Interview With The Elf
Part 2 By, Navatariel
"Easy! Be still, little one!" came a gentle laughing voice. "Le-Legolas?" I said my voice shaking. He was hanging upside down; his legs were hooked over a branch. "What are you doing??" I asked, clutching my chest trying to steady my breath. He made a face that looked like he was trying to recover some buried memory, "As your kind would say, 'Just hanging around.' Therefore making a cheap and useless joke." Still hanging upside down, he put out his hand, "Would you like to join us now, little one?" He was very charming. Who cares if he's a crazy fan and dresses like an elf? I took his hand, and he gently pulled me up into the tree. I followed Legolas as he climbed, grabbing branches far above his head, and pulling me up if I couldn't reach. His hands were so strong and warm.I was afraid that I was falling for him.. After awhile he said, "One thing that still takes me by surprise in this century is that humans are so defense-less. Honestly, if I had down that to someone back in Middle- Earth, they would have pulled me down and have me pinned down by their sword before I could even say 'Boo!' That is.if they could catch me." He smiled mischievously. Then continued to go from branch to branch as if he was as light as leaf, a green leaf, blowing in the breeze. We climbed until the both of us reached about the middle of the tree, where a flat platform was placed so that people could sit on it. But.it didn't feel like wood, it was smoother and (somehow) softer. And, to my surprise, Sean was already sitting down right in the middle!! Oh, I was so mad, if Legolas hadn't have been there (and my pay was at stake) I would have screamed at my brother. "Sean, what on EARTH are you doing here?" I asked through gritted teeth. "Helping," he said as if I was happy to see him. "You're not supposed to be here," I said even more angry. "Ah, come now, children," Legolas said putting an arm around my shoulders and speaking to us as if we were toddlers, "you must treasure a relationship between siblings, it can end with the blink of an eye." He looked at me, and suddenly all my anger was gone, buried beneath the sea blue of his eyes.. 'Snap out of it,' I thought to myself. 'You can't fall in love with this guy.' But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't come up with a reason. "Alright, where do you want to begin?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts and beginning to record. "Well, that depends, shall we begin like David Copperfield; I am born, I grew up, or shall we begin when I was born to elfdom as I call it." Legolas said smiling again. "Yeah, When were you born?" Sean asked before I could. "I was born in a time of peace, before the wars." "When was that?" I asked. Sean rolled his eyes as if it were the stupidest question anyone could ask. "It was the time before time," He answered as if that was all that needed to be said. "That's impossible." Legolas chuckled understandingly, "You humans are so arrogant. You assume that you invented the calendar and therefore time. But there was a time before humans walked the earth. And it was that time when my people began their great legacy." "So.your like a dinosaur?" I asked raising an eyebrow. I then heard a sudden thud as Sean fell out of the tree. I could hear him laughing even from where we sat. "There is much you do not know about time, little one." Legolas said sighing, glancing down at the place where my brother had fallen. "We existed before humans; and we existed side by side with humans. And now only a few of us are left. So while I am no dinosaur, I am quite old, by your standards. But some other elves see me as barely an adult." "How old are you?" Sean asked in wonder, climbing back up to where we were.
"I'm the age of the trees." "Well, there are quite a lot of trees," I said, "And could you please stop being evasive. If you don't want to answer the question just say so. But, why don't you want to say your age? Are you embarrassed?" "No, child. I am simply trying to explain it in a way that you can understand," Legolas said gently trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. Then, thinking, he became very quiet and looked down at the platform. After a short while he spoke again, "Have you ever seen the giant Sequoia trees?" He asked, his face clear and thoughtful. "You mean the ones in California?" "I don't know what you call the great woods any more, but those giant trees, once belonged to my people. Yes, Sean," He said with the same quiet patience as if he could read his mind. "The elves of Greenwood The Great, better known as Mirkwood. I am not as old as the largest of those great trees; those were homes for my ancestors. However I am not as young as the smallest one, which were homes to our descendants, and may still be, for all I know," Legolas said. "Well, why don't you live there?" Sean asked awestruck by what the elf had been saying. He waved his hand as if sweeping away old memories, "The time of fairies and warm homes are over. I wish to see the world." Legolas' eyes seemed to have regained a light in them, which had been put out long ago. "Oh, and I must inform you, if you ever come upon another elf (which I doubt) do not immediately ask their age, it is considered rude," He added.
"Sorry," Sean said quickly. "Please do not be sorry, my child. This is an interview. It has not given me any bother. And besides, I never really kept those ridiculous 'manners' created by humans of course. I do not mean to offend your race, but they do tend to act like they know everything.on the other hand, most of the many peoples are like that, including elves," The elf said. "Mr. Greenleaf?" Sean asked, "I've always wondered, who is your mother?" Legolas' eyes suddenly became an icy blue, and within them, just for a moment, I thought I saw hurt.a great sadness, and.something else.was it guilt? One thing that was for sure, it was a sensitive subject so I didn't push it. "I-I do not wish to talk of my mother, just yet. 'Do not be hasty.' As an Ent I once knew would have said. And you don't need to call me 'Mr.' Legolas is fine, as I have already told, Adrienne." There was a small silence. But after awhile, the reporter in me took control again and I asked, "What had been going on in your life before you were in the fellowship?" "Well.I was in the war, when Sauron first fell, and many other battles. The Battle Of The Five Armies was one. But, in the days of peace.I would mostly stay in our wood, for I was young then." "Did you have any brothers or sisters?" Sean asked. "I had three older brothers and one younger sister. I was teased a lot by my brothers. They would treat me as if I was an infant just because they were a few hundred years older than me. My eldest brother, Nathaniel, had a kind heart and was always cheerful. He taught me pretty much everything I know. Amroth.was very quiet. He had gone through a lot of heartbreak in his lifetime. Next was Orinjello-," Legolas started but I couldn't stop myself. "Jello? Your brother's name was Jello?" "That was his nickname. He was most lacking in dignity that is for sure. He was our comic relief, especially during the war. Even when we were about to go into battle he'd say something that would lighten our hearts. He had a different nickname for every elf that ever walked in our wood." He sighed sadly then added, "I miss my family dearly." "What about your sister?" "She was the youngest, obviously. Her name was Katerina. She looked different from the rest of us; she took after my mother." "What happened to them?" Sean asked. I elbowed him in the arm, trying to get him to realize how rude that sounded. "Ow! What did you do that for-," Sean started angrily when I interrupted, "I'm sorry Legolas, you'll have to excuse my brother, he's an idiot." "I am not-," "An idiot? You surely do not mean he's a prophet?" Legolas asked, looking confused. "Oh! Uh.no-I meant-," I began but then Sean cut in, "Sheesh, if this was a movie we would need to pay for subtitles!" Legolas laughed and said, "My, my, you humans get more and more amusing with every century, but there was nothing amusing about the war.." He trailed off and suddenly became very serious. I saw the same look in his eyes, which I had seen when he talked about his mother, I was growing used to it, a look of sadness and longing. It reminded me of the look my father used to get when he talked about the Vietnam War. "The war; the first war with Sauron." He gestures at my bag, "It's all in that book you bought the night I met you." Then, my brother got a look on his face that I rarely saw, a look beyond his years, as if he really did understand. Legolas looked at him and nodded. It was like, they both knew something, shared something, I didn't. "I was barely old enough to fight but they needed all they could get because allies were disappearing like sand slipping through a young child's hands. The battles back then were.just horrible. There had never been a battle in that war when no one died. That's war, I suppose, black and ugly. Anyway, Amroth, myself, and other elves were helping some of the men of Gondor, for they had many wounded. At the time I had been healing a small gash in a man's shoulder." "Healing?" I asked, " Excuse me but were you a doctor?" He shook his head, "You could say that. Elves have certain.abilities, or gifts humans don't. This was the way of my people. To use what the land had naturally offered us by way of healing. But I wasn't the kind of Doctor that you are referring to. "As I was saying, Isildur was the name of the man that I was healing. That had been the first and last time I saw him. Anyway, I was healing Isildur, when all of a sudden a horn sounded from the front of our group. Orcs had broken into our camp. There were so many of them, and though you killed one, it seemed three more came out of nowhere. To tell the truth, there weren't many of us. Maybe ten, twenty at the most. They just walked right through us, slashing people left and right. Orcs were much stronger back then.
"I shot as many as I could with my bow, but they just kept coming. I looked over at Amroth, a very large orc was holding him up by the collar and screaming at him in the common language." "What was the common language?" I interrupted quietly. "You would probably refer to it as Olde English. When he replied he must have said something that angered the orc because it got out its knife and slashed him on the cheek. I cried out and shot an arrow at the orc; it hit that slimy creature in the shoulder. I learned a very important lesson then; don't make noise when you're going to shoot an orc, and always aim for the throat, face, or another weak point. If you hit it in the shoulder, it will just get angry. The orc did release Amroth, but then it just sped toward me. Then, before I knew it, the creature slammed me up against a tree. I could hear Amroth shouting at me with great urgency, 'Legolas! Your knife! Your knife!' Of course, the orc didn't understand what had been said, because they never learned our language. They hate our language as much as they hated us. Before I could grab my knives, it put its cold, wet, slimy hands around my neck. My air was cut off and I panicked. I struggled and tried to kick but it was too strong. I moved around so much that my long knives slipped out of their sheaths and fell with a clank onto the ground.
"Even now, I'm not sure what happened. Amroth did not come to my rescue; I saved myself that was the only thing that was clear. Well, I'll just say what I remember. The orc still had his hands around my neck, and then I became light headed, my vision was blurry, but somehow I was able to give a hoarse whisper in elven, it must have been some type of magic, because after I said it, my fingers began to feel warm, and eventually it spread through my whole body; then all I can recall was white balls of light coming out of my palms and killed all the rest of the orcs in the camp. So many times I've thought about this and my guess is that I had some elven magic tucked away in my subconscious. Being young and inexperienced with things such as magic, I knew not how to control it but somewhere it swam within my blood and poured from my mouth when it was most needed.
"After the orcs had been killed by my spell and the white lights had disappeared all of the eyes in the camp were on me (it even felt like the trees were looking just to see what all the fuss was about). It was deadly silent. My vision was still blurry and I was breathing roughly and unevenly. I looked around at everyone (or tried to despite my blurry vision) for a moment, when I began to feel very weak. I fell to my knees, then to the ground, unconscious." There was silence in our tree for a moment too, after Legolas told us this.
"Why didn't Amroth help you?" Sean asked, his eyes so wide with wonder they looked like they were going to fall out of his head. "I'm sure he would have if he could. The large orc, which he had been shouting at, happened to be the leader of the group so practically all the orcs began to attack him at once. Not that those slimy things actually care about each other, they were afraid that they would be punished if they didn't try to protect their leader. And they did wound Amroth, very badly. That is what I discovered when I woke up a week later in Lothlorien.." Continued in Part 3
"Easy! Be still, little one!" came a gentle laughing voice. "Le-Legolas?" I said my voice shaking. He was hanging upside down; his legs were hooked over a branch. "What are you doing??" I asked, clutching my chest trying to steady my breath. He made a face that looked like he was trying to recover some buried memory, "As your kind would say, 'Just hanging around.' Therefore making a cheap and useless joke." Still hanging upside down, he put out his hand, "Would you like to join us now, little one?" He was very charming. Who cares if he's a crazy fan and dresses like an elf? I took his hand, and he gently pulled me up into the tree. I followed Legolas as he climbed, grabbing branches far above his head, and pulling me up if I couldn't reach. His hands were so strong and warm.I was afraid that I was falling for him.. After awhile he said, "One thing that still takes me by surprise in this century is that humans are so defense-less. Honestly, if I had down that to someone back in Middle- Earth, they would have pulled me down and have me pinned down by their sword before I could even say 'Boo!' That is.if they could catch me." He smiled mischievously. Then continued to go from branch to branch as if he was as light as leaf, a green leaf, blowing in the breeze. We climbed until the both of us reached about the middle of the tree, where a flat platform was placed so that people could sit on it. But.it didn't feel like wood, it was smoother and (somehow) softer. And, to my surprise, Sean was already sitting down right in the middle!! Oh, I was so mad, if Legolas hadn't have been there (and my pay was at stake) I would have screamed at my brother. "Sean, what on EARTH are you doing here?" I asked through gritted teeth. "Helping," he said as if I was happy to see him. "You're not supposed to be here," I said even more angry. "Ah, come now, children," Legolas said putting an arm around my shoulders and speaking to us as if we were toddlers, "you must treasure a relationship between siblings, it can end with the blink of an eye." He looked at me, and suddenly all my anger was gone, buried beneath the sea blue of his eyes.. 'Snap out of it,' I thought to myself. 'You can't fall in love with this guy.' But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't come up with a reason. "Alright, where do you want to begin?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts and beginning to record. "Well, that depends, shall we begin like David Copperfield; I am born, I grew up, or shall we begin when I was born to elfdom as I call it." Legolas said smiling again. "Yeah, When were you born?" Sean asked before I could. "I was born in a time of peace, before the wars." "When was that?" I asked. Sean rolled his eyes as if it were the stupidest question anyone could ask. "It was the time before time," He answered as if that was all that needed to be said. "That's impossible." Legolas chuckled understandingly, "You humans are so arrogant. You assume that you invented the calendar and therefore time. But there was a time before humans walked the earth. And it was that time when my people began their great legacy." "So.your like a dinosaur?" I asked raising an eyebrow. I then heard a sudden thud as Sean fell out of the tree. I could hear him laughing even from where we sat. "There is much you do not know about time, little one." Legolas said sighing, glancing down at the place where my brother had fallen. "We existed before humans; and we existed side by side with humans. And now only a few of us are left. So while I am no dinosaur, I am quite old, by your standards. But some other elves see me as barely an adult." "How old are you?" Sean asked in wonder, climbing back up to where we were.
"I'm the age of the trees." "Well, there are quite a lot of trees," I said, "And could you please stop being evasive. If you don't want to answer the question just say so. But, why don't you want to say your age? Are you embarrassed?" "No, child. I am simply trying to explain it in a way that you can understand," Legolas said gently trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. Then, thinking, he became very quiet and looked down at the platform. After a short while he spoke again, "Have you ever seen the giant Sequoia trees?" He asked, his face clear and thoughtful. "You mean the ones in California?" "I don't know what you call the great woods any more, but those giant trees, once belonged to my people. Yes, Sean," He said with the same quiet patience as if he could read his mind. "The elves of Greenwood The Great, better known as Mirkwood. I am not as old as the largest of those great trees; those were homes for my ancestors. However I am not as young as the smallest one, which were homes to our descendants, and may still be, for all I know," Legolas said. "Well, why don't you live there?" Sean asked awestruck by what the elf had been saying. He waved his hand as if sweeping away old memories, "The time of fairies and warm homes are over. I wish to see the world." Legolas' eyes seemed to have regained a light in them, which had been put out long ago. "Oh, and I must inform you, if you ever come upon another elf (which I doubt) do not immediately ask their age, it is considered rude," He added.
"Sorry," Sean said quickly. "Please do not be sorry, my child. This is an interview. It has not given me any bother. And besides, I never really kept those ridiculous 'manners' created by humans of course. I do not mean to offend your race, but they do tend to act like they know everything.on the other hand, most of the many peoples are like that, including elves," The elf said. "Mr. Greenleaf?" Sean asked, "I've always wondered, who is your mother?" Legolas' eyes suddenly became an icy blue, and within them, just for a moment, I thought I saw hurt.a great sadness, and.something else.was it guilt? One thing that was for sure, it was a sensitive subject so I didn't push it. "I-I do not wish to talk of my mother, just yet. 'Do not be hasty.' As an Ent I once knew would have said. And you don't need to call me 'Mr.' Legolas is fine, as I have already told, Adrienne." There was a small silence. But after awhile, the reporter in me took control again and I asked, "What had been going on in your life before you were in the fellowship?" "Well.I was in the war, when Sauron first fell, and many other battles. The Battle Of The Five Armies was one. But, in the days of peace.I would mostly stay in our wood, for I was young then." "Did you have any brothers or sisters?" Sean asked. "I had three older brothers and one younger sister. I was teased a lot by my brothers. They would treat me as if I was an infant just because they were a few hundred years older than me. My eldest brother, Nathaniel, had a kind heart and was always cheerful. He taught me pretty much everything I know. Amroth.was very quiet. He had gone through a lot of heartbreak in his lifetime. Next was Orinjello-," Legolas started but I couldn't stop myself. "Jello? Your brother's name was Jello?" "That was his nickname. He was most lacking in dignity that is for sure. He was our comic relief, especially during the war. Even when we were about to go into battle he'd say something that would lighten our hearts. He had a different nickname for every elf that ever walked in our wood." He sighed sadly then added, "I miss my family dearly." "What about your sister?" "She was the youngest, obviously. Her name was Katerina. She looked different from the rest of us; she took after my mother." "What happened to them?" Sean asked. I elbowed him in the arm, trying to get him to realize how rude that sounded. "Ow! What did you do that for-," Sean started angrily when I interrupted, "I'm sorry Legolas, you'll have to excuse my brother, he's an idiot." "I am not-," "An idiot? You surely do not mean he's a prophet?" Legolas asked, looking confused. "Oh! Uh.no-I meant-," I began but then Sean cut in, "Sheesh, if this was a movie we would need to pay for subtitles!" Legolas laughed and said, "My, my, you humans get more and more amusing with every century, but there was nothing amusing about the war.." He trailed off and suddenly became very serious. I saw the same look in his eyes, which I had seen when he talked about his mother, I was growing used to it, a look of sadness and longing. It reminded me of the look my father used to get when he talked about the Vietnam War. "The war; the first war with Sauron." He gestures at my bag, "It's all in that book you bought the night I met you." Then, my brother got a look on his face that I rarely saw, a look beyond his years, as if he really did understand. Legolas looked at him and nodded. It was like, they both knew something, shared something, I didn't. "I was barely old enough to fight but they needed all they could get because allies were disappearing like sand slipping through a young child's hands. The battles back then were.just horrible. There had never been a battle in that war when no one died. That's war, I suppose, black and ugly. Anyway, Amroth, myself, and other elves were helping some of the men of Gondor, for they had many wounded. At the time I had been healing a small gash in a man's shoulder." "Healing?" I asked, " Excuse me but were you a doctor?" He shook his head, "You could say that. Elves have certain.abilities, or gifts humans don't. This was the way of my people. To use what the land had naturally offered us by way of healing. But I wasn't the kind of Doctor that you are referring to. "As I was saying, Isildur was the name of the man that I was healing. That had been the first and last time I saw him. Anyway, I was healing Isildur, when all of a sudden a horn sounded from the front of our group. Orcs had broken into our camp. There were so many of them, and though you killed one, it seemed three more came out of nowhere. To tell the truth, there weren't many of us. Maybe ten, twenty at the most. They just walked right through us, slashing people left and right. Orcs were much stronger back then.
"I shot as many as I could with my bow, but they just kept coming. I looked over at Amroth, a very large orc was holding him up by the collar and screaming at him in the common language." "What was the common language?" I interrupted quietly. "You would probably refer to it as Olde English. When he replied he must have said something that angered the orc because it got out its knife and slashed him on the cheek. I cried out and shot an arrow at the orc; it hit that slimy creature in the shoulder. I learned a very important lesson then; don't make noise when you're going to shoot an orc, and always aim for the throat, face, or another weak point. If you hit it in the shoulder, it will just get angry. The orc did release Amroth, but then it just sped toward me. Then, before I knew it, the creature slammed me up against a tree. I could hear Amroth shouting at me with great urgency, 'Legolas! Your knife! Your knife!' Of course, the orc didn't understand what had been said, because they never learned our language. They hate our language as much as they hated us. Before I could grab my knives, it put its cold, wet, slimy hands around my neck. My air was cut off and I panicked. I struggled and tried to kick but it was too strong. I moved around so much that my long knives slipped out of their sheaths and fell with a clank onto the ground.
"Even now, I'm not sure what happened. Amroth did not come to my rescue; I saved myself that was the only thing that was clear. Well, I'll just say what I remember. The orc still had his hands around my neck, and then I became light headed, my vision was blurry, but somehow I was able to give a hoarse whisper in elven, it must have been some type of magic, because after I said it, my fingers began to feel warm, and eventually it spread through my whole body; then all I can recall was white balls of light coming out of my palms and killed all the rest of the orcs in the camp. So many times I've thought about this and my guess is that I had some elven magic tucked away in my subconscious. Being young and inexperienced with things such as magic, I knew not how to control it but somewhere it swam within my blood and poured from my mouth when it was most needed.
"After the orcs had been killed by my spell and the white lights had disappeared all of the eyes in the camp were on me (it even felt like the trees were looking just to see what all the fuss was about). It was deadly silent. My vision was still blurry and I was breathing roughly and unevenly. I looked around at everyone (or tried to despite my blurry vision) for a moment, when I began to feel very weak. I fell to my knees, then to the ground, unconscious." There was silence in our tree for a moment too, after Legolas told us this.
"Why didn't Amroth help you?" Sean asked, his eyes so wide with wonder they looked like they were going to fall out of his head. "I'm sure he would have if he could. The large orc, which he had been shouting at, happened to be the leader of the group so practically all the orcs began to attack him at once. Not that those slimy things actually care about each other, they were afraid that they would be punished if they didn't try to protect their leader. And they did wound Amroth, very badly. That is what I discovered when I woke up a week later in Lothlorien.." Continued in Part 3