Great Stand of Beeches(#17240Rntof)
A great stand of beeches rises tall and proud from the banks of the Taurduin river. The fully shaded road from the bridge lies straight between the trees towards a huge cave mouth, running deep into the tree covered hillside. Along the edge of the rushing Taurduin twists a narrow, canopied path soon winding out of sight, blocked from view by the smooth gray trunks of the towering beeches.
The trees are tall, healthy and obviously well cared for, their naked limbs spreading wide to the winter sky. The earth between them is frozen, covered with bushy undergrowth that is thick and dead, most of it hidden in drifts of leaves and snow in the cold dusk air.
Slender shafts of sunlight pierce through the thick canopy, some lucky ones finding their way through the maze of limb and bough to cast their dappled light on the forest floor. The winter sky overhead is clear and blue.
Contents:
Fanliorel
Khillaure
Elaure
Obvious exits:
North leads to The Beeches.
NorthEast leads to Cave.
SouthWest leads to Bridge.
NorthWest leads to Training Hall of Tirith-o-Eryn.
East leads to Mal Taurduin at the Willow.
Khillaure smiles at Fanliorel and bows, "I am Khillaure, and it is a pleasure to meet you!"
Fanliorel says, "Khillaure, Elaure, and Rilluin, I am very happy to meet you all."
Elaure brushes her hair with her fingers and the snow dusts out of it.
The sun sets over Mirkwood and the stars paint the forest in silvers.
Fanliorel shuffles his feet slightly
Casting a long shadow in the dusk light that emerges from the path to the east long before she does, Eilialhenel walks with light footfalls through the beeches.
Elaure smiles a slow little smile at the setting sun. "Stardawn." She looks up
Fanliorel gazes up at the darkening sky, "One of the most beautiful sites is a clear night sky in the cold.
Elaure speaks without lowering her gaze. "And now they sing."
Elaure holds her breath and her eyes upon the sky in the silent crisp even.
Eilialhenel carries a basket of tight-woven withes on her arm, covered lightly by a cloth of linen. Steam rises in little wisps from around the edges, curling in the cool witer air and carrying with them a scent of warm spicy cinnamon and apples.
Fanliorel switches his gaze from the sky, to the serenity of the peaceful forest, back to the sky, and begins to feel a beautiful contentment. "Such a lovely place is this forest."
"Dear me," Eilialhenel cries. "Poor muffins, languishing uneaten and unappreciated, isn't there anyone who will help them?"
Khillaure smiles at the blissful expression on Elaure's face and settles herself down at the base of a graceful beech. She waves to the approaching Eilialhenel.
Elaure lowers her eyes to earth, blinking as if awakened.
Khillaure giggles, "I think there are some willing volunteers over here!"
Eilialhenel looks imploringly from face to face, for all the world seeming on the verge of tears.
Elaure grins at the invitation. She sniffs like a filly, her small nostrils flaring just a little.
Khillaure feins seriousness, "What ever will you do? Why, I suppose we will have to help!"
Elaure says, "Muffins, apples and spice from the south. And a gatherer of willow kisses."
Elaure giggles. "Well the stars can sing but so can my tummy."
Fanliorel looks toward the newcomer with steaming muffins in hand. "I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Fanliorel", he says with a happy smile.
Fanliorel bows to those all around him, with an attempt at grace, but fails miserably and slips into the snow.
Eilialhenel reaches across her body with a slender hand and peels back the cloth revealing deep brown muffins flecked with lighter squares of golden apple, steaming in the cold. Full-force emerges their scent now, overlaid with the sweet wild-flower aroma of honey full with the promise of summer. She holds these out for all to take, while she smiles to Fanlioriel. "The muffins can't introduce themselves in return, I'm afraid, so I shall have to do it for them. This here is please-eat-me, and this is I'm-delicious. The rest haven't bothered to tell me their names yet, I fear."
Elaure skips to the muffin bearer and bows to the muffins. "I am Elaure, the king's songbird, and I have come to rescue you."
"Oh dear," Eilialhenel says, laughing helplessly at the fallen elf.
Khillaure giggles as she takes a warm cake from the basket, "It simply would not do to let a muffin go uneaten!"
Elaure puts out her hand in greeting, or--something..
Fanliorel tries to right himself with dignity, but once again slips down. Then, staring up with a grin on his face, rolls all the way over to the group of huddle muffin eaters, and gazes up at them happily.
Fanliorel says, "I like this place already."
Still chuckling, Eilialhenel reaches down to Fanliorel, muffin in hand. "Perhaps you ought just stay there for the time being, mellon."
Fanliorel says "yes ma'am," and takes the muffin for his prize.
Fanliorel says, "Grace I may not have, but hunger I have to make up for it."
Elaure wiggles impatiently, "Me." She opens and closes the fingers of her outstretched hand.
Eilialhenel straightens and fixed Elaure with a withering look. "Patience," she says in a firm voice.
Elaure's small feet dance in the left-over snow, making little bird-like prints.
Fanliorel wonderingly says "Don't tell me this is your mother, Elaure."
Khillaure smiles, "That is like telling an angry squirrel not to chatter!"
Slowly, Eilialhenel reaches for another muffin, contemplating it thouroughly. With interminably long movements, she reaches out towards Elaure, as if loth to part with the sweet morsel. At length, though, her arm is fully extended, and the muffin, still steaming, ready to be taken.
Fanliorel says, "Indeed! Well, again, what a pleasure!"
Elaure shakes her head. "No. My mother is in the Halls of Mandos. And patience is for the old." She snatches the muffin quickly and takes a bit, chewing twice, swallowing and grinning. "Thank you." Then to the muffin, "elaure to the rescue!"
Elaure says, "Weep no more brave morsel!"
Eilialhenel makes a disapproving noise in the back of her throat as she glances upwards at the sky. Quickly moving clouds have crowded in, and through the tangle of trees above the glittering web of stars is all but hidden. She sighs resignedly, and turns back to Elaure, adding, "...and patience is for the well mannered, mellon."
Elaure wrinkles her nose. "But they *needed* me!"
Fanliorel keeps thinking his many thoughts to himself, wondering how he should go about befriending these people.
Eilialhenel purses her lips, considering the plight of her muffins. "She makes quite a case for herself, does she not?" She remarks to the other elves. "What say you, is her impatience forgivable?"
Elaure takes another bite and sighs lightly, "So nice to be needed." She licks the corners of her mouth delicately to retrieve the crumbs.
Fanliorel says, "In my few experiences, impatience is but a passing phase in the life of the young. I myself may not yet be beyond its grasp."
Fanliorel says, "Impatience, demand, and conceit are too easy to do.....to merely be a silly elf is much harder."
Fanliorel says, "To be wise, *that* takes greatness."
Khillaure stands, dusting crumbs from her cloak, and smiles at the munching elves, "I thank you for the delicious treat, but I must be leaving." She grins at Elaure, "As long as she promises to deliver that muffin to a happy home, I think she should be forgiven!"
Fanliorel says, "Farewell, and well met Khillaure, I hope that we may meet again!"
Elaure grins at Khillaure. "Farewell oh worthy opponent!"
Eilialhenel nods slowly. "So Fanliorel votes that our little songbird shall be forgiven, as does Khillaure. Well!" Eilialhenel says with a smile, "I suppose that settles the matter. Perhaps we ought to be rewarding you for your eagerness to help those in need." She toys with another muffin, tossing it up and down in one hand. "Do you think this would be reward enough?" she inquires.
Fanliorel laughs to himself
Khillaure bows, "Namarie, mellyn!"
Elaure giggles as she takes another bite of the muffin. She closes her eyes as she chews. Then she opens them
Eilialhenel chuckles, saying to Fanliorel, "If ever you should meet the Tarkano Rhuarc, then you will know what a truly silly elf is! Namarie, Khillaure, the muffins thank you!"
Khillaure walks off toward the willow, waving goodbye.
Khillaure walks eastwards, treading between the beeches.
Khillaure has left.
Elaure puts out her hand slowly and gracefully, very slowly, as she takes another bite of the muffin she has.
Fanliorel says "Tarkano Rhuarc sounds like one I will have to meet." He then looks between the two elves and finally arises from his bed of snow.
"And another is saved!" Eilialhenel exclaims delightedly. "Verily you have saved the day, Elaure the Impatient!"
Elaure sings after she swallows as she waits like a queen for delivery, "I am the hero of the muffins"
Fanliorel , brushing the snow off his back, says "I don't mean to intrude, but I am new here, and was wondering if you could tell me anything important I need to know."
"Alas, I'm afraid that you are going to have to share that honor with others, Elaure," Eilialhenel says as she flips the cover back over the remaining muffins in her basket. As the fragrant steam once again struggles to escape, she says to Fanliorel, regarding him seriously, "I don't know where you hail from, but use your good judgement and I am certain that you will encounter no trouble." "The most important thing is to enjoy yourself," she says blithely, "and keeping that in mind, I am going to go see if I can spread the enjoyment of these muffins around our realm a bit further. Pleased to have made your acquaintance, Fanliorel the muffin-savior, and should you ever have need of a healer, though I hope you will not, I am Eilialhenel, at your service."
Elaure stands quietly eating for a little while as the adults speak contemplating first her eating muffin and then the holding muffin, one in each hand. As she takes a bit of her eating muffin, a decisive look dawns in her eyes and she pulls out her shirt carefully from the buttons and hides it
Elaure says, "I'm saving this one for the king."
Elaure pats it through her shirt. "It will not get cold in there."
Eilialhenel looks down on Elaure with an indulgent smile. "Well don't wait too long, lest it pass beyond saving! Good night, mellyn, and I thank you again!"