Page 19 of Under the Lion Star

He reached for the glass slowly, his fingertips brushing against my hand before he moved it to his mouth and took a slow sip. His pale eyes never left mine, but they held an uncharacteristic mirth while the rest of his expression remained neutral.

“You work quick,” I muttered, waving a hand over the side of the house that now donned a fresh coat of paint.

“I’ve started sanding the back, but I’ll have to finish the job later in the week,” El shrugged.

“Well, I’m sure my grandma appreciates the help. She’d definitely appreciate this,” I motioned at his body while fighting the flush that worked its way onto my cheeks.

El smirked, and if he hadn’t played hero the other day, I would have slapped him.

“Help me finish sanding,” he set the empty cup on the rail that separated him from where I stood on the porch. “Then we can head back to Galvord.”

“I–” I stumbled on my words at his use of ‘we.’ “Sure.”

I listened intently to El, ensuring I committed his instructions to memory and not because I just wanted to hear his deep, silky voice for as long as possible. I hadn’t realized that the old paint needed to be removed prior to the new paint going on, which was probably the reason that the existing paint was peeling so badly to begin with.

“How do you know all this,” I asked after we had been sanding for several minutes. “You don’t strike me as a builder.”

“No,” El huffed out a small laugh. “Part of the war I spent in the more rural areas of western Krannar. There wasn’t much fighting to be had, so we often helped out in the human villages. Tending crops, repairing homes, that sort of thing.”

“You helped the humans?” I raised a skeptical brow.

“Sure,” he nodded. “Most of them are good people. As good as any elf. Given our presence was making their lives more difficult since they could no longer trade with the capital, it was the least we could do.”

“I don’t know why I assumed both sides were under a sort of kill-on-sight mindset.”

“No,” El shook his head. “Never civilians. The only humans we killed were soldiers trying to kill us or those with ties to King Morlan.”

“Do you think we could coexist with humans?”

“That’s the goal,” he grunted, running sandpaper over the wooden soffit above a window. “We did a century ago. Don’t see why we couldn’t get back to a place like that.”

“Is your family glad you’re home?” I asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going.

El’s eyes became distant, and his hand froze in place. The hollowness of his expression returned, and despite the sun's warmth, the air grew cold around us. I waited for a response, but none came as he resumed his work on the wooden planks.

“I only have sisters,” I offered. “None of them joined the war effort, but a friend of mine came back with the rest of the soldiers. My uncle died during the war about five years ago. It was hard on my aunt and her daughter, but I’m hopeful the peace will last.”

“It will last,” El said with conviction.

We fell back into silence, working for a few more hours as the sun moved across the blue sky. My grandma insisted that we come in for dinner.

The meal was an awkward affair, although El had put his shirt back on. Grandma spent most of the evening telling him about my sisters and me, focusing on the traits we each had that would make us good wives.

El, Gods guide him, listened, and nodded along to everything she said, desperately fighting off a smirk the entire time. Still, he was polite, and my grandma didn’t press him for any details of his life. She seemed to understand that he wasn’t interested in speaking about himself.

I was not so tactful, and all my inquiries about El and his life were met with evasive answers, usually only consisting of a word or two.

“I’ll be back in a day or two,” El assured my grandmother as he readied his horse to leave.

“I’m grateful for any time you can spare helping an old elf like me,” she smiled.

We walked back toward Galvord, side by side, as El held the reins to his mount.

“Five sisters,” El said quietly, shaking his head. “Is it chaos at all times?”

“You have no idea,” I laughed. “I thought as they got older, things would cool down a bit, but even now, there is rarely a dull moment.”

“Who are you closest to?”

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