{Video; UN: elvenking}

[tauraran]

{He is a king without his elegant trappings - but, really, he doesn't need them. The robe he wears catches the light with the smallest of motions, glittering faintly as if precious jewels are woven in the fabric. His hair is bound into a single thick braid that lays against his back and his circlet is elsewhere - as are his rings.}

How many parents reside in Lunatia? Are you separated from your children if so? {The flickering light on the table before him is all the illumination he requires as he works on a sketch. The drawing depicts trees and a variety of animal life beneath their mighty boughs.}

My fear for my son increases by the day and I have found no relief for it. I hardly realized how helpless I could feel as a father.

{His attention shifts from the sketch of the forest to a second sketch of a face much like his own - yet different enough that it must be his son.}

Comments

[tauraran]

Would you mind if I visited? {He understands plants and knows how to care for them. Dirtying his hands might do him good.}

Yes, I was invited to the Groves recently. I must say I would rather reside there than in an apartment.

{Or in the city if he is being honest. There are far too many foul sounds and smells.

The offer is kind enough to break through his thoughts about their temporary home and his voice softens.}

He will Sail before I do and we will be reunited on Valinor. But the years will be long until then.

[hymnals]

I'd be glad for the company. And any help with the weeds, besides.

[He adds that second remark with a little smile. He is not a man of great stamina, and though he minds the garden competently, the work is never as efficient as he might like.

A pause, and then he adds--]

Can I ask what you mean by saying that he'll 'sail'? What is Valinor?

[He'd noticed the peculiar emphasis.]

[tauraran]

The weeds are not difficult for me to remove.

{More of a nuisance than a competition between arm strength and root strength. While Thranduil does like to leave nature wild, he understands that some plants choke the life around them.}

Valinor is the place where my kind first woke. It is an island and only those that are blessed by the Valar will be able to find it.

[hymnals]

Then I'd be grateful.

[He makes a 'hmm' noise of acknowledgment as Thranduil explains.]

I see--and you'll return there, eventually?

[tauraran]

Inevitably. {They are stars that orbit about their "sun", which is Valinor.} There we will reside until the end of days.