[Child of the 7th Age]

Child couldn't help laughing. Her friend grinned up at her, sporting an inverted pail on her head. She and Kali managed to navigate her back to the cabin, with Bird babbling on about the wonders she had seen. Her verbiage showed no sign of stopping.

Child recollected it had been a long time since she'd seen the shapechanger in such a happy frame of mind. The mer-city must have been amazing. Strange words and phrases continued to bubble out of Birdland's mouth. Child thought she heard her friend mutter something about kuduk villages, kings' palaces, and north gates. None of this made sense to the hobbit.

She finally decided Bird might require additional assistance. Only twice in her life had Child experienced this particular malady. Her Aunt Bell, however, had known exactly what to do. So Child asked Kali to run to the storeroom and secure a dose of mugwort to be made up as a drink. Kali came back to Child toting a generous flagon of steaming brew.

He wrinkled his nose in disapproval, "This smells horrible! Are you sure we should do this?"

Child nodded her head. "I'm sure."

"But, what if she won't drink it?" asked Kali.

"She'll drink it! And, with the hand of one experienced in the feeding of medicine to small children and puppies, Child managed to engineer the drink into Bird's open mouth. Her friend immediately fell into bed snoring once again.

Child assured Kali that Birdland would sleep the rest of the afternoon and night and wake up the next morning with nothing worse than a bad headache.

Then she and Kali sat down to talk. Kali was clearly sober and speaking the truth. Yet his tale of Gondolin had the ring of magic to it. And his descriptions of this underwater world carried both sadness and joy. Then Child felt a pang of sorrow. Levanto had never had the chance to share his jewel with Piosenniel. For the Elf would surely have loved to see her beloved city rise again, if only on the shores of the ocean bed.

[ August 29, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]