✧The Earthe of the Elves✧

10

Mia's POV

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A girl is smiling at me with a perfect set of shining white teeth. She has bright blue eyes, full light pink lips, her skin flawless. Her brown hair goes down to her hips, with the front portion pulled into braids so intricate I couldn't imagine how she even thought of it. She's wearing a dark red dress, which is definitely her color. It's pretty plain, but has gold detailing on the front and on the hem of the skirt. Her skin is tan and glowing, and so are her eyes as she turns to me with a mug of tea in her hands.

"Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" Her voice is sweet and soft, and she automatically strikes me as a kind soul. "The other seats are full."

Scanning the shop, I realize she's right. All the seats are full, yet it doesn't feel crowded. I look over and smile.

"Sure." I take a sip of my smoothie, trying not to feel awkward about this, because she clearly isn't feeling awkward. Luckily, she starts the conversation.

"I'm Elanil. I haven't seen you around, are you.." But, as I tuck my hair behind my ear because it's being annoying, like my hair usually is, her eyes widen. "Are you Mia? Mia Glenn?"

"I-uh, yes. Do- How do you know my name?" It then strikes me that she must have seen my ears.

"Well, not to make you feel weird, but a lot of people know your name. Since your father was the best king we've had in a long time."

"Oh," I reply, smiling a little at that bit more of information about him. "Well, even though you know my name, I'm Mia, it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too! Wow, I've never met a halfblood before. So you grew up on Earth?" Mia asks, looking intrigued. I can tell she is talking about Earth, because, as I have picked up in the past 24 hours, when elves say Earthe it has an accent completely different than when they say 'Earth.'

"Yep, I didn't even know this Earthe was here, or that elves existed, until yesterday."

"Really? This must be crazy for you, then."

"Yeah, it is."

"So how did you get here?"

I then tell Elanil what happened, from the men in the black clothes to just a few hours ago. She listens with fascination the whole time, nodding and sipping her tea. Once I finish telling the events she sits there for a second, absorbing it all.

"Wow. That's insane. What an adventure! Well, it'll be fun for you to start training tomorrow, I- hey, I was told I'd be training a girl tomorrow by the Queen. That must be you!"

Joy spreads through me at the possibility that my trainer won't be a complete stranger, and this girl seems super nice, like I could just talk to her for hours. But she also seems young to be teaching.

"Just curious, how old are you? And how do you have time to train, shouldn't you be in school?"

"No, I- Ohhhh, I forgot that Humans spend so long in school. What a waste. Well, elves are more intelligent than humans, so we only go to school for 10 years, starting at age 5. We also only learn stuff we need, mostly fighting skills, along with language, science of Magic, some math, that kind of stuff. Also, to answer your first question, I'm 18."

"Cool, I'm 17." I let out a short laugh. "For a second I thought you were gonna say you were 100 or something."

Elanil laughs, shaking her head. "No, not yet. 100 would still be young, though, lots of people are friends with people who are thousands of years older than them. But time, age, is different here. Just because one elf is 100 and one is 1,000 doesn't necessarily mean their minds are that much different, or their appearances, except the knowledge that comes with living longer. Usually we stop aging at around 30 years, then some age catches up with us thousands of years later."