Leena had taken over watching over the aged Havlor because Lanaey didn't know what else to do with him. The sick room was heavy and beat upon the Elf's back as she went about doing small tasks as Leena bade.
"Is there anything else you might be needed my services for?" Lanaey asked Leena who was resting in a chair at the moment.
Leena gave a thin smile. "Nothing. If I need help I'll send word."
Lanaey nodded and stepped out of the oppressive room. Lanaey felt that she needed to clear her mind and search herself. She wouldn't be of much use if she had another inner battle, of which she'd probably lose because she couldn't even see the battlefield, much less the obstacle that was hindering her so badly.
Lanaey walked over to Drass and said hello by rubbing the horses nose. Drass seemed eager for a ride so Lanaey obliged her. They didn't go far, just jaunted around the town a bit. Many of the folk would pause to stare at her as she passed, but Lanaey noticed none of it. Her mind was blank and she didn't even try to fill it with thoughts. Nothingness meant that she didn't need to work anything out. It was the easy way and she greedily took it. Once she realized that she had taken it, the Elf felt sick at herself. Stopping Drass she got off and sat down. After a few seconds she tipped over and lay on her side, staring at a grass stem. Drass whined a bit, nudged Lanaey, then went and layed down behind her master.
What do I know? I realize that I am having struggles withen myself for reasons unknown to my conscious self. Perhaps I am like that old man back in the village, dying of a slow poison. Or maybe like his village, the one that was attacked. The one where many died. . . Death, that's the key. And for an Elf? The death that awaits is never forthcoming unless inflicted by an outside source. Or an inside one. . .
Lanaey's mind rambled on and on. There were several thought repititions, like the village she was currently in. Her thoughts also followed much of her life time-line, and at points it simply went blank. It was in one of those blank points in time when something snapped to the forefront of her conscious, startling her so much that she forgot to breath for several moments.
Family
What had startled Lanaey so was that she saw a clear picture of the family she once had, and in that mental image, she was happy. Pushing up on one elbow, she pondered something that was so simple in view. When her husband had died she had started to reject the life that she had known because it no longer had her lover in it. Then, when her son died, Lanaey completely dissociated with it. The only continuous theme throughout her life was combat, and that was what she had totally committed herself to doing in order to forget.
But her soul didn't want to give up the happiness that she had once lived with. The Elf had always felt promtings to do things and she never did quite understand why she would do them. Even in her fighting, she chose the fights that helped out families the most.
I'm so blind and this happiness and love is so simple. I let something so small, yet important for every living creature, eat me away until it attacked me. Now, I'm a mess.
Lanaey got up so quickly that Drass neighed in surprise. She suddenly decided to do something that she hadn't done since her husband had died. Turning toward the land and closing her eyes, she sang. The words were not important and half-way through the lament her voice failed her. A few tears ran down her cheeks and clung to her face. Breathing deeply the Elf then said a small prayer of sorts. Her boy, who loved to get into spiritual modes of thinking, often said that when things like this happened, it was a rebirth for the being. He had argued that no Elf lived forever because of the many rebirths they would go through. A small, welcome smile came to Lanaey as she thought of when her son had argued these points to her those many years ago.
Lanaey turned quickly. Something was wrong. In studying herself so selfishly she had ignored the village and the land around it. Jumping onto Drass Lanaey galloped to the center of town with new life and resolve filling her core.
~*~
Idly wondering if she should have tried harder to go to the Swan House, Leena wandered the streets of the village. She was bored, to say the least, and it would have been nice to have Thagon there to tease; it would have made the time pass faster at least.
Sighing, the priestess sat down against a small tree off the side of a road leading out of town. She swiped the back of her neck and grimaced. The gritty sweat that rubbed off on her hand made her want to run and take a bath, but she knew she’d get to that soon. Right now she was trying to rest up a bit.
A small cat came up to her and got a nice head rub for its efforts. Laughing at the incessant purring Leena continued to pet and play with the spotted feline. It was almost napping in the gray fold of her dress when it suddenly flipped over, hissed at something behind the warrior and ran off to the nearest house with its hair completely on end.
“What was-” Leena stood up as fast as her catching dress would let her. When the cat had screeched off the maiden turned to see what the matter was, expecting to see another animal. Instead she saw wild men; they had seen her too. Cursing she ran crookedly until safely behind a building, barely escaping several darts. One particular dart had hit and stuck in the edges of her skirt. She quickly yanked the offending object out, careful not to touch the poisoned tip.
Gently sliding out her slender sword from its worn scabbard, Leena tried to double back around the house to get behind the men that she had seen. Two of the invaders were going around just that way to catch her and they faced at the corner. Lunging forward before the leading man was able to clear the corner and bring his sword to use, she stabbed him with the dart and completed the lunge by jumping over the poisoned man and bringing her sword into the second mans gut. The impaled man sputtered and fell backwards, allowing Leena to yank out her sword with little difficulty. In the same movement it took to take the sword out of the now dead man she brought the hilt into the back of the head of the dart victim. Just because he was poisoned didn’t mean that he couldn’t kill her before he went out for good.
The fight was over in mere moments and Leena wanted to get at the other brigands before they noticed that their comrades weren’t returning right away. Gathering up a dagger and all the darts that she could find on the corpses, she turned to find her next opponent.
[ August 03, 2003: Message edited by: Kryssal ]
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