[Child of the 7th Age]

OOC -- Oh, goodie, my title came through!
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Child walked onto the deck and stood in silence listening to the interchange between Bird and Pio. It seemed to the hobbit that, the deeper they penetrated this maze, the more bizarre and entangled everything had become.

On the one hand, there was the question that Bird had posed hesitantly to her friend. The thought of coming face-to-face with one's own past did not make Child happy. She wondered whether the "old" Pio, if there had been such a First Age version, would be a child, a maiden, or a fully grown adult. The thought of the childlike Piosenniel clutching onto toys seemed even more foreign to the hobbit than the possibility of encountering a fully mature Elf.

Child also wondered if Mithadan, who spent so much time worrying about how they might alter the past, had envisioned this particular scenario. She did not think he would be particularly happy about it.

And there were other possibilities Bird had forgotten or perhaps hesitated to mention. Child had always understood that one of Piosenniel's close kin had not been an Elf, but a hobbit. Indeed, if Child remembered correctly, that close kin had actually been Pio's mother.

Now, it was quite true that her friend looked nothing like a hobbit. In fact, Child reflected, the surprising thing was that Pio generally spoke and acted as if she had no hobbit blood whatsoever. How many times had Child seen Pio storming about the ship protesting some little trick or silliness which one of the hobbits had managed to concoct? Khelak or another Elf might have laughed at these antics, but Pio had taken strong offense, lecturing Child or Rose on their behavior.

And, truly, Piosenniel's behavior was the most "Elflike" of any Elf whom Child had ever encountered. Child recalled the innumerable times she had come upon Piosenniel standing erect upon the deck, her Elven face strict and imposing, looking with longing and sad eyes out to the distant corners of the Sea. It seemed that her friend rarely let herself go, or let others peep into the hidden corners of her heart.

And, just as significantly, Pio never talked about her family or past with her friends. From a hobbit perspective, that was truly the strangest of all. For any hobbit, however positively or negatively they might view their kin, spent considerable time ruminating on these issues and discussing them.

Indeed, Child remembered that Daisy had only begun to heal after she had spilled out the sadness of her family to Child. Never had Child heard Piosenniel reflect on her kin with either happiness or sadness. Yet, however Pio might deny it, Child sensed there was a small piece of hobbit underneath which could not be forgotten or denied.

It was almost if Pio had consciously decided to take a part of herself and hide it in some deep place. Perhaps, she hurt too much to deal with that aspect of her fea, or perhaps others had made her feel that it was not such a good thing for an Elf to have a hobbit mother.

Child had not considered these questions before, or how heavily Pio's past might weigh upon her. Child knew that the sons and daughters of human/Elf unions had been required to make a choice. Earendil himself had chosen the path of an Elf, partly out of deference to his wife. But what about the children of Elf/hobbit unions? Did they make a choice too? And where and when did that choice occur?

A few Elf/human unions were recorded in the books of lore, but Child had never read about marriages between hobbit and Elven kin. Only once had her Uncle Bilbo made a strange and fleeting reference to a "fairy" in the Took family tree. Child had immediately seized upon that sentence and pressured her Uncle to explain more. He had said nothing, but merely fixed her with a stony glance that said she had stepped on forbidden ground and was to discuss this issue no further.

Just how forgiving and loving would the two communities have been if faced with such a union? Child knew that her own hobbit kin would not have been tolerent of outsiders, and she suspected the same of the Elves.
Perhaps it wasn't surprising that Piosenniel looked lonely and aloof sometimes, or preferred to keep some things private.

Child sighed. She had a sad feeling that the greatest challenges of this voyage would not be physical. It was one thing to take up bow or sword or knife to defend one's own life or, just as importantly, to protect the lives of those whom you cared for. But it was quite another to wrestle with hidden shadows in your own soul.

Child's body trembled gently for an instant, although no wind blew across the sails of the ship. How many times had her Uncle told her, the greatest danger from evil, came not from outside but from within. And, by that standard, Child feared, they might all be in very great peril indeed.

[ July 26, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]