Chapter One
“Why have you been ignoring me, Elise?” Sam asked, standing at her gate.
It had been three years since he’d seen her last and ever since last week when he came back home, she’d been avoiding him. But he wasn’t going to let it keep going on like this. The only thing he could think about after he left was her. Her brownish red hair pulled back away from her green eyes, her smile, her soft skin; her taste. As he walked out of Mr. Devitt’s building, he saw her heading down the path to her house. He followed her down the path, demanding her to interact with him.
“It’s for your own good,” she said, picking the hem of her dress off the ground.
“What does that mean?” he asked, entering her gate.
She looked back at Sam, making him no longer go towards her. “Sam, please-” She turned away from him again to continue to the house.
“Elise!” Sam said, taking her wrist gently.
“Mama?” a small voice called from near the house.
Sam looked up to see a little blonde hair boy standing at the steps. His stomach tightened with nerves. A lump caught in his throat. “She has a son. How stupid could I have been? No wonder why she’s been ignoring me!” he scolded himself.
Elise looked back at him with saddened eyes. “I have to go...”
Sam tore his eyes away from the little boy. “Elise…” he let out, “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you since the day I’ve left. I came home for you and ever since I’ve come back, you’ve been ignoring me. Do I remind you of that day I left?”
She turned away from him, trying to hold back tears. Looking at her son every day reminded her of him. She took a deep breath in and took a step forward, but stopped. An uneasy feeling filled her. When she concentrated more on the uneasiness, she felt that familiar presence.
Elise knew exactly who was coming.
“High Wind…” she whispered to herself, “But why is he early?” She answered that question right away. High Wind’s men must’ve told him that Sam had come back to town. Elise had always protected her son from being seen by High Wind and now if he saw Sam standing with her at her gate, he would surely kill him.
High Wind only came to court Elise – to try and win her back and to join his people again. He hated the humans who Elise had grown to love and the one human he hated the most was standing right in front of her.
“If I see that man who stole you from me with you, I will kill him with my bare hands,” she heard High Wind’s voice in her head.
Elise turned around to her son, “Jacob! Get inside!! Now!” Then she turned back to Sam, “Come in. Hurry-!” she took his hand and pulled him with her to the house.
Elise pulled Sam to the back of the one bedroom home, where Jacob was standing. She slide open a wall panel that revealed a cot inside. Jacob jumped up on the cot and Elise knelt down to him.
“Time to be quiet, okay?” she said to him, trying to smile, “Sit with mama’s friend and don’t let him leave this room till I come back, okay?” Jacob nodded and Elise stood up and looked at Sam. “Please,” she said to Sam, ushering him to sit with Jacob.
Sam wasn’t sure why Elise had begun to panic so much. He had never seen her like that before. He followed her request and took Jacob in his arms as he sat on the cot. He finally saw the blonde haired boy up close. He had Sam’s bright blue eyes… He looked up at Elise, eye’s wide. Elise gave him a sad smile as she closed the wall panel to make it look like the room didn’t exist, then went outside.
Sam held her child close to him, trying to hear what was going on outside. He heard horse hooves pounding closer to the house then stop. Sam’s whole body tensed. He went to get up but Jacob held him tight. Sam looked down at this small boy who looked up at him with wide eyes as well. Jacob shook his head to Sam. Sam leaned back; this boy knew exactly what was happening. He couldn’t have been more than three years old and knew the danger that waited outside this wall panel.
Jacob rested his head on Sam’s chest and kept one hand wrapped around a pendant on a string around his neck. He had his eyes tightly closed.
Sam too closed his eyes, concentrating on outside. When he heard another person’s voice, he finally knew why Elise had pleaded with him to go inside. Sam could not remember the elf’s name, but he remembered his face…
* * *
Sam dropped his last stone in the long dirt hole him and Elise created to play ‘Mancala’. He smiled at her since the six holes he dug on his side were empty and he obviously had more stones in his mancala.
“Count them up,” he said, scooping up his stones from his mancala and Elise’s side. He dropped them on the ground as he counted.
“-One,” Elise said, pushing her last stone into the pile of the others, “Twenty-one.”
Sam mouthed his last number, then with a bigger smile said, “Twenty-seven! I win again.”
“I think you’re cheating.”
“How am I cheating?” he laughed.
Elise wanted to continue this normal game of flirtation with Sam, but an odd feeling filled her suddenly. She swung around to look at the pathway that lead towards the house.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked, climbing to his feet and helping her up.
Mama June came around from the side of the house and called out to Sam, “Come on, Sam. Let’s get this last bale of hay onto my yard. Those darn deer just keep having a field day with my plants!” She dropped three bags of seeds onto the ground.
Sam looked at Mama June and told her he’d be right there. He turned back to Elise, who was walking towards the gate to a man on a horse. He was one of the Elves from the tribe across the water. He got off his horse and walked up to Elise. Sam couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he could tell by the way Elise stood in front of him that she wasn’t comfortable.
“Come on, dear,” Mama June said, trying to get his attention off Elise and this stranger.
When Sam saw the man point his head towards his direction, Sam walked over to the two.
“Hi, the name’s Sam,” he said, sticking his hand out to the elf.
The elf looked down at his hand but never took it. He looked back at Elise.
“He works for Mama June. He’s a friend of mine,” she had said to him.
Sam glanced at Elise thinking to himself that she should’ve called him her boyfriend so this creep would walk away. Although this guy didn’t look like he backed down easily.
“Sam,” Elise said, looking back at him, “this is High Wind from the Elfin Tribe across the way. I grew up with High Wind. His father had raised me.”
“Well, nice to meet you High Wind,” Sam said, smiling.
The smile instantly faded once High Wind said to Elise, “You left our Tribe to live with this?” He had said it like he was in such disgust.
Sam squint his eyes at him. He suddenly didn’t like this elf.
“I don’t live with him,” Elise told High Wind. “I told you he works for Mama June.”
“And spends his days with you. Sometimes nights.”
Sam let out a laugh. The only times he had ever spent nights with Elise was when he stayed for a home cook meal that Mama June made.
“Have you been spying on me?” Elise asked. She didn’t find this funny.
“It’s for your own good. You need to come home.”
“I don’t need to do anything.”
“This is not your life,” High Wind said, “Your life is with your tribe.”
“This has become my life and this is my family. Now leave,” she demanded. She turned to Sam so they could go back to what they were doing.
Sam got the hint and protectively put his arm between her and High Wind as he turned with her. But that didn’t stop High Wind from reaching out and grabbing Elise by the wrist. Sam didn’t like that very much. He pushed High Wind’s hand off Elise’s wrist and now stood between them.
“Don’t you ever put your hands on her again,” Sam said.
“Or what? You will hit me?” High Wind snarled, his fist clenched at his side. “You are nothing but a pathetic human.”
Just as Sam was about to do something he would probably regret once he lunged, Elise grabbed his arm. By this time Mama June had already crossed the yard to now stand between High Wind and Sam.
“That’s enough!” Mama June said, “I will not have you come here and start trouble, High Wind. Not while I’m around! You have said what you wanted to Elise, now she asked you to leave. And I agree.” She gave him a look that made the elf back down.
High Wind gave Elise one last glance before turning around and jumping up on his horse. Once he turned his horse and galloped down the path back to town and into the wooded area, the three turned to each other. Mama June went back to her seeding, asking Sam to hay the yard before he left. Elise turned away and tried to avoid eye contact with Sam. Sam asked Elise what High Wind wanted from her and what he was doing just showing up out of the blue, but Elise kept her explanations short. She went back to the dug in holes and sat down, dropping the stones back into their places to start another game.
Sam walked back over to the game and sat across from her. He watched as a single tear dropped from her face as she held her head down. His insides hurt from seeing that, but he never said anything…
* * *
Elise came out of the house just as High Wind dismounted his horse. He motioned his men to stay on their horses.
“Our bond is still strong I see,” High Wind said, a smirk coming to his lips, “You are still the girl after my heart.”
“I’ve never been after your heart, High Wind,” she walked up to her gate, “Why the sudden visit? You’re not due for another week.”
“We’ve decided to come early. Father’s wishes. He’s worried about you.”
“He’s worried or you are?”
“I’ve been hearing things about you, River Song. Things like that man has come back. He is bad news.”
Elise crossed his arms, “He’s always been bad news to you.”
“There are whispers among your new people that there is another man. A smaller one – a boy. Looks like that man they say. Are you really keeping a secret from me, River Song?”
“You’ve made your round, High Wind. Leave.”
“I’m not finished here,” High Wind said, pushing open her gate.
Elise pushed it closed. “Agreement to not enter my gates was made three years ago. I’m not permitting you to enter.”
“I sense danger,” he lied.
“There is no danger. Go back to father and report that.”
Elise knew that their Father Chief had not sent High Wind. He never had. Father Chief trusted Elise, knew the life she’d rather have outside their village. It was High Wind who could not let that go. His blood had boiled the day he saw Elise out in the yard with Sam five years ago.
High Wind entered the gates against Elise’s wishes, then crouched down touching the ground. “He’s here?”
“Nobody but me is here.”
“Then prove it!”
High Wind walked up to the house. His men, now off their horses, followed him.
“High Wind! Do not enter my house!”
“He senses danger, River Song” one of his men said as they took Elise’s arms.
“There is no danger! High Wind!!”
High Wind entered the house and stood in the one room and looked around. He went to the small bedroom that had just a cot for Elise and a dresser.
Elise broke free from High Wind’s men’s grasp. “Get out!!” she screamed, rushing inside and standing before the wall panel, as High Wind turned towards it. She pointed to the door. “I told you there is no danger. Even if that man is here, he’s not a danger to me! He’s nothing more than a danger to you. Now get out!”
Just then High Wind’s hand came across her face. His one man came into the house to hold High Wind’s hand back before it sliced through the air again.
Elise knew this man over the other one that joined High Wind in his visit. This man was Elise’s brother - they called him Warm Whisper. He was found three days after they found Elise at the river’s edge.
Warm Whisper said something to High Wind that made him give Elise a look and walk out.
“Sorry, River Song,” Warm Whisper apologized.
“It’s Elise. In this village I am Elise!” The tears began to swell in her eyes. “Don’t forget who you really are, brother.”
Warm Whisper gave her long look then followed High Wind’s lead out the house.
Elise held the tears in and went to the door to watch High Wind, her brother and the other man ride off. High Wind’s presence left Elise, telling her they would not be back till next full moon. When she felt it was safe, she went to the wall panel.
Sam looked up at her concerned and wanting to ask what that elf wanted, but he didn’t move. Jacob still clutched onto him. Elise went to her son and turned him away from Sam.
“You want to sleep?” she asked the small boy.
The boy nodded.
“Here?”
He nodded again feeling the safest within the closed walls.
After every visit from High Wind he slept. Elise told him that the dream world will take all bad things away.
Sam stood up and went to the middle of the house. Elise sat at Jacob’s side until he was asleep, which never took long. She stood from his side and shut the wall panel again then turned around, avoiding Sam’s gaze.
“Is that why you’ve been ignoring me?” Sam let out.
“Part of it.”
“You know I can’t leave now.”
“You’ll be fine as long as they don’t see you with me.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about, Elise. Those men were from that Elfin Tribe. They came into your house.” He then noticed the red mark on her cheek. “Did he hit you!?”
“High Wind meant nothing by it,” she said, waving his hand away as he stretched forward to her.
“High Wind…” he thought for a second, “Is he that same elf from years ago?
Elise nodded.
“Elise you never told me anything about this High Wind guy. And that name they called you; River Song. Please tell me what’s going on.”
Elise didn’t want to tell him, she always thought that if she kept it between just her and Mama June, it wouldn’t matter. But this was the third time where Sam was involved. High Wind never came around as much back then as much as he had when Sam left three years ago. It was time Sam knew about High Wind. She leaned against the counter and began to explain.
“I was six when they found me by the river singing,” she began, “I was hoping my parents would find me but they there killed the night before and my brother was lost.” She continued, “Father Chief found me and named me River Song. When they found Ethan three nights later, they brought him back with them and named him Warm Whisper.”
“And High Wind?” Sam asked, looking across the room at her.
“A man my brother and I grew up with. He is Father Chief’s real son.” She looked down at her hands and rubbed her palm, staring at the mark across it. “High Wind is trouble. He is one of the reasons why I left the tribe at sixteen.”
“But he continues to follow you.”
“He believes that I was given to their tribe for a reason. I am grateful for all Father Chief had done for me, but it was not my place to be in that tribe. Certain things didn’t feel right being there… So that’s when I asked Father Chief to find me a way home to my real family. That spring he found my grandmother.”
“Mama June.”
Elise nodded, “And that summer I met you.”
* * *
Sam had known Mama June since he was ten. His mother helped her out around her garden and as a young boy; Sam had to travel with her. June had the richest vegetables and fruit any town in Pandoria had to offer. Other villagers from the towns around would come to buy June’s vegetables and fruits. Even the folklore tribes would come in looking for the luscious produce. Sam’s mother would look after the gardens with June was out looking for her granddaughter and when his mother passed away, Sam continued to help June out the best he could.
June continued to look for her granddaughter, then one day… she found her.
“I want you to meet my granddaughter,” Mama June had told him as they brought home hay for the yard. “She’s shy. But that’s because she hasn’t been around anyone other than elves for the past ten years.” She led the way to the house. “Her brother wanted to stay with the Chief. Very well if you ask me. Little boys are hard to handle. I don’t know how your mama did it with you.” She winked at him. “Just leave the bale at the steps, dear.” She opened the door and held it open for him. “Elise! Elise darling, come meet a friend of mine.”
Sam turned to look at where June was calling to. Then there she was. So elegant looking, as she stood at the doorway. Half hidden behind the wall, unsure of him. Even at sixteen his heart tugged for her.
“Well come on,” June waved her in.
Elise stepped out from behind the wall.
“Hello,” Sam said, “My name is Sam.” She took a deep breath in like she was listening to something in the air. Then she smiled. “A beautiful smile,” Sam thought.
“Hello,” she responded, her voice just as sweet as it was now. “My name is Elise,” she put her hand up with her palm facing him. She waited for him to place his hand on hers.
“Honey, I told you we don’t do that here in this village,” June reminded her, “We courtesy or shake hands. Since you’re a lady, we courtesy.”
Elise nodded then bent at the knees, displaying her skirt to courtesy.
It was after that day that Sam came to Mama June’s more often. He wanted to see more and more of Elise.
Elise had felt the same towards Sam.
* * *
“What happened to Mama June?” Sam asked.
“She died two years ago on Jacob’s first birthday… Before he was born, she made that room to keep us safe…”
“Tell me about Jacob,” Sam said. He was eager to know – even though he knew that if she told him the truth and the boy wasn’t his, his heart would be crushed.
Elise turned around to fidget at the things on the counter. Jacob was a topic she wasn’t ready to talk about. “There’s no room here if you’re staying in town. But Anne usually stops by with seeds and owns the inn.”
“I’m not looking to leave. I’ve got work with Mr. Devitt. I might’ve left three years ago but I’m home now.” He took a few steps towards her, “I told you, Elise. I’ve missed you.”
Anne had come by right on time with the seeds. She took Sam with her after Elise reassured him she and her son were safe – it was him she was worried about.
