[Envinyatar]

Orëmir

The path down which they’d gone led to a little stream, he knew. And those two boys that Lindir had hailed, he shook his head, trying to clear away the vision of them. It was his brother and him. They had just come from the water, a wide bend in the stream where the current moved lazily along the shore. They had built little boats, swan shaped, with white sails.

Orëmir had let his get too far toward midstream. It had crashed against a rock and sunk. The debris of it floating down the swifter current in the middle of the stream. He saw the look on his younger self’s face. He had been heart-broken, near to tears. And Endamir, distressed at his twin’s sorrow had his arm about Orëmir’s shoulders. ‘It’s alright, Ray-ray,’ he could just hear his brother saying to him. ‘We can share my boat. Let’s take it to the fountain and sail it in and out of the water falls.’ Endamir placed the swan ship in his brother’s hands and tugged at his sleeve to follow him.

‘Lindir!’ the older-Orëmir called out. ‘Leave them be. This is not part of my remembering, that you and I should meet them.’ But Lindir was not to be deterred. He waved and hailed the two boys who turned to look at him curiously.

From a little twisting sidetrack that ran through the small grove of hawthorn there came an all too familiar voice calling out. ‘Ray-ray! Enny! Where have you two got off to? It’s time for the mid-day meal. Come with me now and get washed up!’

He gave a gasp as she came into view.

Nénuwen wore her dove grey dress, with its soft lines and her hands clasped the skirt of it, picking it up a bit that she might move quickly along. Her long black hair was loose about her, flowing over her shoulders to reach her waist. Her face broke into a smile at the sight of her children, grey eyes twinkling.

By the One! She is so beautiful. How is it that I never noticed?

Her brow puckered slightly at the sight of the two strangers in her garden. ‘Are you lost, sirs?’ she asked.