ELVEN | K.TH

1

RINEI

I speak, through the language of silence.

"Good evening, dear." My mother says, giving me a quick glance before turning back to the countertop. There's a delicious smell of roasting meat in the air, and I can already feel my mouth water as I take a seat.

I want to ask her what she's making. But I can't, not without my brother.

He soon comes lumbering out from his room, eyes drowsy and half-open from a nap.

I quickly tap his shoulder.

Jungkook, I sign. Ask her what she's making.

"Mom, she's asking what you're making." He says, rubbing out the sleep in his eyes. She doesn't hear him at first, too busy picking out the seasonings for the dish.

I tap him. Again. She didn't hear you.

He groans. And I frown at him— if he wasn't the only person that connected me to the world, I would choose to be much less nicer. Jungkook was the typical older brother, who just loved to annoy me every single chance he got.

Yesterday he'd dumped an entire bucket of cold water on me while I was showering, and I couldn't even scream the top of my head off to show how furious I'd been with him.

I'd only been able to grunt in shock, which had made him laugh even harder.

"Mom." He repeats. "What are you making?"

"Your father brought bacon home from hunting." She replies. "An entire weekly supply."

My eyes widen.

From hunting? Where? The forests?

Jungkook repeats my question, looking alarmed himself. We didn't have to be children to know that the forests behind our home was home to the  elves.

And the elves were dangerous.

"I understand you two." She says, putting her hair up in a bun. "But I made him promise a thousand times that he'd never do it again. He was lucky this time, that reckless man. He might easily get himself killed the next."

She shakes her head. "Can you call him here? Your father's probably sulking outside."

And he is.

I find my father looking all gloomy in the front porch, his gun by his feet. This happened every time mother got angry with him and they had an argument.

He loved her too much to ever want to argue with her.

I tap his shoulder. Then I point towards the kitchen, and he stands up with a heavy sigh.

"Did your mother call me?"

I nod.

"Is she still angry?"

I shake my head.

"Good." With a relieved breath, my father trots indoors. "I know that I made her worry, going into the forests. But food is running low and the only animals are the ones in there."

He disappears inside. And I linger out on the porch, my eyes fixing towards the forest line.

The trees are green as always. They've always stayed a vivid shade of emerald, even in the coldest winter.

One part of me thinks that it looks too peaceful, to be the home to such dangerous creatures. But the corpse I'd seen last week was very much real.