Fishing was not just a way to sustain the body, in Cutch's opinion. It had also proven a most effective ritual when he wanted a quiet time of reflection. Something about the sights and sounds of a watery location, whether a still pond or burbling stream, cleansed his mind, allowing whatever thoughts or feelings that were swirling in his depths to float up to his mindful consideration.
He and his wife also liked to eat fish.
On this, his second day as a husband, he awoke before sunrise, anxious to continue reading "Mortals: A Case Study". Its author, his new bride Seregrian, had lain with him the night before, delightfully tending with him to what She impishly referred to as their 'fragile vows', and he remembered falling asleep to Her tender face and Her hand lovingly stroking his brow and, at some point, she kissed the end of his nose. He was unsure if She slept, as it was never as necessary for Her, but She was awake and sitting at her desk in the Sanctum when he rose and passed by to the descending stairs. She looked up at him with Her customary 'good morning' smile, briefly pausing Her research, and noting the case study in his hand.
"Coffee or tea? Tarts or buns?" he asked quietly, as if in deference to her labors. Her eyes slid up from the case study to rest respectfully on his face.
"Coffee and tarts, melethel nin, if you please."
After preparing the light meal and delivering it quietly to Her desk, he retreated, leaving Her undisturbed from her work, and he dressed for the mornings task: fishing.
The stream ran through the middle of Her Enclave, the lower part of the Falathlorn village on the banks of the Lhûn. The waters burbled by, cold, crisp, and clean, on their way to the river's greater flow. At the mouth of the stream, a breakwater slowed its course, forming a deep pool. Spreading over all, the trees serenely gathered around the Enclave's homes and workshops provided ample shade and a sense of protective seclusion. Cutch baited his hook and cast it out.
Earlier, while the coffee was brewing, he’d continued his reading of Her case study. In "The Art of the Meal", She recounted his first journey to her previous home in the Falathlorn, where he'd prepared a simple meal for Her and a few of the other Elves in their Company at the time. She'd described his preparations thus:
"...not so much a meal, as it was cooking elevated to the level of performance art. Simple foods presented with prose and flair, the eager light in his eyes relishing the experience of the courses of the meal. I considered to myself, and confided in the others later, that this Mortal had somehow captured an Elvish flair for feasting."
It occurred to Cutch that even that early in their relationship, only as colleagues, She had either sensed his hidden Elven heritage, or was seeing in him someone who She wanted in a heart that still slumbered but dreamed. He recalled the event as a magical encounter with wondrous Elves who were kind, respectful, and honestly appreciative of the fare he offered. As he watched the fishing line slowly circle in the pool's drifting flow, he realized that even back then, She stood out amongst other Elves, as if Her presence was bird-song to feelings hiding like a hermit in his own caved heart.
Still, the remainder of this study entry revealed the scholarly bastions from which she stridently viewed the world. More than curious, She was intrigued, and with care formed of studiousness forged through millennia, She determined to make more of an acquaintance of Cutch, purely for research, of course.
He smiled, staring down into the waters of the pool. Although it was true that good food opens many doors, including to the heart, it does not immediately invite free crossing of the threshold.
In the next chapter, "Interviews and Etymology", she revealed herself ever the intrepid investigator, looking for more evidence to satisfy what her heart may have already been telling her. She described her activities as:
"...casually and discreetly interviewing others of the merchant company with whom he seemed acquainted. From these interviews, I determined he was local to this land, a life-long Bree-lander who rarely if ever ventured beyond the borders of his little lands. But none of this could account for where he may have learned such skill; I can only conclude his talent is native-born, a true prodigy in the art."
Of course, She could not at that time have known of his far-flung travels as an unremarkable little fellow, nor would any who she interviewed have known, either, that his skills had been acquired during these travels, working for a time here and there in fields and kitchens. But the discreteness with which she inquired seemed to be a method of concealing from others an affection that was already lifting in Her, or perhaps it was a way of keeping affection at bay while She mindfully concentrated on the task at hand, learning about Cutch.
He chuckled as She related, almost as an aside, the moment he came to her aid when she had injured an ankle in a riding mishap. As he was applying a cold compress to the swollen joint, she described the moment:
"...... I do confess that the cold compress was soothing and even calming. I conversed with others there for a moment, then casually turned my eyes back to my ‘healer’ – he was gazing at me, unmoving, with the most peculiar look in his eyes."
But Cutch remembered something quite different. This first time that he'd touched Her, it was if a waking dream exploded, replacing his reality with an image of Her as somehow a towering, rumbling volcano thrust up from alabaster foothills, fury just beneath the surface. As he crouched cowering before it, the image changed, becoming Her, clad in red, barefoot, round with his child, approaching him with a loving face and open arms. He would ever be transfixed by that memory-dream.
Still, Her investigative mind was not done with him. The case study entry finished with the relating of a rather exhaustive investigation into the meaning of his name, which he had not known nor was remotely curious about until She told him:
".... a woody herb that is both useful in culinary flavoring, and as a distinctive red dye. Both of which, to my mind, are appealing."
Even this early in the case study, it seemed to him Her behavior revealed in Her the apt hunter, studying prey.
"But, no", he muttered as he pulled a nice fat dace from the pool. "She was not hunting me. She was scouting for the safety of her own path forward."
