Unlike a lot of the people in the village Clarke had quite a bit of free time. There were only three days of school per week, which Clarke dutifully attended, but the other kids had family businesses to help with or trades to learn on the off days. Clarke didn't have to rely on others to come into his store or the light of the sun to work by so his trade practice could be done early in the morning.

This left him a lot of time to stand outside the bakery and peer in the windows, watching Wade angrily pound dough like it had insulted his family.

Clarke stuck his fingers in his mouth and let off a shrill whistle that caught Wade's attention. He held up a finger for a moment of time, pounded and separated the dough into loaves and asked his mother something. She looked over at Clarke, back around the bakery, probably searching for the fun killing Wade senior, and nodded.

“So what-”

Clarke started.

“I know exactly what.”

Wade was already leading the way, excitedly talking as they followed the eastern road out of town.

“My dad said there were some prissy pointy ears that came into town. Heard they had bought some land, no doubt to build some weird magic thing out here that'd probably kill us all. You know how elves are.”

“No, I've never met any.”

Some ways down there was freshly upturned soil and tracks pushing down into it, a brand new path neither had ever seen that led them through a field of high grass on either side.

“So I say we go have a little look-see at what these elves are doing. Keep an eye on them.”

He stood up straight, marching against the sun like some sort of crusader.

“Maybe save the village from whatever nasty magic handwaving they have planned for us.”

Clarke hadn't pegged Wade's dad for the magical type but he'd somehow replaced Wade's tongue with his own because he'd never heard those sorts of ideas from him before. Living in a tight knit human community really brought no opportunity for it to have come up before but it was startling how quickly the ideas had taken root just because some elves had appeared.

“I've never seen an elf before. Maybe they'll be friendly and we won't need to defend anything. It's not like we'd be the ones to fight. The adults would.”

“Well...”

Wade shifted his hands up and down like a scale.

“I guess that'd be okay too. I've never seen an elf either but pa says they're kinda sissy magic poofs, the whole lot of 'em. I bet I could take one or two.”

There was a work site in the distance now, the skeleton of a very large house or even mansion beginning to loom up against the horizon and so many humans moving around and attaching piece to piece. They took to creeping now, off the road and edging low across the ground which did very little to hide in broad daylight and the grass moving visibly above them.

“Not quite as adventuresome to say you're visiting a house raising, is it?”

Clarke asked. Wade squinted at it.

“Could be an evil house.”

They came up closer, leaving the safety of the grass and openly watching at this point. It was unlike any construction they'd ever seen. The humans, hired locally from the village, were doing their usual hammering and carpentry, slotting the wood together where necessary and making spare use of the nails.

Clarke's eyes widened and his mouth fairly dropped open as he watched the elves work. Levitation to move heavy beams, punching nails into the wood with some other spell Clarke had no word for.

“Look at that. Elves can't even build a house right.”

Wade muttered.

There was an uneasiness to the site though. The human workers kept nervously glancing over their shoulders, seeing the lights of the magic, wary of the nails punched through wood without any tools. The elves had their own feeling, pointing and smirking at the simple tools and inefficient construction of having to rely on strength.

A crash caught everyone's attention. A large wooden beam, still held aloft with magic, had crashed into a wagon, bits of broken wheel sitting under the leaning wagon.

“What the hell, you long eared bastard, you trying to kill me!? Use some god damn common sense where you use that magic! Don't just swing logs around!”

The human yelled. The elf sneered but paused as though considering something.

“Watch where you're going, fool. This is a construction site, it's dangerous.”

“Don't you talk down to me after you caused this! Get down here and say it to my face!”

The elf tossed the log aside only for it to land on one of the logs at the end of the wagon, flinging it through the air towards the frame of the house.

Everyone flinched and scrambled to get away from the soon to be falling frame when a bolt of blue jagged lightning flashed into being through the air at the speed of light, the wood coming alight with fire and bursting into hundreds of charred bits of blackened wood that littered the ground.

An elf girl entered the site, standing between them.

“Don't be so careless. Teacher wanted us to learn to careful manipulation with our spells here. Now let's see you do it correctly.”

She folded her arms and watched as the elf sheepishly took hold of the log again and paid very careful attention to it's flight and how it twisted until it settled in place and it was firmly nailed into place.

“Good.”

She turned to the human who still quietly fumed and unexpectedly took his hands.

“Sir, I am very sorry on behalf of my mother and father for any trouble you've been caused. Are you okay? We will pay for the wagon, of course. It was one of our workers fault after all.”

He seemed more flustered to have his hand held and quickly pulled it away.

“Well, I'm alright. These things happen so, just have the wagon repaired will be fine. I guess I shouldn't have threatened him.”

“It's alright sir. Like you said, these things happen. Thank you for your understanding.”

Two older elves followed slowly behind her, one of them smiling fit to bust and the other sour.

One of the two was a female elf, older with the wrinkles of age dotting her eyes but looking much like the young girl. She laughed, rushing towards the girl who she swept up.

“Very good! Very, very good, you're getting faster!”

The girl laughed with her but the other, the father as best Clarke could guess from his familiarity as he approached, seemed less than pleased.

“Please dear, can't you teach her something far less destructive? Levitation would have been a lot more useful at that moment and saved us a great deal of money. And it scared the country people.”

The builders had all climbed down, lingering at the far edge of the site chattering amongst themselves and casting suspicious glances at the elves.

“Father, my levitation spell didn't have the range or strength to catch it in time to stop it. Lightning was all I could have done.”

He slowly nodded, considering what she'd said and seeming to agree.

Clarke stood slack jawed. Real, honest to goodness magic from someone around his age! Raw power held in ones own hand and she'd called it out of the air!

“Did you see-?”

Wade seemed to have stopped breathing. His eyes wide open, irises dilated.

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“Wade?”

Clarke shook him and Wade blinked once, a sudden sweat dripping down his temple and a mixing fear and happiness in his features.

“Let's go talk to her.”

He started walking over, eyes darting around and his steps uneven as though his legs kept changing lengths of their own accord.

Clarke followed with a much smoother stride.

The mother nodded at them as they approached and pointed her daughter to look.

“Look, the locals.”

The girl nodded, her ears sticking up into the air when her head went down. Several little rings lined the length of each one, all simple copper.

“Hello. My name is Alouella Lawfer. This is my mother Welowyn Lawfer and my father Telowe Lawfer. As you can see we're new in town building a school of magic and hope to get to know you all much better.”

She looked to her mother who mimed putting out a hand and Alouella did the same towards the two boys.

“Clarke Script.”

He took her hand, shaking it twice.

She turned to Wade, his face turned the brightest shade of pink. He looked down at her feet and took her hand.

“Brade-I mean Wade! Wade Bruin.”

His voice cracked in the middle of his name and he jerked his hand back from hers, covering his mouth as though it would retroactively take it back. Her parents went back to ordering the workers, the father scolding the elf who had dropped the beam.

“So Alouella, that was an amazing spell! Where did you learn to do that? I've always wanted to be a wizard but I've never found anyone who could teach me way out here. Not many people pass through this town.”

She put her hands on her hips, pushing her chest out with pride.

“My mother, the famous adventuress. She teaches me. And my father, he's just a researcher but he teaches me things too but nothing like how to throw the raw power of the heavens!”

Her arms curled dramatically toward the sky to which her mother motioned her to go a little higher, which she did.

“What about you two? What do you children do way out here?”

Wade spoke up, a little loud.

“I'm actually thirteen. Not exactly a child.”

“Oh! I'm sorry, I'm so bad at telling the ages of other races. I'm really sorry. I'm thirteen myself.”

She reached out and up, patting him on the shoulder. He turned about face in a whirl, practically screeching.

“It's alright.”

Clarke had read about it before but it having never seen it before he had taken a bit of time to recognize it. Wade had gone completely insane.

“Well, we play with the younger kids in the village mostly when we're not working or at school. I don't know if you'll be attending since your parents teach you but it's three days a week.”

She gasped, her eyes bugging out of her skull.

“Only three days?! How do you learn anything in that small amount of time?”

Wade and Clarke shared a confused look.

“Why would you need more?”

She reeled back as though struck, eyeing them both as though they might ask her why that bright thing up in the sky was hanging there.

“Because the world is huge! There are tons of things you can learn and so many races with their own practices, customs and cultures!”

Wade had finally managed to turn back around by this point though he kept his head down.

“Then, then you should come into town. See our culture. We also have a big festival at the end of summer for the harvest. Y-you can come to that too.”

“Oh, I'd love that!”

She took both their hands and dashed forward, dragging them behind before their legs understood what was happening.

“Let's explore the town!”

-----------------------------------------------

“So you're going to be a scribe? And you're going to be a knight?”

They'd wandered into town and the looks from the townspeople were constant, staring after the young lady they escorted here and there, looking into the shops and introducing her around. The people seemed hesitant with her, always a beat before they responded to her sincere greetings on behalf of her family.

Wade had put his attack of muteness behind him and began speaking more, though his face was still working on reducing the pink mask.

“Yeah, my dad never made it into the knights so I want to go out and make the world safer from lizardfolk and ratlings and monsters and stuff in his place.”

“Lizardfolk and Ratlings need protecting just as much as anyone else. Knights are about justice and aid, both blind virtues.”

“I...I guess.”

“You should be sure! A knight should be decisive!”

She clenched her fist for him and he did the same in a slower, less definite way.

“Yeah...I'll try...”

They stopped in the smithy to watch him hammer out some horse shoes. Alouella watched it with great interest as she'd never seen the process before, watching the sparks fly up in the air but the smith kept his eye on her, unable to stop mid-work.

“As a scribe, Clarke could follow you around and record your adventures.”

In all his training his mother had always talked of staying in nice castles and working under nobles and for libraries.

“What, you mean go on adventures and write down what happens?”

“Yeah! A battle scribe or adventure writer! They must exist.”

Wade laughed.

“What, a guy who writes in the middle of a fight? That's crazy, he'd get his head smashed in.”

Clarke could see himself hunched over a book with an arrow in his chest, cutting his heart in twain. It didn't sound like an especially long lived career path.

“I don't think so...I mean...there is something else I'd like to do. I kinda want to try being a wizard but...there simply isn't anyone to teach way out here.”

“In a secluded town like this? You don't have any hermits or mysterious shadowy figures or wise old men with a hidden past in the magical arts at all? I'd heard every human settlement had at least one!”

He could only imagine one shadowy, mystery figure in town, the librarian, and he'd never seen him cast any magic...but he'd also never seen him not cast magic.

Well...maybe...

“Nope.”

“What about that creepy ratling your mom is always hanging around?”

They left the heat of the forge behind and wandered through the market

“She doesn't hang around him, he just owns the building she likes to hang around in. She likes books.”

“Then we arrived at exactly the right time. You can join my mother's school of course.”

“Except I'm already going to Deraforda to be a scribe...”

Clarke sighed, his dream of wizardry staying just that.

Right place, wrong time.

Alouella's stomach rumbled all of a sudden, a growl that rose up and called for food.

All three laughed, each as hungry as the last as Clarke pointed the way.

“Guess we're going to Wade's.”

By now Clarke had noticed the strange way familiar eyes followed them and people clumped together as they passed. The bizarre treatment wearing the faces of those he knew made it all the more strange.

The Golden Bear was in its afternoon lull, a few women in to buy loaves and gossip over what little news came through the town. Whispers quieted as the three entered. Wade passed the counter and pounded at the arching window that separated the kitchen from the store front.

“Mom? Mom, can we get some bread? One of the new neighbors is out here starving to death.”

“Honestly, you kids are going to eat me out of house...and...”

Mrs. Bruin came to a jerky halt when she saw Alouella who immediately launched into an enthusiastic greeting.

“Hello Mrs. Bruin. My family is moving into your lovely town and Clarke and Wade have been very kind in showing me around.”

Mrs. Bruin leaned into the counter, her head coming level with her shoulders. She didn't respond to the greeting but turned to her son, face as sweet as usual with a big smile.

“Wade, you know we don't allow animals in the kitchen. Put that elf outside.”

Wade stood rigid. He cast a quick glance at Alouella whose own smile never wavered and Clarke who looked shocked that anything like that could come out of the friendly town baker's mouth.

“But...but mom, why-”

She leaned forward, face hardening and fingers scraping over the counter.

“You get that thing out of here and your father and I will explain it to you later. I don't want to disturb the other customers and who knows what a thing like that will do if you make it mad?”

She nodded sharply at the door and Wade hesitated, his legs slow to act until he was facing Alouella and Clarke and shooing them towards the exit without looking back.

Clarke saw it as soon as they were outside and his hand darted out, swiping a fresh tomato from the air only for the other two to slip by his arm, two ripe off the vine bursting on Alouella and the splatter hitting Clarke.

Kids darted behind proud looking parents, local farmers, and his face curled into anger. He'd never seen the like of such actions in his home town. Wade stomped the ground and yelled at them, dirty looks coming his way, or possibly at Alouella. It was hard to tell with them all in a group.

“Hey, you little bastards-!”

Alouella cut him off with a loud laugh, pulling the dripping bits of tomato off and sinking her teeth into the fresh fruit. The mess soaked into her dress and stained her skin a pale red.

“You folks are delightfully generous with your food around here. Free tomatoes!”

She looked perfectly happy to sink her teeth into the tomato and the looks of the townspeople were confused, some turning away, others disarmed by this opposite reaction. Both boys stared at her in confusion as most fights in Greater Rens usually ended in a shouting match or a round of punches to the body. Not that they would expect a single elven girl to start a fist fight with the whole town but a few lightning bolts might have let the town know not to mess with her.

Clarke was the first to break the daze.

“What was that?”

“What?”

“The part where you didn't give them a little jolt with a storm cloud? Or wherever magical lightning comes from.”

Wade looked back over his shoulder, distracted by some stray thought.

“Yeah...I mean, yeah, no, don't shoot people with lightning but you didn't even yell at them. I'd have beat the sh-...uh, heck out of someone for throwing a tomato at me.”

Alouella took a deep breath and let it out, small tears at the corners of her eyes.

“Oh, it was scary alright! But...my mother, she travels a lot and she gets taunted a lot because she's an elf. People don't like elves because of these major incidents that always seemed to be caused by elves in the past but if you want to fit in places and be liked you don't zap people with lightning. If I'm nice maybe the next elf they meet won't have such a hard time, understand?”

Both boys nodded at this sage advice, though Wade's mind was taking it in another direction. He cracked his knuckles which sounded like pretty convincing words to him.

“Yeah, I'll talk to the villagers about that...I mean, you're alright. We've checked you out.”

“That's right. I didn't hear any evil plans or sinister plots come out of your mouth. We'll talk to the other people in town and tell them you're not so bad.”

He looked at Wade, pointedly looked at his fists then back at his eyes.

“With our words.”

They arrived safely back at the homestead where her parents were packing up into a carriage, ready to go back to wherever they'd made space for themselves until the school was ready.

“Alouella, why are you so messy?”

Her father asked as she stepped up into the carriage.

“I've been sampling the local foods.”

He glared at the two boys as his daughter climbed in past him.

She looked out the window at them as it slowly pulled away.

“I'll be back in a week or so. Right?”

She looked at her father who nodded.

“A week. Until then, sirs. And thanks for being such nice humans.”

They waved until she was over the horizon which killed Clarke's arm but he didn't want Wade to look foolish flapping his arm around alone.

“Nice girl. And a wizard! So cool.”

The dazed, far away look in Wade's eye seemed to agree

“I should get home. The look in mom's eye seemed like I should get there as soon as possible.”

“You gonna be okay?”

He shrugged.

“I don't even know what's wrong. I hadn't even heard anything about elves being so bad until today since there's never been any here.”

They walked home, the hidden framework of society building itself in their minds about unspoken rules. The constant change of life had developed some prickly thorns in Clarke's thoughts.