Now or Never

We had left the garden and were slowly walking towards my room. The elf was still waiting for an answer eagerly, while I tried to explain flying to someone who had no prior knowledge of my world. "In order to explain this to you, you will need some foundation."

"I'm listening."

"We don't fly like the birds do."

"You said you fly in machines."

"Exactly." I stopped beside a pile of sand that had been heaped up in an attempt to repair a building destroyed in the war and smoothed the surface. Then I painted the silhouette of an airplane into it as best I could. "Do you see here? The wings of these machines are rigid and attached to the body. The body consists of different levels, the cockpit at the very front and the cabin. There are also cargo compartments at the bottom. We call this machine an airplane."

"Airplane." The Elf tried out the word as if it were an exotic fruit. "How big is such an airplane?"

"They come in all sizes. From two-seaters to those that can carry many hundreds of people at a time. The one I've mapped here is a classic commercial airliner."

"Many hundreds of people?" He sounded disbelieving. "That means they must be huge."

"Commercial airliners are quite large, yes." I pointed to my drawing. "As a passenger, you sit in the cabin," I said. "I've only flown as a passenger, but if I'd had enough money, I would have liked to get a pilot's license." I stood up again. "When you go on a flight, you have a fixed seat. The plane is pushed onto the runway before takeoff. That's because it has to have a certain speed to take off. The taxiways are very long to give the plane the opportunity to do that."

"How fast?"

"Hundreds of times faster than a horse could run," I said. "Once you're on the taxiway, the turbines start up. They are under the wings and make the plane gain speed. When they start spinning, it's… deafeningly loud. The best part of flying, at least for me, is the takeoff." I remembered my last flight and had to smile.

"Why?"

"It's an adrenaline rush," I replied, remembering at the same time that he couldn't know what that was. So I tried another way, "The plane is taxiing away, faster and faster. The intense speed pushes you into the seat. At some point, the moment when it could still slow down is passed, everyone on board knows that. The engines roar. It's now or never. And then the nose lifts, your stomach drops and... you feel like you're floating for a brief second." I paused for a heartbeat, the memory making me happy and sad at the same time. I had always loved to fly. "The buildings below get smaller until they only seem as big as a fingernail. After a few minutes, the plane finally breaks through the cloud cover, if there is any."

"It flies above the clouds?" the Elf again sounded disbelieving.

"Commercial airliners fly at an altitude of about ten kilometers."

"Ten kilometers!"

"It's so far up that people couldn't breathe there. The air is too thin. That's why we have the cabin. It protects us." We walked on, leaving the drawing behind. "During the day, the sun always shines above the clouds," I said. "And the clouds look like a flock of sheep on whose backs you could walk. I think that's probably the best way to describe flying."

Legolas remained silent for a while before saying, "I now understand much better why you wish to return to this world."

"We have many issues too," I responded. "More than you might think. My time is not a peaceful place."

"But one that sounds magical."

"To you," I said. "All the progress never got us to the point of burying our quarrels, after all. In the end, I suppose it's human nature."

"And yet you want to return."

I lowered my eyes. "Wouldn't you want to, if it had been you who had fallen in my time?"

The elf pondered this as we slowly continued to approach my room. "I probably would," he admitted. "Tell me, are there any other races besides humans?"

"No." I shook my head. "We have legends and stories that feature elves and dwarves, and a number of other beings as well. But I first saw them here."

"Then Gandalf's words have come true," the elf murmured more to himself than to me. "The time of men has come."

"Sometimes I wish it hadn't" I said, and he gave me a look I couldn't read.

"You did right not to tell anyone about it. And you should continue not to. I will keep your story to myself."

"You won't tell anyone?"

He shook his head. "No, no one."

"Thank you," I murmured. A moment later, I added, "Do you think the woman in Rohan is actually from my time?"

"My heart cannot fathom that," he replied. "But you should not forget that even if she is from your time she never returned home. Still, I think we should seek her out. Perhaps she will tell you something that will help you."

"I don't have the means to do that."

"Well, I do. And I'll put them at your service."

While I still didn't feel comfortable with this, I was now able to better judge the elf's motives. He did so not only because he wanted to support me, but also because he believed that my search was somehow related to what was happening in the Greenwood. For some reason, that reassured me. Made his decision more rational. Why the thought that he might do it only because he liked me frightened me so much, I didn't know. "Thank you," I said again because of that.

"Don't thank me. We haven't found out enough yet."

"I want to, though," I replied firmly.

He tilted his head, and it wasn't until we reached the turnoff to my road that he said, "You've adjusted amazingly well to your new surroundings."

"I had some prior knowledge," I admitted. "Besides, Middle Earth in some points resembles a period of our past we call the Middle Ages."

"That doesn't change the fact that you not only learned a new language in an environment that was unfamiliar to you, but you also built a life for yourself. You are remarkably resilient."

"There was a lot of luck involved, too," I tried to downplay.

"That may be," Legolas said, catching my gaze, "but it still says a lot about you."

I broke our eye contact and instead examined the house that stood behind the elf, not wanting to have to look at him any longer. My heart was beating fast in my throat. We had been closer today than all the months before. And I didn't regret any of it.

When I did not answer he said, "In six thousand years you said you will be born?"

"Roughly."

"It is not unusual for us Elves to reach such an age. Now that I know what wonders humans will create in the future, the prospect of staying in Middle Earth has become a little brighter. Perhaps I will see one of your flying machines. Someday."

I bit my lip. Then I gave myself a push, "You don't have to wait six thousand years for that. Come with me and I'll show you."