Willow's End - Jera Skyspear
Elvish words/phrases linked to Glossary OR hover mouse to see translation.
The Library: Part Seven

They started up the gravel path toward the hall and Jera had another little thought about their trip, "On my next tour to the Library, perhaps I'll tarry in that smaller room and see what secrets I can find about a certain elf when he was young?"

Ashe stopped and grinned at her, "There's not much to see in there."

"Not much to see or something you'd rather I didn't?"

"We led fairly normal lives for children of our race, at least until the war began. I've nothing to hide," he chuckled.

"Ah, but has that always been true? Surely there is some cryptic letter or clue... something... embarrassing?" She playfully wiggled a brow at him.

"Nothing that I can recall, but if it interests you, feel free."

Jera sighed, "You know it's not nearly as fun to jibe you if you're going to be so easy to take it."

"I'm sorry. I was serious, there's not much there."

"Well then... I may have to make inquiries of Master Qwert. I'd guess that he knows a thing or two... about everything." She snickered and Ashe had to laugh, "Oh my, now I am in trouble."

"Aha! Now I may have at you, sir!" She stepped away from Ashe and swished an imaginary blade in the air, much as he had done to battle dust bunnies in his old room. Ashe gave out a theatrical groan and hunched over, "Skewered on the sharp point of my misspent youth! Alas!"

Jera took up a corner of her new cloak into her hand and pretended to wipe off her imaginary blade with it. "Fortunate indeed that this cloth holds no stain."

"Ah," Ashe looked up from his wounded curl, "Would that my poor heart could claim the same. For it is marked forever yours."

She smiled softly as she tilted her head to the side, "Does it, my love? If so, then I bear the very same ailment. May I never recover."

Ashevathallion straightened and leaned forward to kiss her lightly. "That is my thought as well." She returned the favor then spoke against his lips. "Then mind the hawthorn. It could cause a recovery." She leaned back from him with a highly amused grin, to which he nodded solemnly, "Right.. steer clear of hawthorn... definitely." He grinned then and held out his hand again. "Come along, love... before the guards in the trees die with jealousy."

Jera took his hand then waited until they were almost to the firehall doors then teased, "Oh? Have some shown an interest in you?" She broke free and ducked into the hall giggling. Ashevathallion stopped, blinked in amazement, then roared with laughter as he chased her like a youngster.

She actually shrieked when she saw he was giving chase, although the sound was not so harsh as that. She didn't run so much as walk very quickly to the bar, which took only seconds with her long stride. "Lumiere!" she yelled, barely able to contain her laughter, "Have you no hiding cubby for an elf woman?"

"Ah Hah!" Ashe called from close behind her, "No help, Lumiere is not here!"

"I see that now!" she called over her shoulder just before ducking into the kitchen and scaring the living daylights and a head of lettuce from a rather diminutive kitchen helper.

"You are lost, milady." Ashe continued around the bar, "I've the benefit of hours of chasing chil---" He cut off his own retort as he saw her escape to the kitchen and set off in hot pursuit.

Jera wound her way through the kitchen, trying not to upset anything hot or slippery, then zipped out into the cook's herb cutting garden which she knew very well. She dropped down into a crouch behind a rather overgrown but unfortunately mostly seeded shrub. As such, it was not as much cover as she'd have liked, considering her pale visage against the night.

Ashe fairly easily followed her trail through the kitchens simply by reading all the surprised looks on the faces of the staff. That surprise was double as he himself passed through in her wake, a very tall seemingly adult elf yelling "Ah HAH!" as he too rushed in the direction of the herb garden. "Come back, milady... for you have stolen my heart, and I have need of it."

While waiting in her rather less than secure hiding place, Jera grabbed a handful of dried fronds and waited until she saw the shine of Ashe's hair in the moonlight, then winged the crisped foliage at him. It didn't fly nearly as well as she'd have liked. She eeked and ran toward the flower gardens and the plaza, while calling back to him, "Never shall I give it back! I've only just found I had it!"

He ducked the flutter of leaves and stems, "Then come and share it with me. I give it over to your keeping." Ashevathallion was so busy 'pleading' that he failed to see a low tray of seedlings and tripped over them.

Jera turned sharply at the corner of the decorative wall edging the walkway back into the firehall. She pressed back against it, breathlessly trying not to laugh in her excitement. Then when there was a pause, no response and no pursuer, she wondered if he gave up. "Ashe?" She leaned and peered around the edge of the wall, half expecting him to jump out at her, however, he was now lying flat on his back in the midst of the herb garden.

She leaned a bit further then remained rather hunched over to sneak back along her path. Yet out of a bit of concern, she called out again quietly, "Ashe?" When she re-entered the herb garden, she blinked down at the rather long 'planting' in the middle of it. It was of course Ashevathallion, laying flat out and holding in one hand a wilted flower, its stem resting in the vicinity of his navel. Jera tiptoed over to him. "Handsome man you are, decorative planter you are not." She knelt by his side. "Ashe... Are you alright?

He cocked one eye open then reached with one hand to grasp Jera's wrist gently as he proffered her the flower with the other. "I am content. For you have captured my heart, and now I've captured you." He grinned, pushed himself up on an elbow, and kissed her. She returned his kiss, giggling into it at first, then enjoying it more seriously. As the kiss dissolved, Jera spoke against his lips, "Seems fair, for my heart was with you already."

Ashevathallion kissed her again then reluctantly pushed himself away and up to his feet. "We must observe the proprieties, love. It would never do to have whispers start of illicit love amongst the herb plants... And besides, I landed on my posterior." He scrunched one side of his face in a mild grimace as he still felt the ache of it.

Jera lifted her hand to Ashe so he might help her stand as well, although she could do so without it. "I think the plants would not be so disturbed by illicit love, for how do you think they propagate?" she grinned, "But now, sitting on them and lounging about on them, well..."

"Aye, a crushing incident, surely." He helped her up, then started with her toward the kitchen door.

She snickered, "I've a cure for that. Nettles."

"Oh, I think I'll pass on that, " Ashe winced.

"Well, it would keep you from sitting so hard again, would it not?"

"But it might wound my pride... among other things."

Jera grew more serious and stopped them before they went inside, "So sorry you took a tumble. I was just, oh, working off energy I had not used in the last few days? The Library was no place for it."

"Oh yes, not the place at all. Qwert would agree," he grinned.

"He's not as stuffy as I recall from that visit with my mother, but I think that a game of hide and seek in the stacks would not have---" She forgot what she was saying as Ashe lifted her hand and kissed the back of it.

He did not release her hand as he looked toward the kitchen door then out into the night, making a decision. "Alas, I fear I must surrender the night's contest to you, Jera Skyspear. It grows late, and Ian's children, like a bed of nettles, spring up early."

She nodded, "And I must rest this weary head, heavy with information I have yet to absorb."

"With all those new thoughts, do not forget this one. You truly hold my heart, Lady Jera."

"And you mine, Ashevathallion."

"Amin mela lle," he said softly and kissed her hand again. She could but smile and nod her agreement at first, then managed to reply, "A'maelamin, goodnight... and good rest."

"Tenna' tul're, a'maelamin," Ashe smiled and slowly set her hand free before turning to walk into the night and on to Blackthorn Manor. Jera watched him for a moment as she ran her hand over the soft fabric of her new cloak, then she drifted out through the garden on her way home.

(from 2002 1124) © DHP and Bill West

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