As Terran and Eliita entered the mess hall, the elf couldn’t help but feel incredibly grateful toward Nature for blessing him with such a wonderful woman; before her, his life was a droll routine mixed with constant stress and heavy responsibilities. Living in the tower came with its own boring routine and stresses, but somehow, he felt freer inside that tower than he had ever felt inside.
It was his queen—constantly pressuring him—his brother—constantly worrying him—and his occupation that made him feel inhumanly trapped outside the tower. He briefly indulged in a bitter memory; sometimes, indulging in bitter memories just made him love and appreciate his current life more.
***
Terran remembered the first advance the queen made on him clearly in his mind. He felt like he should have been flattered by it, but it just curdled his stomach and made him feel ill. He was eighteen at the time, and even back then, he never felt like he fit in well with elven society. Terran enjoyed hard work, sturdy relationships, honesty, integrity, and loyalty. Other elves enjoyed slacking off, multiple partners, deception (because they found drama amusing), and being undependable for sport.
They feel like the world owes them something… Terran thought to himself often. His friends at the academy were always asking him how he was rising through the ranks so quickly and why all the instructors at the academy seemed to favor him; the answer was simple, he stayed on-task, completed his work on time, showed dedication to each subject, and showed respect to all his teachers. His fellow students just couldn’t seem to comprehend putting time and effort into being recognized.
His own father had been the one to teach him his values. He saw his father get up, get dressed, and head out to the queen’s castle each day to maintain his station as a captain of the queen’s Royal Guard. He was fiercely loyal to his wife and loved his children, even if he had very little time for them, and took pride in what he did and was gracious for what he had. Terran worshipped his father like most young boys did and wanted to cling to the same values his father did, so that one day, he could be just like him.
Terran’s father had told him something very enlightening once. He told him that his family had come from a long line of elves who worshipped nature in a different way than the other elves. Terran thought that that must be why his father and he were so different from the rest of them.
Regardless, Terran never quite fit in with the other elves, and it was hard for him to find friends because of it. His best friend at the academy, Yoon, was a decent man who he had known since childhood, but even he was a rather odd person in Terran’s eyes. Like most elves, his parents were not loyal to each other and had many other partners. Yoon told Terran he was unbothered by it, but Terran suspected that he wasn’t entirely honest about that. Yoon was often sad for long periods of time and lamented to Terran that he had walked in on his parents with other partners on many occasions. In fact, one of the reasons why he joined the academy was to get away from his old life. He also thought Yoon was strange because he, himself engaged in particularly deviant behavior. Not long after he and Terran had become friends, Yoon asked him if he wanted to spend the night in his quarters. Terran had no trouble telling him that he didn’t want to and told his friend never to ask him that again.
It was a common thing with elves to follow the laws laid out by their religion and kingdom in public (only courting and sleeping with the opposite sex) only to indulge in those things in private and hope they were never caught. Yoon went to bed with both men and women, and begged Terran never to tell anyone about it, which of course Terran never did.
But it was Yoon who informed him that the queen wanted to see him one day. Terran had been sharpening his blade in his quarters when Yoon burst through his bedroom door and said excitedly. “Terran! Terran! The queen has heard rumors of your exploits and would love to meet you! She’s here right now! Follow me!”
Terran lifted his eyes from his sword to look at his friend who was giddily hopping up and down. He sniffed laughter out his nostrils, wishing he could get excited so easily as he followed his friend down the immaculate hallways of the academy.
Sometimes, Terran felt like he didn’t take enough time to just have gratitude for what he had. He was very privileged to be able to attend the academy; typically, it was an institution reserved for individuals who were well-off, or those individuals who were seen as particularly talented. Terran was one of the latter.
So, Terran took a moment to breathe in his surroundings and just appreciate where he was and the effort he had put in to get there. The walls were a pristine, bright blue—many of them covered by the elven standard—an emerald oak tree on a black background—and the floors under his feet were covered in a bright, white carpet painstakingly embroidered with the Golden Tree—the tree that all elves wished to return to.
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