Chapter Seventeen: First Flight
A/N: K, I'm giving you some songs to ponder for this chapter. These I listened to while writing this chapter: A. Nelly Furtado's 'I'm Like A Bird' and B. Celine Dion's 'Fly'. I know the second song is kind of sad, but still. I'm not saying listen to them, I'm just giving you useless information. That is all. Please return to your regularly scheduled fanfiction.
"Yes, Filior, I'm talking to a bird, who coincidentally is your sister." snapped Legolas, grinding his teeth.
"That's bad for your smile.' remarked Elorelei, as if she had been standing there in her elf form and not a white-feathered bird the size of a wolf. She stared at her brother, wondering if he had heard her. Or if he COULD hear her. "Filly? Can you hear me?" The two elves looked at Filior expectantly, awaiting his answer.
He stared back. "The bird... is Elorelei?" He asked.
"YES! It's me, okay!" She began to jump and flap her wings again.
"Not so loud," complained Legolas, covering his ears.
"Like that's gonna help, if my voice is IN YOUR HEAD!"
"CUT IT OUT!"
"Legolas, are you arguing with the eagle?" Filior neared him with caution, finally beginning to doubt the elf's sanity.
He huffed. "I'm not crazy. Elorelei... she- she changed." He gestured to the eagle, who was absentmindedly preening her feathers.
Filior blinked. He didn't know what he expected- Well, that wasn't right either. 'I expected a firesnake.' He thought to himself. He didn't expect to see what he saw. It was a pure white eagle, larger than most, and was the color of snow until the very tips of its feathers, which were silver and gleaming. He wanted to back up, seeing the sharp black talons and beak the eagle had. Elorelei had seemed so dark because of her hair. Why was her bird form so light? "Well, Eli was wrong. THAT'S something." said Filior, sullen sounding.
Legolas felt like someone had whacked him unconcious and he hadn't quite recovered. He stared at the eagle, his mind just barely able to close around the fact that THIS was his best friend.
Elorelei was having a very different reaction. She felt quite comfortable in this form. Her wings were large and powerful, she fanned them out to their fullest and suddenly she got the idea that she should be flying.
"Elorelei, what are you doing?"
"What?" She realized she was hanging over the edge of the roof, wings outspread. "I..." She backed away reluctantly. "I don't know."
Filior peered at her. "You want to fly, don't you?"
She made the bird nod. "It's hard to explain. I just feel..." She stopped and her eyes slowly closed.
"What'd she say?" He asked, turning to Legolas.
"She can't explain it, she feels something." He looked at her, worry clouding his steely blue eyes. Her eyes were still closed, and there was a faint hum coming from her.
Elorelei opened her eyes and would've jumped if it weren't so difficult for an eagle. She felt as if she were back home, with the grass and the trees, except now she could see it differently. She saw the inner light in things that brought them to life, everything was alive and glowing. Certain things even made sounds. The trees were beaming with a light like emeralds, brighter than they ever had, and they were singing. She listened calmly to their song, knowing it usually took many centuries of enlightened journeys for an elf to hear the song of trees so clearly.
"High skies
blowing winds.
Feel your light
deep within.
Wings of the angels
spread them wide.
You are one with us
and given to fly."
Elorelei listened, losing herself quickly. They repeated the verse, then did another, calling to her. She couldn't help herself. In a split second, she let go of the will keeping her grounded, and was in the air.
A strong updraft of wind caught under her wings and she soared above the castle, winding around the large towers. She looked down, her eyes picked up everything for miles. There was nothing like this, she thought. Nothing. The wind blew her feathers back and carried her higher and the trees sang in glorious choirs, filling her ears and entwining the life force of themselves into her. A tree dozens of feet below was singing particularly loudly, and then she wanted to feel the trees. She wanted to fly through them and feel the leaves brush her.
Dramatically, she swept her wings back and dived. The air around her whistled while she picked up speed. A scream broke through the beautiful songs.
"SHE'S GOING TO CRASH!"
Who's voice? Her brother's? Legolas? She didn't care. She had to fly. A branch came up, ready to knock her off course, but she'd already seen it coming and levelled out, missing it my only inches. She laughed with joy, opening her beak and expecting a strange bird sound to come out. Instead, she heard her own singing voice, harmonizing with the trees. She flew upward, bursting through the green leaves and singing. This is what she wanted, this freedom. She was free.
*~*~*~*
Eli came trudging up the stairs, tired and confused. Legolas and Elorelei had gone missing, now Filior. There had been yelling heard on the roof, and he was sent to investigate.
"Of course, we'll send that healer friend of Elorelei's. He's around all the time, why not? Never occured to them I might have something better to do?" He growled bitterly at no one. He hadn't anything better to do, but he didn't really consider that as he traipsed to the stairs. Finally one of the trap doors came into view. He emerged onto the roof only to see none other than the Prince of the West and the Prince of the East, both staring at the sky as if hypnotized.
"THERE you two are. It's a good thi-..." He trailed off, seeing they weren't paying him any attention. "What NOW?"
Legolas began talking, but it was nonsense. "You're going to what?! Don't! I'm not sure if that's-" He didn't finish. Instead he winced and Eli saw what they were looking at.
An eagle. A huge eagle with perfectly white feathers and silver tipped wings, gliding and diving and swirling in the air. It knocked him into a glazed state with the beauty of it. It fell like a thunderbolt, then shot upward on a warm updraft. The silver glinted almost smugly.
He opened his mouth to say something, anything, and was surprised at what came out. "Age dims not her eye, she has seen earth's mortality spring, bloom, and die. She has seen the strong nations rise, flourish, and fall. She mocks at Time's changes, she triumphs over all; She has seen our own land with forests overspread, she sees it with sunshine and joy on its head; And her presence will bless this, her own chosen clime, 'till the Archangel's fiat is set upon time."
Filior actually turned to look at him. "Well said," He hardly whispered. His throat had gone very dry.
Finally, the eagle came flying down and landed on the roof almost elegantly. If it had lips, all three elves were sure it would have been smiling. For a moment no one spoke, then the shape of the bird changed and after only two minutes, Elorelei looked at them all, smiling with pure joy.
(A/N: Disclaimers on what Eli said when he saw Elorelei flying. It's an excerpt from a poem called "The Eagle of Freedom" by Alfred B. Street. I thought it fit, but I had to change it a little. The eagle is referred to as a 'he' in the poem (male chauvinist pigs), I changed it to 'she' (GIRL POWER! Feminism! .... All that good stuff...) And then I changed some of the words so he said "over" instead of "o'er" like to poem. And 'fiat' means 'decree', in case you didn't know. I didn't. If you want to read the real poem, I put it at the bottom of the page. The that song the trees sing is mine, I made it up. So there. If you've seen it somewhere else before this, tell me so I can meet that person and we can talk about how strange it is that we thought of the same song.)
The Eagle of Freedom
0, that Eagle of Freedom! when cloud upon cloud
Swathed the sky of my own native land with a shroud,
When lightnings gleamed fiercely, and thunderbolts rung,
How proud to the tempest those pinions were flung!
Though the wild blast of battle rushed fierce through the air
With darkness and dread, still the eagle was there;
Unquailing, still speeding, his swift flight was on,
Till rainbow of peace crowned the victory won.
0, that Eagle of Freedom! age dims not his eye,
He has seen earth's mortality spring, bloom, and die!
He has seen the strong nations rise, flourish, and fall,
He mocks at Time's changes, he triumphs o'er all;
He has seen our own land with forests o'erspread,
He sees it with sunshine and joy on its head;
And his presence will bless this his own chosen clime,
Till the Archangel's fiat is set upon time.
---Alfred B. Street