Chapter Text
'You do realize we are different ?'
I look over the room of elves.
'Yeah.'
'What do you see as differences?'
He asks
'Is this a guessing game? I don't like those. I always get them wrong.'
'It is not.'
He answers reassuringly.
I am silent for a few long moments.
'Well you all are tall.'
They smile.
'got pointy ears, that's weird.'
The elf with the wry smile says,' Weird to you, perhaps, not to us.'
'It's weird to everyone, believe me.'
I tell him
He laughs.
'What else do you notice?'
'You dress in a lot of clothes.
And they are fancy.
Very nice but it is a lot of cloth.'
'Nothing else?'
'What's the deal with the fact some of you glow?'
I put down my plain old brown hand next to the elf who has his resting on the table.
His skin is lit very softly from within. As if his body held light the way a lampshade does. It was a soft mist about him. Seen slightly even in this well lit room.
The elf with a wry smile lifts one eye brow and whispers, 'It's the water.'
Then he very slowly, winks. Then nods at the peach drink in my cup.
I stare at it dubiously
The lady chuckles. 'Don't believe him he is teasing you. But perhaps it is best to explain one thing at a time and slowly.
Do you notice anything else?'
I look closer and think a minute.
'Hum? You all are young. No old people no children.'
'Ah…'
Says the lady then she asks
' how old are you?'
'I am 65.'
At that at least one elf gasps.
I look up at him,
Surprized.
'You are so young and yet how heavy the years lay upon you.'
I looked down at myself.
'Dang…Yeah…heavy the years lay on me. That is an interesting way of saying i look old. hum. Well I'm almost done. Most of my family don't live much pass 55. Bad hearts.'
The elf turns his face away and a tear slides down his smooth cheek.
His reaction is surprising to me, I say,
'it's OK. I have done a lot.
Not the length, you know, but what you do with what you got.'
The elf with the tear smiles slightly at me.
His expression hard for me to read.
I looked back around at the elves.
'We pretend you know,' the elf says.
'To have no interest in mortals or their affairs. But in reality it is because it brings us grief.'
'Mortals?' I question.
They are silent.
The lady stands up and came closer and gracefully sank down to sit next to me. She was so tall and beautiful. The glow and her bright eyes made me a bit uneasy.
She says, ' time for us runs differently.'
I ponder that….then it finally dawns on me what she is saying to me.
She tries to take my glance up into her eyes gently. But I look away.
I look at the cup of peach drink.
'How old are you?' I ask softly.
'I was born in Aman and there one year is many more years in arda.
I have lived many thousands of years.
You see, pilgrim, we in fact are tied to the life of arda and do not die or age.'
My eyes stray up to her face.
'Thousands?'
She nods
I turn and look at the other elf who had told me about the glow.
'Thousands?' I repeat to him.
He smiles very softly.
'How long is 65 years to you?'
They do not answer but I can sense their emotion like a soft wave of feeling and I know the answer. My life to them is very brief.
'Well hell.'
I stand up.
'We got the short end of this stick.
You guys live forever and we die…and not only just friggen die but get sick and die. And get weird looking as we age to boot.
That sucks.'
I glare at them. They look both wistfully merry and sad at the same time at my outburst.
'You speak with colorful idioms.'
The wry elf says
He tries to peer into my eyes and I look away. And hold up my hand to block his gaze. This makes him laugh outloud.
'I'm sorry, I am curious.'
I drop my hand.
'Nope not explaining that right now. It is a bad way of talking and I shouldn't do it.'
Then I glance quickly at his face and he wears a sympathetic expression.
I say rather defiantly, 'my husband has no teeth.'
He looks at me sadly.
'That's right, no teeth and he is Deaf and he is getting dim because he has an ailment that shrinks his brain.'
The poor elves look both worried and horrified.
'No teeth?' He repeats
'Yes that's what aging can do.'
He looks at my mouth.
' You still have your teeth.'
I mutter, ' yeah I got good teeth.'
The lady says softly, 'truly the gift of the one is difficult to accept. But the rest is caused by evil that entered the world.'
I look up at her and scowl as fiercely as I can.
She gives me a sweet sad look of comiseration. She sees through my scowl.
'The gift of the one?' I finally say slowly.
'You mean the creator?' I add. She nods
'Dang I'm going to complain.'
I sit back down and drain my cup
'Besides my mother's people say we don't die just reform.'
The wry elf asks
'Into what?'
'Whatever….you know.
So maybe I just will refuse to die.
And reform.'
The elf wears both a whimsical and bemused expression.
'I will look forward to seeing that. Will this happen soon?'
'I hope not.'
'Can you explain this more.'
'No '
'You are very stubborn are you not.'
'No'