The rest of the company had left a good half an hour before Blume came downstairs, having put the baby down for a nap. At least, that's what she thought the toddler wanted. She cried and kicked and screamed and fidgeted for a long time while Blume had tried to play with her.
Then Blume sang.
It had been so long since she had sung that it felt awkward at first, then she remembered how much she loved it.
Either she got carried away, or Lily really enjoyed the lullabies she sung. Whatever the case may be, the toddler was asleep and Blume wasn't going to do anything to wake her up. She spent enough hours during the night listening to the baby cry as it was.
So when she emerged from the upstairs to the smell of dinner wafting in from the kitchen, she had no intention of going far off from the house. All Blume wanted to do was to stretch her legs in the evening sun before returning to the house to eat.
A few houses down from the one they called their home, however, Blume saw something that caught her eye. Robed in purple and white, a tall pale elf boy, if it was really right to call him that, was making his way towards her, looking puzzled.
A few hours ago an elven host had marched right up to the gates of Lone Peak. They seemed peaceful to Blume. She had figured most would stay outside of the city and the rest might be residing with important nobles higher up.
To see one of their number down on the lower parts of Lone Peak struck Blume as odd. This young elf, with the air of a pampered life, looked like he intentionally avoided the sun if possible. His skin was as white as snow.
Blume had seen many elves in her day and considered herself good friends with a few. Something about this one, however, seemed different. Perhaps it was his strikingly green eyes. It could have been the way he walked down the street: unfamiliar but collected and calm, like he was exploring.
Or maybe it was just that Blume realized how much she missed her friends back on Ruyn: an elf and a dwarf she had spent months traveling southern cities and getting into all kinds of trouble with.
Of course, their adventures were not only accidental but completely Blume's fault. When the war was over, the two of them both returned to their families. The only family Blume had left sailed with her to Irradan.
Feeling brave and emboldened by her recent singing, which always put her in the best moods, Blume approached the elf.
“You seem like you're looking for something,” she said as she stepped up to him and made a small curtsy.
She wasn't quite sure what brought that last part on, but it felt appropriate, given the fact that she didn't often introduce herself to strangers. The elf stopped in his tracks and considered Blume.
He was a good head taller than she was, which wasn't saying much really. Though Blume was growing like a weed, of her company she was only taller than Jurrin and Jurgon. Being taller than halflings was no great accomplishment.
“I quest for the library,” he said with a mild indifference, looking off to his right and left.
Blume was certain that not all elves talked like he did.
"I know where it is," she said, swelling up and being glad now for all those hours spent with Holve and Ealrin in the dusty catacombs. "I'll show you if you don't mind me escorting you."
It was something about the elf that she wanted to get to know. Surely he would come with her and tell her about the faraway lands she had only read about in the library. Maybe he could tell her about his country and she could talk about Ruyn.
The elf nodded slightly and began to follow Blume as she led him toward the library.
She had known elves to be proud and others to be not as talkative as some friends she had. But then she remembered Abigail, her elf friend, and how quick she was to launch into a tirade of explanations and words. This elf's sullenness and lack of conversation was disheartening.
As they walked along the streets and stairs of Lone Peak, encountering many more elves than Blume had ever seen in the city, the most he would say without prompting was that he had been sent to find the library from one of his superiors. He didn't even tell Blume who that person was.
He answered her questions in short pointed sentences and asked her no questions of his own. It been so long since Blume had held a conversation with someone who was unwilling to talk that it felt more than a little awkward. Still, even with his short answers, she was able to find out a good deal about the elves who had journeyed to Darrion.
There were ten boats of nobles, soldiers, craftsmen, servants, and dignitaries.
All of them had come to accompany the emperor on this diplomatic mission to seek peace with the other countries of the continent. There was one other mission that the elves were undertaking, but Blume was only able to find that out by accident.
"Is there anything else the elves have come to do except visit countries?" she had asked as they turned away from the stairs that led down to the lower peaks where their house was.
"Yes...no," he had said.
The second word came out more harshly than the first and carried a tone of finality.
Blume had stopped walking when he gave the answer and looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"Well which is it? Yes or no?"
The elf took a few steps forward before turning back and looking at Blume.
"You ask about that which you cannot understand," he said looking at her sternly.
This made Blume all the more curious to ask about what the elves' other mission might possibly be, but she refrained and began asking questions about the elf himself.
He was thirty-three, no longer a child to his race. He lived in the capital city of the empire with his parents who were both nobles and servants of the emperor.
She almost decided it was time to start talking about herself or the land of Ruyn, where she had lived, when she found herself standing in front of the great steps leading up to the library.
"Oh," she said, forgetting to stop herself. "This is it."
Blume thought that the building was quite attractive, a well built structure to be admired. She looked unexpectedly at the elf, which she had just realized she had not even learned his name, when she saw the look of disdain on his face.
"It's four stories tall," she said, as if defending the building. "And I'm not sure how deep it goes. Ealrin won't let me explore down past the second basement."
Thoughts of Ealrin made Blume's face flushed with anger. She was still rather upset with him.
"What's your name?" she asked, pushing the dusty brown haired man's face from her mind.
"Dilinor Mene," he replied simply. "This is where we part."
Without even a second glance back at Blume, the young elf left her side and ascended the steps towards the library. She took just a moment to feel deflated before she decided on her course of action.
"Hey!" she yelled after him. "I'm coming with you!"
She took the steps two at a time until she was at his side, matching his pace and entering into the library with this strange elf named Dilinor.