Twenty Nine

Unexpected happiness and meaning comes into Gevin's life at long last.

29.

 

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

--Mark Twain

 

In great sagas and epic stories told around campfires and at children’s bedtime, there is frequently the happy ending.  After a period of trial and persecution, fear and courage, sacrifice and unity, many tales end with the words ‘-and they lived happily ever after!’.   It is an upbeat summary and a hope for a great future based on the troubles faced to get there.    But in reality, seldom is it that smooth and easy.    In victory there is often loss, destruction and adjustment to abrupt and sweeping change.

It was this truth that hung over the garrison fort and village of Woodedge when a bright summer morn dawned just an hour after the end of the battle for the future of the people of the village.

Though victorious and elated, the victors mourned the loss of thirty two of their own, some killed during the drop of rocks from the levitation platform when the missiles ricocheted and hit them.     Most however, died from flung spears and javelins and there were fifty three injured that were well taken care of by the women in the village.

There were nearly a hundred of Cetiline’s soldiers left injured on the battlefield and mercy was extended to them as well.    Most of the soldiers were surprised at how well they were treated and many of them remarked how regretful that they had been part of Earl Cetiline and Baron Dellye’s army.   Gevin met with each of them and told them flatly that any aggressive acts toward Albsidhe would be responded to with harsh but firm justice.   But he also told them that immigrants would be welcome, as long as they passed scrutiny by one of their magicians’ truth detection spells, and that invitation included them.

Most of the men were quite impressed by what he told them and some even immigrated to Albsidhe later, after they journeyed home.  

The Greidour dead were removed (with the assistance of the golems), wrapped respectfully in shrouds and then placed on carts and brought back to the eastern-most town in Greidour to be returned to their families.   It was grim work, but it underscored the feeling of distaste for war that everyone in the village felt.

Baron Dellye and Earl Cetiline’s bodies were treated the same way as the other Greidour dead, respectfully wrapped in winding sheets and placed on the same carts as those that they led to their deaths.  Both men’s families seemed to have no interest in revenge or pressing further fragile claims to the Greidour throne.

Their loss created a terrible power vacuum in the still unstable kingdom and over a year of unrest resulted, though a bloody civil war was avoided.

It surprised everyone in Albsidhe when Prolitt Ross and two of his captains came to Woodedge a year and some months later, dressed humbly and asking to meet with Gevin, Applemint and the Elven Council.   He introduced himself as the new King of Greidour and told them of his great desire for peace between the two nations.

After months of talk, peaceful relations were established and the borders of both kingdoms were respected.

After the Battle of Woodedge (as it would become known), Gevin was very reluctant to consider himself anything other than a steward of a greater, future monarch.   But the people would not have it; they demanded Gevin proclaim himself as King and Applemint as their Queen.    Even the Elven Council thought it was a good idea, and so finally, in early spring of the following year, they were crowned in the chapel of a newly constructed Church of Yesh with much fanfare and excitement from the people.

 

By then Gevin and Applemint were married - their wedding in the middle of autumn was the first moment of joy since the Battle of Woodedge and it was spectacular, though the Church building was still under construction, which caused them to use the garrison keep great hall, which was filled to capacity.   Applemint was unforgettable in a beautiful white gown of Elven silk, her fiery red hair tumbling down to rest on the train of her dress.

The wedding celebration lasted for three days and to everyone’s surprise and delight, she was pregnant in a month’s time.   Though she grew alarmingly huge carrying the child, she had a pleasant pregnancy and a relatively easy birth.

The daughter that she bore Gevin was given the name Ylvelia in honor of the great queen that predicted her birth.   She was a gorgeous child, possessing the same fiery hair of her mother, but with the pure pale blue eyes of her father.   She was the pride and joy not only of her parents and family, but greatly loved by the people of Albsidhe, for she represented in their minds the union of the three races and the hope of the future.

Zaeya and Troem also married and started a school of magic that taught many generations protective and defensive spells that ensured the safety of Albsidhe.   They had a son and a daughter, both which grew up to become masters of magic like both of their parents. 

Gevin and Applemint and all the people of Woodedge worked tirelessly to restore and enrichen the land.    Tens of thousands of trees were carefully selected by the Elven Council and reverently planted in the area where the Albsidhe woods used to be.    The process took ten years, but soon a young forest began to grow there and the Princess Ylvelia would play with the children of Woodedge around the trees, under the watching eyes of their parents and those of the village.

Several years later, as King Gevin I and Queen Applemint sat hand in hand and watched their spirited daughter laughing carefree among the young trees of the forest,  the Half-Elf felt such contentment and joy that he could not believe he’d nearly drowned in the dark years that had preceded this time.   Oh, he knew that like any periods of contentment and joy, they wouldn’t be ‘ever after’ on this side of the heavenly realm, but he now understood how even temporary happiness, if appreciated and embraced, could make all the dark periods of your life worth surviving and how the right people to love and the nearness of one’s family could bring satisfaction that he’d never thought he’d know.

He loved his life and thanked Yesh for not abandoning him at his darkest hour, but instead, giving him such a perfect helpmate and friend to share it with.   As he squeezed Applemint’s hand and she smiled her dazzling smile, her eyes sparkling in the spring sun, he knew it was a sentiment with which she fully agreed.

 

 

                                      The End