Nameless [CURRENTLY BEING EDITED]

3. Sticks Are Dangerous

The elf spun in the sunshine, letting its golden fingers warm her face. She peered up at it through the branches and it winked down at her.

I will watch over you, it seemed to coo gently. She reached up and played with the sunlight happily, letting it run over her hands and arms in a bath of glinting light.

The wind whispered in her ear, Little one, you are one of us. Come, run, elfling. You who are a child of wind and stars, of sun and rain, come and play with me.

The elfling-- Nessa-- laughed as the wind pulled playfully at her hair. By the ocean shore, the wind had not spoken to her and the ocean waves had pulled away from her touch. Here- in the woods, this was where she belonged. A wood-elf. Though the human's forests were only a crude copy of what she was used to, the bare fact that the wind trusted her made her feel almost happy. And so, without a backwards glance to the cabin and Finnian, she followed the wind.

Light as a feather, quick as the wind, the elf left no marks on the pine riddled floor of the forest. She laughed again as the wind pulled against her and she ran faster, feeling the adrenaline coursing through her bloodstream and loving it. Her hood had been whipped back but she didn't care to pull it back on, she was racing the wind and had no time to stop.

To the pond, little one.

"I will be there first!" she laughed back and put on an extra burst of speed that sent her hurtling ahead of the wind by a meter.

You are Nameless, the persistent voice in the back of her head chimed in, but the wind drowned it out, rushing through the trees, and for the first time in five years, being Outcast and Nameless did not matter.

With a last rush, the elf broke through the tree line and out into a little meadow. Tall, sun-dried grasses bowed before the wind as to a king. Fir trees encircled the clearing and a flock of birds burst up into the sky, chattering nervously before coming to land around a small pond.

She spun as the wind roared in her face, letting it blow fiercely against her skin. She stumbled backwards into the pond. "I still win!" she called joyfully, pawing her wet hair out of her eyes.

The wind died down, as if growling to itself. Next time, little one. Next time...

She shook her head and stood up, sticking out her tongue in the direction of the receding wind. There was a brief silence then a rustle from the treetops. The water around her shoes seemed cold suddenly. Getting out of the pond, she trudged back to the safety of the woods. The clearing seemed ominous without the company of the wind.

"WHOS THERE?? I HAVE A STICK!!! Ber, get back over here! Someone's in the clearing!" yelled a shrill feminine voice. "Get a stick!!"

"I--I dropped my glasses! I can't see!" returned a male voice, rather panicked. "If I move I might step on them!!"

The elf stepped from behind a tree, watching. The two humans were quite obviously twins, a boy, and a girl, both having the same midnight-black hair and freckled faces. The boy stood close to the elf, crouched to the ground, hands searching frantically among the pine-straw.

A few feet away, just out of reach from his hands and close by the elf's feet, lay what must be his glasses. Stepping silently, she picked them up and fingered them gently.

"Good grief, Ber!" the girl said in an annoyed tone. "You and your glasses." Holding a hefty branch in one hand she stooped by her brother, half-heartedly looking at the forest floor. "If we die because some stalker is in the clearing, I am blaming your glasses." she huffed as further searching proved useless- the glasses were simply nowhere to be found.