Sylvanlight, Book I by slflew

Chapter 5. Explanations.

Chapter 5.

"Where does it come from - this quest? This need to solve life's mysteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered. Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we would be better off not looking at all. Not delving. Not yearning. But that's not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here. Yet still we struggle to make a difference. To change the world. To dream of hope. Never knowing for certain who we'll meet along the way. Who, among the world of strangers, will hold our hand. Touch our hearts. And share the pain of trying."  ~ Heroes

When Gwen was eleven, she spent time with her father's grandfather, her great-grandfather. Even though she had, at times, felt very awkward around such an old man, she had grown very fond of him and had grown up on his wild and fantastic stories. It was an emotional time for her - her first real experience watching the utter finality of death. But as she sat in the hospital room watching over him as her parents and grandparents were conferring with doctors outside, her great-grandfather's rasping breaths felt like an eternity. It pained her to see such a vitally strong man be hooked up to so many awful machines. Then he woke up, opened his eyes, as the old bark-like fingers, trembling, gestured for her to come near. She walked over to him, quietly, worried that he needed something. But instead he smiled at her young worried face. "Go over to my things," he rasped. She went to the box where his personal effects were being kept - a wallet, a seashell, a diary, a button, and his odd silver watches. "Bring over my watches, love," he said, and she did so.

Her great-grandfather had taught astrophysics and the sciences for the university for many, many years, with crackpot theories about the universe at which most of academia had laughed. He had learned watchmaking from his father, and these watches were the last remnants of dreams long gone. His shaking fingers caressed worn metal, the sun through the shades glinting off his wedding band. There were five watches in all, linked together on a chain, but the one on the end was much larger than the rest. A gentle smile lit up his face as his fingers reached the last one. "Open it for me, will you? You've never seen it, have you?" he asked.

She shook her head, clicking the small catch on the dial at the top so that the intricately patterned lid snapped back from the watch face. On the inside was a faded black-and-white photograph of his wife, who had died fifty years before in a car accident. "Let me see her," he whispered, and she held up before his bleary eyes the watch, with its worn picture glued to the watch cover. His body relaxed, and he turned to her, whispering.

"When I published my papers on theories about the universe, all the new scientists laughed in my face. At that point in time, they were more worried about getting scientists out into the world than trying to understand its very nature first. Hasty men they were, with minds full of gears and wheels. They didn't understand that such a method is like trying to ride a horse without watching how it acts or moves first. Foolish! But there was one scientist, one who believed in me and encouraged my research..." he broke off in a fit of coughing. Gwen reached for the nurse button, but he held up a trembling hand. "Over time, love, after much study and careful research, I realized it could be possible to leave this planet without..." Again he broke off into coughs, making Gwen ever more anxious. He smiled at her again. "This watch I made to detect holes...it's both a watch and a compass..."

She placed a hand on his arm. "At least let me get mom and dad, grandpa - "

"No! I'm not done yet!" he declared. "Open it again." This she did, looking more closely at the watch face. It had three hands, like a normal watch, but also had an inlaid face and the gears making its workings visible. Unlike a watch, however, it had three circles around the edge. Each hand was a different length, one silver, one red, one black. "The outer circle...shows what world," her great-grandfather rasped. "The dial adjusts the silver hand so that you can choose it...The next layer, the direction of the hole, like a compass....the innermost circle tells how long the hole lasts...and the inlaid face points...the vertical degree it's located. It's yours, Gwen, the watch..." As he was trembling, she ran to the door and got her relatives. They stood around him in his final moments, a family, united. And so it was that he passed from this earth, one story ending, another beginning.

Gwen looked down at the watches in her hand, and, while standing later over his grave, forgot her great-grandfather's crackpot theories and silly rantings. She packed the watches away in tissue paper, leaving the box on her closet shelf, collecting dust.

Now, seven years later, she stared down at this watch, remembering. Finrod came up behind her, looking over her shoulder. He sucked in his breath, and she looked up abruptly, her trance broken. "I'd wondered where that had gone," he said.

"You know about this?" Gwen was startled, staring at him curiously.

"Yes." He smiled a wan smile. "I worked with your great-grandfather, a long time ago."

"And you never told me?" she cried indignantly.

He frowned. "This only our second meeting," he said curtly. "Plus, I didn't want you to be too frightened. He was a kind and brilliant man."

"You were the person who encouraged him."

"Yes. He and I and a group of others worked on finding physical evidence to back up his theories. We never found the original hole that we came through." Gwen continued staring down at her watch, overwhelmed by this revelation. Finrod continued on, hoping she would internalize what he was saying. "We arrived in Britain during the Dark Ages, just as the Romans were leaving. It was a brutal time. We sailed back, trying to find our way, but ended up back in Britain. In the end, we didn't want to leave."

Gwen stirred. "Why not?"

Finrod stopped, shifting uncomfortably. "There are lots of reasons," he said evasively. "One of them was that we dicovered we had powers here unlike those we had in our own world."

"Magic?"

"No - well, not in the hyped-up sense of the word, but inexplicable nonetheless. Perhaps it is the nature of your world, or the will of God."

Gwen frowned. "I don't understand."

He rolled his eyes. "Like Superman. When he was in his world, he was normal, but when he came here, he found this world wasn't like his. He wasn't bound by gravity, etcetera. However, the Numenoreans were not subject to such a change."

"The king you have - why is he your leader?"

"He is a Maia. It's hard to explain. If Elves are a step up from humans - which, in my opinion, they're not - then a Maia is the next step. He has authority over us." The door opened as Gwen's father returned home from work. Finrod glanced up with a worried look. "I fear that something is coming," he said softly, "Something that none of us has expected." He nodded to her and turned to leave.

"Wait!" She got up quickly, holding out the watch. "Do you want this? To maybe find a way home?"

His eyes flickered enigmatically. "Keep it. A family heirloom," he said, and left, politely excusing himself from her parents' offers to stay for dinner. She looked out the window to see him walk with heavy step into the woods.