~*~ Part 5 ~*~
It was silent around
the fen, and the trees had crowded closer together. Greenwood smiled. She
looked direct into his eyes and they were dark and glimmered liked the fen’s
water.
“You wanted to see how I lived, Robin. Come with me.”
He took her hand and went to the fens. Without letting go of her hand he
went out into the water, just a little bit. It wasn’t bottomless and tufts
were seen under the surface and further out there wasn’t a bottom to be seen
and the moonlight stopped at the surface, unwilling to fight such a dense
darkness.
“At the other shore I have a hall of silver,” Greenwood said. “I have horses
and gardens and a colonnade, where the songs never stop sounding. There
reaches not a ghost, nor Hrávemat, and there the time stands still. Come,
Robin my lovely friend. There no evil will reach you. Come.”
She tried to look in another direction, but he held her gaze to his.
“Robin,” he said and reached his other hand to her. She wanted to follow
him, walking through the fen to where she would see silver and blooming
gardens until the way behind her became black. But somewhere inside she knew
that she shouldn’t give into temptation. She stood just at the edge of the
fen, and the water slowly tasted the toes of her boots. It was freezing.
Greenwood’s eyes turned darker.
“I thought you were my friend, Robin,” he said. “I let you know one of my
names. You are mine now.”
He waited a moment and then smiled. “You will not find the way out,” he
added. “If you try, you will get lost and die. The Hrávemat will find you.
Linneor and moss will grow over your bones."
Robin closed her eyes and took a step forward. The water closed eagerly
around her foot.
Then a high and clear woman’s voice come behind them: “Calla Palustris,
damned creature! At the sleeper's breath, release the human child!”
~*~ Part 6 ~*~
Greenwood’s eyes lost
their dark glimmer. With barely an audible hiss he turned around, and with
particular ease found the way through the fen to the other side and
vanished. Robin stood a moment perfectly still and saw how the circles moved
over the surface. Her foot felt numb from the cold.
“There I would not linger.” said the clear voice. Robin took a step back and
turned her head. A light woman’s shape stood between her and the dark wall
of trees. Her hair was long, white and glimmering. It fell over her slender
shoulders and reached down to her hips. She looked very nice, though no
matter how Robin tried to look closely at the woman, she was held in a light
haze like a figure in a blurred photo. Her dress was simply cut and light
blue, and her feet didn’t bear any shoes.
“I am Galadriel.” she said. “Follow me and forget what you have lived the
last hour.” she smiled kindly.
Robin was a little suspicious and she didn’t understand all that the woman
said, but she hadn’t any choice. If she went alone, she would only get lost.
“Where is it I live?” asked Galadriel and came closer. Her walk was flowing
and totally soundless.
“I don’t understand,” said Robin and felt very abandoned and small. She came
to think of her parents, who probably were worried sick. Only hoping they
didn’t go out and search and get lost too. She was near to tears.
“I am sorry,” said Galadriel, who now stood in front of Robin. The haze
surrounded her body, so you couldn’t see her any sharper even at a close
distance. “I am not… from this time or of this world. But I can speak as
you, if you want. Would you tell me where you are headed?”
“Home.” said Robin and started crying. She felt Galadriel’s soft hair
against her cheek and her arm around her shoulders.
“Come!” said the woman. “Save your tears. Where is your home?”
“The cottage” She didn’t care that Galadriel touched her. Right now she only
wanted to get home.
“What cottage?” asked Galadriel.
“The soldier cottage. The old soldier cottage.”
Galadriel lifted the arm from her shoulder. “There I can not lead you. I can
show you the way, but I do not wish to see the cottage,” she looked so sad
that Robin forgot her own troubles. Something told her she shouldn’t ask why
Galadriel was sad. She had already asked too many questions tonight.
“Let us walk,” said Galadriel, and they left the glade. Robin didn’t turn
around, but thought she heard some splashing and an almost imperceptible
voice that said; “Robin, Robin”, though it could have been the wind in the
trees.
“Why did he want me bring me over the fen?” she wondered. “I thought we were
friends.”
~*~ Part 7 ~*~
“He is not evil.” said Galadriel. “He can be good and gentle. But he is half Edhellô[1], what would you call it… yes a fen elf. And when he is near water, he’s filled with a craving to bring somebody with him. Otherwise he can be a faithful friend.” She was silent for a moment, and it looked like she started thinking of something sad. “Friends sometimes do bad things, if there is a big craving in them. He was not able to resist.”
“I don’t understand.” Robin shivered in her wet cloths.
Galadriel twitched. It was like she had been far away in her thoughts. “Even if you are happy with someone, it can happen that you want to hurt the one you love,” she spoke slowly. “Then you have to be strong to not give in to that feeling. Has that never happened to you?” Galadriel watched her. Robin didn’t say anything, but now she trusted Galadriel because what she said was true. So many times that Robin had hated Maria and wanted to hurt her.
“That is what it can feel like,” said Galadriel. “And most everyone feels it sometimes. But for some, they find it hard to stand up against their dark side, and then they do bad things.”
“Like Greenwood,” said Robin angry.
“No, not like Greenwood,” she put her arm around Robin again. “I have a friend, who comes from where you come from. He is a bird-watcher and a very wise man. He says Greenwood has instincts which make him to want bring down people. It is his part of Edhellô that makes him into a half animal and gives him such instincts.”
“What is ‘instincts’?”
“That is something that makes you do special things. When birds move in the autumn, they follow their instincts. When the frogs lay their eggs in the water, they follow their instincts.” They stepped out from between two spruces that hid the path to the fen.
“And Greenwood follows his instincts when he tried to drown me. Okay,” Robin sighed and looked worriedly around her. “He said this was his forest. Greenwood’s forest, he said.”
“Oh no, no one owns the forest, except for the ents, or the Manulô[2], for the moment,” she sounded dejected. “But let us not speak about them, because then they will find us easier. If only the sleeper wanted to wake up soon.”
Robin walked silent for awhile. “What is your instinct, Galadriel?” she later asked. She spoke very low not wanting the Manulô to find them.
“Me? I am not an animal. I’m not an Edhellô. I come from a place called Valinor. I’m a Noldor, don’t you see that?” She sounded pleading.
“Noldor? What’s that? Almost a human.” said Robin. She didn’t want to ask if Galadriel was a ghost.
“It is one race of the elves. There are several different elves in the world, some might seem more like human and some are more like animals. Each one has different specialties and most of us are immortal. Though from the very first beginning we all came from the same substance, so I want to believe we are the same. The bird-watcher is a good man I think you should meet. He has told me about your time and customs. He has taught me your language and the way you speak now. Yes, he has taught me a lot. And we have the time. All time in the world.”
“So you will never die?” Robin was amazed and envious.
“I don’t know. It says there exists a darkness, where no waters run, where nothing grows and no songs sounds. There will the evil come one day, a time when the evil will begin eating the world from the inside. Hopefully that will take a long time. And I’m not evil. You do believe me, don’t you?”
~*~ Part 8 ~*~
“Yes, I believe you
“Good,” Galadriel sounded very happy. “You must be tired,” she said. “I can carry you, if you want.”
Robin looked at the shimmering figure and wondered if her slender arms would be able to carry her weight.
“One thing you have to know,” said Galadriel, “and that is, the more you believe in me, the more real I will become. That is the same with Greenwood - Calla Palustris and all the others in the Middle-Earth. If you don’t believe in us, we disappear in front of your eyes. If you hadn’t believed Greenwood was real, he would have been without power. Remember that.”
“It was little hard to believe he wasn’t real when he was standing there talking with and to me.”
“Try next time. He will shrink and be small like a mushroom, and then he will disappear totally.”
“It serves him right. Besides, I do not plan to meet him again.”
“That you will do,” Galadriel's voice trembled. “Because you shall help us. We are in danger. Come, I will carry you, little one.”
A pair of strong arms picked up Robin, and she rested winding in soft, white hair reminding her of cotton grass. Galadriel seemed to float over the ground. Robin saw that she had a silver medallion around her neck; a medallion that could be opened. Robin's mother had one like it with a photo of her father.
“What do you have in your medallion?” said Robin. “The bird-watcher?”
“No, not him,” she was sad again. “But that is a long story. I will tell you that next time we meet. Look, here is the road that leads to the cottage.”
“Can’t you follow me to the meadow where I met Greenwood? There is only a short way left.”
“If you promise to come again. If not, no.”
“I promise. But how shall I do that? The forest was an ordinary forest before I fell there in the meadow. And in the ordinary forest neither you nor Greenwood live. At least I have never seen you.”
“No, we live in Middle-Earth. Few of us can walk in your reality if we wish, but then we are only seen as breeze over the grass or as shadows. We aren’t able to hurt anything in your world. Greenwood hadn’t been able to draw you down in the water against your will,” she looked along the road. “There I see a little meadow. Is it that the one you mean? I can’t walk further, as then I will see the cottage.” She slowly let Robin down to the ground.
“How shall we meet?” said Robin impatient. “How was I able to fall into your world?”
Galadriel thought. “Maybe you stepped on a tussock of hare’s foot,” she said. “As in many tales, it is said if one that steps on hare’s foot and is thinking about fairies, he would behold them.”
“But you aren’t a fairy.”
“I am not a fairy as you mean, little child. Though I am an elf and they are related, so I can be seen as a fairy. One day I wish to be recognized as the Noldor that I am,” she spoke slowly to find the right words.
“I would want to be like you,” said Robin.
“Please, you can not say so! You do not know anything about it!” Galadriel put her hands on Robin’s shoulders. “We will meet here. That you have promised. Look here, take a lock of my hair, and you will be my ward.” With strong fingers she tore off a little tuft and put it into Robin's hand, where it lay and shone like angel hair.
“Search for the hare’s foot, stamp on it and think of fairies, then you will come to Middle-Earth. Maybe the tuft of hair will help, if it doesn’t become invisible. Now I say goodbye, little one. Though first I would want to know your name.”
“Robin," she said,”. “Robin Hood. Thanks for helping me. Thank you very much.” Robin often felt uncomfortable to say thanks, but this time it didn’t feel awkward.
“Wait,” said Galadriel. “You have to think Middle-Earth away. Otherwise you disturb the balance between the worlds.”
“Will I also become invisible if I don’t think you away?” she wondered. It would be fun to walk as a shadow over the grass, let her parents tools fly in the air and move the saucepans and hats, without them seeing her.
“I know what you are thinking, and that is a forbidden thought.” Galadriel looked stern.
“I’m sorry.” Robin felt ashamed and suddenly yearned after her own bed and a hot cup of chocolate. When she looked up she noticed that Galadriel had faded. Her voice sounded distant, when she said; “You’re doing the right thing, Robin. Think about the things you love in the real world. Think of me as if I was a dream, as that is what I am; slim as a shadow, without origin or attachment. Farewell, Robin.”
~*~ Part 9 ~*~
Robin felt sorry for Galadriel, but now she only wanted to get home to her well-lit room. She thought about her bed and her mascot ‘Vitamin’, the coloring pencils, sauces sandwich, mum and dad and Maria, that she did actually like. And Galadriel turned into a small veil of mist; it shimmered in the air for a moment, a voice said: “Farwell Robin,” and began to darken around her. But it wasn’t any darker than when she first went into the forest. She reached the hand up in the moonlight to see the hair tuft was there. In her hand lay a little dirty cotton grass that was far from shimmering. She put it in her pocket anyway. Then she walked along the way until she came to the raspberry bushes, and she wasn’t afraid of the dark.
There was light in the cottage windows and nobody seemed to be out looking for her. She closed the gate, and when she passed the outhouse she collected the flash. When she entered the hall, her mother said: “That was a short walk. Shall I make a cup of hot chocolate for you?”
“Yes, please,” she took off her boots and went into the kitchen.
“You look alert,” said her mother, still leaning over her English books. “But how have you managed to get so wet! Come, let’s put the trousers in front of the fireplace. Did you fall?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t hurt yourself?”
“No.”
Robin got her cup of chocolate, two big sandwiches and a peach. It was safe and cozy in the kitchen.
“Maybe it is good for you to be alone,” her mother said. “I wanted to be that also when I was in your age. Only do not get lost, and then it is fine. I think you don’t need to worry about the math, yet.”
Robin went to bed with a clean conscience. Under her pillow she put the hair tuft that she had saved before the trousers were put to dry.
When her mother had stopped reading English and both her parents had gone to bed, it was totally calm. Robin lay and listened to the forest and the soughing didn’t sound as dangerous any more, maybe a little dangerous, but mostly enchanting. Galadriel had told her she was her protégé, her ward. That meant she was watching over Robin. And the forest sound was like it came with a whisper, a barely heard call that made her happy. “Robin, Robin.”
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