Strange Vessels

From the rocks about me, pours almost overwhelming sorrow. Such a strange and grievous thing I deem it! The affinity of my people is with the living things that grow; yet the trees here are strangely silent and they will not answer me.

It is the stones themselves and the ground beneath them that speak to me. It is here that great power was wrought and wielded. From the earth were gathered metals and precious gems to form items of great beauty. Trees were hewn; fires built, and now only distant echoes remain of those who fell into unwitting folly.

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A/N: A 2004 birthday drabble for Ainae, who requested a Legolas drabble based on this quote:

"But the Elves of this land were of a race strange to us of the silvan folk, and the trees and the grass do not now remember them. Only I hear the stones lament them: deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are gone. They are gone. They sought the Havens long ago."