Never Realizing

Chapter 3 : This is Healing

Dinner the night before had not been an awful affair, Elfaer thought with a noncommittal shrug as he prepared to leave his talan, he might have actually enjoyed himself after a while.
-----

He opened the door in the floor of the talan and stepped down onto the ladder. He was not sure where he would go, but he had awoken feeling restless and knew that he needed some activity. Perhaps he would go running and maybe visit his paternal grandfather. Thranduil would give him some kind of mindless task to perform and leave the inquisition for later, and Elfaer felt grateful that Thranduil had a habit of observing first and questioning later.

Elfaer was in the process of climbing down the ladder, thinking that if Thranduil had nothing for him to do, he could relax in the library for a while, when a voice suddenly yelled, “Hello there! Where have you been, recluse?” and startled him out of his thoughts. He dropped gracelessly to the ground and wobbled a bit, glaring at the elf.

“Too many people have asked me that,” Elfaer replied with irritation clear in his tone.

“Ah yes. They would, when you lock yourself in your house for days on end. I can see why you are so frustrated, having brought this upon yourself.” Tathen flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and started to walk away with a very Tathen-like bounce in her step. “Well, are you coming with me or not?” she asked without turning around.

Elfaer took in a melodramatic sigh and followed her, having nothing else to do. Tathen was beautiful, as were all elves, and a bubbly and bright spirit that seemed to invade any darkness around her. Thoughtfully, he realized that she was exactly the kind of ‘cure’ that a sullen Elfaer needed. Most of him wanted the cure. The rest wanted to sulk for another month or so.

“So you disappeared because…” Tathen prompted after mere moments of silence. Elfaer did not respond, just studied his feet as they walked, offering no response. “I suppose you disappeared with Virana and…” she trailed off suggestively, watching him restlessly kick through the dust on the path.

“No,” Elfaer replied a little bitterly.

“Then she…?” Tathen asked sympathetically, jumping to the next conclusion.

“Is not my chosen lover, no.”

“She left you?” Elfaer leveled a stare at Tathen, full of many unspoken things. “Alright! I won’t mention it again…” the two of them continued their walk. Elfaer noticed they were heading to the coast and suspected that they would go fishing. Tathen dragged him along every once and a while, insisting that it was fun. AND delicious in the end, if they fished with her father.

“Are you alright?” Tathen probed timidly. Elfaer shrugged halfheartedly. She seemed to understand. It was one of the things that Elfaer appreciated most about her, she understood the unspoken.

They walked a little longer in silence. Elfaer bemusedly watched Tathen become increasingly more uncomfortable with the silence, until she finally burst and began to talk his ear off, babbling about some nonsense of new gossip, her siblings, and a lovely bird she saw next to her talan that morning. Elfaer relaxed into the steady stream of speech from his truest friend. She was the only one who would not press him for information that he did not enjoy giving. And he appreciated her even more for this.

They arrived at Tathen’s “unknown” destination and Elfaer found himself facing Tathen’s father, Lassen, and his pupils. Lassen was a fisherman, and was teaching some of the younger elves to fish.

Tathen grabbed Elfaer’s wrist and dragged him down to the seafront to her father, who was currently correcting an elfling’s grip on his fishing pole. Lassen beamed when he saw his daughter’s approach and happily greeted the pair.

“Tathen, my daughter,” he said, kissing his daughter’s cheek with love. “And Elfaer, well met.” He gripped Elfaer’s forearm in greeting. Elfaer nodded in response. “I always appreciate a man of few words, my boy, as I am not one such man! Will you join me?”

“Certainly,” Tathen answered. “It is why we are here!” She collected two rods and handed one to Elfaer and they fell into the routine of the experience. This was part of Tathen’s life, a part which she enjoyed sharing with him. As they caught fish and put them into a basket for Lassen to sell at the market, Elfaer found himself enjoying the day much more. It was much easier now that he had a friend and an activity to enjoy. Tathen and her father kept up a steady stream of conversation, and occasionally Elfaer volunteered something to the conversation, though he enjoyed listening so much more. A smile broke out on his face.

‘So this is healing…’