Giliath Brings Word to Keldean — The Red Book of Westmarch

It\'s been a week. A week of freezing temperatures, bland food, absolutely nothing to do, and rather dull company. Keldean has explored the immediate area around the camp extensively, but there simply isn\'t that much to look upon. There\'s almost no animal life, the plants are small and sparse, and it\'s too cold to stay out in the biting wind for very long.

As the sun begins lowering in the sky, what little warmth it provided vacates the moors and Keldean has retreated back to the small shelter. He\'s sitting close to the tiny fire, huddled in all garments and blankets that he has with a detatched, bored expression of misery on his face.

[<#9838>] A wind kicks up, swirling old snow around like fog, and out of this a tall slim figure appears. Giliath seems no more aware of the cold than he had been by the heat of summer little crystalline flakes cling to his hair and clothes and he doesn\'t bother to brush them away.

The small tent billows in the sudden wind, then is still as it dies down as abruptly as it had begun, and Giliath stops beside it. \" *** * **** **?\" he asks the blank canvas.

It\'s only because Elathrad is so stoic and unaffected by the cold that the teen hasn\'t complained about the temperature. He\'s freezing all the time, but doesn\'t want his stony companion to think him weak and childish and has rather childishly pretended that the wintery air isn\'t affecting him. He hears the elven voice and lifts his head sharply, looking around. Elathrad is nowhere to be seen and the teen quickly crawls over to the opening, peeking out. \"Giliath!\" His excitement is unmasked and he\'s immediately grinning as he clambers out of the tent and stands.

[Giliath(#9838)] The elf smiles slightly as Keldean bursts out of the tent, but his face almost at once takes on a somber look again. He glances around. \"Is Elathrad not here?\"

Keldean looks around at the question, uncertainty crossing his face. \"He was. Maybe he went for a walk.\" The teen shrugs, unconcerned. He stands with his arms tightly crossed against the icy air, his cheeks flushed from the cold and each excited breath sends a small white cloud into the air. \"Where is.. \" He begins to trail off, his awareness catching up to his eagerness for socializing. The teen looks around again, his smile fading fast when the ranger is nowhere to be seen.

[Giliath(#9838)] \"I am sorry,\" Giliath says quietly. \"Rhifaroth and his family are no longer in Imlad. I believe they have returned to their home in Archet.\" A pause. \"I am not certain of this,\" he adds.

\"Oh.. \" Keldean\'s gaze pulls away from the elf as his hands drop to his sides. He takes several long moments to fight the bitter disappointment and frustration of what may prove to be a completely wasted and failed trip. \"Did.. did they say how long ago that he left?\"

[Giliath(#9838)] Time. Giliath\'s face looks entirely blank for a minute. \"Some little while ago,\" he says, and there is an unaccustomed note of uncertainty in his voice. \"I think by now they will have arrived,\" he decides at last. He looks down at the boy, a bit of compassion in his gaze now. \"What will you do?\" he asks at last.

Keldean feels the cold seeping into him, his fingers slowly losing feeling as the icy air sends prickles over his exposed skin. \"I can\'t stay here.. And I can\'t go into the valley.\" He turns his brown eyes back to the tall elf, \"Are you and Caelwen better now? Did you.. figure out what happened to your bond? Did you see your son?\"

[Giliath(#9838)] The child is turning blue. Giliath watches with interest for a moment, then ducks to enter the tent. \"Come in,\" he says, his voice a little muffled. \"Do not stand without and freeze.\"

Inside, he is sitting cross-legged on the floor and feeding small sticks into the flame and only after Keldean enters, does he answer. Sort of. Dark grey eyes lift to meet Keldean\'s and the elf says, \"The strength of my memory was too great for her. We shall go on.\" A sudden smile brightens his face, and for an instant the tiny tent is warm with joy and pride though all he says is, \"The child is well.\"

Keldean follows him inside, moving back to where he was originally sitting and gathering the blankets he left in a heap back around himself. The first answer is confusing and the youth shows little comprehension of the explanation. The second is far easier to follow. \"Did he miss you? You were gone a long time.\" Keldean focuses on the easiest topic as he holds his hands nearly in the flames of the fire.

[Giliath(#9838)] \"Do you wish to see your parents?\" Giliath asks curiously, then replies, \"He is very young, time still goes swiftly for him. I remember...\" His eyes unfocus and he is lost for some minutes, returning at last with a swift smile. \"He missed us, yes, between learning rope-binding and setting all the horses to race about the fields.\"

\"Me? .. Well.. no. Not really.\" Keldean says after a moment of thought. He\'s rubbing his hands now, working warmth back into them. \"How old is he? I thought he was grown.. \"

[Giliath(#9838)] Giliath accepts this as he accepts most things humans tell him. It is not his business, after all. And he shakes his head. \"It will be many .. years ere he is grown,\" he says, and a small frown darkens his gaze as he watches the fire. \"He has lived,\" a pause for thought, \"perhaps twelve...\" the same small hesitation before the word, \"... years.\"

\"Oh!\" Keldean seems terribly surprised by this knowledge, and speaks with some excitement, \"He\'s not that much younger than me! Do you think I could meet him? I mean, I know I can\'t go to your home.. but could he come here?\" Then something occurs to the teen, \"But he probably doesn\'t speak my language.. does he?\" He says in a more subdued tone.

[Giliath(#9838)] The silence is suddenly heavier. \"I do not know,\" Giliath says finally he is not angry but the words sound strangely final. \"It must be Caelwen\'s choice.\" He looks away from the fire at last, a glimmer of smile in his eyes if not on his face. \"He has learned it, I am sure,\" he says.

Keldean watches him carefully, brown eyes studying the elf\'s reaction closely. \"You don\'t want me to meet him.. do you?\" He asks, defensive, but there is also defeat in his tone. Before silence can fill the tent again the youth presses on. \"It\'s okay, I understand.. I should go back to Bree..\" He hesitates, \"Maybe, maybe Cordelia won\'t be angry with me anymore.\"

[Giliath(#9838)] Perhaps elves can hear what is not spoken. Or perhaps they simply have very keen hearing and a long long time living and being aware of the nature all Eru\'s creatures share. Giliath looks up at Keldean\'s tone and shakes his head. \"You jump too swiftly to ideas,\" he says, slightly reproving, \"and do not listen. It must be Caelwen\'s choice it is not my decision to make. I would not say no.\" He returns to watching the fire burn, the hiss of windblown snow against the tent and the faint crackle of the flames fill the silence, until at last he begins to speak. \"You know so little,\" he says, his voice matter of fact, uncondemning. \"And think that what you know is all there is... My wife has lived her life, all of it save this past little while, among those who believe that all save the First Born can be corrupted and twisted away from Eru\'s design. She has known no language save her own, no people save her own. All others are distrusted and avoided.\" A pause and then he adds, \"Children are rare and precious to us.\"

\"My people wouldn\'t-.. I mean.. I wouldn\'t.. I would never hurt a child.\" Keldean answers quickly, growning more defensive. His brows tighten together as he thinks, sorting through the words that Giliath said more carefully. \"I can\'t help that I don\'t know more. Mirinthel got mad at me because I told some people where I was going, but I didn\'t know that it was a secret. You can\'t blame someone for something if they didn\'t know.\" He pauses, then says in a less self-absorbed fashion, \"Maybe if Caelwen met some nice people she wouldn\'t think that everyone is dangerous.\"

[Giliath(#9838)] \"There is no shame in not knowing,\" Giliath confirms. \"Only in not seeking to know.\" He watches Keldean somberly and says, \"Some of your people would. Some have. Those to whom you delivered Rhifaroth, think you they would balk at killing a child?\" And still there is no criticism in the elf\'s voice, he does not bring up Keldean\'s past errors to condemn the boy, but as an example he knows he will understand. \"You would not hurt our son in anything you knew might injure him, but what of the things you do not know?\" He nods then. \"She is learning this, but...\" A twist of his lips. How to explain to this youth? Slowly, \"It is safer to be cautious. You live but a few years, she will live for - many. An error in judgment, a lack of caution, these would not disturb her life for but a short time, but forever.\"

Keldean curls up tighter into the blankets, though it\'s not clear if it\'s an emotional reaction or a consequence of the plummeting temperature. He stares at a spot on the ground for a long time, his mind thinking through everything Giliath is saying. \"I think .. I understand. It\'s not worth the risk, for her.\" He looks up slowly, \"Is that what you mean?\"

[Giliath(#9838)] \"Partly, yes,\" Giliath says. \"But more, that she weighs risks carefully. And that I cannot choose for her what is worth it and what is not. She is cautious with the child, thus, and I will not say her nay. I will ask if she judges he may come outside the valley.\"

Keldean grows calmer as some of his self-pity ebbs away. At the very least, his mood swings are short and fairly obvious. \"Maybe if I met an elf that\'s near my age.. I could understand things better. About the world, I mean. I want to see more. Everyone that comes to Bree says that it\'s so small, but it\'s the biggest town that I\'ve ever seen.\" It\'s the same yearning that was in his voice when he spoke of seeing the elven valley, and though he spoke only moments earlier about returning to his home, he keeps naturally gravitating towards the only role-model in his life that doesn\'t judge him on past mistakes.

[Giliath(#9838)] Giliath says nothing, only listens, tall and straight, even sitting here in a tent. Neither the wind nor the cold nor the surroundings change him - he could as well be sitting in some lush exotic palace entirely at his ease. \"The world,\" he says finally, \"Is both more and less, larger and smaller, than you think it.\" With this cryptic pronouncement, he falls silent again.

\"But.. There are bigger cities than Bree. And, Lonely Mountain. Frarin told me about that.\" Keldean sighs quietly, \"I wish I had more time.. you have hundreds of years and can see everything that you want to..\"

[Giliath(#9838)] \"And when we weary of life, there is no escape,\" Giliath says, his voice so quiet it can barely be heard. \"Do not regret Eru\'s gift to your people, it is beyond all the wisdom of the elves.\"

Keldean watches the elf in silence, the quiet words giving him a new perspective. \"Have you seen everything that there is to see?\" The teen asks is a hushed voice.

[Giliath(#9838)] Giliath is brooding, staring into the fire, his eyes shadowed and still. For a while, it is as if he doesn\'t even hear Keldean\'s question, but at last he looks up and shakes his head. \"No.. there are many places I have not been. But they begin to all seem alike, one to another. It is your kindred, the second-born, that interest me now.\"

The teen sits quietly, being respectful of the heavy moment. He doesn\'t seem to have difficulty understanding Giliath\'s feelings on the similarities of places. He\'s seen a lot of farms and they\'re all pretty much the same. The mention of a new interest catches his curiosity.

\"Why?..\" Keldean asks, reaching to pull the blankets around himself more thickly as the cold air without seeps into the tent. \"And why do you call us the second-born?\"

[Giliath(#9838)] The elf discards the first question in favor of the second. \"You are the second-born children of Eru,\" he says simply. \"The elves were the first.\"

\"What about hobbits? And dwarves? And.. Who\'s Eru?\" Ask Keldean about farming potatoes and he can share a wealth of knowledge. Everything else is anyone\'s guess.

[Giliath(#9838)] \"From Eru\'s music came all that is, known and unknown and it holds all that will yet be.\" This surely is enough of an explanation for anyone. Then Giliath laughs softly. \"I know not whence came the halflings. They are a delightful people.\"

Keldean picks at a corner of one of the blankets, chewing on his lip. \"That.. Was Eru an elf?\" The Breelander thinks about the hobbits, shrugging. \"They\'re okay, I guess. They get really cranky if you mess up their plans... or mealtimes.\"

[Giliath(#9838)] A moment of open-eyed astonishment, and then Giliath shakes his head. \"Know you,\" he asks after a moment of thought, \"of Mithrandir? Or... it is Gandalf that you call him, I believe?\"

\"Oh! Yes.. I\'ve heard all about Gandalf. They say that he made spectacular fireworks for a birthday party in the Shire!\" Keldean seems almost relieved to know of something. \"He\'s friends with.. umm.. Bilbo Baggins. A hobbit. That\'s what Conall told me.\"

[Giliath(#9838)] Giliath\'s expression is a study. At last he says nothing other than, \"Eru is far greater than the elves,\" and seems to hope that nothing further about Gandalf will be mentioned.

\"So.. Eru is a wizard? Like Gandalf?\" Keldean asks, not following where any of this is going. \"I heard that he has magic, but I\'ve never seen it. I think he stayed at the Pony once.\"

[Giliath(#9838)] \"You could say Eru is a wizard,\" Giliath says cautiously. \"He is greater than Mithrandir.\"

\"The greatest wizard in the world?\" Keldean asks, shifting again. \"Has he killed any dragons? Like the one that was in Dale?\" The youth leans forward, \"Have you ever met him?\"

[Giliath(#9838)] The elf seems torn between horror at Keldean\'s sacrilege, and laughter. Laughter wins. \"You might say that,\" he says, his grey eyes twinkling. \"I have never met him he does not precisely live in an easily accessible spot.\" And now he is laughing outright, the sheer mirth of the sound robbing it of any offense.

\"Well.. I don\'t.. How am I supposed to know?\" Keldean sputters, muttering the last as Giliath laughs. \"I haven\'t been alive for hundreds of years.\" He doesn\'t seem upset, a smile working it\'s way onto his face. \"You said that people have to ask about things. Where does he live then? At the top of a mountain or something?\"

Fade to Black.