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Reflections from the Paradise of Elves  by Bodkin 5 Review(s)
EllieReviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/20/2004
I love watching these three struggle with their kids! Hmmm, I wonder what the wives wil say about the kittens? Keep these little shapshots coming. They are such fun!

Author Reply: Kittens would be a lot better than the mice! I love doing these - and will keep doing them as long as they jump into my head.

(I quite like watching them struggle with wives, too!)

NilmandraReviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/20/2004
I cast my vote for the cats.

But then, I live in a zoo. These adult elflings seem to have forgotten all they know about convincing adult adults about the need for furry pets. :-)

Author Reply: I'm sure the elflings will win - big eyes, wobbly lips, enormous hugs, skilled ego-boosts to Ada's power and authority. Their daughters have advantages they will not hesitate to use! And Legolas - grown up sisterless - will stand even less chance against them than the twins, whom Arwen trained to be more suspicious.

They will learn - in time to enjoy watching their grandchildren pull the same tricks.

elliskaReviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/20/2004
'Legolas – he is an elfling. Remember what you were like. The most bizarre things make sense to you at that age.’

I started shrieking with this line and I never stopped. The plan with the tree over the pond sounds just like something children would do but the plan with the mice and voles etc was classic. Absolutely priceless. I would kill them. Don't be hasty, indeed. I don't see a good way out of this--the poor husbands will be in trouble with someone. Another great chapter. Too funny.

Author Reply: It is good for elflings to torment their adars. For both sides. I cannot help but feel sorry for their mothers, who get to come in and be the big bad wolf, with both sides staring at them pitifully. Although Aewlin might learn that being too cunning will just steel their resolve - I don't think their naneths will respond too well to deliberately introduced rodents!

And don't odd things make sense to kids - if men are from Mars and women from Venus, kids must be from Alpha Centauri.

daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/20/2004
LOL. These three seem caught in the middle between their ingenious and energetic children and their outraged wives. Sometimes they seem like big kids themselves. LACE says that elven children needed little teaching or something like that, but I wonder if that's because Elves assumed that decades and centuries of experience would lead most people to acquire wisdom after a while.

Author Reply: As are many fathers! I think they'd like to join the children most of the time, too - but feel their position demands more maturity!

Being able to take time must be one of the better things about immortality. And probably endows Elven parents with a good deal more tolerance. Given the age gaps of their offspring, too, Elven children might well have seemed easier to rear. I can't imagine the offspring of these three, however, being anything other than curious and adventurous and pushing at the boundaries for no other reason to see if they would give way. And, of course, doing quite a few things that nobody would ever think to tell them not to do.

And these are E2L's big kid moments. They spend a lot of time working hard and being grown-up, but when they get together, they revert.

Jay of LasgalenReviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/20/2004
I'm with Elrohir on this one - tell the elflings they can have a kitten each! (Can you tell I'm a cat lover?) It shows them as loving adas, and circumvents Aewlin's cunning plan. The pond escapade sounds great - just wet, mucky, and risky enough to satisfy most children.

There is one wonderful comment here: ‘Legolas – he is an elfling. Remember what you were like. The most bizarre things make sense to you at that age. That sums up Elrohir's thought processes perfectly in my last chapter!!


Jay

Author Reply: I'm sure the elflings will win on the kitten front - after all, how will their naneths be able to resist the cute little balls of fluff? The pond - h'mm. Half the time kids seem to get into difficulties because, although they can see from A to B, they can't spot C, or factor in X and Y. Mind you, as a parent, by the time these things have happened, there is no point torturing yourself with what could have gone wrong - and I can so see E2 emerging, dripping, from the water at the same age.

Women from Venus, men from Mars, kids - even elflings - from somewhere much further away!

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