Chapter Nine—
And there they stayed, until a curious group of dwarves and a hobbit wandered upon them, influenced by the forest only because they'd left that path.
This is where the story really begins.
-switch-
Or not really. It depends how you looked at it.
He slowly blinked awake, sitting up to view his surroundings. Many would find it odd to awaken in the embrace of a tree's roots, but to this child it had become a normal thing to experience.
Except, this group of people wandering around him, some stopping to stare at him in confusion or stunned silence before being distracted by the atmosphere around them and going off, only to come back and notice him a few minutes late. All of them bigger than he was, but not as big as he knew man or Elf to be. Which meant that these must be dwarves or hobbits. Or orcs, but they didn't really look like that, nor like goblins in any sense, so he guessed they must've been dwarves. And one hobbit.
Wait, that hobbit looked familiar.
Younger than he remembered, but familiar.
And he was surrounded by dwarves. In this forest.
And if he guess right and this forest was the forest he thought it was, then this wasn't right.
Navaerdae was a very smart child, almost to the point that it was scary—despite his habit of being oblivious, but being an extremely observant and prodigious genius and an oblivious cutie were two very different things that almost contradicted each other.
Still. 'Dae was special.
So he looked up and froze when the hobbit stood over him with wide eyes, blinking dazedly. The eyes were beginning to clear, though, and Navaerdae knew something had to stop. Or reverse. More than it already had.
Because he'd listened in on the hobbit Bilbo's stories when the baby grown-ups had come to visit him, and, according to the tales, this was happening, had happened, a long time ago.
So, it only made sense that he should go to where it will happen.
There.
Will happen. Is happening. Had happened. Is told in a story to an injured and apparently mute orphaned elf baby.
But Navaerdae wasn't a baby.
He needed to go to will happen.
So, before the hobbit's eyes cleared entirely, Navaerdae jumped up, dusted of his white clothes that never got dirty, grabbed a Neo from inside of his cloak, who squeaked and opened one eye in annoyance, and looked over to where Loki had paused in his circling.
"Mm, no." Navaerdae shook his head. "Far back more. Need go. Loki?" The golden dust he'd swept off himself seemed to answer instead, though, and it swirled around and around the three until Bilbo was left staring at an empty space between two tree roots that he couldn't sworn had been occupied by a small child in white only moment before.
-switch-
He was floating in a vast expanse of black, covered in gold ad surrounded by small twinkling white lights in the distance, and a group of people who had their hands raised and joined in a circle, singing with the prettiest voices he'd ever heard. He turned to see what they were focusing on and saw the small round ball of compact rock growing hotter and hotter as more dust and boulders swooped in from the deep reached of space to meld together. The orb kept getting larger and larger until Navaerdae finally realized where this was. "Oops. Too far." The elfling announced sheepishly.
"Iluvatar," one of the people spoke up, and they were looking over at him. 'Dae crossed his arms with a pout. "We have a visitor."
The leader of the group stared at him, before grinning widely. "Ah, no. He isn't supposed to be here yet. And he paused in the creation of Middle Earth to sweep some gold off of Navaerdae's shoulder, and they all watched as the gold began to twirl around him. Again. Navaerdae noticed how it was spinning in the opposite direction than the first two times, and was relieved he wouldn't go any farther back from now.
He looked up and smiled, recognizing the one called Iluvatar from before, before he'd woken up on the beach with a silver Neo. This Iluvatar man was from the white room! He brought Navaerdae to Middle Earth, the nice place. He made Navaerdae a new child, not It, Boy, or Freak. This man had created Navaerdae. So it was only a thing of expectancy for Navaerdae's child-like mind to formulate the only logical greeting/farewell to this Iluvatar.
He reached out his arms through the gold twirling around him to touch the man just before he faded away, and smiled. "Ada!"
The last thing Navaerdae saw in that time was a laughing Iluvatar—his Daddy—and the wide-eyed expressions of disbelief on the faces of the other people.
-switch-
"Wait, are you telling me that he was that kid?" Mandos demanded, before smirking and beginning to cackle.
The rest of them looked at one another with wide eyes, having forgotten about the mysterious child that had appeared on the Eve of Middle Earth until now.
"Mmm, yes," he, Iluvatar, smiled. "My son, I suppose you could say. At least, that is what he had entitled himself as."
"We should bring him back here to explain some things," Lorien spoke up from his place beside his brother, leaning against a pillar of marble. He and Mandos were the most easy-going of their group, and very much alike to one another—though that might have something to do with the fact that they were twins. "He's rather smart for a child, I'd say."
Nienna wiped her eyes dry, sniffling. It was hard to watch over Navaerdae as much as she had, being the most attached to him of them all—at least, that was what she thought. What she didn't know was that they were all growing a bit soft for the little child. She was only the most open about her feelings. After all, she was the Lady of Mercy. Whenever she looked at Navaerdae, she couldn't help but think of all the hardships he'd gone through. That would have to end, she knew, soon. Navaerdae would feel uncomfortable round her if she kept bursting into tears whenever she laid eyes on him. He'd most likely believe he'd done something to make her cry.
Beside her, her best friend, Estë, laid a hand on her arm, smiling gently. "I believe that would be best," the Vala replied to her boyfriend's suggestion. "After all, Navaerdae would be safest if he knew what was going on."
Vána tilted her head. "No," she agreed. "it wouldn't do for him to be confused."
To the Weaver's left, Nessa bounced, clinging to her husband's arm. "He's gotten so brave, vastly different than when he first arrived. Not to mention how utterly adorable the child is."
Vairë, who was courting Mandos—or Namo, as she and Lorien liked to call him. It was his birth name, after all—nodded in agreement. "He's more comfortable in addressing strangers now, especially since he knows he has no connection to that terrified little one that we first rescued from the Opposite."
They all scowled, and Iluvatar sighed sadly. Though they'd cast Melkor from their dimension in a dishonorable exile, they'd kept tabs no him for the while he'd been drifting. Their out-casted brother still held a place in their hearts despite his evildoings. After all, he was family, and they couldn't help but love him anyways. They were happy to see how vastly his soul changed, however, when he'd found another world, called simply "Earth(and later nicknamed "Opposite" by Lorien and Mandos for it's likeness, yet differences, with their own world)," to live in for the rest of his exile. The stories he'd tell them through their worn connection were alternatively funny, sad, and exhilarating, and the entirety of the Valar enjoyed experiencing through his words what the different world was like. They were all impressed on how quickly these humans(some denomination or equilibrium of the race of Men) progressed, and were surprised as Melkor was when they all collectively found out that there were magical beings roaming this new world. Melkor instantly took charge of the situation when they noticed the powers that be were fluctuating out of control, and the Valar were happy for him when he rose up to take the position of the being called Magic.
However, they'd recently encountered a problem. Their connection with Melkor had begun to fade, and only stopped when it was extremely distant. Their brother couldn't speak to them at all, but they could feel his emotions when they were so incredibly strong that they didn't wish to feel them. Because what they felt enraged them. They felt pain.
Someone in Opposite was hurting their brother. Melkor was captured, somehow, in some way, and was hurting.
"What a terrible place," Yavanna sighed, hugging herself even as they noticed the irony of her words. Iluvatar shook his head. The Valar had grown attached to the wild stories Melkor had told them all over the link, and he himself had been relieved along with them to see that his eldest son's, their brother's, heart and soul were healing. Over time he'd felt some sort of small debt toward Opposite, toward Earth, for bringing his wayward child back to the light up to the point were Iluvatar could forgive him. And now, he realized, was the beginning of the time where he'd somehow be repaying that debt. Opposite was in danger of ruin form some force of Darkness, and it was up to the Valar to aid the one who was destined to stop it, despite the child not exactly being the one subjected to said prophecy any longer.
He sighed again. He didn't really want to, but it looked as if his youngest 'son' would be returning to Opposite for a short time, with a story full of twists and turns ahead of him.
Navaerdae would be seeing his home-world again after all.
But, he knew with some small relief, not for a long while.
"Yes," he decided, and his children turned to look up at him. "Bring him here."
-switch-
Haha. Sorry it's short but I'm not really supposed to be on the computer today :\ My parents ground me for being sick, can you believe it?!
Okay, they actually just ground me for missing school, but it's practically the same thing! Honestly!
The nerve of some people...
Please review! I love you guys and your review!
I hope none of you hate me for redeeming Melkor... I couldn't help myself. Plus, it gives me reason to go back and write me some Dumbledore/Dursely/anyone else bashing. Every good story needs some bashing, hidden or otherwise ;)
Yes, Melkor is the personification of Magic. Deal with it :P
Review~
~Scylar X
