Ages of Valinor(Short Stories)

Meet Mahtan

1198 YT

It was the year 1198 during the years of the trees. I was nine at the time. Mother and father made the decision to bring me to Mother's family home. So south we went. For a day we travelled. Frequently we made stops to let me explore and connect with nature.

A natural curiosity was encouraged by mother and father. Many times they would stop and show me things they learned on their adventures. Plants, rivers, trees and tales.

Memories like that remind me of the hard times I find myself in and the inability to show my daughter where I grew up. I yearn to show Tauriel everything I enjoyed before Grandfather was murdered.

One day. That is my hope. One day.

Grandpapa Mahtan was expecting us. He and Grandmama Lirre stood outside to greet our small group. I only learned years later when I visited on my own that the small arrival party was for my benefit. To not scare me before I meet my aunts and uncles.

As far as I knew. Was older than all my aunts and uncles. That was the case on father's side of the family. Findis is ten months and nineteen days younger and Nolofinwe is a year and eleven months younger than me.

When I met Grandmama for the third time in my life she asked me if I remembered her. Of course, I said yes. What else was I to say? She looked familiar. Father said we met when I was two.

Grandpapa on the other hand I know and remembered well. He was with mother when she birthed me as was Grandmama. But it was Grandpapa who stayed longer and made frequent visits to Tirion.

After we greeted each other Grandpapa lifted me into his arms. I turned back to watch Grandmama loop her arms through mother and father's as Grandpapa walked into his house.

Grandpapa led us through the halls to his drawing room. There in that room, I met Mother's brothers and their wives. Then I had no cousins. But the glee that followed filled the room. The amount of attention I had was more than a nine-year-old could handle.

At first, I was timidly looking around at all the new people. Only after Grandpapa took me around the room and introduced me personally did I loosen up. In his warm and cuddly fashion, Grandpapa told me embarrassing and entertaining stories about his children and their wives.

That night I slept so well.

The weeks we spent at Grandpapa Mahtan's were filled with joy, glee and pure love. Picnics, horse rides, baking with Grandmama and my first meeting with Aule. I remember feeling so small next to mother's family, then I met Aule. He made Grandpapa look tiny. And suddenly the world wasn't so big. I was just small.

Many years followed those weeks I spent with family. Then mother's brothers started to have children and so did mother.

My brothers and I have many wonderful memories with our cousins. The same can be said with our cousins on father's side. On occasion, both sides met and chaos ensued but the good kind of chaos...

"Dana?" Tauriel, my darling daughter, pulls me out of the memory from long ago.

"Hmm?"

Tauriel's bright red hair gleams in the moonlight. "Do you miss great-grandpapa Mahtan?"

Is it hard to miss someone you only know for a short time of your life? The short answer is yes. The long one is more complicated but still, I land on yes.

Family is family and I will miss every single one until I leave these shores.

I smile. "Every day."