Not So Happy Returns

by Soledad

Disclaimer: see in the Foreword.

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December 13 – Light

Dawn was barely breaking, clear and golden beyond the distant peaks of the Pelóri, when he woke up to the strange urge to go down to Lake Lorellin, in the middle of which Lady Estë was known to sleep on an enchanted isle. He wondered briefly why would he wish to go to the lake, as no-one of the dwellers of Lórien went there as a rule, unless expressly summoned. It was not forbidden to do so, not directly – they just felt too much respect for Lady Estë to disturb her rest.

Yet now it seemed to him as if he had heard a call from a great distance; a sheer irresistible one, and his feet were carrying him down the gentle slopes of the hills surrounding the lake, without him having made a conscious decision.

The first light of the new day had just been cast over the surface of the lake when he reached the shore. The water was smooth and gleaming like blue glass. Then, suddenly, the opaque smoothness was broken, and a slender figure emerged from the water, sending widening rings of tiny waves all around her.

In the new light she seemed like a water spirit at first, but then he realized that it was an elleth, a Vanya by her colouring, wearing a sleeveless undershift of some pearlescent fabric that left very little to imagination, so wet and clinging to her. Her great wealth of luscious golden hair was lying heavily on her back like an armful of wet, ripe wheat.

A memory, half-forgotten but strangely familiar, stirred deep within his heart by the sight.

“I know you… do I not?” he said hesitantly.

“I hope so,” she replied with a mischievous glint in those incredibly blue eyes of hers.

She was so beautiful, so radiant it nearly broke his heart.

“We… we met like this for the very first time, did we not?” he asked as another memory surfaced. “You always liked to take swims in the early morning,”

“That is right,” she smiled at him and waded to the shore, rivulets of water running down her hair and her clothing. He offered both hands to help her to the shore and she accepted; her hands were small and cold from having been in the water.

“I cannot remember your name,” he admitted sadly. “Though I feel as if I should.”

“That is all right, Turucáno,” she replied, smiling. “Worry not; the memories will come back, eventually. I am Elenwë, and I went through the same, yéni ago. Come with me; I will help you to find them again.”

~Fin~

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There won't be an update tomorrow as I'll be out of town. But since I started too early due to the different time zones, at least that will bring me to the right date.