Frodo Baggins (theseabell) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-21 09:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, frodo baggins, luthien tinuviel |
Who: Frodo & Luthien
When: Sometime this week
Where: A Cafe
What: Discussing their respective experiences in Middle-earth
Rating/Warning: G/None
Status: Complete
Among of the Middle-earth exiles Frodo had encountered, from Gandalf to Samwise, meeting Luthien was more like meeting a character out of a storybook than a real person. Frodo, of course, did not grasp the fact that he was from a book himself, but that’s not the point right now. Luthien, although historical, was more song and poem than flesh and blood, in the age when he was born. Aragorn had taught him many things about the Elf woman, but he could not erase the images Bilbo’s stories had sketched in his brain as a boy.
Luthien didn’t know if she should dress down or not. She knew there were probably expectations and she didn’t want to dash them, but she didn’t want to play them up either. So she settled on a simple blue summer dress, long black hair flowing freely down her back. She found, sometimes, that she could be particularly maiar-like if she didn’t tamp it down. While she never saw the light of the Trees of Valinor, she still had a glow all her own.
For Frodo, who fell a little bit in love--although not always romantically--with each woman he met, Luthien could had arrived at the cafe in jeans and a sweatshirt, and it still would have likely blown him over. He stood up at the table to greet her, the light she metaphysically cast shining in his large eyes as he gently bowed his head. Being that they were in public, it was little more than a nod. “Hello.”
She smiled and held out her hand, "No need to be formal." Her voice did have a sense of music to it, along with a difficult to place European accent. Because of course she was Monacoan royalty. Technically.
“Old habits,” said Frodo as he moved back to his seat. The place was more bistro than coffee shop, quite prettily decorated, with the charm of an unassuming hole-in-the-wall. Wedge + Fig, it was called, and they served salads and European-style sandwiches. A server would shortly appear to take their order. “Very old.”
“I understand.” She gave him a nod of her own, then took a seat, smoothing out her dress as she sat. She turned her head a bit and pushed her hair back to show him her ears. “Pointed and everything.”
As were Frodo’s. He was a few inches shorter than when the dreams started, too. But since Luthien didn’t know much about hobbits--or anything about them--it was hardly worth mentioning. He did, however, move his own hair to show the ears.
“Oh that’s cute!” She wondered if his baby had pointed ears or not, not knowing his wife was an elf - albeit a different sort.
“Hobbits have pointed ears, too,” he said, lowering his voice. A server was approaching with menus in her hand. She passed them to both Frodo and Luthien, and asked if they wanted anything to drink. He said water would be fine for him.
“Water as well.” She folded her fingers together on top of the table in front of her and gave Frodo her undivided attention. “Interesting. I wonder if there’s some relation. Dwarves don’t have pointed ears.”
Frodo shook his head, lifting his glass of his lips once the water had been poured. “Neither do men, and I think we’re most closely related to them; but most hobbits would tell you we’re completely independant of all other peoples.” He smiled a bit and took a sip.
“Well, who can blame them,” she replied, her face growing serious. “Men are smelly people with bad eating habits.” Her face was serious only a moment longer before she grinned.
Frodo snorted a little, choking on the few drops of water that remained in his mouth. He dried his lips with his napkin. “Well, we hobbits prefer to fly under everyone’s radar.”
“That’s not a bad way to live,” she assured him. “Being too adventurous has it’s downsides.”
He pulled his lip beneath his teeth, pressing down thoughtfully. The light in his eyes dimmed somewhat. “Yes. I believe I agree with you.”
“Sometimes it’s necessary, but what’s necessary and what’s wanted do not always coincide.” She stroked one long finger around the rim of her glass.
Again, Frodo bit his lip thoughtfully. She knew nothing of his story and he could recite poems about her from memory. It hardly seemed fair. “And once in an age, we might be asked to leave ourselves behind for a greater good.”
She nodded, her voice understanding. “Yes. It seems some individuals are tasked with things beyond their usual stature.”
He leaned in a little, brows coming together. He lowered his voice. “May I ask, have you had many dreams?”
“I have had all the dreams. From my childhood and all those long millenia before the sun, and that short blissful lifetime with Beren.” Luthien lifted her drink to her lips and sipped at it. “And all the things in between.”
“So a great deal more than I would know from any poem,” Frodo replied with a lopsided smile. “I might add, to encounter someone from a storybook, and see that they are flesh and blood, it’s as perplexing as it is wonderful.”
“Would that I could be humble about my exploits, but the time I lived in was anything but normal.” She smiled, sadly.
“To be honest, I can’t say mine was either. Many hobbits might disagree, but it’s only because they weren’t privy to many events...” His voice trailed off. The server had returned. Frodo picked up his menu and ordered at random, which was unlike him, but he was happy to eat just about anything.
Luthien picked something that was light on meat (though not vegetarian) and then handed over her menu. “Interesting times often seem less so, to those just trying to live their lives.”
“But you’re tale was told long afterward,” he said. “How does that make you feel, to know you were remembered? And honored. I’m not so sure I was. Not that I wish to be. It’s just that I... can’t see things past a certain point.”
“Everything I did was for love,” Luthien replied, softly. “I fell in love, and I did not want to be parted from him. No more, no less.”
“Well, it made a very strong impression,” Frodo replied. “And I think our world was better for it.” He thought of Aragorn and Arwen.
She smiled happily. “I think that the world is in need of love. Especially this one. There are so many kinds of love, some of which I never thought about until recently.”
He nodded. “I didn’t get much chance for love of the romantic sort until this life, but I did have a great many dear friends.” Frodo’s smile matched hers.
“There are many different kinds of love, and none are less valid than any other,” she assured him. “Though I am quite fond of the romantic sort, as you well know.”
“Indeed,” he replied, the gentle smile still there. He did well know. “I never felt my life in Middle-earth was lacking, because of it. It wasn’t my calling at that time, it wasn’t part of the life I needed to life.”
“So you lived the life you needed to live, no more, and no less. Were you happy, in the end?”
Frodo tilted his head. It was a very good question. In the end, he left his home to find peace, but he couldn’t say he felt it on that final dock, and he didn’t know what lay ahead. He had been very sad to leave his friends behind, especially Samwise. “I was... It was more complicated than being happy.”
“I’m sorry. Happiness should never be complicated. It should just be.” She understood, to an extent. She’d had to give up nearly everything in order to be happy. Maybe she’d given up too much, for a man. But she thought she’d give it up for a woman, too. Love was love, in the end.
Frodo couldn’t read her thoughts, but it was though they were thinking with one mind on the matter. The decisions they’d made had their similarities. “What I did, I did for love. For friends and for the world I held dear. It makes me happy, now.”
“Then that is what matters, my friend!” She found this little man fascinating. He was an unlikely hero, and that made her want to know more about him, and these halflings.
If she wanted to hear more about hobbits, Frodo would soon begin to gush. Perhaps, as their food began arrive, as it was now, he could begin a discourse on the seven meals of the day--not including snacks, of course.