Ray turned to his mother and said, "Why don't you go to bed mother. You have been worried sick between the stranger's visit last night, us three squabbling with you and father, father's unplanned trip, and Sue going missing, not to mention you have been looking for her longer than us, you must be exhausted. Why don't you get some sleep the three of us will stay up tonight and take care of Sue."
Ben and Mike both nodded in agreement. Since they were the main cause of all this they knew it was their responsibility to take care of things and in this case that meant making sure mother and Sue were alright. They were beginning to see that their words this morning had been rather rash and had caused a great deal of distress and damage.
Their mother thought about it for a second and then said, "Make sure at least one of you is awake and by her side until I wake alright and if anything happens wake me right away."
"Of course." Said Ben
Mother then nodded her head and left the room leaving the three brothers to take care of Sue throughout the night.
"I don't understand why this is happening, it's not like run off all day like this without telling anyone!" Said Ray.
"You don't understand," said Ben, "Maybe it's because she and I are only a year apart in age,but I understand perfectly. Her whole tiny world was turned on its head with just a knock on the door. Unlike us, you have to have realized that the thought of anyone other than Mother and Father leaving the mountain and forest has never even crossed her mind. She may only be elven but she is very set in her ways for her age. To that effect, maturity may have caused you to lose sight of this but she is only elven. Did you her expect her to be able to handle this like mother and father?"
Ben stop to take a breath and Ray just looked at him stunned. Like Ben had just said, he wasn't much older than Sue, so the fact that he was having to being the mature one in this situation was a blow to Ray.
Mike spoke up, "Where was this lovely perspective earlier in the day when it would have actually been useful! Now is not the time to be talking about this especially in front of the person that it would bug the most. You saw how she responded to Mother not to long ago what if she can still hear us?"
That caught the other two off guard. Mike just shook his head. He then walked over to Sue's bedside. He stroked her hair gently and spoke softly to her saying, "I'm going to go make a light lemon chicken soup for you, your favorite, kind of, I know you prefer it with a cream base, but that wouldn't be good for you right now." He was rambling, a habit that he had when he was upset or stressed. "I'm going to make you that and we'll keep it warm for you on the stove all night and even into the morning that way it will be ready whenever you are." He then gently bent down and gave he a little kiss on her forehead.
Ray went out as well and got a chair from the dining room and came back into Sue's room. "Can you go get some water from the well, it will be colder than the water we brought in this morning?"
Ben looked at Ray with apprehension. He was scared of the dark, but would never admit that outright. Ray sighed realizing what was wrong, "Nevermind I'll do it. You sit here and talk to her, see if she is awake or not and if she heard anything we were talking about. If she did try to comfort her."
"But…"
"No buts it's either that or going to get the well water."
"Fine." Ben huffed.
"I see your acting your age for once, but now is not the time for that." As Ray walked out of the room he ruffled Ben's hair.
Ben rolled his eyes, then grabbed the chair that Ray had brought and moved it closer to Sue before sitting down on it. He fixed his hair while looking at Sue.
"Are you awake Sue?"
"…"
"What am I even suppose to say?"
"…"
"Well how about I tell you my thoughts on this matter. I don't really want to go to war. I'm just feel held back here I'm sure there's so much more for me to learn, so much more for me to do, and so many more people to meet beyond the limits our parents have drawn for us. I'm sure Mike is really using his war situation as an excuse or opportunity as well. Neither of us want to go somewhere dangerous where we could die. We are just tired of being confined. Ray is the one who wants to leave solely because of that man who showed up, that's only because he wants to keep us safe. It probably has to do more with the responsibility he feels as the oldest, so what I'm trying to say is no one wants to leave you or hurt you we just also have our own individual interests."
He stopped talking and looked down at Sue. There were tears coming from her eyes and her mouth was moving as if she was trying to say something.
"Calm down Sue you need to relax your not well." He placed a hand on her shoulder to let her know that he was there. "You're not the only one whose scared you know." He said under his breath.
Sue then croaked out, "Thank you."
Ben looked at her confused. What was she thankful for were the reason she like this.