Love in the Little Kingdom

Love in the Little Kingdom Part 8

Alone together, his mother was watching him. He looked down at the lunch tray but could not bear to eat.

"Thanks Ma but I'm not hungry, I think I'll just head to the workshop. The gazebo still needs a lot of work."

"Okay Ben." She said. She placed a hand on his arm as he passed by her to get to the door and she searched his face, eyebrows furrowed. He smiled and shrugged.

"I'm only an elf, Ma, what could I expect?"

She let him go and he went out, planning to bury his grief in a long afternoon of sawing and carving.

He didn't return until well after sunset. He found his mother in her usual seat, the second best chair near the stove, knitting. His shoulders ached from where he hadn't let himself stop.

"Th gazebo is finished." He said. She nodded, not looking up from her knitting.

"That's good. You must have worked hard all afternoon."

"Yes, I'm exhausted. I think I'll just go to bed if that's okay."

"Without dinner?"

"I'm not hungry."

"No lunch, no dinner, I don't know." She muttered, shaking her head.

"Good night Ma." He said, bending to kiss her cheek. She looked up and met his eyes. Her expression was fierce.

"Don't let them bully you, my boy. We elves have lived in the West Glade since ancient times. We're worth more than what those fairies measure." He heard the emotion in her voice.

"Thanks Ma." He said and went into his little room, feeling a warm glow of affection for his mother. He stretched out on his small old bed, his feet hanging off the end and stared at the dark wooden ceiling.

If he rebelled and chose banishment, would Holly come with him? Could he ask her to do that, to join him in an uncertain future cut off from everyone and everything they had ever known? The world beyond the West Glade was vast and dangerous. He couldn't ask that of her.

Nor could he stay and watch her marry Prince Thorn or anyone else or even to see her and know that she could never be his. He would rather be banished. But he could not leave his mother all alone.

He tossed and turned as these gloomy thoughts circled around his head. Oh why couldn't he have been born a fairy and not an elf!

No, he could never wish to not be an elf, he thought, touching the horn on his belt. So why must Holly be a fairy and not an elf? But a fairy is what she was and it was Holly the fairy that he had fallen in love with. He sighed and closed his eyes. It was impossible. Impossible.