In the Company of Elves: Chapter 1 The Garden

( In the Company of Elves: Ch. 1 The Garden)

It is 2007 mid-April and the sun is setting over the hills as 20-year-old Melissa drives home from a family reunion that was held at Irvine Regional Park. Her white 2006 Kia Spectra, glides down the road as she heads to Silverado Canyon, where she lives with her father and step-mother. The custom-made home designed by her grandfather who was an architect, sits in a quiet cul-de-sac. Melissa’s grandfather passed away long ago, leaving the home to her grandmother, Mia.

   The fires that scorched the hills and some canyons, in 2005 were devastating but it wasn’t the fires that claimed Melissa’s grandmother’s life but a sudden heart attack that happened a few months after the fires. Miraculously the house was spared, with little to no damage. It was almost like magic. Melissa’s father inherited the house after her grandmother's death so, Melissa lived in that house for most of her life.

  Melissa reminisced about the family reunion party, while listening to the music on her car radio. “The family reunion went well. I got a chance to see all my cousins and aunts; mostly from my dad’s side of the family. It’s been years since I saw them,” she thought. Cars speed by as she carefully follows the speed limit.

   A year ago, she was stopped by a cop for speeding. She had to pay a hefty fine for a speeding ticket and it ruined her chances on going to Hawaii that summer with her longtime friend, Carly. Melissa isn’t ashamed in leaving the party early. She has work the next day and besides, her friend Carly left with her boyfriend, Diego an hour before she did. Even though Carly and Melissa went together to the party, Diego met up with them at the park. Carly and Diego are inseparable.

  “I would rather be relaxing with a good book at home. That’s what I’m looking forward to for the rest of the evening. My parents aren’t coming home anytime soon,” thought Melissa. When Melissa arrived home, she parked the car in the garage which is separate from the main house, she closes the garage door and walks to the house.  As she enters, she tosses the keys into the key bowl that rest on the corner table next to the sofa. 

    Passing the long oval full-length mirror that’s in her room, she takes a few steps back and stands in front of it.

   “Hmm, at least my shirt is not that dirty,” she said, as she looks at her dated flared jeans and her red checkered cotton shirt. Underneath is a white tank top and on her feet, she’s sporting her favorite black leather sandals.

   She smiled and joked. “A fashionista through and through,” she thought, admiring her reflection. She walks to the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. “I think I’ll make myself a sandwich. Maybe a tomato sandwich.” She said, as she taps her finger nails on the refrigerator door.

     She looks for a tomato in the vegetable bin. “After I make a sandwich, I’ll finish reading The Lord of the Rings for the fourth time and go to bed,” she said to herself.

  While she searches in the refrigerator for a tomato, thoughts of her mother entered her mind. “Mom would have enjoyed being at the reunion, seeing all of the family,” thought Melissa.

   Trista Burkhart, Melissa’s mother, went missing one December morning when Melissa was six years old.

   No one ever knew what had happened to her or where she went but the authorities speculated that she might have ran off with a lover. The search continued for Trista until it went cold. No trace of her was ever found. Melissa and her dad were devastated. It was a painful time for her and her father however, time heals all wounds and her father learned to accept that Trista was never going to come back. Years later Melissa’s father fell in love and married Jenny Torres a beautiful, loving woman. She and Melissa get along very well. Still no one can ever replace her real mother.

 "Well it appears that there aren’t any tomatoes in the veggie bin?” Melissa pursed her lips and frowned. “I guess I better go out and look for one in the garden.” She said to herself and walked out into the backyard.

    Following the cobblestone path, she searched for the tomato plants in the garden. As she walked along, she hummed a tune from a song that she heard on the radio. Melissa walked east from the patio towards the old oak tree and spotted a white rabbit sniffing along the wall’s bottom edge.

 She stopped and stared. Her brows furrowed, a perplexed look shadowed her face. As she steps closer to the rabbit, it looks up at her and starts digging frantically trying to dig under the wall.

   “What is it doing? How did this rabbit get into the yard?" She thought. “Hey, little fellow, what are you doing here? Where did you come from?” The rabbit stops and stares at her. Its nose twitched, and the rabbit continues digging, determine to get to the other side. Melissa scratches her head.

    “You must be one of the neighbor’s pets.” she thought. "How curious." Taking a better look at the wall, she noticed a door obscured by vines.  

  "Where did this door come from? I never noticed it before."

     The rabbit froze, its black eyes looked up at her. She leans in closer and starts pulling the vines off the door and uncovers it. Her hands got a bit scratched up but, what she uncovered was amazing. Her eyes flashed wide, her mouth dropped.

 “Wow, this door looks very old.” She touches the wood on the door and notices that it has strange indiscernible writing scrawled across the top.

   “This is weird? Maybe grandma didn’t know about this door. I guess?” She pondered.  

  “The door seems to be pretty old little fellow." She said as she looked down at the rabbit. The rabbit looks up at her and twitches its nose. Suddenly the rabbit scratches the door, as if it was trying to tell her to open it. She got the impression that it understood what she was saying, and she sensed an intelligence behind those black eyes. Melissa spotted a lock on the ground and she picked it up.

  “Wow, how weird! I wonder how old this is?” She sighed and shrugged.

   “I guess someone must have unlocked the door. But who?” She looks at the lock and inspects it. “This is truly a unique lock.” Butterflies fluttered in her stomach and she became anxious, but doesn’t know why. She felt a sudden sense of dread inside her mixed with an overwhelming curiosity. 

    Melissa raised her eyes and stared at the door for a moment. It seems to beckon her, coaxing her to open it. Something about it peaked her curiosity even more than normal. She gulped.

   "You know…. I wonder what’s on the other side." One of the rabbit’s ears twitched as Melissa slowly opened the door.

In the Company of Elves eBook

 (I've added chapters 1 & 2 from my book, In the Company of Elves)

Chapter 2

NOTE: pictures in this blog entry are not used in the book. 

In the Company of Elves: Chapter.2 Elves!

(this is chapter 2 from the book, In the Company of Elves. Enjoy.)

       Suddenly a gust of wind pulled her through the door! The door closed behind her with a bang. She lost her balance and fell to the ground as the whirled wind dissipated around her. She is dazed and feels a bit nauseous. Pain shot through her left knee. “I must have bruised it with the fall,” she thought, as she noticed a tear in her jeans.    

 “Oh, my God! What happened!?”  She looks around in dismay. Her knees feel weak as she slowly rises to her feet.

   “Where am I,” she thought. She could hear faint static in her ears, but it faded as she stood there, bewildered. She can hear birds and indiscernible sounds all around now, whereas before all she could only hear was the static buzz. Suddenly she was knocked to the ground. Her small frame squirmed underneath the weight of a man pinning her down! 

“Hey get off me!” She cried out, fuming.
  “Please milady, don’t move. I am not going to hurt you.” A man with an accent responded.
     "He sounds English or Scottish or something,” she thought. He rose to his feet and helped her up. Melissa caught her breath.

  “Are you a spy for the Sorceress Myrna?” he asked, with a stern voice. His hand cupped her arm firmly. Melissa jerks her arm away.

  Her hair is tousled, cascading over her shoulders. Bits of dry leaves hang from the tips of her hair. She begins plucking them out, not yet noticing her assailant’s appearance. Her brows furrowed, she is livid.

    “What the Hell are you talking about! Who the Hell is Myrn….” Her voice trailed off as her eyes rest on the perpetrator.  “What the Hell?” She muttered. Her mouth dropped. The shock of having the wind knocked out of her is nothing compared to what is standing before her.

The two men stared at her, perplexed. They did not know what to make of the stranger who stumbled into their world and in return, she did not know what to make of them.

  “They are no ordinary men.” Melissa thought. Her bewildered, eyes scan their appearance. Her mind is racing to find an explanation. As she stared at them, she realized that they are not human.

  “Oh…my God they look like Elves! It can’t be. They are dressed exactly what I imagined they would look like! I can’t believe it. Wow!” She thought to herself as she stared at their ears. She clears her throat.

  “I must be dreaming!” She said out loud. “Am I dreaming? Who are you?” She mustered up the courage to ask them. Her tone is apprehensive as she stares warily at them. They both looked at each other.

“Where am I?” She asked, crossing her arms as she looked around.
  “What is your name?” The fair-haired elf asked her. He is sitting on his horse.

  “My name is Melissa I came through the door. I was running after a white rabbit that ran through it…but I don’t see it anymore!” She pointed in the direction where the door had been but there was nothing there. It had disappeared. The wall disappeared and a dirt road leading further into the forest took its place. Her mouth dropped, she is beside herself.

   “Oh God. This is inconceivable. There is no way this is happening to me.” Fear crept into her heart. She rubs her eyes and looks again at the spot where the door was.

  “Wait! There was a door there!” She walks toward the spot where the door had been.

   “No!” She exclaimed, flustered. Her face ashen.

 “No. I swear there was a door and a wall, right here,” she pointed. “Where did it go?"

    Dumbstruck and frustrated she steps back, putting her hands on her hips, staring at the spot where the door had been. The two elves shrugged. After a moment of silence, the blonde elf spoke again.

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

 “Yes, the white rabbit was in my garden and it ran through the door when I opened it.

  “Did you see it?” She replied solemnly. 

   “Come with us.” The elf that tackled her, grabbed her arm and escorted her to his white horse. He helped her up onto the saddle and sat behind her taking the reins in his hands.

  The other elf followed on his brown and white steed. They rode for an hour, stopping only once at a creek to give their horses some water and fill their wineskin canteens.

   The elf who rode with Melissa spoke to the other elf in their language when they were resting at the creek. His dark brown hair crept down past his shoulders, his emerald eyes glance periodically at her as she stood next to his horse, watching them warily.

     “His skin is so perfect, almost flawless,” she thought, her cheeks flushed. She took a better look at their clothes as they filled their canteens. The elf with the emerald eyes and brown hair has on a pair of dark green trousers tucked into his brown leather boots and a brown sleeveless tunic fitting loosely over his pale green poet shirt.

  A dark brown leather sash is wrapped around his waist. Melissa softly sighed, in admiration.

  “He is so cute," she thought. He walks up to her and offers her a drink from his wineskin canteen. She took a sip. Melissa’s mind scrambled to put the pieces together.

  “Okay, so let’s see what could have happened.” She pondered. “Did I stumble and hit my head? Was I in an accident and now I'm in the hospital in a coma and this is what happens when a person is in a coma?”  She scoffed.

  “I guess I’m not in Kansas anymore.” She let out a nervous chuckle as she remembers the lines from one of her favorite childhood movie. She handed the canteen back to the elf. He smiled and walked back to his brother.

  “Maybe I somehow traveled back in time or to another dimension?” The thought frightened her, knowing that she would never be able to return to her world if that was the case. Pain shot through her knee making her wince; reminding her of how real the experience is. She groaned as she rubbed her knee. They mounted the horses again and as they rode down the trail, the blonde elf pushed his horse forward so that both horses are side by side. 

The two elves are talking in their language. Melissa did not understand what they are saying, she just hopes it wasn’t about her.

  “Hmm, he must be speaking elfish.” The elf with the blonde hair has his hair pulled back in a ponytail. His aqua blue eyes sparkle hauntingly.

  “He dresses almost identical to the other elf, but his garments are a different color. He is wearing a beige poet shirt but is not wearing a tunic. A black belt hugs his waist,” she thought.

   Her eyes swing down to his boots. “His black leather boots have a decorative braided strap wrapped around them. These elves seem very different than the ones described in books that I’ve read.”  They stared at her for a moment, looking at her clothes. She realized that in their world the women probably don’t wear what she is wearing so to them her clothes seem a bit odd and out of place. She stared at them. They smiled at her, musingly.

    She blushed and grinned nervously. “Milady, you said that your name is Melissa. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” She did not want to let on that she is scared to death, but the tone in her voice gave it away.
   “Don’t worry. We will not hurt you,” He said, reassuringly, and winked. The dark-haired elf finally introduced himself. 

   “I am Arowyn and this is my brother Keefe." He gestured with his hand toward his brother. "We are the sons to our late father Lord Auril.” Melissa smiled warily at them. Suddenly she remembered where she heard that name before.

  “Auril?” she thought. “Of course, the stories my grandmother told me when I was a little girl! That’s where I heard that name! How is that possible?” She pondered. “Did grandma know about this place, I wonder?  Wow, if she did she sure as Hell kept it a secret from the family for years. Melissa's crackled voice broke the silence.

  “Who is Myrna?” Arowyn looked at Keefe.

 "All questions will be answered at the counsel Hall of Alondra.” They rode the rest of the way in silence, much to Melissa’s chagrin.

NOTE: pictures used for this entry are not in the book.

 In the Company of Elves eBook