"Children, you have all been good for a week, because of that, as promised, we have a special guest today, I trust he needs no introduction," Grandma Tog finally announced the and the cheers became too loud even for Ascara's most tolerant ears.
The goblins and the dwarves, even the usually rowdy Orc boys, all gathered around Bodegas. The Tree Ant has not shared his brethren prejudices against the Orcs, perhaps because he was himself somewhat on the Dark Side, Ascara considered, remembering some of the unusual tales he had regaled them with. Normal Tree Ants would probably judge him for the brutality of it or something, which is why he never stayed in their company in the forest, but traveled throughout several darker regions of Arda.
Ascara liked Bodegas, for his lack of prejudice, but also for telling the more unruly Orc boys to go away from time to time. It didn't matter that they were also Orcs. They were not nice to her, and they did not let her hear the rest of the story she came to listen to. She agreed with Bodegas, that not everybody could appreciate a story like his, let alone learn from it. Ascara was not sure if she herself had learned everything she was supposed to, but at least she never interrupted, and always remembered the details of such tales.
But now, that the mean boys went on to do what they considered fun, Ascara, as always, found herself surrounded by friends once again, with nobody threatening to interrupt Bodegas, except maybe the werewolf Kabir, who at least asked all the right questions most of the time.
"So what do you want to hear today, my friends," the friendly booming voice wondered, and Kabir was the first to answer. "The oldest tale you know," he suggested.
Ascara thought he might clarify further, but then her friend Laurel came back from the forest and Kabir got distracted. He tried not to be, but Ascara knew her friend was very pretty and his own girlfriend Dirha, though also very pretty and popular with the Orc boys, was never as nice.
"You might not be ready to hear the oldest tale yet," the Tree Ant considered in response, "but I have another good one," Bodegas suggested. Luckily, as Kabir was too busy trying not too blush and the dwarf kid Pushar, equally mesmerized by Laurel, neither of them had a chance to interfere with a follow up question. Allowing Bodegas to start the tale.
"Have you ever wondered how there can be folks like me, A Tree Ant who is not like other Tree Ants? None of my people were there at the legendary Isengard, for we do not share kinship with them. But of course, you can tell, by how we look like them, that once we did.
Things always have reasons, as you will all learn when you grow up. Our kind has a very old tale. You see, in the beginning, or maybe some time after that, the Dark Lord fashioned some spears.
There is this goblin queen of some long ago, before your time, but not mine, Arella, who writes that the original Dark Lord, fashioned these spears with the venom of the great Ungoliant and used them to pierce the flesh of our great parents, the Two Trees.
But our tales are different. Ungoliant was not a Spider originally, that much you surely know, nor was she some stray Maiar, that is just wishful thinking by chroniclers who are afraid of the truth.
That some creatures existed before the Maiar. Before any of the Ainur, and their Maker. And Ungoliant was one such outsider to Arda that took a tangible shape.
Our people say that Ungoliant brought the two darkened spears with her, from somewhere else. And that was one reason the Dark Lord himself feared her. For the spears were not common and were used to disrupt great powers, of entities equal to the Valar in stature.
Can you imagine? Spears to take down the power of the gods themselves! Of course they were sufficient to do something to my Great Parents. Imbued with the power of the Valar as they were, the power was not enough to shelter them from the curiosity of Ungoliant. It was enough to help them survive however. Slightly altered, compared to the original essence they had, to look...like me, perhaps, some would say."
Bodegas smiled, his dark eyes scanning the crowd to estimate the effect.
"But, if they look like you, or you like them rather, who do the other Tree Ants look like?" Pushar reasonably wondered, his ire at Kabir for staring at Laurel, subsiding due to the puzzle presented.
"My former kinsmen are supposed to look more like the original Parents, before the change. An element of purity running through the bark, coupled with...lack of caution, my people would say.
They are, if you will, are but a shadow of our essence, as, we are theirs. Well, will this give you things to dream about," the booming voice jovially wondered, and the younger voices all jumped in to assure him that nightmares of the black spears, and the Dark Lord, and Ungoliant, were very much certain.
Ascara remained thoughtful and quiet she was not the only one. Something must have tugged at Kabir's memory as well as his next question was more of a statement. "It sounds similar to another tale Grandma Tog told us before..." he reminisced and The Tree Ants jovial attitude became somehow more somber, more frightening to Ascara's mind.
"Old is Ungoliant and many are the adventures ascribed to her, many more than you realize. But if you remember to steer clear of all the dark places under the earth that the dwarves so like to explore, you will have nothing to worry about. Children of Shelob seemed to have lost their pure blood and are diminished from what they were in my time...You are unlikely to meet the likes of Ungoliant nowadays..." Bodegas reassured, and Kabir seemed to have been the only one to find the reassurance dubious.
"Have you met Ungoliant," the werewolf wondered. "Perhaps not, but I will say this, the touch of the original Dark Lord did pass through my forest as well...but that is for another story," Bodegas firmly suppressed the demands for the next story.
Even as the clearing around her grew quiet, the Orc girl kept watching Bodegas slowly depart towards the magical pool where he replenished himself, and imagining that the strangest thing about him might be that he was exactly the same now. The same as he was when the Dark Lord walked Arda. When, perhaps, the Great Spider Mother walked the earth as well.
She wondered if he has ever been frightened of anything himself and resolved to ask him some other time. Considering how much Bodegas has seen, his answer ought to make for another great story, Ascara happily decided.