to her feet and rushed across the clearing to wrap her dear old friend in a great hug. Juraviel followed her over, taking Lozan Duk's offered hand in warm embrace.
"You have been gone too long," Lozan Duk said to Cazzira. "Our land has seemed empty without you. We have found so much less fun in hunting intruders." As he finished, he turned his smile and his gaze over Juraviel.
"Too long, indeed," Cazzira agreed. "I cannot wait to look upon Tymwyvenne again!"
"But you mean to stay only a short while," Lozan Duk prompted, glancing from Cazzira to Juraviel and back again.
"And how long were you spying upon us?" Cazzira asked.
Lozan Duk laughed aloud. "When first I came upon you, and recognized that Cazzira and Juraviel had returned, I wanted to rush right in and welcome you, both of you," he explained. "But then it seemed as if I was intruding on a personal time, and so I started away, prepared to return in the morning."
"And then you heard my mention of returning home, with Cazzira," reasoned Juraviel.
Lozan Duk looked at him earnestly and nodded. "You speak of momentous things, Belli'mar Juraviel of the Tylwyn Tou."
"I hope for momentous gain, for my people and for yours," Juraviel replied.
Lozan Duk really didn't have a response for that, so he just paused for a bit to consider his dearest of friends, returned to his side. For many years, he and Cazzira had been hunting partners, and partners in just about everything else. There had never been anything romantic between them, so there was no jealousy in his eyes as he considered her now, just gratitude that she had returned.
That expression of gratitude fast shifted to a look of curiosity, though.
"There is something..." the elf started to say.
Cazzira's smile gradually widened, until the whole of her delicate and beautiful face was beaming in the moonlight.
Lozan Duk's jaw dropped open and his eyes followed Cazzira's gaze down to her slightly swollen belly. "You are... ?"
"I am," Cazzira replied. "It will be the first child born in Tymwyvenne in a quarter of a century, unless other births occurred during my absence."
"No others."
"And it will be the first child born of Tylwyn Doc and Tylwyn Tou parentage in..." She paused and looked over at Juraviel.
"In more than the longest memory of the eldest elves," he answered.
"But what does it mean?" Lozan Duk asked, a simple question that held so many layers of intrigue for all of them. Was this child to signify a union of the peoples, a reunification of sorts? Or was it to become a bastard child of both races, accepted by neither? "It will mean what we make it to mean," Cazzira said determinedly. "The child is a product of love, true and honest love between Tylwyn Doc and Tylwyn Tou. Let there be no doubt of that."
Lozan Duk shook his head slowly as he considered his surprising friend, and gradually his gaze shifted over to Belli'mar Juraviel, this surprising visitor to his land.
"What says Lozan Duk concerning the child?" Juraviel asked bluntly, not sure how to read that expression.
The other elf took a long moment to consider the question, to digest all of this startling news. "If you make Cazzira happy, then you make Lozan Duk happy, Belli'mar Juraviel," he said at length. "She is my friend - as true a friend as I have ever known - and I stand beside her in all of her choices. She has chosen Belli'mar Juraviel as her companion in love, and has chosen Belli'mar Juraviel as the father of her child. That is all that I need to know about the truth of Belli'mar Juraviel's heart." He looked down at Cazzira's belly and smiled warmly. "Any child of Cazzira will be a beautiful creature."
"As will any child of Belli'mar Juraviel," Cazzira added.
"Then the child is doubly blessed," said Lozan Duk, and he held out his arms, and Cazzira fell into a welcome hug.
From the side, Belli'mar Juraviel nodded hopefully.
Lozan Duk led the pair away soon after, moving quickly along the trails leading toward Tymwyvenne. They met other Doc'alfar along the way, and all greeted Cazzira and Juraviel with open arms.
As did King Eltiraaz when at last the companions came before his gleaming wooden throne in the great hall of Tymwyvenne. He rushed down from his royal seat to embrace Cazzira, and welcomed Juraviel back with a warm handshake.
"So much we have to share," he said, returning to his throne. "I wish to hear every step of