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b2mem2015-03-18 10:22 pm
zopyrus.livejournal.com) wrote in b2mem2015-03-18 10:22 pm
"Exit Pursued By A Bear" by Zopyrus
B2MeM Challenge: “Anything dated from the shores of Cuiviénen to the early days of the march across the mountains to the sea. My favorite possible character would be Beleg…” ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heartofoshun
Format: Short Story
Genre: Humor
Rating: PG
Warnings: Naked elf-maidens and bears.
Characters: Beleg, Nellas, Enel, Enelyë
Pairings: n/a
Summary: One hundred forty four elves wake up on the shores of Cuiviénen, each of them next to a husband or a wife. But Beleg and Nellas are a little different from the others…
~~~
Imin, Tata and Enel awoke before their spouses, and the first thing that they saw was the stars, for they woke in the early twilight before dawn. And the next thing they saw was their destined spouses lying asleep on the green sward beside them. Then they were so enamoured of their beauty that their desire for speech was immediately quickened and they began to ‘think of words’ to speak and sing in. And being impatient they could not wait but woke up their spouses. Thus, the Eldar say, the first thing that each elf-woman saw was her spouse, and her love for him was her first love; and her love and reverence for the wonders of Arda came later.
- Quendi and Eldar
~~~
Beleg's first love had strong arms and a regal bearing. He was so tall that Beleg had to crane his neck to see him properly.
"Ai!" sighed Beleg, longingly. It was the first word he ever made. He paused a moment, to admire the sound.
"You are so beautiful," Beleg continued. The declaration came as naturally as breathing. "And I really like your shiny belt."
Something growled in the bushes behind him, but Beleg paid it no mind. He was growing impatient: he wanted his love to speak back.
"What is that you are holding?" he asked. "A sword? A bow?" As he said the words, images blossomed in his mind, half-remembered from the time before he was himself.
His love remained silent. Had Beleg said something wrong?
As he pondered, the growling sound grew louder. Suddenly, another elf ran up to him, gasping and shouting and waving her arms. She was a maiden of slight stature, clad only in her hair--and from the way she was looking at Beleg, she clearly thought he was an idiot.
She barked a word at him, but Beleg shook his head, not understanding. This newcomer could not have been more different than his love--and she was interrupting their moment.
"ARGH," said the maiden, in an annoyed tone. She grabbed Beleg's hand and tugged on it, pulling him towards her. He dug in his heels.
"Can't you see we're--" said Beleg, gesturing upwards. But he stopped short when he saw the enormous furry creature burst out of the bushes, slavering and snarling.
"BEAR," said the maiden, with another grimace. "RUN."
This time, Beleg didn't need a translation to follow her advice.
"Come with us," he shouted to his love. The maiden ran off without a backward glance--and Beleg followed.
~~~
Escaping the bear was not too hard. Beleg followed the elf-maiden up a tree, and they threw pinecones at the creature until it grew bored and wandered off, looking for easier prey.
As soon as they were both sure it was gone, Beleg and the elf-maiden both sighed, then laughed in wordless delight.
“NELLAS,” said the elf-maiden, with an expressive gesture towards her own face.
Beleg mimicked the gesture as best he could.
“BELEG,” he said. Then he gestured again, to draw her attention to his love.
“And this is Telumehtar.”
Above their heads, Beleg’s love was silent: cold, remote, and glittering,
“Hmm,” said Nellas, frowning politely. “Actually, I call those…stars?”
Beleg shook his head.
“No, I mean these particular stars. See, there are his shoulders, and his belt, and his…uh, scabbard.”
Nellas tipped back her head, appraisingly.
“Oh. Yes, I see him now.”
Both elves lapsed into admiring silence.
“Sorry about the bear,” said Nellas. “I woke up when a pine cone fell on me. You were still asleep, so I went exploring.”
“I woke alone,” said Beleg. The words were a bit redundant, but he said them out loud anyway. He wanted to hear what they sounded like.
Nellas took his hand.
“From now on, we look out for each other,” she said.
High above them, the stars of Telumehtar twinkled.
~~~
A would-be king was standing, uninvited, in Beleg’s clearing. He was tall, but not as tall as Beleg; and the crown of leaves he had made for himself looked a little ridiculous.
“Hello there, word-maker,” said Enel, loudly and slowly. He waggled his finger. “I choose YOU, to be my companion.”
Beleg blinked.
“Both of you, of course,” added Enelyë, hovering deferentially behind her husband. “Your wife, too. You’d better go wake her up.”
Beleg held up his hands to ward them off.
“Uh, you mean Nellas?” he said. “She’s been awake for ages—much longer than me.”
Beleg glanced around the clearing, but the only people there beside himself were Enel and his strange, ragtag group of followers. Nellas was nowhere to be seen.
In the face of monsters, Nellas was as fearless as Beleg—and they both had the bear-sinew accessories to prove it. But she hated the crowds of newly-woken elves who had been trampling around their patch of woods, breaking branches and scaring away the songbirds. Most likely, she had gone up a tree to hide until they were gone.
“Impossible!” said Enel, with a magnificent frown. “Surely—”
“And she’s not my wife,” Beleg continued, raising his voice a little. “I mean, unless that word means something different for you, but I can kind of sense your thoughts, and—”
“I’m sure you’ll both come around,” said Enelyë, beatifically. “After all, we love best what we see first.”
Beleg glanced up, superstitiously, at Telumehtar. No help there, as usual.
Enelyë was right, in a way. Beleg loved these woods, and this sky, like they were a part of him; but another, wiser part of him sensed it could not last forever. And if Enel, with his grating voice and odd ideas, was set on moving in, maybe it was time for Beleg to move out.
“Well?” said Enel. “How about it? The three of us who woke first are picking teams, and my rates are very competit—”
Woke first? Really? Beleg took a deep breath.
“No thanks,” he said.
~~~
Many leagues west of the lake, Beleg and Nellas stopped to rest.
“I think we’ve lost them for now,” said Beleg. The sounds of the other Elves wandering about, talking and carousing, had carried some distance; but now he could only hear the chatter of nightingales, the whisper of the wind, and the soft murmur of the stream they were following.
Nellas nodded. She was curled contentedly against the trunk of a wide, grey tree; and she was scratching in the rich earth with a stick.
“Do you think we’ll ever see them again?”
Nellas glanced up at the sky, thoughtfully. Telumehtar was her favorite constellation, too—but sometimes she seemed a little worried, when she looked at it. Beleg had never asked her why.
“I don’t think we’ll be alone forever,” she said. “There are great deeds to be done in the world, so there must be people who will do them. But I don’t think we’ll see Enelyë or Enel again.
Beleg didn’t think so either. They didn’t seem very smart; eventually, they would probably get eaten by bears. He hadn’t liked them, but that was a sad thought.
Maybe they would find safety in numbers.
“How many of them—us—do you think there are, Nellas?”
Nellas was still scratching with the stick, carefully adding a new row of x’s to her design. She was making a perfect square.
“Twelve times eleven is one hundred thirty-two,” she muttered, counting up the ‘x’s on her fingers. “And twelve times twelve…”
“Nellas?” he prompted.
“One gross!” she exclaimed, proudly. “One hundred forty four. I made a new word!”
“Gross,” he repeated, shaping the word carefully with his mouth. It made him smile. “I like it.”
FIN
Author’s Notes:
0. Thank you tosuzll for the beta, and for suggesting the title!
1. There is no way to know for sure if Beleg or Nellas were at Cuiviénen, but no one ever says they weren’t—and as Oshun pointed out in her prompt, Beleg is described in canon as “a son of the wilderness who wist no sire,” which might indicate he was one of the first Elves. (Or it could just mean that his dad was a deadbeat!)
2. Telumehtar is the older Quenya name for Orion (also called Menelmakar), which according to the Annals of Aman is “a sign of Túrin Turambar, who should come into the world, and a foreshadowing of the Last Battle that shall be at the end of Days.” In this fic, the Túrin Constellation is meant to be more a foreshadowing of…other things. :P
3. The bear-sinew accessories are, to my eternal delight, totally canon.
heartofoshunFormat: Short Story
Genre: Humor
Rating: PG
Warnings: Naked elf-maidens and bears.
Characters: Beleg, Nellas, Enel, Enelyë
Pairings: n/a
Summary: One hundred forty four elves wake up on the shores of Cuiviénen, each of them next to a husband or a wife. But Beleg and Nellas are a little different from the others…
~~~
Imin, Tata and Enel awoke before their spouses, and the first thing that they saw was the stars, for they woke in the early twilight before dawn. And the next thing they saw was their destined spouses lying asleep on the green sward beside them. Then they were so enamoured of their beauty that their desire for speech was immediately quickened and they began to ‘think of words’ to speak and sing in. And being impatient they could not wait but woke up their spouses. Thus, the Eldar say, the first thing that each elf-woman saw was her spouse, and her love for him was her first love; and her love and reverence for the wonders of Arda came later.
- Quendi and Eldar
~~~
Beleg's first love had strong arms and a regal bearing. He was so tall that Beleg had to crane his neck to see him properly.
"Ai!" sighed Beleg, longingly. It was the first word he ever made. He paused a moment, to admire the sound.
"You are so beautiful," Beleg continued. The declaration came as naturally as breathing. "And I really like your shiny belt."
Something growled in the bushes behind him, but Beleg paid it no mind. He was growing impatient: he wanted his love to speak back.
"What is that you are holding?" he asked. "A sword? A bow?" As he said the words, images blossomed in his mind, half-remembered from the time before he was himself.
His love remained silent. Had Beleg said something wrong?
As he pondered, the growling sound grew louder. Suddenly, another elf ran up to him, gasping and shouting and waving her arms. She was a maiden of slight stature, clad only in her hair--and from the way she was looking at Beleg, she clearly thought he was an idiot.
She barked a word at him, but Beleg shook his head, not understanding. This newcomer could not have been more different than his love--and she was interrupting their moment.
"ARGH," said the maiden, in an annoyed tone. She grabbed Beleg's hand and tugged on it, pulling him towards her. He dug in his heels.
"Can't you see we're--" said Beleg, gesturing upwards. But he stopped short when he saw the enormous furry creature burst out of the bushes, slavering and snarling.
"BEAR," said the maiden, with another grimace. "RUN."
This time, Beleg didn't need a translation to follow her advice.
"Come with us," he shouted to his love. The maiden ran off without a backward glance--and Beleg followed.
~~~
Escaping the bear was not too hard. Beleg followed the elf-maiden up a tree, and they threw pinecones at the creature until it grew bored and wandered off, looking for easier prey.
As soon as they were both sure it was gone, Beleg and the elf-maiden both sighed, then laughed in wordless delight.
“NELLAS,” said the elf-maiden, with an expressive gesture towards her own face.
Beleg mimicked the gesture as best he could.
“BELEG,” he said. Then he gestured again, to draw her attention to his love.
“And this is Telumehtar.”
Above their heads, Beleg’s love was silent: cold, remote, and glittering,
“Hmm,” said Nellas, frowning politely. “Actually, I call those…stars?”
Beleg shook his head.
“No, I mean these particular stars. See, there are his shoulders, and his belt, and his…uh, scabbard.”
Nellas tipped back her head, appraisingly.
“Oh. Yes, I see him now.”
Both elves lapsed into admiring silence.
“Sorry about the bear,” said Nellas. “I woke up when a pine cone fell on me. You were still asleep, so I went exploring.”
“I woke alone,” said Beleg. The words were a bit redundant, but he said them out loud anyway. He wanted to hear what they sounded like.
Nellas took his hand.
“From now on, we look out for each other,” she said.
High above them, the stars of Telumehtar twinkled.
~~~
A would-be king was standing, uninvited, in Beleg’s clearing. He was tall, but not as tall as Beleg; and the crown of leaves he had made for himself looked a little ridiculous.
“Hello there, word-maker,” said Enel, loudly and slowly. He waggled his finger. “I choose YOU, to be my companion.”
Beleg blinked.
“Both of you, of course,” added Enelyë, hovering deferentially behind her husband. “Your wife, too. You’d better go wake her up.”
Beleg held up his hands to ward them off.
“Uh, you mean Nellas?” he said. “She’s been awake for ages—much longer than me.”
Beleg glanced around the clearing, but the only people there beside himself were Enel and his strange, ragtag group of followers. Nellas was nowhere to be seen.
In the face of monsters, Nellas was as fearless as Beleg—and they both had the bear-sinew accessories to prove it. But she hated the crowds of newly-woken elves who had been trampling around their patch of woods, breaking branches and scaring away the songbirds. Most likely, she had gone up a tree to hide until they were gone.
“Impossible!” said Enel, with a magnificent frown. “Surely—”
“And she’s not my wife,” Beleg continued, raising his voice a little. “I mean, unless that word means something different for you, but I can kind of sense your thoughts, and—”
“I’m sure you’ll both come around,” said Enelyë, beatifically. “After all, we love best what we see first.”
Beleg glanced up, superstitiously, at Telumehtar. No help there, as usual.
Enelyë was right, in a way. Beleg loved these woods, and this sky, like they were a part of him; but another, wiser part of him sensed it could not last forever. And if Enel, with his grating voice and odd ideas, was set on moving in, maybe it was time for Beleg to move out.
“Well?” said Enel. “How about it? The three of us who woke first are picking teams, and my rates are very competit—”
Woke first? Really? Beleg took a deep breath.
“No thanks,” he said.
~~~
Many leagues west of the lake, Beleg and Nellas stopped to rest.
“I think we’ve lost them for now,” said Beleg. The sounds of the other Elves wandering about, talking and carousing, had carried some distance; but now he could only hear the chatter of nightingales, the whisper of the wind, and the soft murmur of the stream they were following.
Nellas nodded. She was curled contentedly against the trunk of a wide, grey tree; and she was scratching in the rich earth with a stick.
“Do you think we’ll ever see them again?”
Nellas glanced up at the sky, thoughtfully. Telumehtar was her favorite constellation, too—but sometimes she seemed a little worried, when she looked at it. Beleg had never asked her why.
“I don’t think we’ll be alone forever,” she said. “There are great deeds to be done in the world, so there must be people who will do them. But I don’t think we’ll see Enelyë or Enel again.
Beleg didn’t think so either. They didn’t seem very smart; eventually, they would probably get eaten by bears. He hadn’t liked them, but that was a sad thought.
Maybe they would find safety in numbers.
“How many of them—us—do you think there are, Nellas?”
Nellas was still scratching with the stick, carefully adding a new row of x’s to her design. She was making a perfect square.
“Twelve times eleven is one hundred thirty-two,” she muttered, counting up the ‘x’s on her fingers. “And twelve times twelve…”
“Nellas?” he prompted.
“One gross!” she exclaimed, proudly. “One hundred forty four. I made a new word!”
“Gross,” he repeated, shaping the word carefully with his mouth. It made him smile. “I like it.”
FIN
Author’s Notes:
0. Thank you to
suzll for the beta, and for suggesting the title!1. There is no way to know for sure if Beleg or Nellas were at Cuiviénen, but no one ever says they weren’t—and as Oshun pointed out in her prompt, Beleg is described in canon as “a son of the wilderness who wist no sire,” which might indicate he was one of the first Elves. (Or it could just mean that his dad was a deadbeat!)
2. Telumehtar is the older Quenya name for Orion (also called Menelmakar), which according to the Annals of Aman is “a sign of Túrin Turambar, who should come into the world, and a foreshadowing of the Last Battle that shall be at the end of Days.” In this fic, the Túrin Constellation is meant to be more a foreshadowing of…other things. :P
3. The bear-sinew accessories are, to my eternal delight, totally canon.
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(Do you want character tags for Enel and Enelye, by the way?)
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I wasn't sure if I should ask for an Enel or Enelye tag since they're not main characters in the fic (and I'm doing a bit of character assassination on them!) but if you're offering, that would be great!
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Nellas seems more sensible. In the beginning, at least, it looks like she can keep an eye on Beleg--keeping the bears from eating him and that sort of thing. I love the idea of them sticking together and trying to place some distance between themselves as all of those chattering and carousing Quendi! Just trying to find a little peace and quiet to enjoy beauty of the forests.
And Nellas, a mere maiden, is the first mathematician. (They will try to take that away from her soon enough by declaring that hers was more practical than lofty and theoretical.)
Fun story, lots of great references.
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I'm afraid I strayed a bit from the spirit of your prompt--it deserves a more serious fill than this. But I could not get the idea of Beleg falling in love with the Turin constellation out of my head, and the rest kind of spiraled from there...
Nellas seems more sensible. In the beginning, at least, it looks like she can keep an eye on Beleg.
In fairness to Beleg, she did have a head start on him! She was a bit spacier in earlier drafts (as per canon), and I expect that as they age he will catch up--and eventually surpass her, at least in some areas.
And I'm glad you liked the math bit. I hadn't thought about who would get the credit for it, but I'm sure you're right that it's probably not Nellas.
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Technically it is a little early, not just for euphemisms, but for Beleg to even know what a scabbard is! But I am handwaving this with, uh, vague subconscious memories of the Ainulindale (which must have mentioned both types of scabbard).
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I love the idea of these two separating themselves from the noisy crowd. I would do the same thing ;)
Excellent job!
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And thank you! I would probably scram from the Quendi and Eldar version of Cuivienen, too.
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And of course I love the more subversive elements, like Nellas waking first, and she and Beleg establishing their own relationship based on friendship instead of sticking to a stupid script. And their attitude to Enel. I am always a bit wary of kings and princes, and prefer mocking them a little while reading/writing about their captains, so that was particularly fun.
Your comedic timing is just great.
Overall: amazing story.
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In particular I'm glad the awakening stuff worked for you--I was kind of handwaving because I lacked the imagination/research to make more authentic cave people elves seem interesting, but yeah, the idea is that they do subconsciously "remember" the Ainulindale. (Shades of totally misapplied Plato, as well...)
And while usually the part of the counting fable that gets my goat is the unrelenting heteronormativity, this time I was really struck by how hilariously arrogant Imin, Enel, and Tata all are. I mean! They just assume that everyone will want to follow them, they wake up all the men before they're ready, but JUST the men, which ensures that the women all have a built-in systematic disadvantage from the start...haha. I could go on! My comforting headcanon is that Beleg's guess is 100% right and they will all get eaten very quickly, creating a power vacuum that will eventually be filled by the (somewhat) more personable Ingwe, Finwe, and Elwe.
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I mean, yes, his hypothetical dad could have been a deadbeat; actually, as we have recently established, going by all the other fathers in the Silm, his hypothetical father almost certainly WOULD have been a deadbeat. There is nothing special about that. Not special enough for Tolkien to mention in text, anyway.
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And somehow I can just hear Nellas saying how stupid, and twee, their 'his 'n hers' names are, in a loud voice
I love it! And it even fits with her canonical social awkwardness. :D
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at least his love has a nice, uh, scabbard.
But will he ever get a closer look at it than this????
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And beyond that, I love so many things about this! The comic timing is perfect, the introduction of Beleg was well worth nearly missing a train transfer, Nellas (everything about Nellas! <3!), their confused refusal to go along with those weirdo snobby Elves. Their friendship is so dear, and it's a comforting thought to know they'll have each other through all that happens after.
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and it's a comforting thought to know they'll have each other through all that happens after.
Well, until Beleg goes after Turin and DISAPPEARS FOREVER. :D :D :D
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And you even managed to finish up with an allusion to Bilbo and LotR--how those hobbits would have disapproved of that Cuivienen story!
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And Bilbo's excellent example has encouraged me to use the term "one gross" as often as possible. :P
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They didn’t seem very smart; eventually, they would probably get eaten by bears.
I'm not altogether sure why, but I have this weird urge to see Stephen Colbert cast as Beleg. Hmmm...
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imprinting on Menelmakar and his might sword (uh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh)
Suz just showed me your behind the scenes anecdote about that and I am STILL LAUGHING.
I'm glad it's not just me!And OMG that video was amazing, Stephen Colbert can play my Beleg any time he wants.
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And the joke about Beleg falling for Turin was pretty much the reason I wrote the fic, so I'm pleased other people found it funny, too! (Or sad, as the case may be...I think it's kind of both.)
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And Orion! I've been calling his "sword" his "yikey" for years (after what my 80-something grandmother-in-law calls ... um, swords. :D) Of course, Beleg's fascination with him
and his yikeytotally makes sense and is delicious foreshadowing.I'm totally adopting some of your ideas here into my own vision of Cuivienen! :D
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one of the more hideous lines in all of the books
Yeah, I thought I got all my hatred for the Quendi and Eldar version of the Awakening out of my system in the LAST Cuivienen story I wrote, but it turns out I'm still mad about it. I'm glad my subversion could strike a chord for others, as well.
And Orion! I've been calling his "sword" his "yikey" for years
HAHA. The best thing about reading comments to this fic is discovering just how many other people have also had dirty thoughts about Orion. (I guess Túrin is just that irresistible!) And that is...definitely the best word for it, ever.
I'm totally adopting some of your ideas here into my own vision of Cuivienen! :D
Aw, what a compliment! Thank you so much! :D
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Oh, and you had me at that title. What fun!
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I'm really glad you liked it--and for what it's worth, I really liked your take on the prompt, too!
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SPIT. TAKE.
The legend of the Awakening does seem overly romantic and neat and heteronormative, as fairytales often are, I guess, and I love how you've addressed that, and so humorously at that. And Nellas inventing maths, what a badass! Her friendship with Beleg is adorable here. Never thought of her as being one of the Unbegotten, but you make it work, I think.