The Oldumm and the Horizon

He was eight days from the city. All he could think about was her as he roamed the forest's edges searching for possible threats to his new home. This task that he humbly accepted in an attempt to repay the kindness this land had shown him. Because of it he had encountered the most beautiful sight his eyes had ever seen, an encounter that would never had happened if not for the City of Sedulity. A place where the tested and the misunderstood could find peace.

He took a moment to rest on the hills just outside the borders of the Yuirwood. The bright light of the sun lit everything in clarity, a staggering difference to the canopied grounds of the ancient forest. For minutes there was nothing but the soft sounds of the land itself and then the shadow dimmed the warmth of the sun. A chill rolled across his body causing his skin to itch as his hair stood on end. It wasn't the lack of sunshine but the cold gaze of the elf that appeared by his side. The elf's long feather wings folded gracefully behind him, causing his black hair to become even more noticeable. But it was those silver eyes, flecked with blue, that drew his attention and held it prisoner like a slave to his master. The elf was a vessal of solid confidence, filled with purpose.

The elf was the first to speak, "We have a great deal to discuss, Jeriah. I know your plans and see that you have still disregarded my warnings. I thought I had made myself clear enough on this matter and still yet I hear of advancement. I must say that proceeding further shall force a reaction far beyond a stern verbal deterrant."

"You've come along way to threaten me when this doesn't concern you, Faeriel.", replied the human. "She's older than you are. I think she can make her own choices."

"Age has no importance in wisdom if there are no experiences to enrich it. She has never had to chose what is best for the Tel'Quessir and her House. Her choice in this matter is as important as a blacksmith's opinion of the Art. Her family needs her, she is a future we can not afford to be wasted on one such as yourself.", remarked Faeriel.

"You deprive her, you treat her like a slave to be bartered with for the sake of your name. You are stealing her chance at happiness." Jeriah's voice was rising.

"Happiness?, I am depriving her happiness with you?", the elf's calm had broken into a snide inflection, "I am protecting her love for life. You can not understand because you comprehend in seconds as we comprehend in days. You would be nothing more than a blink to her when it is all over. A few short decades only to have her thirst for life shattered by your brittle exsistence.You would cheapen her remaining centuries because of your petty feelings, all the while depriving my dying race of yet another chance to prosper. Her mourning for your frailty would be devastating."