Anorien, Dec 20: Mellonin
Ravion led Gond, and Gwyllion and Mellonin walked one on Gond's left and one n Gond's right, watching and listening to Raefindan.
Gwyllion echoed his fevered words in her soft voice. Mellonin listened to them both, and whispered them again to herself.
"Forest. Highlands. Rest. Sorrow. Mithril. Lost. Waiting."
"What is Mithril-lost?" Gwyllion asked. "Who lost it? Did Raefindan?"
Mellonin shook her head. "I do not know."
"Sometimes he sounds happy," Gwyllion said.
She nodded, and reached up and stroked his red, drenched hair. To her surprise, Raefindan murmured snatches of a song she did not know.
Ravion turned back to look at her. "That song is not often sung in our land. Yet I have heard it before."
"Whence comes it?" Mellonin asked.
"The south, where the Anduin meets Belfalas," Ravion answered. "It likens the lover's heart to the surging sea-tide, and the beloved to the moon. It is very old."
"How would he know such a song?" Mellonin wondered.
Ravion replied, "I do not know."
Gwyllion replied, "The lover must be sad, for who can catch the moon?"
Mellonin hid a wry smile. The moonstruck lass was no fool. Gwyllion took a turn at smoothing Raefindan's brow, and Mellonin wondered what young Gwyllion thought of love. Had Gwyllion ever loved a man? Mellonin's own heart had been snared before, for a day, or a year. But each time she held her peace, and each time the shining one slowly faded.
Mellonin gazed for a moment at Ravion's back, and warned herself. What good is it to grasp at the moon? It cannot be caught, or held, or kept; and it is no refuge.
She turned her attention to Raefindan, who had finished his song, and now murmured again.
Last edited by mark12_30; 05-31-2004 at 07:14 PM.
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