Tale of Elves

Where did elves come from? Nobody really created them. They have been around since the beginning of time. But where did they come from?

Back in the Meji era, there was a man with a wife and a son. They lived out in the countryside of Japan and lived a normal life. Or rather, the wife believed that they lived a normal life. Lately, their teenaged son started disappearing in the night. His bed would be empty and then he would be too tired to get up in the morning. He had also stopped eating or living actively like he had in the past.

“Son, are you feeling okay?” his mother asked one morning. She placed her hand on his forehead, but he pushed her away.

“I’m fine, mother,” he insisted. “Really, I am.” His daze-filled tone told her otherwise. Her son placed his chopsticks on his full bowl of rice.

“Thank you for breakfast,” he said. The youth walked back to his bedroom. His mother looked at her husband.

“Dear,” she said. The man sat at the table eating his rice.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

“But honey…”

“He’ll get over it soon. He’s a growing boy.” The man looked up and saw the worried look on his wife’s face. He sighed and lowered his chopsticks.

“Fine, I’ll talk to him tonight,” the father said. His wife bowed her head.

“Thank you,” she said. Her husband patted her on the head.

--------

The next night led to a change in a man. Just like his son, he would disappear into the night and sleep in through the morning. The man stopped going to work, eating, and paying attention to his wife. When he and their son started to look so thin, the wife decided to take action.

So one night, she pretended to be asleep when he her husband rose and got out of bed. Once she heard the door close, the wife got out of bed and followed her boys out of the house. She trailed them down the river and into the thick woods. The wife couldn’t understand what was going on.

Why are they going out here night after night? Suddenly, she noticed a small sea of fireflies floating around her. The wife looked around, frowning.

“What is all of this?” she asked. “Why are there fireflies in the middle of autumn?” It didn’t take long for her to be drawn into the hazy lights. She had no idea how or when it happened, but when the wife snapped out of it, she found herself in a city made of golden yellow. Buildings made of moss rose stood as tall as the sky. The river flowed in a thin pattern. The wife almost jumped when she heard birds singing over her head.

“What is this place?” she asked. Her eyes caught a glimpse of her husband and son walked up to this castle-like house made of moss. She hid behind a rock as she watched the door slide open. A beautiful lady stood in the doorway dressed in a fine white kimono made of silk. Her bright blonde hair nearly blinded the men standing before her. Just looking at this woman made the wife grind her teeth.

Who the hell is she?! Her husband and son followed the woman into the moss-covered house. By the time the door closed, the wife marched up to the house seeing shades of red. Her anger built up brick by brick as she pounded on the thick wood.

“Open this door and give me back my family right now!” she shouted. “Come out here and show yourself!” She backed up when the door slid open. The woman’s pale, beautiful face made her blush. She had never seen such light blue eyes before in her life. The woman in the house raised an eyebrow.

“Can I help you?” she asked. Every angry word that the wife could think of disappeared when she looked into her eyes.

“Uh…” she said. That was when she noticed two things. The first was the woman’s pointy ears. After struggling for something to say, she asked, “What is wrong with your ears?” The blonde-haired woman reached up and touched them.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Your ears are… so… so…”

“What?”

“Pointy!”

“So?”

The woman outside blinked. “It’s so weird.”

“You look weird yourself.”

The wife was about to speak when she heard giggling inside the house. She quickly looked inside and her jaw dropped. More women like the one before her were crowded around a glass table covered with food and drink. A dark-haired maiden was playing a shamisen while a smaller girl sang. These women all wore silk kimono of various colors. Low and behold, her husband and son sat in the middle of the fancy midnight party. They weren’t the only ones either. Practically all of the men in the local village were in the mist of this private party in the middle of the woods. The sight of her family enjoying themselves in the company of strange and beautiful women made her blood just burn.

“Dear, what are you doing?!” she shouted. Her husband snapped out of his trance and looked up as pale as a ghost.

“Dear?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing!” his wife yelled.

“Mother?” their son asked. Turns out, the beautiful women had been luring the men out to the woods for their nightly parties through their music. It didn’t take long for the women from the local village to put it all together. Needless to say, none of them were happy. Still, the beautiful women of the woods didn’t go away. They just weren’t in secret anymore. In fact, the humans gave them a new name: elves.

Moonlight Elf Party