Rose 2-17: Different opinions

Skye

     I set up an archery range at our little camp. I say 'little camp' because that's how I think of it. I find it hard to believe that Lorelei lives here year round. When I ask her, she tells me she has a house in town, but that she doesn't like to live there during the warmer months. I get the feeling that she only goes to live in the town in the colder months because she has the choice of that or freezing out here. I want to do something about that, but more on that later.
     I've decided I really like archery. I did it at scout camp to earn a badge, but back then I only did it to get out of that arts and crafts class or the 'field' part of track and field.
     Not too long after I'd gotten here, Lorelei had taken me to the then-deserted fairgrounds as part of her showing me around.

    I had been running around on the little parapets before heading back down the stairs to where Lorelei had taken up a bow to do a little practice while I explored. I quickly told her about how I'd learned to do that as a child. She smiled condescendingly at me and fired her arrow, and it landed dead-center on the target. Then she motioned for me to come and show her.

     I remember being hot under the summer sun in my warmer clothes from back home while she stood next to me and corrected me on my stance. I felt instantly irritated as I looked back at her and told her, "I know what I'm doing."

    "Bam! There. See?" I said to her, immensely happy with myself. I've still got it! I thought as I looked where the arrow had been buried where the dummy's heart would be.

     "Um, Skye?" Lorelei said questioningly. "You were supposed to hit the apple on his head."
     "What? No. I was aiming right for the heart, where you're supposed to aim so that you can one-shot him." I lightly argued.
     "'One-shot' him?"
     "Yeah. You know, pierce the heart so you don't have to fire again."
     "I know what you mean." she said irritatedly. "I've never heard it called that before though."
     I turned and looked at her strangely. That's what I'd always called it.

      I sighed and said, "Okay, you want accuracy?" I always win.
      "I'm only trying to help." she said. At the time, I'd had no idea how old and really experienced she was. I acted like a total jerk, but I was only trying to impress her.

     I hit the moving bulls-eye right in the center. There! I thought loudly in my head, but I didn't rub it in. She could see it for herself.
     "Good job!" she said, and I started to feel better. "But you could get more power out of it if you improved your stance."

    I laugh to myself as I remember how mad I'd gotten that she still wasn't satisfied from a dead-center shot. The past few days, I've been taking her advice, and I must admit that the arrow flies with a lot more force.
     My fingers glide along the stiff shafts of the feathers at the end of the arrow as I think about an idea that I need to carefully bring to Lorelei's attention. I don't think she's going to like it, but I can't figure out a better way.
     "You're getting better." she says as she walks up next to me. She reaches up and lightly touches my elbow in an unspoken request to lower it a tiny amount.
     "Practice makes perfect, right?" I say and let the arrow fly.
     I hear the smile in her voice as she says softly right into my ear, "But can you do it distracted?" Then her fingers lightly run up the exposed parts of my stomach through the lacing.
      I quickly let my next arrow fly. It lands right on the dummy's groin as I throw my bow down and turn to kiss her passionately.

      The next day, Lorelei comes back from her foraging to find me sitting in front of a surprise for her.
      "Skye? What happened?"

     "I have no idea what you're talking about." I answer facetiously.
     "How did you do that?"
     "Do what?"
     "You're sitting in front of a building." she says exasperatedly.

     "What, this? It's nothing much. Only one room really. Oh, and a fireplace with a chimney."

     "And more furniture." I finish.
     "But... how?"

     I shrug. "I'm a sim. Why shouldn't I be able to build a house in a day?"
    She laughs, and I take her inside so that we can break in our new bed.

     A few days later, I start to realize my limit on not shaving. I head into town to see what I can do about it, and while I'm here, I meet a few locals. A few of them act a little stuck up, but I try to not let it bother me.

    This guy starts feeding me gossip I really don't want to hear until I hear Lorelei mentioned. He tells me that the whole town thinks she's nuts.
    "And, no offense, but I heard she married a human!" the guy finishes.

    "Interesting. Yes, I was actually aware of that since I'm her new husband." I tell the man and watch him try to dig himself out of the hole he created.

    He takes me over to meet the guy that performed the marriage ceremony's wife, and she too tries to convince me that my wife is insane. I decide that if this is the way full-blooded elves act then I want very little to do with them.

     "Who's to say she's not right? She could be!" I say.
     The man tells the woman, "Remember to whom you're talking."
      She apologizes and adds, "I was only trying to warn you."

     After the two elves leave, I head over to the bar section of the place. The bartender is a human, and I'm actually grateful for that. We talk for a little while, and I gather from her that she believes Lorelei, but she stays quiet about it.

    She makes me a drink on the house, and warns me to stop mentioning Lorelei's prediction because it makes the elders angry. I begin to understand why Lorelei prefers the woods and hills over living in town. I got the feeling that the elves were more 'understanding' of me because I'm 'nothing but a human', that I don't matter.
     Matter or not, I still have a voice, a brain, and an opinion.
     Maybe the dragons are right in hating the elves.
      A few minutes after I finish my drink, I find a barber of sorts before I decide to go ahead and keep my beard to really throw it into people's faces that I'm human since elves can't grow them.
      I ask the man about a tool sitting on a small table. He also does tattoos! I happily pay him for one that I feel suits my mood and situation. He, also human, laughs a little at my decision.
       I spend a few hours getting to know the rest of his clientele, and I discover that not everyone in town is as stuck up as I first found them to be. Almost all of them are human.

    I spend the entire day in town, and I get back up to our little house in the woods very late. When I walk in, I find Lorelei asleep on the bed, fully clothed.

     I sigh and decide to join her, wrapping my arm around her waist and listening to her breathe as she sleeps. She smells so good.

    I guess my arm being around her starts to wake her up because she makes a small, content noise and lies on her back. She still acts tired though.

    "You're back." she says sleepily up to me when she opens her eyes.
    "Sorry I was gone so long. I got busy talking to people."
    She smiles a little and says, "But you didn't get what you wanted to do accomplished." She reaches up a hand and runs her fingers against my stubble.
     "I decided to keep it. I hope that's okay."
     She stays quiet for a few moments before she requests, "Don't let it get too long, please."
     "Okay." I say, not knowing for sure how I'm going to keep that promise especially with the journey I want to take. "Lorelei, I have something to tell you."
      "I know what the people in the town say about me." she says.
      "I know you know, but that's not what I mean." I say. After a curious look from her, I say, "I want to try to find the dragons." I let it all out real quick.

    "That's insane." she says, but she doesn't sound surprised.
    "Maybe." I agree and roll on top of her. "But I'm curious."
    "They could kill us without a blink... and that's if we find them."
    "You said they lived in the mountains." I remind her.
    "I'm not sure where."
    "I have to try." I say, and we don't talk much after that because she pulls out the ultimate distraction technique.

     The next morning, she finally sees my new tattoo. When she questions me about it, I shrug and tell her it felt right. I hope she doesn't have a problem with me having a tat because she has one all down her right arm and up to her back.
     "You really are serious about this journey you want to take." she says.
     "Yes." I answer.

     "Then, I suppose we'd better go soon before the weather turns colder." she relents.

Rose 2-16: Stunned into silence

Skye

    Lorelei and I spend the entire day after my wish really getting to know one another. I find out, to her blushing profusely, that it wasn't me she was summoning -- or intending to summon. I arrived because I'm her soulmate. I definitely believe the soulmate thing even if it sounds a little ridiculous to me. If it were anyone but her saying that, I'd laugh.

     I find out that she'd hoped to bring in a military genius or something. When I ask her why, she tells me that she'd had a vision of the dragons from the elder days coming to reclaim the valley. Normally, I'd laugh at this idea too. I mean really, I thought she was kidding. Dragons? But I've seen people in the village with little pet dragons. Lorelei says the old ones were/are much bigger and a thousand times more dangerous.

    I find it interesting that when I talk about where I'm from and about the fairies there that she finds that hard to believe. I'd never thought that someone would find fairies hard to believe. They've always been around. Here, they're a myth.

    She didn't even know what genies were. I had to fully explain them to her.

    She also found it cool that several members of my family are witches.

    I ask her if she'd tried to warn the village. Surely, I thought, there's some defense system in place. She tells me that she tried, and they told her to stop trying to cause a panic, that the dragons that survived the old war were so few in number that they don't pose a threat to anyone... if they're still alive today that is.

    Um, I may not be the expert here, but from what I've read, it only takes one dragon to waste a village, especially one that small.

     She tells me that her vision takes place when the snow is deep on the ground, and that doesn't happen for another six months, if it happens this year at all. It will take her, she says, four or five months to mix the potion necessary to cast the spell to send me home. When I tell her I don't want to leave her, she says she wants to go with me, that she's warned everyone as much as she can, and that this world is doomed... at least this section of it.

    She stirs, and I roll us onto our sides again. I love this, this simple stuff like waking up with her every morning.

     "Good morning." she says sleepily.

     "Good morning." I answer back to her small smile.

     "You still speak with an accent." she says, still smiling as I pet her face.

     "Well, I guess how I form the sounds didn't change, but I'm not complaining."

     "Neither am I." she agrees and kisses me lightly.

     "So, what's the plan today?" I ask.

     "I'd like to try to gather more of this one ingredient I need. As I do that, I guess I can show you around, this time being able to explain some things to you. It's a shame it'll all be destroyed."

      "Why does it have to be?" I ask.

      "Because they are not going to leave any survivors, and that means they'll have to burn everything before they build what they want, I guess."

      "I can't help but think there's got to be a way to stop it from happening."

      "I told you. The elders won't listen to me."

      "Ever thought of talking to the other side? A little diplomacy?" I question, and her eyes get wide.

      "Talk to the dragons?!" she asks in horror.

      "Why not?"

    She rolls over a little, and I prop myself up to look at her better.

    "Skye, from what I learned from my mother, you don't go talk to dragons. For one, their language is different. For another, they'd just as soon burn you to a cinder as talk to you. Elves have long been their enemy."

     "But you're half-human, and I'm not an elf at all." I try to reason.

     "Humans they give no heed to at all. They consider you lower life forms since your lifespan is so short."

      "And elves have a long one?" I ask. Then, I ask a question I've been told to never ask a woman: "How old are you?" I wouldn't blame her if she slaps me.

       She traces a single finger on my chest for a few seconds, looking down at it, before she answers, "I'm half-human and still over five hundred years old."

      I'm stunned into silence for about ten seconds or so before I have the crazy thought that she stayed a virgin for over five hundred years. Of course, I would have to think about sex first. Second, I think of how she'll probably live on long after I'm dead, and that makes me sad for her.

     I smile a little sheepishly and say, "Well, I never would've guessed." Thank goodness, she smiles a small smile.

     She kisses my chest once before looking back up at me to say, "Don't worry. I'm not offended by you asking. I suppose it's better for you to find out sooner rather than later." A thoughtful look crosses her face as she gets quiet.

     "What is it?" I ask.

     "There's a potion that can extend your lifespan, but I'll need some of the same ingredients that I'm gathering to mix the teleportation spell."

     "So gather more."

     "That's the problem. I already need loads of everything for two people, and I'm not sure I can find the ingredients in your world.... or if the same rules of magic apply. From what you've told me, I can hope, but I'm not sure I can find enough."

     I sit up a little more and pull her face to mine to kiss it. "Don't worry about it for now."

     "But I must!"

     "No. Don't waste time with worrying." An idea occurs to me. "I know what else we can do today. Marry me, Lorelei."

     It's her turn to be stunned into silence. Then, a beautifully-huge smile spreads across her face as she answers, "Alright."
      I smile back at her as I ask, "Where do we go to do this?"
      "Get dressed. I'll show you." she says as she hops up and holds out her hand for me.
      I put on the clothes that she got for me. I think they make me look less like an 'outsider'.

     I find it strange that the popular site to get married is at a huge tree.
     A priest of some sort that was a friend of Lorelei's mother condescends to perform the little ritual. It doesn't really matter to me what we do so long as we're married at the end of it.
      I end the day a married man.

     The next day, she takes me somewhere to see something as we wander around, trying to find the herbs she needs.
     "It's some kind of design, isn't it?" I ask.
     "Yes. You don't see it? Maybe it would be better if we were standing at its head instead of near the bottom of it, but I thought it would be easier to make out from this vantage point."
      I look up on the hill and see a pointed sail-type thing next to something that looks like a sea monster bobbing up. Wait a minute...
       I ask, "Is it a dragon?"
       "Yes. No one has been able to get anything to grow over it. It's magically etched into the landscape." she answers.

      "Ancient tagging. Real easy to understand. 'Property of dragons'." I say, and she asks me what tagging is before I explain graffiti to her.

      "Why would someone want to live here with that clearly marked on the ground? I'm actually surprised they've let it go as long as they have."
      She explains to me that they've fought over this valley for as long as anyone can remember. She tells me that this whole area is sacred because it's the legendary birthplace of all creation.
      Like some sort of Garden of Eden?
      "Whoever holds this valley controls the balance of power." she finishes.
      "But if one group throws out the other one, how can you call that balanced?"
      She stares back at me mutely, not having an answer to my question.