The Elven brothers, Part IX

     The shining green fireflies swirled in their verosity again around Veldren's widened eyes. The same enchanting music sang through his ears pushing his mind through the populated arael glade back to the empty forest beyond. A heavy whisper began to call to him from the thick bushes and into the deep green leaves of the towering trees. He remembered this voice from years ago. A phantasmal memory of his early childhood suddenly returned to him.
     The small elven cottage sat quietly in the sunbathed clearing in the forest. Tiny puffs of sweet smelling smoke wafted from its chimney permeating the area with the tangy twist of elven apple pie. Two tiny elven children played in the yard, their jovial laughs tripping into the forest surrounding them. With the sun shining on them and warm earth under them, there was a calm that seemed like it would last forever, like it had been there since the beginning of time.
     Soon the game ended and the pie was pulled from the oven. Daddy was home and the normal functions of life were suspended as they should be. The jovial giggles and laughs turned to bright eyes and exalted screams that daddy was there. Had he been to the city? Had he slain an evil monster? What did he have for us and what stories did he have to share? The questions were a blur within the children's buzzing minds.
     "Aaye Niara", the elven man called to his wife as his two young sons attached themselves to his legs, "Naa tanya pie amin smell?"
     Niara ran to the door to greet him with her shimmering blue dress washing around her hurried movements. Her sky hued eyes shining with the light of the sun glowing behind them and enchanting Ariad in just the same way as they had the first time he met her over a hundred and fifty years before. She did not answer but merely smiled and embraced him as if he had been gone for twice as long as he actually had. The children ran into the house and left their parents to themselves, sparing themselves the kissing and other parental bonding that would ensue in the coming moments.
     Veldren became impatient with his parents after he had smelled the pie for several moments and they hadn't came into the house. He stuck his sandy brown head out of the window and called to his father to come inside but when he glanced again he saw that his mother was standing alone. She had her back to him but he could see that she was sobbing by the way her narrow shoulders heaved and the muffled sounds that crept from her.
     Veldren, a small tear gathering in his own eye, turned back to his younger brother. " Aluim...", he said in an overly reserved manner as he turned to see his brother guiltily devouring a handful of pie filling, "Stay sinome." Aluim barely even heard his brother's words but he wasn't going to leave with that tasty pie still in his reach.
     Niara's hands were covering her eyes when he came upon her. Her beautiful dress was dampened with tears as well as some dark crimson specks of liquid. When she realized that Veldren was pulling on her sleeve she turned her head away from him and pointed off into the woods. "Eller", she wimpered, "Vys father went eller."
     The small boy looked off into the dense forest and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Slowly he stalked closer to the edge of the growth and peered further into the trees. He strained to hear the sounds of footsteps in the distance but he heard only the echoes of a light summer wind in the foliage of the local flora.
     He stepped on into the forest and as soon as his foot fell on the leaf covered path a whirlwind of tiny green lights encompassed his entire body. Veldren remembered the glade now and he had a good idea who had actually called him back.