Translating the Mirrors

Being 6 years younger than my twin sister's certainly had it's perks. Sure I was too young to be included in their secrets and plans...they simply saw me as their childish, naive and probably annoying sibling that knew nothing about the nature of the world. Little did they know that whilst 6 years was too big of a gap to be 'buddies' with them...it was small enough that I could relate to, or at understand the basics of what was going on in their lives. 

Whilst they were going through their teenage angst period I was in the later years of primary school and somehow became the translator between them and my parents. Now over twenty years later at my parents 60th wedding anniversary, it seemed that I was about to fall right back into the same role. As soon as an Elf graduates their initial schooling they are expected to spend the next several years of their practicaly immortal life travelling across the hundreds of regions of the Elvish lands, using their natural gifts and talents towards bettering the Kingdom, building connections and becoming an independent and effectively functioning member of society.

Like a lot of younger and newly matured elves, my sisters and I had not actually returned home yet. I had settled into using my unique observational skills and basic telepathy to become a officer in the Elvish royal army which never kept me in one place for too long and saved me from the unimaginable horror that was settling down with a partner. The last I had heard from my sister's, Natalia....the more adventerous of the two, had bethrothed a Dragon Keeper and was living within the lush wild plains of the North raising mythical beasts and probably a herd of children by now. Alexia, the more introverted... yet also the natural brains of the family had started her apprenticeship to be one of the main librarians of the National Elvish library and probably spent most of her time holed up in books all day. 

With our three very different personalities and occupations, I'm sure it came to no surprise to either one of my parents that I was stuck playing translator again. Yet this time it wasn't moody teenagers I was interpreting...it was much more difficult now, as hard as that was to believe. 

Seeing two identical people, basically carbon copies of one another struggling to communicate was pretty amusing...albeit sad at the same time. Once upon a time, these two had been as close as siblings could be. Although they weren't telepathic, it was true...twins had some form of mental and emotional communication that normal siblings simply didn't. If I was a weaker or pettier person, I probably would refuse to help them considering that they had purposely isolated and left me out of things our entire childhood.

Fortunately, I didn't have energy to waste towards holding grudges and besides...my parents deserved a great anniversary celebration and if that meant being the Peace Corp, that was a sacrifice I will willing to make. With their vivid scarlett hair, deep emerald eyes and pale turquoise skin they had been both naturally stunning as they grew up. Now, whilst they were both still beautiful...their appearence had changed as much as physically possible for indentical twins. 

Clearly the toll of Motherhood and the harsh weather of the wilds plains of the Northern Elvish lands had caused quite an impact on Natalia. Her once pastel skin was now a deep teal that contrasted vividly against her scarlett bob curling up under her chin in soft waves. Her once gentle Elvish accent that had

 matched their parents soft Eastern dialect had disappeared and been replaced by a rustic yet booming drawl that she was currently using to roughly stumble through a language that she had clearly not spoken in a long time. With hundreds of different districts, each with their own dialect...the lands of the Elvish were a travellers worst nightmare and a translators dream. As Natalia realised that she wasn't being understood by either her parents or twin sister, she progressively got louder...her booming voice obviously having developed from calling after the gaggle of kids crowding around her parents kitchen. With headfuls of ginger curls and pure mischief glowing in their brilliant Azure eyes there was no doubt that these were her nieces.

On the lounge opposite to 

 her twin, my other elder sister Alexia simply stared back at Natalia...a bit like a stunned fish. Her light skin had kept's its pale pallour and her crimson hair was pulled back in a perfect high ponytail...not a hair out of place as she sat there awkwardly and attempted to talk to her sister in a different dialect yet again. For a librarian in training, you would think that my scholar of a sister would have at least kept up the basics of the Eastern Elvish dialect that was her first language. Yet, all my sister seemed able to muster up was the basics...a child's language level. 

I felt for them both at that moment, yet at the same time they deserved it. Sure they had been living in places where their original language was not spoken...but it was sort of the same language, just a different dialect. How dare they not hold onto their roots? I had been living away from home as well and yet I still had managed to be fluent in my first language...or my first dialect really. I mean to be fair...being in the army meant I had to be fluent in practically all the Elvish dialects, but still...shame on them.

If it wasn't for my parents sakes I wouldn't be helping at all and instead I would probably get some snacks and sit back and watch the show. But...it was their special day and they deserved to have their family all under one roof at least pretending to understand one another. Which was why despite my lack of kinship with my siblings I was using my particular skills to translate a loving yet traditional Elvish couple who spoke only the Eastern suburban dialect and had done their whole lives, a vibrant yet loud mother from the North plains who had lost all traces of her once Eastern accent in the harsh tones of the wild North...and a quiet and proper intellect who had somehow managed to forget her own roots and only spoke the formal variations of the main Elvish dialects...Happy Anniversary's everyone.