4. All in the Family
Cálale and Aranwë looked out into the splendid summer morning sunshine from their kitchen window, cups of steaming tea in hand. It promised to be another blessedly clear, dry day. They watched as Túgann and Legolas emerged from the forest and hesitated at the edge of the clearing. Legolas began speaking and nodded toward the family compound.
"It appears that young Legolas, true to his warrior blood and idealistic sense of honor, intends to march right up here and bravely confess his indiscretions to the father of the compromised maiden," Aranwë said with a hint of good-natured cynicism.
Meanwhile, Túgann commenced speaking rapidly and gesturing forcefully in the direction of Thranduil's palace.
Cálale laughed, taking his arm, "No doubt that was his desire, my dear husband, but your son, true to his inherited love of comfort and sophisticated sense of opportunity, will temporarily thwart his friend's virtuous intent by insisting on a soak in the King's luxurious baths rather than settling for our more rustic accommodations."
"You are right as usual, regarding the result at least, but Túgann's reasoning will be that his father will be unnecessarily provoked if his precious time alone with his lady love is curtailed by the untimely appearance of two unwashed youth," he said pulling her into his arms and kissing her.
"You never seem to grow too old for that, do you?" she murmured.
"I hope I never do," Aranwë whispered into her hair.
At that moment, Poicellë entered the kitchen and found them in each other's arms, reminding her of the first time she had walked in on her younger sister and her handsome lover in this position hundreds of years earlier. Some short decades ago the sight would have wounded her deeply, so grief stricken had she been over the loss of her husband. But she was more accepting now of the happiness of others and her mind filled with thoughts of her own dilemma of dealing with her daughter.
"It is later than you two lovebirds think. You will have no more peace in this part of the house today. The twins have already started wrestling and will be down here begging for food any minute," she said, her voice echoing her inextinguishably happy temperament, enduring despite whatever tragic mishaps her fate would bring her. "I am sorry if the laughing and singing of your nieces and their admirers interrupted your rest again last night. It certainly disturbed mine. But, Callë and I had a long talk and we think we have arrived at a solution. Has this tea been sitting here long?"
Regretfully pulling herself away from her husband, Cálale responded, "It is not so old. Have a small cup now and I will brew a new pot. We were too worried about Gellwen's disappearance to be annoyed with Pityë and Laitaine's singing Silvan swains last night. I would have been happy to have heard her giggling along with the rest them, at least then I would have know where she was."
"Gellwen? Oh, no! So, it begins for you! Well, did you find her?"
"About the time Aranwë was ready go out and hunt her down, I came downstairs for a glass of water and looked out of the window here and saw her at the edge of the forest locked in an interminable, exceedingly adult embrace with Legolas Thranduilion."
"Ha!" Poicellë squealed, laughing and clapping her hands. "I am sorry, Cálale, but it is too funny! Even as Callë and I were absorbed by what to do about our light-minded daughters, and what poor mothers the two of you must think we are, so little control do we have over them, your good little Gellwen is making passionate love outside of our very window. Still waters run deep!"
The oldest of Cálale's sisters, Callë, with her loosened hair and a rosy glow, looking not much older than the Elf-girls they had been discussing, entered the room with a grumpy scowl.
"Well, what do the three of you have to be so happy today?"
At that the others did break into full-out laughter.
Aranwë interjected, "If you want my opinion--which would be novel--I think what we have here among our daughters is a combination of Noldor headstrongness and highly-evolved Silvan fecklessness."
Callë, feeling at a disadvantage, asked with irritation, "What are the 'still waters' you were talking about?"
Poicellë and Cálale responded promptly in unison, "Legolas!" while Aranwë simultaneously said, "Gellwen!"
Even Callë was forced to laugh at that, "Men! Papa's darling girl! Gellwen could arguably be described as 'deep,' but since she has not recently spit in his eye, her Daddy perceives her as 'still.' That is priceless… Why is there never any tea left when I come down? I need tea before I am going to be able to grasp the remotest idea of what the three of you have been talking about?"
Cálale, ever practical, and realizing that the twins, Erulehto and Yulion, could appear any moment demanding bread and jam, knocking into chairs and trodding on their aunts' gowns, reverted to soft, hurried Quenya and told the story of Gellwen returning besotted after her evening in the forest with Legolas and her brother.
Callë interrupted, "And where was Túgann while all of this was going on? Holding their clothing for them?"
"There is no need to be vulgar, sister. It was her first kiss!" Poicellë answered.
"Of course, you are right. I should not be so coarse. Perhaps I am a little jealous of her. She has given herself at least a thousand-year advantage over what I had, determined as I was to wait for the exact right time. And here I am left alone with the silliest daughter in Middle-earth."
"One of the silliest," Poicellë reminded her.
"Oh, sister, I am so selfish! What would I have done in those dark days without you and Mama. You were so brave," Callë answered.
"We had not much choice with two little girls to care for."
Cálale, not insensitive to her sisters, was nonetheless determined to press their narrow advantage of time, and demanded to know what was the solution her sisters had come upon to their frantic concerns for their daughters, who, far from jumping too quickly into thoughts of true love, seemed quite satisfied to be trailed after by a veritable crowd of merry Silvan suitors.
"It is nothing short of brilliant," Poicellë said. "We are going to pack the country cousins off to Lothlòrien and the Lady Galadriel for an extended visit. How I would love to see them try some of their nonsense under her imperious eye."
This proposal was greeted howls of laughter by all. There would be no lack of young amorous wood elves in Lothlorien, but the picture of Galadriel's reaction if she were to find her young kinswomen cavorting with them with the total lack of discretion that Pityë and Laitaine had shown lately in Mirkwood, struck them as unbearably humorous. All four of the adults were still laughing heartily, when the twins come tumbling down the staircase.
"Please, excuse me, ladies. I will leave the Elf-children in your competent hands today," Aranwë said. "I would like to get a little work done before I have to deal with the young lovers."