Here's an excerpt from my NaNoWriMo novel, Tears for the Silent Lands!!!    (Note, this has not been edited at all, and it was written at midnight, so bear with me!  No stealing allowed!)

“Despite what you think,” Attalnys said, “the elves are not as strong as you suppose.”

            Lonirael looked up from his papers, surprised.  “What are you saying, my friend?” he asked in surprise.  “Are you doubting our health or our defenses?”  He laughed, a deep, ringing laugh, deeper and yet at the same time higher than any mortal’s.  “Truly, Attalnys, are you giving in to these doomsday theories?”  He rose from his ornate oak desk where he had been writing in elvish and walked over to where Attalnys stood. 

            Attalnys remained firm.  “I am a physician among our people,” he said.  “If there is a weakness, I know.” 

            Lonirael looked at his friend, trying to decide if he truly believed what he said.  “Attalnys,” he said.  “Just because you are a doctor and wise among elves doesn’t mean that you know everything.” 

            Attalnys raised his hand and rested it on Lonirael’s broad shoulder.  “Lonirael, my friend,” he said, “You are a leader of one of the seven ruling houses.  Everyone respects you, and if you speak they will listen.”  Attalnys looked at the ground in his grave, immortal way, weighing his words.  “I wouldn’t bring this up if I didn’t think a serious matter.” 

            Lonirael stared deep into Attalnys’s gray eyes, and then paced to the other side of the desk.  “I see,” he said gravely.  “How do you think the elves will be defeated?  By an army a thousand times greater than the whole host of men?” 

            “No,” Attalnys stated emphatically.  “You know that we could never be overwhelmed by any army, were it a million times greater than the sand on the sea shore.  No,” he said, shaking his head and looking at the ground.  “Not anything like that.  When our doom comes, it will come in the form of something that seems so insignificantly weak, and yet has strength beyond measure.” 

            Lonirael looked up.  For the first time, there was a trace of fear hidden behind his impassive face.  It was a strange feeling to him, like a taste of a bitter fruit that he had never bitten into before.  Elves like him didn’t know fear.  They were used to not knowing fear.  Could it be that he was really more afraid of his fear than of the possibility that what Attalnys said was true. 

            “Attalnys,” he said, “come with me.”  He lead the other elf out onto the balcony that looked out over the elven city of Talmere. 

            Talmere.  City of the Immortals, city of Legends, a city that seemed to be a dream, and yet was more than real.  It was like living inside a jewel, inside a velvet dream, inside a hope-filled imagining, and yet it lay before them.  Graceful arches and towering spires, all in light, brilliant white marble.  The sun caught the glittering stone, making it live and breathe with the immortals that walked the streets.  A moment, a fragment from heaven, somehow caught within the realms of earth. 

            Walking in the streets and looking out of windows were those who lived in the city, elves of the highest order.  Their faces were unblemished, every one of them, and each individual walked with a marked, soothing grace, beauty in motion.  To a human eye, the elves could do nothing that wasn’t beautiful.  Lonirael stood with his hands on the rail, breathing in the air that smelled of the sweetness of the wildflowers, and knew that everything before him was a part of him.  The city, the people, the buildings and the trees that grew between them, and even the air.  He was Lonirael, high elf, greatest of a great elven house of Idraglori, which extended back 10,000 years.  He did not know that he was the last to rule over his house. 

**Note: As my story is still in the making, all names, places, and events may be subject to change.** Copyright 2008 Cherise A. Do not reproduce at all without my express permission. If you like what I do, you can link to me instead.