Elnara Aldrich
It had been well over a week since Elnara had lent Lore her cloak, to walk home on that dark and rainy night. She wasn't worried about the cloak itself, about whether or not she would be getting it back ... no, that wasn't what had started this idea in her brain. What worried her was that the cloak - despite all her best intentions, and her command that he not return it until he had one of his own - might not be enough for him. He was so tall! Far taller than the cloak was good for. And so she had done some digging around, and spent quite a bit of gold, and ended up buying several long bolts of a certain cloth, and spent her spare time making a cloak specifically for him.
It was only after a week of hard work that it was complete: a long cloak, made of spider's silk, strong and durable, and weatherproof naturally. It was a pale silver, very much like most of Lore's robes, and shimmered in the light. At first glance it seemed plain, despite the shimmer, but a closer examination would reveal that it was actually quite intricately embroidered with the same spidersilk thread. Patterns of leaves and branches, in the style of Elnara's homeland, and - if one looked very closely - Lore's name in runes along the bottom - though to any who did not know the elvish runes, it might look like little more than beautifully patterned embroidery. It also had a hood, with the same embroidered leaves and runes on it, and the cord at the neck was a thick, tightly woven spidersilk.
Elnara had sent it to the library, since she had no idea what his home address might be.
Folded, it would never wrinkle nor crease. It was impossible to tear, and nearly as impossible to cut. It would hold out rain and wind and cold and even heat in the summertime. It was folded neatly in a silver mass and wrapped in plain brown paper, tied with a piece of string, with a note attached. Unsigned, as all his notes to her had been.
Since this world can't take care of you, let me.
It was only after a week of hard work that it was complete: a long cloak, made of spider's silk, strong and durable, and weatherproof naturally. It was a pale silver, very much like most of Lore's robes, and shimmered in the light. At first glance it seemed plain, despite the shimmer, but a closer examination would reveal that it was actually quite intricately embroidered with the same spidersilk thread. Patterns of leaves and branches, in the style of Elnara's homeland, and - if one looked very closely - Lore's name in runes along the bottom - though to any who did not know the elvish runes, it might look like little more than beautifully patterned embroidery. It also had a hood, with the same embroidered leaves and runes on it, and the cord at the neck was a thick, tightly woven spidersilk.
Elnara had sent it to the library, since she had no idea what his home address might be.
Folded, it would never wrinkle nor crease. It was impossible to tear, and nearly as impossible to cut. It would hold out rain and wind and cold and even heat in the summertime. It was folded neatly in a silver mass and wrapped in plain brown paper, tied with a piece of string, with a note attached. Unsigned, as all his notes to her had been.
Since this world can't take care of you, let me.
If you were to ask anyone exactly what happened that day, they would have told you it was a perfectly normal day... at least until something strange happened. Well, perhaps it was not so much that it was strange, for receiving a package was not strange at all, the library did so every day. However, it was the nature of the said package that made the whole situtation surreal. At least to those that knew the librarian who had been serving as head of the library since their great-grandparents were children. Even maybe before then, afterall no one could remember when Lore had never been librarian of the library.
At any rate, the point is, was that there was a package, waiting among the many packages that Tristan, one of Lore's gender bending assistants had to sort. It was completely normal,every Friday evening Tristan would go into the back to sort out the packages received the past week. They were of the normal fare, books of course, donated or brought by the library itself. Sometimes it was, computer programs needed by Yuki, sometimes it was other forms of media used to enrich the lives of the patrons. All of which were hard enough to at least set a cup on; at most hard enough to do brain damage if enough force was used. However, this time, there was an item that was not hard at all. Despite the brown paper packaging the item... whatever it was, was as plush as a pillow, if not plushier. It was certainly lighter than a pillow Tristan had confirmed.
What was perhaps the strangest thing about the package, was that it was address to Lore. Well, that itself was not so strange, he probably had receieved dozens of packages during his time as librarian, but she was sure it was all books. No, the strangest thing about the package was the note, which simply read "Since this world can't take care of you, let me." Tristan, nearly squealed like a schoolgirl, despite the fact she was indeed the leader of a pedso-military group, and was charading as a boy, she had a romantic streak to her. The sentence was so simple, and sweet that if normal circumstances allowed Tristan would have been hugging the package and falling over giggling like mad. It sounded like something Yuki would say when he was being her prince. It was then that it occured to Tristan that it wasn't Yuki who wrote it, but some unknown figure who was writing to Lore. Courting Lore... her eyes widen in realization as she grinned wickedly. Well books can wait, love waited for no one, therefore she would deliver this to his office now. Looking at the cat that got into the proverbial cream, she left the backroom completely forgetting the other books that needed to be sorted. If one was watching her leave, they would be surprised to see the lack of manical laughter.
Lore, at the current moment was not in his office, which only meant that he was either helping out with the books, (which was obviously not the case), or he glaring at the box of metal and wires humans called the computer. In this case the situtation happened to be the latter, which was the only time people really saw the calm librarian out of his usual state. This could only mean he was also, in the same room as Yuki Saga, his... other, gender bending assistant. The elven male sighed as he read the computer readout on the screen, though he dared not touch any of the buttons on the keyboard. Knowing his luck, he was sure he would lose all the data that was filed away. For the hundredth time that day, Lore wondered what possessed the more technology bound scholars to store all the journals for the library on their databases. True, he would admit, it saved trees which to him after all these decades was a precious resource, but it did not take away from the fact he rather have the feel of paper under his finger tips. Besides, computer screens hurt his eyes, and even with his elven blood, he was sure that he might become the first elf with glasses! A soft snickering brought his glaring attention away from the computer screen to the young woman (man) trying not to laugh at the normally regal librarian. Lore crossed his arms trying to keep as much dignity as possible, considering this was a common situtation.
"Why do you always insist on looking for the papers yourself?" Yuki inquired finally getting a hold of himself, "If you really need this for research you should let me do it, by now I should have a rough idea of what you look for," he pointed out, "And then I can print it all nicely, staple it and put it nice and neat on the desk."
His hands motioned as if he was holding an invisible scholarly paper to give to Lore. It wasn't that Yuki was teasing Lore, it was simply a fact of life, Lore did not like computers or any form of technology that was above a telephone most of the time. He especially dispised the fad of reading any text unless he had too right off the screen. If Lore hated computers that much, by all rights he should stay away from them.
"I'd rather do the research myself," Lore pointed out.
Yuki also forgot that Lore hated to delegate anything that involved research. Before he could argue on how much time Lore wasted fighting with the computer, a soft cough interrupted their conversation about the offending object. The men turned their heads curiously to see Tristan standing there with her hands behind her back grinning impishly. Lore's brow furrowed, for the woman... was as far as the mass public knew, was a man. Yet despite the princely attire of dress shirt, pants, accented by the jewel toned vest, he... just simply looked like a flatchested she. A especially mischevious she with her hands behind her back to hide the cream she had gotten into. She strolled forward, one foot in front of the other in a dancer's walk, she bent over slighlty tilting her head up at Lore giving him the cat's grin.
"There's a package that came for you today," she told him, in a voice that sounded so normal it seemed out of place.
Lore's brow furrowed even more, "I didn't order anything."
Indeed, as far as he knew there were no papers he had requested, no journals signed up for, no books ordered or requested from other libraries. So for the life of him he could not at all imagine what it was that was sent to him. He couldn't be going senile, and Lore was sure that elves did not go senile.
"It's not an order," she whipped out the package holding it before him, giving the librarian a playful bow, "It's from an admirer."
Now it was Yuki's turn to be surprised, since as far as he knew Lore didn't have any admirers. Well, that wasn't true, he did know of the teenage variety, but normally Tristan censored those, which meant that something about it told his ever intutive girlfriend that this wasn't a love sick girl. Not that Lore was any less surprise, after all he (being somewhat dense) had no admirers that he knew of. Elnara didn't count, she wasn't an admirer, she was someone he loved dearly, which might explain why he was just as confused as Yuki. Lore plucked the package out of Tristan's hands gingerly noting that the package was light as a feather. As his fingers ran across familiar brown paper, it stopped, hovering above the note tucked between the string. Two graceful fingers slid the note out of it's confines as his green eyes followed the neat writing.
Elnara's writing.
His breath hitched for a moment as he read her words taking in their full meaning. He, who had been forsaken by his own kind, only to find over a century later another in the same situtation. Only she, wanted to give him shelter. Eagerly he undid the string with a good single tug letting the bindings fall away, brushing the brown covering away with his hand. This time, his breath hitchhiked on a vacation as he dropped the paper grabbing hold of the silverly silk material as he unravelled like a waterfall in his hands. It was like perfect liquid, even after being manhandled by Tristan it didn't crease. He saw it for what it was, the cloak brought memories to him of that one rainy night and he couldn't forget now. He brought the cloak closer, because it a way it had a piece of her. It was tailored for him, but he could see the part of her, her life, her world in that cloak.
A funny thought entered his mind, tickling the back of his brain, that if this had been a contest of wit and love, she had won ten times over.
All caught up in the emotions and the memories, the two assistants stood there forgotten by Lore. They had never seen so many emotions played out on Lore's face before, so it was quite a treat. At the same time, as dancers they knew the strength of emotion, and were at a lost of what to do.
"I was going to bug him, but if I do now I'm afraid to ruin the moment," Tristan whispered to her love.
Yuki commented, "How long do you think it'll take him to notice we're still here."
Tristan paused, thought for a moment and lightly whamped him on the shoulder, "Give him time, if we're lucky maybe he'll be like every other guy and be spacy for the rest of the day."
"Good, then I can deal with the research in peace."
Comments: There, I did it :B . For those that are at a lost of what just happened, as you may or may not know (if you don't check out Elnara Aldrich's journal. Lore had been giving Elnara flowers with meanings as a way of expressing his feelings. Elnara, did a tit for tat and did the same, only I think it's so much more emotional. Though I didn't expect the piece to turn out so emotional, but ah well. So that is my reponse to Lore's gift.
