Search for the Extinct [Last of Elves book 2]

Epilogue: Aura

Aura

Dearest Mother,

I thank you for your kind letter and gifts that you sent last. Kura very much appreciated the compilation of warrior curses that you made for her. I believe she has already put many of them to use. I thank you, too, for the new parchment and quills. They are also greatly appreciated and cherished. I hope they were not any trouble for you to get for me.

I miss you, Mother, and wish that we could see each other more often. I know that I said I would never return to the city of stone, and that it has meant you must find time to come visit me, here, hidden away in Mutestep Wood. I am truly sorry for all the inconvenience it may have caused you. Besides that, I am well and happy. Hunaja gave birth to her kittens two months past, six of them, and already they show promise. The beastkins are no longer a lost kind, Mother. The kits are strong and healthy, and cause Kura and I no end of trouble. But we laugh all the same.

We have grown very close over the years, Mother. Almost like we're sisters, instead of aunt and niece. I have learnt to cook and hunt, and they taught me the language of the elves, in case I ever need it. She is sure that I could manage on my own if ever I have to. I hope sorely that the day is long in coming.

You ask about Ailill, my father. Panthera, as you once called him. I'm afraid there is news that you will not be happy to hear.

He and Åska vanished six months ago. Kura and I woke up to find them gone, along with the elf mare and stallion. I couldn't understand it at first, and I didn't dare press Kura for information. For the whole day, she refused to speak, and I left her alone. I assumed that she was grieving. The thing that was strange to me was that she didn't go out searching for him. I couldn't understand that, but I didn't dare ask her, either. I feared that she would vanish, too.

That night, though, she explained it to me. And I understood why he had been so strange in the days previously.

Kura said that the mare's foal was due any day. Her brother had told her that he'd leave with them - she just hadn't known when. So it wasn't a complete surprise to her when we woke up to find him gone.

But she had more to say. She told me what her brother had told you, Mother. That the horses were among the last elf-bred in the land, and that their foal would go to the youngest elf. When she explained about the ilya, and the blood, I was shocked. I never knew you were considered elf-friend.

Kura said that because I had quickened in you before that, I'm actually older - as an elf - than you. So that makes you the youngest elf.

When she'd finished explaining this, she was quiet for a while. I stayed quiet, too, happy to wait for her to finish. And she did, without looking at me.

She said that her brother will have taken the horses to someplace secret, so the mare can foal, and the baby is safe. Where he can help the young horse grow and learn what it is to be an elf-bred.

What she next was what really scared me. She said that I would be the one to bring him home. And that I would have to do it alone.

I don't understand why, but if it is what I must do to repay them both for their kindness to me over the past years, then I am going to do it. I must.

So I write to you, Mother, to explain. So that you know that I am safe and well. And so that you know what I am doing. I expect that by the time you get this letter, I will be already on my journey, with the nightbird on my shoulder. If Hunaja can come, then I will take her. If she cannot leave the kits, then she will stay.

Please don't worry too much. This is something that I want to do, and something that I must do along. You know that he helped me find my voice, helped me to be able to speak. It is a gift that cannot be repaid, but I must try. I will take your gift to my father, so that he knew you are thinking of him. I will write to you - or visit you - when I return again.

With much love,

Aura called Stjärna

Daughter of Naameh and Ailill