51: 67.5 North by 151.6 West

Glorfindel had been skeptical about the enchanted pumpkins and had not planned to accompany the others to the event, but when Vorondur told him how Zach had described Glorfindel as ‘frazzled’ and that the Mortal thought the event would be good for the Elf-lord, he had raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"And if a Mortal could see how... frazzled you are, my friend," Vorondur had added with a glint of amusement in his eyes, "what does that say about you?"

So, in the end, Glorfindel had agreed to come and had even arranged for the tickets and busses. Yet, as they stepped onto the first path he had sneered to himself at the simple, not to say simplistic, carvings that greeted them. That is, until he saw the one with the knight on horseback wielding a lance, and then the swan, so graceful and lifelike that he almost expected to see it moving, and then the ship... the ship! Suddenly, he was seeing the graceful swan ships of the Teleri in his mind and he could have sworn he smelled the brine in the air and felt the spray upon his face. After that, his estimation of the skill of these Mortals in carving the pumpkins went up considerably and he actually found himself relaxing, the tensions of the last week easing as he studied one pumpkin after another. The ‘totem pole’ pumpkins, especially, delighted him and he marveled anew at the ingenuity of the Secondborn, who, on the surface, appeared to be unskillful, clumsy and ignorant in comparison to any of the Eldar, yet seemed always to be able to rise to the occasion when the situation demanded it.

By the time they took the lake trail he was ready to admit that coming here was the best idea Zach had had in a long time and he reminded himself to tell the Mortal that before the evening ended. When they came upon the lake though, something in Glorfindel opened up and he found himself captured by its beauty as nothing had done before and when the others moved on he remained, staring out onto the dark, still waters, the other shore invisible in the dark even to his eyes. Clouds obscured most of the sky, but looking north, it was clear and the Valacirca shown brilliantly above the lake, the cold fire of the stars like diamonds on velvet.

It seemed almost like a sign, though he wasn’t sure what the message might be. Yet, something opened up within him, a type of melancholy that he did not expect, and he suddenly felt homesick. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt in ages and the force of it nearly brought him to his knees. Instead, he stumbled over to the nearest bench and sat heavily, fighting the tears that were threatening to come.

A song came to him unbidden, one that he hadn’t thought of in many years. When he’d first heard it, he had adopted it as his own, though none knew it. Yet, the words had spoken to him as no others had. In a fit of whimsy, he had even translated it into Quenya and one line of the song flowed through his mind:

‘Meldolya ara le ná, ar quetë anyára lambenen....’

Then, without consciously thinking about it, he began softly to sing the entire song, though in English, and as he sang, he felt himself becoming less melancholy and more hopeful, especially as he came to the final lines of the song:

"...but if my spirit is strong, I know it can’t be long. No question, I’m not alone; somehow I’ll find my way home... somehow I’ll find my way home...."

"Glorfindel."

Glorfindel turned to see Vorondur standing there, giving him a quizzical look. "Are you all right?" he asked softly in Sindarin, stepping down to sit beside the other ellon. "We were concerned when we realized you were no longer with us."

"Sorry. I just felt a need to be alone," Glorfindel said, giving him a chagrined look.

"I couldn’t help overhearing the last part of the song you were singing," Vorondur said.

Glorfindel shrugged, now looking a bit embarrassed. "When I first heard it, it spoke to me in a way I’ve never experienced before or since. I like to think of it as my song. Silly, I know."

"Not at all," Vorondur said with a smile. "For the longest time, my song was the Rolling Stones’ ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’."

Glorfindel stared at him in disbelief. "Why…?"

Now it was Vorondur’s turn to look embarrassed. "Let’s just say Holly and I were experiencing some… um… difficulty in… um… communication at one point." He gave Glorfindel a suggestive look and the ellon burst out laughing.

"And now?" he asked, giving Vorondur a sly look.

Vorondur just smiled and Glorfindel nodded in understanding.

"I came looking for you because we’ve discovered something that you need to see," Vorondur then said, rising.

"What?"

But the ellon shook his head. "It’s best if you just come and see for yourself."

Glorfindel sighed as he stood. "Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like this."

Vorondur gave him a sympathetic smile and clapped him on the shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze. "I’ll leave it to you to decide if it’s a good thing or not."

The two Elves made their way up the trail, following behind a family consisting of a mother and father, two pre-teen children and another one being pushed along in a stroller. The two older children exclaimed at the pumpkins, their parents encouraging them to identify what was carved on them. Eventually, they reached where the others were waiting for them and Daeron simply pointed to one of the pumpkins without saying a word.

Glorfindel looked to where the loremaster was pointing and felt his heart lurch. His eyes gazed at the other pumpkins nearby.

"Well, what does it say?" Alex asked impatiently. "Is it Sindarin? I recognize the tengwar but the words don’t make much sense."

Glorfindel ignored the Mortal, stepping further up the trail looking for other similarly carved pumpkins. It was Elrohir who finally answered in a rather distracted manner. "It’s Quenya."

"Can you read it?" Derek asked.

But none of the Elves answered him, all of them intent on Glorfindel, as if waiting for his reaction. Finally, he returned to them. "We need to find where this is," he said quietly and the other Elves nodded.

"Where what is?" Alex demanded. "Damn it all, will someone please explain what the blazes is going on, or are you all incapable of that much courtesy?"

Glorfindel stared at him, as if only just realizing that there were Mortals in their midst. "Sixty-seven-point-five north by one-hundred-and-fifty-one-point-six west. That’s the message or part of it."

"Message?" Derek asked. "What does the rest of it say?"

"‘When Tilion is half seen, help will come at midnight’ is the closest translation," Glorfindel supplied. "Then there are the coordinates."

"So what does that mean?" Alex asked, frowning. "Tilion half seen. That doesn’t make sense."

"But it does, at least if you’re an Elf," Glorfindel said. "We know the day and the time but not where."

"We’ll look at our map of Alaska when we get home," Daeron assured him. "In the meantime, it’s getting late. Let’s continue on and round up the others."

Glorfindel nodded and everyone set off. Alex groused at Derek as they trailed behind the Elves, speaking in a whisper, "Damn Elves. They never give you a straight answer to a simple question."

Derek just grunted in agreement. Neither of the Mortals could see the amused looks on the faces of the Elves who had overheard the complaint.

****

The ride back was interminable and it was close to midnight before they reached Wiseman. The Elves, who had ridden together on one bus, had the driver stop when they reached the middle of the town so they could get off, thus preventing Alex and Derek from following them. None of the Elves had bothered to answer any of their questions during the ride back and the two Mortals had had to swallow their frustration and anger. Neither of them joined the quiet conversations of their fellows describing their experiences at the event. Alex did notice that just before boarding the bus, Daeron pulled Zach, Jud and Shane aside and spoke to them. He did not hear what was said but he saw all three shake their heads. Daeron’s expression as he walked away was thoughtful.

As soon as they reached the Academy, Alex practically ran to his room with Derek right behind him. "What’s the rush, mate?" he asked as he caught up with his roommate at the door.

"What were those coordinates? Sixty-seven-something," Alex said as he flipped on the light, then went to his desk and opened his laptop, turning it on.

"Sixty-seven-point-five north and one-hundred-fifty-one-point-six west," Derek answered. "What are you doing?"

"Googling the coordinates. I want to see where this place is. Well, it’s definitely in Alaska. Look. Wild Lake. Where is that?"

Derek looked over Alex’s shoulder and pointed at the screen. "Scroll down. There may be a link to a map. There. Try that one."

Alex clicked on the link and in seconds a map appeared and they found themselves looking at a lake neatly labeled. "I wonder where this is. Wait. What does it say there? Gates of the Arctic... this is west of us somewhere. Here. I’m going to zoom out a bit and see if there are any other features we might recognize."

"There’s the James Dalton Highway," Derek said as the picture shrunk, "And look, there’s Wiseman. It looks as if Wild Lake is almost directly west of it."

"There doesn’t seem to be any road leading to it though," Alex pointed out.

"Zoom back in a bit," Derek ordered. "There. See. It looks like there’s a dirt road leading out of Wiseman heading in that direction. That might be the way to go."

"So, Wild Lake," Alex said, sitting back in his chair, his expression thoughtful. "We know the place and the time but not the day."

"Tilion half seen. You know, Tilion was the Maia who was supposed to guide the moon and I think the Elves sometimes referred to it as Tilion, so Tilion half seen would be when...."

"When there’s a half moon," Alex interjected, nodding. He started keying something on the laptop and Derek could see that he was calling up a moon phase chart. He selected November from the pull-down menu and the present year.

"Why November?" Derek asked. "We’re still in October."

"But the moon is barely visible," Alex replied. "It was dark just a few days ago, so it’s waxing. See? The next half-moon is on Wednesday, November second."

"It could also be the first or the third," Derek pointed out. "It’s kind of hard to tell from the images just when it becomes a real half-moon."

Alex nodded. "And the message said midnight, but which midnight? It is a bit vague, isn’t it? I wonder why, whoever sent this message, just didn’t have a Maia come and tell them?"

Derek gave him a wry look. "But that’s no fun."

Alex gave him a disbelieving look and then the two of them were laughing as Alex shut down the laptop. "C’mon,’ he said. "It’s late and I’m struggling to keep my eyes open."

Derek nodded as he went to his closet and retrieved his toiletry bag. "You know, that lake isn’t all that large but it’s large enough. I wonder just where along the lake they’re supposed to go and just who is supposed to come and from where?"

"All good questions," Alex said, grabbing his own toiletry bag as they headed for the bathroom, "but I don’t think we’re going to find answers for them tonight."

"Yeah," Derek said in agreement.

"I’m wondering what Loren and the others are making of all this," Alex said and Derek nodded in agreement.

****

"What do you make of this?" Elrohir asked his twin quietly as they stood in the library where everyone had gathered as soon as they had divested themselves of their coats. Nimrodel and Ercassë offered to make them all some tea while Glorfindel and Daeron consulted an atlas, placing the large tome on the reading desk.

Elladan shrugged. "Seems to be a strange way of sending messages, but Glorfindel’s always going on about how the Valar like to play games with us."

"You think this is from them?" Elrohir asked, looking surprised, as if the thought had never occurred to him.

Elladan shrugged again. "Makes sense when you think about it. Certainly no Mortal would’ve carved those words on the pumpkins like that."

"Here," they heard Daeron say and the Twins moved closer to get a look. "Wild Lake."

"Couldn’t the Valar have been more precise?" Amroth asked with an amused look. "That’s still a lot of territory. Just where did they expect us to go?"

"And why there?" Gilvegil asked. "That’s a pretty remote spot."

"Which may be the whole point," Barahir retorted with a snort. "It’s out of the way. We’re not likely to encounter any Mortals."

"Still, it’s a strange place to arrange a rendevous and with whom?" Cennanion interjected.

"That is the question of the hour, isn’t it?" Daeron said with a wry grin.

All this time Glorfindel had remained silent, staring at the map. Vorondur, who had been keeping a close eye on Glorfindel, leaned over the table, placing a hand on the Elf-lord’s arm. "What say you, my lord? What are your thoughts?"

Glorfindel glanced up at the Noldo, then straightened, looking at the Twins. "Dan, Roy, I want you to go through all our camping gear and our weapons. We’ll also need provisions for two or three days, just in case."

"Weapons?" Elrohir asked, frowning.

Glorfindel nodded. "I’m not taking any chances."

"And just who is going?" Amroth asked.

"The warriors," Glorfindel replied.

"All of us?" Barahir exclaimed.

Glorfindel nodded. "As I said, I’m not taking any chances."

"Well, that leaves me out," Daeron said in a whisper.

"And us," Ercassë added, nodding to the other ellith.

"Actually, I want you with us, Darren," Glorfindel said and the loremaster gave him a surprised look.

"Why? I’m no warrior, though, granted, I can hold my own against almost any threat. The Valar know I’ve had to learn to wield a variety of weapons to survive as long as I have."

"I know, but something tells me you need to be there when we greet our guests, whoever they are."

"And why can’t we go along?" Serindë demanded, looking rebellious. "Why do ellyn always treat us as if we’re helpless? There are Mortal females who can take any of you down."

"That’s true, but none of you have had training in combat or in the kind of woodlore that we will need to call forth," Glorfindel answered. "I don’t know what we will be facing, but I’m not taking any chances with your lives, especially Della’s. She’s carrying the hope of the future and I want you ellith to watch over her."

He turned to Amroth and started to speak but the former king of Laurinand raised a hand to forestall him. "I’ll be no use to you," he said. "I’m needed here."

Glorfindel nodded.

"Speaking of Mortals," Daeron said, "what about Alex and Derek?"

Glorfindel frowned at him. "What do you mean? I’m not about to bring them in on this. It’s not their concern."

"Do you think so?" Daeron shot back, giving him a hard look, then turning to the others. "Did any of you notice anything odd about those pumpkins?"

"Other than the fact that they were carved in Quenya?" Vorondur asked, looking amused.

"You didn’t notice?"" Daeron shot back.

"Notice what?" Glorfindel demanded almost angrily. "This is not the time for riddles, Darren. Spit it out. What are you babbling about?"

"I watched the Mortals who passed us while we were waiting for Ron to find you," the loremaster answered. "I recognized some of them, people from Wiseman who’ve taken our language courses, including Quenya. Not one of them seemed to recognize those pumpkins as being carved in Quenya tengwar, yet Alex and Derek recognized the tengwar immediately even though they couldn’t read what it said. I asked Zach, Shane and Jud, whom I knew had gone ahead of us if they had noticed anything strange about the pumpkins and they all denied it. I described to them the stretch of the trail where those pumpkins were placed and they told me that they remembered seeing a couple of pumpkins with, and I quote, ‘really weird looking curly-cues’."

"What are you saying?" Elrohir asked.

"Does it not seem strange to you that people who, like Zach, for instance, are now quite fluent in Quenya never recognized the tengwar carved on those pumpkins, but Alex and Derek, neither of whom have learned Quenya and can barely read Sindarin script, recognized what they were seeing? That tells me that they have a role in this. I don’t think it was an accident that they of all the Mortals who saw those pumpkins were the only ones who saw them as they truly were."

Glorfindel frowned. "I’m not in the mood to drag Mortals into this."

"Yet, if we are truly to be partners with them, allies in the coming war, we need to respect them and their roles in all this," Vorondur said. "You certainly have had enough experience with fighting beside Men over the ages and know their worth. I agree with Darren. The fact that Alex and Derek saw those pumpkins and recognized the tengwar while none of the other Mortals, whom you would expect to have recognized and even be able to read the tengwar, did not, is important. I would not dismiss that or them out of hand just yet."

Glorfindel sighed, running his hands through his hair. "I guess," he said, not really convinced. "At any rate, we’ll deal with them later. Right now, I want everyone who’s going to double-check your gear. We’ll plan to leave around six on Monday night. That’ll give us plenty of time to reach the lake."

"Ithil doesn’t become a half moon until Wednesday, though," Elladan protested.

"Yes, but I can’t help thinking of the deeper significance of the dates. Monday is Halloween, which makes Tuesday...."

"All Saints," Elladan interjected with a nod of understanding, "and that makes Wednesday All Souls’ Day according to the Christians. Midnight on any of those days would be significant."

"So the question remains, just where along Wild Lake are we supposed to go?" Daeron said. "That’s a lot of territory to cover. Let’s hope whoever is coming will know where to find us."

"You didn’t see the pumpkin sitting next to the ones with the coordinates carved in them?" Glorfindel asked.

"I really didn’t pay much attention. Why?" Daeron answered.

"It was a picture of a man in a boat fishing," Glorfindel replied. "I know exactly where we need to go. Richard Martina showed me the spot last summer when we went fishing at that very same lake."

Everyone gave him surprised looks and Glorfindel smiled smugly as he picked up his teacup.

****

Note: Glorfindel’s ‘theme song’ is Vangelis’ "I'll Find My Way Home". Most people of a certain age may remember the version sung by Jon Anderson. I prefer the one sung by Masters of Chant Gregorian. Both versions can be found on YouTube.

The line given in Quenya refers to the beginning of the third verse:

Meldolya ara le ná, ar quetë anyára lambenen: ‘Your friend is close by your side, and speaks in far ancient tongue’ [literally, ‘Your friend is near you and speaks by means of a very ancient language’.]