Thread: Swan Wood - RPG
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Old 06-26-2003, 01:06 PM   #116
Lyra Greenleaf
The Diaphanous Dryad
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: R toL: 531, past the wild path
Posts: 1,152
Lyra Greenleaf has just left Hobbiton.
Silmaril

Elena sighed with relief as the horse stopped walking. She gazed around with wide eyes. This place certainly seemed safe, and it was so beautiful! They had halted by a stream, and Elena gladly began to bathe herself and wash her clothes. As she scrubbed she looked at the sunlight dappling the water. Somehow it seemed more beautiful than anything Elena had ever seen. It seemed like they had left their problems and entered another world. Perhaps the Elf-lady camped here and left some of her magic? she wondered dreamily.

"Elena?" Fiona said, startling Elena from her thoughts. "Elena, you were- you were really brave."
Elena blushed.
“Not really. You saved us, and you were a lot braver than me” she said earnestly.
The two had a good natured argument about who had been braver, then began to laugh again. There was something about this place that made Elena want to laugh and sing.
“We were both brave” Elena said quietly.

Wearing her petticoat she hung her dress over a bush to dry, then went over to where Rian was lying against a tree. She still hadn’t said anything.
“I-I’m sorry Rian” she said quietly “but we really needed to get out of the village. Look we’re safe now”
Rian didn’t move and didn’t answer. Elena bent over her and caught a whiff of smell from the day’s varying incidents.
“Rian you need to wash” she said firmly and took her hand to pull her up. Rian didn’t protest but followed like a baby. Elena took off her outer dress, led Rian into the water, and began to wash the dress. She turned to Fiona who was sitting on the bank.
“Will you help Rian?” she asked quietly.
It must be horrible for Fiona to see her sister like this she thought sadly as she scrubbed at the grey dress. There were stains all over it. This will never be clean, she thought, feeling like Rian’s mother.

Later Elena and Fiona sat around a small campfire Fiona had made, while Rian sat a little way off staring at nothing. The horse was standing close, she felt like a protecting presence. The three girls had eaten some fruits that Elena had recognised from the countryside around her family’s farm. She remembered eating them on picnics with her cousins, climbing trees and seeing all the animals and sighed. Everything had changed so fast. Men had destroyed her farm and she had moved to Fiona’s house with her father. Now men might have destroyed Fiona’s house and she didn’t even know where her father was, so what could they do now? Her dress was crumpled and torn, but somehow that seemed less important than it had before. Dimly Elena remembered that when she went out with her cousins or played with the kittens in the stables at the farm her dresses had often got torn so that her Aunt had had to mend them. Elena thought that perhaps now they would go back to her cousins who had moved to the city, but she realised that she would miss Fiona and her family. It was all very complicated.

“I wonder where Papa is?” she asked Fiona without looking at her. “And your family?”
“And Porridge” added Fiona.
Suddenly Elena felt cold. Della. She had lost Della. She tried not to cry, she didn’t want Fiona to stop thinking she was brave but she couldn’t help it. Tears pushed there way through her lids even as she screwed up her eyes to try and stop it. Finally a sob shook her shoulders and tears began to stream faster and faster down her cheeks. Fiona looked at her.
“I’m sure your Papa will be alright” she said.
Elena shook her head mutely.
“He will” Fiona said firmly.
“I-I lost Della” whispered Elena brokenly.
Fiona drew back.
She must think I’m so babyish, Elena thought sadly.
“It’s just a doll” Fiona said.

Elena gulped to try to still her sobs. Her breath came judderingly. She tried to let the calmness of the area oak into her. It worked, a little.
“Sh-she is a doll but she’s also the only friend I have left from the farm, except for Papa. My Uncle carved her and my Aunty made her dress. My cousins helped to sew her clothes too. It was a present when I was one year old. And-“ she gulped again as tears filled her eyes. “And she has my Mama’s necklace on” she finished quietly before dissolving into floods more tears.
__________________
“Sylphs of the forest,” I whispered. “Spirits of oak, beech and ash. Dryads of Rowan and hazel, hear us. You who have guided and guarded our every footstep, you who have sheltered our growth, we honour you."
the Forbidden Link
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