|
The Great Comet |
| 2023-01-11 |
The Great Comet
When it appeared in the sky, we asked about it to our elders. They were as ignorant as us. We then went to ask the long-lived ones. You know how it goes with them. They travel from meadow to meadow, in style and in merriment, and there is no way to get a straight answer.
The first night, they got us drunk. The second night, they tried their drugs on us, two of us did not make it, and all the time their laughters and their poetry and their intricate word bundles.
Music, poetry, games, taunts, delicacies, muddled language of the past tainted with recurring portemanteaus biting their tails like snakes.
The Elves see us as dogs. We are many and we die quickly. I write "they tried their drugs on us", was it cruelty or was it inattention? They took interest in the results, hence my judgement pointing towards "cruelty".
The third night, they explained to us that the comet kept coming back, no big deal. "What is it?" we asked. They said it was something trapped between the close sky and the far sky, the tapestry of the far candles.
My head still hurts from speaking with them. Everybody says that they taught us to speak, that they gave us the language, but their language is foreign, now. Some Elves try to learn our language, most of them don't have the patience. Our fathers gave names taught them by the Elves, we gave similar names to our children, but the Elves never seem to remember our names and our faces.
"Who lives on this 'comet'?" "The White Lady" one replied, "And her hair enters in the composition of fine magical artefacts" added another Elf.
We obtained a finely drawn map of the palace on the comet and instructions on how to climb on it. We were told to dress warmly as we have to hop on it as it passes along a mountain summit. A young demi-Elf is accompanying us, he certainly is the key to our success.
Elves are a bit like butterflies, especially young ones. Will he keep the necessary focus on the task we set ourselves? My mind is full of me running here and there as I try to come up with ways to tie the fair haired one into our fellowship, skin in our game. I raise my eyes — I trust the scouts — and look at the young Elf and he smiles back, so innocent, so out of my reach.
We're going to hop on a comet and loot the palace carved in there.
