altariel | B2MEM 2012

The number called was I27.
My cards and prompts were:
Off the Map's Edge: The Flight of the Stoors
March 3019 TA: March 23rd - One of the "faint-hearted"

There and Back Again

All of it happened a very long time ago, before even my grandmother’s grandmother was alive. A shadow came from the North, a great hand stretching over the lands. We fled its grasp. We walked across the mountains and came to this valley of golden flowers.

We were happy here. We fished for food and our grandmothers guided us. Then one of us went missing.

Now people whisper in the dark. There are secrets and lies. In ones and twos we slip away. Our grandmothers speak of another long walk. Perhaps we will come again, in time, to kindlier places.

What Did You Do In the War, Daddy?

I saw the first spring flowers come to Lossarnach Vale. The snowdrops slipped out quietly, as if nothing was different this year.

I marched with the old lord, old Forlong, under his banner. I saw the city for the second time. Its towers were tall. It was not as white as its name might suggest. It was blacker after the battle.

I marched with the new king, under his banner. We walked through Ithilien, past the Crossroads, north. On the edge of desolation, I put my head in my hands and wept.

When I came home, it was still spring.