Cady wasn’t just dizzy. She was very dizzy. Yet she kept moving around and around, watching the trees. She was determined to make sure no pesky elves snuck up on her this time. Her brother, on the other hand, didn’t even try anymore.
“I’ve told you, Cady, you’re not going to see him arrive.”
Cady’s 12-year-old brother, Almas, just sat there, sitting with his back resting against the tree, playing his lap harp. She would never admit it to him, but he was starting to get good at it. But practicing music wasn’t going to help her catch Ulec when he arrived.
The rest of her family was just as useless. Creetan was 16 now and more interested in shooting arrows at a target; her father, Lord Gidon Aguerius, was wrestling with her 8-year-old brother, Giddy, and Mother was in her shop making who knows what. So it was up to her, a little girl of only 10 years, to keep the vigil and guard the family against young trespassing elves.
“I’m going to catch him this time. I will not let Ulec sneak up on us this time,” Cady informed her brother as she stumbled a little but caught herself before falling down.
“Good luck with that. In four years I’ve never spotted Ulec before he wanted to be seen,” Almas responded with a sigh and continued playing a quick jumpy sounding tune on his harp.
Ulec was a young elf that Almas had met while he was lost in the forest four years before. He had saved Almas from becoming lunch for a forest dragon and they had been best friends ever since. Now every once in a while Almas would announce that Ulec was coming over to visit. She wasn’t sure exactly how Almas always knew, but she was sure it had something to do with Ulec’s ability to talk to animals and plants. Cady was always amazed at how plants and animals seemed to do whatever he wanted.
Cady continued spinning, determined to catch the elf trying to sneak up on her like he always did. She was scanning the trees when she heard the tune Almas was playing abruptly change and a force, like a very strong wind, pushed her and she toppled to the ground.
“Hey! You pushed me!” she yelled at Almas.
Almas gave the most disgustingly false-innocent look she had ever seen and responded, “What? Me? I never touched you. I was just practicing. You know me better than that.”
Cady knew that Almas didn’t need to touch her. The last few years their mother and Uncle Marpel had been teaching Almas both music and how to use magic through it. As Almas got better at music he also got better at casting spells with it. It was called bard magic and she was about to retort that he used it to push her but a voice above her spoke first, “Yes, she knows you well. That’s how she knows it was you.”
He’d done it to her again. In just the moment that it took for her to fall, Ulec had just appeared out of nowhere. Looking above her she saw Ulec sitting on a branch in the tree with his back to the trunk and one leg hanging lazily, as if he’d been sitting there waiting all day! It wasn’t fair! She had been looking right at that spot when Almas pushed her.
“How do you do that?” she asked.
Ulec slid off the branch and landed noiselessly on his bare feet and asked with a sly grin, “Do what?”
“Appear out of no where like that!”
“I didn’t come from No Where. I came from over there. I’ve never been to No Where,” Ulec answered, pointing behind him.
“But we never see or hear you come,” Cady protested.
“I apologize for not moving through the forest making noise like a huge lumbering bear.”
“Cady isn’t that loud,” Almas cut in as he stood up and stepped over to his friend.
“Actually, I was referring to you.”
“Hey!”
Ulec laughed as Almas tried to push him but missed as he easily stepped aside. “You need to move faster than that! Or maybe you should stick to the harp,” Ulec said right before they all heard a soft snap above them. They all looked up to the tree for the source of the sound and Ulec started to step to the side when a large, furry animal landed on him, knocking him to the ground. Cady gave a surprised shout as she recognized a panther standing on Ulec with its large paws on his chest.
Rather than being frightened, Ulec looked annoyed and spoke calmly to the large cat, “Seacra get off! That hurt.”
He pushed the panther off him and in an instant it transformed into a young elvish girl who laughed and said triumphantly, “That time you weren’t fast enough.”
It was Ulec’s younger sister, Seacra. She was almost 20 years younger than her brother, but even though she was a little over 100 years old, she didn’t seem any older -- or act any older for that matter -- than Cady. Ulec got up glaring at her and brushed the dirt off of himself. It was in that moment they heard Giddy yell as he ran over, “Ulec, Seacra!” Behind him their father approached at a much more leisurely pace.
“Seacra, your back!” Giddy exclaimed.
Cady was also happy to see Seacra. She was away most of the time up north in elvish lands and when she was gone, Cady missed having another girl around to play with and couldn’t help asking, “How long are you here for?”
“A couple of weeks,” Seacra replied.
“Seacra! So good to see you,” Cady’s father said as he arrived. “Is Lady Alixia staying also?”
“No, Mother is up north, on the other side of the Dividing Mountains. It’s been 125 years since the War of Destruction. She wanted some time alone to visit the monument.”
The Dividing Mountains was a mountain range that ran northeast the whole length of the continent. It divided the elvish lands and the human lands and were so tall no one could cross them. At least that’s what Cady had heard.
“I see,” Gidon said in response to Seacra.
Cady noticed a quick look of relief cross her father’s face, and apparently Seacra noticed it, too. “Are you scared of my mother?” she giggled.
Ulec answered for Lord Gidon and grumbled, “Everyone is scared of Mother, at least anyone who knows her. Even the gods feared her.”
“Can she really turn herself into a dragon?” Giddy asked excitedly.
“Yes,” Gidon answered his son. “But before you ask, no, you can’t see.”
“You don’t want to see her as a dragon, Giddy,” Seacra added. “She only turns into a dragon when going into battle and that would be very dangerous.”
“That’s enough of such talk. So what is the plan today?” Gidon said, ending the topic. Cady’s father always seemed to dodge any conversations about Lady Alixia and any war stories about her. Almas had once told Cady that he and father had met Lady Alixia four years earlier right, after Almas had first met Ulec. He had told her she was a shape shifter like Seacra but could turn into more powerful creatures than Seacra could. He said she had attacked her father. Then Ulec and Ulec’s father had to stop her from hurting him but that’s all anyone would tell her.
It was Ulec who answered Gidon’s question. “I wanted to show Almas some plants I’m growing from seeds that my mother brought from the north.”
“I want to go!” Cady chimed in. Cady liked plants, and plants from elvish lands sounded interesting.
“Sounds like fun,” Gidon said. “I need to see to some business and get Creetan’s armor. See if he’s able to brag about his archery skills shooting with some thick leather weighing him down and impairing his movements. Just don’t stay out too late or your mother will have both our hides.”
“What about me?” Giddy asked excitedly.
“Sorry, short stuff,” Gidon answered. “Maybe in a year or so. You stay here with Creetan.”
With that, Gidon walked away. As soon as he was out of earshot, Seacra remarked to Ulec, “All the stuff you can do in the forest and you’re going to go look at some blue flowers. I thought you were boys.”
Cady giggled at the comment but didn’t dare say anything that might keep her from seeing the flowers. Ulec, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and turning to Almas asked, “Want to trade sisters?”
“Don’t tempt me; I’ve had enough of silly, giggling sisters,?
?? Almas responded.
Silly? Could she help it if Seacra made a good joke at the boys’ expense? “Why are brothers so mean?” she asked Seacra.
“They think it’s their job.”
“See what you did, Ulec,” Almas said. “Now they’re mad at us and we’ll have to listen to them whine all day.”
“If that’s the way you feel, we will just go play by ourselves. We don’t need you. Come on, Cady. We can go see those plants on our own if you want. And better ones along with them,” Seacra said as she got up and started leaving.
“And good riddance,” Cady added as she left to follow Seacra. It would be a lot better without any annoying brothers around acting like jerks.