The Road to Here(Will)

Lutrol's chair



Father and son stood on the wooden ledge looking out over the expanse of the forest. “What brings you to Nordel, William?”

“I thought you would already know that.” answered Will sarcastically.

Lutrol smiled at his son’s obvious annoyance at having been spied on all these years. “I knew of your coming but not of your motive.”

“A friend of mine told me that I should make peace with my past before pursuing my future.”

“A wise friend,” the two stood in silence listening to the gentle rustle of the leaves and the song of the crickets. “Do you love her?”

Will looked at his father, startled by the question. “Love who?”

“The girl you’re following, of course.”

“How?As if in answer to his question the orange tabby cat appeared on the railing rubbing his furry body up against Will’s arm. “Can he talk?”

Lutrol gently stroked the cat’s back “of course he can, every creature can talk, you just have to know how to listen.”

Suddenly Will became agitated by the idle chit-chat, anxious to receive answers to his many questions “Why did you leave us? You broke mother’s heart. She was never the same after you left.”

Patiently, as if speaking to a small child, his father explained the circumstances surrounding his departure.

“The humans arrived in small numbers at first settling in one area and living peacefully with the native creatures but before long their numbers began to grow and they began to spread out, claiming more land along the way. The native creatures – centaurs, elves, unicorns, troll, and others – tried to live in peace with the humans but they are a greedy sort, always wanting more, until inevitably we went to war. There are no victors in war.”

His father motioned for the two of them to return inside the hut. Emarl had finished cleaning up from dinner and had retired to her bedroom for the night. Taking a seat in a chair made of twisted vines in front of the fire place, Lutrol continued.

“After years of fighting and with no end in site, the leaders of each race agreed to meet and devise a way to live together. The elves were permitted to come and go as they pleased among the humans, by allowing this we became mediators between the two cultures. Most of the native creatures left to find planes yet inhabited by humans and then of course there was the Forest of Hereanafter and the Mountain of Pastanpresent.”

“So the stories about the forest are true?”

Lutrol looked at his son with pity in his eyes, “You know so little of your own history. Yes, the stories are true as the girl you seek can tell you.” Will opened his mouth to question his father’s knowledge of Alex’s plight through the forest but decided against it.

“The creatures lived many years like this and during this time several mixed marriages came to pass, mine included, the elders knew that cross breeding like this was against nature and therefore began to devise a plan to leave, separating human and elf once in for all.

As with any change, it takes time and planning to make it happen, but with each passing year more and more half-breeds were being born. When the Status War began, the elders decided that it was time to go. If the humans could not live in peace amongst themselves, how could we expect them to live in peace with others? We were allowed to bring the half-breeds with us but the humans had to stay with their kind. Your mother and I discussed it for several days and in the end she wished for you to stay with her.” Picking up a stick leaning against the wall, Lutrol poked at the embers in the fire place.

“And just like that you left us?” asked Will indignantly.

“It was not easy but it was necessary in order to preserve the race. Elves were not meant to live among the humans. We live for thousands of years hardly aging at all, immune to disease and illness, where as the humans live for only a few years and their bodies are weak. By staying with them, we would inevitably bring an end to our kind.”

“What about the others like me?” He was curious about the other half-breeds having never known that there were others like him.

“There were no more than thirty off spring born to the human-elf relations, of these eight died in infancy due to malformations, three were aloud to come with us and the rest live among the humans as you do.” As if reading his son’s thoughts Lutrol added, “There is no need to concern yourself with them, for like you, they know nothing of their history. You are the first half-breed to seek us out.”

Will felt as if his head would explode if he received any further information this night, his mind was reeling with the task of trying to decipher all of this news. Seeing his son’s fatigue getting the better of him, Lutrol showed the young boy to a room at the back of the hut that would be his while he stayed in Nordel. Will quickly fell asleep on his moss bed dreaming not of his past but of his future.