The Exquisite Melancholy of Jen'Alliah Starlight

Meh, School

Jen'Alliah sighed.

She sat at the back of her various Loremaster's classrooms and didn't interact with their lessons specifically so they would leave her alone.

Looking at Feid'yarah's smiling, almost painfully earnest face, she knew that social interaction was the only way to get back to more important matters.

So she stood, and without meeting the Loremaster's eyes, Jen'Alliah gave the answer to the question she hadn't wanted to be asked.

"The Histories teach that humans were destroyed by their own hubris. In eating, drinking, and making merry with no thought for tomorrow, they were in turn denied further tomorrows. Their bones formed the first shells of Elvenkind who now live upon the reshaped Gaia in perfect harmony."

Jen'Alliah began sitting down before the beaming smile of the Loremaster could catch her. Plus, the Loremaster's outfit was so loud that looking at it hurt Jen'Alliah's eyes. The fact that it was no more or less outlandish than most of the rest of the class was irrelevant.

In buoyant fashion, the Loremaster praised her answer and discussed its depth and insight with the rest of the faces which mirrored her own enthusiasm.

Jen once more pushed her classmates from her mind and focused on what really mattered in this Elven Gaia Paradise. Her chin came to rest in her hand, and with deliberate care she continued the sketch she had started.

Jen'Alliah (Jen to her friends) constant drawings, dour expression, and general disregard for her fellow students had isolated her for all of her education. In sharp contrast to the riotous color and bubbling enthusiasm which sustained Loremaster Feid'yarah and the elvish students at Windsong Oakbough Academy, Jen had decided long ago to give herself over to the dark passion whose black waters turned the mill-wheel of her soul.

Ancient humans.

The hand her chin had claimed occasionally fingered the sweater painstakingly sewn during her last free-week. It was dark grey,
covering all of her upper body and its long neck brought the sweater snug against her lower jaw.

In a world full of color and pale pink skin, her covered gray form
shone like a beacon.

Jen smiled as her fingers brushed the cloth. She loved her sweater, overjoyed to have been able to re-create something once worn by those beautiful, terrible humans.

Myst'yedrah Treedancer, sitting at the back of the class next to her, eyed the drawing Jen was working on from behind the propped-up copy of The Histories she was ostensibly studying.

Myst'yedrah, Mysti for short, was a stunning representation of elvish beauty. Her face was all soft lines, complete with pointed chin, and her ears were so long that everyone couldn't help but stare a little. Her eyes were ocean-water teal, and from the very time she had heard the joyous peal of Mysti's laughter, Jen had been madly in love with her. Well, as madly in love with anyone as Jen could ever be.

"Don't you think you gave too good an answer there Jen? Wouldn't want anyone finding out about your obsessions, would you?"

This last was said with a teasing tug on Jen's sleeve, and when a slight flush hit Jen's cheeks, Mysti quietly snorted with suppressed mirth.

If there existed an elf within a thousand miles that wasn't already familiar with Jen's love of all things human, she'd have eaten her sweater.

To be continued...