Lord of the Rings - Tales of Time

[Syllanna]

Under the sky, Varda worked hard to finish her labours. The stars she was adding to the brilliant darkness of the sky were magnificent in scope and her biggest triumph as well as her dearest works. The Valacirca, the Sickle of the Valar, rose into the sky and shone brightly down upon Arda and Aman alike.

Beneath this brilliantly lit sky, in the twilight world, the story of the Children of Illuvatar begins. First came the Eldar, the people of the stars; they who awoke fully formed before the sun and moon were thoughts. Before strife or tragedy. They had nothing but the dim light of the stars, when the growth of the world was still frozen in the beginnings of Spring until the Sun could be made.

Around them was darkness and the Valar knew not of their arrival as yet. They were new, untouched, unsullied. It was the time of the Awakening.

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She didn't know if she had blinked open her eyes, or if she simply became aware that they were open now. The light was beautiful. Her mind could not really process thoughts yet. Or words. It simply absorbed. Admired. Wondered. She was alive. And alive, she lay upon soft ground and breathed sweet air. Around her, life was teeming and others were awake, but she did not see them or know of them yet. Her mind was too filled to know of them yet.

But soon, she could not name time or give it or know of it yet, she rose. Her legs were long and pale, her hair black and to her ankles. Still her eyes were upon the lights. Now though, her pointed ears could hear sound. The music of the wind, the sounds of movement, the whooshing of air as others breathed. Still, she was lost in the stars.

[Elorwin]

The breath of wind that glided over her skin left her with tremors of delight as it caressed the entirety of her body allowing her to feel it for the first time with each gliding touch. Unaware of them until the desire to see possessed her she blinked, once, twice and opened her eyes for the first time. The space seemed to take up all her sight until she looked down and saw herself shimmering in the starlight. Bring up her two hands before her she twitched each finger in turn and delighted in the movement and her control over them. Looking down further she saw her body, lithe and willowy, running her hands across it and gaining the feeling both in her hands and skin was amazing. Then she noted her legs they were long and graceful but sturdy.

Seized with an impulse she did not understand but obey she worked her new muscles, delighting as they worked flawlessly and stood up right for the first time. Amazement and wonder held her enthralled. The sights, smells, texture of the world around her were overwhelming and magnificent but what drew her eye most was the light of the stars though she had no name for them. Their light bathed everything in its silver luminescence. She reached out her arms to the light and marvelled how it touched her skin. Suddenly she felt something, similar to the feel of the air on her skin but softer. Reaching around she found her hair, thick and silky rolling down from her head in soft curls down to her knees. Gently taking a lock she pulled it forth and held it before her eyes.

Gasping in delight she saw it was the same colour as the starlight she was bathed in and when it hit the light it shimmered and sparkled like her own star.

[Laurefinde]

His awareness went from knowing nothing to realizing that he was surrounded by an uncountable number of sights, sounds, smells, and sensations that were vying for the attention of his senses. Instinctively he took a deep breath, relishing the coolness of the air that passed into him with the action. He then delighted at the sound of the wind playing over him and making the soft grass he was laying in tickle his skin. His eyes then turned to the stars in the sky and he could not help but feel a smile cross his face from the delight of the faint light shining down upon him and making his surroundings visible. He began to slowly stretch and delight in the movement of each of his limbs, from the his fingers to his toes, delighting in the feeling of the stretch of his skin and the smoothness of the motions.

When he thought he had learned all that he could about himself, he used these new muscles to roll over onto his front to inspect the ground that he was laying upon, and gasped when the light seemed to be blotted out as he was plunged into darkness. He shot into a sitting position, and was relieved to see the stars and his surroundings return once more as he felt the silky, dark stuff pool in his lap. His attention became focused on this and he soon found that all of it was attached to his head, though he could make no guesses as to why.

With the mystery of the sudden darkness solved he rolled to stand, smiling as he felt the silken strands fall about his thighs, and raised his eyes to take in the shapes and features of the forms surrounding him. He may not know what all the things moving about were, but his curiosity was enough that he was going to learn as much about them as soon as he could.

[Rtron]

He awoke, looking about, revealing in the sensations he was feeling. The softness of the grass, the coolness of the wind. The beauty of the stars. He got up, looking with wonder at the limbs that worked smoothly and efficiently. He took a first tentative step. Then another. Then ano- no. He tripped and fell on his face. When he rose though, he was still smiling, smelling the dirt of the earth and grass. He enjoyed the sensations. Except one. It was directed around the center of his face, where he had landed the hardest. He raised his hands to feel the area, then stopped. He continued to stare in amazement at his fingers, trying to figure out what they were, wiggling them and smiling as they responded. After several minutes of this, he decided he had learned all he could about them and looked up wondering what all the others around him were looking at. Then he stopped, entranced. Whatever those things were in the sky, they were beautiful. Amazing. Entrancing. He continued like this, ignoring the throbbing on his nose.

[Feanor]

Suddenly he existed.
This fact somewhat annoyed him.
He was suddenly bombarded with a cacophony of sensations, each so delightful and new, all so sudden and overwhelming!
The grass tickled his legs, the smell of the earth filled his nostrils, the air that filled his lungs with his first gasping breath was cold and pure.

His eyes opened and he beheld holiness.

The stars burning above, his soul yearned with a groaning unimaginable at the the wonder of them, resplendent in their inherent majesty.
He reached his hand out, desiring to grasp those glittering jewels, he took pleasure at the ripple of new muscle under his pale skin.
He then discovered depth perception for the stars were far beyond his grasp.

His hand fell to his chest as his brow furrowed for the first time.
Why did he desire what he could not have?
He then discovered priorities as he decided that he would leave that musing for later.

He sat up, his dark hair pooling around his shoulders and whispering across his back in the slight breeze.
He observed others like him, in various stages of ambulation.
They were all so beautiful, they were the children of the stars, awoken in this twilight of the world.

He heard much laughter and sighed, he couldn't see what was so delightful, he couldn't even hold a star.
With the first scowl ever to cross the face of one of the Eldar he stood, unashamed in his nudity, placed his hands on his hips and looked around.

There was just so much to take in.
With a sigh and a wry smile he accepted his fate, he exists and now he is beholden to experience the world; if he couldn't have the stars he would make up for it with all that existence had to offer.

[Syllanna]

Existence was like nothing that ever came before. She was sure that at one point she had non-existed, but her mind had trouble with that idea. All things that non-existed were ambitious though, they fought to be brought into the world. Of that, she was somehow certain, though she couldn't have explained it or made any sense of it. She continued to stare upwards, giving vague thought to who had given her existence and wondering if that same who had made the stars. With a smile bright and happy, she finally looked down and was startled to see others. Like herself, and yet not. Curiosity filled her, and she looked down and then back at the nearest her/not her. It was shaped differently. But why?

She moved forward and reached out her hand to his shoulder, gently touching him and marveling at the skin under her fingers. She then pulled her hand back and touched her own shoulder. She made a noise of delight. They were the same! Her eyes pricked at the noise and soon she was trying to recreate it. With great difficulty, she got out more noise, but it wasn't the same. Thus, she noted the difference between happiness and frustration. But there was another noise upon the air. She turned as one her/not her began to form a word, for that is what they would call them in a short time. Words. How she would love words.

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Time had no meaning nor did the Quendi have tools to mark it. Slowly, she discovered hunger, thirst, excretion, pain and sleep. Words were coming along, every now and then, another name would come into existence and be passed through the people with murmur of noise, like a wave. There was water nearby and forest not far and rocks, big rocks. They'd only just begun to eat berries they'd found lying around and it was enough for now. What took her attention most was words and the others. Quendi. She stared at them as they moved, wondering over and over at who placed them here and why. The twilight held no answers though and she never wandered far. Instead, most of the Quendi gathered into close camps of a sort. It seemed instinctive to them all.

Among them were four who seemed most majestic and to whom words came easiest. Already the idea of power had come into existence. Her green eyes drifted ever to the people around her. Some had discovered ways in which the bodies of two could become one. It was a new concept, but it was alive. Those that became one stayed together from then on and it seemed a sudden thing. One would see another and soon they would be making new words together.

Some people even had names now. But she didn't. Nothing she heard seemed right, though she tried each new word eagerly. So she bode her time and listened.

[Feanor]

He like words.
He had invented several himself and those he did spread like wildfire throughout the Quendi.
It was then that he found yet another emotion, or rather two.
Pride and joy.
He found that he loved his work and when he hear his words on the lips of the others he would oft laugh as he swelled with pride.
He enjoyed the fact that the others found his words to be of worth.

In these days when Imil and his folk lived near the river that Tata added the other Quendi with that dark hair to his number.
Tatyar, that was what his dark haired people were called.
He was a bit miffed that they did not choose his word for their name for his was much better by his own estimation, but alas.

He went down and witnessed the growing community by the rivers but they did not please him.
He preferred the quiet solitude of the forest, returning only once in a while to commune with the others.
It was there he walked and began to sing, wordlessly at first but slowly his songs gained meaning.
He sang of the stars and he sang of the trees, he sang of a wonder called naur, fire, a red flower that burned.
How fire vexed him so!
This was yet another thing he wished to hold yet it was ethereal and punishing rather than being out of reach.
One day he would yet bend fire to his will.

Or so he had vowed.

So it was many days that he walked alone and was content in the forest yet after a time a certain yearning arose, a yearning to sing to or with someone.
This puzzled him.
He came upon a rock in a glen and thereupon did he sit and think.

[Rtron]

He enjoyed words, and singing, and all of that related.
But he enjoyed gems and stones more.
He could often be found digging through the earth for interesting stones or gems. It was as he was doing this that he discovered a new emotion. Irritation. Irritation that he could not get the prettiest of gems that shined like stars when light found them from the rock. He had tried, and his fingers ended up hurt and bleeding. As such, he stuck to the ones that could be removed through the loose soil. But it gnawed at his mind, how to get those gems. He tried using other rocks, but that just either had the rock in his hand shattered, or the gems themselves much to his sorrow. Yet another new emotion he discovered. As was now his tendency as he thought, he polished those gems and rocks that he had found. He was also usually humming while he did this, his mind far away as he thought of what he could do with the gems when he found a way to pry them from earths grasp. And pry them from her grasp he would. If it took him many days he would do it.

[Torack]

Suddenly his eyes opened and he took first breath filling his lungs with air and exhaling. He stood up and felt the mud, grass, and small stones dig into his arm as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He looked at his arm in amazement. Twisting it and turning it, he couldn't get enough of it. He noticed that they seemed to move on his command and when he wanted them to. Did this always happen or were there exceptions. Pondering, turned his head to the side and hence he learned of his neck and head. He touched them both feeling everything that was on them. He started with his chin, his mouth, teeth and tongue. He then discovered taste.

His fingers tasted strange. Moving up he felt his nose and he discovered smell, his fingers smelled differently. Three senses he had discovered and he was filled with joy! What was this new sensation? So many new things he was discovering and learning it was overwhelming him. He hands yet again moved up touching his eyes and he found his eyelids instinctively closed. Opening them he touched his eyeball and instantly felt a burning sensation. Pain. He knew not to do that again. Thus he learned new wisdom. Not to touch where you see.

Looking at his legs he pondered their use, though it was as if he instinctively knew. Standing up, he found himself taller and further from the floor. What made him stand up? How? These were questions that were starting again to overwhelm him so he stopped before he drove himself mad, and again he discovered something new. Madness. New ideas instantaneously forming within his mind and begging to be released in the form of language. He felt his jaw muscles moving and a sound emitted. A simple vowel but it filled him with such pride! More sounds came out in excitement like a child who finds a new toy, and a new sensation was found: excitement.

Thinking he should make these things known to him he tried to form a word and he managed to say "excited". New words started filling his mind and he could not help but to speak them and voice them.

[Laurefinde]

He rejoiced in sounds. Not just in words, though those were fascinating, but also in the wind through the leaves of the trees and especially in the bubbling music of water flowing through a stream. He listened intently to all that he heard around him, learning to recognize the world around him by sound as well as sight, before he began trying to mimic all that he heard in song.

His first songs were simple as he mimicked the tunes that he had heard others around him hum, but they became more and more complicated as he experimented more. He used the words others were creating with the melodies to create pictures of the sounds and sights in which he took so much joy, not truly caring if others repeated his songs, just delighting in the music itself.