ANLR Chapter 3

Xera's coronation was the most simple ceremony of its nature that Geran had ever seen. The four other Xadari in the party took up points in the clearing at each of the four points of the compass. Alaea stood in the centre of the clearing, once again with palms pressed together and head bowed.

Xera was lead into the clearing by several other dryads, wearing a proper dress rather than the tunics most dryads wore. As she was first sighted, the Xadari started singing a soft, cheerful melody which stirred Geran to stand a little taller and almost made him want to sing along.

When Xera reached Alaea, the taller female looked up and smiled at her, before kneeling on one knee and moving her hands to above Xera's head, palms facing upwards. Geran missed exactly what happened but suddenly, in her hands was the living crown that Alaea had made the previous day.

Very gently, the Xadari placed the wreath on Xera's head and to Geran's surprise the wreath bloomed. The flowers which were suddenly covering the wreath were a range of wild flowers that covered everything except for the amber at the front.

Alaea then took Xera's hand and turned her round so all the gathered dryads could see her and formally presented her. There was a general feel of approval and then there was a party and that was it. The succinctness of the ceremony surprised the crown prince of Riva.

XXX

While they were celebrating, Alaea took Ce'nedra aside and warned her that the Xadari would be leaving around dawn the next day as all they had come to do was done. Ce'nedra then passed on to Xera that her own party would be leaving the next day, though slightly later in the day.

The next morning Alaea got up with the rest of her people and the group left off in a fairly loose flittering group, looking like fading shades and none of the rest of the group noticed when one of them flitted off and went back the way she had come, the males having taken the front from protective purposes.

When Alaea had returned to Xera's clearing, Ce'nedra and her children were ready to leave and did so without further ado. It only took a day's ride or so to get to the edge of the woods and to the waiting escort party since they rode at a fast gallop, Alaea having taken Xadara's horse and was holding the nine year old to her chest as they galloped.

Ce'nedra and her family's honour guard camping at the edge of the forest were rather surprised to see an extra female in the group but Geran was more surprised because suddenly the Xadari appeared much more human.

Though she was still delicate her hair had settled into a shade similar to his own reddish blonde hair and her eyes were a lovely shade of turquoise. She also no longer looked like she would blow away in a strong wind. There was still an otherworldliness about her, even though she had also lost her glow. When she spotted him staring at her she just winked at him cheerfully and he closed his jaw.

Much later on, Geran was able to sit and talk to her.

"How did you change your appearance?" He asked without preamble. She grinned at him. Since they had stopped Alaea had seemed to be in a disturbingly good mood for some reason that Geran didn't get considering she'd just run away from her people.

"Your people are not the only ones with magic you know. It is really only a trick of the light. Colour is only a type of light and light is a most natural thing, plants use it to live and all life is based on it. Xadari are creatures of nature and as such, everything about us is derived from nature. I simply manipulated the light that comes from me to be like how I wished it. You have a nice hair colour by the way." Geran frowned at the last comment. Alaea raised an eyebrow and eyed him sardonically until Geran worked out that her new hair colour was exactly the same shade as his. She had chosen to have the same hair colour. He blushed slightly at the compliment.

At that point his mother sat down next to him and smiled at the lady. The Xadari smiled back and greeted Ce'nedra. After a little small talk the queen turned serious.

"Alaea, exactly how much time do we have before your absence is noted?" Alaea paused before answering the queen.

"Well, they will travel about three days before stopping to rest, we do not tire nearly as easily as your kind seems to. Once they have noted my absence they will most likely return to the Woods of the dryads to search for me. That time will probably involve at least half a day of rest since they will not be able to go on without any after three solid days of travel. We should be out of range by then and I have been concealing that by which they would track me by but they may pick up on it if they search hard enough, hopefully five days is enough for what little trail I have left to fade. Once they have searched around and hopefully found no trail, they will return to my father. No doubt he will then personally come after me. It will probably take between one and two months for him to reach the woods of the dryads, considering that he most likely will be travelling as fast as possible, it will most likely be closer to one month but after that I am not sure, I have no idea how long it will take for him to find me but I have no doubt he will eventually. He will not take the humiliation of his daughter running away lying down." Ce'nedra and Geran looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Alaea.

"What if he doesn't realise you ran away?"

"If I haven't ran away then I have been kidnapped. In such a case it would dishonour him not to rescue me. Either way it is a point of honour to retrieve me – either way, by his view, you have stolen his property." Geran stared at her, shocked while Ce'nedra's expression turned stormy.

"Property?"

"Ours is a very patriarchal society and a daughter is considered a special type of property, unofficially of course but for all intents and purposes we are. A female is meant to be silent, only holding her father or husband's opinions and making her menfolk's life easier. We are supposed to provide healthy sons and look after the children, etc. My mother is absolutely perfect by my father's standards, she has no brain in her head and simply is an extension of my father. I have rather too much of him in me to be such a door mat though." Ce'nedra snorted. Geran carefully kept his expression neutral, from what he heard his mother was a perfect example of too much like her father to be a good daughter.

XXX

By the time, by Alaea's estimation, her people would have got back to the woods of the dryads to start looking for her, their party had reached Tol Honeth. Varana seemed a bit surprised at their apparent haste, the journey normally taking longer than that, especially with two little girls, but greeted them affectionately anyway. When he came to Alaea, his eyebrows shot into his hairline at the beautiful young lady.

"Uncle, this is Alaea o f the Xadari, we acquired her in the woods of the dryads." Ce'nedra introduced, smiling at the surprised look on the Tolnedran emperor's face.

"I was unaware any other humans would be in the woods, especially at such an important time." He said carefully.

"I am not human, your majesty, and my kind do not reside in the woods of the dryads, we live beyond where your kind can reach." She smiled at the slightly poleaxed look on Varana's face. "Your people would call mine elves, Xadari is our own name for our kind. It is also the name the Dryads use for our kind, they being the only ones in contact with both our kind and yours." Geran had to stop his jaw dropping as she lifted her strawberry blond hair back from a delicately pointed ear, wondering how he had missed such a feature. Alaea apparently noticed his surprise and grinned mischievously at him.

XXX

Varana frowned at them, sitting in a chair to one side of the room as Ce'nedra and the dress makers fussed round Alaea. The elf only had the small number of floaty gowns she had brought for her stay in the woods of the Dryads and Ce'nedra had decided she needed a larger wardrobe. Only a small number were being made in Tol Honeth, but with the volatile situation involving the fact that her people were most likely searching for her, Varana was sitting in on the fitting session as they talked over making sure that her people couldn't drag her back.

"Once you have spent the obligatory few days here, you should get to Riva as soon as possible. I presume I would be right in thinking the fact that Riva is an island will slow them down significantly?" He looked to the elf standing in the centre of the group of women. She nodded.

"My people do not do water at all. It would take some while for them to be able to work out how to cross the water, or where I had gone when taking a boat." The emperor seemed pleased at the notion that the Xadari were not a see faring people. Geran rose, as much as he quite like seeing Alaea in only her shift as they fitted clothing round her, watching women fuss over clothes was not a thing the young man really liked doing.

"Shall I go talk to the Cherek ambassador, then? I have no doubt he would be willing to lend us his ship and there is nothing like a Cherek ship to get you where you need to go fast." Varana grinned and agreed while Ce'nedra agreed somewhat more resignedly. Geran was pretty sure his mother would have preferred a ship ran by more sober people.

As the prince left the room he flash Alaea a smile which she returned. Hopefully she wouldn't get sea sick.