Dedicated to the Elf Man, who followed the
elves that led him to my blog once so long ago. This is what I see of our past life,
our one relatively speaking short happy and contented life together.
We lived by the sea in a small cottage on the
shore away from hustle and bustle of the capital. We were happy together you
and I. We were neither very rich nor very poor, for all our needs were met. You
went out every morning in your boat, and brought food for us to eat. Strange food sometimes, gifts that the Mer people
your friends had given you to bring to shore. I had a vegetable garden in the
back, and with help from the plant devas our garden gave us more than enough
food to eat.
Our cottage was filled with remnants of our
old lives which neither of us could quite let go. The fancy furniture from both
our parents, the luxurious linens and clothes that we brought with us from the
capital. To an outsider who did not know us, we looked like any poor old elf
couple eking a simple living by the sea as we wore the simple clothes befitting
our current stature.
To those who did know us, whom I believed
despised us because turned our backs on everything we knew, we were that
rebellious couple with so much promise. You were the most brilliant wizard in
our class, and could have had your pick of serving any kingdom as a spiritual
leader. The head of our school said your powers were unlimited. There was only
one other person who was probably your equal, and that was me. I could have married a king or served as spiritual
leader to any kingdom, which would have my parents very happy.
We might have even been able to marry each
other, and served any number of kingdoms if we wanted to, for together we were
that powerful and wanted. But that was not what we wanted. Not after what we
had seen what was to come, what was to happen to our land and to our people.
And so we ran away, away from responsibility,
away from our families, for a chance to experience the happiness we knew we
would never have had we stayed. We had our many, many years together and we
were happy, but such happiness does not come without a price. To keep our identities
a secret, we vowed to never have children for a child would have seemed out of
place in our disguise as an older couple. How I longed for children in those
days, to see a miniature version of you or me or a mixture of both of us scampering
about our little cottage.
But the war that ravaged our land which we
had been able to escape finally reached us after all, no matter how many times
we moved to different shores. I sometimes think I can see the soldiers dragging
you away, but those memories are still so very painful even now that some part
of me blocks them away unwilling to let me experience the horrors of that day.