"Come on!"
I say once more to Marcilene.
As she eats her food.
"No, Lazuli. I don't wanna go and play."
She looks saddened.
"Liar."
I pause as I grumble.
"Why not?"
She looks at me as if I said something dumb.
"I'm an elf, Lazi?"
She rolls her eyes.
"And…? Elsa is really nice."
She groans.
"Stop, I'm not gonna play with them."
"But I already told them I'd play with them."
"And… you deal with it yourself."
Steel sits at the table watching this entire thing, not getting involved.
"Please… just come with me."
"No."
I groan.
"Just wear your hajib."
She looks at me confused.
"What?!"
"I meant your face covering."
I move my hands over my face to signify the head covering.
"No, I'm not wearing the ear covering."
She now folds her hands.
"Come on! Please."
"No! Stop it!"
She says with her voice raising high.
"Nevermind."
I turn and walk toward the door, slightly annoyed at the fact I'll have to play with them without Marcilene.
'I was hoping we'd play together and she'd make some friends.'
I think to myself as I open the door, just wide enough for me to get through and then close it behind me.
"So. Will your sister come out?"
Elsa asks.
I shake my head as I walk past them toward the gate.
I put on a smile.
"But we can still play together."
Wes and Elsa put a hop in their step, right behind me as I walk closer toward the gate.
"So what'll we play?"
Wes jumps in front of me as after I push the door open.
"We could play hide and seek, or maybe tag."
Elsa chimes in.
"Not fair, you're gonna be faster than both of us."
She does have about a head of height on both Wes and I, while I have just a bit more height on Wes.
"She won't be faster I think you may be slow."
Elsa laughs as I say that, making Wes give me a sour face.
"Okay, we'll see about that when you complain that she's too fast."
'It feels easier to talk to them now.'
My thoughts as I grow a smile on my face, this time more sincere.
"Sure."
I say as I follow behind them.
~~~
Marcilene looks at my back as I walk off, staring at me through the window of the livingroom.
"Why not just go play with them?"
Steel asks as he takes another bite of his stew.
"I don't wanna play with them, their too young."
"Elsa is the same age as you."
Steel says without a beat.
"Really? Didn't know that."
Steel takes another bite.
"You would if you went to play with them."
"You just wanna sleep by yourself."
Marcilene puts her hand on her hips.
"And. I'm tired from going into Warren Forest."
She looks at him annoyed, with a slight grin, then it drops when the real reason pops up.
"What if they don't like me for… you know."
She points to her ears.
"Marci… You're brother has already fought slavers to stop you from getting hurt, and they ended up hurt or extremely hurt from being on his bad side."
"That doesn't count, I was too scared to do anything that time."
"And that's why he did do something…"
Steel looks at Marcilene now.
"Marci… Lazi will be there for you, I know this, because he has already proven it."
Laughter can be heard outside.
Steel waves to Marcilene to move closer.
"You wanna know why Lazuli followed me?"
"He told me it was to train you."
"Oh…"
He chuckles:
"Then I guess he already told you…"
He grabs Marcilene's hand and holds it tightly enough.
"You wanna know why he was getting trained though?"
She tilts her head, then she nods.
"I wanna know."
"He wanted you to be safe, no matter what, you know what happened when you passed out when that lady grabbed you and ran?"
"You guys said that when she grabbed me a knife was thrown and hit her in the leg, stopping her."
"Yeah, but you know what else happened..?"
"No."
She shakes her head to follow up her answer.
"Lazuli shot, arrow, after arrow. And when he couldn't hit the lady he ended up crying as soon as I got there, because of the fact that he thought he was going to lose you."
Steel paused.
"Marci, Lazuli loves you. He'll do anything to keep you safe, even if that means having to be mean."
Marcilene smiles as tears slowly rise, then fall her cheek, after pooling over the edge.
"You'll be fine, hell, I don't even think you'll need to wear you head covering to go out."
Marcilene pulls her hand away and wipes her tears.
"No, I still want people to be friends with him, I'll wear the head coverings."
~~~
'Weave.'
I think to myself as I'm able to dodge Elsa as she reaches out her hand to tap me.
Wes laughing from his safe distance away from us.
Else slides, her slippers making her slide away before she gets steady again.
Dusts kicks up her jeans that stop just under her knees.
"WOW, he's really fast Elsa, you have to get him."
Else looks up at Wes, giving her brother a sour look.
"Don't think I'm not trying."
"Well, it looks like your moving to slow to catch him."
"Oh yeah?!"
As she says that, she breaks into a sprint towards Wes, dust kicking up as her sandals slap the ground.
I laugh as she cuts the distance between them in breakneck speed.
For a while Wes looks over stunned at the display, before he's tapped by Elsa.
Then Wes taps back before she can get away, then she tags back, before he gets away.
Putting them in the tag back, deadlock.
"Can…"
"AHH!!!"
I jump away from the voice that appears out of nowhere.
Falling onto the ground, dirt sticking to my ass, as I look up.
Looking up I see the blonde hair, tucked into a head covering, and a white hand that's held out for me.
"Sorry."
Marcilene stands there with her hand held up.
"I didn't mean to scare you."
She says with a chuckle and a smile, but an awkward one.
"Oh, hey! You came to play."
I say, as I get up as I wipe sweat off my face.
"Yeah, dad said I should."
'W dad!'
"Come, I'll introduce you to Elsa and Wes."
She lifts me off the ground, as I push off the ground to get to a stand and with a smile she says:
"Okay."
I walk over holding Marcilene's hand in mine.
As they had both stopped chasing each other for a while.
"You okay Lazuli?"
Elsa says as Wes nods.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I just got scared. Anyway."
I move out of the way and hold my hands out to present her.
"My sister! Her names Marcilene, but I think you can call her Marci?"
I turn to her.
She nods.
"Yeah, you can call her Marci."
"Hi Marci."
Elsa says with a wave and her head tilting.
Wes just stares at her with his face growing slightly red.
"Wes…"
Elsa snaps her finger in his face.
Then again and again.
"WES!"
He snaps out of it.
"Yes!?"
"Okay, weirdo."
"What should we play?"
Elsa asks.
"How about hide and seek?"
Marcilene chimes in, her voice just ever so slightly soft, as she put in her suggestion, like she was embarrassed to even say it out loud.
"Yeah!"
"Nice."
"Nose goes!"
Me and Elsa put out fingers on our nose, something that I had the unfortunate feeling of having to go through for our first round of tag.
Marcilene looks at us, and puts her finger on her nose as well.
Wes was distracted again, staring at Marcilene.
"Wes!"
He looks over to Elsa with a frown.
"You're it."
"What?"
"We're playing hide and seek."
"We are?"
"Yeah."
I say ending it.
"Oh, where do I count?"
We all look around, and I spot a tree, that's a good distance away from both Warren Forest and the village.
"How about there?"
They all look over and Wes looks concerned, while Elsa smiles with excitement.
"Yeah, that should be good? Right knight Wes?"
Elsa smiles at him, with devious eyes.
Wes smiles then looks back at Marcilene who has a slight smile on her face.
Wes nods.
"Okay, I'll go and count over there."
He begins to walk over there, while Elsa grabs Marcilene by her arm and links it as they walk off.
"Hi Marci, my name is Elsa. I really like your head thingy. Makes me think of your brother."
Marcilene follows her, after giving me a look.
I smile and wave as she's taken away.
"Okay, now I have to find a spot."
~~~
An inn door swings open, a woman and other people sit around the place as they laugh and talk, in the lower parts of the place, the lower floor being a restaurant for people.
The woman makes her way over to the stool that sits a front of a man, old, white with a clean beard.
"How far is Squea from here?"
Her voice demanding, yet soft.
"About a mile west of here."
The woman nods.
"Milk and I'll be on my way."