Remember How to Smile
Epilogue
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The shores were quiet this time of the evening. All the living
occupants of the nearby city had gone back to celebrate the day with
one another and enjoy each other’s company. It was something they
did every evening. A tradition that oddly enough never got boring
or droll. Sometimes even the same stories were told repeatedly
but each night it was a time of joy and rejoicing.
One lone figure stood on a rocky outcropping overlooking the sandy
beaches. His deep blue eyes were fixed on the far horizon,
watching as the light of the sun faded slowly from the sky, fleeing the
encroaching night. It was as if he waited for something or
someone to appear at any moment and he wanted to be there to see it, to
catch the first glimpse. If he could have willed it into
appearance with the force of his stare, he would have.
The gentle breezes of the ocean stirred his long, dark hair, whipping
strands of braided locks into his face. Yet he never moved,
transfixed in his vigil. It seemed the empty sea mocked his
longing as the deep black of night painted the horizon an inseparable
entity from the watery expanse. The stars blinked into existence
waking up to their nightly vigil and set to watching the lone sentinel
that stared so bleakly in their direction.
“There you are,” a soft voice interrupted the silence. A slender
hand slipped around the sentinel’s arm redirecting his rigid attention.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Elrond turned and looked into his wife’s eyes. With a small smile he shifted his gaze back toward the sea.
“You should be with the others,” he answered by way of
deflection. He did not move when the female elf rested her head
on his shoulder.
“What is wrong, my love?” Celebrìan questioned him. She
thought she already knew the answer, but needed him to speak it aloud.
“Something... my heart is troubled. It’s odd you know,” he mused
quietly trying to explain what was going on inside his thoughts.
“I have not had feelings like this since... well not since before I
left Mithlond.” He sighed deeply and cast his gaze back out to
the dark expanse before him. The water lapped at the shoals below
the rocks as the tide began to creep back in. “I should not have
these feelings here, now.”
Celebrìan followed his gaze, allowing her eyes to rest on the
farthest point she could see. The stars were brilliant and seemed
to dance in the night sky. The future, the past, the present,
none of it held the brooding for her that it did for her husband.
He still had not quite settled into life here in Valinor.
“The celebration is nearly ready. Come back and rest,” the female
elf prompted. Gently she tugged on his arm, attempting to turn him
from his vigil.
Elrond smiled but resisted slightly, unwilling to leave just yet.
“I miss them sometimes,” he whispered softly.
“No, my love, you miss them always,” she corrected him gently.
She knew exactly of whom it was that her husband was speaking.
She herself no longer missed those who hadn’t yet crossed over the
sea. She knew they would come. Deep in her heart she was at
peace with the passing of time and the ways of the world in which they
lived. “But this separation will not last forever. You know
what Mithrandir said.”
Elrond nodded. He would have appreciated that information a
little earlier in his life, before he thought he had had to say goodbye
to his daughter and his son for the rest of his immortal life, but
better late than never truly applied in this instance and it completed
his joy at being here.
He rested his head atop his wife’s, wrapping his arm around her
shoulders, content in her love. “I know, but they do not. I
wish them not the pain that I experienced... I wish them here.”
Celebrìan rested her hand on her husband’s chest. “We are
not meant to know everything at once. Sometimes the struggles and
choices we make when facing the unknown are what most shape our
strength and our character. Trust them to stand that test as well
as they have stood all the others you have seen them through.
Worry not, for they will follow soon.”
"Soon?" Elrond questioned her laughingly, one eyebrow raised in suspicion of her statement.
Smiling up into her husband’s gaze, Celebrìan gently turned the elf around and started them walking slowly back.
“You, dear one, have lived in the world of men for far too long.
You have learned to measure time as they have,” she chided laughingly.
“I have not,” Elrond interrupted her indignantly.
His wife wisely chose to ignore her husband and continued, “One day you
will stand here and see them coming to us, but not tonight, my love.”
Celebrìan led them back from the shore on a small path that cut
into the forests bracketing the beach. Before the trees could
obscure the shore from view, Elrond glanced back over his shoulder in
the direction of Middle-earth and softly whispered to his children
before allowing himself to be led off.
“You have my love.” His words were echoed quietly in the lapping of the waves and the song of the stars high above.
Farther down the beach, out of sight of the elven couple, another lone
figure stood. His arms were crossed over his chest. His hands
shoved up into the overlarge sleeves to stave off the chill of the
evening winds. The breezes whipped his long, white hair across his
face, combing it back from a high, proud forehead. His brow was
creased in a frown and his eyes were riveted to the far horizon, fixed
upon a tiny black dot that grew ever smaller in the darkening
sky. Gwaihir’s grandchild had just left on its final migration
over the sea. When the great bird had finally receded from all
sight, a smile softened the ages old face of the wizard.
The eagle had consented to do him one more favor, deliver one more
message. But this message was different, for Gandalf knew that
the words inside the parchment would greatly lighten a certain elven
heart. Even if the young one it was intended for had to keep the
contents to himself for a long time yet.
It would help.
Yes he thought, nodding to himself, it would help. The youthful
twinkle of merriment lit up the wizened old face and Gandalf turned
back to the forests. He would need to return before his absence
was noticed. His mission had been a secret, even from his fellow Maiar, although he was certain they wouldn’t mind...
...just this once that is.
“See you later, dear friends,” he whispered. And gathering his
robes about him he faded back into the woods, content to wait until
that day.
~FIN~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the road
This is the journey
The life that we’ve lived
The path that we’ve tread
It spools out behind us
It runs on before us
Like a traveler making his way
Back to home, house and bed
We’ve walked it as best
As we knew how
Not always the straight path
But we arrived in the end
Now I’m standing here
Looking back at this life
With no more regrets
And just one message to send
The story may end but love never dies
Wrapped up inside a hundred hearts
Emotions and memories immortal
Glitter thick like evening dew on the lawn
And in the fading twilight
One sees the first promise of new dawn
I’ll sing ‘till I die
Because I know we’ll live on.
--Cassia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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