Written: 8/12/23
Word Count: 954

Their skin was not, in fact, hard to the touch.

I violently flinched away from the muscle-elve who'd broken my fall. Trying to maintain some composure, I held one finger in the air as I declared, "Right. Very well. Thanks for that, friend."

The elva bounced after us, holding out a canteen in a dented metal cup, a wrapped sandwich in her other hand. Lacking any and all pride, I tore them from her grasp, falling in line behind the four-folk welcome party as the red-and-white dressed elva began speaking.

"That's Rocco. I'm Resinee. These two are my brothers, Cotswold and Variance." She pointed to each of the muscled boulders with legs, but it needn't have mattered. I couldn't force my eyes to their faces. I didn't think I could take it. If I looked up, then those muscles would be free to squash me like a bug when I wasn't keeping an eye on them.

I did gather that my savior, Rocco, was the one with eight slabs of muscle on his creamy-gray stomach.

"Your aunt's told us a lot about you," Resinee continued as we rounded that invisible bend in the rock. It really was an illusion, for most of the town appeared when we passed it.

This was the market area, but unlike the housing, it wasn't built in the air. It sprawled before us, stalls on either side. Not just Dark Elves, but an assortment of folk walked around in heavy, brown traveler's cloaks, dragging luggage and bags of wares behind them in a cacophony of mumbling and clinking.

Smoke from griddle tops made the far side of the array hazy, but it couldn't distract from the giant black entrance at the very back. Like a rounded triangle, the opening was so dark, it almost felt like a monster all on its own.

That must be the entrance to the mines, then.

We were too far away for me to clearly see through the haze of smoke, but it looked like the mine's entrance had folk bustling in and out.

As we walked through the wider section of market stalls, the sounds echoing off the high walls on either side, Resinee greeted nearly everyone we met, jazzing her hands and introducing me. "This is Beckett! She's here! Beckett's here!"

A strange grimace that may have doubled as a smile affixed itself to my face like sediment. For the life of me, I couldn't turn it into a proper grin, flashing my teeth even briefly. Well, I'd never been good at pretending, anyway. That was part of the reason I'd been exiled from my family.

I busied myself by eating the sandwich. It was a strangely-sweet thing. I was more of a sour person, but after days of not eating, this soggy alfalfa-and-vinaigrette sandwich was heaven. Soon it was over, and I turned to chugging the canteen of spring water, whose container made the liquid inside taste bitter like metal. I didn't care. I relished every last bit of it.

"Sorry for eating your food." I waved to yet another villager I was introduced to. Waving was easier. I hardly gave the fellow a glance, long enough to take in the unfathomable expression of glee that everyone else had worn when greeting me so far, before walking on. "I'm not usually so shameless."

"Ah, it's okay." Resinee laughed at a pair of kids, gray-skinned but with the rosiest shade of white for hair I'd ever seen. She ruffled their heads, sending them on their way with a gentle push to the backs of their sleeveless tank tops.

It seemed I was the only one unused to the cold this high up.

"It wasn't really my food, so no harm done."

I took a deep breath, deciding to just go for it. "Why...why are you being so nice to me?"

"Aha!" Resinee pointed one finger into the air before I was even finished speaking. "I'm glad you asked." Her light brows danced across her slate-colored face, full of mischief. "Our Haspa Mines are unlike—wait. What?"

I shrugged, maintaining my silence. I couldn't quite meet the shining vibrancy in her eyes, so I just glanced around the busy market. There were plenty of distractions. The three elves who'd paved the way for Resinee and I stood like a cement wall: gazes pointed outward, postures ridiculously lax when compared to their large size.

"Why am I being...nice? To you?" Resinee repeated, her voice stilted, words coming out in a higher pitch than when I'd spoken them.

I crossed my arms, adjusting the homework bag digging rivets in my shoulders. Both sides ached each time I moved it to a different shoulder, but I was long past the point of caring. "You have no reason to be. I'm not sure what my aunt told you about me, but...I'm not." I shrugged again, unable to fully explain how deep my uselessness spread.

"Um," Resinee waffled, her fingers rising and falling into a loose temple shape as she fretted from one foot to the other. It created ripples to sashay her polka-dotted dress. "I'm sorry. Did we make you uncomfortable?"

Yes.

"No." I shook my head like the liar I am. "I just hope you aren't holding on to my aunt's words. She probably talked me up so she could brag a little."

"Oh." Resinee breathed deeply, her slim shoulders relaxing. "I see. So that's what it is."

"Yeah." Funny, it felt like we were having two different conversations right now.

One of the six-pack elves turned his cumbersome neck. As soon as I saw those beady eyes coming, I looked elsewhere, but it didn't stop his words from pouring out.

"So you're not our new vet?"