Keeper of the Lost Cities: War

Chapter Twenty Nine

Tam felt weird.

He currently sat in this strange, humongous room, people adorned in some of the frilliest dresses and tunics that he had ever seen.

Elves were dancing, enjoying themselves, basically just having the time of their lives.
There was no war, at least no mention of war, and nobody argued.

This was all that existed currently, and all that had ever existed to begin with.

He was stuck at this party for as long as he could remember, and he couldn't remember what happened before the party, or what led to the party happening in the first place.

He vaguely recalled a battle, though now it seemed like a distant dream.
Though he didn't remember any of the details of the battle, or even what, or who, he had been fighting for, only that the word seemed painfully familiar.

Time went on, the music in the air giving Tam a sense of uneasiness as it was the same lullaby his mother would sing to him when he was scared of thunderstorms.

Wrapped up under a blanket cuddled against her in his nightdress.
He could almost hear her telling him- now now sweetie, a strong little girl like you doesn't need to be scared of storms-
It was a time he remembered feeling safe, before he really understood the problems being associated with being a twin.

The word for some reason sent his stomach spiraling into a deep loneliness, as if he had forgotten why the word twin made him sad.

Why would it?

Linh was right there spinning in a blue and silver dress, laughing so hard tears came to her eyes, with Marella in her arms blushing furiously.

  Yet somehow it made the loneliness grip Tam's stomach even worse.

He needed to go to the bathroom.
To get out of this room.

Even though it was large and spacious, the number of people in it was too many for his comfort.

As he ran about trying to find an exit, he kept running into his friends.

Sophie.

Dex.

Maruca and Stina.

Biana and Fitz.

Jensi.

Wylie.

Everyone was happy.
And that felt foreign to Tam.

Every time he caught a glimpse of Lonh through the crowd, her image flickered as though some suppressed memory was threatening to tear down her where she stood.

And that scared him.

Was this not real?

Why couldn't this be real?

Tam could touch and feel and smell, so what's to say none of this was real anyway?

All of this, made his head hurt so bad that it felt like it was splitting in two, so Tam clutched his head to try to keep everything together.

He wanted to stay in this place.

He didn't want to go back to whatever he was trying to forget.

Suddenly all the noise stopped and Tam found his hands being pulled away from his face gently.

He opened his eyes again to find that every last person had vanished form the ballroom, making him feel even smaller than he actually was.

Standing in front of him, the only other person in the room now, was a certain elf, the owner of two cobalt blue eyes.