Do Not Go Gentle

PART 2 PREVIEW: Left Behind

Dearest Readers,

Here is Part II of the "Do Not Go Gentle" series! Thank you to all my readers who have so diligently allowed me to continue this story with support and excitement. It truly means so much that you all have been so invested in this story as I have! I hope you enjoy this chapter- let me know what you think! And what do you want to see in this part?

I'm so excited to be able to dig deeper into the stories of a few of the background characters from the last part- particularly my dear Varis. I think you'll all love her just as I do!

XOXO Ally Layne.

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Waking up alone was never fun. Neither was drinking alone. So, because Glorfindel had been busy I was currently making sure at least one of the two was being taken care of.

"Why did they have to leave?" Varis grumbled into her ale. "And why did I not I go as well?"

I rolled my eyes. "Arwen went to visit her grandparents, remember?"

"Then why did Alma go, too?"

My eyes flicked between the look of hurt on her face and my nearly empty glass. "She is Arwen's Lady in waiting. They had talked about this for the past hundred years, apparently."

Varis sighed before taking another pull from her beverage. "Even so, it is bad form."

I snickered. "Bad form?"

"It is not kind of them to leave us behind." She rolled her eyes. "We are mortals who are merely a small part of their lives. The least they could do is spend time with us before we meet our untimely ends."

I blinked, pausing in the motion of bringing my drink to my lips. "That's pretty dark."

Varis shrugged. "It is what I see it to be."

We sat in silence for a few moments, watching as a few elves walked in and took their spots quite a ways from where we were. I suddenly thought about what kind of scene the two of us would be making for everyone else.

A woman and a dwarrowdam sitting at a bar. That almost sounds like the start of some sort of a joke. To be honest, I don't think that would be too far from the truth.

"Do you ever think about going back to the halls of the dwarves?" I suddenly asked, shocking even myself at the outburst.

Varis snapped to look at me with wide eyes, before taking a moment to collect herself. "It has been quite some time since I have dwelled within dwarven halls," she admitted. "I lived with my amad among humans for longer than I care to admit."

I blinked. "What made you leave?"

Her lips pursed before she took a long swig of her ale. "Something happened that I would never care to own up to. Needless to say, it was not our fault and the tense relations of the dwarves forced my family to abandon our home."

"You were kicked out of your home?"

Varis tilted her head. "Forcibly pushed out, yes. We ended up losing my father during the caravan to the town we lived in. There was an Orc attack that left few survivors. Amad and I were lucky."

She let out a harsh sigh, pushing the now-empty glass away from where she sat, and slumped down onto the tabletop.

"Losing a parent is never easy," I mused, as the bartender walked over and took my glass to give it a refill. "Always ends up in some sort of psychological damage."

"Psychological?"

"To do with the brain, you know? Like how I have a bunch of problems all holed up inside me and how two years ago I was learning how to not let it damage me anymore?"