Mirefa managed to run away from her older brother Cabg yet again. He was always so restricting! Her mommy did tell her the story about her now-dead sister Sofare, which is why her brother insisted on sticking to her like that sticky sap she accidentally got her tail stuck on and lost a lot of her tail fur trying to get it off that one time, but Mirefa didn't think that was a good reason.

 

She was a different lupo and not only that, was pretty much the opposite of Sofare. Not only was she literally the strongest one in her age group, she even went hunting at an earlier age than normal and could already kill and prepare an entire deer for her family to eat. And she was only four! Well maybe not the cooking part of prepare, since last time she tried, parts of it were burnt and some of it was raw, but still.

 

It wasn’t like she was dumb or anything either. Well at least compared to her peers. Mirefa was pretty sure the stories that her brother and parents told her of Sofare were exaggerated.

 

Even her hunting teacher Beda agreed with her. Beda praised Mirefa for her outstanding skills, and Cabg should stop stalking Mirefa because she was perfectly fine on her own. Beda mentioned something about if he weren’t her brother, Beda would have assumed he had “ulterior motives”, whatever that meant, and would have made it so he could never have children again. Cabg ran away with his tail between his legs that time.

 

This time, Mirefa managed to hide from her brother by jumping into the river and holding her breath underwater while Cabg tried to find her. When she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she popped her head out and sure enough, she couldn’t see or smell him anywhere.

 

Mirefa found it pretty funny because it was her brother that told her how to move in water, as well as how to hunt fish, and that her now-dead sister was the one who taught him of all things. It did take some getting used to, and getting water out of her ears was a pain, but she learned. Annoying as he was, she never really hated him.

 

Now with her temporary freedom, she wondered what to do. Come to think of it, she never really explored much of the land across from the river. She did remember asking her daddy what was across, and the answer was pretty much the same thing, except the entire village was not there. Mirefa assumed that meant it was safe too, and set off exploring. She could always find her way back from the footprints she left behind, or the smell.

 

Or so she thought, except it started pouring. Mirefa probably should have noticed it when the air smelled damp, but she assumed it was because of her dunk in the river and her nose hadn’t adjusted. This was a problem, since not only was the smell washed away, the footprints she left behind also disappeared. As she spent a lot of time chasing a deer for fun, she never paid too much attention to where she was going. Which also meant that she was lost.

 

Given that no lupoy lived around the area, she wasn’t really worried about starving since there was plenty of food around, including the deer she was chasing, and water was literally falling everywhere, but mommy and daddy would be really mad if she didn’t come back home before sunrise, and the sky was already getting brighter.

 

Unfortunately, wandering around wasn’t helping much and she was getting tired, so she climbed a nearby tree and hopped onto a sturdy-looking branch and fell asleep.

When Mirefa woke up, the rain stopped, but the sky was still bright. She felt refreshed, and decided to continue finding her way back, even if it was a bit early. A few hours later, she began to feel thirsty, and quenched it by eating juicy berries she found along the way. She really hoped they weren’t poisonous, although based on her mommy’s teachings, they probably weren’t. Probably was there because she couldn’t remember everything that she was taught. There were too many different berries and they all smelled alike!

 

She heard some weird noises in the distance, and hoping it was the sound of the river, she ran towards the noises. Unfortunately, it was definitely not the river, unless the river changed last time she met it. Fortunately, one of the noisemakers smelled of lupo, but the other one smelled, well, different and nothing like she met before.

 

Mirefa cautiously made her way to the two, to find them doing something weird to a ball. They weren’t kicking or touching the ball in any way, but it was moving. Mirefa was very confused on what was going on, since the ball apparently decided that not everything goes down eventually, and spent a lot of time in the air twitching and moving around. The lupo that had some weird thing wrapped around herself looked tired, while the other lupo that was missing a tail, ears, fur everywhere except on the head, and also had weird things sticking out of the side of its head, and was also wrapped in some weird thing was glowing and was probably responsible for the ball’s weird behavior.

 

She watched until the ball finally decided to come back down to the ground again and the two maybe-lupoy seemed to be done with whatever they were doing

 

“Hi, I’m Mirefa, and I’m kind of lost. Do you know where the river is?” It then occurred to her that there might be more than one river, but she really hoped there wasn’t.

 

The probably-not-lupo ran at her with her arms outstretched, squealing something unintelligible. Mirefa wasn’t going to stick around to find out what it was trying to do and decided to run up the nearest tree and sit there.

 

The lupo with the strange thing wrapped around herself got a stick and scratched out weird patterns, and the probably-not-lupo made less-noisy squealing noises.

 

“The river is that way,” the lupo pointed. “I’m Sofare by the way.”

 

Sofare? Is that name really common or something? Mirefa looked at Sofare and concluded it was impossible for her to be her dead sister. If she were still alive, she’d be around nine or something, and the lupo in front of her looked to be four or five years old. Weirdly enough though, she smelled pretty similar to herself, which suggested they might be related. Maybe she should ask her parents if she has a cousin named Sofare or something.

 

Now relieved that she could go back home, she decided to ask questions, and she had plenty.

“Is that ball special? How did you get it in the air for so long? What were you doing? Why are you wrapped with that weird thing? What is that other probably-not-lupo thing? How —”

 

“Woah, slow down. I can’t answer at all if you don’t give me time to speak. Uh, that ‘probably-not-lupo thing’ is an elf whose name is, uh, never mind. As for that weird thing I’m wrapped around, it’s uh, some fabric. It makes it very convenient to carry stuff around. As for the ball related question, we were playing a game.”

 

So that wasn’t a lupo, but rather an elf named Never Mind? Such a strange name, but she guessed it’s an elven thing.

Mirefa decided that not showing up at home for around a day makes little difference than not showing up for a day and a few hours, so she asked, “Can I play that ball game then? I’m really good at playing in general.”

 

“Well unless you can do something like this, you won’t be able to play,” Sofare said, and then a gust of wind suddenly blasted at Mirefa.

 

It was one thing if the elf was doing the weird thing to the ball. But if someone her age and clearly a lupo could make wind from nothing, she definitely wanted to try.

“You can just teach me how to do that right?”

 

Sofare decided to scratch out more weird patterns on the dirt instead, to which Mirefa asked, “What are you doing?”

 

“Writing something to the elf. They can’t understand what we’re saying by the way.”

 

That’s how elves communicate? By then why after looking at the mess on the floor, the elf made weird squealing noises instead? Shouldn’t it also scratch at the floor instead?

 

When Mirefa asked, Sofare responded, “Normally they communicate by making those squealing noises, but I am unable to make those squealing noises, so I’m forced to write instead. Also, I was asking the elf about teaching you how to make the wind, but apparently, you should not be teaching little kids because it stops them from growing. It’s probably why I look like I’m five despite being a lot older.”

Mirefa asked, “Wait so how old are you? And why does doing cool tricks like that prevent you from growing up?”

 

“Uh, good question for both. I’m either uh, around thirty or nine years old, depending on definition, and why it prevents you from growing up, I have no idea.”

 

Wait, thirty or nine? Assuming thirty was some weird way of keeping track of time the elves use, nine just happens to be the age her supposedly dead sister should be now. So this Sofare is her not-actually-dead sister?

 

“Do you happen to have a very annoying brother named Cabg by any chance?” Mirefa asked.

 

The surprised look probably indicated yes, and it was confirmed as Sofare said, “I’m not sure about annoying, but yes, I did have a brother named Cabg. Do you know him? I got separated from my family long ago and was wondering how they are doing.”

 

That confirmed it. Mirefa always wanted to complain to Sofare about why she had to go die and cause her brother to be very clingy, but now that she met her, she realized that she could simply drag her home and convince her brother that there’s no need since Sofare isn’t actually dead and seems happy and healthy. Well, ignoring that she still looked like she’s four years old.

 

Mirefa decided to jump back down to the ground now she knew it was safe. “Cabg is my brother too, which means you are my older sister. Do you want to go meet your family now? They are convinced you are dead, and at the very least, they keep talking about you and comparing me to you, and I’m pretty sure half the things they claim you do aren’t true.”

 

“Definitely! Oh but first, let me prepare. How far away is it to your home?”

 

“I got lost on the way, so no idea. Less than a full day probably.”

 

Sofare scribbled more things on the floor, and when the elf responded, they left together, with Sofare telling Mirefa, “I’ll be back in about an hour or so. Wait here. And feel free to play with the ball in the meantime.”

 

Mirefa did not want to get lost yet again, so she played with the ball. The ball was far sturdier and lighter than the ones back at home, but other than that, there wasn’t anything special.

 

Sofare came back without the weird fabric around her, and instead carried a basket. Mirefa could smell something good from it.

 

“Can I eat that? I haven’t had a filling meal to eat since yesterday.”

 

“Sure, but how did you know?”

 

Mirefa had no idea why she asked that. Whatever food was in there smelled heavenly and she wasn’t that far away. “Uh, it smells like food?”

 

Apparently that answered her question, and when Mirefa bit into the unknown food item, it tasted really good. Maybe the tales of her sister’s cooking back at home weren’t exaggerated after all. “What is this made of?”

 

“It’s made from, uh,” Sofare paused for a moment. “Actually I have no idea how to say it in this language. Most of them are elven things.”

 

Mirefa didn’t really care since it wasn’t like she could make something like that herself anyways, and quickly wolfed down the rest.

 

After she finished eating, Sofare said, “I hope you know where to go after we hit the river.”

 

“I do, don’t worry.”

 

“Coming from someone that already got lost, I’m not sure how much to trust that. Oh well, I’ll lead the way to the river, and then you can lead the rest of the way. Sound good?”

 

“Okay, sister.”

 

And off they departed.