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He used to be the guardian of a valley full of life, where the shadow would not approach, not knowing how to sneak through the songs and starry spells.
But that was a long time ago.
The shadow was no longer there, and so his charges eventually left, too. Only he remained, alone in his valley, alone among the houses, overgrown with ivy and ferns and whatever else his forest could slowly drape over the buildings to soothe his distant longing.
Once, in a past even further back than the existence of his valley, he had been an elf, but that time had passed, and the changes he had undergone in soul and body had excluded him from the elves. He didn't think there was a place for him where the immortals had left off.
Why should there be?
He fulfilled his task, protected the elves from the shadows...
This is exactly how it was supposed to be. This is exactly what the song wanted. He gave his best and achieved what was sung about. He should not regret anything because he had fulfilled his mission. It was not appropriate to be ungrateful for receiving the power he needed.
Besides, who should he have a grudge against? To Eru?
If Eru left him completely alone, with no further role in the valley, he clearly did something wrong.
Perhaps his job was to vanish once the elves were safe, but it had taken him a long time, so why should he hold a grudge for being alone?
But if he was going to vanish, if he should vanish... it took time and time. Why was it taking so long?
He wandered alone in his valley, tending the forest and the animals for a hundred years, then two hundreds, three hundreds, eight hundreds. A thousand years passed, and neither the foot of an immortal nor the foot of a man crossed his borders.
Perhaps he had gone mad, he used to think, sitting quietly in the chambers of a vegetation-overgrown house in the center of the valley, slumbering for years in rooms that had long since lost the features he longed for.
The room in the east wing, where a few bundles of forgotten books remained, no longer smelled of tea with some spicy spices in it; the small blue chamber with faded walls painted in the pattern of flying birds was quiet, and the wooden harp had finally lost the strings on which he had played, trying to evoke the carefree, warm chirp of the minstrel. Who was it? A friend? A brother? Did it even still matter? He was safe somewhere bright and warm. He shouldn't have to worry about him or miss him so much. Surely he was happy in his new home, surely he had a beautiful new harp and beautiful new songs.
He should not worry.
He slept curled up in the dark under the carved desk on which these lonely pieces of a harp lied. His heart didn't care where they went or if they were safe.
His heart was in pain.
Why did it take so long to disappear? Why did the disappearance hurt so much? Did he not fulfill his task? Did he mess something up?
In the golden chambers, there was no longer the smell of the sea or the soothing memories of loud laughter. Golden flowers grew wildly on the floor.
He used to be the guardian of a valley full of life, a valley full of dancing and singing and even handicrafts.
Shards of beauty were slowly disappearing among the greenery, crumbling in his hands and turning into dust.
He must have done something wrong.
He must have done something wrong.
He must have done something wrong.... Why was there nothing else for him? Why couldn't he disappear?
***
He was the brightest star in the sky and he did it for a very long time. Thousands of years. During this time he faced many different difficulties and inconveniences, of course he did. It was impossible to live so long and not have any problems, but....
"Listen, I am a Star and I have to be in the sky. I understand that my ship is nice and this jewel is nice, but-"
"You're the one who will listen," the dark-haired elf, lazily playing with the diadem that had one white jewel in the middle, looked at him with deep, sharp eyes. "There, in Middle-earth, there remains someone we care deeply about. The Valar are not going to do anything. They tell us to wait for him to find his way on his own, but he won't do it, because he is the most clumsy and lost elf I know. That's why you will help us."
"No!" he protested vehemently. "I can't just do- what do you guys want from me anyway? To take you to Middle Earth!? That's impossible!"
"I would think again," the golden-haired elf, tall and very beautiful, rested his hand on his sword. "If you are stubborn, we will simply take over this ship and take you hostage with us. If we'll be close to a catastrophe, I'm sure you'll happily instruct us on how not to do it, right?"
"You guys are crazy!"
To be honest, he was really amazed. He wanted to ask what had happened to the Maiar who were guarding the ship, but then he saw a shape - an elf - climbing aboard with a harp on its back. The harp was shimmering, and its strings seemed to glow with gold and silver. He had probably seen strings like this before, and was almost certain that this kind of weave was not unfamiliar to him. But he could not tell what sort of a string it could be.
"What's wrong with you?" the dark-haired elf asked suspiciously, clenching his hand into a fist around the shimmering jewel on the diadem. He looked as if he would be happy to crush the jewel into pieces. "Don't you remember anything!? There is your son! We want to get to Middle-earth, because your son, Elrond, is stuck there! Perhaps forever, perhaps until the end of the world! Don't you care about him at all!?"
"My son?" He repeated, bewildered. "Stars don't have sons."
"Stars don't, but the semi-elves who became a Star do."
"What?"
"Glorfindel, tie him. We will talk more later. Ship should fly soon if we don't want to meet any more suspicious maiar.”
***
Something was wrong with the starry sky above the valley. He strolled through the densely overgrown courtyards with his head up and looked at the shimmering dots until his eyes were watering. Was the star falling? It was certainly moving differently than it should. He knew the star, it was called Gil-Estel, and once, earlier, Earendil. He remembered that Earendil had a beautiful face with blue eyes, but he knew little about Gil-Estel. He was the brightest star and the elves loved his light. And now he was apparently falling. He wasn't sure whether he should try to catch the star with the vines and branches of his valley or hide in the shade of the trees and watch. He swayed restlessly on the path. Maybe this was what he was waiting for? Maybe the star was about to fall on him and end everything?
But the star stopped unexpectedly above the valley, and its shape became something much more familiar than the light itself. Curious, he walked closer, watching the silvery ship. It had been a long time since he had seen any ship in person.
"Oh," he sighed, touching the glowing wood with his fingers and feeling the hundreds of songs that were woven into the ship resonate inside him and quicken the beating of his own heart. It was amazing. The music was far more amazing than the ship itself. A rope fell from the deck and hovered next to his head.
"Elrond!" The loud shout made him distracted and immediately moved away from the ship. He looked up. "Elrond!"
The elf, quick and agile as a squirrel, slid down the rope and landed next to him softly on the moss. The harp shimmered on his back and there was a song in it too, and he longed to touch it and the elf who carried it.
"You are a minstrel," he said slowly, finding familiar shapes in the young, soft face and the brown braids flowing down his back. "You are the minstrel of my house."
"Yes!" he affirmed briskly. "I am your minstrel, Elrond. I have come to take you away from here."
"Why?" He asked, puzzled. "My part in the song is already over, so -"
"The Valar claimed that you must find your way to the West alone!" Threw out a nervous Minstrel and put his arms around him tightly. He was trembling slightly. "But we knew that you wouldn't even think that you should head to the West at all!" He sounded anguished. "You think about yourself not enough while no one among us would be alive without you!”
“It was my work to do. Protecting you.”
“And now it’s our work to do. Protect you and take you home,” said Minstrel. He nodded with his head up and down. “Come. Glorfindel and Erestor wait on the ship. We should sail back as soon as possible.”
The minstrel guided him to climb the rope. Although Elrond had some doubts, he would not refuse anything to the singer, who encouraged him softly, very determined.
He did not want to be the cause of Minstrel's anxiety. It worried him that Minstrel was worried because of him. He should be happy now that the shadow was defeated. On the other hand, Elrond's heart was softer and calmer than it had ever been in many years, as he heard a familiar voice so close to him. As soon as he climbed over the ship's railing, strong, sure hands grabbed him and pulled him right into the embrace of an elf with thick, golden curls.
"Elrond! You're here, thankfully you're here!"
"Glorfindel, you're strangling him," the dark-haired elf chased his companion away to free Elrond from the crushing embrace.
"There you are- Commander, Administrator-" Elrond very slowly summoned his memories to name the familiar faces his heart so longed for. He wanted to remember the names, but it wasn't so easy. He needed to repeat the names he heard from Minstrel in his head for a while before he thought he was able to name his precious friends properly.
"Glorfndel. Erestor." He named both elves.
"Yes, you're right," the dark-haired Erestor looked strange with a diadem on his forehead on which a white precious stone glimmered. But Elrond didn't care as the man led him away from the side of the ship. They found themselves at the mast and Elrond blinked completely puzzled. On the wooden deck, tied to the mast, sat an elf with luminous skin and golden, short curls. He stared at Elrond with wide-open blue eyes.
"Did- did you guys hijack this ship?" He asked slowly. "Did you hijack Gil-Estel?"
"Well," Erestor looked at his fingernails as if assessing whether he had trimmed them the right way. "I think it's fair to say that we borrowed this Star, because cooperation didn't quite work out for us. Elrond, meet your father, Earendil. He seems to have lost his memory some time ago."
"He lost his memory?" Elrond frowned and approached the elf. He crouched beside him, not quite sure if he should touch him.
"Lindir, put this on for a while," Erestor took off the shiny diadem and tossed it to Minstrel. "It's heavy. I've worn it long enough."
"Do you know what memories you've lost?" Elrond dared to ask Star.
"Apparently you are my son," Earendil said slowly.
"Well, I was born the son of Earendil. Before he became Star, and I took the Valley under my protection," he muttered. He sat down on the boards next to Star, not quite sure what to do.
The golden-haired Glorfindel grabbed the helm. "I brought us here and on the way back I'll make it too!" He promised.
"He's a terrible captain," informed Earendil, pale with terror. "Stop him."
"It can't be that bad," said Elrond with a soft smile.
"Ah, no, it's terrible," he added. Lindir sat down next to them. The diadem shone brightly on his forehead. "But he is the only one of the three of us who has ever sailed, and Earendil refused to cooperate."
"You attacked me, hijacked the ship and the silmaril," the weary sailor began. "How could I cooperate?"
"And could you now cooperate to bring the ship back to where my friends took it from?" Elrond asked hesitantly. "If we give you the silmaril and untie you?"
Earendil looked at him for a very long time. He watched him in deep thought. Lindir also looked at Elrond, but Minstrel's face was very gentle and soft.
"Now that your friends have got you back, aren't they going to threaten anyone else?"
Elrond blinked slowly.
He looked around, Glorfindel shrugged his shoulders. "We just want to take you to our new home, Elrond. There won't be any more problems."
Erestor smiled broadly, and Lindir blinked sweetly.
"I'm sure they won't threaten anyone again," he promised. “So… could you cooperate… father?”