Dialogue

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Cards: Beachy and coastly: seacoast market i27, smells: fish B9, N32: beachy and coastly: Alqualonde, B14: Booktitle: fragile things
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Gen
Warnings: None

It should be quiet here.

That is what the elders say. What my mother says, when she speaks, if she speaks at all. But fragile things, as they often turn out to be, are actually quite strong in the end. Many of the houses are still in ruins. We have found all the dead, but not given them rest. How could we, when we were promised no one would rot here? And yet, they do. They will soon be returned, the messenger says. With new bodies, all brand new flesh and bone. Eventually, we release them. They float away in flashes of fire on the water, much like the ships they so valiantly sought to defend.

It should be quiet here.

There are birds. Birds, soaring overhead high in the clean blue air. The harsh call of our trumpeter swans, heading home again. A soft murmur of voices in the background somewhere. Small vessels floating on the water, useless for long sea journeys. They didn't take the gems either and the new star, our Near Star, makes them glint like the very Silmarils this war was fought for.

It should be quiet here.

The market smells of fish and seaweed, which indeed hangs out to dry between some of the houses. Recently, some of us have acquired a taste for delicacies made out of those strange underwater grasses. We did not like them at first, but no one wanted to use what remained of our ships to go fishing, and we had to eat. Of course, there was help, but the Teleri have always been an independent people. We did not even really want to come to Aman, glorious as it is. They had to drag the land under our feet with us to make it so. That should say enough.

It should be quiet here.

But it isn't. There is laughter, even. A Vanyarin women scurries past with a basket full of seaweed pastries under her arm, running after a transparent veil that seems to have taken to the air. Children try to steal small fishes from right under a vigilant sailor's nose and are caught, of course. Vendors boast about beautiful shells, strange glowing fishes set in resin, glowing in the night. The Moon slowly rises, casts its softer light over us, the Far Stars appearing one by one. Some come to a stop, staring up for hours at these lights meant to be a be a comfort but becoming, more than anything, a painful reminder of days past.

And so at night, we dance. There is silver on my sisters' ankles again, and the sound of tiny bells mingles with our voices, a lone conch-shell flute and the loud roar of the sea. More and more come to join us every night, and sometimes, there are the voices of the dead, mingling slowly, uncertainly, unfamiliar with this new melody born under the rays of the Near Star.

It should be quiet here.

But it isn't.

For the sea still roars, the birds still call, and how can we not answer?

And the sea always replies.

Comments

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

I loved this - it really captures that gut-level emotional connection that some people have for the sea.

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I've lived near the sea all my life, so that was as much from me as personally the Teleri.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

This is so very beautiful. I'm not going to reduce it to a string of comments on images and phrasing - it's just beautiful. It's left me quiet and almost able to hear the sea. Thank you for sharing.

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm glad it reminded you of the sound of the sea. :)

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

If I picked through it for phrases I liked, I'd have to go with Huin - Near Star and Far Stars. That and the sea defined their world for me. It's the little touches that bring the picture to life.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. Yes, life must go on, and it would be Noldo-centric or perhaps Vala-centric to think that the Teleri would mourn their loss forever. I'm sure the loss will always be with them, but it's not as though they stopped existing or lay down and died after their part in the narrative of the Noldor was over. Well done. I like the term "Near Star" for the sun.

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And yes, exactly. It's not like they were a bunch of softies, I mean they were the ones okay with staying behind to look at the pretties while occasionally being hunted down by a variety of horrors.

I always think of the sun as a near star. Err, that sounds weird because it is. But, you know. Ever since I first saw images of the sun-in-space, which I'm going to assume the Teleri haven't, but hey, they're Elves! I'm pretty sure they see stars in everything anyway, including but not limited to each others' eyes, hair, and foreheads.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

This is really lovely and evocative.

- Erulisse (one L)