As Celebrin awoke to a warm morning of the desert land he looked for Thingalad, his ancient horse from the western lands, the noble creature sat upon its four legs, resting in the rising heat, his now white image was blinding to the eye just opened from uncomfortable dreams; none stood awakened in the place, for the others were either fast asleep or away performing errands of mystery…In the time alone with the horse Celebrin spoke of many things, of his dark dreams, of his fears and of many new items that came to light, for he had none save this last companion to share his intimate thoughts and feelings. And the horse would look this way and that, yet it seemed as if the noble steed had heard everything the elf said, yet lacked the wisdom to say anything in return, nor did he wish to, for the thoughts of the elves are deep and few can fathom their depths, save their own kind. Yet as he spoke he heard a voice, ancient and full of wisdom come from behind him,
"So I see you have awoken Sir Uial, how was your rest?"
"It was well Master Alatar, as well as could be suspected from the occurrences of yesterday…"
"Be not angered with yourself Uial, any one of us could have been taken by the trickery of Sauron, you knew yourself that the vision was perilous despite that it was what you wished…nay longed to see and hear and feel…can you deny yourself that much consolation?"
"What consolation is there in weakness Alatar? Yes I tried to pull away…but I was weak in the sense that I wished it to be true and that upon knowing its fatal truth still longed for it as the black breath filled my lungs…no Master Alatar, there is no consolation in what happened."
"So then you wish to return home, away from this wasteland that brings to mind all you lost, all you long in vain for?"
"Why return home? When the memories are as potent there as the fantasies here?"
"At least there…they are mere memories, here the workings of the mind are perilous…"
"Do you wish me gone from your sight? Do you wish that you had never brought me knowing what a poor one of mind I am?"
"No Uial…I only caution that you do not remain where the dark lord may have sway over an already weakened heart…"
"There is a reason the elves give advice in two-fold, master Alatar, one advice given leaves the advice lacking in merit…"
And with that the elf walked from the site, angered by the other's words and angered still at how easy it was for him to be taken by the fantasy of Sauron…he was the foster child of Cirdan, the eldest of all elves upon Middle-Earth who in his antiquity was the deepest of mind and the strongest of will…he was the scion of ancient loins, trained in the arts of knowledge and power by the Queen Melian herself, and yet he possessed no guard, no defense against a simple trick, an open door lay in his heart and the Deceiver knew exactly where the arrow should fly, never in his past would he have been susceptible to such a thing…no normal elf would, that is what made them different from mortals is it not? Or where they closer to their Kindred in heart than even the wisest knew?
He wandered some way off until he came to where the great gorge was widest before it began its narrowing journey to the north where the mountains in the distance seem to gleam a ruddy, deep scarlet. In brooding he sat upon the very edge of the gorge and let the hot wind brush against him, remembering an old song taught to him long ago,
Then I saw the great green wood
And I heard within a song
Beneath woven trees
Lady of the willows
To you my heart shall belong.
No clearer song I have heard
Than the one you sing to me
I leave all behind
And seek only your song
Abandoning the great sea
Here among the woven trees
Where I am far from the sea
Oh, Most Beautiful
Lady of the Willows
I hear your voice calling me
In blessed realms where I dwell
You are at my side e'r on
Until the mountains
Become a vale
And death take me from your side
Here among the woven trees
Where I am far from the sea
Oh, Most Beautiful
Lady of the Willows
I hear your voice calling me
"What is it you sing?"
Turning to see the intruder of his private thoughts he beheld before him the form of the woman called Cidhrali, her black hair flowing in the wind as the sable banner of Dior in the days of old, it shimmered with an inner light, a light similar to the radiance of the moon, if ever the moon were hid behind a sable veil. Her skin was as the color of the brown earth, a hue that Celebrin had never seen in his life, the Harad he had seen in times of war were darker than she was, or rather it was the blackness of their hearts that seemed to cloud their features. Her skin was radiant and earthen, were she in the fastness of Greenwood or Doriath she would not be seen for her features matched her to the time of night, and there amid the blinding sun she was a vision of this blessed night. Celebrin smiled to see her and in response he said simply,
"You no have songs where you from?"
"We have songs, no as beautiful or as…eshagarir"
"Eshagarir? What this mean?"
The woman pointed to her breast and toward her heart, as she spoke the word again she moved her fingers to her lips and kissed them; Celebrin smiled as he spoke the meaning she was trying to convey in a language she hardly knew,
"Lovely, full of love…"
She nodded as he said this and they sat together in silence she pointing to different objects and saying them in her language she would ask him to define them in his, and together they began to speak, as Beor began to speak with Fingon in days long past when the tongues of men and elves were parted by many miles and by time and circumstance.
The day wore on passing from one hour to the next and the heat of daylight beat heavily down upon them and the gorge beneath sang with an unusual ferocity water rushed down from it and flowed into a great chasm at the end, where the river that flew from the mountains in the distance returned again to the bosom of the earth where all things were held secret and away from the light of the sun and moon. The two new found friends returned to the encampment and there found the two aged men sitting in silent meditation, as the wind of the sunset blew in from the west and made their sea-blue robes wave and torrent in the likeness of the waves betide the sea. Alatar began to speak to the Sindar but a gentle look of the eyes told both that the conversation they would have concerning the happenings of the day would be best if kept in private. Despite the lack of food the four weary forms spent that night beside a small hearth fire barely visible by the eagles' eye and spoke much of what would come to pass, Celebrin would translate often for the woman as she stared blankly as the two aged men spoke in a tongue she had barely begun to understand; and though this small council took long hours it spoke greatly of many things that would never be seen or heard of in the lands of the west where the writers of history turn time to song and song to legend.
"We must consider a place to wait this storm, Sauron has already several hundred years ahead of us in this place. If indeed our mission to supplant his power here is to succeed we must gain a foothold also."
Pallando said, the dire need for support came as a realization that was hard to fathom, they were alone and to return to the elves of the West and ask, nay beg, for aid in a land that was not their own was lunacy.
"Then what do you suggest we do Pallando, the elves and men of the west cannot come to our aid, and a mere battle of power with the servant of the Dark One would drain us to oblivion, we cannot battle him now, were he to come upon us I fear we would fail where we stand."
"Alatar, I do not mean to face him head on as we stand here, only to consider the need for aid, and the need for it soon…the three of us do not have the strength and will to take his forces…therefore there is but one option left to us…"
'And what would that be? Run? Stand and fight a vain battle? …"
"No…we must destroy his base of power, he stands now upon the shoulders and bent backs of slaves…you saw that village, how many would you deem Alatar were there of their own free will?"
The ancient man looked at the ground, he seemed troubled by his thoughts and though he never saw the pangs of slavery he could see the shame in the eyes of they beside the well, how drab their clothing hung from their malnourished forms and how the iron bands about their wrists clanged as they went through their daily work.
"How then do you suspect we take this ground from under him? Cause a revolution?"
"Yes!"
A shout came from where the woman sat listening to this council between they whom she had helped not but a few days ago; in her innocence and plain spoken courage she stood then with three sets of eyes upon her and three sets of ears listening for the words that would come from her mouth. Were they to see her naked back or beneath her rag-like skirts they would see scars from a long and arduous life, were they to see her naked wrists they would have seen the iron made scars of chains and the bonds of slavery. Her voice quaked as she began to speak, looking at the elf behind her, whose shimmering eyes she both feared and revered, unsure if what she would say would be carried out to the two aged men; Celebrin nodded for her to speak in her own tongue and as she did she heard the other behind her speaking in a tongue so distant from her own, yet the power of her words seemed to break forth and a fire erupted from within her breast as she spoke sternly and with tears flowing from her eyes,
"For many years my people prayed to the sun god to give us salvation, and when he turned his back upon us we prayed to the moon goddess and to the great red mountains of our ancient lands. And yet our voices were unheeded as dark men from the south and north took over my grandmother's village and destroyed my family's honor by raping our women and killing our men and boys. Our humble people knelt upon the ground beneath the banner of the eye and the darkness ruled over us for countless generations! And still we prayed to our father sky and mother earth and no salvation came, and my grandmother in her youth took my people to the farthest reaches of the east to the red mountains where the spirits of the earth lived and to them we prayed for aid! But nothing happened and still my people held on to their hope, and day by day year by year my people were freed from bondage but so few of us remain to walk the world freely as we did in the day before the darkness…and my people have begun to loose hope! And then you came…and you stood against them and did not fear them and then I knew you were sent by the spirits who sing in the woods and who promised my father they would send us absolution. You came with your shining sticks and bright swords and brilliant eyes and I knew you were here to help us! Please do not leave, my people thirst for hope again and I know you can give them the hope to take back the land that was stolen from them, I know you can help us…"
She spoke no more, and just stood there silent breathing in deep breaths worn from the passion that fueled her speech and tears from her eyes ceased to flow for her ducts were emptied and her voice quivered as she looked on at the two aged men. Their silence went from astonishment to deep pervasive thought and was at last broken by the elf before them coming from behind the woman and speaking in a forceful voice filled with urgency,
"Why do you wait? She has given you what you seek! A people yearning to be free from this yoke the dark lord has placed upon them, a people who in the event of their uprising will weaken the foundations that He stands upon…And what is more, she speak of spirits in the woods of the mountains, mountains that resemble the old tales of the earth womb of the elves."
This last part he whispered and the eyes of the two twin men opened with a sudden realization and breathing in they said in the language they themselves have never heard before a few days ago,
"We will do what you wish."
And the woman leapt for joy at what she heard and the elf had to calm her for she wished at that moment to leave to find her people's refuge and she cried out to the moon that traced the sky, gracing the world with his presence, thought she called the moon a woman, she thanked her ancestors and danced before the hearth fire to invisible music as the others looked on in amazement at her joy, until sleep came and took her to bed where her dreams were filled with a renewed hope.
Yet one who kept watch looked at the stars that he had seen so many nights of his long and woefully bitter-sweet life and he looked into the darkness that seemed to cover the south in a dark a impenetrable cloud, then in a voice hale and filled with vigorous anger and vengeance,
"I swear upon my life Dark One, you shall ever be haunted by my presence, for you have stolen all I loved and have used it to cripple me…yet know this liar and deceiver of lesser beings never again shall Celebrin, Tinnu's son, be swayed by your words and before my last breath leaves me I will see you fall and die away into nothingness and all the sorrow you have brought into this world will end before my last breath."
And this he ended as he solemnly lay beside the fire and watched the stars in silence until the dawning of the new day.
Yes i realize in the Tolkien world the sun was a female maia, and the moon was a male maia, but mortals of course never knew the original maia, nor did the Avari so by any means their thoughts about the sun and moon would be similar to the views of many cultures.