[piosenniel]

Sophia TTM’s post

Glorenwen's eyes were large and troubled staring at him from the shadows in their sitting room. Calimir sighed, leaning on the doorpost. He looked down at his muddy boots and rolled his aching shoulders. He’d been out in Arnor, tracking the evil creatures that were troubling the land of the new King. They’d soon be gone.

"When are we going to go, Calimir?" his wife asked softly. "Wilwarin is almost an adult. I don't want her marrying here, I don't want our family on separate sides of the great ocean." A tear slid down her cheek. "Why do we delay?"

Calimir crossed the room in three long strides, kneeling down besides his wife and rubbed the tear off her cheek with his thumb. The mud on his hand rubbed off on her cheek in a long gray streak. Glorenwen batted his hand away, but she was laughing gently. "Dirty! You go off to your dirty woods, bring back your dirty hands..." She scolded.

"And now you have a dirty face!" Calimir finished her sentence for her, his eyes twinkling. Glorenwen rubbed at the streak on her cheek unsuccessfully. She laughed again, held his palm to her lips as she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Calimir, I don't mean to be critical. But I don't know why we stay. All my family has gone, and yours... Wilwarin is grown, she will remember these lands always... I don't understand."

"We'll go, Glor." Calimir said sighing. "We'll go... but let me travel." There was a great ache in his heart as he spoke, to leave Rivendell, the place of his birth... he didn't want to go. This was the home of his heart. But Glorenwen was right, their time in the land had ended, they belonged with their kin in Valinor. She was right about their daughter as well. He wanted Wilwarin with them when they sailed, he wanted her to be his girl for a little longer. He didn’t want her staying in Middle Earth when they passed over the sea. Yes, they should go soon. But not yet.

“Glor, I need to be in the world a little longer.” he told her gently. She stood, walked over to the window, staring out. “I love this land…” he cried, “I want to walk the woods again before I leave them forever. I want to speak with the children of Men again, and feel the freedom of the wide sky under the stars. And then I will go.” He finished abruptly.

Glorenwen spoke from her place beside the window. “I understand.” she said, in a voice without expression. She spun around, her wide eyes filled with worry. She ran to him and flung her arms around his neck. “But come back to me safe, love…” she whispered into his ear.

“I will.” He responded quietly, breathing in the smell of her blond hair. I will. Throwing off the somber moment Calimir clutched his wife tightly and swung her around. “Now who’s dirty?” he asked her, holding her at arms length and surveying her muddy dress. The pair dissolved in laughter.

******************************************
Calimir tightened the straps that held the packs on the back of his horse. Though he’d wanted to travel light, he didn’t know how long he’d be gone, and his horse was therefore loaded with enough to keep him for many months.

As he sprang onto the horses’ back, a light voice called out to him. “Father!” Wilwarin ran down the steps toward him. His daughter was gowned in green and her hair, so like Glorenwen’s, was loose around her shoulders. He raised his hand to her. She ran to the front of his horse, clutched the bridle. Her face was flushed as she bid him farewell.

“You can’t leave without saying goodbye.” She said, looking up at him with a look that always got her whatever she wanted.

“Goodbye,” he said to his only child, wondering what she was going to ask of him before he went. He trailed his hand across her hair. But surprisingly she didn’t ask him for anything. She just smiled, a strangely adult smile, and said;

“May the Valar protect you, Father.” and turned, and walked into the house. Calimir touched his heels to his horse’s sides, and soon was gone from Rivendell, making for Bree.

[ April 26, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]