Her words still clung to him, like clothes to sweaty skin, and about as comfortable. He felt disgusted with her, with himself for reacting like he had. It might be true that he was a young elf, indeed very young, but he had his principles and ideals. To hear one of his own people speak such nonsense burned in his ears. He had enough self-control not to growl in anger at the memory, but the leather-bindings of book he kept in his lap creaked as his hands tightened about it. The book, one of those he had rescued from neglectful idiocy of elderly elves.
The fire into which he gazed with such a fierce frown snapped and crackled as if his emotions could reach it, incense it. It was like this that his brother managed to find him. Usually, Manethoain was a man of little caution, especially when dealing with his younger, smarter brother. This night-soon-to-be-morning, he for once felt a sense of foreboding from someone he had known since the person was a babe, newly born and completely defenceless. Watching him in this mood more reminded of their father at his forge, engrossed in the metal and fire.
Manethoain thought of leaving, thought of not disturbing the youth, but in thinking it, the brother's head snapped round, and the glare he had directed at the fire was now focused entirely on the older elf.
-" Ah!" The smoldering embers in Gwelusir's sky-blue eyes were quickly extinguished by recognition. "Brother."
Forcing himself to relax from the memory of a sledgehammer-like glare, Manethoain smiled teasingly, a comfortable familiarity.
-" What has made you so feverish, little one?"
-" How did you find me here?" Suspicion made the words heavy, and the sky-blue gaze was half-hidden by a narrowing of the eyes.
-" A brother can't want to visit? Admittedly, it was by chance. I sought you in other places first, but realised later that even you would want a clean, dry bed rather than the grass and hills." He walked closer, and Gwelusir's face rose to follow the approach. "Besides, it is not like you know how to remain hidden."
In looks, the two were alike as twins. The differences were subtle; a stronger physique for the older brother, and brighter eyes for the younger. Their smiles and expressions tended to differ as well, but they both had an arrogance in common, evident in the often used raised eyebrow. Gwelusir used this expression now to demand an explanation from the older one. In response, Manethoain's smile melted into warm reproach.
-" Now now," he said, putting a hand genially on the sitting elf's shoulder, provoking a reluctant smile from his sour expression. "I don't mean anything ill by coming here. A measure of my support; my brotherly love, if you will. We have things to discuss, and I think they will amuse you more than staring into a fire ever will. But first, your expression has awoken my curiosity-"
-" Which is by no means a difficult thing to do," Gwelusir replied sarcastically, making his brother's smile widen by inches.
-" Very true! And still, I will pester you about it until you reward me with the tale."
Contrary to his younger sibling, Manethoain had a cynical pride which would not let him go, and even though the floor would have been a fairly adequate place to sit, he pulled a chair from the table and sat down with an impish smile plastered to his face. His dark eyes glittered in the firelight, and Gwelusir gave a sigh of defeat. Quietly he tried to remind himself that Manethoain was an adult.
((Possibly an introduction to an upcoming series of small texts in which I write about Gwel's reactions to the things in game. Perhaps not. I write as the muse permits. She's a slave-driver and rather jealous of where her powers are directed.))
Subject: A Heart on Fire 
Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:43 pm
