Chapter Three: An Awkward Dinner

A white landscape was in front of her again as she began to walk throughout it. She quickly observed herself to find that her skin tone had returned and was in the clothing she was wearing on the trip to Caipal. With a heartfelt sigh, she looked down towards her chest to see if a symbol was residing on it; instead, there was a heavy gash across her torso, and a hole that was in the center of her abdomen.

"What!?" Brenda let out a gasp as she began to cough up blood. "No, No, no!" Brenda yelled out as the surrounding white landscape turned into a forest, alight with blazing flames, and in front of her stood that elven man with his hand on the hilt and his blade was resting inside of her torso.

Slowly, he pulled the blade out, and Brenda saw on his face a smile most wicked as his face went up in flames, transforming into the face of Seran, who looked down towards her with horror on his face. She tried calling out to him, but all she could make out with minor gasps for air, as Seran screaming silently into the air in front of her with tears running down his face.

Brenda cried out and tears began streaming down her face as she continued to try and call out to Seran, but no sound came and sensations of pain filled her senses.

"SERAN!" Lurai shouted aloud as she bolted straight up, causing a loud crash of wooden materials as they impacted upon the wooden floor. She was heavily panting as she instantly fell backward with her hands covering her tear-filling eyes. She silently wept for a moment as she then touched her chest to feel the lack of a gap.

"A dream," Lurai said with a smiling sigh, but her smile instantly turned to a frown as Lurai's eyes opened. Her vision was staring at a rotten wooden ceiling where multiple chips of wood seemed scrapped away from the long planks that made up the roof. Her head was aching fierce, and she let out a groan of pain as she raised her right hand to her head, to find that a wet cloth had been placed on her head.

After removing the cloth and rubbing her forehead, she held out her hand in front of her to see her remarkably pale hand and let out a heavy sigh. "Not a dream." She turned her head to see the faces of three worried figures sitting at the dinner table that was baren of plates as they had fallen to the ground, and in front of Lurai, sat the woman from earlier with tears filled in her eyes and holding another wet rag in her right hand.

"I—" Lurai went to say, but the woman held her finger to Lurai's lips.

"Don't speak. Just rest, my light." The woman said with a heartbreaking smile, "You've had a really bad fall in the bathroom. We heard it from the other room, and luckily your father had come in at that moment and was able to carry you to a bed. Two falls in one day, so please rest. We--" The woman bit her lip, "We can't lose you twice."

"My father?" Lurai's eyes widened as she looked back at the table to see the elven man from earlier, who was staring at her with a silent caring, and worrying gaze.

"You don't remember who you are?" The woman reached forward and held Lurai's cheek with her hand, brushing it gently, "None of us?"

"N—No." Lurai looked down sadly and thought for a few seconds, feeling that lying now and talking to them later would be a better idea. With a sigh, Lurai said, "I don't know who any of you are, or even who I am. You all kept calling me Lurai, so that's all I know."

"That first fall did quite the damage to your brain." The man said from the table as he pushed away his full wooden plate of food. He then got up and moved closer to Lurai, slowly kneeling in front of her, "Honestly, I thought that second fall might jog a bit of your memory, but instead, it seems it caused you much more trauma."

Lurai shied away slightly from the man as he approached, but a familiar feeling hit her at this moment that made her inch back closer. Something about these people did feel awful familiar with her, but she couldn't begin to understand how and why she felt the way she did. She wiped the tears from her face as she gave a small shake of her head.

" I fell?" Lurai asked with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head a bit more, "I don't know how to say this, but I don't feel like this Lurai you are talking about. I am not who you think I am."

"You are only you, Lurai." The man said with a stern, but a light tone of voice, "There is no one else you can be. We've been together all of your life, all seventeen years of it. We've been living here at Duke Eainstal's Manor. We know you more than you know yourself."

"I—I," Lurai went to say as one of the boys from earlier, Lykas, ran up to her and quickly grabbed her left hand, "Big sis, please come eat. I heard father say earlier that you might feel better after you eat. I want you to feel better so we can play again."

"Big sis?" Lurai's eyes widened as the boy nodded intensely over and over again as he began to tug on her hand.

"Now, Lykas, you can't rush her." The woman said with a stern tone as she looked back at Lurai with a sigh, "She is having a hard time right now, and—"

"Ramira, letting her eat might help her regain her energy." The elven man said as he held out his hand to Lurai again, "Would you like to eat? You can have my plate."

"But don't you need to eat?" Lurai said softly as she took his hand.

"Still considerate, I see. Well, that didn't change." The elven man said with a low laugh as helped her step from the bed she was laying in.

"Kamai, please be careful with her," Ramira said as she also went to help Lurai out of the bed as Kamai shot his wife a raised eyebrow gaze.

"I can be gentle as a—" Kamai said as he ducked and bowed underneath Lurai's arm to help her become more supported so that she may walk to the table, "feather."

Cial, the boy sitting at the table, got up from his seat, rushing over quickly to grab onto Lurai's right hand, and Lykas continued to hold onto her left hand. A hand was felt on Lurai's back as she realized that Ramira was supporting her from behind as the family walked Lurai over to the table and sat her down in her father's seat. This sensation of her family helping her out brought Lurai to tears and a hidden smile.

"I—" Lurai looked around at everyone, her family, as tears filled her eyes more. "You are all so kind. I feel so awful that I—"

"Don't worry about that now, Lurai." Kamai said as he rubbed Lurai's back soothingly, "Just eat, and we can talk after the boys go to sleep."

"I'd like that very much," Lurai said with a smile, which in turn brought a smile to everyone to see her smile again.

As the boys scrapped their food off the floor back onto their wooden plates, Lurai looked down at her father's plate to see a small array of food, which was quite shocking to what she was used to normally. The plate was filled with small portions of various vegetables that had brown edges and bruised spots on them, and a long piece of meat sticking out of a small bowl that rested on top of the wooden plate. Inside of this bowl was a type of meaty stew that was orange in color and smelled rather pungent to Lurai's nose, as she figured that this meat was probably spoiled when the family had gotten it.

Lurai looked over to the boy's plates and instantly realized that the boys had already devoured their stew, with various spots now on their clothes from hastily eating and spilling it from her scream earlier. When she raised her eyes, she was met with an awkward sight as the boys, instead of eating, were watching her intently, and then as she looked over to her new parents, they were doing the same. The tension in the air was palpable, so Lurai quickly reached for the wooden spoon that sat inside of the stew and raised it to her lips.

As the watery stew touched her lips, a rush of sensation was sent down her tastebuds; however, instead of a gross and disgusting taste as Lurai thought it would be, it was, instead, delicious tasting, despite what had gone into it. The stew itself was rather spicy with various herbs placed within, and the spoiled meat, which had been cut up and small throughout the stew, tasted fresh and tender as the stew softened it through soaking up the juices. The vegetables, moldy and mishappen, didn't seem to affect the taste of the stew at all—in fact, these were quite delicious to her as well.

As Lurai swallowed the stew, she released a happy sigh, which brought the rest of the family to smiles and happiness, and she continued to eat smoothly and at a slow pace. She then moved onto the small scraps of bread, which were moldy as well—but that didn't seem to bother her now, as she knew that Ramira must have had a way to counteract the mold and awful tastes of the spoiled food. As she continued to eat, the boys in front of her began to munch on the crusts of the bread that they had saved to share with their dear sister; however, just as she had begun to feel bliss for a moment through this mess of a situation, one of the boys had caught her off guard.

"So, who's Seran?" Lykas asked with his mouth of food and mind full of curiosity. The boy's eyes were largely looking upon Lurai, who instantly raised her hands to her throat as she had begun to choke on the bread.

"Lykas!" Ramira scolded as she rushed over to Lurai and placed her hand on the choking girl's back, applying pressure to ease the choking. Her stern gave fell on the boy, who began to look feared as he stared into his mother's eyes.

"There is a time for everything, my sons." Kamai walked over and placed his hand on Lykas's and Cial's shoulders.

"What did I do!?" Cial said in a pouting tone as he looked up at his father.

"Your sister is in a tough state right now. So, you boys need to be supportive, even if the questions we have must wait just a tad longer. If someone is hurting, the best you can do is give them space to heal."

"N-No, it's okay," Lurai said as she recovered from her choking, but obviously, Seran's name struck a chord in her mind. She missed him greatly, but her memories of him were one of the only things that were tying her down to not having a mental breakdown at this moment. After all, she had one already.

"It's still so strange to me, and I'm sorry about that." Lurai said as she hung her head low, but forced herself to bring a smile on her face as she looked towards the family, "I do feel a lot better now that I got to eat. So, why don't I get to know all of you again? My memory might come back, maybe?" In truth, Lurai felt regret saying this because, in truth, she didn't know if it would help at all.

"I think that's a good idea. Let's get near the beds and fire to do this talk. Some little boys might need to rest soon." Ramira said with a smile as she motioned for everyone to stand up while the boys instantly ran over to their beds and jumped onto them as they began to impatiently wait, causing Lurai to walk over to them faster than normal pace.

Kamai smiled as he walked over to Ramira, wrapping his arms around her before whispering gently into her ear, "It will be okay, Ramira. She's here with us."

Ramira let out a sigh of relief, "Thank Ophia for that. I am scared though, Kamai."

"I think that the most scared out of all of us is our little girl, but she is showing so much courage in trying to connect things back. After all, there is no doctor for elves here anymore—Duke Eainstal made sure of that."

"So cruel of a man to forsake his loyal workers." Ramira sighed.

"That's a human for you." Kamai rolled his eyes as he put his arm around her waist, causing her to giggle slightly, "I'm just glad that our master is on a trip so that we can deal with this as a family." He gave her a small kiss on the cheek as he began walking him and her towards the beds.

Author Note:

Hello, everyone! Quill_of_Salt here, and I am happy for you all to read this message--As it means you have gotten to read 18 chapters from me so far! I hope you have all been enjoying the story, and I am here to say that more chapters are on their way!

Brenda's--I mean, Lurai's journey is certainly headed towards a dark future, and I am just as excited as all of you to get to that future.

Grammar for this chapter is a little off, but it will be fixed soon. I am currently on hiatus, so there may be an extra week gap in between this chapter and next. Stay watchful, everyone!