In this chapter, The Woodland Realm celebrates a very special occasion.

Disclaimer: The characters and the world of Middle-earth belong to JRR Tolkien. I merely borrow them for a time. I am making no money from this. Beta-reader for this story is IgnobleBard. Le hannon, Bard!

Time passed. The Yule came and went, and the tree in the throne hall was divested of its jewelry and returned to the forest. Life in the cave settled into an easy routine for Mariposa. Every morning, right before the noon meal, she went to the library for lessons in the lovely lilting language they called Sindarin. The elves took turns teaching her, on an informal rotation among Leaf, Linda and Glenn, although Aaron had showed up once, and so, on one memorable occasion, had the older mortal woman, Tovah.

Tovah spoke her English in a heavy accent that Posey found hard to place. While she was reaching for a pen, Tovah's sleeve had fallen back from her wrist, revealing a faint line of numbers tattooed on her left forearm. Noticing Posey's blink of surprise, Tovah had smiled sadly.

"Sobibor. I was a teacher in my native Poland, so when the Nazis came, I was doubly cursed in their eyes. A Jew and an educated woman -- they couldn't have that. I ended up in the camp there, and I was one of the lucky ones who survived to fight in the breakout.

"I was wounded and separated from the rest when we fled into the woods. I don't know how long I wandered before collapsing and lying down in the snow to die. When they found me, I thought the angels had come for me. But it was my Morrie and the one they call Haldir. They brought me back here and when Aran heard my story he sent them out again to bring in as many as they could. For the next few years, these halls were crammed, and the mountain too. I bless him to this day!"

She sighed. "It wasn't his fight, and in saving as many of my people as he could, he lost a few of his own. I know what a sacrifice that was. But, oy -- you should have seen them fight! I went back out with them many times until I was shot again," she indicated her leg and the walking stick she used, "and there was no more fighting for me. But I can't complain. How else does a Rabbi's daughter from Kosalin, who expected to spend her life as an old maid, end up with a handsome husband who thinks a limp and grey hair are, how do you say it, sexy?"

ooo

Mariposa was still thinking about that conversation when she bumped into Leaf in the corridor.

"I'm glad to see you, Mariposa," he said, a smile lighting his face. "I have a little something to give you, and it will be too hectic at the feast tonight."

"Feast?" she asked. Did these elves never stop partying? "What's the occasion this time?"

He dropped his eyes a bit. "It's rather embarrassing, really, the thirteenth day of Narvain is my Begetting Day, and Father always insists on making a big fuss. After all these years, I'm used to it."

"I suppose a father might be understandably proud of a begetting," she said dryly. "Do you people actually know that sort of thing?"

Leaf laughed. "For us, it's one year to the day before our births. This is the equivalent of my birthday, for it is indeed the day I came into the world."

"It's always that predictable?"

"Our bodies work perfectly. At least nearly always," Leaf said, his face clouding briefly. "But here, I hope you like this." He placed a small package wrapped in parchment into her hand.

She broke the wax seal bearing Leaf's acorn symbol, and opened the package. "Oh my!" she said, her eyes beginning to mist. "This is beautiful!" She held a flat piece of carved light stone with a wide, shallow bowl and another deeper well in the upper right corner. Around the edges ran a tracery of vines and leaves in an Asian design. Along with it was a fine fox hair brush and a dark rectangular block of solid ink with Chinese characters embossed in gold.

"It's nothing very expensive," Leaf said, sounding almost apologetic. "It isn't jade or anything like that -- just soapstone. But the ink stone is Nineteenth Century Chinese. You would use it for Asian brush painting, but I thought it would come in handy for learning your tengwar."

"I don't know what to say," she protested. "I don't have anything for you."

"You don't have to. On my Begetting Day, I'm the one who gives a present to everyone else."

"Please don't tell me this is another elvish custom!"

"No," he said, smiling softly. "This custom is one of my own, in honor of some very old friends."

"You'll bankrupt yourself!"

He laughed and gestured around him. "How could I ever be poor with all of this?"

"So, what are you giving your father?"

Leaf grinned impishly. "What DOES one give the man who has everything? In this case, I give him what I've given him on my every Begetting Day since my fiftieth. I deck myself out like the Yule tree and wear something very special."

"And what would that be?"

He favored her with an enigmatic wink. "You'll see!"

ooo

Her stay in the caves had seemed like one long party, but this night was special. The wine was the best; the cooks had outdone themselves. Aaron sat at the head of the table in robes of gold to match his hair, and he seemed to gleam in the torchlight. Beside him, Felice wore a gown of soft dove grey velvet, and in her dark hair was a slender circlet of silver. There was always a palpable affection between the two of them, Mariposa had noticed; but it was different tonight. Felice seemed to lean into her husband, and often, his hand would stray to her forearm and rest there, stroking. They were lover-like.

"She's like the moon to his sun," Mariposa whispered to Linda, who was seated beside her at the high table.

"Tonight is a special anniversary for them. A beginning, an end, and a new beginning," Linda replied with a sigh. And if they are the sun and the moon, here comes the Earth."

A murmur of drawn breath passed over the hall as Leaf entered, bowed to his parents and sat down at Aaron's other side. He wore a velvet tunic of forest green, with tiny gems at the collar and silver embroidery on the sleeves. And in his pale hair was a circlet as fine as Felice's.

"He looks just like . . ."

"A girl in that crown," Linda finished for her. "He will do almost anything to avoid wearing it, except disappoint his father. And, I am amused to tell you, Aaron looked the same way in that crown when he was the Prince of the Greenwood. He felt the same way about it too." She smiled. "And the rest of us thought they were beautiful."

Mariposa laughed softly. "Is it polite to ask what he gave you today?"

"No, but I will tell you anyway," Linda replied good-naturedly. "Leaf gave me a book he bound himself. Shakespeare's Sonnets, transcribed into Sindarin and written by his own hand. A sweet gift."

Mariposa looked sidelong at her friend. Just how clueless was Linda, anyway? She looked up and caught Glenn's eye as he sat across the table. He winked and raised his glass.'Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment,' Mariposa thought. And then she looked down the table to Magorion and Tovah. 'Love is not love that alters as it alteration finds.' Truly, she would never understand these elves if she lived a thousand years, which she knew she would not. Why waste a precious minute, even if you have all the time in the world?

The dinner had ended and the tables were cleared away. The harps came out and the dancing began. The wine continued to flow.

Mariposa had yet to understand the music and the dances of the elves. The music was wild in its notes and its rhythms, sounding like Romanian folk tunes to her untutored ears. She would never have attempted the dances herself, as most were a series of intricate leaps and twirls, all in a circle. Leaf, as the guest of honor that night, was dancing every dance. Linda, as usual, stayed on the sidelines with Posey.

"Why don't you get out there and dance?" Mariposa said, after seeing Leaf flick them a surreptitious glance for what must have been the tenth time that evening.

Linda shook her head. "I've never mixed in. I'm not very good at it."

"Nonsense," Mariposa said. "It's Leaf's birthday and I think you owe him one." Before Linda had a chance to protest, Posey had taken her by the arm and propelled her out into the circle. Meril, who had been dancing with Leaf, fanned herself as if in sudden exhaustion and stepped aside, leaving him unpartnered. Taken by surprise, Linda had no choice but to join in with good grace.

For all of Linda's bashfulness about dancing, she was the personification of grace as she and Leaf leaped, twirled and circled about each other. Leaf's pale hair caught the torchlight, and the gems at his collar glinted like so many tiny stars, but his eyes had gone dark. Mariposa felt a subtle change come over the room as heads turned ever so subtly and eyes began to keep a discreet sidelong watch on the dancers. Mariposa sensed Glenn stepping up beside her, and he stood swaying slightly to the rhythm of the music.

Posey had seen this dance before. At the end, it was traditional for the couples to touch in some way, usually palm to palm, or touching foreheads. Some of the married couples would even kiss lightly on the lips if enough wine had been consumed.

One of the harpists missed a beat during the last measures of the tune, so intent was he on the dancers. As the music died away, Leaf stood staring at Linda. He reached out and touched his hand to her cheek, tentatively at first, then, as she reached out to him in return, he caught her hand and kissed the palm.

No one in the hall drew breath as the couple stared into each other's eyes. And then Leaf kissed Linda full on the lips and kissed her hard. Linda seemed to draw back for a moment and then her arms were around his velvet-clad shoulders, hanging on as if there was no tomorrow.

'I'll bet she's seeing stars,' Mariposa thought as the kiss drew out.

The kiss and the embrace broke. Leaf had Linda by the hand, bowing briefly to his parents before he and Linda left the hall, practically at a dead run. Posey could not help but notice that Aaron was grinning like a fool and clasping his laughing wife around the shoulders.

'Sometimes,' Mariposa told herself, 'all it takes is a little push across the floor.'