Prologue

A young man walked out of an ally. At a first glance, he looked like any other person wandering the streets, but if you took a second glance, there was something odd about him.

He walked into a nearby cafe, even though he wasn't supposed to be wasting time. He was on a mission, a mission that he still hadn't finished.

A beautiful woman waited behind the counter to take his order. She had bronze skin and long, wavy black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Her brown eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

"Hi, what would you like?" the beautiful lady asked.

The man was tongue tied. A century around people with unrealistic beauty wouldn't have prepared him for this girl's stunning looks. "Um...I'll...I'll get a scone, please."

The man flushed, embarrassed that he had stumbled over his words like that. No human should have the ability to do that.

The woman smiled at him and entered his order into the computer. "So," she said, trying to start a conversation. "Are you new to town?"

The man was puzzled by how she could tell. "How'd you know?"

"I know everyone here. It's small, so that makes it easier, but I have a specialty when it comes to recognizing faces."

He simply stared for a second and wondered if she had taken an elixir so no one would suspect her of being something else. No human could be this pretty. Heck, even people where he was from were barely that attractive.

He snapped out of his thoughts as he heard someone grumble behind him about how long it was taking.

"Well, let's correct that," he said. "I'm Ezra."

"I'm Rosa. Nice to meet you." the woman said.

"You too." said the man.

"Maybe we can get to know each other after I'm done here. My shift ends at 3."

"I'll be waiting." Ezra agreed as he forgot why he was even here in the first place.

He wrote on a piece of paper until Rosa was ready. He knew that there would be terrible consequences for this, but it had to be done. Ezra carefully crafted each sentence to perfection until the news that he was going to leave his entire life behind to spend it with a human was just minor news no one cared about.

As he tucked the paper away into a pocket, Rosa came over. "Ready?" she asked him.

"Ready." he replied.

And so an elf and a human walked hand in hand out of a Starbucks and into rays of sunshine that seemed like a fitting for their future.

Hey! What do y'all think?

I'm rereading Keeper of the Lost Cities and this came to me out of the blue.

What if an elf left the Lost Cities because he fell in love with a human? And what if they had a child together? And what if the human died? And what if that triggered the child's special ability? And what if that special ability was death? And what if she moved to the Lost Cities? And what if she met the triplets? And what if she fell in love with one?

Man, that's a lot of what ifs. I'm going to give myself a headache.

Also, it's the triplets she meets because they need a little more love. They're my second favorite characters. I can't choose a favorite between them.

Anyways, who wants to see this story? Anyone?

That's it for today.

Have a great rest of your day!

-Orchid