Connections

‘How did she do that?’ Boromir asked. ‘Did they look for her properly?’

‘I’m sure they did,’ his mother told him. ‘If I disappeared, I’m sure you would search carefully for me.’ She hugged him fondly.  ‘Elves can never be found unless they want to be, and I don’t suppose the Sea King’s Daughter was any different.’

‘Which house did she marry into?  Was it Dol Amroth?’ he asked.

‘I’m not telling you,’ his mother answered. ‘If you want to find out you can go and look it up in the library.  I’m sure one of the assistants would help you.’  She laughed, aware that the chances of her son being prepared to risk exposure to dusty scrolls in a quest for knowledge were slight.

‘Do elves really exist, mother?’ he asked.  ‘I’ve never seen one.’

‘You’ve never seen the Falls of Rauros, either,’ she said. ‘Nor yet the caverns of Henneth Annun.  Do you doubt that they exist?’

‘It’s not the same,’ he said, unarguably. ‘I would like to see elves.’                 

‘Maybe one day,’ she told him. ‘You never know.’

***

Over thirty years later, Boromir watched a silent shadow detach itself from trees that had seemed empty a moment before and step into camp on feet that scarcely bent the grass stems. 

The dwarf cursed as he felt the elf’s presence at his shoulder. ‘Don’t do that!’ he grunted. ‘Not unless you want an axe in the belly.’

The flaxen hair caught the light as Legolas turned away, a slight grin of satisfaction on his face at the pleasure of having caught the dwarf out yet again.

A flash of memory lit in Boromir’s mind, and a small boy was listening to the gentle lilt of his mother’s voice telling him tales.  He looked consideringly at the fair elf for a while. ‘Tell me, my friend,’ he said, ‘does the Sea King have a daughter?’