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Old 11-20-2009, 11:47 PM   #228
mark12_30
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Silmaril

"Trouble?" said Erebemlin, gazing bewildered at her. He did not move at first. Then slowly he lowered blacksmith to the ground.

Raefindan stepped forward, grasping Erebemlin's shoulder with one hand and Mellondu's shoulder with the other. Mellonin, as if suddenly woken from a dream, gazed from face to face, and then reached for Mellondu.

Mellondu gazed now at Nimrodel, and she waited. Slowly his fear and pain abated; he trembled now under her silver gaze. He pleaded with her. "Let us leave the river, and return to the stream; the shadow is gone; you are free; I am free. We can dwell there again in peace. Nimrodel, Nimrodel, sweet Silversong, let us go back home, and there dwell. I will never leave you."

Erebemlin and Taitheneb listened with icy and sinking hearts. Mithrellas turned to Nimrodel and waited.

Ędegard spoke. "Mellondu, you cannot. She cannot. Do not speak so." Liornung and Bella began to plead with Mellondu, but Nimrodel raised her hand.

She stepped forward to him, and stood before him; the young blacksmith and the wizened crone. Yet as they watched, and she spoke, her voice came clearer. "Darklove, heed me. I shall not allow you to enter the same prison I dwelt in for these thousand years."

"I love you, " Mellondu said.

She nodded. "You speak truly. Yet it shall not be as you wish; I shall go west; and you shall remain. I wish you joy, Mellondu; there are those here who love you as I cannot. Your sister," she said, nodding at Mellonin, "and your friends, and those at home. You must remain with them and for them."

"I will die without you, " he said.

She straightened her back and stood taller. "I hope not; not, at least, until your hundred years are past. And now, young Darklove, I must carry you down the falls."

Erebemlin and Taitheneb stood numbly by, too lost in their grief to know what came next. But Mithrellas watched with shining eyes as Nimrodel stood straighter, taller, stronger by the moment. Her eyes seemed to clear. Her skin seemed less heavy. The wind, coming now from the south, caught her silvery-golden hair and lifted it. And now the mortals saw her changing, and Raefindan and Indil began to sing the song of the stream. Straighter and taller she stood; her eyes shone like the moon on the water; her skin was as smooth as the stream at dawn; her hair streamed in the wind; and she began to sing. Though it was nearing mid-day, moonlight filled the glade. She stepped forward and took Mellondu's hand as if he were a child.

Last edited by mark12_30; 11-23-2009 at 02:52 PM.
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