“All I’ve seen is the garden.Though I’d really like to visit his toilet now.”
The hardness in Deidre’s expression faded, and she released my shoulder.Still, her face hovered inches above mine.
“One final question,” she said with a hint of her usual, playful smile.“Do you desire him?”
I opened my mouth to deny it, then paused.Why lie now?Still, I hesitated, afraid of saying the words out loud.
“Come on now,” she dared me, “it’s a simple yes or no question.”
“Yes.”There.I admitted it to both her and myself.“I feel attracted to him.I don’t know how it happened but… yes.”
I expected those words to reignite Deidre.Instead, she smirked.
“Congrats.”She pulled away in one fluid motion, sliding the dagger into a silver sheath at the small of her back.
“On what?”My voice shook as the adrenaline crash finally caught up to me.
“On winning my help for your much desired visit to the toilet.”As I gaped, she threw my blanket aside and offered me a hand.“Come on, I’ll carry you there.It’s what friends do, ain’t it?Help each other pee?”
I cackled, the accumulated tension leaving me in a rush.This was crazy.A moment ago, I’d thought I might die, and now I had an elf friend.Congratulations, indeed.
– 14 –
Braid Linkage
Some ten minutes later, the two of us were sharing a bowl of nuts and fruit on the moss while Deidre was telling me about her childhood.
Apparently, elf children were quite independent, left with peers and older children while their parents were at work.Everyone, including the aristocrats, had to contribute to the Kingdomsomehow.
“When I was little,” Deidre explained around a mouthful of apple, “I had many friends.But after the age of five, children began picking on me over my strange eyes, hair color, and masculine body.That’s how I ended up hanging out with the two other freaks around here: the idiot and the dick.”
We giggled at the same time.
I couldn’t believe her toned body, which women would kill tohave and men would drool over, was an object of ridicule here.Elves.
“I’m sorry you were discriminated against.”
She waved her hand dismissively.“The others’ perception of me couldn’t stop me from growing as strong and fast as the best of themandhaving fun along the way.”She took another bite of the apple.“How about you?Happy childhood?”
“Yes.It was.My father left my mother when I was sixteen, but they had stopped being a couple a few years before that and just lived under the same roof.Both gave their best to provide me with a peaceful and safe home.”I was picking at the chestnuts in my bowl, lost in memories.“My father remarried two years ago, and my mom and I even went to the wedding.”
“Your mother is obviously a forgiving, kind soul,” Deidre declared while moving onto her third apple.“Here when a braid linkage is broken, she-elves tend to remain possessive of their former braid partners.”She chewed a bit, pensively.“Actually, they’re possessive of their ex-moss partners, too.”
“Mosspartners?”
“Boyfriend or girlfriend, to use the silly human term.That’s when you’re regularly interacting on the moss with someone without having been braid-linked.”
“Is that your equivalent of marriage–linking your braid with another’s?”Look at me–so interested in knowing more about Elvishculture.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that after meeting Karim, Deidre, and Tisvali, my perception of my hosts had changed.Elves would always scare me, but now I knew there was so much more to them than human killers and nature lovers.It was like with carnivorous plants: they were deadly to some creatures, but once you learned more about them, you realized they were not just insect-digesting leaves.
“Nah, it’s not exactly like marriage,” Deidre told me.“As far as I know, humans marry because they want to spend their livestogether.Linking your braid to another’s means you acknowledge them as partners in the creation and growing of new life.”
“Oh, I see.But isn’t this linking of hair a bit awkward when you try tointeracton the moss?”
Deidre laughed so hard that an apple seed flew out of her mouth.“Gods, imagine maneuvering with linked braids!”She kicked her feet as she giggled.“We do not keep our braids tied to each other indefinitely, Jasmine.It is done just for the ceremony.”
I chortled.“It figures.”
