Tolkien's beautiful characters in no way belong to me. I just think about them often.
The first Dawn fell upon the trees, the golden light filtering through the sheltering leaves. It was there beneath the green shelters that the Elves awoke and were claimed by their fathers. They got up and passed beneath the boughs to follow their leaders, but not soon did they forget the first shelter given by the Valar. Some of them returned to the trees where they first tasted life.
Treebeard had not thought of his Awakening in a long time.
"Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learning their tree-talk." Treebeard contemplated this as he talked to the little Hobbits he bore through the forest. The many years had somewhat dimmed in his memory, but still could he and his brethren remember the days that they woke to cool fingertips and soft, melodic voices. Alone of all the rest of the trees did he, Finglas, and Fladrif remember those life giving days.
"Awake, little tree! Awake! Awake!"
The tree found itself changing. It had felt the wind rustle its leaves before. It had felt the sun warm its bark. But never before had it heard voices in such a way. The birdsong had been birdsong. But now it was different. The notes meant things. A bird pecked at the tree's crown. He brushed it away.
He. The tree found that it considered itself a…he. Furthermore, he had brushed the bird away. His branches were his to move around, and he could see a pale light washing through the eyes he had come to realize were his. His bark crackled and groaned as he stretched.
"Little tree! Awaken to the forests of Yavanna and see your children!" The tree looked down to see a small creature beckon to him. It was not a creature of fur or feather. It stood six feet tall and looked upon him with clear, bright eyes. The tree longed to greet his maker, but his mouth would not work to convey his thoughts.
The little creature raised its arms- her arms, he worked out- and the tree stooped down to pick her up. She laughed gaily and sang to him.
"I name you Fangorn, little tree! You are awake now, and I shall teach you the tongues of my mothers and fathers, teach you to sing praises of Yavanna who has given you life!" Fangorn, as he was to be called, worked his mouth once more.
"Yah-" The words tasted odd in his mouth. "Yavanna, you are Yavanna," he ground out. The little creature smiled and stroked the bark of his face.
"No, Fangorn, I am not Yavanna. I am her child as you are, brother tree. I am of the Elves, of the Firstborn, and I will teach you to sing as Yavanna once sang our trees into existence!"
Treebeard remembered the song she had sung to him that day many thousands of years past. She had taught to him the list of the creatures, the very same that he had recited for Merry and Pippin. Treebeard added their kind to the list as he thought about the Elf-sister that he had in time named Keeper. She would have smiled at these small ones with the same delight that she had always given unto him.
She had come last many years before to lay beneath his boughs as she faded. She sailed to the arms of Yavanna not long after coming to him, and she set off from the shore clutching leaves taken from her beloved Fangorn. Treebeard would remember her song and the days in which he was known as Fangorn as he broke down the walls and smiths of Isengard in her honour.
I love the Ents, and I wish that we knew more about them. The lines where Treebeard mentions the Elves coming and "curing them of dumbness" have always been of great interest to me.