In The Company of Elves

Her small frame scrambled to be set free underneath the weight of a man pinning her down.

“Hey get off me!” Melissa shouted.

“Please milady, don’t move. I am not going to hurt you.” It was a man with an accent.

"He sounds English or Scottish," thought Melissa. He got off her and helped her up. Melissa caught her breath as she dusted off leaves and dirt.

“Hey. Let go of my arm!” Melissa ordered as she strained to get loose.

“Are you a spy for the Sorceress Myrna?” Melissa’s tank top is covered in dirt and so are her jeans. She never got around to changing her clothes and that is a good thing since now her clothes looked worse than before. Her knee was sore from the fall.

“What the hell are you talking about and who the hell is Myr….”

Her voice trailed off and the shock of getting the wind knocked out of her was nothing compare to what her eyes beheld. Two men stared at her but these were no ordinary men.

“Oh my God they look like Elves,” thought Melissa. “It can’t be.” They dress like the Elves described in her favorite fantasy books. She rubbed her eyes.

“I can’t believe it.” She mumbled. Their facial features resemble Elves, the ears, hair and even their weapons they carry are elf like.

“Wow! I know that I am not dreaming--who are you?” Melissa paused and looked around. “Where am I?” They looked at one another and continued staring at her.

“What is your name?” The fair-haired elf asked her.

“My name is Melissa I came through the door, I was running after a white rabbit.” She pointed in the direction where the door was but there was nothing there. It had disappeared.

"Wait. There was a door and a wall there a minute ago," Melissa was dumbfounded. A dirt path had replaced the wall. Right before her eyes, everything had changed. The two elves threw each other a curious glance.

“Did the white rabbit pass through here?” asked the taller elf.

“Yes, the white rabbit was in my garden and ran through the door when I opened it,” she paused. “Did you see it?” Asked Melissa.

“Come with us.” The elf that tackled her grabbed her arm and escorted her to his white horse. He helped her mount the steed and he sat behind her taking the reigns in his hands. The other elf followed on his brown horse. They rode for an hour, stopping only once at a brook to give their horses some water and fill up their canteens. The taller elf with dark brown shoulder length hair, beautiful green eyes and skin is so perfect, almost flawless, stood next to the other elf by the brook. Melissa took a better look at his clothes while they were filling up their canteens. The elf that Melissa is riding with is wearing a pair of forest green trousers tucked into his brown leather boots. A brown sleeveless tunic covered his pale green poet shirt. Around his waist is a gold belt consisting of large rings hooked together.

“He is so cute,” she thought. Melissa noticed that on his left hand middle finger was a ring shaped like a dragon. He offered her a drink of water. She took a sip. Melissa’s mind raced trying to figure out what was going on. Did she stumble and hit her head and was imagining all this? On the other hand, did she somehow travel back in time or to another dimension? Pain shot through her knee.

“Ouch, I guess I did hurt my knee during the fall,” she thought. As they rode on, the blonde elf pushed his horse forward so that both horses were side by side. He started talking to the elf riding with Melissa. She did not understand what he was saying.

“He must be speaking the elf language,” she thought. His blonde hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Small braids hang from the sides of his head and his aqua blue eyes sparkled. He is dressed almost identical to the taller elf but his garments are of a different color. His black leather boots have a decorative braided strap wrapped around them and he’s wearing a beige poet shirt but is not wearing a tunic over it like the other Elf. A golden rope was tied around his waist, perhaps as a fashion statement. There is a similar ring on his finger too.

“They are not like the elves described in the books I have read or in movies I've seen,” she thought. She has read the Lord of the Rings and seen the movies but the elves with her are different in many ways from the ones portrayed in the movies or in books. They stared at her for a moment, looking at her clothes. She realized that in this world the women probably don’t wear what she is wearing. It must seem odd to them, out of place. They smiled at her, amused. She grinned back at them with uncertainty.

“Milady, you said that your name is Melissa. Is that correct?”

“Yes.” Melissa did not want to let on that she was scared, but the sound of her voice gave it away.

“Don’t worry. We will not hurt you,” He said. “Melissa I am Arowyn and this is Keefe. He is my brother. We are the sons to our late father Lord Auril.” Melissa smiled warily at them. Suddenly she remembered that she had heard that name before somewhere.

“Auril?” she thought. “Where did I hear that name before?” The stories her grandmother had told her when she was a little girl--that’s where she heard that name before! How could it be true? She didn’t have time to throw around the notion that her grandmother might have known about this other world in her own backyard. Perhaps her grandmother had a good reason for keeping it a secret. After a long silence, she decided to ask a question.

“Who is Myrna?” Arowyn looked at Keefe.

“Any questions you may have will be answered at the counsel Hall of Alondra.” They rode on.