A New Request
My Father had taken the elders admonition very seriously and had continued to encourage me in my contact with other races. Unfortunately, all of the Farmer boys, with whom I had done so many ‘sleep overs’ were now gone. And I figured that my Troll friends would be too busy and excited with the picking out of herds to invite me over tonight.
Yet to my surprise, Meical suddenly cleared his throat, “This brings up something I had been meaning to talk with you about.”
I turned toward him. Elves were always more formal than the rest of us, but Meical had been learning to be much less formal around me. Whatever this was must have made him nervous, as he was reverting to Elfish form.
“We have been friends for a while now. Not long, as your race and mine count such things, but still, we have been through much together on this trip.”
I waited.
“We Elves, like all other races, have had to make adjustments since The Day. Long have our people lived among others, learning their ways and even learning to treat those others in ways which we ourselves have found uncomfortable, but always we have done so while guarding our reserve; adjusting to them on the intellectual and to a certain extent the cultural level, while keeping the emotional level intact. And though I am in Farmer guise, I, we, have still kept this reserve.”
This was a very odd speech for an Elf. Although it was very intellectual and formal, as was their way, speaking of ‘emotions’ was very rare among them.
“But we have been discussing it, particularly my Father and I, although my Siblings and my Mother have participated, and we believe that, under the current circumstances, this reserve is perhaps, not ideal. Thus I wish to enter more fully into the kind of emotional exchanges that are appropriate for those of my age.”
I stared at him. This was obviously going somewhere, but where? What kind of bonding was he talking about? He couldn’t be merely asking to spend the night at my house (my wagon). He did that all the time, and knew he didn’t need to ask. Of course, I had never…
“Are you asking me to spend the night at your house?”
Elves never were all that great at reading emotions, and he misread my tone completely.
“I realise that it would be awkward for you. But we discussed it extensively, and everyone realises that it would be impossible for us to expect you to be able to follow our cultural mores. And we wouldn’t expect it, we…”
Here Nhomhisosh, who had been sitting up on his horse listening to the whole exchange, came to our rescue, grinning at Meical and saying, “You silly Elf turned Farmer. He wasn’t objecting. He would love to come spend the night with you. He was just surprised you asked. He knows how hard it will be for your family to have a Dwarf staying with them and staring at everything they do, and you know he won’t be able to not stare, any more than I would. He just wants you to say that you do actually want him to do that. Just say, ‘I would like you to spend the night at my house tonight.’”
Meical stared at Nhomhisosh, cleared his throat, paused, cleared it again, and said, “I would like you to spend the night at my house tonight.”
I grinned, “I would love to!”
We didn’t say much for a while. Nhomhisosh and I knew we had to let poor Meical’s emotions calm down. And I was too busy wondering what on earth the family council was about tonight.
Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!
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Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books are published by Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid
and
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations.
Arthur also has a substack, and a website.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von