Snowfall on the Western seas
by sairavanie
The air was quiet all about, fallen into silence by the unexpected yet strangely welcomed sensation that had befallen the Undying Lands. Over the still blossoming Mellyrn trees lay thick layers of crystal white snow, heaving the slender branches so that they almost touched upon the same coloured ground.
The white landscape glittered in the early sunlight, reflecting its light in the pale green eyes of a lonely elf that sat leaning comfortably back against a large silver stem. Despite the unusual weather, he was dressed lightly in well fitting brown clothes, with a thin dark green cloak wrapped loosely over the slim shoulders, seemingly not bothered by the stinging cold.
The stillness did not stir as a second shape emerged slowly from the woods, coming to stand beside the other. The elf did not look up, but straightened his back and mindlessly pulled a string of raven black hair from his forehead. They stayed like that for some time, not wondering about how time passed them by, or the snow that had once again started falling from a seemingly cloud less sky.
"Higher forces are playing us a jest, my friend", a deep but light voice stated, and the elf cocked his head slightly to the side, so that he gazed up into a pair of steel grey eyes, softly lighted with a bemused fire.
"Indeed, I believe thou art right!" He said and smiled, "but a delightful one it is this time, which makes me wonder if thou had naught to do with it Olorìn?"
The other gave a small bark of laughter, a sound that resembled most the falling of a clear spring that once had been in Lorìen. No, the Golden Wood is no more, the elf thought sadly and sighed a little, not willing to dwell on thoughts of elder days for long.
The Istari lowered his intense eyes, as if he had known some way what went on in the elf’s mind and shared that misery in his own ancient heart.
"Sometimes, we need changes, Legolas", he said and shook his head lightly so that large snowflakes danced among the heavy locks of dark gold. "Or else I deem eternity would bring us all to madness!"
"Perhaps…" the elf said, mostly to himself, as his long hand traced strange patterns in the new fallen, powderish snow on the ground. He looked up again; green eyes burning with a devastation that Olorìn had not been prepared for, thus stepped forward and questioned the other with his hard gaze.
"Do you miss them Gandalf?" Legolas asked, his soft voice broke a little at the mentioning of the maia’s old name. "I mean… of course, but this much? As if it had not lain an eternity between us… with all this pain." He looked down and laughed bitterly, "I still expect any of them come walking out from behind a tree, any time! That bushy mass of red beard yelling something at me… or the unstoppable chattering of hobbit voices!"
"Naturally, my dear boy." Gandalf said and lowered himself to sit beside the elf on the ground. "It matters not if time draws out to infinity, for they shall always be kept in thy heart, and thou shall love them and despair." He sighed and leaned his head back against the stem. "For that is our doom, if we meddle too close into the affairs of mortals. Yet how can we not?"
Legolas nodded and looked over at his old friend, into the face that kindled with an unearthly light, forever young and so far from that of the old man he had known ages ago.
"Infinity… ", He repeated slowly. "Has the years not already stretched out beyond what is reasonable even for the firstborn? I am weary Gandalf, the world is not the same any more outside the western shores."
"True, the world changes as it always has. The peoples of Middle Earth are not the same as they once were, and the lands that we once dwelt in are lost to time as so much else." He sighed deeply and got a strange gleam in his eyes. "They listen no longer for the song of the Ainur, and turn to other spirits in their prayers than the men of elder days."
"So they are forever beyond our reach then, is that what was supposed to be? Long has it been since we left Arda to the hands of men, to see a Kingdom rise that would come to last for generations!"
"Yes," Gandalf’s lips curled into a slight smile at the memory, but faded quickly into a grave grimace, "and that Kingdom is no more now, for the ages of men pass inevitably so that new civilisations might rise and fall anew."
For a moment there was silence between them, and the two alone remnants of the Fellowship of the Ring sat quietly under the snow covered branches of a mallorn, watching Arien wander her eternal course over heaven’s vault. Mere hours passed quickly in the minds of the immortals, and they cared not that the entire day flew them by where they rested.
And yet the snow fell, as night lowered over them and stars were lighted above in the cloudless sky and all about could be heard voices that sang the praise of Elbereth.
"Do you remember when we walked in the snow of Caradhras?" Legolas turned to look at his friend, and a small smile crossed his fair features. Gandalf laughed.
"I remember myself walking in the snow, and you strutting unhindered above it! Gods, I thought we would all end our days there! Why do you speak of that now?"
"I know not. Perhaps for the snow reminded me of how it was to see Gimli’s face covered with white flakes, glaring up at me with an almost murderous look in his eyes! I would have laughed then were it not for the gravity of the situation!"
"I doubt not that you afforded an inwardly laugh, master elf. But he did get back on you, I feel forced to remind you!"
"He always did," Legolas said softly and looked up at the stars. "He is gone now, into the stone from which he was born, and I know that he is happy though my heart hurt with the loss. But the others… I feel them still so clearly that my mind believes they still are near. Beyond the stars, as Aragorn would have said!"
Gandalf smiled. "That is because they are here, with us wherever we go. One does never truly loose those we love." There was a hint of pain in his powerful voice, but Legolas simply nodded and sighed as the other rose and looked down at him with compassion written clearly in sparkling eyes.
"I will leave you now, under starlight my friend", he said and the elf watched between half closed lids how he walked humming down the hill towards the lighted ally.
Legolas looked up at the stars that seemed suddenly to twinkle back at him in greeting. He smiled and stretched out his hand to them, as if to show the need to feel them in return.
"We still remember…" he whispered into the dark air, and the soft winds brought his words up, and even beyond the stars.
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