“Who-who are you?” Mayura asked the tiny child who stood in front of her. It was most definitely an elf – the pointed ears and large, inhuman eyes would have given her away if her strange leather clothing had not. Normally she would have considered the appearance of someone who could help her a blessing, but she was beginning to learn that not all strangers were helpful. “And why were you dropping acorns on my head?”

            “Because she’s mean,” a voice from behind Mayura grumbled.

The elven girl chuckled, her long black hair bouncing as she shook her head. “You’re just sour because you’ve been looking for me for the past half-an-hour, Bubbles*.”

Mayura turned around to see another elf child emerging from the undergrowth. This elf was almost identical to the first: shoulder-length black hair and black eyes. Mayura had to do a double take to make sure they were not actually the same person.

But they were not. Although the elves were identical enough to be twins, the elf who had been dropping acorns on her had a leather hair tie around her head, while the second elf had nothing. Their clothes were different as well: “Bubbles” wore leathers tinted with blue, while the first elf’s leathers were tinted red.

The second elf rolled his eyes. “You were always the better hide-and-seeker, Crescent. But I knew you would give yourself away eventually. You always do.”

Crescent sniffed. “I only gave myself away because I got bored and found something more interesting to do. Finding a human wandering is much more interesting than any game of hide-and-seek!”

Bubbles placed his hands on his hips and gave Crescent a reprimanding – and rather comically adult – look. “Didn’t you listen to Goldleaf when he told you not to go around talking to people you don’t know?”

“There’s only one human and two of us,” Crescent complained. “We could take her if we wanted to.”

Up until this point Mayura had kept quiet, unsure if she should try to enter their conversation or just slip away quietly, but now she felt she had to say something. “I am actually just passing through,” she reassured them, then paused. Was she really? These were elves, and Waterfall was an elf; they could be who she was looking for.

“You two wouldn’t happen to know an elf by the name of Waterfall, would you?”

“Yep! We know her,” chirruped Crescent, just as Bubbles asked her a guarded, “Why do you want to know?” The blue-clad elf glared at what Mayura could only assume was his twin, but Crescent just shrugged indifferently.

“I was sent here by her,” Mayura said answered Bubble’s question. “Can you take me to your elders? I need to talk with them.”

“We’re not supposed to bring anyone back home,” Bubbles said, keeping an eye on his sister before she spilled any more secrets. “But Crescent, can you get Goldleaf and bring him back here?”

As Crescent bounced off into the trees, Mayura relaxed. Everything might turn out okay after all.

*Name may be subject to change

  ((I’ve always called him Bubbles, but I don’t like the way it looks on paper. I couldn’t think of another name though, and didn’t want to halt the story just because of a naming problem. I know, I know, I’m getting a reputation for bad names, aren’t I?))

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Author’s Note: Ugh . . . between my sickness and everything else, I think this story died on me. Again. This was written several weeks ago. I’ll give it some time to see if it comes back, but I think it’s gone. I’m sorry. But I think I discovered what I’m doing wrong! I’ve started a new story already; actually, it’s probably going to consist of three separate short stories and then one novel. You can read the first of the short stories now – it’s called “The Shadow”. Thank you everyone who read this story, and I’m sorry my muse has such a short attention span. ^^;;;