Two weeks later.
Shielding my eyes from the invading sunshine I sit up in my bed. Looking aroud my room I see the smiling face of Elise.
"Well good morning too you too!" I throw the blankets off me and sit up with a stretch and a yawn. I give her a quick wink and she blushes.
"Good morning! The clan is all having breakfest on the long tables and of course you're invited!" I smile and walk over to my farely large closet. I look back at Elise with a smile.
"Might want to leave or you're gonna get an eye full." I watch as she tenses up and quickly scurries out of the room. She's fun to tease. With the slam of the door and the sounds of her feet pounding on the stairs I turn back to my closet and grab my clothes. With the Elven population being mostly women their sense of style for men is simple, usually a tan or green shirt with a foresty design in it and some tan leather pants. They make for good all around clothes if I ever need to do manual labor and being one of six men here at the town, I do a lot of manual labor.
Tugging on the clothes and throwing on a leather armor chest piece and some simple leather boots, I give myself a last look through in the mirrow and nod. Bounding down the stairs I'm greeted by the Keeper.
"Mas'seloras, Terryn." He bows to me and I bow back.
"Mas'seluris, Keeper." He shakes his head at me.
"ORAS not URIS. A child would know better!" He gives me a playful smile. I rub my head and smile back.
"This language is a lot harder then I thought it'd be." He glares at me.
"Maybe if you actually attended your lessons, you'd know it by now!" I sprint out the door and hear him laughing behind me.
"WHAT WAS THAT I COULDN'T HEAR YOU!" It's not that I don't want to know the language, It's that the language is fucking impossible! So many words have different meanings, but those meanings are only known based on the composition of the sentence and/or how you're or who you're speaking to. It's confusing and i've managed the basics. Slowing down to a walk I look around and see a few more guards posted then usual. Shrugging I see Elise and a few others setting the tables and jog over to help.
"Mas'selORAS, ladies." I bow to them and the group of women each bow back.
"Mas'seloras!" They say in unison. From what I gather it simply means: "Good Morning.", but I'm not quite sure, I just know its a greeting. I grab a basket full of bread from an elder and place it on the table, quickly running back to her for more work. I'm not quite sure how they tell who's older, the damned elves age at an extremely slow pace and when The Keeper told me he was 210 I nearly lost my mind. He doesn't look a day over thirty! I shake my head and grab another basket. Usually the clan doesn't eat breakfest like this, but I'm betting with the added security and the breakfest, there's something going on that I don't know about. I furrow my brow and stare at Elise whom seems to be whispering to someone suspiciously. Walking over to her I grab her sides softly and she jumps into the air with a screech.
"EEEEK!" She turns to me with a glare and slaps my chest, I just laugh. "Jerk! What was that for!?"
"You were whispering secretivly and I could have none of it!" She rolls here eyes and sighs.
"Girl talk!" The other woman looks at me with a smile.
"Yeah! Girl talk!" I roll my eyes and lean down to them in a whispering tone.
"What's going on today? Did I miss a meeting or something?" They both look to eachother then back at me with a laugh.
"Today is the day we're hosting the other clans in the area. The Keepers and their circles are meeting for breakfest then we'll move into the forest near the shrines for the night events. Surely someones told you by now?" I rub my head and begin to think. Did anyone tell me? Not that I can think of. I shake my head.
"I think i've been too busy? Just been me and Seloran hacking away at trees for the last three days." I see Elise rub her chin and shrug.
"Oh, well. It's a big event for the clans as this is when the twelve clans get together. We do it once a year to catch up on news, play games, share in tactics, train together and for the lucky few, meet their future spouses." Wow, that's one hell of s festival.
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"And it only lasts one day?" They both laugh.
"No-no-no! Today is the meeting day where the clans will eat and talk. The second and third days are the days we reserve for the games and training with the fourth day being a sort of dance and a continuation of the previous days."
"Neat! Where do I fit into all of this? I'm not EXACTLY part of the clan?" Elise smiles and throws her hands into the air.
"Thats what the banquet is for! To welcome you into the clan. You'll be recognized by the other Keepers and then we'll under go the process for your entrance into the clan." Simple enough.
"Isn't me being a human going to complicate things?" She blushes.
"That is something we will talk about with my father later!" She grabs the other girls hand and quickly wanders off.
"We need to go somewhere and continue our girl talk!" I wave them off and continue helping with the set-up. An hour later and we have four tables that can easily sit 100 people in the middle of the town with 1 shorter table infront of the tables on a small hill. I'm guessing that's where the Keepers are going to sit, but I'm still not one-hundred percent on how they run things around here. From what I can tell the Keeper is something like a President, but instead of being chosen by the people their chosen by the previous Keeper. The waiting Keeper or "Priest/Priestess" will take over when the Keeper feels they are ready. From what I understand theirs a whole huge ceremony and then there is something about tattoo's , but like my language lessons I kind of tuned it out.
"Terryn!" Hearing my name breaks me from my thoughts and I look up to see Seloran jogging to me. He's large for an elf, average for a human. Standing at 5'8" with a slim, but yet muscular build, he stands out a bit from the average elf as he has brown eyes intead of blue/green/purple and his hair is brown, not blonde. Apparently he is a half-elf with his mother being elven and his father being human. He's probably my best friend here if it weren't for Elise, as he was the one that showed me the ropes on my first day and ever since we've pretty much done every job with eachother.
"Seloran! What's good, buddy?" We give eachother a quick hug and he grabs me by the shoulders.
"Big day! I'm guessing Elise told you?" I nod.
"Yeah, I'm suppose to be intiated into the clan today!" He pats me on the shoulders and crosses his arms.
"You know what that means right?" I raise an eyebrow to him.
"That I'm going to have to grow out my hair? Put on big fake pointy ears?" We both laugh and he shrugs.
"Who knows? You might look good with golden set of lockes!" He punches me lightly in the shoulder and I try to picture myself with long blonde hair and well...I just can't.
"Naw, i'll leave that to you." He shakes his head.
"But, on a more serious note. No one's told you what being intiated means?" I cross my arms and shake me head.
"No, I think Elise was going to tell me, but she ran off with another woman and I've been here setting up for the breakfest." He opens his mouth to speak, but the Keeper yells for me.
"Terryn!" I turn to Seloran with a smile and tap him quickly on the shoulder, jogging to the Keeper.
"See you at breakfest!" I watch him nod with a smile as I take off. Entering the Keepers house I see Elise standing next to him in an incredibly long-green dress. I stop dead in the doorway and before I know it my eyes drift to every corner of her. Her long blonde hair is tied into a large braid with a small golden circlet placed on her head. The dress hugs her just enough to let her curves pop. I shake my head from my staring and find my face turning red.
"Ahh-you called for me Keeper?" I see Elise's face has turned a scarlet shade as well and the Keeper smiles.
"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about the ceremony." I close the door realizing I've been standing in the doorway and walk over to him. As soon as I'm past him I watch as Elise scurries quickly out of the house and disappears. I shrug it off as we walk over to a table and sit down.
"What'd you want to talk about?" He sighs and begins drinking from a cup of tea.
"Well, as you are human we can't just invite you into the clan you need to either have blood ties like Seloran or you need to marry into the clan." I nod to him.
"As you are not a half-elf you will need to marry into the clan and-" My eyes widen and I realize where this is heading. I feel my heart begin to race and my face heat up.
"You want me to marry Elise?" He shimmies uncomfortably in his seat and smiles.
"Yes." I stand and begin to pace. The Keeper notices this and frowns.
"Is this not something that is agreeable?" I stop and turn to him.
"No-no it's-it's wonderful! I just-is this okay?" He smiles and waves me down.
"It was her idea." I sit down and stare at the table. Two weeks and I'm going to be married to a woman I barely know. What about my quest? I'm supoose to die!? How am I suppose to tell her that? Suddenly I hear a voice that causes my hairs on my neck to stand on end.
"To live, to love and to die."
So I'm suppose to do this. To live and to love, but why? Why wouldn't they just force me to complete the quest and just sacrifice myself? Why the need to live and to love? Hell, I don't even know where to begin in the first place! All of these questions have me pacing again and the Keeper looks at me with concern.
"I know this is a lot to spring on you, but I hope you don't back out." I stop and walk over to him, kneeling to him with my head bowed.
"I would love to marry your daughter and become part of your clan, Keeper Valtas." He smiles, placing his hands on my shoulders and nods.
"Good, then we will meet with the other Keepers and have breakfest. By noon we will start the ceremony and by night you and my daughter will be wed." I feel my heartbeat pick up again. God this world moves fast.