Chap1: the Long Neat Line
Memories for sale, buy one get a beautiful scar for free...To be found at the many branches of your life...just make sure to say the magic word!
How about it then? The rules are pretty simple...shed your dignity, embrace your pride's due of humiliation and you'll get a brand new sans-pride silhouette all in one second of the magic show...
Caution:
hearts maybe on sale...stay away from that particular department
unless of course you wish to be tied down, broken and bloodied for
the sake of "friendships".
Now for all you brave souls,
look fear in the eye, stick your tongue out, dance your little
suicide dance and "voila" you're a certified hero....
The
title is war, the magic word is slaughter, and the grand prize is
bottles of blood guaranteed to stain your carpets as well as your
dreams all for the price of the first stab!
It was the mere
whisperings of war that drew me out of my protective home, out of my
reverie; out of my existence...In a rush of events I blinked my past
life away...
A woman is never supposed to fight,
A dreamer is never supposed to fight,
I was never supposed to fight...I was never meant to fight.
Born to a family that served in the court of Armenelos...I lived in a simple house, raised by simple parents, played with simple toys and was treated with adequate measures, perhaps the simplicity of it all had affected my own features at some point in time...My reflection in the mirror never captured my eyes...It was not capable of getting a hold on my memory...Yet the perfect image of the queen with her glorious beauty burned into my memory...She had hair like waves of black silk or so I told her with all the simplicity of a 6 year old...She had eyes like green emeralds or so my innocent investigative gaze told her, and she graced me with a laugh that spread warmth in all who heard her...Growing up was awkward when I always found it difficult to do more than smile,, when my height was an indicant of my simple social stature, when my hair had merely a couple of misplaced curls and a black colour that seemed to lose its shine with every passing year, when people felt like frozen statues with moving lips and still eyes dancing at some distant mountain...The queen never changed because the hands of time were shy to touch such beauty...I never changed because I was incapable of change...
It was a
wicked day that brought me to Imladris... Everyone was happy and
vibrant and excited and all around energetic... Drained, I tediously
was drenched in my own lack of energy. It appeared as though they
drew my energy and hideously transformed it into their own.
"I
should like to see my son before he leaves to war."
"But
my queen, there is no war"
I
pinned a strand of her glorious hair while concentrating on her
reflection in the mirror in front of us...
She simply smiled a
kind knowing smile that I took kindly to...Such kindness was often
kin to humiliation because it often signalled that a matter has
slipped me by unnoticed.
"War is already burning my dear but we haven't seen the flames yet..."
Her eyes betrayed no sorrow but a look of grave distance that held depths only sentiments more powerful than grief could draw. I dropped my gaze to her hair trying to reach a perfect hair style for a perfect queen... I always preferred silence to conversation .My senses felt assaulted with human voices; voices that often revealed great zest but little wit.
I
lifted my head and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and
returned to my frequent ponderings of whether people could feel my
thoughts...Perhaps not...Probably not...
"Would you come
with me on this journey?" ......Silence...
Would I like
to come with her on her journey? No I wouldn't...Would I like to
journey with her? No I wouldn't...Would I like to ride a horse? No
I wouldn't...I find approaching animals much more difficult than
approaching humans...Animals are always much more perceptive...
"Yes,
my queen...I'm always glad to be of service."
She
rewarded my offer with a voicing of my own thoughts as I left the
room after giving all due bows and raw smiles "It would be a
learning opportunity for you..."
I could
vaguely make out the rest of the sentence...It vaguely sounded like
an offer to complete my scholarly aspirations...Ah! Yes....My
scholarly aspirations...my servitude-escaping aspirations...My
logically ridiculous aspirations...My only aspirations...
Returning
home at dinner time, my father was not yet present, his presence was
not really required or necessary...It was easy enough for me to
imagine his face lighting up with the excitement of personally
serving the queen with his offspring...I had my answer before I asked
the question..
My mother was preparing dinner...I gazed at her
overly rounded figure and could not make myself imagine how it would
be like to carry the weight of an overly sized body of a woman who
had witnessed the birth of 9 children and with them the birth of a
life without a taste of personal attention to one's own figure...Too
heavy...
She turned her head and smiled at me with flushed
cheeks and a sweat adorned forehead...How can she be so content? I
was always her favourite...A thing which I always wrestled to reason
with...I was too self-centred, too ungrateful, too apathetic towards
others, too indifferent to life itself...
"The queen wishes
me to journey with her to Imladris to see her son..."
She
graced me with another one of her fattening smiles, and replied with
a voice that held suffocating warmth: "It is time you saw the
world!"...I was not particularly fond of the thought of seeing the
world...If the world was such an attractive place why was my mother's
world restricted to the kitchen?
I tried to return the favour
with a smile...It came out more like a twitch...and yet it gladdened
my mother...I simply will have to admit defeat
...
Dawn came crawling soon
enough...Days kept rolling fast enough...Soon enough I was strapping
my bundle of clothes to the sides of an old horse, dragging it on
board the royal ship and staring into boundless depths of blue...soon
the tiring rhythm of the road consumed my energy...soon the hustle
and bustle of the servants and the cooks and the soldiers deafened my
senses...We were nearing Imladris after four weeks;I
was a miserable creature...A servant is generally presumed to find
amusement in other servants' flutters of thoughts that generally
flew about during such journeys, to me it was utter wretchedness that
volumes could not suffice to describe; particularly that this journey
was destined to one of the homes of the elves.
Determined to make no acquaintances among them, my approaching their homes increased my sullied state of alertness. My own disposition regarding elves was much clouded by the gifts nature generously bestowed upon them and held back from" us".
As
we neared the borders I could make out the figures of guards; it was
easy enough to speculate that they were elves...Too elegant, too
swift, too graceful, simply too pristine for my rather delicate
taste...
They gave their respect to the queen and urged
the party on...I purposely guided my old horse to the middle of the
crowd. It was an opportunity for me to observe what little evidence I
had of the coming stay in the last homely house...Surprises were
particularly unpleasant, at least whenever I was concerned...I
avoided them with much vigour...
An elf, in my perspective,
was not supposed to be much of a talkative creature; I always found
it absurd to gaze at unnatural beauty, while listening to it
talking...
They talked...They chatted....They sang...They
smiled much too often...and again, they talked...
I hate
pleasantries...I hated elvish pleasantries even more
so...
We arrived at
sunset... I was struck with the beauty of the violet shades on the
hidden city...I was proud that it had not surprised me to be
stricken... but my meditation was cut short by the queen's request
for help...
I drew my hood over my eyes, to an excessive
degree; dismounted my old horse, with no energy; bowed to the queen;
carried off her things; and resentfully followed the long line,
neatly following
her...
Note: umm Me I was very very surprised that someone actually reviewed...you see I had sworn off writing. Left it for a time and I forgot to point at the sea trip because I was drinking too much coffee and seriously feeling drained. Again thank you for the review...
1. Armenelos: The mighty
city in the central regions of Númenor,
where the island's Kings
dwelt.
2. The queen referred to is Tar-Vanimeldë (2277
- 2637 S.A.,
r. 2526 - 2637 S.A.)
The daughter of Tar-Telemmaitë
inherited the rule of Númenor
from her father to become the island's sixteenth monarch, and third
Ruling
Queen.
She gave little thought to the practicalities of government, though,
and preferred music and dancing. The day-to-day affairs of state she
left to her husband Herucalmo,
who was of noble descent himself, and effectively ruled Númenor
while his wife sat on the throne.
Tar-Vanimeldë was Queen for one hundred and eleven years. When she died, she should have been succeeded by her son, but Herucalmo refused to give up his power. Instead, though he had no legal claim to the throne, he took the name Tar-Anducal and ruled as King for the next twenty years. After Herucalmo's death, the line passed back to its rightful heir, his son, who became King Tar-Alcarin