Chapter Text
On the evening before her hundredth birthday, Mara the Elf took a break from the frenetic dancing of this week’s milango. The dancers were comprised of only Maidens of various breeds, although two of the musicians were human. For one of those humans, the privilege of his species was obviously the only reason his music was being accepted, given the lack of rhythm he showed on the drum he was pounding. Fortunately, it was barely noticeable, as the rest of the music beautifully accompanied the bandoneons which served as the melody’s centerpiece. The human woman playing a violin was actually managing to keep up, despite her species’ lack of enhanced reflexes. The milangueras certainly enjoyed it, with the joyous atmosphere seeming to infect everyone at the party.
A few decades ago Mara would have felt the same. But by now… She was bored. Even her leisure activities were horrendously repetitive. If she was this bored after her first century of life, how much worse would things get by the time another century had passed?
She sighed. Looking down at the cup of yerba maté she held, Mara briefly wondered if she’d feel less broody if she sought out enough of the alcohol to simply stop thinking. But a century of life had taught her the aftermath of that too well. All that would happen was that she would wake up with a hangover the next morning, not even able to properly remember the fun she had the night before. It was best to keep the level of intoxication to just a light buzz- enough to mildly inhibit her thoughts, but not enough to either cause trouble later or fully prevent her melancholic musings now.
Mara’s owner had granted her tomorrow off work so she could celebrate her centennial birthday (as well as the morning after in case she had a hangover), but she couldn’t think of anything that felt worth it. It was just…
Mara turned away from the dancing, and walked off. It didn’t take long for the noisy revelry of the milango to fade behind her. Without the light of the fire at the party, the street she traveled blackened, with just the stars and moon providing illumination.
“Mara? Is something wrong? Can I do anything for you?”
Glancing towards the sound of the voice, Mara identified it as belonging to Carlota, a Trixie friend of hers. The normally smiling Maiden (as made sense for her breed) was currently displaying a look of mild concern.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” Mara responded, standing still as she faced her friend. Carlota may not have been born from parthenogenesis, but she did look remarkably like her mother. Who had in turn been a mirror image of Carlota’s maternal grandmother. Mara had been friends with them as well, and as much as each of the three had been good friends, they had also been rather similar in personality. It was just… more of the same.
As she pondered these bleak thoughts, Mara’s expression must have reflected the mood of her ruminations. Carlota’s light concern shifted towards something more serious, the Trixie’s lips turning further downwards and her eyes furrowing.
“Your owner gave you work off tomorrow, right? While I’m not off myself, I could work that in with my babysitting. Have the kids work with me to create a hundredth birthday party celebration for you, and spread the word that I want you to come or they’ll be disappointed. If you don’t tell me now, I’m sure I could get it out of you tomorrow,” Carlota softly said.
As Mara glared at her friend, the Trixie tilted her head. “Unless… You have some sort of request for me that I could do for you instead of that? You wouldn’t even have to tell me what was wrong. You’d just have to answer the second of my earlier questions- you know, of what I could do for you.”
This was why Carlota was Mara’s friend instead of her enemy, despite being willing to make threats like the one she had just issued. The Trixie may have been a bit manipulative- but it was in a blatantly obvious way, where she still tried to (somewhat) respect boundaries. Her plots weren’t normally quite so extreme as this one, but… Maybe Mara’s gloominess was showing more than she realized.
“I guess you could…” Mara paused, considering her next words carefully. “It might be fun if you could figure out something new I could do tomorrow.”
Carlota’s abnormal frown changed into a more typical grin. “I think I have just the idea.”
—---------------------------------------------
This had been a terrible idea, Mara thought to herself, yet again wondering why she had gotten herself into this situation. The human stood expectantly in front of her, his Witch starter fidgeting beside him, both enshadowed by the towering trees at the rainforest’s entrance. They wore shabby clothing, dirty from both their recent trek through the jungle and mud smeared onto skin insects would have otherwise chewed up. The Witch’s catalyst was the most pathetic wand Mara had ever seen, the whittled branch sorely lacking in any sort of material to facilitate the conduction of magic. Julio and Eulalia, Mara remembered the human introducing themselves as.
Mara wished she had possessed the foresight to use a pseudonym when introducing herself, so she’d have the option of running away with no consequences, now or later. She was far from the only Elf in this village, and these travelers surely wouldn’t have been able to identify her without a name. But alas, Mara had been so caught up in the buzz of alcohol last night that… Okay, that was a lie. She had been drinking, yes, but not enough for the yerba maté to have impaired her judgment.
It was ultimately boredom that had led her to act upon her friend’s suggestion- or had it been yet another of the Trixie’s jokes that Mara had taken far too seriously? That was something to ask later. But today was Mara’s 100th birthday, and she had lived in the same village, doing the same farmwork, for all of her adult life. Given how many other Elves she worked alongside, this work was often done alongside the same people, given their longevity. Though most other breeds had human-length lifespans, even the short-lived Maidens she fraternized with nowadays were descendants of century-old acquaintances.
“So?” Julio asked again. “What’s most important to know if I want to survive the wilderness?”
Of all the bad choices she could have made last night, this was probably amongst the worst. Maybe claiming to be a Maiden with plentiful experience in combat harems who was willing to pass along best practices and experiences to a newbie tamer had not been the best idea.