Lillian’s voice came bellowing over the clamor of the noisy pub, “I need another round of ale for the gentlemen at the corner table, Alana!” Lillian was a stout woman with hardened features and tired eyes; she was pleasant to work with, as barmaids go, and tried to make little lasting impression to anyone but her regular customers.
Alana’s reply sang over the crowd like a beautiful bird floating on a fowl wind. “Right away, Lillian!” A pleasant-looking woman turned sharply toward the counter and poured four mugs of ale for the gentlemen at the corner table, sighing as she placed them on a flat, wooden plank she used to carry drinks. The men had remained aloof the entire evening, drinking one round after another of pleasantly strong ale. They hadn’t really caused any problems, but they’d been giving off a generally unpleasant air that worried Alana.
Disregarding the passing feeling, she ambled toward the table with their drinks. “Here are your drinks, gentlemen,” she spoke quickly, placing their drinks on the table. As she turned to leave, her eyes locked with the man sitting in the far corner of the table. His eyes danced even in the dim light. Their fiery blue depths penetrated her, and she nearly gasped. She hadn’t seen eyes like his since she lived among her own people. Again, pushing her errant thoughts away, she turned to leave as he spoke.
“Woman, what’s your name?” Much like his enchanting eyes, his dark, chocolate-brown hair seemed to shine even in the dimly lit corner, as though reflecting a light from within.
“My name is Alana. And, if there’s nothing further you require of me, you will pardon me to return to my work.”
“There is something further I require of you.”
“Yes, sir?” Alana inquired patiently.
“From where do you hail?”
“I offer only a long and complicated answer to such a simple question. Perhaps there is something less complicated I could offer… such as another drink, or something to eat?”
“No, Alana, that is all I wanted. Go back to your tables.”
Turning without a word, Alana returned to her work. She tended her customers at the bar, each nursing a variety of ale. ‘Yuck!’ she thought silently, smiling. ‘Clearly they have no taste for fine mead or wine… barbarians!’
At the end of the night, Alana wiped her slender fingers across her perspiring forehead. Sighing, she bid Lillian, “Farewell.” It was her duty to close the pub each night, and to keep count of the profit the pub turned. Scanning the pub and seeing no one, she extracted the skin from its hiding place in which she kept the daily profits. Suddenly, as she replaced the skin, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Instinctively she reached for her dagger, also hidden behind the bar, drawing it close to her in a defensive stance.
“Relax,” came a soothing male voice as she saw the man with the deep blue eyes seemingly materialize from the corner.
Alana, confused but unyielding, spoke ferociously. “You were not there a moment ago! Go out the way you came in. I bid you farewell, sir, unless you seek a fate less kind!”
“Not so fast, Alana,” spoke Relean as he approached the counter. Pulling a stool out, he sat with his chin buried in his hands. “Tell me, are you always this unfair to your suitors?”
“Suitors?” Alana nearly spat the word with disdain. “You have broken into my pub after hours and you feign to call yourself a suitor?” Alana’s small, pert breasts heaved against her dress as she breathed in long, heavy pants.
“I dare feign to call myself that, indeed! Allow me to properly introduce myself, Alana of Nowhere. My name is Relean, also of Nowhere. I dare say we may have more in common than you dare to reveal, currently.” His mouth curled into a devilish grin, revealing nearly perfect teeth, which complimented his deep eyes nicely. His skin was tan, but marked by visible scars, she observed, as though he had been in battle. She gazed into his deep, mysterious eyes, probing his secrets. “I must say, Alana,” he began, pulling her out of her thoughts, “you are by far the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s not true, at all. I’m pleasant-looking, but not beautiful.”
“I dare to disagree,” Relean spoke softly, guiding himself from his barstool and rounding the corner. He took her softly in his arms, disarming her, and whispered in her ear, “I know your secrets, Alana. Your name means ‘soft wind,’ and your story is complicated because you aren’t human. Neither am I. You’re a mage, and an Elven mage at that. You are far too powerful to make the humans comfortable. Elven mages are otherwise banished in this world, no? Your kind were all slaughtered when you were young, but somehow you escaped the brutality and were raised among humans. You haven’t seen another elf in hundreds of human years, and yet you appear to be no more than twenty-five years old to human eyes. I know all of your secrets, Alana, for they are mine, too.”
Her arms fell limp and the dagger dropped to the counter. She could barely move, but turned to see a somewhat different-looking man standing behind her. He had broken the charm he held over his appearance, the same spell she had learned ages ago. The same charm she had not broken since. She saw the distinctive point of his ears; the proud, thin features of his face; and his eyes. His eyes had not changed. In his vanity, he had apparently decided not to hide his eyes. Not that it mattered, as humans almost never detected the distinctive charm of elven eyes.
She gazed into the deep pools of his eyes, telling him all of her secrets in her mind. He heard her speaking to him and drew her close to his body. Finally, he said aloud, “Your beauty is only surpassed by your power. I hear your thoughts so clearly! I knew female elven mages were more powerful, but I had hardly suspected this!”
Smiling with a degree of pride, Alana countered, “What about you? You vanish in and out of existence as you please! I certainly can not do that!”
Relean had talked enough for the moment. He moved in slowly toward her lips, kissing her passionately, silencing her. She hesitated for a moment, but gazed into his eyes, and her resistance was lost. She kissed him deeply, passionately… a feeling she had never known possible before now. He smiled at her as he abruptly ended their kiss. “Let me see if my sight is still accurate. Break your charm, Alana… I want to see you. The real you.”
Before his eyes, the plain, but pleasant-looking, barmaid transformed from a woman of five feet two inches tall with dull brown hair and flat brown eyes to a proud woman of five feet five inches with fiery auburn hair and mesmerizing green eyes. Her hair shimmered vibrantly in the dull light, streaks of gold tracing through the dusky red mane. Her eyes almost shocked him with their vivacity, and her eyes stood at a proud point. Her features were sharply defined and her skin was fair. She obviously descended from royalty, at one long-forgotten point in history.
Relean stood, breathless… captivated by this remarkable woman. “Outstanding, my love,” he choked in a breathy appraisal. His words caught in his throat as he tried to speak them. All of the magic in the world could not have prepared him for what he now beheld. Her dress, now somewhat too small, clung desperately to her small, pert breasts, pushed to surface by the corsets she wore in her human form. Her waist was small and her hips were defined, but not large, with slender, creamy thighs and long, defined legs. The dress that once fit a human barmaid now clung to the figure of an elven princess. “Alana, you are gorgeous.” A tear slowly dropped from Relean’s eye as he appraised her. He counted many gorgeous women amongst his conquests over countless years, but he had never seen an elven maiden.
Alana heard his thoughts, humbling her. “You compliment me highly, Relean.” She gazed into his water-blue eyes and began to lose herself there. “May I kiss you…?” she began to ask, but was cut short by Relean’s impassioned kiss. His tongue caressed her lips gently as he kissed her deeply, finally gaining entrance to her mouth. His deft hands pulled her to his body and he began gently massaging her lower back and her shapely rear. Finally able to break his kiss, he softly kissed her neck and nibbled her earlobes playfully.
“Honestly, I want to do more than compliment you, tonight. I have watched you all evening, Alana… but even I wasn’t prepared for what I have seen.”
