They made camp miles away, well after sundown. Jared could see well at night, and he knew his charge’s natural affinity for the dark.
The young elf had ridden stiffly, seemingly afraid of Jared. He still hadn’t spoken. He refused the food offered him, including the little fruit Jared had.
Jared treasured silence, stillness. It was a pleasurable alternate to the violence in his life. But the elf’s silence was not peaceful, just the opposite. Jared felt the angry gaze as he fell asleep.
They were at Jared’s farm the next day. Jared unloaded his horse, and looked around the homestead. The villager was right; you’d have to travel through days of forest to get here, unless you could find the unmarked path. The forest added days to anyone’s journey, Jared had watched travelers move by his unmarked fields just yards away. Privacy was important.
Everything was undisturbed. No sign of anyone’s passage.
Jared set to making his guest welcome.
The elf refused to speak, and to eat.
He refused the next day.
He refused the next week.
A month passed, and the elf seemed weaker. But he refused everything placed before him. Jared was used to silence, so he just avoided the young elf.
Into the second month, the elf was coming outside to watch him work in the field. Jared laughed as he worked, thinking how much easier it was to harvest rocks than food. It was with surprise when he first noticed the elf, sitting by the filed, watching him.
The anger was no longer there, but trust was also missing. Curiosity, that’s what it is, Jared thought.
At the end of the second month, it happened.
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The RudeDawg
Known in these Forgotten Realms as Perin LightEyes