A Failure of a High Elf (Book One)

4.1

Written: 8/12/23
Word Count: 1,142

The last sun disappeared with a hiss once I staggered over top of it. No confetti for a job well done. No glittery signage informing me I'd reached my destination. Just...nothing.

I collapsed to the ground, my jacket and overlaying poncho not enough to quell my shaking. It was frigidly cold up in the mountains.

I'd traveled through the marsh, finding not just one, but twenty-five cliffs hidden in the mist. Where they led, one could only theorize, but from the green mosses glowing eerily near their lips, I'd hazard a guess. Hell. Those twenty-five death traps were an express ticket that led folks straight to hell.

After the marsh, the little, diamond-shaped suns took me up a series of sprawling mountains, paths chiseled in their surfaces like a partially-peeled potato. The rock at my shoulder was a crimson brown, while the path I walked was nearly orange. This went on for what seemed like years but was probably only two days. Round and round up the slopes, jumping from one mountain to the next by walking across the most rickety rope bridges known to folk-kind.

The suns hadn't shown me another soul. Not one. Whether the glowing red visages were avoiding other settlements or there simply weren't any, I'd entered the Western Sector alone.

I was still alone now as I heaved on the ground, shivering uncontrollably. The cliff's trail opened out into a similarly-orange plateau that I couldn't say was natural or had been excavated by the Dark Elves living there. A series of trellises and bridges connected to bubble-like structures above and in front of me. The houses were all made of wood, some of them boxlike, many more round. Affixed to the mountain or to stilts, sitting them centered in the air. Some were even built to rest above each other, high in the sky!

Orange powder wore away from my hands as I sat up on my knees. I couldn't help staring at all the impressive structures before me. The bridges were layered, so folk could travel through the air without having to climb on the mountain itself. The expanse spread far, wedging over this mountain and connecting to the one sitting super close by. Only a narrow gap fell between the two impressive slabs of rock, but there were still bridges crisscrossing the opening's surface until the gap only looked like part of their shadows.

The mountain I sat upon was round at the top, but a cylindrical round. It stood straight up in all its craggy-ness. The neighboring one was slanted, spiky, like a horn, threatening the cylinder at swordpoint.

This was the Haspa Mines, though I'd yet to see where the mines actually were. But this was definitely it. It had to be.

That patronizing messenger child couldn't have led me astray, could it?

"Why, hello there!"

I'd thought my view unobscured, but after a Dark Elf holding a heaping basket of clothes appeared from behind a wall of rock to my right, I realized there was yet more to this town to be seen.

The Dark Elf who appeared around the lip wore a red dress with white circles—or was it a white dress with red circles? A scarf, firm and patterned the same as her attire, was wrapped around her neck. The elva's feet were just as bare as her arms and legs. I tried not to stare at her gray skin, shimmering from lotion or a thin sheen of sweat.

It was a healthy-looking gray, not a pale and queasy color. I'd never thought gray could look so...beautiful.

"H-Hello." I cleared my throat three times before squeaking out the single word.

The elva's light hair fell to her shoulders, where it curled slightly in controlled ringlets. She adjusted the basket on her hip, opening her mouth to speak, when another three unexpected Dark Elves rounded the invisible lip.

My eyes nearly popped from my head as I took in their shirtless forms. All elves. I didn't know elves could get that big. I really didn't. Elves and elvas were supposed to be dainty and pretty little things. We were the willowy, graceful ones of the folk, even if the nymphs believed they were the prettiest. It was a source of pride and racial contention. Everyone in the Capital was raised to supersede this line of dignity.

But...these burly things just didn't have it.

Differing shades of gray burned my eyes as I tried not to notice each rippling pec, each stud-veined bicep. Their stomachs were outfitted in a strange pattern that looked like a stove's kitchen-top. Six squares of skin that looked as hard as a rock sat above the rim of their pants. Wait. That one had eight squares! What in the naga!??

"You're way bigger than Niall," I muttered, my voice scratching into something like a threat. "Hah. I wish I could tell him. Ha. He. Hehe."

"Excuse me?" The elva handed her basket to one of the beefcakes standing behind her. No fear, this one, even though each one of them looked like three or four of her put together.

"Um." I wet my lips. A useless endeavor. "This—I am...um." I closed my eyes, forcing my mind away from the slabs of meat peering above me like predators, their eyes too high up in the sky to be seen. Only shadows. "My name is Beckett—"

"Did you say Beckett?" The elva bent down so that we were eye level. Startling, I took in her wide, light-colored eyes, a strange twinkle shining brilliantly within them. There wasn't even direct sunlight in this spot. How could someone have such sparkly eyes?

Then, the elva flashed to her feet, her dress rippling at her knees in a sweet fashion. She bounded back to the muscle-elves. "Did you hear that? Beckett's here!"

I felt as if I were watching another person's struggles, numbness spreading in my empty stomach and parched throat. Was I hallucinating? I'd drunk dew from leaves in the marsh, but that hadn't been enough for the three-day spiraling trek up to the summit of the mountain.

The elves all nodded, chattering away to one another in words I couldn't quite make out. The elva seemed safer to look at, anyway. Far less menacing.

Spinning back around, she danced back over to me. She moved like a little girl, but her face's bearing and manner made her seem older. Looks were deceiving enough among the folk, so I couldn't be sure of anything.

"We're so glad you've made it!" The elva held out her hand, and before I could become surprised, my numbness placed my hand in hers. She hauled me to my feet, where I stumbled sideways, heading straight for a rocky wall. When my dizziness landed, it was against a wall, alright, but a gray one that breathed.