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Chapter 15

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I lay half sprawled on my back atop the roof of my hall and cuddled Mindy against my chest.

"It's been a while since you needed this much cuddling," I essayed a conversational posit.

"I'm going to have to go home for a while, Yrog."

"Are things okay?"

Mindy snuggled deeper into my feathers.

"No."

I folded my wings around her and waited.

"Mom got committed to a sanatorium and Dad's not doing well.

"I ran away with you because I thought it would be fun. I stayed away because I didn't want to deal with my parent's divorce. I've never forgiven my Dad for walking out on Mom, even though I know why he did it. Even though I'm no better."

I stroked her hair.

"Mom was never well, but her depression was finally getting better. And then after I left with you, Dad divorced her and she just fell apart. I never felt right going back to visit my Dad if I wasn't also going to visit Mom, but visiting Mom is always too much shit to deal with."

I rested my head on the roof and watched Sloeth descend into the sky. Allic lay next to me on the roof, watching her whelps gambol and quarrel around a juvenile daeodon carcass.

"You can always stay here," I offered.

"No, I can't. Zaphenath and Evalyn are soon to be my only family left. I can't walk out on them too. Besides, I have to go be queen."

"Wait, when did that happen? I thought you had an older brother just to get out of stuff like that."

"He and his wyvern died in a flying accident... two hundred years ago?"

"Huh. I must have been asleep at the time. I'm sorry for your loss."

Mindy punched me.

"You are an epic jerk, you know that?"

"I love you too, elbe."

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Journal 4

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Mrs. Sarovna is going home.

She invited Lily and I over to her shop and showed us how to make kites. Then, we went to the landing field to fly them. Lily let her kite fly really high and the string broke. Mrs Sarovna gave Lily one of the handles for her four line kite. Once Lily got the hang of it, she gave her the other handle and told Lily she could keep it as a going away present. I asked her where she was going and Mrs. Sarovna said, "Home." She seemed really sad, so I gave her a big hug. When I asked her when she'd be back, she told me, "I don't know, kiddo. Take care of Yrog for me while I'm gone." I promised her I would. Then Lily came over to get a hug too.

trinitys_gadget

As I'm sure you've noticed, I have run out of pre-written chapters.  But I'm not dead yet, though updates are slow.  I have also written the last chapter and journal entry, so when I decide this story is done, you will get an ending, and you will know it has ended.

On a linguistic note, I picked Elbe (short for Elbelin) as the diminutive form of Elf based on a translation I found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alp_(folklore).  I could not find a diminutive or feminine form of Elf in English (new or old (in fact, more much of midaeval literature, Elf cognates are implicitly feminine)), so I borrowed from Old German.  Alaric Hall has done a much more in depth study of the etymology and mythology of Elves (of which I have only skimmed his thesis) for those of you interested in finding out more.