As the elves and humans chatted softly about Nuru's story, Lindo sat back and exchanged glances with Poppy. Suddenly, it seemed oddly ironic that the Big Folk and the elves, with all their advantages, still had personality clashes and resulting heartache.
He looked up at the doorway to the kitchen. It had a small glass window at eye-height for a man, and on the other side of the window someone had painted: COMMON-ROOM. But from this side, it was backwards: MOOR- NOMMOC. The words looked strange, and curious.
They're just runes, even when I look at them backwards; why do they catch my attention so? he wondered. And then he realised that he was fascinated by Nuru's simple story in the same way. Hostility turned to friendship seemed no great surprise between hobbits; but between elves, or men, it held for Lindo a strange wonder, like something seen in a reflection or somehow inside out or backwards. He could see that Poppy felt the same.
Nuru was chatting with Rie and Aman. Lindo sat back and slipped into a reverie, listening to their musical voices, familiar, and yet not comfortable; musical, but not a tune that one could hum or sing. He let the sounds swirl and grow strange in his mind til they melded into wonder, something strange and foreign yet somehow familiar, like the runes on the other side of the window.
As he daydreamed, half enchanted, he imagined Kheled Zaram, the Mirrormere, showing a crown of stars dimly replected even in broad daylight. He looked about him, and thought that these folk were like that; stars, shining softly in broad daylight; and he wondered, whether they were real, or just a reflection in the water. But the reflection must come from somewhere, he thought. They are real, even if all I am allowed to see is the reflection.
One of the elves slipped into song and the music enfolded Lindo and wrapped him into a dream.
(Note: post inspired by
[ June 09, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]
mooreeffocthread, started by X-Phial.)
[ June 09, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]