The Raindrop Enigma

The sun burned her, and it scorched her skin with a vengeance.  But now Nym realized it was not the fault of that sun that it burned her.  It followed it's nature.  As I follow my own, and seek shelter from the nature of others, she thought.  Not all days were this bad. mind you.  Some days the clouds would come over the orb of flames, and small droplets of water came from what Nym knew as the 'Sun's House', a large expanse of blue-grey that covered the above places of the air.1

To Nym, the raindrops were an enigma.  Why did they fall?  Did they not realize, to those in the Ground Realms, that they were a precious commodity?  Didn't the clouds realize what they were giving, for free, the liquid jewels of life?  But ,most days, the water stayed in the clouds, which Nym fondly christened 'children of Sun House,' or Baubles for short.  So most days, Nym his in a small cave on the edge of a lake.  Nym couldn't swim; underground, lakes of fresh water were scarce, and no one would be permitted to swim in them, lest they contaminate them.  Thus, Nym spent her new free time on the surface flailing in the water, trying pitifully to learn to swim when it was raining.2

Myan-myan haunted her dreams over the next few years, but his death, like Nym's past, now lay only in the dark recesses of her mind, only to surface when she dreamed.3

And the years passed.  Nym grew taller and robust, certainly more healthy than her sisters in the ground realms.  Her hair grew long and sleek; it's whiteness sparkled when she ventured into the daylight.  Her ebon skin, now used to the sun, somewhat, looked like black velvet.  Her silver eyes had not changed, nor, she suspected, would they.  A shadow lingered there, with a slight greyness to the overall glittering silver, a hollowness hinting that this woman, for yes, Nym was a woman now, wasn't she, had seen things one should not see.4

If anyone had seen her, they'd have seen this, which they didn't.5

But one day, a white skinned, blond haired youth came to her lake.  Apparently he was fishing.  The day was a cloudy one, so Nym was swimming.  Quickly she paddled to the edge of the lake, invisible as a dark shape in the water, as the rain fell on her and the boy.6

He was singing.7

Oh, the raindrops, each are my friends8

For each one a gift for me sends9

The life is given by the sky waters10

Which is reaped by us, earth's sons n' daughters!11

Nym couldn't help it.  She laughed.  And laughed and laughed and had to swim onto the shore unless she wanted to drown.  The boy saw her and smiled, then his expression froze.  Nym noted he was an 'elf of the sunrise', as her teachers had called them, which were deadly enemies of what her teacher proclaimed proudly of themselves, 'elves of the twilight.'  But Nym had no enemies now, only the raindrops, her friends.12

He fled, but Nym didn't care.  She foraged and founds some fruit, and took the boy's fish, which he had dropped in his haste to leave.  After all, she thought, waste not, want not.  Then she went to her cave and went to sleep.13

Hence, it was a complete shock to her when she woke up to find three male surface elves, along with the boy, pointing swords at her prone form.14

Frightened, she whispered, "Please do not kill me."  The boy looked at her, his lips moving, as if her were translating, and said awkwardly in her tongue, "What do you here?"  Trying not to cry, she replied, "I live here, sir."  Curious, he said rather clumsily in the language of night, "Why do you live here?"  Nym let a tear trickle down her face.  "They...banished me for my thinking.  It was bad.  Now I swim in the lake and eat fruits and catch fish...and...and...I watch the rain..."  The boy, after looking at her intensely for a moment, gave a half-smile and waved the men around him to take away their swords.  They did so, reluctantly, because everyone knew how treacherous a twilight elf was.15

"You watch the raindrops?" he said, quietly.16

"Yes." she said, gratefully.  "I am Nym.  I can speak to you better if I know your name."  He was uncomfortable for a moment, but then said softly, "Torianis."  Trying the name, she said it.  "Torianis...do you watch the raindrops fall, too?"  He did not answer, but looked outside for an instant, at the sky.  After he and the men ascertained she was harmless, they left.17

But the next day, she saw Torianis smiling.  He waved at her. He was fishing again, and it was raining.18

Oh the raindrops are my friends...19