Chapter: One
When Lorien awoke it was to darkness and complete silence. Now the darkness was no surprise, it was always dark in Angband, but the silence was a surprise. In Angband there was always the noise of the great forges working, and the cry of Orcs or slaves would often split the air. But now there was no noise, save the sound Lorien and Legolas made as they awoke. All of this made Lorien decide that either they were dead or they were having a very strange and realistic dream.
Now strange dreams were no stranger to Lorien or Legolas. They had a natural ability as twins to share dreams, which led to very strange dreams at times as they had learned to fully control their ability. But this did not feel like a dream so Lorien thought it more probable that they were dead. A not altogether terrible thought since it meant they would see their Nana and Ada soon.
By now Legolas was fully awake and had been having much the same thoughts as his brother. But then they heard a sound that demanded their complete attention.
It was a Song unlike any they had ever heard before. It was easily the most beautiful thing they had ever heard and it was slowly growing stronger. The twins stood entranced by the beautiful sound, they did not know how long they stood there listening before something new happened. Thousands of new, high voices had joined the first deep voice, and in the same moment thousands of stars appeared overhead all at once.
Now being Elves, Legolas and Lorien were quite used to the stars' beautiful but distant song, but these were new stars. These stars were louder and sang a completely different tune than the one they were used to. Not to mention the fact that they sprang into existence in less than a second.
With the light from these new stars the twins could see that they were standing in a shallow valley through which wound a river. Aside from the river and rocks there was nothing but dirt as far as the eye could see. There was no doubt in the twin's minds now that they were in a completely different and very new world.
Legolas and Lorien stood completely still as they listened to the star's voices fade and the first Voice swell into a loud and glorious note as a new sun arose in the east. As the bright young sun rose in the sky the Song changed again and fresh grass and trees started growing at an astonishing pace. Then the twins saw a sight that made all they had seen before seem pale and ordinary. They saw the Singer.
The Singer was a great Lion. The like of which they had only heard of in tales of far away places, though they had a feeling those lions were nothing so great as this Lion. This Lion had his mouth open in a continuous Song. The twins had no doubt in their minds that He was the one creating this world with His Song. The Lion was slowly coming towards where the twins were standing and with each step He took the twins felt the ground quiver faintly. The twins knew beyond a doubt that He could make even Morgoth, the most powerful of the Valar, bend his knee to Him if He willed it. But despite the fact that their minds were screaming at them to run, their hearts held nothing but awe and wonder towards the Lion. So the brothers just stood there and watched as the Lion continued His creating.
The Lion's Song had changed again into a lighter, quicker tune that made the twins want to run and laugh and play like they hadn't wanted to since they were captured. If you thought the song's effect on the twins curious you should have seen the land's reaction! The land had started to bubble and out of each bubble came an animal. There were creatures big and small, strange and familiar. The twin's ears were overwhelmed with sudden noise as each creature made his new voice heard. But despite their ears' distraction their eyes never strayed from watching the Lion.
The Lion had fallen silent and was now going among the animals He had created and would occasionally touch His nose to a pair of animals from certain kinds. Once the Lion was done with His choosing, He stood still and all the animals He had touched stood in a circle around Him. The animals the Lion had not chosen wandered away and silence descended once more on the valley.
As the Lion stared at the chosen animals a change came over them. The bigger animals grew smaller and the smaller animals grew bigger. All of the animals were staring at the Lion and they seemed to be trying very hard to understand something. Then the Lion breathed on them and from beyond the blue sky the stars sang again their song. Suddenly there was a flash of fire, from either the Lion or the sky, that set the Elves' blood tingling. Then the deep wild voice of the Lion was heard.
"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking trees. Be divine waters."
Then out of the trees and the river came strange creatures, most of which the twins could not put a name to. But there was one race that the elflings could put a name to. "Dwarves! Las, those are Dwarves."
"I see, Lor, I see. Now listen."
Then all of the creatures began to speak as one. "Hail, Aslan. We hear and obey. We are awake. We love. We think. We speak. We know."
"But, please, we don't know very much yet," said one of the horses. Legolas and Lorien would have laughed if they had been able to pick their jaws off of the ground.
The twins heard voices speaking faintly from beyond the group of animals and when they glanced in that direction they saw a Man and two children talking. They were wearing the strangest clothing and seemed somehow out of place in this new world of talking beasts and strange creatures.
Their attention was drawn back to the Lion, whom the animals had named Aslan, as He started speaking to the creatures. The twins listened as Aslan gave the creatures everything He had just made and Himself. They laughed along with the rest of the creatures at the first and second joke ever made in Narnia. The twins were very concerned when Aslan spoke of an evil that had entered this new land but Aslan left with His council before the twins could even think of approaching Him and asking Him about it. They thought about following Him, but they didn't think Aslan was the sort who would like having His council eavesdropped on. As they discussed what to do, the Man and children they'd seen before were approaching the talking animals, so the twins decided to stay and watch.
From the conversation the Man had with one of the talking horses, the twins guessed correctly that the Man, boy, girl, and horse were all from a world that was neither Narnia or Middle Earth. Which set them to wondering just how many worlds there were. Then the horse, called Strawberry by the Man, was agreeing to take the boy to see Aslan and the Man and girl followed on foot.
Legolas and Lorien would have followed but at that moment a dog with a funny pushed up nose noticed another Man standing a ways off in some bushes. When the animals started to go over towards him the Man ran away, which the twins thought both cowardly and stupid as the animals could easily catch up to him, which they did after a short chase.
By the time the twins caught up with them the Man had fainted and the animals were trying to decide if he was an animal or a tree. Listening to the argument the twins couldn't help but giggle. The argument took an alarming turn when it was decided that the Man was a tree and the animals made to plant him upside down. Thankfully, the animals changed their minds and planted him right side up before the twins had to intervene.
The twins watched the proceedings with amusement but they still wanted to talk to Aslan, so after they were sure neither Man or beast would be harmed, intentionally or unintentionally, they went off in search of the Lion.
They enjoyed their walk down the valley as they looked for Aslan. It gave them time to talk over everything that had happened, from their mother's death to what they were going to say to Aslan when they saw Him.
They found Aslan in time to see the Man they had seen before setting the boy and girl, who had been with him, onto a winged horse. They twins were only slightly surprised when they realized that the winged horse was Strawberry, who had certainly not had wings a few hours ago. After seeing a whole world sung into existence by a Lion, there was very little that could surprise them. So when they saw that a woman had joined the Man, they were not the slightest disturbed. Then the twins heard Aslan give Strawberry and his riders instructions on where to go, and Strawberry suddenly leapt into the air, circled the group once, and took off to the west.
When the twins turned their attention back to the gathering, the Great Lion was looking right at them and the twins froze. Now that the time had come to actually approach the Lion, they found that their courage had deserted them.
"Come here, children of my Firstborn," Aslan called to the elflings. Those words confirmed what the twins had guessed about the Lion. That Aslan was in fact Eru Iluvatar, (the One, Father of all,) for the Elves of Middle Earth are called the firstborn children of Iluvatar. Those words also managed to unfreeze the brothers and they approached the One with hearts beating wildly. Once they were close enough the twins dropped to one knee before the Maker of Everything.
"Do you know me, elflings?" Aslan questioned as the twins bowed before Him.
The twins glanced at each other, then Legolas, ever the more outspoken of the two, answered. "You are Eru Iluvatar," said Legolas with his gaze fixed on the large paws of Aslan, not daring to meet His eyes.
"That is my name in your world, but here you shall call me Aslan. I ask you again, do you know me?"
The twins were puzzled by the question and in their confusion they dared to look Aslan in the eye. They were swept away by the absolute love shining from Aslan's eyes and in a sudden stroke of inspiration they realized that He wasn't asking them for a name but for a relationship. "I would like to," Lorien finally whispered and Legolas nodded in agreement.
"Than you shall," said Aslan in a voice that shook the ground, but the twins felt no fear for the most loving smile they had ever seen had spread across Aslan's face and the twins knew that He would never hurt them. "Rise, my sons." The twins rose to their feet with identical grins on their faces. "Do you like this new world, my sons?"
"Yes, Aslan," the twins chorused.
"Would you like to stay here for a time? Taking this good man and woman as your King and Queen, to obey their commands and learn from them. To love this land and its people, and to help them in any way you can. Would you like that?"
Legolas and Lorien looked at each other than at the man and woman who were standing next to them. The woman gave them a kind smile and the man nodded and grinned. They appeared to be kind people and Lorien perceived that they would be good leaders. And as they looked at the variety of intelligent animals surrounding them and the beautiful land they were standing in, the twins realized they had fallen in love with this new world. "Yes Aslan, we would like that very much," the twins said together.
"But," added Lorien hesitantly, "I am not sure I would like to stay here forever." Encouraged by Legolas' agreement he continued a little stronger. "I mean, I am not eager to return to," Lorien found himself hesitant to utter the foul name of Angband in such a fair place, "where we came from. But I would like to see Hithlum and the other Elves again, someday anyway."
"And you shall," affirmed Aslan, "but not until you have learned what you need to learn to survive there. For now go wash in the river and let your hearts and hurts be eased."
So the elflings scampered down to the river, stripped off their clothes, and jumped in. You cannot believe how good it feels to wash away ten years of accumulated dirt, sweat, and blood. The fresh, clean water of Narnia revived the twin's spirits and soon they were playing and wrestling like the twenty-eight year old elflings they were.
When they finally flopped down on the bank to dry off you could barely recognize them as the same elflings. Before their hair had been a dark blonde from all the dirt in it, now it was a beautiful golden blonde. Their skin had been a light reddish brown from dirt and dried blood, but it was now back to the light cream colored skin natural to all Elves. But by far the greatest transformation was their expressions. The past ten years of slavery, as well as the loss of their father and mother, had greatly aged the elflings and made them rather grim looking. But breathing the free air of Narnia and talking with Aslan had soothed the worry in their hearts and replaced it with joy. Their faces reflected this change and it made them look more their age, that is to say they looked about twelve years old by mortal standards.
Legolas dozed while Lorien washed their shirts. They had washed their pants while they were in the river so those were already dry but they had gotten into a water fight before they could get to washing the shirts so those were still dirty. After Lorien had laid the shirts on a rock to dry he decided to go exploring, so he slipped on his pants and wandered down river. Lorien had only been walking for a few minutes when he came to a shallow point in the river that contained several shady ledges that looked like good fishing spots. Realizing that it had been nearly a day since he had eaten anything, and several years since he had eaten enough to actually feel full, Lorien decided to try his hand at fishing. So he rolled up his pants, waded into the pool, and stood stock-still.
As Lorien waited for a fish to swim by, his mind wandered back to the time his father had taught Legolas and him to fish with their hands. It was one of the few memories Lorien could recall of his father, as Nolocano had not had much time to spend with his sons before he had been called away to war and killed. Lorien felt a brief pang of grief as he realized he could no longer clearly recall what his father looked like.
At that moment a fish swam by and down darted Lorien's hand with the quickness innate to Elves and he plucked that fish right out of the water and tossed it far up the bank.
As Lorien stood in the river waiting for more fish to come by, he made a resolution in his heart to honor his father's memory by living life to the best of his ability in a way he knew his father would be proud of.
An hour later, Lorien had caught more than enough fish for his and Legolas' lunch, so he made a fire and set to cooking. By the time the fish was ready Legolas had wandered up with Lorien's, now dry, shirt in-hand.
"Here," mumbled Legolas around a yawn as he handed Lorien his shirt and sank down on the grass beside him.
Lorien laughed and put the shirt on. "Just in time for lunch, lazy Elf."
"I am not lazy, just tired," Legolas protested. "Did you go fishing?" he asked, squinting at the fish like he had never seen it before.
"As strange as this land is, the fish here do not throw themselves onto a fire voluntarily."
"Very funny, Lor."
"Thank you, Las."
"I was being sarcastic."
"So was I. Now eat."
