Lockdown Instadrabbling by Nienna

Galadriel trailed after Melian while she strung the halls of Doriath with elegant flowers. Galadriel was impatiently waiting for a response to her last assignment, the one in which she had practiced singing things into being, starting with a blackberry. It had… sort of worked. At any rate, it appeared to be edible. It’s just that it was… quite large. And a peculiar shade of swirly dark pink. It was quite humorous, really. 

Galadriel sometimes had to remind herself that it was okay to be working on something of no practical value. (Although, she rationalized, you never know what will come in very handy. Like, for example, if her people were starving again.) Sweeping such thoughts aside, she reminded herself that in Doriath, there was no danger. It was like being in Valinor all over again, except this time, she was not limited to staying put. She could leave with relative ease, if she so chose, and there was a vast world out there, a world in which she could choose a portion to rule herself. But, after the Ice, Galadriel was perfectly happy staying in safe, comfortable, wondrously beautiful Doriath for a very, very long time. 

Especially now that Melian’s twinkling eyes were turning around to look at her, asking why on Arda she was being followed in silence for so long.

My lovely wife has asked me to speech record the story of our first kiss, so I am doing just that. It has been almost 1000 years since the events being described here, so my memory is imperfect. I wrote little bits at the time though, never more than a paragraph or so. I will be working off of that as well. All the same, details may be fabricated or blurred. The exact nature of certain feelings eludes me. I feel compelled to literally go on record saying that despite the rumors, we elves do not have faultless memories! Ours may be more exemplary than those of the short lived Edain, but that’s like comparing … elanor to… oranges! And really, you’d think they would remember more, what with having so little to remember!) 

Anyway, I’m getting off track here. One summer when I was not yet fully grown I was sent to visit Earwen. I had never met her before, but our families were close. It was a strange feeling being surrounded by people whose faces I had never seen and yet who knew shockingly intimate details about my entire life-story! Our rooms were across from each other. We were about the same age. To be completely honest, I didn’t think much of you at first. You were just there. I wasn’t a particularly friendly youngster, and you kept bugging me when I wanted to read my books. But sometimes you would come into my room and quietly read next to me. And as I warmed up to you we went on such marvelous adventures! I remember, once that summer we went on a voyage to Tol Erresea! We used the boat in your parents’ yard; you could sail very competently. It was a short trip, just there and back, plus stopping in the middle to look for sea life. But I had never been off mainland Valinor and, more importantly, I had never been on an adventure with someone I really cared for (other than my parents of course, whom I love dearly.) We had so much fun, swimming in our full clothes and playing flotsam on the shore, then drying off on the ride home! But all of this is for another time. 

The story I want to tell, the one you asked me to tell is the one about when I kissed you. And that happened a few weeks later. The realization was somehow both all of a sudden and gradually building. I would tag along to your singing classes (and I was being taught too, while I was here.) You and your classmates were doing scenes from a variety of different Telerin operas. I was in the ensemble for two of them, and provided some valuable distracting of the audience during scene changes  (my personal favorite was the frog jumping) the rest of the time. There was one scene- the song will forever be etched into me- in which you were playing a young man who was in love with a woman who you were unable to stay with, because the king wanted to have relations with her, but the two of you were speaking tenderly and romantically to each other one last time. The other girl might as well not have been there. It was always you I watched. I watched you squatting on the side, and there was one day in particular when hearing your voice just seemed like too much. I watched as you bent down and stared into the other girl’s eyes with such loving tenderness. I knew it was entirely fake, and yet I hardly cared. “I wish that was me!” I realized. I felt quiet and toned down in a way I couldn’t name, a pensiveness that seems to have a tangible weight of its own. I almost felt faint. It just felt like too much. I sat down and watched you, fully enveloped in this melancholy/buzzing feeling. 

Your voice is so smooth- I could talk about it for hours. And I did, under the veil of moderate interest that I always used when I was very, very interested in something. Exactly three weeks after the day when I knew, we were sitting in your garden on a hot day. There were some fallen flowers littered around us, but most of them had dried up by now. The flowers on the tree, on the other hand, were still quite lovely. But there was no wind, and in a hot day you really want wind. We were planning to go inside soon and make cold smoothies. But first, we were sitting and talking about.. dinner I think. I can’t recall exactly, it was something incredibly mundane. I was kind of distracted by how close we were sitting, and in a sudden flash of bravery, I interrupted the conversation to ask if I could kiss you. You looked surprised, rightfully, of course. It’s not like I had led up to it in any way. But then you grinned at me, and said you’d wanted to since I first arrived. I swiveled around a little and nervously brought my mouth to yours. It was kind of uncomfortable at first, what with my neck being turned all the way to the side. So we got up and leaned against the tree, and that was much better. It was like every hole in my perception was filled with the most wonderful warm, excited, rich, smooth feeling. In fact, I’m going to turn off the recording and kiss you right now!

Dear Lalwen,

Were it that you could carry me once again to our rocky abode! I’m remembering it now. (I could go there still, of course, but the magic in it is gone.) It was so dusty and dull, but the absence of color only made your body leap out of the landscape, like a glare of sun across metal. Remember how you called it our hidden sanctuary? How you took me there one night when my mind was clouded with worry, and spoke to me and left me be and kissed me in turn, till all was well again? I miss you.

Dearly,

Ellemírë

It was in the dusty deserts of Valinor that we met. I remember still how you loved the heat, how it made your body feel protected and embraced. Even in the early days, you always carried with you a coat of fear. I loved the heat for a different reason; it made you shine brighter than the sand mounds, brighter than the city. It filled us up with a brightness that could be our own, no one else’s. And for you, this was key. We traversed the edges of our world together. Ironically, now you have left me to travel alone in a world with edges that are not so easy to reach. You were always somewhat uncomfortable with interaction, somewhat untouchable and unreachable. I wonder how you’re doing in a world without me. You are so charismatic and studied in every nuance of language that I’m sure you’re functioning just fine, but have you found anyone to care for you? I couldn’t bear to do it anymore, and I don’t regret my decision. I am still angry about all that you took, but all the same, I hope you’ve found someone who comes close enough to reach you in that vast world.

What is it that marks the barrier between the realm of the Gods and ourselves? Is there an invisible line drawn across the ocean? No! The truth is there is nothing that marks the line. Just great expanses of water, from which we are excluded by our temperate airs alone. Well, no more! No more shall we be weak and feeble! No more will the riches of life be denied us! No more shall we submit to death assuming we must, without undertaking to win back the vigor and longevity which the greedy Valar refuse to admit is our due!

Tonight I will be determining the best of my sailors and warriors, ones both skilled in their craft and in understanding of their purpose. These few will traverse, at long last, the route that leads us to the Undying Lands!