorry if my words are hard, but that's how I feel."

She held up her hand and he took it, "Please take care of Aggie. She tries to hide her feelings away, but we've been together for so long that I can see through her. She already loves you, but she's trying to keep it covered, Jack. I hope that one day soon, she'll be able to show you her heart. I hope you're ready for it when it happens, because you'll find that there's nobody on this earth who can love from the heart like her."

She drew a tired breath, "I'm glad that you have each other. You both have long lives, and you are both what the other one needs. Be patient with her. She wants your love, and I think she'll have to learn to make love with a man now. I know that's what she wants, though if I know her, she's trying to figure out just how to do that with you. I'm sure that you're the kind of person that she needs for herself. Just be ready for when she realizes that. That's all I'm saying."

He watched her close her eyes for a moment, and then she said, "I'm so tired now. I just want to sleep."

With that, she was gone, her breathing slipping almost instantly into a deeper rhythm.

He walked back downstairs, smiling a little at the way that she'd winked at him as she'd spoken to him.

The graves took him little time, once he'd found a shovel. Elohan worked as quickly as he could, thankful that the sounds of the digging went a long way to cover the sound of Aksun's weeping.

He was thankful that Donna's grave didn't seep water from the stream, the only tough thing about it had been the roots that he'd had to get past. Tony would lie farther out in the sun, a hundred yards away from his sister. 

He came back to the barn and filled the sink to wash the dirt and sweat off. It was a strange enough feeling, what he was doing here, but this hot climate was the only place that he'd ever sweated before. He didn't think that his kind even could sweat until he'd come here. It was no wonder to him that there were no elves in the deserts of the world. He looked over to the doorway.

Aksun stood there with tears again, holding a metal box by the handle and worrying the hem of her skirt. She looked at him. "Donna gave me this. She said it's for me now. She went to Briarton last week and was gone all day. I think that it came from a bank there." 

She brought it over to him and opened it. There looked to be a few thousand dollars in there. She closed it up again and offered it to him, "I told her that I didn't need it, and that I didn't know what to do with it. She said that she was sorry for never teaching me, and to give it to you because you'd know what to do with it."

He sighed heavily, "It's money, Aksun. Put it inside the camper there. We'll save it for you. I have enough to get us to where we're going. We'll use a little of it to buy you some new clothes."

Looking up into her dark eyes, he said, "If you can, you ought to pack a few clothes now or soon. You'll need something to travel in, and one or two of your pretty dresses, but mostly pants and shirts. Running shoes are the most important shoes, but take one or two pairs of other kinds for when you wear a dress. I've seen her now and I don't think it'll be long anymore. How is Tony?"

"She only takes soup from me now, and he only sleeps. I'm very afraid, Elohan. I've never been anywhere other than here. This is where I woke up when I was sent here."

He dried himself with a towel, "Come here."

She walked to him uncertainly and set the box on the ground. She leaned against him and inhaled, "I don't know what to do anymore."

He held her, "Don't worry about traveling. It's mostly very boring. I will take care of you, Aksun. There's only one thing that bothers me a little, and that's crossing the border into Canada when we get there. I know you don't know what that is, but it's a different country. 

There are rules to living as a human. You've never run into them living here, I guess, but they're not too hard. Over there, they have mostly the very same rules, but when you cross a border, they want to know all about you. I was born there long before you needed any papers, and I've learned how to get papers that they need. You don't have any papers yet, though I'll get you some somehow later on."

"The problem is how to get you across the border. It they see you as you really are, well I guess you already know all about that, but if they see you like this, as a woman, then the way they think, you'll have to have papers. It will be a problem, but we'll work it out beforehand, long before we get to the border."

She listened to him, and then smiled a little shyly, "I can help, I think. Look."

His jaw fell open as he saw her blouse and skirt hovering over a pair of socks in shoes. He couldn't see her at all. "How ...?"

She was back, filling her clothes in an instant. "It is the way that we hunt," she smiled.

"I'll bet," he laughed, "And I'm magical, you said."




The Industrial Elf Ch. 07



-------------------------

There were two who bathed together in the stream that night. Aksun changed her appearance so that it was two elves in that place to the eyes of anyone who might have been watching. He instructed her quietly and she was watchful to do as he asked. When they knelt together, she was careful to kneel so that her thigh touched his and she followed whatever he did. 

Aksun had no weapon, but he gave her one of his daggers, telling her to keep it for this purpose. It took longer than normal, because of the one who they offered their prayers for, and also because he tried to explain everything to her as they went. 

Aksun did her best. In spite of the prospect of losing Donna, she found that she felt a lot for him now and more every minute. She tried not to look at him and concentrate, but it added a lot of difficulty for her. They sat together holding each other in the moonlight afterward.

"I want to thank you," she said, "I have no words for everything that you do here for Donna and for me."

She hesitated, hanging on the edge between reluctance and a fear of insulting him. Finally, she forced herself, "If you want me and like me enough for it, I will allow it if you wish to have me here."

He shook his head, but she did see his smile, "Thank you for your kindness," he bowed his head to her, "but not now, Aksun. This would be a very good place here for that, and I begin to feel enough for you, but not because you feel as though it is something to repay me by. That is not my way and it has never been, and like this, it's not right for me." 

He kissed her, "I would want it only if you want it with me and with nothing hanging over us but the moon and the stars. I do not wish to be the only one who wants this between us."

"Hah," she made her little noise of understanding or agreement, "Donna told me to ask you, but she said to me that you would say this, and I knew you would say it too. The trouble is that I do want it with you, very much, and I should not want this now, especially now.

I don't know anything anymore. Nothing makes sense to me, but soon, I will not want it at all from anyone." She put her face under his jaw and kissed his throat for a minute. "Elohan? When your kind pairs, is it like the humans? Is it what they call a marriage?"

"Yes," he said, "if it gets that far. The two join their lives as much as they can. The time when it happens is called the wedding."

"Is it allowed to hurt the one that you choose? Is that what it is?"

"No" he said, "it's not our way. I know that it happens sometimes among humans. I have heard of it and even seen it sometimes. One treats the other badly, by words or worse. I can only say that with us, the pair remains important above anything. 

I was almost paired to my princess long ago. We often had disagreements, but we always laughed at each other, because it wasn't important. If it was something about the clan, then she would listen to me and sometimes agree then, but if not, she was the ruler between us for that, and I would do as I was commanded. If she had lived and come back to me, once I was her king, it would be the other way for things of the clan." 

He smirked, "But between us, we always laughed. We never said hurtful things. If one was upset, everything else went away until it was understood and made better. It didn't matter who was right or better, only that it was over."

He could just hear her little sound from below his jaw, "Hah." He felt her nod a little.

"What happens where you come from, Aksun?"

"Nothing", she said, "the couple just become a pair, like other creatures. They love and mate and join their lives. But there is no ... wedding. They live and once it happens and the choice is made, it is done. No other will come between. It is not permitted. It is death to even try if it can be proven. Neither of the pair will try. It happens that sometimes one dies, and then often, the other dies as well, or just goes on alone. It is even a more rare thing to find another after."

"What happens if one of a pair is unhappy?"

"That happens too," Aksun replied. "It is permitted to leave a mate. But if it happens, it must have been something terrible to cause it, because to leave means that the one who left can never take a mate again. All will know. None will agree to pair with that one."

There was something about him, Aksun realized almost at once now. Something was wrong. She noticed that his face was looking a little away and down.

"Elohan?" she asked, but she got no response.

"Elohan, what is it? What have I said?"

He shook his head a little but made no answer.

Aksun felt a huge change in him now. Elohan had always felt so 'solid' to her senses until now, but at the moment, what she sensed was more preparation, as though he was anticipating something which he thought would surely come, the way that one might stand on a hillside watching a wall of cold rain coming and preparing oneself for the chilling wetness of the deluge. It was as if he knew how it would feel and could do nothing to stop its coming to him. She moved then, laying her palm onto his chest.

Aksun gasped and looked at his face. "You - you fear! Elohan, what frightens, ..."

He looked further away.

"For me?" she asked, "You fear for me? Why?"

He wasn't in the act of his prayers here, but there were tears on his face nonetheless, though he made no sound and didn't sniffle.

She pulled his face so that he had to look at her. Even so, he still looked down. She couldn't imagine him like this. She had to know, and so she tried to lift his chin so that he had to look at her eyes.

For an instant, she saw the fear plainly.

And then it was gone, and Elohan looked like Jack the traveler once more, just as she'd seen him for the first time, outwardly friendly, inwardly cautious and a little withdrawn.

Her own confused tears began then. She let her arms fall and then she sat hugging herself as she began to keen. His eyes suddenly cleared and shifted into hard focus as his face showed his concern for her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she answered him before he'd made a sound.

"I have lost you, and I do not know what I have done," she sobbed.

"You haven't done anything, Aksun," he said as he put his arm around her. He pulled her head against his cheek and he stroked her hair with his other hand.

"I am sorry," he whispered, "You need someone to comfort you more than anything. I failed you. I didn't know that you could die from your grief. I had some selfish hopes, I guess."

He felt her relax into him, but she still wept. "Until now, you have always helped me to feel better. But now you pull away, and I do not understand. I must have done something wrong. What hopes did you have? I had hope that you and I ..."

She raised her wet face and looked at him. "Why do you not speak to me? What did I do? If I have lost the one I hoped for, I want to know why."

He looked at her and the blonde elf-girl was retreating - fading behind the confused and lost creature who looked to be crumbling in front of him, her last possibility of anything other than solitude in a wasteland now exceeding the length of her desperate reach.

Elohan leaned in and kissed her, stopping for only a moment now and then to tell her that it was alright, that he'd be there for her as he'd promised.

None of it helped Aksun until she felt the image in his own mind of him digging a third grave. Her eyes flew open wide.

"You think that I will die!" she hissed. "Why? What will kill me?"

"You said that if one of a pair dies, then the other often dies as well."

She nodded, "Yes, but that is between a pair of my kind. Donna is my friend and I love her. We have even loved sometimes, but she is not my mate, Elohan. I have never taken a mate. I will be so hurt when she dies, because she has been my friend for so long. I do not think that I will die from this."

She looked at him very curiously now. Her wet eyes peered into his, their irises shifting open and closed as she looked. "You feared that you would lose me," she whispered, "You are afraid to be alone again yourself."

Her hands were holding his face now, the irises of her cat's eyes in almost constant change.

One hand went to his chest again. "You feared to lose Aksun," she said, "You are afraid to be without me." She smiled through her shocked tears as it all came to her.

"Your heart tells a true tale," she said, "You love me - not with everything yet, but it is here in you, and is not gone yet."

She nodded, "We need each other, Elohan. I will not leave you. Forget your fear."

She hugged him tightly and she still wept a little as she kissed his face. A minute later, they both held on to each other and smiled, relieved that nothing had been lost to the misunderstanding.

She pressed her nose against him, sniffing, and kissing and licking his throat with tiny motions. Elohan would look down at her and kiss her for a moment, and then she would begin again. He looked at her, "I thought that we understood each other and that it was not the time."

"Hah", she made her little sound, "we did. But I like to do this. It is not anything but that I like you very much. If I did it more than this, it would be that I want you and I am being very careful not to start. Is it wrong?"

"No," he grinned, "I like it, Aksun." 

He could tell that this would be a learning curve if there ever was one. "Can I try?"

"Not like this," she said very earnestly, "if we both do this, it is the start." She pulled away from him, "But I know what we can do."

She positioned his legs so that one knee was up and the other leg was down on the ground. She moved his legs apart with great care, and giggled the whole time. Then she sat between his legs with hers over the one which was stretched out, taking great care over where she sat. 

"Put your arm around me," she said as she reached one of hers around his neck. "Now put your hand on me where you did last night, over my heart. I will do the same to you. We can talk like this and feel our hearts. We can kiss, you can do what I did, and there is nothing wrong, as long as we do it one at a time."

They sat like this for a long time. He found that he loved to do as she'd done to him, nuzzling into her throat and kissing in little ways. The soft sounds that she made seemed to go right up his spine, but finally he had to ask that they stop. "It's hurting my legs, and we should sleep."

Aksun agreed and thanked him for the time. "I am sorry for your legs," she said with a happy smile, "I have never done this for this long ever. I like to talk and do this with you." 

She nudged his erection gently with a motion of her hip and chuckled, "Also, I see what you have here, and I know that it is the same as the males where I am from. I am almost sure that we will try one day, and I was worried a little because I didn't know what you were like. Now I know, it's almost the same."

"I have to know," he said, "what is different?"

"Are you sure that you wish to know?" she laughed softly in that smoky voice, "I could tell you that they are all so much bigger. If you were like a man, you would be crushed."

He shrugged, "But I'm not a man. I'm an elf."

"I know," she purred below his jaw just to see how it felt, "I think I'm thankful for that. From what I can tell in the shadows here – "

She stopped because he was shaking his head, "I know that you can see as well as I can in the dark, and maybe better, so you'll have to crush me now and tell me."

"It is not fun like this. You are not nervous to hear it," she complained, though she really didn't mind, "Fine." She reached down carefully, "Here,-"

He gasped, and it made her laugh, "I'm sorry, but you wanted to know." 

She eased her grip. "Here, there is a flat portion missing from you. It is to touch me when we dream. The end here is different. Males of my kind do not have this... end. I guess they are not all the same, but I have never heard of one like this. Our males are all the same size along the length but for the flat spot, and the size of the whole thing..."

She looked at him and saw him looking back with open interest. It made her laugh, "You are truly brave, Elohan. You sit here and wait for me to pronounce my judgment on a part of you that you cannot change. You force me to either praise you or crush you with a word and you do not care. Our males are very sensitive over this."

He shrugged, "As you said, I can't change it. I'm also always interested to hear you talk about anything, especially about where you're from."

She kissed him, "You are wonderful." 

She looked down, "There are two more things. This part of you has been like this for a long time now. I couldn't sit as I have with you for this time where I am from. They would complain and say that it hurts them not to start with me. It is something which all females complain about over the males. Does it hurt you?"

He shook his head, "If it went on for hours more, maybe. But even so, it's better than if I didn't have you against me. Why should I complain? It would be selfish. What is the other thing?"

She looked up at him, "I don't want to say this to make you proud, but... if we ever do become a pair, you will have to allow me time to adjust. You are thicker."

His eyes widened in concern. "Then we can't. Aksun. I will not hurt you."

She hugged him tightly, and kissed his face, "And that is why I'm thankful that you're an elf, now that I know what one is." She kissed him several times quickly, "That you care about me, and I was right. You have no wish to hurt me." 

She looked at him in a timid way that made him pull her to him. "I would never want to do harm to you. If we can't, then we can't."

She stopped him. "I didn't say that we can't, Elohan. Donna told me that elves are thinner and lighter than men. She said that elves are a little bit smaller than men. I will assume that it also is the same for things like this, but I have no way to know. But I know this, Elohan, Donna showed me a drawn picture in one of her books from her time as a child. I know that this person had never seen an elf, but I saw that the one in the picture was slight, and the words said the same, but, ... 

You are not slight, Elohan. You told me that you are stronger than your kind. Yesterday, I watched you pull back your bow to shoot the rabbits. I have seen men all around here working over the years with no shirts. None look like you. You are not slight and you are very strong. I like you more for that, because I am stronger than men too. And you are kind to me. I like you even more for that." 

She kissed him and tried to put a lot of what she felt into it. "I didn't say that we can't. We will have to be slow and careful, and I know that you would do that for me."

She looked at his face with a searching expression. "You did not ask me why I was exiled here, Elohan. I will be so upset in only a little while. I know it. I don't know what I'll do, but I ask you to forgive me and be patient with me when it happens. I will try to listen to you when you tell me what I must do because I trust you."

She looked determined again, "But you should know why I was sent here to die alone. If it makes you want to stay away from me, I'll have to accept it and do my best here alone."

He saw that she was frightened and that her eyes were filling. He held her tightly. "I don't care. You don't have to tell me anything. Just calm down."

"No," she shook her head, "I have to tell you. It may change things, so you need to know. If it doesn't, and if I... when I ... am better after Donna is gone, then I promise you, Elohan, that if you want me, and you can maybe love me, I will stay with you always, because I want to."

She sniffled, "I was approached by a male and told that another male wanted to meet me. It is unusual, but the other male was a prince. He didn't want to pair with me. He didn't even want to get to know me. He only sent his servant to bring me so that he could mate with me once, and he hurt me as his servant held me down. 

But the servant slipped. I killed the servant for holding me down, and then I tore the prince apart."

Her tears began at the memory of it. "No one heard my side," she sobbed, "but they all knew what the prince always did. They could not put me to death because it would cause rebellion to kill a female for this. So they sent me here to die."

He blinked at her and then he was kissing her face, trying to make her feel just a little better. "I don't understand, Aksun. Why would this cause me to feel differently about you?"

She was incredulous, "Elohan, I killed a prince. A royal. You told me that you are a royal among your kind." She began to try to get up, but he held her tightly.

"Wait," he said, "I see no connection from the one you killed to me. I was royal of a clan that has been without me for hundreds of years. They have probably forgotten my name, Aksun. And even if they haven't, it changes nothing here. I'm nobody now. I'm sad that you had to be sent here to die, but I'm happy and I feel very lucky to know you. I can even say that I love you and it grows stronger. I am prepared for your grief, as much as I can be, and I want to help you. But I'm not upset that you killed someone who hurt you, Aksun, I'm proud of you for it."

She wiped her wide eyes, "Proud? You are proud of me?"

He nodded and kissed her, "Yes. That one was never able to hurt another after you. They should have made you queen for it." He nodded with a smile. "Did you think that I'd see you as a criminal? You're wrong there, my friend."

Aksun had no words for this.

He picked her up and took her to the house. At the door, he set her down and kissed her goodnight, telling her that he'd changed his mind and wanted to sleep in the camper. Aksun nodded and went inside after a long kiss, still feeling so very confused and torn in a few different directions.

But she felt so much better about the possibility of being with Elohan. She didn't know how in the universe she'd managed it, but she knew that he was what she needed now. When he'd walked away and she'd closed the door, Aksun sank to her knees, feeling a little like a very young female child, trying to learn and understand what she was being taught. She touched her head to the floor and prayed to the powers that he was teaching her to, offering her deepest thanks for everything.



The Industrial Elf Ch. 08



***I wanted to finish this one off and it was so close that I just needed to think about it and as I read my notes, I tossed them and decided that ... well, you'll see what I mean. This wasn't ever meant to be more than a happy little love story with a twist, but I like Elohan and I really like Aksun, so ...

Actually, I think I've used her in another story as well, but it's never appeared here on Lit. 

You might have to go back and read Chapter 7 again to re-familiarize yourself. Sorry about that, but that's what I had to do. 0_o

---------------------

He wasn't in the bunk long enough to really warm up the sheets when he heard the door open. He lifted his head and looked into the darkness as the door closed softly behind her. 

Aksun was sitting on the floor with her back against one of the kitchenette seats. He didn't wait for her sobs to begin. He just got up and crouched next to her.

He said, "I'm going to guess and say that something's bothering my friend."

It took a minute to get any information other than quiet sobs, but then she raised her head a little and began to whisper. "Donna was asleep and I didn't want to disturb her. But she opened her eyes and smiled at me. She asked me if you and I had mated, and I said no and why. 

She said that it only proves that you are the one to take care of me because you have understanding and kindness. She kissed me and told me to go to you. She told me that I am yours now, Elohan. 

I couldn't even cry until now. I was so shocked. So I came here. I don't want to argue with you about it tonight, but I want to say that even if you throw me out or tell me to sleep here on the floor, my place is with you now. I don't know where else to go, and I want to be with you."

He shook his head, "Now why would I do anything like that? You can sleep here, Aksun. You know Donna's only trying to get you prepared for when she's gone. I don't think much of how she's hurting you by this, and I know that she's afraid to die and of losing you. But this can't help anything. 

You can sleep in the big bunk there. One of these things here folds out into a bed, if I can remember which one. I've got sheets for it around somewhere. I'll figure it out and sleep there. But you're not sleeping outside or on the floor. Come on," He pulled her up and led her to the bunk. "Climb up and get some sleep."

He saw her shake her head in the darkness. "If there is nothing wrong with it, I want to sleep with you. I know you care about me and I feel so alone. I want to say please, Elohan. Would it make me weak if I said that?"

No," he smiled, "I don't know how you'd think that I'd see you as weak in anything." He patted the mattress, "Climb up here and sit. 

It doesn't happen often, but right now, I want a beer. I'll be back."

He came back with two cans to find her naked and sitting on the edge with her legs hanging over. She had a weak and hopeful smile on her face, "You have no clothes now, "she said, "and you had no clothes when I came in. Do you always sleep like this?"

"Yes," he nodded, "unless I have to sleep in a snowbank. I can put something on."

Aksun shook her head, "No, please don't. We both have to hide how we look, but not here. I want to be here like this with you."

The sight of her like that had a big effect inside his chest. He opened the cans and handed her one, "If you've never had beer, I apologize for the taste. If you've had decent beer before, I apologize for the taste." He looked at her, "Is there any of Donna in this right here? You deciding to take your clothes off like you did?"

She nodded sadly, "A little, yes. But I do not see her reason and I am afraid to offend you." She looked uncomfortable and just on the edge of showing her misery again. "She says that I should still offer to mate with you. She says that it will make us feel better and help me to belong with you. I think I understand, but..." 

She sighed and shook her head, "I don't understand at all. 

To say the truth, I don't think I should want to because she will die soon and I am already upset. But I do want to, Elohan. It is how I feel about you. It all makes me more upset. I really want to sleep close to you. I always feel better near you." 

She took a sip and grimaced, "I must drink this?"

He chuckled a little, "You don't have to, but I don't have any more water left. I drank the last one. It won't be so bad after about the third sip. Think of it as terrible soda, since it's not much more than that. I don't think the alcohol content of that will hurt you or make you tipsy if you have just one."

He took her hand and surprised her when he kissed her knee once. "You won't offend me. I know that you don't really know the social behavior here that well. We'll work on it, and I want to know the way that's right for where you come from too. 

Never mind Donna. If we do and when we do just aren't important. I feel good around you too. And I feel a lot of peace when I'm near you. I don't think you can understand that, and I can't explain it yet, but I do. So maybe we ought to just stay together. I understand how you feel about me and I feel the same way. Don't feel guilty about what you feel inside. With everything else that must be troubling you, don't worry about this." 

He looked up at her, "I'd love it if we only sleep together. I have a strong desire to do anything to make you feel like you belong. And I really hate how I see that you feel so lost, Aksun."

He held her hand and slid his thumb over where her fingertips turned into claws. They weren't extended, but they weren't completely retracted either. 

She watched him smile at them, "There's nothing wrong with saying please and it won't make you weak in my eyes." He raised her hand and kissed the backs of her fingers.

Aksun was astounded. "I am always surprised by how you find me beautif-" 

The belch snuck past her throat before she could stop it. "I'm very sorry."

But she found him laughing softly. "And don't forget romantic, Aksun. You're very romantic as well as beautiful."

They both laughed, and then she said, "Thank you, Elohan. I feel better." She looked at the can, "I don't think that you were right about this. It still tastes horrible. But it's not that important now," she smiled.

"Is this wrong, the way I sit here?"

He shook his head, "No, not like this between us. I could look at your body all night. It would be in almost any other situation if there were others around." 

She smiled, "And you standing with no clothes drinking beer is wrong too, but not between us." She nodded. "I know a little."

"Exactly," he said, "You won't understand it, but if I was here in underwear with my beer, it would be fine if I had a television and there was a football game on."

She tilted her head, "Why does that make it fine?"

He laughed, "It doesn't, but there are millions of people here who think it would. I'm not one of them, and neither are you."

"I want to say something," she said, running her long fingers through his hair before caressing his ear with her thumb. "On my world, when two people start to love each other, they wish to mate and they wish to dream together. If they are alone in a far off place they just do that. But if they live with others in a place like a town, the custom is that they are not allowed to mate until they see if they can dream first, especially if they are young. 

It is permitted to try to dream together, but not permitted to mate. Of course they want to mate anyway, but the custom is that either the parents of one or both are nearby to ensure there is no mating going on yet, or an elder is present to watch. 

Of course, young people much prefer to have the elder than any parents. You can imagine why. But if they cannot dream together, the elder will forbid the pairing, so there is a risk. But it isn't important if they are in love, is it? My parents became a pair in wartime. My mother was a caregiver to wounded, and my father was a fighter. There were no parents or elders there. They tried to dream, but could not." She took a sip of her beer and shrugged.

"They always loved each other Elohan, very much, and probably still cannot dream together. I say this to show that I love you, and somehow and sometime when it is better for us, I want very much to try to mate with you. But even though I do not think that we can dream, I would like very much to try to dream with you too." 

"How does this dreaming work?" he asked, "Is it like I dream when I'm asleep?"

"Almost, if what is a dream to you is the same as I think from what Donna told me," Aksun replied, "but it is real in a way and we can do this while we are awake. Both males and females dream. Both can go far, but females usually go farther. When we touch together and hold tightly, we take the males with us and go together. We dream farther and faster with a male to help. We can go anywhere, be anywhere. I have never done it with a male, only alone."

He didn't understand what she meant about 'going', but he didn't want to ask right then. It was enough for him just to see her feeling hopeful for something and not weeping anymore.

They finished the beer and she climbed into the bunk, beckoning him to come and try to dream with her. Elohan admitted that it sounded wonderful and Aksun settled into his arms as though there was no difference between what they were at all. She just wrapped herself around him instantly without a thought. She felt his reaction and did her best to keep up a stern face as she took hold of him, "Which way?"

He was surprised, "What do you mean? I'm sorry, I can't help that. Just push it out of the way."

She shook her head. "No. I want this, but we agreed not like this. I want to know which way I am to move it, up against you and I lie against it, or I move up a little and it goes between my legs under me and we try to dream, if we even can?"

He was amazed at her. She always surprised him. "You sound angry, Aksun. Whichever way you want."

He watched her smile and saw her long and graceful teeth. He couldn't understand why anyone would find her ugly. Everything about her made his body sing. He was in heaven feeling her skin against his own. 

She giggled softly, "I'm not angry, Elohan. I'm very happy. I'm only playing a little. Donna is still trying to push me to you, and tells me that it is over now between us, but I know why she says this and I am not hurt by her words after hearing what you said. She feels tired and weak and wants us to be together. I am sad for all of this, but if I am yours now, then I am so happy too."

She shifted a little, and moved him gently, "This will not work, I think, but it is permitted where I am from if two are in love, and are too early in it to mate, but wish to. I will hold you to me there, and we try to dream together. Keep your thoughts still if you can, and I will try to reach you. If it works, let me guide us until we see if you can guide us another time. But I think it will not happen."

She kissed him softly, "Just know that I love you, Elohan. If we cannot dream, then it changes nothing between us, and I will still love you."

She parted her thighs a little more and shifted a little, searching. She didn't even know where to search on him, since he didn't have the spot that she would have looked for. She moved backwards and forwards, little by little, always searching.

"This flat spot which you mentioned," he said, "Is there skin over it or is it bare, like what's inside you?"

"Bare," she said, still trying, "It is very sensitive, like me, as you say."

"What do you do with it if you find it?"

"Give me your hand," she whispered. As she guided him, she reminded him of their conversation earlier, of how her kind was different from humans. He could feel it. Her outer lips protruded. He'd seen no sign of this when they'd been together earlier.

She stopped, remembering.

"Elohan, I don't think it matters because we are different, I've just remembered that for us, this is also a promise. It says that we will try to be a pair. We can stop if you wish. It won't work for us anyway."

He smiled, liking the notion. He only wished for an instant that he could see a pair of her people doing this, or just being together as a couple. He thought it would be beautiful to see. "Would you want to make this promise to me?"

She gasped and he looked at her eyes. "Hah," she said softly, "yes, very much."

He licked the end of her nose and smiled, "That's good. I'd like to make that promise too."

"You... you would?"

"Yes. You wish to be an elf-girl for me, so I wish to be a male of your kind for you. So keep trying." He moved his hand away. "What now?"

He found her chuckling. "I like what you say, but you cannot be like a male from my world. You are almost large enough when you stand, but your arms are too short to walk on while you carry me on your back. Your hands and feet are wrong for this as well." 

She saw his confusion. "When we walk, if where we would go is not far, we walk together as you and I walk. But if we must go a long way, the males go on four legs and we ride on their backs. It is easy for them and it takes less time to go somewhere far that way." 

She kissed him, "You can do many things, Elohan, but that is not one of them. The males are very large."

"If a male presses upward there with thist spot," she moved his fingers so that he could feel, "I will open a little and the bare nerves will touch his. That is what I'm trying to do for us. But it doesn't look like it will work for us." 

He smiled, "That might be because you're trying to open up against part of me with skin. I have bare parts. I just have to be careful. They're at the end. If I'm not careful, we'll be doing what we said -- "

"Try, Elohan. Please try if you know where the place is on you. I don't care now if you go in if that is where it is on you, only be gentle if you can."

She held her thighs apart a little more and he moved until he felt as though he was at the middle of her lips. He pulled back his foreskin and pushed upwards, trying not to push in. He felt her lips part.

It happened then.

They both inhaled deeply and Aksun closed her thighs to hold him there. He found himself staring at those eyes and barely heard her whisper, "Stay there now."

He found himself looking at her eyes in the dark for a moment, and in that moment, he saw her in there looking back, and then they were flying, rocketing low over the desert. It reminded him of a time when he'd gone to see a movie and the way that the view seemed to swoop here and there in an outdoor scene. He didn't know what this was, but it was breathtaking to him.

He could hear her voice as a desperate cry, though his ears heard only the softest whisper as she cried out to him to hold her to him. He shifted his arms, and he heard her cry out that she needed to be tighter against him, so he did it, but she still wanted more, so he moved one hand to spread his fingers and pull against her lower back. This time, he heard a sigh from inside and outside together.

"Thank you," she sighed in his mind, "I forgot to tell you ... that females always need their males to hold them tightly. If we fall here, we both die there ... I have heard that it is a glorious death, but it is not our time, I hope. Always hold me tightly, Elohan. I will never complain. I need this from you." She sighed and he felt her shift very slightly against him to settle.

He watched her throat as she looked ahead, "We can dream like this! I have never dreamed so fast," Aksun whispered, "You always have surprises for me." 

The sound became very faint to him, but he heard her clearly. "Please Elohan, say to me that you will be my male, and I will be yours always." 

Before he could comprehend it, they were near mountains, but she guided them over the ridges easily. He'd always held himself apart, more and more as time went by. But like this, there was no way to stand apart, nothing and no words to hide one's heart behind. 

He now knew why this was done among her people. It was the moment of admission and there was no possibility of falsehood like this. It was so easy for him now, but not only for what she was showing him or wherever she was taking them. For the first time since he'd left his adolescence behind all alone in the forest waiting, he knew real peace inside of him without any possibility of doubt. It was a certainty, like the stars and the moon. He knew what he had now in this lovely creature who held out her heart, body, and her life to him. 

He knew that he'd never let go of her if he had a say in it. He didn't know if she could hear his thoughts, but he assumed that she could. He said the words anyway. "I love you. I am yours, Aksun, if you want me." 

He heard her sigh to him, "Want you? Elohan, I need you. I think I knew this from when we stood on the bank and touched. I want to be your female because I love you. I have nothing, I am nothing, but I give myself to you."

He looked up at the sun, judging the angle, and then he looked down. There was no shadow below them anywhere that he looked. She took her arms from him and spread them out laughing. He'd never heard such an incredible sound as her free laughter in the tones of her own voice. They looked at each other, smiling. She looked ahead, and then kissed him quickly. Another look and she kissed his nose in joy. 

"I feel it!" she cried out to him, "I feel as though you are mine and I am yours. I never thought that we could have this, Elohan." 

She looked at him in realization and a bit of awe, "I have never dreamed like this and gone this fast or high alone. My sister told me of dreaming with her male. My friends told me of dreaming with their males. None have said it was anything like this. It all comes from the male, the speed and the power. I fly like a little thing when I am alone. You are mighty, Elohan."

She rolled them through a turn and they were over green mountains. He felt no wind or cold as she flew them higher. He looked at her eyes and saw her wonder. He tried to speak to her and could only whisper, but she heard his voice all the same. "You've never seen this?"

"No," she said, "I have never dreamed with a male before. I have only dreamed by myself, and then I always see what I left and it makes me wish not to dream again. This is a beautiful world, Elohan, more wondrous in your arms. I never knew. I know how to bring us back, but I don't know where we are. I only know that I love you and I am so happy now."

He smiled, feeling what she was talking about, "Do you want to go higher? Faster?"

She looked at him, "Can we?"

"I think so, I have to see." He held her tighter still and the earth fell away from them. He imagined a direction, and asked if she knew which way it was, and they turned. "Why do we go higher, Elohan? It is alright, but I think you have a reason."

"Higher means faster, I think."

It was minutes and he brought them lower. They slowed and he said, "Can you see the lake, the big one there? Can you see the building with the tall stacks sticking out of it?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"We need to go lower and slow down so you can see better, it is a place to make electricity. Can you see the little square of forest standing by itself, Aksun?"

"Yes," she said, "What is there?"

He sighed, "It is all that's left of a huge forest now that once covered all of this land. See the very large tree rising out of the middle? That's where I was born, in that tree. I'm glad that it still stands. When you have seen enough, take us high again if you wish." 

Minutes later, he felt her face move and she laid her head over his in the bunk even as they dreamed and flew. Though they flew out over what he knew to be the Pacific Ocean, he recognized that he felt peace inside him and knew that she waited.




The Industrial Elf Ch. 08



"Aksun," he said, "I loved you from when I saw you in the rushes. Elves are always even in their hearts, not usually sad, not usually joyous, but always content. I have no words for what I feel for you, but I'm at peace and I can say that I'm so happy too. It is unusual for me."

"If I can ask it of you, Elohan, I want to sleep now. I will bring us back, and then if we can, I need you to claim me. You only have to be inside. I think that is all that I am ready for. Use me if you wish, but be gentle. I need you there to claim you as mine too if we are a pair now."

"Then take us back, Aksun, but I won't use you. I'll only do what you need me to do. After this, I can wait for anything."

------------------------

He was still hard.

Just the tip of him was inside of her, but somehow, it hadn't gone farther and it hadn't slipped out.

And by some wonder that he didn't understand, he was still hard.

"How, ...?"

He felt her face against his as she rubbed her cheek on his, sighing to him, "You and I break all of the rules, Elohan. This is not supposed to be, what we have. But I know what this is, here. We hold our males," she whispered. "It is to be sure that the seed is passed to us from the male. We mate like it is done here everywhere, just the same way, but when the male gives his seed and we feel it, we milk him to get it all. Neither has to move then.

But this is not supposed to be able to happen yet, not the way that we are not joined. Somehow, I can hold you like this enough for us to dream and it is enough."

"It's not supposed to happen?" he asked.

"No," she sighed, "Most males are not like you are in the shape and most males are smaller than you. But royal males are larger, just as you are, and any female is built to take a royal male if she must. What will you do now, Elohan?"

He turned his head a little to kiss her softly for a moment. "What do you wish for me to do?"

She looked into his eyes, and he felt her tiny smile. "Aksun now wishes to be claimed by her male. I do not know how it is done between elves, but on my world, it is the custom that the very first pairing is to be done slowly. For the new pair to give in to a wild and fast coupling is considered rude, and so it is only permitted on the second day -- never the first time. The male must show that he can be patient and kind with his new mate. The female must not appear to be too eager to do it quickly."

He saw her smile widen, "But that is only the custom. With my people, there is almost always a true reason behind everything. For this, the real reason is to allow the female to find the best fit between the two and change herself inside. It cannot be done quickly, so it is important that it goes slowly, unless this is not a life-pairing. But if it is to be that, we can fit ourselves to our males perfectly for the best pleasure to both. Once it is done, the two fit together perfectly; a reward to both for their lifetime.

Come," she whispered, "take me slowly, and let me find the fit -- if I can fit myself to one such as you. We love each other, and we can dream together. That is enough for me to know that we can be a pair, so now I must say the words -- as close as I can in these words which we use here so that you can understand."

She reached for his face and held him so that they faced each other. After a moment, she made her decision. "I accept you as mine," she said solemnly, "Tell me that you claim me as yours, and that is what I will be."

Elohan didn't really need to think about it very much. The only issue for him was his normal way of holding back and never believing what he saw in others -- since thus far, it had given him only momentary happiness, or at best happiness for a few decades, which to an elf is nothing or not far off nothing. Madeleine's life had seemed to blitz by him and then he had nothing but memories of someone who had touched his heart for a time.

Without his even being aware of it somehow, Aksun had found where and how he'd hidden it. She'd not only stolen it, she'd shown him what she could do with his heart and he had no way to settle this within himself, no compartment that it would fit into. Without a cubby hole or a shelf, he'd be forced to look at what grew between them and deal with it constantly. 

For perhaps the first time in his long life since he'd loved his princess, it was something that he wanted to embrace.

He looked into her eyes, "Is that what I have to say?"

She kissed his nose and her felt her cheek against his in the next instant, "Before I lose my courage, Elohan, please say something like that to me."

It felt a little wrong to him to say that he was claiming her as though she was an article of clothing in a human lost and found bin somewhere. He didn't know why the image of it came to his mind, but there it was. Then he imagined the way the way that it might feel to have something that you knew was yours in your possession. The possession part bothered him then, but he got the rest of it in a heartbeat.

"Aksun, I take you as mine. I don't want to live anywhere now but with you."

She drew her head back, "We stay together and we travel? I will go where you lead me."

He nodded, "Until we can't, and then we'll walk if we have to, but I think I have to have you near me now." 

He smirked a little, "We'll be a strange pair of lost elves or whatever we are, but with the moon and the stars over us, we'll be fine, wherever we go."

She lifted her legs and reached for his flanks and, laying her hands there with her fingers spread widely and being careful to consciously draw in her claws, Aksun pulled him to her and rocked her slim hips back as she got him in deeper.

She was amazed to find there was farther to pull in, so she did, worrying just a little. 

She felt him slide into her as she hissed into his ear in a bit of pain. His eyes opened wide in shock and surprise, but he saw her smiling back at him in a moment. 

"Did I hurt you?" he asked, and she shook her head. 

"No, I hurt myself a little with this thing of yours. You do not have the right end on you for me and you take all the space that I have. It was my fault to do it in one motion as well, but at last, I know what I need and I accept you.

It begins then," she grinned, "and Aksun takes her male as he takes her. I did not ever think that I would have one at all, and I never thought that one so beautiful to my eyes would choose me. Slowly now, Elohan, and I will find the fit if I even can. The end of you is wrong, but I will try to fit to you in this if it can be done."

Elohan was amazed at the feeling of it and he was mindful of what she'd said about the slowness that she needed. He felt things. He felt her changing inside and though there were brief periods where the fit was a little too tight and sometimes a lot looser, after a very few minutes, he had to admit that it was incredible. To him, she changed how it felt to him every half-minute or so.

"This is only you fitting us together for the first time?" He whispered, and she shook her head, "That part is already done, as much as I can do it. Go as far in as you can and it should not hurt me again -- I hope."

He lifted himself up onto his elbows then and he reached for one breast with his hand. Aksun trembled and keened into his ear for some moments before he heard her thanking him. He couldn't keep his hands from her body and finally settled in so that they looked at each other's faces as they copulated. 

There were times when she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and he thought that he'd hurt her somehow, but she said that nothing hurt her now and that it was just her way to ride what she felt - and then she did it again, sometimes silently and sometimes with very soft cries which twisted his heart to hear. 

It was a long time after when he heard her plaintive mewling as he came. The way that her body held onto him and seemed to be milking as much out of him as it could was a little amazing to him to say the least. At last, she released him and he slipped out of her.

He asked after a moment and she amazed him again when she told him that she'd felt his release into her.

"How? Why would you feel --"

She shrugged, I do not know, but I know what I felt and it was so good to me."

When his breathing slowed to a more normal rate, he was surprised, since they hadn't been going very quickly at all. Elohan thanked Aksun and she smiled very softly up at him as she toyed with his hair.

"I have only done this reluctantly with a male once, but I know how it was for my female friends," she said, " None said anything to me about it feeling like what I felt and how hard it was to fit to their males - and not one said a word of feeling it when they let seed go. But I knew it when it came to me. It was easily felt. Is this the way of elves?"

He didn't catch it within the first second, but he thought that he did hear something in what she said.

"How do you mean?" he asked her a little cautiously, "Wasn't it what you liked? Did I do something wrong or something like that?"

Her reply was a long slow chuckle that he thrilled to hear from her, "No at all, Elohan. I am not used to doing this at all, never mind with someone so kind as you are.

And I am not used to getting half a year's loving in one long mating, that is all. It was SO good, but I was not prepared for how long an elf can keep his mind on mating like that."

He blinked for a moment, "Half a year, ... What?"

"I could not keep up with you, Elohan," she smiled, "I had my coming -- or that is what Donna called it -- over and over, but you still went on. Are you certain that I pleased you?"

He grinned a little, "Oh, you pleased me, Aksun. Don't think that you didn't. But ... um, ... "

"Then, did I do it wrong?"

"No, ..." he smiled, "I can say that I have never had ... I am amazed. I am always amazed with you.

I guess that in human terms, I must be over four hundred years old, not that it makes a lot of difference to me. But I can say that in all of that time, well, I've never felt anything as good as that. Was there anything more of this dreaming in it for you?"

She nodded, "Yes, but not in a 'together' kind of way. It was just my joy to have you like that and I sought for ways to try and remind myself of this for when the days pass while you regain your want of me again. I never thought that it could be so good for so long with you."

Elohan didn't know what to think right then, so he decided to ask cautiously, "How, ... uh, how many times do your people do it in a single time, then"

Aksun blinked at him, "Why, only once. Why? It was not enough for you?"

He smiled that little smile of his, the one that she now loved to see on that face, "It was more than enough. But that was then and this is now. Do you think that you'd like to do it again? Maybe again sometime a little less than half a year from now?"

Aksun's eyes went wide, "Oh yes! That would make me very happy if I had the chance to please you again before that, Elohan. I love you quite a lot already and I have made my choice in you. Could we do that again tomorrow?"

He laughed then, "How about right now?"

Her mouth opened in astonishment, "You would want me again now? Are you sure that I pleased you? I can accept it if I did not. I know that we are different, Elohan. Are you sure?"

He was already hardening but he contracted the internal muscles that he felt and he began to harden more quickly. He nudged her with it once briefly.

"Oh, I'm sure, Aksun."

She blinked up at the male that she'd chosen for a few moments more and then she rolled them as far as she could in the cramped space. Elohan was in a bit of shock at her strength, but he liked it.

Aksun whimpered in joy and she was all over him.

The third time, he looked up at the way that she moved as she rode him and he was sure that he'd never seen anything so lovely. She stopped after a while and he asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing is wrong to me, Elohan, but you looked for a moment as though your heart was stopped and I thought -- "

He shook his head with a smile as he reached for her hips and thrust again, "It's nothing, Aksun. I sometimes think I am still dreaming a little."

Her head went back and she looked up at the ceiling as she gasped and the next moment, she was back at it and grinning down at him, "That is not nothing, Elohan, what you have just done."

She watched it as he gasped when she tightened on him and bore down hard, "Just as that was nothing as well. And we can do that - perhaps as we dream. We will have to try."

The last time that they did it, he'd mounted her from behind and she loved the way that his hands felt on her body. It wasn't done where she came from and so it was new and felt so good to her. To look back at him was still a thrill to her every time, but perhaps what made it so much more of a thrill to her was what she saw in his eyes, and the way that it felt when he pressed in deeper every so often was a joy as well, since she'd adjusted to him perfectly. 

When they lay in the bunk together, Aksun curled herself around him and kissed him as softly as she could. 

"I feel as though I am someone else now," she smiled after the kiss, "I am still Aksun, but now I finally feel that I belong and have a place and though I have said it before, Elohan - and this mating only plays a part in it - I will never leave you."

She moved his hair out of his eyes again, "Could we do that again tomorrow?"

"Yes," he smiled, "but -- "

"I have always hated that word when Donna said it to me. What is the 'but'?"

"Nothing," he said, "I'm a little thirsty, and all I've got it that terrible beer. Give me a chance to drink one, and -- "

"No," she said, her eyes widening, "Again? We have done it four times and I have had happiness several times in each one. All that it takes is a little beer?"

He laughed, "No. There's no connection, Aksun. I'm just a bit thirsty. Why? Have you had enough of me?"

"No, she smiled, "I just think that I need to grow accustomed to mating as often as my elf wants me. Is this a marriage?"

He kissed her and closed his eyes with a sigh, "Maybe in its simplest terms if two people stay together after the first night." He opened his eyes again and got up a little to pull pillows over for them. When they got settled, he said, "I'll want to marry you under the stars, I think. And I'll want a lot of that, though not really the beer. We can skip the beer. Actually, forget I mentioned it."

He reached for her and she felt his hand on her shoulder and the slight tickle felt so nice as he reached a little further to feel the mane in the center of her back, "I love your body so much. Little things like the way that your mane runs in a line and is attached all the way to where it ends."

He had a thought then and if he could feel so certain of how he felt towards her and how she captivated him and just kept right on doing it and not knowing that she did it at all...

He looked at her sweet face and the way that her teeth glittered and yet didn't look anything other than perfect on her to him as she smiled while she waited for him to say something to her - anything ... he just knew this was right.

"If I'm not ready now, for someone who amazes me every few seconds the way you so, then Aksun, I never will be. Is this what you want? You, me, here like this?"

She looked at the way that the waning moon had sunk low in the sky and its pale light caused the tattoos on him to shimmer a little as he breathed.

"I have a male," she said after a moment, "finer than any that I might have had where I was born. I leak his seed from me as I have for such a long time this night. If I was happier, I would cry and not only struggle not to."

She pulled herself tightly against him, "Aksun loves Elohan."

-----------------------

There were some of her tears in the morning, since both Donna and Tony had passed on during the night. Elohan buried Donna first and he watched as Aksun wept for her. He buried Tony alone and went to wash up.

They were on the road an hour later, Elohan driving in silence as Aksun sat looking like a blonde young woman in the other seat, hunched down a little wearing one of his ball caps. She sniffled often and sometimes she just wept and held his hand, but Elohan had the distinct feeling that it was far less than what it would have been otherwise.

They stopped here and there on the road as they needed to. She sat and enjoyed one of the shows that he took her to in a casino in Las Vegas. Afterwards, she astounded him yet again when he took her to the slot machines.

Explaining it all to her and saying that many humans loved to do this, though he personally did not understand the attraction, she spent exactly ten dollars. The first five was to watch and learn. The second five was the one where her hand flashed out to slap the button, and that had him standing there while she blinked and asked him if she'd done anything wrong. He got them out of there with their eleven hundred dollar winnings and had them back on the road and rolling as he laughed a little and shook his head.

"What was all of the noise for?" she asked, and he explained again that she'd won.

"Humans like a lot of noise when they win. It doesn't happen much," he said, "They lose almost all of the time."

"I only had to feel the way the machine moved inside," she said, "It is timing and numbers.

And being quick before the right one passed by. I do not see much to it. Take us back, and I can show you again and again, now that I know."

Trying to explain after that was a long talk indeed.

Aksun was feeling somewhat better by then in their journey and she had questions. He told her that if she was sure about them, then he was long past deciding that he wanted to wed her. She wanted to know what humans (and elves) did during all of their mating. Elohan gave her a long look and she nodded, "Well I wish to know."

So he bought her a couple of porn DVDs and she watched them on the portable player that he bought for her as they drove. He also bought a few regular movies and she became a huge fan of a little robot whose purpose was to compact trash. She loved the interaction between him and his sleek floating girlfriend. She actually wept a little during the sad parts.

The next time that they were shopping for groceries, he found her looking at a bin of old DVDs, and she held up one with a blonde man on it and he told her a little of the old Greek tale of Helen of Troy. Then he bought it for her, hoping a little to hear a lot less moaning from the DVD player out on the road from the porn videos.

She found that she liked chewing gum, so he bought some for her as well as a pair of mirror aviator sunglasses. 

A while later and far down the road, he asked her if she liked the role which the blonde actor played in the movie. She nodded as she looked over at him, chewing a wad of gum under her sunglasses and ball cap.

"Yes. He made me think of you but his ears are too short and you have better hats," she said, and they both laughed.

The next few nights were wonderful to them both as Aksun applied what she'd learned from the porn disks.

None of it mattered at all to Elohan. What mattered to him was that Aksun was getting better and the next week he had passport photos taken of her.

The next thing was that she waited in the closed-up camper for him for several hours until he returned and drove them away. As they left that city, he handed her an envelope which contained curious documents to her.

"I want you to stare at the picture and remember just the way that you looked then. You'll need to look very close to that in a little while," he said.

She compared her papers to his and looked over, "We have the same second name. Is this an error?




The Industrial Elf Ch. 08



He just shook his head and smiled, "No, it's just a little ahead of time. Aksun. That's all."

It wasn't much of a tense time crossing the border when they did. Things were looking to be moving along a little slowly, so Elohan had the time to note the dark line of the approaching storm and as soon as he saw the first flicker in the clouds, he had his idea and watched with a bit of interest as they were processed. He was pleased that Aksun was a lot smoother with her speech and seemed friendly to anyone who spoke to her. 

They were halfway through the questions when the power went out. A few seconds later, the power utility switchgear attempted to re-close. It was successful on the third try and everyone got back to matters at hand. None of it had anything to do with Elohan, but he looked out through the window at the incoming supply transformer.

It fed a larger unit on the ground and Elohan thought about that for a moment.

There was a visible flicker from the pole as he forced a surge which he knew would be too much for the insulation in the larger unit and even in the building, he could hear the sound as it growled and sizzled. What came to him was that this was an oil-cooled unit and that oil was rapidly breaking down the longer that this went on.

The next flash lit up the place really well, but that was because the transformer on the concrete pad out there exploded, though the metal casing contained the blast as it had been designed to do. 

It plunged everything into a much longer-lasting darkness. 

There was emergency lighting and some back-up power available, they were told, but just then, and again - it had nothing to do with the elf, but he was pleased when the hail began.

Whether because of the transformer or the hail, they didn't know, but they were processed quickly after that and after a jog through the hail, they were off.

"This looks the same as what we left," Aksun said that night and she asked why and shouldn't it look different at all if this was another place.

Elohan lifted his head from between her legs and asked her if she really wanted the answer right then.

She smirked and pressed his head down again, "Later." 

The pair had their 'wedding' the next week in a moonlit clearing in a forest. The only thing that bothered Aksun were the mosquitoes, but she told him that it was well worth it to her anyway.

At some point, they had to park the camper and the trailer and they went on using only the motorcycle, and after a time, they finally did have to walk. But as they came to a majestic-looking valley with a large lake and a lot of woods around it, Elohan stopped and stood still.

"What is it?" Aksun asked, looking up and he shrugged, "We are here. For the first time in almost all of my life, my heart tells me that I stand in the right place."

It took a day for them to be noticed and as they ate their evening meal, Elohan looked up across the campfire and smiled. His call brought a pair of young elves out of the thickets, wondering about the greeting that they'd heard in their tongue.

'Jack' and 'Aggie' pretty much ceased to exist after that. The travelers were welcomed by the band of moon elves and after a lot of talk and careful looks, they were told of the king who had been chosen to take Elohan's place. He was pleased and said so and it just seemed that they were accepted after that point.

After the initial surprise and curiosity, Aksun was happy to find that she was accepted as well. It had been a worry for her the whole way. But she learned that the elves - those who were left - were even less interested in humans than Elohan and she soon found that she had friends.

The pair settled down in a large tree near the entrance to a small cave and began to live free. When the winter winds settled into the valley, they were in the cave and lay together dreaming.

A little more often than not, Elohan asked to see more of what Aksun had left behind, and by the spring, they could converse in another language between themselves, and by the next summer, Aksun was filling out as her guessed-upon delivery date drew nearer.