Chapter 3-3

He left later that morning, saying that he wished to take advantage of the good weather while it lasted. Almonihah stood for a long while watching him go, and he seemed rather subdued the rest of the day while he went through his sword and bow drills alone and listened to Llinos's teachings. Even Garekh could only cheer him up so much.

He didn't seem any better the next morning, either. After watching him go through his drills, Llinos asked the young half-dragon, “He is like a father to you, is he not?”

What use are fathers if they can't keep mothers alive? Almonihah thought, bitterly. Out loud he responded, some of the bitterness obvious in his voice, “Better.”

“Better?” Llinos repeated, surprised. “How do you mean?”

Almonihah seemed a bit embarrassed about his response. “Nothing...” he muttered.

Llinos seemed mildly amused, but he did not press the child further.

While Almonihah's serious mood persisted for the rest of the day, he did seem to smile a little more readily than he had the day before. Llinos took him back up the canyon from which the oddly warm stream issued to a small, sheltered grove nestled in between the mountains. The source of the stream was there, bubbling up from somewhere below, steam rising from the waters. A number of animals, all obviously under the druid's care for one reason or another, were in the grove resting and recuperating.

As they entered the grove, Almonihah noticed that a couple of the trees had that funny picture of a tree etched into their bark, just like the one on the tree on the way into the valley. When he commented on them, Llinos explained, “I have dedicated this grove specifically to Naishia, though truly, it was hers to begin with. Still, she likes it when we acknowledge that fact and set aside a few places for her. The animals appreciate it, too,” he gestured at the animals in the grove.

Almonihah was thoughtful for a moment, then asked, “What do you mean, it was Naishia's to begin with?”

The druid responded with another question. “What do you know of the creation of Sephan'Illithain?”

Almonihah's brow furrowed in confusion, his small scales pointing in odd directions trying to follow the contours thereby created. “What's Sephan'Illithain?”

Llinos laughed a little. “I apologize. It is the name my people have for this world. What do you call it? Earth? That is the human name for it, yes?”

“We call it Draezoln. I think that's what dragons call it,” Almonihah responded. Then he realized that something sounded funny about what Llinos had said. “Your people? You're not human?”

Llinos laughed again. “I am an elf.”

“Oh...” Almonihah replied, his expression still perplexed. “So... how's that different from human?”

“One of the most obvious differences is our ears,” Llinos explained, indicating the pointed ends of his ears. “Also, we tend to be somewhat slenderer than humans, and much longer-lived.”

“Ok...” Almonihah hardly seemed convinced that those differences were significant enough to count.

There was silence for a moment until Llinos gently prompted the young half-dragon by saying, “You have not answered my original question, Almonihah.”

“Oh! Uh... not much, really.”

“Would you like to hear the tale?”

“Okay...”

Llinos motioned towards a fallen tree near the spring. Once they were seated, Llinos launched into his tale.

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So... shorter section, but at least I posted something, right?