An unforgettable encounter by Aprilertuile  

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chapter 1

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Tyelkormo was busy going over hunt rotation and reports from his people when a child came to him, running:

“Prin.Prince, there’s a… A thing in the water. King Makalaurë said to come.” The child said, panting.

Tyelkormo raised an eyebrow at that. Since when did Makalaurë need him to identify whatever water critter they found? And since when did Makalaurë send children to fetch him instead oh, anyone of his adult people?

With a sigh, Tyelkormo abandoned the papers he’s been working on and left everything on his desk, following the child, Huan on his heels looking far more joyous for the ability to stretch his legs. The poor dog never liked when they spent more time indoor doing paperwork than outside.  

Once outside, Tyelkormo didn’t have difficulties guessing where he needed to go: There were so many people gathered, from both sides of the lake, that he didn’t need a guide.

He however stopped short, as he left the camp of his people: In the lake, visible from the camp’s gates… Was a large… Very, very, very large snake like creature that seemed to be swimming in the crystal clear waters of the lake.

It was not a creature he had ever encountered before and by the Valar and all Powers on Arda, he certainly hoped the creature was benevolent. He had no idea how one could go about fighting that. And he certainly hoped also that the creature didn’t feed off of random elves because that could become messy very fast.

He ran toward the assembly and people just moved to let him pass without prompting when he arrived, until he reached Makalaurë.

Well, Makalaurë, their remaining brothers, Nolofinwë, Turukáno and his daughter and Irissë.

“Any idea of what that is?”

“Hm… Not the slightest. Did it try to snatch anyone here?”

“No. So far it’s been pretty calm. Looking at us like it’s as curious about us as we are about it.” Irissë answered, almost politely.

Almost as she would have once upon a time in Valinor, before he chose to follow his father and left her behind, before he chose to follow his father and killed her cousin’s kin in Alqualondë.

“Well… Time to ask it then.”

Irissë squeaked at that and looked at him like he had lost his mind _ which was really unfair if she wanted his opinion on the matter.

“I do not think this is a good idea!” She hissed.

“Worst comes to worst, it eats me, you know for sure it’s not a friendly creature, you can discover either how to kill it before it kills more of us, or relocate both camps before anyone else falls victim to it.” Tyelkormo pointed out.

Makalaurë looked at him with a warning look:

“Tyelkormo! Now is not exactly the time to play your usual games! It’s not a brand new badger that you’ll meet but a water snake with green skin making wave like a… A… A boat of the falmari and longer than the Two Trees were tall!”

That seemed to hit Tyelkormo suddenly:

“Say that again?”

“That you’re a fool?” Irissë asked with a judgmental raised eyebrow.

“Irissë, do you remember Oromë’s tales of the creatures that once used to dwell in these lands before…”

“You mean the things that Oromë only ever talked about during celebrations where we all mostly drank a lot and dance without caring for anything?!”

There was a murmur of conversations raising around them, hunters mostly:

“And for the rest of us, care to say more?” Curufinwë asked them sharply, keeping his son close to him, his arm around his son’s body, even as the younger elf looked absorbed by the lake creature.

“It was rare that Oromë talked to us of the time before the Two Trees. The loss of the Lamps still hit the Valar badly. But when he did, he talked of giant species of creatures. Some playful. Some harmless. Some… Less so.” Tyelkormo answered

“And you think that… This, whatever it is, is one of those creatures? Isn’t it… unlikely that anything survived?!” Turukáno pointed out coldly for his cousin.  

Tyelkormo approached the lake’s shore… And just impulsively ran in the water, ignoring the reactions of alarm of his brothers and Irissë behind him.

He started swimming as soon as it was practical to do so, and immediately the giant creature came to… well… were Tyelkormo tempted to give the creature elven attitude, he’d say the creature came to  poke at him to see what he was. He couldn’t help himself and put a hand on the creature’s nose.

The skin under his hand felt smooth. The elf wondered what it felt like for the creature.

He felt… something of a conscious brushing against his mind and by pure curiosity, he allowed the contact.

Its language was beyond Tyelkormo’s understanding despite his learning animal languages at Oromë’s feet, but images on the other hands, were pretty easy to understand.

A light unlike anything Tyelkormo’s ever seen, somewhat on the bluish side, so perhaps closer to Telperion’s pure silver than Laurelin’s gold, but still… Something brighter perhaps. Or clearer? Tyelkormo didn’t have the words to define it clearly. Giant trees, that felt taller than the ones he knew and yet seemed entirely other, warmth, and joy as the snake seemed to be playing with others like him and… Yes, that felt like Uinen and a number of Maiar of Ulmo.

And then the light disappeared, cold came, panic and a cave the creature found, and… fell asleep in, a long, long, looong sleep…

For it awoke only when light entered the cave. And it found very curious, very small creatures in the water, and a small fisherman’s boat on the surface of the lake, with an elf that panicked, seemed to emit a sound that the creature didn’t catch, and rowed toward the shores in what Tyelkormo saw as clear panic at the sight of the creature, where many more similar creatures came running…

Tyelkormo was startled to see elves through the eyes of the creature.

Perhaps he shouldn’t trust the bluish tint of the light in the creature’s memories, clearly it saw in various shades of blues and greens.

Tyelkormo exchanged memories with it. Recalled the images he saw _or felt perhaps?_ from Oromë’s sharing during various feasts with the Hunt, of the lamps falling and the light escaping the land first, then shared a feeling of many years passing, the two trees of Valinor, Oromë finding the elves, and the light disappearing again, again because of Morgoth, and then the surprise and wonder at the new light above head.

There was a feeling that the creature would very much enjoy taking a bite out of Morgoth for this, but the creature clearly was sort of intelligent, and felt willing to not harm the elves, which was, Tyelkormo felt, what truly mattered in the long run.

The creature nudged him back, fully understanding he wasn’t a water creature and… plunged back under the waves, creating such a wave that Tyelkormo was pushed back forcefully against the shore.

It was Nolofinwë who reached him first and pulled him to stand back up, pulling him out of the water.

“Are you alright?”

“You shared your mind with it.” Irissë said in a definitely unimpressed tone of voice.

“It started it.”

She looked at him like he was an idiot, and really, Tyelkormo was starting to resent that a little.

Maglor looked about as unimpressed however:

“Peace, it’s harmless and is entirely uninterested in us. Doesn’t like Morgoth, was only curious about our existence and the new light since, guess what? The Age of the Lamps! It saw it! It saw its lights!  It used to swim with Ulmo’s creatures before… Well, before. It fell asleep in what looked like a cave of some sort when the lamps fell.”

“How did it survive so long?”

“Beat me, I’d have said it was impossible altogether so…” Tyelkormo answered cheerfully.

“It was only curious?” someone asked in the crowd.

“Apparently yes.” Tyelkormo answered.

“What is that creature called?” Carnistir asked him.

Tyelkormo exchanged a look with Irissë at that.

“I didn’t ask and it didn’t show me.”

“I meant its species.” His brother sighed with a roll of eyes.

“Oh that. I have no fucking clue.”

His brother’s aggravated look said it all.

“Look, all of Oromë’s tales of the Times of the Lamps happened during celebrations. Meaning times when only few even listened and those of us who did listen still had far more alcohol than really advisable for health. When on top of that you’ll realize that all those creatures were supposed to be long gone… Well…”

“Well what?” Makalaurë asked.

“Makalaurë, brother mine, those creatures were long gone before the Valar even settled Valinor properly. No Elf alive had met one of them before.

“Their names are all in Valarin.”

“Yes. With no Quenya translation because… Well… because we didn’t need it I guess? And I’m pretty sure that Tyelkormo, like me, was always too drunk to remember them. So… Name it yourself and call it a job well done?” Irissë offered amused.

Tyelkormo stayed wisely silent at that, even as his brother grumbled something unflattering at that, which Tyelkormo felt was entirely unfair of his brother considering that he, like the rest of their family, considered that the Valar were waste of space at best and weren’t worth any attention.

Even as elves were starting to disperse, by order of Nolofinwë and Makalaurë both, Tyelkormo’s eyes fell back on the lake surface.

This meeting had been short indeed, but shall he live thousands of years still, Tyelkormo didn’t think he’d ever forget the incredible creature, nor its precious memories of the Time of the Lamps. Tyelkormo felt pity for the creature that was probably the last being that remembered that time in all of the land outside of Valinor.

Morgoth and his damn maiar didn’t count!