The Perian

Too Close

We walked along as our heals clicked on the stone path. We laughed and Lenora gloated about how great the celebration will be. We passed through a tall stone archway that was dripping with the green earth along with the buildings of ruin that held the archway up. Standing strong on the arch was a guard of Rana, he paced back and forth looking down on all who passed with a sharp eye. Rana has no master nor king, just men who serve Gondor and Rohan. The guards are there to make sure no Perian steps outside the sky scraping stone walls. We are forbidden to Middle Earth, an abomination, so we must be hidden. He wore full body armor equipped with spears, swords and knifes all attached to him as if he was expecting a battle at any moment. As he paced, the sun caught his eyes and made them glow. They glowed a hazel brown with hints of yellow. My Elven eyes zoomed in closer to admire them when a flash of red appeared, smothering the hazel of his eyes destroying the color it had, then the red disappeared as he turned around to walk back the other direction.
Our laughter faded as we walked under the archway and the guard stopped in his tracks, eyes like daggers on us. It was at that moment I realized my ears had poked out from under my hair and the guard had taken notice. My heart beat quickened as did my stride and I hurried to get under the archway, unseen by the guard. Lenora followed without taking notice of my worried actions. When I took cover under the arch, I discreetly pulled my hair back over my ears and continued forward. As I walked on with Lenora by my side, I could feel the guards eyes still on me, his gaze unwavering. It wasn't long before he second guessed himself to whether or not he had actually seen what he had seen and resumed pacing back and forth.
I let out a sigh of relief. "What was that for?" asked Lenora.
"Those guards set me on edge, there's absolutely no knowing what there intentions are, and they're eyes, could you see them? they burst with red." I made a disgusted noise at 'burst' and shook my head, shaking the image of his eyes away.
"No, I couldn't even see the whites of his eyes. How could you see them?" Lenora said, puzzled.
I was caught off guard and quickly said, "I couldn't, it's just a figurative of speech." It took a moment, but Lenora excepted my words and we continued on the path.

We finally made it to the building where the celebration was being held and Lenora dragged me inside. The walls were torn and falling apart, the floors cracking, and the support beams snapping, It was an old run down pub that had gone out of business years ago, but it was Roslia's favorite gathering spot, so it was good enough.
When Lenora and I walked in, Lenora was greeted with smiles, bows, and compliments by the people helping set up the party decorations, whereas I was greeted with scowls, spitting, and harsh comments. The party decorators (who were most of my friends), began to form a clump around me and began to yell at me. "How come you're late?!" said one. "What gives you the right to even show up here?!" said another. They just kept yelling at me, I just rolled my eyes.
"Hey!" Shouted Lenora at the crowd around me. Everyone fell silent. "We are all friends here, are we not?" She pushed passed me to stand between me and the crowd and continued, "Sure she slept in again and was late, again, but why should that matter? We are still going to have a party don't get me wrong, but you Perian's should be grateful we are actually going to help set up! I mean, when was the last time you saw me work? Huh?" Her words were followed by short snickers including my own, then she told everyone to get back to work and shewed them away.
"Thank-you." I said. Lenora shrugged, "Don't mention it. But really, when have you ever seen me work?" We both laughed and then were interrupted by a boy clearing his throat behind me. I turned around to find an Imperial boy named, Iratian Malgan. He had brown hair and was very tall. He was wiping his firm hands with a washcloth and smiled at me, "Amara, since you are here, we need more water for the celebration and to clean the floor boards, will you head down to the river to get that?" He asked. I sighed, "Fine." He then looked at Lenora and she tensed up, "Lenora, while she's gone will you help me with the floor boards?" Lenora's voice became very uneven but she replied with an enormous smile, "Yes!" Iratian grabbed Lenora by the shoulder and lead her over to where the barrels of water were at the other end of the pub and gave her a rag. "Hurry up Amara!" Iratian shouted back at me. I yelled back "I'm going I'm going." I grabbed four water barrels and put them a wagon, then headed back out the front door.