Time passed so fast, it's hard to believe, but my stay in France is drawing to an end! Tomorrow I'll be taking the train and leaving the Gironde department for two weeks of vacation and visit through France. I'm going to Cadre Noir in Saumur (horseback riding, airs above the ground), to Mont St. Michel (Michael in English maybe? Arthurian legends AND birding delight at this time of year!), and finally to Paris (it would be a shame to go to France twice without visiting Versailles once).

So, I should be pretty busy in the next two weeks, and I'm not sure I'll always have internet access, so it might be some time before I post an update. However, just to keep you hooked until then… There's only one chapter and the epilogue after this! Stay tuned!

Chapter XLII. Prodigal return

Once back on the road, Chama, Valen and Halikouelle made good progress. While Chama looked increasingly nervous as they neared Saarelmith, Halikouelle seemed more relieved and relaxed with each passing day. Unlike his daughter, he had not left his home for an adventuring life, and homesickness had dogged him every minute away from his beloved forest.

"We are only a short way," the older elf suddenly announced joyfully. "In less than a league we should meet Saarelmith's sentries."

A mix of evergreens and deciduous trees grew thick and high on each side of the road, and the dense underbrush of young saplings, bushes and thorny raspberry patches discouraged any foray into the mysterious depths of the elven forest. The air was cool and still between the trunks, but a gentle wind rustled the leaves overhead and the calming sound wafted down through the branches.

Time seemed more elusive in the muted forest, so Valen had lost track of the distance covered when Chama slowed then stopped her horse, soon imitated by her travelling companions. An enthusiastic smile on her lips, she pulled her horse close to Valen's huge steed and pointed over his shoulder with a finger. Doing his best to follow the direction she pointed, he squinted in the late afternoon light filtering through the leaves and needles.

"Look, high up there. See that dead trunk with still a bit of bark on it?", she inquired.

"Yes?"

"The bit of bark is not a bit of bark."

Instantly, Valen tensed and unhooked his flail, but Chama's chuckle indicated that it may not be bark, but it was not a threat either.

"It's a great horned owl," she told him laughingly.

The tiefling squinted with a vengeance through the dappled shadows and sunlight that hindered his sight.

"I'm sorry, Chama. As much as I'd like to see it, my eyes are not quite as sharp as yours."

Turning to her father, Chama threw him such a supplicant look that he actually shook his head as though to break free of a daze. Valen nearly smiled in sympathy; Chama rarely asked anything so trivial, so her look was all the more devastating when she used it, because it was all new and sparkling.

"Father?"

"Yes, Chamae?"

"Can you please make it come a little closer? Like all the animals of these woods, I'm sure it knows you and wouldn't mind… Pretty please?"

With a sigh at the waste of his skills, the ranger fished the lunch's leftovers in his saddlebag. Cutting a small piece of cooked hare, Halikouelle turned to the bird and beckoned with it. Ruffling its feathers in protest of being awoken in the middle of the afternoon, the owl nevertheless took off and silently glided through the air. Without even a whistle of its wings against the air, it landed on Halikouelle's outstretched wrist and started to tear at the proffered meat with its sharp beak.

Puzzling over what he could possibly have in common with the bird, Valen observed it carefully. He had never seen a great horned owl before, and he took in the erect tufts of feathers on each side of its head and its impressive size. For now, its sharp talons draped lazily over Halikouelle's archery wrist guard, and the soft feathers covering its legs partly hid the ferocious claws. The owl's yellow eyes were piercing and Valen could relate them to his own pale blue ones. Between strong tugs at the offered meat, the bird haughtily threw irritated looks at Chama and Valen, as though aware of why he'd been awoken at such an unpleasant hour.

"My lady, I do hope I did not remind you of a great horned owl because I scowled at you so venomously," Valen whispered in an unconscious effort not to bother the great owl further.

She chuckled. "No, it's the horns and the eyes. But, remember that the owl here was woken in the middle of its night, and you aren't always of the most pleasant disposition when you happens to have the middle watch."

Valen looked the intimidating big bird over again, taking in the soft-looking down of its stomach, the long spotted feathers of its wings, and its imperious yellow glare.

"Maybe we should give it some peace and quiet, now," Valen whispered. In an afterthought, he gave an attempt at honouring nature in the elven tradition. "Halikouelle? Can you thank it for coming so close and letting me admire it?"

Halikouelle nodded and softly murmured something in elvish to the great horned owl. The bird flapped its wings impatiently once, then took off and returned to its dead trunk. Valen turned to the ranger.

"Thank you for calling it for us. I'm glad I have finally seen that elusive bird."

"You were very lucky," the elf confirmed. "During the day, they are difficult to find because of their skill at hiding and, during the night, they are hard to discern in the darkness because of their colours."

With a last look at the once-more sleeping great horned owl, they silently resumed their advance towards Saarelmith. Soon, three elves dropped from the trees overhead, dressed in brown and green forest garb. Their wary stance dissolved into enthusiasm when their eyes slid from the tiefling to the two elves.

"Halikouelle! You've been gone for so long, we were all worried you'd never come back. We're so happy to see you!"

Joyfully, the three sentries pulled the old ranger down from his horse to shake his hand and slap him on the back. Chama and Valen dismounted in turn. Then the elves curiously turned to take in the wizard – two pairs of eyes widened in surprised recognition – and the tiefling.

"You see I have not come alone," Halikouelle said. "My daughter travels with me. Chamae, maybe you remember Carenel, Dunarien and Gendanien?"

She stepped forward with a timid smile. "Carenel, Dunarien, I remember you, we trained as rangers together. Gendanien, however? Maybe you were not yet training when I left?" As she said so, she extended her hand for a handshake.

Instead, the ranger turned her hand over in his and kissed it. "That must be the case, Chamaedaphne, I am a few decades younger than Carenel and Dunarien."

When the next one, whose name Valen could not determine was Carenel or Dunarien, kissed her hand for even longer, the tiefling decided that it was about time they remembered his presence. Keeping his face cautiously blank, he rolled his shoulders, straightened his back and puffed up his chest. At the creaks of his armour, the three sentries' looks swiftly went from Chama to him. Apparently, his mere presence sufficed to snap them back in their place, because the third one kissed Chama's hand only timidly before straightening.

"It's good to have you back, Chamae," the palest-haired guard said with a grin.

"It's good to be back, Carenel. I never thought you'd be a captain when I saw you again. Time hardly seems to have passed."

"It must have been dreadful to be out there all this time in human cities, with filthy dwarves all around…"

And all those dreadful blood-thirsty tieflings, I bet, Valen thought.

"Filth is not distributed in accordance with races," Chama answered coldly, then turned to the tiefling patiently waiting behind her. "I'd like you to meet Valen Shadowbreath, my adventuring companion of the last months."

"He is a warrior of great valour," Halikouelle suddenly chimed in. "On the road between Waterdeep and Neverwinter, we were ambushed by a large group of bandits and Valen fell fifteen of them himself."

Halikouelle's unexpected praised came as a pleasant surprise to Valen, and he smiled gratefully at the father of his beloved.

Somewhat haughtily, the three guards nodded, then Carenel stepped forward to shake Valen's hand. "As a captain of Saarelmith's guard, I extend our welcome to you, Valen Shadowbreath. As a guest to the elves, you will be treated respectfully, but please respect our customs and our love for all living creatures while within our borders."

Solemnly, Valen bowed. "I thank you for your welcome. I am not aware of all elven customs, but I will do my best not to show any disrespect."

And with that the three sentries stepped off the path and allowed them to pass.

***

The elven village was just that; a village. Small houses harmoniously built to meld against trees or rocks stood around a village square, where a clear pool and stream glittered besides a thick oak with an altar of stone leant against its trunk. A small temple, with its leaf-carved stones grown over by moss and vines, presided over the square. In order to following the natural disposition of the terrain, the houses were not built along straight streets, but rather formed a maze which Halikouelle, Chama and Valen slowly navigated to its center. At each window or doorstep they passed, incredulous eyes followed their advance and, by the time they reached the village square, no less than fifty people trailed them, eager for gossip, news and tales.

At the centre of the village, a tall female in an elaborate green dress left her devotion at the altar of the oak and walked over to Halikouelle with a welcoming smile. The elves immediately surrounded them to eavesdrop on the conversation, bright-eyed at seeing that Halikouelle was back with his daughter and eager to hear of his adventures. People more carefully showed curiosity towards Chama, but the older elves that remembered her and the circumstances in which she had left eventually began smiling at her and inquiring about her adventures when their questions did not appear to bring back hurtful memories. Children clung to their mothers' skirts or their fathers' legs, peeping around them to steal a glance at the wizard stranger and the big man with horns and tail.

So many people wanted to hear about them that they spent nearly two hours in the village square. Eventually Halikouelle pleaded they needed to put something in their empty stomachs and managed to extirpate them from the curiousness of the villagers. Halikouelle's neighbours invited the three of them for dinner as an apology for holding them so long. The family consisted of the mother and father, a grandmother and four youths (Valen would never have hazarded a guess at their age, but they looked like human teenagers to his eyes). Apparently Halikouelle counted the father as a friend and turned the questioning around, inquiring about any and all happenings within Saarelmith while he had been away.

More considerate than the press of people of the village square, the neighbours did not keep them late, knowing they must be weary from the long travel. The three travellers crossed the yard to Halikouelle's. His house blended against the foot of a small hill, the vines crawling over the rotund façade contributing to the seamless harmony.

The sight of her old room exactly as it had been when she had left it, untouched after all these years, deeply shocked Chama. For over thirty decades, she had lived in tents or inn rooms. The entirety of her worldly belongings held into three bags of holding: armour, weapons, spell components, flint and tinder, a bedroll, a tent, a pan and knife, a fishing pole, soap, a brush and pins for her hair.

And now, she found all those things that belonged to her; her bed with the coverlet her mother had embroidered while pregnant, the sparrow nest she had found on the ledge under her window and had recuperated once the fledglings had left, the painting by her childhood friend hanging on a wall, the various mementos from her forays into the forest, the beautiful pieces of wood and rock, patiently sculptured by nature, exposed on a shelf over her bed, her many books on another shelf in a corner of the room.

"Why… why did you keep it untouched, Father?", she breathed.

"At first, because I thought you would come back. And later… because there was no need to change it, and I did not have the heart to throw your things away."

Nodding, Chama silently walked from one object to the next, lightly brushing her fingers here and there through the thin layer of dust. Silently, Valen watched her reminisce about each object, as though to capture again a childhood she had done her best to wipe from her memory in time with the rest of her past.

Halikouelle offered to take Valen through a tour of the house to give Chama some privacy. It was a humble house, with a kitchen, no dining or living room, and three rooms. However, the bath room was a marvel; a small stream previously running on the hillside fell from the ceiling into a pool carved in the wooden floor, and a drainpipe holed through the exterior wall emptied the overflowing water outside in a gutter. Valen had never seen anything like it before, and Halikouelle had to explain that he must stand under the running water to wash. Once alone in the bath room, Valen gladly stepped out of his armour and clothes. The water was a bit brisk, but he felt revivified once clear of the dust and sweat and in a set of clean clothes.

Idly, the tiefling studied the carved wooden door handles in the kitchen while Halikouelle, then Chama went for a bath. He wondered if it was Halikouelle's work but did not dare inquire. He had hoped to kiss his beloved good night, but Halikouelle pointedly waited right besides Chama and Valen until she sighed and wished them both good night. Just to be sure, Halikouelle waited for half an hour after Chama and Valen had retired to their rooms.

Briefly, Chama considered sneaking out of her room to Valen's, but she was too tired and there would be time for that later. It was not as though she had not planned anything, after all.

***

The next night, the village threw a party in the central square to welcome back Halikouelle and Chamaedaphne. On one side of the square, elves had set a long table and tightly packed it with platters of food of all kinds. Opposite sprawled a dance floor at the foot of a small stage upon which sat a small orchestra, and merry dancing was already underway.

Valen had little clothes, but he had put on his cleanest linens and curiously speculated about what Chama would wear. However, before the woman could finish her complex feminine rituals and exited her room, a Halikouelle in high spirits had dragged Valen to the village square. He had happily explained to the tiefling that it was custom for the men to get to the party first, and drink and dance while waiting for the women to arrive. When they did, they were the ones to choose their partners, and after a first dance everyone settled for dinner. Later, once the food had been properly honoured, there would be more dancing.

Standing more than a head taller than most elves, Valen drew many glances. Some daring youths even came and asked him a few questions, and he did not mind answering because their curiosity was earnest and polite.

However, Valen conversed only distractedly, more preoccupied with the customs Halikouelle had told him about. It was all very embarrassing, but not knowing who else to ask, he finally gathered his courage and plunged ahead. "Halikouelle?"

"Yes, Valen?"

"Is the first dance anything I am susceptible to know?"

At the old ranger's sharp look, Valen felt himself blush. "Why? Do you think you are going to dance tonight?"

"I do not know, but I hope so. However, I would not like to make a fool of myself and to shame my partner because I do not know the steps."

Halikouelle kept his peace for a second, then gave up and laughed. Valen decided to take it as a good sign. "Usually, it's a four-steps court dance," the old elf finally provided. "Nothing too exotic, I believe?"

Valen breathed out a sigh of relief. "Not at all." He had learned with his mother a long time ago, but some parts he could only remember fuzzily. However, he knew enough not to turn himself into laughing stock for the four hundred elves that would attend the first dance.

Gradually, the music died down and a hush fell on the men as the first of the women appeared. They had gathered in the local temple in the course of the last hour while the men drank and danced. The first to appear was the priestess that had prayed at the oak's altar when Halikouelle had entered the village square. More women filed out the temple, all graceful and unearthly beautiful elves in their most intricate dresses, dressed in shades of green or brown in honour of the trees and the earth. But Valen only wanted to see one elf.

When she appeared, everyone turned to look at her, since she was the one expected guest.

He stared, like everyone else. She had changed so much in the little time they had travelled together. There was a physical change: she had put on some weight, growing from near skeletal to athletically slim. What was more striking, however, was the change in attitude. She would never have dared to wear her current dress the first days in Lith My'athar; in fact, Valen was surprised she wore it at all. A construction of green and black silk – his colours, he realized breathlessly – it had sleeves, a snug bodice and a flowing skirt. Cut low in front, it exposed a fair amount of chest and shoulder, as well as her delicate neck. She wore her hair looped away from her face and piled on top of her head before falling in smooth curls down to the middle of her back. The sight of the entire length of her creamy ears in full view sent his heart racing – certainly she had learned the meaning of the gesture in the Underdark, and she did it just for him.

But it was not only her choice of clothes either. It was the confidence with which she carried herself; the ease with which she inhabited her body; the charm she exuded in the slow swing of her hips.

At last, her perception of herself, shattered in her youth, was truly healed. She was beautiful and she knew it. Among the elves, she was no flawless beauty, Valen acknowledged, but it was irrelevant. She was graceful, and striking, and beautiful nevertheless; there was no need for perfection.

Her velvety black eyes looked only at him as she made her way to him through the crowd. He waited, breathlessly, until she stopped in front of him and her father. Curtsying to Halikouelle, she then turned back to Valen, extending a hand. He kissed it, allowing his lips to linger, before he guided her to the dance floor.

He pulled her in his arms, the dance began, and Valen fiercely focused on the steps. When he did not miss one for the first few minutes, he allowed himself to relax slightly.

"It appears you have decided you will survive dancing with me," Chama teased.

"I would rather say I will not shame you with my insufficient knowledge of court dances."

Perfectly in time, he let go of her waist and walked three steps forward with just her hand in his, before taking her in his arms again and twirling her around.

"Nonsense. You are doing well," Chama encouraged him.

With his concentration loosening slightly, he now noticed people whispering in the elven tongue around them.

"What are they saying?", he inquired in what he hoped was a low voice. Although you can never be sure with keen elven ears.

"That you're too big to be dancing this and should be tripping over your own feet any time now. Of course I know they're wrong, otherwise I would have asked my father to dance."

Valen smiled ruefully. "I am not such a keen dancer, my lady. It might be better if you danced with your father next, I know he would be glad to."

"Maybe I will, but I preferred to dance with you first, Granduc."

Looking each other in the eye, they danced on in silence and, for the lapse of a song, the rest of the world stopped to exist. It was just them and how they moved in time with the music. When the tune ended, Valen bowed and kissed Chama's hand again.

"Will you sit with me?", she asked.

"With pleasure, my lady."

Valen felt relieved to finally reach the long table and sit next to her. Her father settled down on her other side, and Carenel came to sit in front of them with his two ranger friends. Each time Chama looked away, the three rangers shot murderous glares at Valen, who did his best not to laugh to their faces. He had earned his place by Chama's side, even if those three elves did not know it, and they were not even competition enough to annoy him with their obvious manoeuvres. Chama however, true to herself, did her best to be civil and include them in the conversation.

One of the first questions was how an elf and a tiefling had met, and Chama explained why she had set down into Undermountain and how she ended up in the Underdark.

"The Underdark!", Carenel exclaimed. Hushed whispers travelled up and down the table at the name of the feared lair of the drow.

"Yes. It was rather intimidating at first, but I landed among followers of Eilistraee, so it was not as bad as it sounds."

Remembering how uncertain she had appeared that first night, Valen put a hand on her shoulder, as though his reassurance now could erase her fear of then. Feeling Halikouelle's eyes on him, though, he took his hand away as casually as he could and refilled her cup of wine.

Chama plunged into a description the Underdark, its caves, dust, secret passageways, and the Dark River. Valen was grateful that she only spoke of the Seer's benevolence, of Imloth's goodness of heart, and of the grandeur of the Underdark. No doubt these elves had never heard of the Underdark in anything but frightening tales, and he wished they would think of him or the Seer's followers in other terms. Chama described the underground maze in the voice of someone who, against all expectations, had loved it.

***

Dodging inquiries about the last thirty decades of her life started to tire Chama. Privately she decided she would give it another half hour for politeness sake for all the work everyone had pitched in, then she would say out loud she was tired, and Valen would escort her home. Her father would probably follow suit, but she decided that tonight, she would kiss her lover goodnight even if Halikouelle stood there watching them and snickering at them.

She granted her father one dance right away, and he let her go back to Valen with a sweet smile. Then she danced twice with Valen, and then she decided it would be all right to leave. She thanked the priestess and the women who had organized most of the party, then took Valen's arm and he guided her back to Halikouelle's house, the ranger close on their heels.

Halikouelle prepared some tea which they shared in the kitchen, exchanging their impressions about the night of revelry. Then Halikouelle cleared his throat, visibly coloured and made his way to the corridor leading to his room.

"Well, all this dancing has tired my old bones, and we are supposed to show Valen around tomorrow. I will retire now. Good night."

Valen and Chama stared in astonishment at her father's departing back. A few seconds passed in silence and Valen murmured jokingly, "Don't move. I'm sure it's a trap."

Chama collapsed into a fit of giggles. Taking his hand, she dragged him to his room and advanced on him until he backed into the smooth wood of his room's door. His eyes darkening by the second, he looked down at her.

"Would you like to kiss me goodnight?"

She already stood so close that he merely had to extend his arms to embrace her. He kissed her, one hand pressed to her lower back, and she melted in his arms. The knowledge that they were alone sent a heady rush of temptation through them both, and the kiss quickly turned passionate.

However, Halikouelle was just one door down, so Valen regretfully pulled away, rested his forehead against hers and tried to slow his own breathing. Shutting her eyes tightly, she pushed away from him. He felt a mix of relief and frustration that she was reasonable, because he was unsure of his resolve had she decided to tempt him further.

"Goodnight, my love," he murmured, before he slipped in his room and closed the door.

He let out a long, longing sigh, and he heard a similar sigh echo his own on the other side of the door. Falling face first onto his bed, Valen buried his face in his pillow in fear that elven keen ears might hear him moan helplessly. Then he smiled. True, being close to her but not being with her was torture, but it was exquisite torture.

***

The next day, Chama and Halikouelle showed Valen around the village and the surrounding forest. The seamless harmony between nature, construction, architecture and ornamentation deeply impressed Valen. After his appreciative comments on elven craftsmanship, Halikouelle spoke longingly of Suldanessellar's and Evereska's palaces, and Valen ached to see their beauty, somewhat like the elves instinctually desired to, he imagined.

"Father, why don't you just go and see?", Chama asked matter-of-factly.

The idea took the old ranger aback. "Leave Saarelmith? To go so far?"

"You've already been to Waterdeep. Suldanessellar isn't really much farther."

He considered a long moment. "I am not sure, Chamae. I am old and I dread the prospect of finding myself so far from home, even as I long for Suldanessellar's beauty. I think all those years away have changed you; you are not bonded to this forest as you once were. Travel is not a life fit for all elves, and I think I am not made for it."

"I am still bonded to the forest, but there are other things I long for too. I long for magical power; I long for a meaningful life; I long to leave my mark on the world. This lessens the need for the forest."

"I long for nothing more than being a ranger here; maybe that is why I cannot travel as easily as you. I never dreamed of a life outside this village."

Valen listed distractedly, drinking in the quiet of the forest. It was a haven of peace, all around and within too. At least once a day, he had a thought for the fact he was free of the demon – free to enjoy the simple joys of life like walking undisturbed in a quiet forest. So he basked in the tranquility and his own serenity, until at the end of the afternoon they reluctantly finished the hike and made their way back to Halikouelle's house.