Chapter 2:

Finding a Gem

Greenstone

Returning home from a small trip, the recently married couple got caught in a sudden downpour near their village home, but kept walking through the heavy rain, until they stumbled upon something just off the well worn trail.

"What's that there?"

Tia asked her husband, who took a moment to find what his wife had caught sight of.

A small heap lay on the side of the track, just up ahead, almost blending in with the sodden grass all around them.

"Careful... Tia!"

She disregarded Finn's warning and raced over anyway, before carefully looking over the tiny bundle, then shouted back.

"It's a child, Finn hurry!"

Sure enough, the curled up tangle was in fact a small child, wet and pale, unconscious and with a few differences then the finding pair of humans.

"Look at its ears..."

The bigger and quite pointed ears were obvious, as they stuck out from under the mess of dirty fair hair.

"Could she be an elf child?

"Possibly..."

Tia swiftly bundled the little thing up in her arms, letting it's slightly scratched up legs and bare feet dangle beside her.

"Hey Tia, are you sure..."

She looked at him with disapproval.

"It'll die if we leave it here... come along."

Getting home Tia whisked the small kid into a warm bath, while Finn warmed the entire house up with a roaring fire, and returned to find that Tia had put the pale child into a small warm shirt, that went all the way to the ankles.

"Look how adorable she is..."

For the moment the small child appeared to sleep contently.

"Can we keep her?"

"What?!"

Finn looked at her with shocked disbelief.

"It's not a little tamed animal we've come across here...!"

"She's a girl..."

He patted his wife's shoulder and played the serious and protective role.

"But of what exactly...? And where are the parents...?"

"But think... we've always wished for a little girl... and now here one is..."

The small thing stirred, before blinking its green eyes open, to at first show some warranted alarm, before getting damp eyes with budding tears of fright.

"It's okay, it's fine... you're alright."

Tia attempted to calmly sooth her, to good effect.

"Hello..."

The little thing shuffled amid the blanket and loose shirt nervously, but settled and looked at the pair curiously as Tia fussed over her.

"Hi."

She waved gently and cheerfully at the tiny girl, until Tia received a slight wave back.

"Hi there little lady. Do you have a name I can call you?"

The little faint blonde hair shook from side to side after a pause.

"Were you all alone out there?"

Tia moved to the next question, and her small head bobbed lightly this time.

So she can understand us...

Finn watched on curiously, but cautiously, as children her size rarely wandered about by their own, whatever race she belonged to.

"No one? Are you sure...?"

She looked away, possibly searching her memories, but looked blank.

"Do you remember anything?"

"No..."

She finally spoke softly, and then began to get teary again.

"It's okay, it's fine really. Maybe it'll come to you later."

She blinked at Tia's smile and the tears faded.

"Are you feeling nice and warm?"

"Yes..."

She peered about cautiously at her unfamiliar surroundings.

"Could we?"

Tia turned away to look extremely seriously into Finn's eyes, since they'd been together for a few years already and hadn't been able to have a child of their own.

"What about her real parents?"

Finn surely didn't want to rob another family of something so precious.

"We'll come to that when the time comes - but this little elf has no one here - and now."

"If she's an elf dear."

"Finn Greenstone - she is an innocent little thing, we have a duty to look after her."

One thing that Finn couldn't do was deny his lovely wife.

"Would you like to live here, with us?"

The child seemed fairly uncertain as Tia returned her attention to her, but also understood.

"Live in this... house?"

"Yes, with us for a while, would you like that?"

A thoughtful moment later, she tentatively bobbed her head again.

"Very well then."

Tia seemed quite content, than moved swiftly to the next matter.

"Now I've always wanted my kid to be called Sofia... so how does that sound? Do you like that name?"

"Name?"

The child seemed lightly confused.

"What we and others will call you... Sofia."

Tia already used the name, as the little one had the first, faintest smile they'd seen and nodded her little head some more.

"Yes... I like..."

"Very well then, you are - Sofia Greenstone."

Tia pointed at her, while the newly named girl cutely repeated her title.

"So...fia Green...st...one?"

"That's right."

Tia's smile grew as she reached over and tenderly hugged her then, which caused Sofia some slight surprise, before she found happiness within the kind arms.

"Now you call me Mama, and that man over there is your Papa..."

"Mama... Papa..."

Finn felt his heart skip a few beats.

Oh... that felt... so comforting...

"That's right, now we'll watch over you, and see that you grow up nice and big, okay..."

Little Sofia closed her eyes and embraced the hug, grunting a sound of approval, before her exhaustion took hold again, and she drifted off to sleep in her newly appointed 'Mama's' arms.

"I caught you... you little scoundrel!"

"Ah!"

Sofia squeaked with joy and pretend surprise, as he lifted her clear from the short scrub under the trees, scooped up by her waist, she smiled at him.

It had already been a full year since the little girl had 'dropped' into their lives, and she was growing up so quickly, already quite mobile and fast, full of life and curiosity. So much so that Finn had found her following him on a foraging trip, again.

"I've told you it's too dangerous..."

She briefly pouted as he put her back to the earth.

She'd been curious about his activities lately, and while he went about his usual hunting and foraging in the nearby forest, that wasn't problematic for him, but even with her little growth and natural skills, Finn figured it was still too much for the little one.

"But I want to see... please Dad!"

He had also been aware that he'd been allowed to catch her, a couple of times already, but he guessed if she really wanted to tag along, she could do it without getting caught.

It probably would have been impossible to actually sneak up on her, with those sensitive ears and keen eyes, while she was quite alert and ever learning too.

"Why aren't you playing with your friends today anyway?"

Instead of giving in to the spirited 'daughter', he sort an alternative direction for her.

"They were teasing me again..."

She frowned and kicked at the grass below her.

I ort to give those twerps a talking too...

"So what was it now?"

Sofia averted her eyes and dabbled her foot on the ground

"They made fun of me again..."

"For the adorable horns you have?"

They had specifically gotten something to help her with those tiny green horns, that had recently developed and now had more colour to them, getting her a new hair accessory to both partly hide and distract from them. The new darker green headband with a few shiny metal pins, that resembled bright yellow sunflowers, almost entirely covered her tiny budding horns situated on her forehead.

She gave a little grin, then preceded to tell him.

"No, that was last month, this time it was for my ears..."

"What could they think is so different about them?"

"They're pointy... see."

She perked her head sideways to show off her more differently shaped and double in size ears she had, with a frown.

"Oh so they are..."

"Dad!"

Of course he knew already, as they jutted out from her sides a little.

"Well... you know there are more species with pointed ears than without..."

"There are?"

"Oh yes, so you tell those bratty kids you like to hang out with, that they're the ones with the weird shape... okay dear."

That at least cheered her right up again.

"Okay!"

She shuffled about, and seemed to notice something else.

"What is it Sofia?"

He asked her curiously, as she suddenly sniffed the air.

"It smells like the things that dig up Mama's garden..."

Boars... it would be nice to get rid of them... and we are still near the house... but still...

Sofia perked up and stepped in the direction of the faint breeze, looking about cautiously.

"Alright - but not a word about this to your mother."

"Yes, yes thanks!"

In no time at all, through her excellent tracking, that somehow came to her so easily, they came across a pair in a small clearing, and with one good arrow, he felled the bigger boar, while letting the other flee.

Next came the messier part, which he thought Sofia could handle, however.

"Ew... that's gross!"

She went as far as he'd allow and couldn't look back.

"How else do you expect meat to appear?"

"In the bags from the nice butcher... not all yucky and... ugh."

She then amused herself with some sticks, until he was nearly done with as much as he wanted, when something stirred in the thick bushes, then the low sound of growling emerged with the head of a grey forest wolf.

"Uh dad!"

The wolf entered the clearing between them, and the pair froze.

"Sofia - don't move!"

This was what I was most afraid of... at least there's only...!

Two more appeared further way from them, but that made things thrice as bad, as the first was now emboldened and approached Finn and the kill.

I need to back away, but Sofia's in the wrong direction...!

Finn hesitated, as the nearest gave a strong warning bark, as its fellow hunters closed in too, but then everything turned about.

Grabbing a thick stick, Sofia suddenly hurled it toward the closest animal, with such force and power that when it hit the wolf's head, it spun it right away, but attracted the others attention then.

But Sofia howled an inhuman noise next, that sharply sounded through the scrub, and immediately flattened the wolves' ears back, as they halted and dipped low.

A few moments of silence, as everything looked to the small Sofia, then the three furry animals quickly turned tail and fled.

She scared them away...?

Suddenly Sofia tuned his way, with an incredible amount of water in her big green eyes, then propped her arms wide and staggered towards him.

"Papa... ur... it was so scary...!"

She tottered over slowly like an unsteady toddler and plopped her head into his shirt and began to softly whale and sob.

"Oh Sofia..."

She clutched tightly as he wrapped his arm around her comfortingly.

"Hunting is too scary - I don't want to do it again..."

"Sure dear, you don't have to."

She snuffled and soon went quiet, till Finn let her go.

"We promised we wouldn't tell Mama... but you can tell her. I'll just stay at home and go gardening with her."

"That's totally fine dear."