A Thousand Years in the Making

If there is no water to put out the fire, throw dirt in its face.

I woke up the next morning to a rapping on my door.

"Arisa, are you awake?" I heard from the other side. It was Genji. I got out of the bed and opened the door.

"Oh, there you are," he said smiling. "I brought you a change of clothes." I looked down at the nightgown. I was so tired last night I hadn't even thought of changing. "We don't have women's clothes and this might be a bit big-" I took the bundle of clothes from his hands and walked to the bed.

"I'm sure they're fine," I said.

"Ok, then. I will be back to get you ina minute." With that he shut the door. I could hear his footsteps echoing down the hall.

I unwrapped the bundle and began putting on the clothes.Genji was right, this thing was huge. He had given me a creme colored tunic with a yellow sash. No matter what I did the thing would always fall off of my shoulders. So, I wrapped the sash around my chest as a sort of undershirt. Then I put on the tunic. Now even if the shoulders fell off-which they did-you couldn't see anything. But there was still one problem. Without the sash the tunic kept falling open. I wasn't about to walk around all day holding my tunic shut. I scanned the room for anything useful. That is when I caught sight of a piece of rope hanging from the canopy above the bed.

'Genji will be back any minute,'I thought. 'I need to hurry.'

I scrambled onto the bed with some difficulty since it was so high. Then, stretching to my fullest, I grabbed the rope and pulled. Nothing. It was stuck fast to the ceiling. This frustrated me and my time was ticking away. At one point I got so fed up that I literally swung from the ceiling by the rope. This seemed to do the trick and I fell back onto the bed. Unfortunately, the whole canopy came with me. Now I had another problem.

"Arisa?" I heard suddenly.

'Shoot!' I thought. "One minute!" I yelled at the door.

Tying the rope around my waist, I rushed around trying to gather up the canopy. Once I had gotten it into a bundle I shoved it under the bed and ran to the door.

"Done," I said as I opened it. Genji looked me up and down.

"It wasn't what I expected," he said. "But it works," he chuckled.

"I improvised," I said coldly and walked out the door. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and was in a bad mood. Genji followed.

It was a little nerve racking leading the way, but I was pretty sure I just went straight. Eventually, we again arrived at the cafeteria. This time I could see two people sitting at one of the tables at the far end. Seth waved at us to come over, beside him sat Eric.

"What are you wearing?" asked Seth as we approached.

"Ask Genji," I answered. He looked at Seth and scratched his head.

I glanced over at Eric who seemed to be struggling with something. Curious, I continued to watch. One minute his face would light up with excitement and then he would shake his head.

Seth began to laugh. "Go say hi," he said with a big smile as he shoved Eric out of his chair. He was a bit surprised, but then looked over at me. It seemed he couldn't hold it in any longer. Eric sprinted around the table and grabbed both my hands.

"So your name is Arisa?" he said in a rushed voice.

"Yes-"

"I knew it!" he was practically jumping up and down. "So you are human right? You are female too? I have always wanted to see a woman. I had heard about them but I've never seen one." He rambled on and on. At one point Genji separated our hands and told me to sit. I did so, and Eric kept going. He was clearly in seventh heaven having met a real female.

"Your food is getting cold," said Seth as he stifleda chuckle.

"Oh," and with that Eric sat back down at the table; all the while watching me. Eventually he turned his attention back to his own plate.

We all began eating, but I was clearly having trouble. The sleeves of my tunic kept landing in my eggs. At one point I put down my fork and rolled up my sleeves.We finished eating and sat around the table chatting. Apparently, all of them had been up most of the night planning for the upcoming battle. It surprised me because none of them looked tired in the least. Especially Eric, who still seemed a little giddy.

"Elves don't require as much rest as a human," commented Genji.

"That's right," continued Eric. "Humans require eight to ten hours of sleep every night, while elves need a mere three hours. It is a big difference, but that just goes to show how different we reallyare. I would like to learn a lot more about humans by observing you."

"Huh," I asked.

"It has been such a long time since a female was here. This would be a great opportunity to learn more about them. For instance, what exactly makes a woman different from a man. Is it that one goes hunting and farms while the other stays at home or-" Eric was interrupted by Seth's laughter.

"Why don't you ask her?" he said between breaths. Eric looked at me, eyes wide. I could feel myself getting red. All I could do was stare back at him. I was saved by someone coming through the doors.

"So you are awake, I see," said Mathew. "In that case, Arisa, come with me."

I got up from the table and followed him out of the cafeteria. I looked back to see Erics head fall limp against his chest. He was obviously depressed. I was glad I didn't have to answer his questions, but now I grew nervous all over again. I was determined to make this meeting short and simple.