Elven Tales Book 1 Part 1

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Elven Tales Book 1
How it happened to be

Disclaimer: The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended. This story is copyright (c) 2016 Branek. All rights reserved.

If you want to contact the author for any purposes feel free to use [email protected]

Everybody talks about how great elves are. They are faster, stronger, smarter more beautiful than any human. Yada yada you get what I mean. Sadly no one talks about the downsides of being and elv, especially not nowadays. Trust me, being a male elvin the 21th century I have experienced it first hand. You don’t believe me? Well take a seat and listen…

Chapter 1
Sad times

“El have you finished packing you bags?” Mom’s voice house sounded through the flat. I frowned, why did we have to move again? I had just managed to get some friends among the human population of the town.

Sighing, “No Mum, just give me a minute. I still need to pack away my photo album and the bow.” I called back in german and started to disemble the compound bow. I could hear the steps of mum in the hallway coming closer while I loosened the string. Just as I folded the bow she opened the door to my room.

“I have already told you that you are not supposed to speak German any longer El. You need to get used to the English language so you are comfortable with it when we arrive in Oregon.”

I looked up to her standing governing in open door with an expectant look on her face. I knew what she wanted to hear, she wanted to hear me repeating my earlier answer in english. I glanced at the opened Photo album showing a picture of Miri, Lisa, me and Vivian. Frowning I stood up from the side of the bed I had been sitting on while disassembling the bow. “I don’t want to.”

Apparently that caught my mother by surprise, “What do you mean? You don’t want to talk in english?”

“Ja. Nein. Fuck Scheiße Mum.” I threw the bow in my bag. “I don’t want to move, I’ve got friends here. Why can’t you and Dad move without me, I’m old enough to stand on my own feet anyways.”

Mom frowned now herself. “Just listen to yourself, yes, no fuck shit.” She mocked, “You’re barely a hundred and twenty years old, you’re nowhere ready yet to stand on your own feet. Let alone working? How are you supposed to earn you livings, child labour is illegal in germany.” She scolded me.

I stared at my feet suppressing the tears that tried to make their ways down my face. I knew she was right, but that didn’t mean that I had to be happy about it. I mean honestly, I’m about one and a half human lifespans in age and still have to suffer all that crap about being too young for this to young for that. That is just not fair. Here I’m looking like any other kid around the age between twelve to fifteen years, while I went to kindergarten with their ancestors.

“Listen son,” Mom switched to old elven, “I know that you made friends and I know how hard it is to leave them behind. Trust me on this you are not the only one who has to leave people behind. Don’t worry, over time things will get easier and I know you will be able to make new friends. Therefore it is important that you are proficiency speaking the english language as it will make it far more easy for you to do so.”

I sighed, leave it to mum to put you back in your place. It is hard to deny someone when the language he uses is forcing him to tell the truth, even though I know it is possible to work around it by being superficial like mom just did with her statement that I’m not the only one who has to leave people behind. I mean, she didn’t say that she was one of those others. “You’re right of course, mum.” I answered her in old elven. I walked over to her and hugged her adding in english. “Sorry I’m such a mess today.”

“It’s fine son.” Kissing me on the forehead she added. “Now finish your packing and bring down your bag dear.”

The moment she left the room I sighed. Picking up my photo album I frowned again before I carefully placed it in my backpack. Slipping the backpack over my shoulder and lifting both duffel bags that contained all my other stuff as well as my bow, I made my way out of the room. Reaching the door I froze in place, turning around glancing back over the now empty room before slowly closing the door. Come on El, this isn’t getting any easier by prolonging it, I mentally scolded myself. I noticed my parents bags and suitcase were still standing in the hallway, so I got rid of my bags next to them and went over to the kitchen.

“Hey mom?”

“What is El, have you finished packing your belongings?”

“Yeah, I just wondered. Could I quickly go over to Miri to say goodbye?” I pleaded.

“El, I really don’t think that is a good idea, your father is inbound any minute now and we can’t risk missing our flight. Maybe you could call them?”

Scowling at her I shouted, “Ich hasse dich! Ich hasse dich! Ich hasse dich!”

Mum bit her lips, “Listen son,” she moved closer with an apologetic look on her face. “I really wish you could say goodbye to your friends, but all your fussing about packing you bags has delayed us to much already.”

I frowned. So now it is my fault? If it were up to me we wouldn’t move at all, and I can’t even say goodbye to my friends. That bitch. I could feel my barely controlled anger raging just below the surface, my stomach was hurting in a pain I’d never felt before.

Mom stepped closer again reaching her arm out to me.

“Don’t you dare to touch me you heartless bitch!” I spit at her.

She stopped dead in her tracks. “Don’t I dare? Don’t you dare to call me a heartless bitch! El’maniziel Ramlen tu es Raziel this is the last time I will hear you speak this way. Your father and I do our best to raise you to a proper elven man neither he nor I will stand your foul tongue.”

“I just wish you would leave me alone and die.” I spit out in old elven.

She staggered back shocked, tears forming in her eyes knowing that I honestly meant what I had said.

I left the kitchen and picked up my bags and made my way out of the house to sit down on the porch. I don’t know how long I waited outside trying to cool down, but it sure felt long enough to say goodbye to my friends and that didn’t help me to cool down at all. I quickly pulled out my smartphone and texted, *The evil witch is holding me prisoner. ;( She isn’t even allowing me to properly say goodbye to you guys.*

*;( oh no, isn’t the prince supposed to rescue the princess?* He saw Miri’s reply.

Vivian’s text popped up next, *Was denn hier los, seit wann wird hier Englisch geschrieben?*

Vivi, he is supposed to constantly use english to get familiar with it,* LIsa added her thoughts to the conversation.

Vivian didn’t take long to text. *That sucks, but Miri I think El makes a fine looking princess.*

Twisting my eyes, I send. *Honestly guys?* I knew that my elven heritage gave me softer features that those of human boys, and wearing my golden blond hair long and open in typical elven fashion probably wasn’t helping either but still. I’m a guy god damn it.

Miri massaged, *She does have a point. Doesn’t she?*

Lisa threw another text in *Oo I just remembered how Jonas tried to hit on you El… :P *

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets reading Lisa’s message. Shuddering at that creepy memory I texted back *What, how could you. You told me you would never mention…*

What? You never told me anything about that. So did you?* Miri implied with her next message.

My hands basically flew over the keys and I send with a sour face. *Oh my god, I think I’m going to puke. Are you nuts with Jonas, that guy looks like he is the little brother of a mountain troll!* Actually I have never met a mountain troll, but if the stories of my elders are true then I can at least say they are everything but good looking.

Vivian’s text popped up next *Ew, yeah I can imagine the resemblance. I don’t think I would even poke Jonas with a stick.*

Another text from Lisa came in. *So true Vivi, and sorry El, it just kinda popped out.*

Miri implied again with a new message *So El, did you ever, you know… fancy a boy?*

Shaking my head I texted back, *That is ridiculous, but what if… Nah that can’t be.*

Miri questioned *Oh, tell what can’t be?*

Now grinning I replied. *I really shouldn’t.*

Miri’s messaged popped up instantly. *Oh, come on! Please!*

Biting on my lips I typed- *Well you have never, you know, bothered to undress in front of me, so how would I know?*

Vivian added in another message. *Wohoo, juicy juicy, The princess fancys the prince.*

Lisa sent another text. *Oh come on, let the poor boy alone. He can’t be held responsible for his cuteness.*

Cuteness eh, I felt the heat rushing to my head. That wasn’t something I wanted to hear from girls, even though I know it was inevitable. This was my fate a an elv. Women, especially human women liked that about elves.

“Hello my Princess I came to your Rescue!” I heard a very familiar voice.

I nearly dropped my smartphone in surprise. Jumping up rushed towards Miri puller her into a hug and twirled her around me. “Miri!” I squealed.

“Stop it, stop it!” she shrieked.

I gently let her down on the ground without breaking the hug. She smiled at me, “I guess that answers my question who’s the prince.” she said out of breath.

Thank you for passing by Miri. The chance to give at least one of my friends a proper goodbye. I can’t possibly put in words what this moment means to me.”

“You sweet charmer,” Miri playfully punched me on the chest. Suddenly she lifted herself on her toes and pecked me a kiss on the lips. “You didn’t honestly believe I would let the hottest boy running away from the town without stealing his first kiss did you?”

I don’t know how long I stood there shocked, pleased probably with a pretty stupid grin on my face while I held her in hug. “Thank you, I will never forget you.” I whispered in old elven while in the same moment cursing myself for my stupidity. I watched her eyes grow wide and her confused gaze for a second, followed by a smile as the foreign words slowly started to make sense to her.

“What, I … Thank you. I guess.” Her face grew confused again while the strange words left her lips.

The tooting horn of my father’s car broke the sudden moment and I quickly switched back to english. “Come quick, dad isn’t the best driver we don’t want to end up under the car.” I joked to distract her from the earlier moment.

“What?.. Oh yes, funny?” She laughed while her sight cleared as I led her back to the parlor.

Dad meanwhile had parked the car and gave me a knowing look that shortly alarmed me, I hoped he wouldn’t bring that topic up, I knew I had made a mistake the moment I used the old elven language. He smiled, “Miri, how nice of you to come over and wish us well.”

“Mr. Raizel, a pleasure. I hope I don’t disturb anything.”

I felt goosebumps running along my back when I heard the door opening. “Hello Miri, don’t worry I’m sure El was more than happy that you managed to come over before we left. If you excuse us now, sadly we have to hurry. El, start packing the car, Darling if you have a moment for me please.”

Miri nodded to my mom, then whispered in my ear, “We chat later, and call when you have landed.”

I stood at the porch a moment watching Miri walk along the road while dad went inside. Sighing I picked up bags and started to fill the trunk of the car. Mom and Dad were talking, probably about me, when I went back into the hallway to pick up their bags and suitcases. Their muffled voices weren’t clearly understandable anyway so I didn’t bother with what they were talking about. A few minutes later I had stored everything in the car and made myself comfortable in the backseat. Mom and dad came out shortly after I finished with the luggage left the house and locked it before entering the car.

The drive to the Düsselforf airport wasn’t much of interest. After we had brought the keys for the flat over to the landowner, it was mostly country road till we reached the highway. Many people think the German highways are special and I know back when I was younger that was true but nowadays they are so full of cars and speed control areas that you barely ever could max out your car. Especially around the bigger cities, the amount of cars forces the traffic nearly to standstill. I think we lost an hour of time till we got past Essen one of the bigger cities on the way while the traffic was only stop and go till we reached the highway cross. After that it got slightly better and we managed to reach the airport in time to the huge relief of my parents.

While Dad was settling things with the car renting company Mom and I went to the baggage pickup. Dad joined us while we still were standing in the line and handed us our passports. I quickly glanced at the foreign document. It was official, with this document I were an american citizen. Of course I knew that overseas a lot of other strings had to be pulled to make it possible even though I didn’t know the details. Once we checked in and went into the duty free area we walked towards the gate where our plane was supposed to depart and settled down in the lounge.

Mom tried to make light conversation but I was still to upset to speak to her. Dad tried his best to defuse the situation but gave up after I shot him a glaring look. I pulled out my smartphone and quickly messaged my friends. “Were about to board the plane, have to switch off my mobile soon. Ps. Miss you guys already. ;( “

It didn’t take long to get some encouraging answers from them, but before I had time to reply our flight got called to boarding and I had to switch my phone off. The boarding process took it’s time but finally we were on the plane and thank god, strange how those human phrases get adopted by us, Dad had booked first class tickets. The seats were surprisingly comfortable and soon after the plane made its way over to runway for takeoff. Once in the air the pilot informed us about expected flight time which was about nine hours due to flying against the wind.

I leaned back in the seat thinking about the earlier chats with Miri, Lisa and Vivian. Why did Lisa had to bring up the embarrassing moment that Jonas had tried to hit on me. I shuddered. Between the slightly vibrations and the comfortable seat soon I drifted into a light sleep.

Chapter 2
Embarrassing memories

“Tick, Tick, Tick,” I looked at the clock on top of the door, merciless clicking second by second keeping me and the other pupils confined in yet another boring session of history class. Just two more minutes till I wouldn’t have to indulge the drowsy making voice of Mr. Behrendt, two more minutes till lunch break. I looked around the classroom and noticed the concentrated looks on the face of the other boys in the class, while most of the girls were making notes. Maybe I was a bit hard on Mr. Behrendt, but hey, he was talking about the second world war and I had some vivid memories of that episode that a history book would never be able to fill.

Mr. Behrendt turned back to start a new part of his lesson obviously not realizing that his time was running out when Lisa threw a folded note at me. I quickly fished the note from the ground and started to unfold it just to frown when I read the text. “Hey El, Jonas is constantly looking into your direction. I think he is checking you out. :)” Just what I needed a creepy looking guy with more hills on his face then their were in the alps taking an interest in me. When I looked over to Lisa still thinking about what a face to make on her suggestion I noticed how Jonas sitting on front of Lisa quickly looked out of the window. Oh my god, did I just? Did he just? I’m so stupid! I wanted to bang my hand on my desk but the sudden ring of the bell saved me from that.

Quickly I packed all my stuff in my duffelbag and tossed it over my shoulder to head out of the classroom. Out of the classroom I went over to my locker to get rid of some of the books I wouldn’t need for the rest of the day. Just as I closed the locker Lisa reached me with a grin on her face. Involuntarily I groaned.

“Did you see it.” She giggled.

My head started to hurt. “Don’t remind me, I think I’m getting sick. Where is Miri and Vivian? I haven’t seen them all day.”

“They went to the cheerleading contest over in Osnabrück today.”

I hit my head with the flat hand, “Of course they didn’t manage to speak of anything else the last few days.”

“So what about you and Jonas? You think he has the hots for you?”

“Be real Lisa, I’m a dude there is no way.”

“I know, but does he know?” She asked innocently.

“Does he know what? Wait you don’t think I’m gay do you?” I asked embarrassed.

She giggled, “No of course not. The thought alone,” she giggled. “That is impossible seeing you and Miri. No I meant, are you sure he knows you’re a guy?”

“Of course he does. He has to we have swimm…” I stopped midsentence thinking about it. Had I actually ever seen Jonas for weekly swimming class, or any P.E. class at all? There had to be a moment I have seen him in one I was almost certain. “Maybe, maybe he is gay?” I asked not really convinced myself.

Lisa frowned and started nibbling her lips as she always did when thinking hard about something. “Dunno, it is certainly possible, but. But he doesn’t strike me like the guy who is gay. You know, not really clean and tidy, messed up clothing and he certainly isn’t aware how he looks. And even if, would that make you current position any better?”

I shuddered, “Eww, that conversations creeps me off. Let’s fetch something to eat and stop this madness.”

She shrugged her shoulders, “Fine by me, but don’t you think that this is over yet. What are you gonna do if he asks you out?”

“That is impossible.” I said making my way over to the school’s cafeteria.

Lisa quickly caught on to me, “What you mean that is impossible?” She leered at me.

Twisting my eyes I replied, “Just that, I doubt he has the courage to ask.” I got into the line taking an empty tray and headed towards the salad bar.

Lisa followed me and while we both were getting out lunch she asked, “So what makes you certain he doesn’t have the courage to ask?”

I walked over to our usual table and sat down waiting for Lisa to taker her place in front of me today. I played with my salad a moment before I had collected my thoughts. “Well, when you threw my the note.”

She nodded.

“Well I read it and turned around to look at you.”

She nodded again trembling in excitement.

“Well I’m certain I caught him looking at me and he immediately turned away and stared out of the window as if I had him caught doing something…”

“Naughty?” She suggested giggling.

I groaned. “Oh, come on. Gimme a break please. I just mean, if he acted like this he sure can’t have the courage to try something bolder.”

“Maybe you’re right,” she said sounding everything but certain. “Anyway let's talk about something more appetizing than…”

“Jonas.” I suggested with a wry smile, “I’m all for it.”

The talk drifted back to what Miri and Vivian were doing and how their competition might be going and soon it was nearly time to go back to our classes and we still hadn’t finished our salads as engrossed as we had been in out talk.

“We should better finish and get ready for class,” Lisa said.

“Hrmpf,” was all I managed with my mouth full of salad.

“Excuse me,” someone said to my left. I turned around my mouth still full of salad looking at the giant goof standing there in front of me.

“Excuse me Elly. I mean if you’re fine with me calling you that I could of course call you El, like your friends if you prefer,” he pressed out like a balloon under a steamroller.

I tried to find air but with my mouth full of salad and the ridiculous scene in front of my eyes my mind was too busy to realize my nose was free.

“I Just wanted to ask you, if you might be interested going to the cinema on saturday.”

I started to choke, desperately needing air now, I knew my head was running red like a tomato. Jonas however seemed to believe me remaining silent was in his favour and won more self confident in his course.

“There is this new movie out, you know the one with Emilia Clark in it and I thought you might like it.”

A chick flick, like really? I coughed spraying the salad and dressing in my mouth all over the table, while greedily sucking in the air hoping I wouldn’t immediately starting to puke my stomach out of my body. My head was feeling like it was burning and my knees felt like pudding when I pushed myself of the table. “Excuse me.” I muttered and ran of to the stalls.

I could hear him talking to Lisa while I left the room, “Eh, did I say something wrong?”

I didn’t catch her reply awfully aware of all the people starring at me while I left the cafeteria. God that was so embarrassing, I could bet that this was all over the school tomorrow. I could see the headline of the school's newspaper already. “Jonas outed! Gay boy asks out El in public.”

Could the day get any worse? First another fruitless history lesson and then getting mistaken for a girl by the biggest toad in school? Maybe I could accidently kill him with a shot gone stray during archery club? Nah, nobody would believe me, damn me and my showing off. Did he actually asked me out? To a romance movie? I shuddered again.

I quickly splashed some water in my face trying to calm myself down. Looking in the mirror at myself I wondered, did I really look that much like a girl? Long golden blond hair reaching down between my shoulderblades, bright unusually vibrant green eyes. The kind of color isn’t normal for humans but rather normal among elves, my flawless skin in it’s fair tone, and of course the different bone structure with the higher cheekbones. Maybe it wasn’t so surprising he had mistaken me for a girl after all. Involuntarily I shuddered again. “I hope that was the first and the last time,” I muttered before making my way out of the bathroom.

Lisa was waiting for me outside with a cheeky grin on her face. I immediately raised my hand, “Don’t!”

“Owww,” She gave me her best puppy pout.

I laughed, “Stop that. That’s just not fair!”

She blinked at me, pleading me with her eyes.

“Alright alright, let’s get out we have P.E. we can talk while we walk over.” Liza jumped over and hugged me.

“I knew it, I still can’t believe he actually did it.”

“Ew, that was so...”

“Cute?” she chimed.

“How about gross?” I wryly replied.

“Don’t give me that. I saw how you blushed when he started.”

“Yeah sure, I was choking on my food. He finished just before I couldn’t stand it any longer without breathing and sprayed my lunch all over the table.”

“That was so awesome, you should have seen his face. It was like he had been rammed head on by a truck.”

“I wish that would have happened on his way to school, would have spared me that embarrassment.”

“Oh, come on. Now you are just mean. Actually I think I should be the to be offended, I mean there I sit with a guy at a table, another guy comes and asks you out, not the cute girl sitting at table.”

I cannot hold back my laughing, “As if the situation would have been any other in that case. I bet you would have spit profanities at him in that case.”

Frowning Lisa looked at me, “Well true, but still. I feel offended.”

“Women!” chuckling I shook my head in amusement.

“It’s true though. It is bad enough that I have to worry about Miri and Vivian stealing the interest of any potential boyfriend. Now I have to worry about you too El.”

I snorted. “As if.”

“I wonder what Miri would say about today's event?”

“Please don’t. Honestly could we just pretend today never happened?” I pleaded.

“It would be hard, don’t you think there will be rumors?” She looked at me. “Oh my god? You are afraid of that, of course. Hmm, we need to come up with a plan than.”

“A plan?” I asked hopefully.

“It will be tough though. But maybe if we spread some rumors ourselves.”

I smiled at that idea, maybe we could... “Miss. Excuse me miss.”

Hmm… I opened my eyes and stared half away at the stewardess next to me.

“Would you please pull out the table? Your dinner’s ready” She smiled down at me.

Chapter 3
Bonding with dad

The dinner at 30,000 feet was a distraction I whole heartly welcomed. Dad probably noticed something but didn’t mentioned it during dinner. The food was okay, well actually it might have been splendid. But for whatever reason, probably the cabin pressure I wasn’t really fond of it. The salad was a little bit too crispy for my liking, the bread to dry. The soup was okay as was the steak I had. Yeah I know surprise I actually do eat meat. It isn’t common among my folk and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t eat something I hadn’t hunted down myself either. But I’m pretty sure they would have complained at the airport If I had arrived with a dead boar or deer, and I hadn’t liked the other options when we preordered for dinner.

The oj was was tasty as ever though, so maybe it had to do with the way they cooked things this high in the air. I guess under pressure the boiling temperature of water changes doesn’t it? Whatever, dinner managed to fill my stomach and I was awake to enjoy the aerial view over greenland. Funny how such a small thing like snow clad mountains poking through the clouds can get one this excited. It would still take a few hours till we would arrive and staring out of the window kept me occupied for a while. However watching out of the window can only keep your interest for a certain time, and certainly not another four hours so when dad finally had mercy with me I was more than willing to talk.

“Had a good dream son?” He asked trying to get my into a conversation.

I snorted, “More like the good part of a nightmare.”

“Not forty five again?” The concern apparent in his voice, “I thought you were over that.”

I chuckled, “Nah nothing like that. Just embarrassing.”

Dad sighed, “Good, glad to hear it. You might not remember it in detail, but you came running to our bed every night for nearly thirty years. I doubt your mom and I could cope with another episode.”

“Dad!” I gawked.

He started to chuckle and it soon turned into a full out blown laughter, “Sorry son. Got ya didn’t I.”

I shrugged my shoulder folded my arms and stared out of the windows.

Dad gave me a friendly punch on the arm, “Come on spoilsport. It was a joke.”

Grinning I turned back to him. “Who got who now?” I jested,

Dad ran his hand over my head and ruffled my hair. “Okay, I give up you win. You’re still mad with your mom?”

I looked at him with a sour face, why did he have to ruffle my hair. Didn’t he know how much work it was to keep it in an orderly fashion? Still fixing my hair I muttered, “Plenty.”

“Yeah I figured that. Having to say goodbye is always hard.”

I frowned, “It wasn’t that, I was ready to say goodbye, but mom told me we didn’t have time for it.”

“But you knew that we would move weeks ahead.”

“Sure but…”

“But what?”

“It isn’t the same is it?”

“I’m not sure I’m following you.”

“I mean it isn’t the same saying goodbye, we will move in a week, and I’ll probably don’t have the time to see you again. Knowing that I’ll probably never see them again. And saying goodbye personally on the very last possible moment.” Tears started to form in my eyes. “Dad I don’t like lying to my friend, I don’t like lying at all.”

Dad pushed my head over and pressed it against his chest. “You’re a good kid, You’re a good kid El,” He whispered.

“I’m missing them, dad.” I sobbed, “I miss Miri.”

“I know son, I know. What were you talking about when I arrived?”

“I told her I would never forget her.”

Dad raised his eyebrows, “That’s it? I had thee feeling it was something deeper.”

I looked at the carpet floor of the plane, “I said it in the old tongue.”

“You did What?” Dad suddenly sounded alarmed.

“No dad, it’s not like that.”

“It’s not like what?”

“Well she did respond.”

“Wait she did what? But that, how? She isn’t known within the court.”

“Dunno, I can’t really explain it. But somehow at that moment it felt right. Maybe she’s a halfblood?”

“Unlikely, and it wouldn’t explain how she is able to understand and answer the old tongue either. She is raised by her dad as a single child right?”

“Yeah, her mom died when she was around five as far as I know.”

“Hmm. There could be, even though it’s unlikely. She could be more elf than human. But why did her mom abandoned her? I will have to make some enquiries once were arrived, though I doubt we get a clear answer.”

“She isn’t in trouble is she?”

“No son. Don’t worry, In the worst case they take over her education and split her from her father.”

“I doubt that would be nice either.”

“Probably not, but it isn’t in our hands anyway. So that dream you had wanna talk about it.”

“Dunno, it’s…”

“Embarrassing.”

I chuckled. “Yeah.”

“Take your time.”

“Thanks dad. Well it all started two years ago, when I started to grow my hair out in the usual fashion.”

Dad nodded.

“Well Miri and Vivan were out for a Cheerleading contest in Osnabrück and of our clique only Lisa and me were left in school. We had history another boring episode of the second world war with more half truths and fiction in it than anything else….”

Father listened for hours while I went through my dream. A dream that actually perfectly reflected my memories of that day. That was something that really made us different from most humans. Our lifespan was longer than the general memory size of a brain though it had to develop a different strategy. Instead of having normal dreams our brain used to let us live through our memories again while it stowed them away into our subconscious. If you’re of a technical mind, you might call it a defragmentation of our brain, or an encryption of our memory. The effect is simply a thing of beauty, the perfect memory, the ability to always remember everything that happened in your past. Your feeling the sensation of your skin, well even everything.

When I finally finished with my story my cheeks still burning as if on fire in embarrassment I looked up to dad. Dad seemed deeply in thought as if he was waiting for something. “Keep going son, so what happened?”

“Well, that was all. After Lisa and me managed to defuse the situation and Jonas not wanting to get even more embarrassed himself the whole situation was over. Well that is till Lisa accidently mentioned on in our chat group today.”

Dad laughed, relieved? I think. “That’s it? And you’re embarrassed about being mistaken for a girl?” His face suddenly went serious again. “Son I’m sorry but you might have to live with that for a few years. Our soft featured in our early teen’s, they tend to make us appear more girly than the human boys in respective age. It is a blessing and a curse of our longevity.”

I frowned, “But dad.”

He raised his hand, “Wait let me finish please. Son you’re not the first and definitely not the last of our kind who has to live through that. I remember very well how embarrassed I was myself when it happened the first time. But looking back I can tell you that it made me grow.”

“But…”

“Wait son. What I want to tell you is that even though you might not see it that way yet, those moments will prove useful later in your live. You will develop a much better understanding of the female mind than human boys which will definitely ease your time living with one for a long time.”

“You mean like when I have children on my own?”

“Yes, like me and your mom. We have lived together for hundred forty years now, and I’m almost certain we wouldn’t have managed if I didn’t know how her mind was running sometimes.”

I nodded waiting for him to continue.

“Psst.” He bowed himself over to me conspiratorially. “I let you in, in a very personal secret. Please never tell anyone about it, I would probably die of embarrassment.”

I quickly nodded.

“When I was about your age maybe slightly older that was back in 1570 and we lived in the tsardom of russia. I tell you the clothes were strange among the humans back then, but what I wanted to tell you is. Well, I spent two very interesting and funny years disguised as a noblewoman at the tsar's palace before we had to swiftly move and leave the country.”

“You did what?”

“Psst. keep it quiet will you.”

“Kay, so what happened why did you have to move so soon.”

“Well it is kinda embarrassing, but somehow one of the Tsar’s son, his name was Radoslaw, he started to get interested in me.” Dad blushed, “He was actually quite nice and I did my best to divert his interest.”

I quickly took a fresh breath of air. I hadn’t even realized that I had stopped breathing for a moment. “What happened then?”

“Well son, back than it was a rougher time. Woman hadn’t had much to say. Well I don’t know everything but clear is that the Tsar seemed to approve at what he thought was a prosperous relationship between his impetuous son and a noblewoman he knew was of many talents and wits. We had of course noticed that something was going to happen and already prepared to leave the country, when one evening in the great hall the Tsar ruled Radoslaw and me to be spoken for each other.”

I gasped.

“Psst, will you keep quiet.” Dad hissed at me. “Well his majesty the Tsar declared that me and his son should be married on the first full moon of the upcoming spring which was roughly two month away so that he could invite many nobles from the surrounding lands for the bedding.”

“Bedding?” I asked confused.

“Well son, back than it was common that a bride wasn’t allowed any physical contact with her husband before they were married. Thus the wedding night would be the first time they would do it together.”

I blushed together with my dad.

“Well as it happened Radoslaw wasn’t too fond of the idea to wait two more month to get me into his bed. He courted me relentlessly trying to get closer to me, but the palace was full of servants and visiting nobleman so that it wasn’t easy for him to achieve anything. One evening after dinner however he managed to trap me in an abandoned corridor near some empty guest quarters.”

I looked wide eyed at my dad.

“You must know, Radoslaw was sixteen human years old and the training with his father's arms men had made him a strong and imposing person, while I was still only a hundred and twenty three and far smaller and leaner than him. Well Radoslaw grabbed me and forced me into one of the empty guest rooms and I. Understand son I wasn’t proud of what happened.”

“Dad.” I asked worried.

“Well when he tried to force himself on my I stabbed him.”

“You did what?” I asked shocked.

“Well, I didn’t know what to do. I could hardly risk him noticing that I was a boy, an elven boy on top of it. I did the only thing I could do confronted with a huge and much stronger human who was about to rape me. So I stabbed him with my dagger and ran out of the room. Luckily Mom, dad and me managed to leave the palace before anyone noticed what hat happened.”

“What happened to Radoslaw?” I asked.

Dad frowned, “I honestly don’t know, and I’m not sure if I would be happy if I knew. Back then I really thought of him as a friend, he was always nice to me even though he assumed I was a girl and treated me that way. But it is hard to hate someone who was always nice to you isn’t it? However I learned a very important lesson that day, a man might appear be the perfect gentlemen. But he is still a man and much stronger than women or an elven boy who isn’t grown up yet and whatever he might be promised in the future, when his greed gets too big he will try to enforce his will by force if necessary.”

“Does that mean?”

“Yes son, as a man yourself you have to be aware of the possibility and always look out for your inner greed.

“Ping.” The seatbelt lights went on.

“Ladies and Gentleman, this is your captain. We are now on the landing approach to Portland International Airport. The local time is eleven thirty am and we have sunny eighty degrees fahrenheit. Please sit down and fasten your seatbelt now and stay in your seat till the plane has stopped and reached it’s final position. We hope you had a pleasant flight with American airlines today and wish you a nice stay in Oregon.”

Chapter 4
An unwelcome welcome home

Even though I hadn’t been happy to leave my friend behind I got pretty excited when the plane touched the tarmac. I had spent the last half hour watching out of the window seeing endless woods along the mountains with only small settlements mixed in between. Now Portland and the direct vicinity was something else. The city was huge, and I don’t mean compared to Diepholz which is little more than a town in the middle of nowhere. No I mean even huge compared to cities like Essen. There were huge skyscrapers everywhere in the center of the city and thousands of small estates and houses in every direction except the hills.

When the plane come down over the city I could see the Columbia River which marked the border between Oregon and Washington and another huge city called Vancouver on the other side of it. Well that was at least what was standing in the brochure on the place. Now with the plane on ground rolling over to its designated position I just wanted to get out. It’s not like I don’t like flying but after a nine hour flight I was more than eager to have solid ground below my feet.

Departing the plane and walking along the gangway was pretty much like on every other airport. I mean it was pretty boring and waiting for the our luggage at the conveyer belt didn’t help my lack of patience either. On top of that our luggage was nearly the last items on the conveyer belt and the crowd that was filling the hall at the security checkpoints blocked pretty much any attempt of me to see what was going on. Involuntarily I groaned when the thought of staying here for several hours till we were through the checkpoints flashed through my mind.

“El come on, this way son,” Dad called over and started to push his way through the ground excusing himself and begging for pardon.

I quickly followed him and mom and when we reached the middle of the hall the crowd suddenly cleared and I sighed in relief. I had actually forgotten that we were traveling as citizens of the United states and not as visitors from another country. The line was a lot shorter and in pretty much no time we stood at the checkpoint. Officer Hadley an old white man with an ill fitting uniform and an hilarious mustache was the controlling officer that took his time checking my passport.

“Had a good time in europe?” He either tried to do small talk or he was inquiring me.

“Guess so.” I replied. Did he have to bring this up now? Wasn’t it bad enough that I had to leave all my friend behind and now after waiting like forever to get here, I was getting bothered by some odd looking security officer.

“Welcome home lad.” He smiled at me.

I rolled my eyes. “If you say so sir.”

Sighing I picked up my passport and my luggage and made my way over to my parents. Dad and Mom were talking about something quite intense but over the noise of all the other people at the checkpoints I couldn’t possibly hear a single clear word. They stopped talking the moment I got close enough to listen to them.

Dad smiled at me, “Hey kiddo, everything alright?”

Slouching I looked at my feet, “Suppose so.”

Dad patted my shoulder and started to lead me with him. “Listen, your mother has to make some calls. You know informing the court that we arrived and some other things.”

The court’s, there are several of them, well they are practically the government of the elven society. They’re a relict of our past when we were still living a life outside of the human society and are traditionally made up from the high houses. The courts are placed all over the world and in many cases as big or larger as the country or state they are resident in. For example the court that is in charge of the german area is also in charge of france and the other smaller surrounding human country's. It is placed in the deeper parts of the black forest at the southwest border of germany.

Nowadays the purpose of the courts is to keep the elven society hidden and secure from the humans while on the same time making sure the humans aren’t bothered by our kind. That said, we elves don’t normally interfere with the human politics as long as it doesn’t directly influence us. I personally don’t know much about how things are run there as I only spend a few years there during the cruelties of World War Two.

It wasn’t really necessary to inform the court that we had arrived, though it was custom to do so as a showing of respect and politeness. The reason mom was calling instead of dad was simply the fact that the elven society is matriarchy ruled and mom was the head of house Reziel and a true highborn. Highborn that is another old custom of ours. Highborn pretty much means that she is the daughter of an arranged marriage between two high houses and thus supposed to build her own high house.

That leads us back to the other reason we moved over to Oregon. Not too long ago an old line of high houses in Oregon had died and house Raziel was deemed suitable to fill the gap.

“Son? Son!” Dad called out to me pulling on my shoulder.

“Sorry dad. I was just thinking.”

Dad frowned, “Son.” then he started to smile again. “Why don’t we take care of our ride while your mom is busy and maybe, maybe we can get you a new sim card for you mobile what do you think?” He asked enquiring.

“A new sim?” That would mean, I could contact Miri and the others? I smiled at dad. “Sure why not? Beats standing around while mom is trying to make it quick on the phone I guess.”

Dad snorted. “If you think your mom is bad now, wait till you have your first girlfriend.”

Doubting I glanced at him. “You want to tell me?”

Dad shook his head, “Son believe me, you have no idea.”

Frowning while I walked with dad I thought about it. True if I thought about Miri, Lisa and Vivian, they were always busy with their mobiles. Well and when you tried to call them nine times out of ten you would get the busy signal. Lisa and Vivian weren’t too bad but Miri? Miri could talk for hours, as if time didn’t exist for her when she was on the phone. Would that mean if my suspicion about her was right? Could something like the time someone spend on its mobile be calculated on their genetics, like extracting the root out of indeterminate? Surely it couldn’t be that simple, and even if, would the time someone could spend be a factor to be considered, would that mean that mom? I bit on my lips. Maybe it did, there was certainly more to it that I didn’t quite grasp yet, but it certainly would explain moms tendency to block the home phone all day.

“Kiddo?”

It certainly seemed possible. I mean I couldn’t possible imagine all the involved factors quite yet but it seemed similar to firing an arrow. If one would be able to consider all factors like the flow of the wind, the air resistance of the arrow itself. The density and humidity of the air. The effects those had on the string and the material of the bow. Certainly it was possible..

“Kiddo?”

“Hmm what?” I looked at dad confused.

“Everything alright kiddo? You seemed distracted,” dad asked with a worried tone.

Shrugging my shoulders I replied. “ I guess, I was just thinking about what you had said.”

“You’re thinking about what and who she is talking with?”

“Hmph, Yes. I mean no. No I was trying to figure out if it is possible to estimate the time a girl stays on her phone. I mean considering you would now all the factors that are involved in it, it wouldn’t be much more different than firing an arrow wouldn’t it be dad?”

Dad chuckled, “Maybe my son, but if you would manage to know all the details to estimate and calculate all of the involved vectors, wouldn’t your mind be involuntarily become female? I mean you would be the first man who would be understanding the female mind.”

I snorted, “Now you’re making fun of me. You know it can’t possibly be that simple.”

Dad sighed, “If I only knew son, If I only knew.”

At least we didn’t had to deal with such complicated things as the female mind when we entered the car renting company. Dad obviously had managed all necessary details online and just introduced himself and the counter. After he had verified his identity and signed a few papers he was handed the key for our rental car.

Dad had ordered an Chrysler 300 and I had to admit that my first impression of an american car was certainly a good one. Though the Chrysler seemed a lot more bulky and less aerodynamic as the german counterparts like Audi or Mercedes though it had a certain flair that could be described interestingly different at least. With the car renting done we walked back to the terminal to get some local sim cards for our smartphones and met up with mom once she was finished with her business.

We stopped in front of the store and dad asked, “So why don’t you look for a new casing for your smartphone while I’ll draw up the contracts for the phones?”

Contemplatively I said.“Dunno, I think I’ll wait outside.”

Dad raised an eyebrow and looked at me surprised. “You were talking about nothing else the last few weeks.”

Shrugging my shoulders and pulling out my phone to look at the case I said. “It’s blue it isn’t that bad is it? And it kinda reminds me of Miri and the others.”

“It is baby blue and what about the flower motives? You were complaining about those too.”

“Yeah it’s just. You know when we went into that shop in osnabrück the salesmen was so annoying that I grabbed the first case and bought it just to be done with it.”

“Yeah you told me that part.” Dad nodded.

“Well what I didn’t tell you is that it wasn’t that case here. I had grabbed a bright pink case with unicorns and glittering stones on it.”

“So what? Did you go back in and changed it against another?” Dad inquired.

“Not exactly, that was Vivian’s first idea too but I was just too embarrassed to do so.. But no after the girls had their fun about it Lisa asked me if I wanted to trade with her, her case was just a month old and in pretty good shape. I owe her a lot.”

Dad shook his head, “You know kiddo, you have to be more carfull. So far all those stupid situations you ended up in were harmless and truth to be told ridiculously funny too. That doesn’t change the fact though that it is mostly your own fault and most of them wouldn’t have happened if you kept a clear had.”

“Yes dad.” I said ruefully. “I’ll be careful from now on.”

“Another thing son.”

“Dad?” I asked.

“Son I know it is hurting you to leave your friends, and it’s all still fresh. But you need to move forward and stop looking back all the time. If you don’t you will have a hard time making new friend here. But you know that don’t you?”

Sighing, “Yes dad, but as you said it’s still fresh. Give me some time please.”

Dad patted my shoulder, “Alright kiddo, now why don’t you take a seat outside of starbucks while I’ll deal with the annoying salesman. This way mom will easily find you should she finish before me.”

“Suppose, I could do that.” I nodded.

Dad rolled his eyes, “Alright, be right back. Have to make a deal with the devil.” he said wryly and walked inside the shop.

Chuckling I walked over to starbucks just to get confused with a whole new world of coffee. Not that I had never been at starbucks before, but the etablissements over in germany didn’t have nearly as much on their menu as the original ones. My best guess it was due to local customs though I wasn’t really sure. To avoid embarrassment I went for a simple cappuccino and some kind of cookie that I only knew as American Cookie back over in Germany. Basically it was a simple cookie with chocolate bits in it, but other than in germany it was rather large and flat.

Back outside I tested the cookie and was delighted that it tasted just the same as back home. While the cappuccino was obviously of a different blend it tasted well and soon I was busy looking out at the crowds passing to see if I noticed mom. Both of them arrived shortly after each other and we soon were on our way to the parking decks were the Chrysler was waiting for us.

With our luggage already in it after dad and me had went to it earlier after receiving the keys we were quickly on the way to our new home. I couldn’t suppress a chuckling “Just like back home!” shout out when I noticed the yellow Ikea sign on a big blue colored steel sheet warehouse just a few minutes past the airport. Then we headed a few minutes along the Interstate 205 or war memorial freeway till we changed over to the Interstate 84 that lead us closer to the city center.

At the end or maybe the start? Well anyway, at the end of the Interstate 84 coming from our direction dad drove right to over to the Interstate 5 and along a river I was quite sure was to small to be the columbia river. Dad soon confirmed my suspicion when we changed to the Interstate 405 crossing a double layered 4 lines wide bride called North West Freemont Bridge crossing the Willamette River, which was having two layers of driving lanes one in each direction. To say I was impressed of the human resourcefulness wouldn’t be too far off.

Dad went left along the I-405 and soon switched over to Highway 26 which lead out of Portland city. The traffic hadn’t seem bad but we still needed about 20 minutes to cover the distance so if you haven’t been In Portland yourself you might have an Idea what kind of city I was talking off earlier. Yes it was huge, at least for someone like me coming from the German countryside.

Driving along the Highway I was occupied watching out of the windows. After a short tunnel we suddenly left civilization behind. Well except the lot of cars driving in each direction we were suddenly surrounded by woods. The woods ebbed soon after we passed the Portland zoo, but still even with civilization surrounding us again it was mostly woods till dad decided to pull out at canyon road to drive directly through beaverton on of the bigger cities right outside of portland and between Portland and our new home Forest Grove.

With the woods behind us and only city around us I started to get edgy and worked the new sim card in my phone to contact Miri and the others and finally fulfill my promise to contact them though mom obviously had other ideas.

Turning around in the passenger seat so she could look at me fiddling with my mobile she asked. “So, you’re nervous about school El?”

What the hell? School was still 2 weeks of till it would start? And why would I be nervous about it anyway? Sure I was going to be the new guy, and hell I probably had a lot of english to caught up too. But hey, nobody's perfect and in the other classes I would pass easily, hell in history or geography I would run a circle around most teachers anyway. “Dad?” I asked.

“Kiddo?” He replied sounding distracted.

“How long till we’re there?”

“Soon kiddo.”

I sighed, and started to work on my mobile again finally getting the right angle and the sim went in. Starting the phone and hitting in the new pin I went to check contact list that appeared to have all numbers I wanted to keep in them. Mom was still looking at me with an somewhat aggravating look on her face.

“Dad?” I asked again.”

“Yes son?” He asked wryly.

“Could you tell mom to stop staring at me like some looney?” trying to ignore the anger in her eyes when she flinched at my words I leaned back and kept checking my phone.

“Darling?” Dad sighed, “I don’t believe our son isn’t willing to talk to you right now. So why don’t you relax and just give it some time?”

“Really!” Mom snapped. “You defend him?” Mom snorted. “He always wants to be handled like an adult and then the next moment he acts like a little brat.”

Dad frowned, “Please dear, you know how hard it is on him.” He looked at mom. “Remember when you were a teenager will you?”

“Dad CAR!!!” I screamed before it all went black.

to be continued

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Comments

Awesome Beginning!

Can't wait to see where this leads

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Interesting

Beoca's picture

This isn't my cup of tea... but I am curious to see how this story progresses.

interesting start

Well that's a first, I don't believe I have ever encountered a TG story where the male elves have to live as female humans because of their natural femininity! Intriguing little bit about Miri, maybe there's something else going on like true love or destiny to make elves and humans closer together...

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

Not Quite Yet, I Don't Think...

...at least in El's case. (His father did as a youth for a couple of years, apparently, though it's not clear why and he characterized it as a disguise. Were they impersonating an actual noble family that had a daughter?)

The way I read it, El's still presenting as a boy, though as in Jonas's case there may be people who don't get the message. His girlfriends, despite the "princess" nickname, referred to him several times as a boy (which was the whole point of the Jonas text discussion, such as it was; at least one of them seemed to reach the conclusion that either El or Jonas must be gay).

We'll see, of course, what the car accident brings in terms of consequences, and also whether Mom's seeming non sequitur about El worrying about school might mean she knows something that he doesn't about that. But right now, his ID is male; the customs officer called him "lad".

Eric

And you're not wrong about that...

El is certainly a boy and most embarrassed about being mistaken for a girl. Sadly, at least from El's point of view, the soft features of an elven boy growing up are easily mistook for a human girl of similar apearance of age.

His father spend his time as a girl willingly after being pushed into it by his mother. The idea was to learn about the delicate differences how other people percieve one and act around him during his disguised life.

Now that's a cliff hanger !!

Now that's a cliff hanger !! I adore the story so far, told in English with a German Structure (?)

Hugs,
Karen

about that...

True, the cliff hanger is quite a big one. But the length of the story required a break and it was just the perfect moment for one. The German sentence structure is a direct result of my German heritage and inexperience as a young writer. I just started writing in english about a year ago and still have lots and lots of things to learn, let alone master. I still hope it didn't made it to hard to follow.

With best regards, Branek

Well, if you'd like some

Brooke Erickson's picture

Well, if you'd like some assistance with English (you are doing mostly ok, but every so often there's a real clunker) I could go over things for you.

Also, I live in Portland, so I can gicve you a few tips on local stuff.

For example, it's the Fremont Bridge. It's just that the west end of it is NW Fremont Street, and the east end is N Fremont street.

Portland is divided up into 5 sections. The north/south divide is Burnside. The east/west divide is the Willamette river. Except that it takes a jog to the west just before the Fremont bridge. So the east/west divide becomes (I think) Vancouver Avenue.

So you have SE Portland, SW Portland, NW Portland, NE Portland, and between NE Portland and the Willamette you have North Portland.

This gets important because things like street numbering continue into the suburbs. So Forest Grove addresses are all SW XXXX and the numbers get ridiculously high.

This tends to make sense because the boundaries between Portland and (for example) Beaverton, are just lines on a map. There isn't any real gap. Much the same for Beaverton and Hillsboro. There is something of a gap between Hillsboro and Forest Grove.

Even so, you can take a bus from Forest grave into Portland. Though it's usually a better idea to take the bus to Hillsboro and take the MAX (light rail) from there to Portland.

Oh yeah, that "war memorial freeway" bit? That's not *our* I-205. It's an artifact of the way the mapping outfits do things (ie it shows up that way on some GPSes, and some online maps). I think there's an I-205 in some other part of the country (Seattle or maybe someplace in California) that's got that name.

I-205 and I-405 are just temporary branches of I-5. They branch off from it at some point and rejoin it later. So you have several *different* I-205s and I-405s in different parts of the west coast.

Oh yeah, here are a few useful links for when El is wandering around:
http://www.trimet.org/ (local bus company)

http://www.c-tran.com/ (Vancouver and vicinity bus company, has buses that cross the river to Portland)

http://www.ridesmart.com/ (bus system that connects to TriMet and takes you south almost as far as Salem)

http://www.tillamookbus.com/ (Tillamook county Bus system, has morning and evening buses that connect to Hillsboro and Portland)

http://columbiagorgeexpress.com/schedule-tickets (a bus that runs out to Rooster Rock and Multnomah Falls of Fridays, Saturdays and sundays)

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

WOW, Crossdressing elves! For

WOW, Crossdressing elves! For me, that's a new one.

Karen

Just a boy?

Jamie Lee's picture

El is not quite 120 years old and just a boy? And his dad had to dress as a noble woman for two years in 1570? Whoa!! Long lived, they are.

Leaving friends is never easy, neither is being the new kid in school or on the block. The unknown is always creeping upon us no matter what we do or where we go.

And with a sudden event, such as the last of this story, we don't recognize the unknown until consciousness retake us. With true fear waiting to be recognized.

Others have feelings too.

Great start!! Is there magic

Great start!! Is there magic in this world?? Hope his parents make it ok. Willamette valley is magical.. Also like to see more of the elven court!

alissa