Dear Runaan

today i offer something really short that i wrote. i have a hc that ethari wrote letters to runaan to cope with the loss and this is one of them. hope you like it!

Dear Runaan

Dear Runaan,

today is the start of the Blue Moon week. Everybody is out and about, preparing and harvesting, and the children are even more excited than usual due to the Blue Moon being in December this year. Snowball fights will be unstoppable. I haven't prepared much; barely a few arrows and throwing knives to enchant.

Ethari stopped writing to look up at the weapon-filled wall. Blades missing their swirls and handles simplified, no intricate lines decorating them in any way. He furrowed down his eyebrows.

I miss you. You'd think I would have already settled in, accepted and kept living. But it's hard, Runaan. Not many elves come to the forge anymore, and I suspect it's because they fear they will somehow remind me of you. But nobody can do that. Nobody sneaks into the forge like you do, nobody tries to hide their smile and fails, nobody tilts their head and closes their eyes while they listen to my new project (it's not like I have any). Yet, your presence is never fading away. You're somewhere that's not our kitchen table. It's a new pain and I have yet to find the right healing salve. While your wounds were easy to see and to heal, this wound, my darling, is the one you would hide from me, unless I lit a candle.

He put his quill down and with a shaky hand ruffled his hair. It was longer now, the bangs placed behind his ear and rest of his hair kept in a low ponytail or bun. He didn't know long it really was. The tears blurred his vision and he cursed.

I will go out tonight. I will go into the heart of the festival and feel something unlike the forge sparks. Don't fear; you will learn everything that happened. You always will.

I love you, Runaan. Be here when I'm back.

-Ethari