Tailia sat under a massive oak tree, her elvish eyes staring, unseeing, down the shady forest path. All about her the sounds of nature rose, pleasant and soothing to her elvish ears. Not far away a small brook babbled as it flowed over its rocky bed but still she was troubled. Her mind whirled with thoughts of her childhood, her family and her rapidly nearing future. Yesterday she had been a carefree elven girl living happily in her tiny village where every elf cared for her and treated her almost as if she was their own child. But last night her world had changed, probably forever. The young elf boy, Endolan had been courting her for nearly a year now and had finally proposed to her. They had been sitting around the dancing fire, holding hands and enjoying the merry song and dance around them. He leaned over near, his soft warm lips lightly brushing her sensitive ear, and asked her permission to ask her father for her hand. Of course she had said yes. If she hadn't he would have been shamed to the point of having to leave the village and besides she loved him as she knew he loved her. There was just the problem of the age-old tradition in the village, the tradition of deflowering.
Deflowering had been practiced by the elves since the beginning of time. Her mother had been deflowered as had her two older sisters, but still it frightened her a little. Not because she was afraid of being proven unclean. No, she had been very careful and knew that her virginity was intact. What worried her was the ceremony itself. Tailia involuntarily shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She really knew so little about it. She had never attended a deflowering, only adults were allowed, but there were the rumors, the childish tales that young girls told each other, probably all exaggerated of course. Would her mother tell her what the ceremony was? Surely she would, unless of course part of the ceremony was for the pledged to not know. Her mind spun with questions, fears, and hopes until finally, as the sun slowly sank below the lofty tops of the trees, Tailia rose and slipped soundlessly down the forest path back toward the village and her family's house high in the boughs of one of the great elderberry trees.
As she came into the village proper she was greeted by all the elves she met and she stopped and talked to each of them, careful to show the proper respect and sharing the day's news or just being pleasant. Each seemed to know a secret about her that she herself didn't know and once after being passed by the beautiful, if venerable, Larissa, she even stopped to see if her dress had been torn. It was intact, but still she felt the eyes of all her friends and neighbors upon her. The men and women seemed to be sizing her up, evaluating her, judging her. It frightened her a little and she felt herself flush with self-conscious modesty.
Finally she reached the base of her family tree. She skipped using the small basket lift; instead she gracefully climbed from limb to limb until she had reached her front door sixty feet above the forest floor. She shouldn't have done that, she knew. Her father would say that it was not fitting for a girl her age to be climbing like a child, but she loved the exhilaration of the climb, and besides, even her mother climbed up sometimes, when she was even happier than usual.
"Endolan came to see me today," her father said as she walked through the doorway and into her family's common room.
"Yes, father, he asked me last night if he could." She stood, looking down to show the proper respect for her father.
"And what would you wish my answer to be?"
That surprised her. She had never dreamed that her father might want to know her feelings about Endolan before he made his decision. Her father waited patiently, not showing any sign of irritation while she collected her thoughts. It took her several long minutes to sort out her feelings. Yes she wanted to be Endolan's pledged mate, she finally concluded. She did love him after all. Or at least she thought she did. She lusted for him with a burning desire that made her knees weak and her ears ring. But did she love him? It was so hard to know, when all they could do was hold hands and talk. But when they were together, she wanted to do more. She wanted to take him to her and feel his body pressing into hers. She wanted to taste his sweat and to have him suckle from her breasts. Yes, she did want to marry Endolan. Even just thinking of being with him, did strange and wonderful things to her body; her nipples hardened, her breathing sped, she felt a fire spark below her navel. Her body reacted to her thoughts like a wild unicorn to the touch of a maiden and she had no way of taming it. She answered slowly, now sure of her decision but unsure of her voice.
"Yes, father. I wish your answer to be yes."
"And you know what that means? You know the deflowering ritual?"
"Yes father."
"Are you pure?" His question held no recrimination, no accusation of guilt, just a question. "If not I can pay Lendath to have some chicken blood squirted out at just the right time. No one else in the village would have to know."
"I am pure father."
A sad look came over her father's face for just the briefest of moments and then he nodded. "Good. I shall tell Endolan of our decision tomorrow. Little one, I shall hate to lose you as my daughter, but I am very proud of the beautiful elf you have become." His eyes brightened and his smile returned.
Tailia was still stuck on his first words. Our decision? They rang in her head. Never would she have guessed that her father would have included her in the decision of her mate. It wasn't that he was overbearing or controlling. He had been a wonderful, loving father to her and to her two sisters, but he had always been father, telling not asking. Now he treated her like the adult she was about to become. She risked a glance up at her fathers face. He smiled at her and once again she felt as if her world was changing forever. She wanted to run to him and hug him as she had done when she was young. But now she was growing into a woman, and she could not, and the grief at her loss of childhood welled up and threatened to overwhelm her. She felt the hot flood of tears welling up behind her eyes and she wanted to turn and run from her father. Instead she stayed, waiting for his dismissal. It didn't come.
"Your mother will talk to you tonight. Hark her words. Heed what she tells you and prepare yourself."
"Yes father." Tailia looked at her father again. The sadness had returned to his ageless eyes but behind the sadness there was something else, a hunger that she had never seen before. His eyes bore into her soul and seemed to feast upon what he found there. It made her shudder, to have her father look at her this way and yet deep inside her it thrilled her as well. This was the look he gave to her mother when the moon was full and night air was warm. She swayed beneath the intensity of his gaze and nearly collapsed but finally he blinked and the hunger was gone.
"You may leave. Your mother will come to you later."
Tailia ran from him, up a thin stairway grown into the living tree and straight to her room, high up in the tree where the winds blew and rocked her gently. She threw herself onto her bed and curled up amongst the many soft pillows, her arms wrapped around herself. She lay still for a long minute and then let the tears inside her well up and flow out in waves of wracking sorrow-love-fear until her emotion was spent and she finally lay quietly. Overhead, through the sheltering boughs that formed the roof of her room, the waxing moon hung, bright, even though it was more than a week away from being full, and it's gentle light soothed her spirit and calmed her soul. She had almost fallen asleep when a light tapping on her door startled her.
"Come in," She called and then quickly sat up and straightened the front of her simple white dress, smoothing it, trying to brush out some of the wrinkles that had found there way into the cloth.
Shandia, her mother was still exquisitely beautiful with the classic elvish grace though more than a hundred years had passed since her own deflowering. She entered her room and moved to sit by her daughter. "Now, now, come on pretty girl. This should be a happy time, not sad. What are you glooming about?"
"Oh mother, I am happy, yet sad too, and afraid. I love you and father, and I love my room and our house and I will miss them and you. And father frightened me, he looked so, so ..."
"But you will still see us, everyday probably, and Endolan has such a beautiful house, maybe not as high as ours, but still beautiful. You and he will make a life together and raise your children and he will be a good husband for you."
"As good as father has been for you?"
Shandia laughed, a sweet sound like the tinkling of wine glasses being raised in a toast. "Your father has been a wonderful husband and a wonderful father. No one can say if Endolan will be as good an elf as Finnis is, but I am sure he will be a good husband to you. He cares for you deeply, you know?"
"Yes mother." Tailia paused and sniffled and then looked up at her mother. "Tell me about the deflowering, please."
"Ah, that has you worried does it?" The older elf smiled kindly down at her daughter. "The deflowering is one of our oldest traditions. It binds our village together and is important in other ways. Without the deflowering, Endolan, and the rest of the village, would not be sure that his new bride had kept herself pure and there would always be doubt. It also unites us because the intimacy that is shared builds a bond among us that is closer than any other you will know outside your family. That is why each year on the anniversary of your deflowering the ritual is repeated, usually with a select group of friends instead of the entire village though."
"So what is expected of me? What is the ceremony?"
"You already know some of it. You will be brought to the vale, to the altar of vitality. You will be wearing the ceremonial dress that all in our family has worn when you are led to the altar." Shandia smiled. "Then you will disrobe and you will be lain on the altar. There, Lendath with check your purity. It is a simple procedure, nothing to worry about. Then Endolan will be brought to you and your mating will be consummated."
"With Lendath there?" Tailia was aghast.
Shandia laughed and patted her daughter's hand. "Yes, Lendath will be there. All of the adults in the village will be there watching you give your love to your husband for the first time. That is as it should be."
"And that is the end of the ceremony?" Tailia exhaled with some relief. She was not at all sure about disrobing in front of the entire village and even less sure of allowing Endolan to make love to her in front of them, but at least the ceremony would be short.
"Mmm, not exactly. After your love has been consummated then you will be the guest of honor at a magnificent party, but perhaps we should wait to discuss it further." Shandia said softly wondering if perhaps she had not been too adamant about maintaining Tailia's purity.
The next day the village was awash with the news and it seemed that each person in the village came by to congratulate Tailia and bring some small gift to help the new bride when she moved to her new home. Between greeting the well-wishers and helping her mother make preparations for the ceremony Tailia was kept very busy. As was proper, the ceremony was scheduled to take place on the next full moon and so they were hurrying to get everything done. Even though their village was, like all elven villages, small, there would be nearly a hundred elves at the party after the ceremony and there had to be enough food and drink for them all. Also Tailia's deflowering gown had to be cleaned and aired because it had been packed in a large wicker crate since her sister's deflowering six years ago. Finally, the day before the ceremony, the preparations were all completed and Tailia and her mother could once again rest. Shandia led Tailia to her room and sat her on the bed.
"There is more that I need to tell you about the ceremony. I am forbidden by tradition to tell you everything that will happen, but I want to prepare you as best I can." Shandia brought a small ceramic bowl with a plain lid from her pocket and sat it in front of Tailia. "Use this tonight, and twice more tomorrow before the ceremony. It will help."
Tailia cocked her head to one side and lifted the lid from the bowl revealing a white cream. "What is it mother?"
