Mira's Hope (8 page)

Galena nodded and returned his hug. She took
a deep breath and nearly gagged. Pushing away from Elenio and
reaching for her nose in one movement, she said in a nasally voice,
“We’ll hug after you’ve cleaned up a bit.”

Elenio feigned looking insulted and pulled
her toward him again, rubbing her nose on his stinky chest.
Laughing, she tried to push him away, but he held on until she was
forced to use a bit of wind to aide her. Turning to head toward the
tree house, she saw that Tark had been inspecting it while she had
been talking with Elenio. The same shocked look resided on his face
as he made his way down the steps.

“Beds with home grown mattresses,” he called
to her.

“Did you see the upstairs?” She hadn’t looked
up there during her own inspection and wanted to know if it
possessed the washing basin she was so hoping for.

“Yeah.”

“Did it have a washing basin?”

“Yep. That was about all there was in that
room, besides roses and other flowers carved into the walls. Now,
if we could just have someplace to wash our clothes we would be
set.” Tark laughed at his own joke while he waited for them to
reach him.

That’s easily remedied
, Galena
thought. Closing her eyes yet again, she imagined a stand growing
from the wood of the second floor. Once the stand had made it to
about waist level, she thought of a giant bowl capping it off. She
thought of a scrubbing board attached to the one side and then
realized they would need somewhere to rinse the washed clothes off.
Beginning again with another stand, she replicated it according to
how she shaped the first with the only difference being that there
was no scrubbing board. She thought of a vine hanging across the
room, as this would be how they dried the clothes. Once again, she
opened her eyes, her vision blocked by the tree. She couldn’t see
the basins inside, but she was sure they were there.

Elenio walked up to her in the short time
she’d been working on their clothes cleaning system and took her
hand. Together, they walked toward the tree with Tark leading the
way. Elenio just shook his head in amazement as he regarded the
room where they stood. The stairs were not as elaborate as the
first house they stayed at, but they were well made. Galena climbed
them to the top room and was pleased to see everything as she had
seen it in her mind’s eye.

She went bounding down the stairs and out the
door, pleased to note Tark and Elenio were both walking around the
room taking in the intricate carvings she’d placed in the walls.
She went out, grabbed their bags and weapons, and checked to make
sure that Twoit was still in her bag. The ferret looked up when
Galena opened the mouth of the sack to peek in and stretched,
climbed out and onto Galena’s shoulder. She scratched under her
chin before trotting back over to the tree.

When she walked in, she found both elves
reclining back on the beds she’d created. Galena laughed aloud for
they both struck the same position, hands behind their heads and
legs crossed. Twoit sniffed the place cautiously before scaling
down Galena to look around the room herself. Placing Elenio and
Tark’s bags and all the weapons by the door, she shook her head and
headed up the stairs to wash out one set of clothes before she took
a bath so she would have something clean to change into once she
was finished washing herself.

“I’ll be down in a little while. I’m going to
clean up a bit,” she called down to whoever was listening. She
rather hoped they would be willing to stay here a couple of days so
they could make necessary repairs to their clothing and other
things, as they’d been neglecting to do so through the course of
their journey.

When she reached the top, she took her stiff,
dirty clothes from her pack and the small package of the powdered
soap they procured while they’d been with Morgo. She filled the
basin on the stand that had the scrubbing board with water and
began to vigorously scrub her clothing until she was pleased to see
most of the dirt and grime were gone from them. Waving her hand,
she sent the dirty water flying out the window while she filled the
remaining basin with clean water and rinsed out her clothing.
Twisting the water out as best she could, she draped her wet
garments across the vine hanging across the length of the room.

She stared at them as she watched water
dripping in a steady rhythm from her clothing, leaving small
puddles on the floor and realized how long it would take for them
to dry before she could wear them. Furrowing her brow, she wondered
if she would be able to clean up tonight after all when an
inspiration struck her. Waving her hand, she thought of a warm
summer breeze filling the room and staying there, continuously
blowing over the clothes. As she thought it, she felt the warm wind
enter the room and like a twister that only grew within those
walls, it whirled round and round until the clothing was completely
dry. Smiling, Galena dismissed the wind, causing it to sail past
her and through the open window.

Filling the bathing basin with water and
causing the stones below to heat up, she thought smugly to herself,
I could get used to having magic around
. She stripped off
her remaining set of clothing and stepped into the blissful warmth.
Realizing she’d left the package of soap at the washbasin, she
thought of wind picking up the package and bringing it to her. She
lifted her hand as she finished this thought and was pleased to see
the package land gently into her open palm.

Yep, definitely more convenient,
she
thought.

It was sometime later when she emerged from
the washroom, feeling a great deal better than she had when she
first went in. She was wearing clean clothes while the ones she’d
just washed were hanging on the vines to dry. She descended the
stairs to find both Tark and Elenio napping and once again had to
shake her head in response to this. They were growing more and more
alike with the passing days.

Looking around, she decided they needed
chairs within this room to sit while they mended clothing,
sharpened swords, and ate. She thought of a simple table and chair
set and watched in fascination as the wood of the tree began to
shape and mold itself. She realized the chairs would need a way to
be moved around, so she simply thought of the wood in the chair
legs separating from the wood of the tree home.

Finding food in her pack, she sat at one of
the three chairs and ate several handfuls of the berries and a
couple loaves of bread. She sat down with a needle and thread
preparing to mend her traveling cloak in areas that it had become
weak, when she it dawned on her that she was being silly. Instead,
she thought of the material mending itself and it did. A full day’s
work done in just a matter of minutes.

Twoit came up to her about then and climbed
her leg. She continued her way up until she was on Galena’s
shoulder. She nuzzled the side of her face affectionately for which
Galena returned the favor by scratching her under her chin. The
ferret made a purring sound, but was content to stay that way only
for a moment. She hustled back down Galena’s arm and then leg and
ran to the door in her funny little sideways trot to which she
paced back and forth there.

“Hungry, are you?” Galena asked, standing up
to let her friend out to do some hunting. “Just scratch when you
want to come back in.” She turned to see Tark sitting up in bed and
looking over at Elenio, who was still dozing peacefully in the
other bed.

“My turn?” he asked in a sleep-filled
voice.

“Yeah. You’ll find the soap package refilled
and a washing and rinsing basin for your clothes. Wash one set of
clothes and then hang them on the vine. Call down after you’ve done
that and I’ll send warm air in to dry all the clothes, then you’ll
have something clean to wear when you’ve washed. You can wash your
second set of clothes after that.”

“Well, aren’t you an efficient little elf,”
he said smirking at her.

“Just trying to make myself useful.”

“It’s about time you started doing something,
because between bouts of trying to kill yourself, I thought Elenio
and I would be the ones doing all the work.” He grinned down at her
as he ascended the stairs.

Galena responded by helping him up the stairs
a little with a whole lot of wind. She only laughed for a few
minutes when she heard him hit the wall on the far side of the
washroom.

Chapter
Eleven

Dawn rose clear and crisp on the second
morning of their stay in the massive oak. Galena stood on the
doorstep and breathed in the fresh air. If they hadn’t been on a
dangerous journey, she could almost be happy. The weight of what
lay ahead was starting to eat away at the back of her mind though.
Sighing heavily, she turned and headed inside, finding Tark and
Elenio eating at the table with Twoit enjoying her own breakfast
below. As they had been doing since leaving Mira’s View, they were
discussing the location of the cave Mira described.

“You know there has to be villages around
that area. We can always ask for help when we get to one, or at
least find out if anyone has heard of it,” Galena said as she
plopped down in the remaining chair. “All we really have to do is
find the guardian after all.”

“All we really have to do is find the
guardian,” Tark said in a tone of unbelief. He rolled his eyes and
stood, stretching as he did so.

“Well, regardless we need to head out today,”
Elenio said while he stuffed the remaining piece of bread into his
mouth and wiped the crumbs from the table into the palm of his
hand. Handing the crumbs to Galena, he looked again at Tark. “I
think we’ve spent long enough here. You know Rau will be sending
more creatures out to hunt for us. He has to be wondering what
happened to the last group he sent.”

As Elenio continued to discuss their
situation with Tark, Galena took that time to make more bread and
berries for the rest of the day. It was easier to have food on
hand. That way they could walk and eat, saving a little time along
the way. She got up and returned the food to their bags, but not
before dumping their contents onto the floor in search of a small
bit of cheese or something. She was growing tired of nothing but
berries and bread. She discovered that you had to have a small
piece of the food or the necessary ingredients for different foods,
in order to make what you desired. Galena found you couldn’t make
something from nothing no matter how hard you tried. It must have
gone against the laws of magic.

She repacked the bags as Elenio stood and
walked over to help her. Tark strapped his belt and scabbard on,
and returned his sword to its proper place. Galena looked lovingly
around the spacious room. Wishing not for the first time, that they
could stay a while longer, but knowing it would be unwise. She
strapped on her belt and sword and swung her bag gently onto her
back as Twoit was inside, ready for the trip too.

Elenio headed out the door, followed closely
by Tark. Galena sighed once more and followed. They trekked through
the valleys and a couple of wooded areas, making camp by a small
stream late that night. Galena lamented the loss of the comfortable
beds when she had trouble sleeping on the ground, but realized it
would be foolish to create a place to stay everywhere they camped.
Nothing like leading the torlics directly to them, Tark pointed
out.

She woke up the following morning feeling
cranky and out of sorts. She didn’t care if she did lead torlics to
her, next time she was at least making beds. Sitting up, she
noticed Elenio was awake as well and watching her.

“What are you looking so irritable about?” he
asked while he pulled on a strand of her long hair.

“I’m thinking that next time we stop, I’m
still growing a home. I’ll just change it back into a tree before
we leave.”

“Can you do that?” Elenio sat up quickly,
keeping his surprised looking eyes trained on her.

“I don’t know, but I think it would be worth
a try, don’t you?” She swept her hair out of her face, so it ran
down her back like a fiery waterfall. “Get up and train with me for
a little while. I have to do something to work out the kinks in my
back,” she grumbled more to herself than him.

Smiling at her moodiness, Elenio retrieved
his sword and stood waiting for her. She checked on Twoit and then
grabbed her sword as well. They practiced for quite a while, both
magically and physically. Elenio patiently handled being blown
around and would walk back every time.

“You really have gotten better at this, you
know.” He walked up to her and cupping her face, kissed her briefly
on the lips. He continued to stare at her for a few moments until
she started to squirm.

“What?” she asked softly.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a
month since I thought I’d lost you.” His eyes looked sad as he
always did when he brought up that difficult time. “Since then, you
have become this whole new, confident person with just a hint of
the beautiful elf I once knew.”

“Do you still love me?” Galena stared at his
chest, fighting against the hands that still cupped her face.

“Nothing will ever change that, you silly
elf.” He chuckled huskily and kissed the tip of her nose. “One way
or the other, we’ll get through this and then we’ll really start
our life together. Even if that means taking you back to the
underground world.”

“That will never happen.” Galena shuddered
involuntarily at the thought of returning to that cold dark world.
The day she returned there, would be the day she planned to tell
those elves they were free to live in the world above. “Let’s get
something to eat and be on our way.” She woke Tark and passed out
food to everyone.

Convincing Twoit to get up, she pointed out
to her pet it would probably be a while before they would stop long
enough for her to hunt again. Galena had to laugh when Twoit
finally started out toward the underbrush. She sounded almost like
Galena when she first awoke, making all kinds of growls and chirps
in a quiet manner, sounding much like grumbling. Elenio noticed the
similarity as well and just shook his head.