"Here we are! Home sweet home!" Reyna announced as she dropped to the ground. The dragon and Ibis land on either side of her, both tired but relieved as she was. They were finally home. Several yards away she could see the outskirts of their village, a cluster of numerous trees that looked like a small forest from this distance. Reyna hears a grunt and turns to see Kasef sliding off the dragon and managed to land on his feet.

“I’ll never get over that sweet relief of arriving back home.” Ibis sighs as he turns to the dragon. “Thank you for your help, tell the queen we made it home with no problems, and be sure to rest first.”

“Is that cluster of trees really your home?” Kasef asks Reyna as he approached her and tightened the blanket around his shoulders.

"You'll see." She says cheerfully as the dragon takes off into the air and waves. "Take care! And safe travels!"

"It just occurred to me just now that the other elves will be asking too many questions about him, perhaps we should at least have a simple response as to why we have him here." Ibis says gesturing to Kasef. "Perhaps that he was found here with no memory and we're trying to help him recover it?"

"So tell the truth but not the whole truth?" Reyna asks. "And maybe lie a tiny bit?"

"Well maybe we could tell Ikaros the truth, he would find out eventually, he can keep a secret."

"Cici can keep a secret too ya know, and so can Zolar."

"Won't they all be curious to know how I got here?" Kasef points out. "You two said I got here because I left my home, wherever it is, to fight here."

"He has a point." Reyna mutters. "Okay we'll say you were a part of a human army who came to Xadia, but we're not going to tell them you were on the bad human side. How does that sound?"

"I came to Xadia to fight, I got injured and lost my memory, the big dragon back at the mountain we came from gave you permission to take me to your village to fully recover, that could work." Kasef says with a nod. "But...what if-"

"Relax, we'll be fine." Reyna interrupts as she points ahead to the trees. "Come on, it's almost supper and I'm hungry for my Cici's cooking."

The three walked until they reached the edge of the trees, where Kasef could see what looked like small huts hidden among the trees.

"It looks tiny." He comments. Reyna laughs and tilts his head up.

"Actually, a huge majority of us live up there, that's the main part of the village." She says, pointing up to the large wooden bridges and platforms suspended above. "Not many live down in the cottages, only a few like my family. So if you need anything from the village, you need to fly up there."

"Oh, but what if you can't do that wing spell you do?"

"You just ask someone who can to carry you up there, or have an animal that can fly fly you up there instead. We've got some pretty big birds who are trained to carry elves on their backs."

"Phoenixes, to be exact." Ibis adds. "And not just the normal fire ones, we even raise moon phoenixes, star phoenixes as well. But aside from them, we have other birds that aren't quite as large or strong to carry even a child."

"So...how do we get up there?" Kasef asks and Reyna grins.

"Put your arms around my neck." She instructs as she removes her bag and tossed it to Ibis. "I'll fly you up there."

"Careful love, he's probably too heavy for you." Ibis warns but Reyna waved her hand dismissively.

"I carried him into the Spire myself when he was unconscious, I can hold him just fine." She assures her father as Kasef ties the blanket around him to stay secured. Before she could even say the incantation, the three of them heard someone yelling Reyna's name.

"Reyna!"

Reyna turns and gives a gasp as Kasef looks past her to see a small elf with a set of wings sprouting from the lower half of their back rushing towards them.

"Cici?" He hears Ibis say as the smaller elf reaches them.

"Reyna!" The smaller elf cries out as they ran to her and flung their arms around her neck. "You had me, Ikaros and Zolar so worried! It's been too long since you sent that letter, we thought you were dead!"

"Well I certainly am not, since you're hugging me so tightly." Reyna laughed as she returned the hug to the now sobbing elf. "I'm so sorry Cici, I know I should have remembered, but I was a bit...occupied."

"Please don't do that again, next time just write to us, or actually come back to the village and tell us yourself!" The young elf protests, releasing Reyna from the hug and trying to wipe the tears from their eyes. "Everyone heard there was a fight at the Spire and we thought you and Ibis got killed! You had us so worried, none of the family could sleep easily!"

"Oh you big baby." Reyna sighs as she pulls the small elf into another hug. "I'm honestly very sorry for not coming home as soon as we hoped. The queen had us stay at the Spire to protect it and…we found someone."

The elf looked up at her in surprise before they noticed Kasef standing nearby, looking around awkwardly. "Oh who's that? Is that a human?"

"Oh that's just Kasef, he's my prisoner."

"Hey!" Kasef protests. "I am nobody's prisoner!"

"Cici, this is Kasef, Kasef this is Cici." Reyna introduces as the human walks over to them looking slightly grumpy.

"That's a human." Cici comments when he and Ibis get close. "Where did you find him?"

"It's a long story. Where's Ikaros and Zolar?" Ibis says and gives them a hug.

"At work, the other is also at work worried sick to his stomach over you two."

"Oh dear." Ibis murmurs. "Well, best we get to the more worried one to put him at ease. Is he still at work?"

Cici nods. "Oh yes! I've been trying to get him to come home to rest but he refuses to. Come, I'll show you."

🍃🍃🍃

"Oh thank ancients! You're alive!"

Kasef was very sure this entire village was supposed to be filled with just Skywings like Reyna, Ibis and Cici, but he wasn't expecting a large and beefy looking elf with curved horns and fiery colored hair to emerge from the forge and scoop the two elves up into a hug. The two Skywings didn't really seem bothered by it, just a little pained from being squeezed tightly.

"Careful Zolar, don't break them before Ikaros sees them himself!" Cici calls out and gives a giggle before looking to Kasef. "He's always like this before and after any of us leave for long journeys, it's normal to get one of his strong hugs."

"I wasn't really expecting... whatever he is." Kasef admits. "He doesn't look like a Skywing, his ears are a bit slimmer, his skin is dark, hair is a different color, is there more than one race of elves?"

"Oh he's a Sunfire elf, and yes there actually are more than just Skywings living in Xadia! There's about four other races aside from our race and Zolar's race, maybe during your stay you'll get to meet some."

"You really must be careful with those hugs old friend." They hear Ibis laugh and turned to see him and Reyna be dropped to the floor. "Are you going to be that gentle with your future grandchildren?"

"IBIS!" Reyna exclaims in horror. "Damn it I didn't come all the way here just to hear you bring that up in front of a human!"

This family just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Kasef thought as the large elf turned his attention towards him.

"Wait why do you two have a human? And what happened to him?" The elf, Zolar, asked as he stepped towards Kasef. "Goodness, are those scars? Whatever happened to you?"

"Uh...I don't think it's safe to talk about it here, and we should probably head home." Reyna says quickly. "We've already been getting lots of stares too on the way here, and the last thing we need is a mob of elves upset over one human."

"She's right, better head home." Ibis agrees with a nod. "Is Ikaros home yet?"

"No, he's been staying in the library a lot longer than usual." Cici answers and gives Kasef a small push. "Come on, we'll get you home and give you a nice warm meal and a good hot bath, you look a bit dirty."

The four elves led Kasef back to the ground area where the houses were until they came to a large one surrounded by various flowers with a flock of odd looking birds perched on the roof.

"Here we are, home sweet home!" Reyna announced as they reached the door and she opened it. "Come in, I'll warm up some tea while you get yourself settled on the couch."

"I'm already getting sick of tea." Kasef mutters under his breath as Reyna hurries off, earning a giggle from Cici.

"She made you her painkiller tea?" They ask and Kasef shrugs. "Don't worry, her teas that aren't used for herbal remedies won't kill you."

"I heard that!" They hear Reyna shout from another part of the house. "Oh good! My leaves are dry enough for tea! I think I'll use... dragonlace leaves today, perfectly sweet with a spoon of delicious Xadian honey!"

"So where should we put him for now?" Zolar asks Ibis. "We don't really have a guest room anymore, that ended up becoming your room."

"He can sleep on the couch." Cici suggests. "Or he can sleep on the floor of Ibis' room."

"I'm fine with anything." Kasef says as Cici led him to a large couch by one of the windows. "As long as it's not a bother."

"We'll figure something out when Ikaros comes home." Zolar said waving his hand dismissively. "How about you two explain the situation while Reyna makes tea."

It took Ibis a long time to explain everything, from the time he and Reyna had to stay at the Spire longer than they planned to Zubeia's orders to keep an eye on Kasef and keep him in their home to heal. Reyna did join in explaining how she believed Kasef's head and injury could have been what caused his memory loss.  

"...and that's why he's here." Ibis says as he finished explaining everything before taking a sip from his cup of tea.

"Well our daughter is a healer, so of course she's going to insist on making sure any patient of hers fully recovers." Zolar says with a chuckle and shake of his head before glancing over at the human. "So, what do we do now?"

"Get him cleaned up, obviously." Reyna says as she gets off her seat. "I'm going to draw him a warm bath so he can clean whatever I wasn't able to scrub off him, rebandage him because those bindings look awful and he'll need some clean clothes too."

"I don't think he's going to fit in anyone's clothes." Ibis points out. "He looks too...wide for any of my things or Ikaros things and too skinny for Zolar's clothes."

"I'm sure I can find something for him to wear until we can get a tailor to take his measurements and make him something new." Zolar says with a shrug. "He'll just need a belt with my pants and roll up the legs a bit. And he can wear one of my smaller shirts."

"I'm...fine with what I'm wearing." Kasef says quietly from the couch. "You don't have to get me anything-"

"Oh no no no, you are not walking around with those rags." Reyna interrupts. "Those are filthy, and look ready to fall apart at any second. You are absolutely going to need new clothes, I better call up Mags to come and measure you up.”

"Better do what she says." Cici chuckles from beside him. "And I think it's quite unsanitary to stay in dirty clothes too. Maybe if we wash them, we can take them to Mags to get fixed or have her make you something similar to what you wore." 

"I'll go draw up the bath water, stay here." Reyna says as she hurries out of the room.

"And I'll get started on dinner, we'll have some rice and veggies tonight!" Cici says as they get to their feet and hurry out to a different part of the house, leaving Kasef alone with the two older elves.

"So Kasef, what do you remember so far?" Zolar asks before taking a sip of tea from his cup. "Like any foggy memories of something?"

"Well...my name so far,or at least I think it's my name." The human admits, looking down at his own cup. "It was around a few nights ago on our way here that I heard it in my dreams, and it just...felt right? It's weird, but I just felt like this really was my name."

"Well that's good at least, you know what you assume is your own name. Maybe along the way during your stay here something might trigger some memories to resurface. Perhaps a smell, or sound.” Zolar suggests and Ibis nods in agreement.

“Since we’ll be on better terms with the human kingdoms, there is a chance I can be able to obtain some things for trade.” The mage says and looks to the smith. “Perhaps we can see about getting some foods from the human kingdoms to try and trigger something, you think you can sell or trade whatever you make in the forge?”

“I can try, not sure how humans will feel about elvish blades but I can make some fancy hair ornaments for the trades.”

“Bath time!” They hear Reyna shout before she enters the room with several towels. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up before Ikaros gets home and finds a stinky human sitting in the middle of his house."

"I don't stink!" Kasef protests as Reyna wrinkles her nose at him.

"Yes you do, ya big stinker. Of sweat and dirt, follow me please to the bathroom."

Kasef follows Reyna to a large room that had a tub that looked large enough for three grown elves to sit in that was filled almost to the brim with water and had several clay flasks surrounding it. The room was warm and steamy and smelled kind of sweet, probably from whatever was in those flasks that Reyna had probably poured into the water.

"Alright, strip and get in." She orders, gesturing to the tub as she sets the towels on the floor. "I'll be back in a few minutes to make sure you've scrubbed well. If you haven't, I'll scrub you myself, and believe me, I scrub hair hard."

"Can you get out then?" Kasef asks. "So I can at least bathe myself?

"Alright, but remember to scrub yourself very good." Reyna says as she heads to the door. "And remember to remove the bandages on your wounds and be very careful when you wash there, dirt on wounds is not good. Can't have them get infected and you end up dying from it."

Once Reyna was out and shut the door behind her, Kasef started to undress for the bath. He winced at the sight of those pale scars that stood out on his arms and chest looking like cracks. The wound on his chest when he removed the bandages looked just as horrid but to his relief it wasn't bleeding. It still felt weird thinking how he was practically so close to death and bleeding out, but he was just too stubborn to give up just yet.

Makes me wonder how stubborn I was before losing my memory. The human thinks to himself as he carefully unwrapped the bandages from his head that covered his eye. He gingerly touched the scar over his right eye and winced, wishing now he hadn't removed it. Reyna said she tried so hard to save his eye, but the arrowhead had damaged it too much so she was forced to remove it and sew the eye shut to avoid infection.

What even happened to me that left me like this? Kasef wonders as his hand strays to the large scar over his chest and looks at the one in his hand. And who tried to kill me?

So many questions that he couldn't even figure out the answers to, nor could Reyna and her family give him. So far all he knew was his name, he certainly was not supposed to be in this land, he was part of some sort of war and on the side that lost, he apparently stank of dark magic (not that he knew what it smelled like, but that dragon seemed to know what it smelled like to know), and so far only four elves didn't want to kill him. He just hoped this Ikaros Reyna and her other family members kept mentioning wasn't as hostile as the other elves of the village.

On their way to the forge and to the cottage a small handful elves had thrown something at him, cursing at him in a language he couldn't understand and some looked ready to stab him with something. Lucky for him Reyna, Ibis and Cici had stood around him like a wall and Zolar later brought up the rear. Just the sight of the towering Sunfire elf was enough to make several elves back away, along with Reyna glaring at them and gripping a knife she had pulled out of her bag earlier.

"Hey, have you bathed yet?" He heard Reyna yell from the other side of the door, pulling him from his thoughts. "Zolar has some clothes he thinks could fit you since Ibis and Ikaros are too skinny, and we can't have you walking around in rags or naked around the village."

"N-no!" Kasef responds immediately. "Just leave them outside the door!"

"I'll just throw them in, with my eyes squeezed shut because my father will have a fit if he finds his clothes on the floor outside."

Kasef immediately moves towards the tub as the door opens, Reyna's head sticking in with her eyes squeezed shut before she tossed in a pile of clothes and immediately shut the door. "No bathe yourself, and don't take too long! I'll have to rebandage you!"

🍃🍃🍃

"You think Ikaros won't mind Kasef living with us for a while?" Reyna asks her fathers as she sets the table for six. "I'd hate for him to be living in a hostile environment."

"I'm sure he won't mind, once you explain to him." Zolar assures her, handing her another plate to set down. "But if you mean if he will be upset for having a human guest, once he learns why he's here he'll be alright with it. And knowing him, he'd probably try to clear out the attic just to give him a room."

"Perhaps we should." Ibis chuckles as he placed a large pitcher down on the table. "I think he'll like this juice, he seemed to like those berries Reyna picked for him the other day."

"Dinner is ready!" Cici announced as they emerged from the kitchen with a large pot and sets it in the middle of the table next to the pitcher. "I'll go get the veggies, I made sure to add some tasty spices to it for flavor!"

"Stop, you're making me drool!" Reyna laughs as the other two adults laughed. "I'll go get Kasef, he should be done drying himself off and getting dressed.

"You know, I don't think I've seen our daughter get this attached to someone since Cici." Zolar says when Reyna rushed off. "And it's nice to see her act like this."

"You should have seen her back at the Spire, when I told her we'd have to send him back to be dealt with like all the other enemy soldiers she looked ready to bite my head off." Ibis chuckles. "She'd only known him for less than a day and she was ready to stab anyone who even looked at that boy wrong."

"She looked ready to stab the elves who looked ready to hurt him, I think it'd be best if we don't let him out of the house without one of us to accompany him." Zolar says with a nod. "We'll tell Reyna when she comes back with Kasef."

"Here's the veggies!" They hear Cici announce as they emerged with a covered pot. "Seasoned with the best seasonings I could get my hands on!"

"Perfect! Now where's your sister and our guest?"

"Right here!" Reyna emerges into the dining room pulling Kasef in behind her. "He was drowning in your shirt Zolar, and I had to find several belts to tie together to keep the pants from falling down."

The faded red shirt Kasef was wearing was indeed too big on him as he kept trying to cover up one shoulder and had the sleeves rolled up several times. Reyna looked like she was trying so hard not to laugh while the poor human just looked very uncomfortable and slightly annoyed as he was trying to keep his new temporary clothes from slipping.

"Okay that's actually not too bad." Cici comments, gesturing to Kasef's new clothes. "But we might need to fix the shirt, he's drowning in it."

"Not Zolar's fault he's so beefy." Reyna laughs. "I still can't get over that every Sunfire elf we've met is scrawny or slightly muscled, and our father is the complete opposite."

"Well he does work in a forge so it's expected." Cici points out with a small giggle. "Kasef could just wear a vest until we get him a better shirt and pants tailored for him."

"You sure he doesn't have anything smaller as a shirt?" Kasef asks. "I...I don't think I'm going to feel comfortable walking around with just a vest."

"Unfortunately no." Zolar laughs. "I'm sorry, but tomorrow morning we'll take you to Mags and get you fitted for some new clothes."

"This reminds me of the time Reyna and Cici decided to raid your closet when they were little because they were cold." Ibis chuckles. "They stole two of your shirts so they could stay warm because they didn't want to get a blanket."

"First off, we were both too short to get the blankets from inside the closet." Reyna scoffs. "And please don't bring that up, we were six."

"You were ten."

"Family! I'm home!" A new voice called out.

"We're in the dining room love!" Zolar calls out as Reyna and Cici's faces lit up excitedly. "And we have a guest!"

"If by guest you mean Reyna and Ibis, I would very much like to see them! And I'm so glad they're home too!" Ikaros emerged into the dining room with a tired smile and both Cici and Reyna tackled him in a hug. "Oh goodness! You two do know you're too big to keep tackling me like that!"

"We know!" Cici laughs. "But we still love doing it!"

Ikaros laughs. "I am very well aware about that." His eyes then land on Kasef and his happy expression immediately drops. "Zolar, am I hallucinating seeing a human standing in here wearing your clothes?"

Both Ibis and Zolar turn to Kasef, who gives them a helpless shrug and points to Reyna.

"Uh…Ikaros this is Kasef. Kasef, this is our father and Zolar's husband Ikaros." Reyna says, releasing her father and hurried over to the human. "And Ikaros, you might want to sit down for this."