[D&D Fiction] (In Which I Lack a Title)

[Kai]

Overture

Therith Shaul perched lightly in the banches of the great oak. Haera was humming softly on the ground, bandaging the leg of a buck where she had pulled out a crudely made arrow. Haera certainly knew Therith was there, she was always aware of what happened in her grove, but Therith knew Haera would be cross if she startled the wounded animal. She waited patiently.

Haera spread her wings as the deer bound away, propelling herself up into the clear skies. Therith paused a moment before joining her sister.

"What are you doing so far away from home Therith? Aelreth will be cross if he returns to find you missing. You know he does not like your forays out into the groundlands and you will end up with another lecture from the elders on caution and secrecy. "

Therith looked away as the pair winged above the verdant forest. "Aelreth can be as cross as he wants, but he will not find me missing. He is with her."

Silence reigned for a time. Haera was keenly aware of the creulty of Therith's situation. She had been given to Aelreth as mate as the elders had requested of both their houses, but Aelreth's love belonged to another. While they were bound in name, nothing had come of the pairing and nothing ever would. Aelreth's status as a diplomat into the world let him come and go as he pleased, more often that not with the woman he shared his bed with, while Therith was a priestess, bound to the temple of Aerdrie Faenya and so prohibited from leaving the Aerie. This had not stopped her from doing so however.

Eventually the silence was too much for Haera. "So where did you venture this time in such things?"

Therith looked down at her travelling leathers, still stained, and much heavier than her prescribed robes. "To walk in the woods and visit a friend who I do not expect to see again."

Therith's small smile alarmed Haera. "A 'friend'? What have you done Therith? If the elders find out..."

"When. I made the decision some time ago that I did not care if Aelreth would not give me his love, but it was my right to have his child. When he denied me even that, I vowed that his heir would not be by his blood. But I do not think my child will be inheiriting anything at this point."

"Why? If your blood breeds true, who is to say the child is not Aelreth's? He cannot deny it, for admitting he has never has relations with you would call his actions into question."

"Because I went looking for a son of Sehanine, one who would keep secret what would follow, but it was not Sehanine who answered my call for guidance but Eilistraee."

Haera backwinged, her eyes full of fear. "Therith, you cannot bear a child of the drow!

"I do not bear the child of 'a drow', I bear the child of Malurra Zauth. Eilistraee led him out of the Underdark and Fenmarel hides him. He is learning the ways of the woods and the ways of the surface. He has shown me more kindness in 6 months than Aelreth has in 30 years. I can only trust the gods will keep him safe."

"And you? They will kill you, say you have been corrupted. They will kill your child as soon as it is born."

"Then you will be with me, Haera. Promise me you will be with me and take her and raise her the best you can. Fenmarel protects you to the point that even I can't find you if you do not want to be found. Take her into the deep woods and let her have a chance at life."

Haera opened her mouth to speak, but it took time for the words to come. "Therith...she will be drow. If Fenmarel hides this Malurra his intentions are not evil, but you cannot change centuries of blood. But...but you are my sister and I could never refuse you. I do not know how I am to hide a winged drow child from the eyes of the elders, or how I am to raise her, but if you are willing to give your life for this child, how am I supposed to say no?"

[Kai]

First Movement: Twilight

"Mistress Haera, we seek passage through these woods."

Koriel peered down at the man, human, rough cut, he seemed to be the leader of the huddle of humans behind him. He shifted nervously a rather lot it seemed. Haera stood at the base of the great tree, and paused in her singing, looking right up at Koriel. The disapproving frown was all Koriel needed to see to know she would get lectured later, but with the humans there, Haera wouldn't do anything so long as Koriel remained hidden.

"I don't own these woods nor can I offer you safe passage, why do you come to me?"

The human man seemed really rather uncomfortable looking Haera in the face. "We ah, we have heard stories mistress...stories of dark skinned elves who prowl the woods and kill humans for sport. Please, mistress, we ask that you might show us a safe path to choose, or offer us some protective ward against these dark elves, we mean your forest no harm, its just that the roads are even less safe than the deep woods..." He looked to Haera expectantly.

Koriel flinched at the man's words. Her skin was dark and she didn't want to kill anybody, why did the humans think their dark skin made them evil? Haera looked a little taken aback but recovered quickly.

"All I can offer is an ease of your passage. I can do nothing about the drow except keep them from my grove. You may stay the night if you choose."

The leader started to take to the others. It sounded like an arguement, but she couldn't tell, she didn't understand what language they used. Eventually the leader turned around and faced Haera again, and said something in the strange language that he apparently didn't know how to say in Auran. Haera seemed to understand though and soon after the men left.

Haera spread her brown and white wings and joined Koriel in the canopy of the tree. "I thought I asked you to remain at the glade."

Koriel looked away, her eyes resting on her mother's sister's wings, comparing them to her own dull gray ones. "Heara, what are drow? Why do the humans fear them? Is that why we stay here, because my skin is dark too?"

Haera sighed, drawing Koriel into her arms. "Oh child, I had hoped to protect you from all this, at least until you were older. Your skin is dark because you are drow, but you aren't evil or cruel. Do you remember the stories I told you about the dragons, when the Aril-tel-quessir first came to this world?"

"The dragons fought them, many died and-"

"And we thought they were evil. We hated them, and feared them, and there are many evil dragons still, but we know there are good ones now too. The drow, they were brothers and sisters once, but fell and were cursed into darkness. All af the N-Tel-Quess know the drow as evil, almost all the Tel-Quessir consider them such. And they are evil mostly, causing pain, and misery in service to Lolth but just like there were good dragons that we had to learn to see, there are good drow, it will just take time for us all to learn."

Hera smiled at her adopted daughter whose violet eyes and wings showed her avariel blood, but couldn't hide her dark gray skin and silver hair. " I did not know him, but you mother saw your father as good, I do not believe there is anything but good in you. But I do not want to see you hurt either, which is why I ask you to stay hidden. I can convince many of much, but I do not want to trust that I can convince them not to hurt you. I promise you, there is nothing out in the world you are missing, I stay here because I have seen other places and always wish I would have stayed here. Now come, let me hear you sing, you sounded very nice festerday, maybe I'll teach you something new, hmm?"