"The Stars" by Stephanie Laguan

Myth

Long, long ago, in the time of the elders, there were the elves. There were the elves of the wood, the elves of the sea, the elves of light but the most important of them all, were the High-Elves. They were of noble and worthy stature. These elves were the wisest, more learned and beautiful of all the elves. King Mithrandir was the oldest and wisest of the Elven-kings. He had two sons and one daughter. His daughter’s name was Elanor the fair. She was the most beautiful elf-maiden in the entire world. The King Mithrandir loved her very much and wanted for everyone to remember her when the elves left the earth. He asked the people of his kingdom if they could think of a way to commemorate her beauty. Every elf loved her with all their hearts, but try as they might, none of them could think of anything beautiful enough. They made necklaces made out of gold and silver, jeweled cups, fountains and mirrors of fortune. But nothing was worthy enough of Elanor’s great beauty. So the king sent for the wizard Rauros. Everyone was so excited of the wizard coming, including Elanor’s brothers, that they were preparing a huge feast. Elanor was very proud that the great wizard Rauros was coming to her kingdom just because of her. Everyone knew that Rauros had great powers, but that he still could not match the powers of the High-Elves.

When the wizard arrived, the whole kingdom rejoiced. That night there were great fireworks in the sky. Then the King heard the wizard whisper in his ear. He said, "Why not blanket the sky with something that reminds you of Elanor’s great beauty. Something to remind you of her eyes."

The king understood what Rauros was saying, since Elanor’s eyes were bright with intelligence and seamed to glow ever so faintly in the moonlight. The king agreed. He said that it should remind all types of elves of the sea, the sun, the moon, but most of all, his daughter. King Mithrandir and Rauros the wizard talked late into the night on the top reaches of the tower. The magic of king Mithrandir was strong, but combined with the power of Rauros, it was emense.

That same night, Rauros told the king of a place far into the forest of the Dunedain. He said it was a place of great beauty. He told the king that it was so grand that he was sure there would be something wonderful for Elanor. That very night, they both went of into the forest of the Dunedain to see what they could find.

The next day, Elanor could not find the king or the wizard. She sent her brothers to look out in the forest while she looked inside of their palace. They could not be found anywhere near the castle, so they planned a large search for the morning. Elanor was so worried over her father. She was right to do so. Her father wasn’t with the real wizard Rauros, he was with Sindarin, the black wizard. The real wizard Rauros was being held prisoner in the mountaintops of the Zolti. Sindarin was going to capture Mithrandir’s daughter for his wife, and to steal king Mithrandir’s kingdom. King Mithrandir didn’t know the full extent of Sindarin’s plans, but he was already sure that Sindarin wasn’t who he said he was. Mithrandir could see through the trees ahead, and he could see a beautiful stream crossing their path. Mithrandir could talk to the animals and so he saw a beautiful white deer hiding in the bushes. He told Sindarin, " I cannot walk any further. We must stay here and rest for a little while." Sindarin agreed, but he told Mithrandir to hurry up. While Mithrandir was resting, Sindarin went ahead to see how they were going to cross the stream. While he was gone, the king called to the deer and whispered to him all that he knew about Sindarin. He told the deer to make haste and bring his message to his sons. "They will know what to do," he said. When the black wizard came back, they resumed walking towards the place Sindarin had spoken of. But while the king was talking to the deer, Sindarin was sending his evil pet dragons to the king’s palace. There they would destroy the buildings defenses, kill the warriors and carry of the king’s daughter. Then Sindarin would murder the king and take his kingdom for his own with the elves as slaves. In an hour they had arrived at the beautiful place. King Mithrandir thought to himself, "Well at least he didn’t lie about this place."

With that he began to look for things as beautiful as Elanor. But he couldn’t keep his mind on that. He kept on wondering if his message had reached his sons in time. They were lucky. The deer had arrived just a few minutes before the dragons. That gave them enough time to prepare the building’s defenses, and to put a protective spell over the kingdom. The warriors began to assemble in ranks. But at that moment the dragons came from the Zolti mountaintop. They sent whirling balls of fire that bit into the target. But the firebombs could not penetrate the shield around the elves. All the dragons were slain except one. He was the black wizard’s favorite. Somehow he managed to penetrate the shield. He began to burn the elves and their castle. There was only eight warriors left in the palace. Suddenly the dragon stopped his tremendous roaring and he ceased to throw fire. He fell to the ground with a single black tipped arrow in his throat just as he was swooping down to capture the king’s daughter. Elanor had slain the dragon with one shot. The kingdom was safe but the king wasn’t. Sindarin knew that his dragons were defeated but he was still alive and he still had king Mithrandir with him. While the king slept that night, he tied him up in the web of a huge spider. When he woke up, he was being wrapped up by a spider the size of a full-grown bear. He barely had space to move his hands. He quickly placed a spell to petrify the spider. He cast another spell to get out of the spider’s web. He then realized that it was all Sindarin’s doing. He began making a different spell. One that would attack Sindarin from the inside. This was the king’s own spell. He had created it, and he knew how it worked, and to what extent. This spell would eat away at his insides. But while he was doing that, something was rubbing against his legs. It was another of Sindarin’s vicious pet. This time he had sent out his pet Kilian, a large grey wolf. It quickly attacked Mithrandir, and tried to make him drop the spell that wasn’t quite finished yet. Instead he ended up throwing the half-finished spell at Sindarin, who was standing behind them and gloating at his success. Soon he would have the kingdom all for himself. The spell wrapped around Sindarin, and seeing that it was his only chance to beat him, Mithrandir spoke the words of the spell. The spell took Sindarin up into the air, and seeped into his skin. He swelled up and became transparent. Then there came a blinding light from inside of him and as it grew stronger, he grew even larger. Suddenly, he exploded. Pieces of him drifted about in the air, going higher, and higher, and higher until they were in the heavens. Try as he might, Mithrandir’s spells could not bring the pieces down. The pieces began to turn white instead of the black of the black wizard’s heart. That’s when Mithrandir noticed that the pieces of Sindarin that floated around in the sky were very beautiful. With that he lay down in the beautiful place to admire the wonderful ‘stars’ he had made to remind him of Elanor, with a little help from Sindarin.