The community of LleuGarnock gathers twice a day for meals, at sunrise and sunset. Elves eat very little, in general, but they hate to eat alone. Food is a thing to be shared.
Elves eat many nuts and seeds, fruits and herbs. They grow small amounts of grain, catch fish and hunt birds when it is necessary, but they usually will not kill mammals.
An adult elf works at his assigned job from after breakfast until usually three or four, depending on the season, the work needed, and the elf’s mood.
An elf child has a period of study after breakfast – two or three hours, depending on the season. Once a child has learned basic reading, writing, some math and elf history, this becomes a free study period.
After this is chore time, in which elf children help with jobs that do not require magic. This lasts an hour, and then they have free time until dinner.
Elves usually discover their particular talent as a preteen, and then develop it over the next few years, perhaps training with an adult elf during their study period. It is not unusual for an elf to discover later that he has another, somehow related talent. At around 16-18 the elf, with the help of the community, decides on a job. It may take more than one form. It may be changed later if he gets bored of it or if his particular talent is needed elsewhere.
An elf’s green hair is alive to some extent, and can create energy from sunlight. Cutting it does not hurt the elf, and length is a matter of personal preference, although no elf would shave his head. Younger elves tend to keep their hair short for practical reasons, while older elves may grow it out – the fraction more energy it will produce becomes significant over the lifespan of an elf.
A portion of the energy is used immediately by the elf, but about 60% is stored for later use.
An elf ages similarly to a human for the first 20 years of his life. Then his aging slows almost to a halt. A sun elf can expect to live past 200 years, sometimes reaching 300 and beyond. At this point in his life an elf appears no older than 50 in human terms.
When a sun elf’s physical life is over, either through injury or having lived too long, he makes the transition to the form of moon elf.
A moon elf is 4-6” tall, intangible, weightless, and invisible when not glowing. This glow is powered by the stored energy of their hair during the sun elf phase. It is limited in amount, and when it is gone, the moon elf can no longer appear to the physical eyes of any being. For this reason, moon elves prefer to appear at night, when less stored light need be used to make them visible.
A moon elf will always retain his personality, life force and magic. However, the magic of a moon elf is subtly different than that of a sun elf. It is not well understood by sun elves in general.
Sun elves are also referred to as day fairies, and moon elves as night fairies, though this is uncommon. Humans mistakenly separate the two phases by the categories “elf” and “fairy.”
Sun elves revere life force in general, and their ancestors in particular. Before they sleep, elves may pray to their ancestors, and if they are heard by a moon elf, they may receive help. This is probably the origin of the human idea that “fairies” grant wishes.
Elves generally go by their given names only. There is no "family name," or indication of an elf's ancestry. An elf may put his community's name after his own if he wishes to be more specific, but for the past 150 years there has only been one community of sun elves, and so all elves may follow their name with the phrase "of LleuGarnock." Most elves are not even aware of this, since everyone they know lives in LleuGarnock, so no one bothers to say it.
The Elves of LleuGarnock is Copyright Irene Pitcairn 2008.
The Elves of LleuGarnock is hosted on ComicGenesis, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.