Stone… A "What If?" Elfquest Fanfiction
The alternate scenario: Elf fights against elf in a in a battle of wills to solve the deepest of betrayals. The blood of ten chiefs against the very being that slowly chipped away at the very essence of what made him Wolfrider. The pair, Rayek and Cutter, are left with many issues unresolved, but a tepid understanding that the now of wolf thought can begin anew in this new holt, with families reunited after thousands of years in preserver wrapstuff. The Scroll of Colors never spin on their own. Winnowill never takes a chance to fly the Palace in her watery cell. Rayek, his partner Ekuar, and his daughter Venka return to the palace. The Wolfriders hunt and howl. The Palace remains in tact, never to become shards and split families apart once more.
A long winter has unveiled a renewing spring. The Wolfriders have lived longer than their mortal blood destined. As some go easily back to the now of the wolf, others yearn for the adventures they have known all of their lives. Moonshade brings forth the first of a new generation of Wolfriders to enjoy the peace and prosperity of this new time. A quiet male child, who resembles his father Strongbow in both spirit and physicality.
But this story begins some years after in a place far from the Holt…
I have done so little
For you,
And you have done so little
For me,
That we have good reason
Never to agree.
I, however,
Have such meagre
Power,
Clutching at a
Moment,
While you control
An hour.
But your hour is
A stone.
My moment is
A flower. -Langston Hughes*
PROLOGUE
The room was cold, and he could feel the vibrations of the rain hitting the stone of the mountain all around him. As he lay on the bed, he curled his knees closer to his chest. The linens of the bed were soft and made from days of labor from an elf he never met. He needed to go to sleep. He was required to attend the games tomorrow. It would be a long day for him, exceedingly boring and uncomfortable. Sometimes he would get so uneasy sitting still for so long, he would feel an urge to jump up and down or maybe go running and see how long his legs would carry him. Sometimes he imagined making the walls shake or the floor rumble in waves. Perhaps he could make the stone swallow him up. Could a rock-shaper suffocate within stone?
He heard her footsteps before he heard the door open almost silently. The linens on the bed shifted as she slipped behind him onto the bed. Her thin fingers brushed through his yellow hair, starting in the crown and traveling throughout its length. The gesture made his skin tingle.
Her small breasts pressed against his back. Her hands wrapped around his waist, and he felt her relax as she made a heavy sigh. The length of her naked body pressed heavily against him as she enclosed him in her embrace. Relaxation set in for him, and the worries and anxieties about tomorrow's activities drifted from his thoughts.
"Balen, my sweet one," she murmured. "Did you see what the tailors made for you? The color is divine. It's like they took the very color of your eyes and…"
Her voice trailed off as she squeezed her hands tightly around his waist.
"I wish you would have at least tried it on." Her voice was barely above a whisper. Balen felt a surge of emotion within him that he couldn't define completely. Whether it was guilt or anger, his body became tense under her embrace.
"But it doesn't matter. Tomorrow you will be a vision." One of her delicate hands moved, caressing him up to his chest and down to his stomach. "Dream sweetly, my love."
"Yes, Mother." Balen said. "I love you."
*I begin this piece with the poem "Poet to Bigot" by Langston Hughes, because it was the poem that inspired the title of this story as well as some up in a neat little way the conflict between elves like Gliders and elves like Wolfriders. Enjoy!
