EP - tiny!Emcee

[i_am_your_host]

The door works in the strangest of ways.

So when a certain someone is holed up in his room, his younger self, his much, much younger self, enters the bar.

Small and pale and undernourished, the elfin ten-year-old boy (who could be mistaken for even younger than that) is dressed in secondhand school clothes from a distant era: knickerbockers and knee socks, a cardigan and cloth cap. He stares at his surroundings with large brown doe eyes.

Has he been here before? Perhaps in a dream? Why does it feel so familiar, when the door shouldn't have led here at all?

But this is a pub, and the little boy knows pubs. He goes up to the counter, peeking over it on tiptoes, to look for the barman. But there is none. How odd.

Even odder is the glass of milk and the plate of cookies that suddenly appear out of thin air.

This must be a dream.

Comments

[i_am_your_host]

He glances down and shakes his head.

"Nobody taught me," he says, a little sad and ashamed. But he looks up and adds eagerly, "But Mama Lily says she's going to teach me proper when she has more time. She's very busy. But she said so."

[starrydome]

"Nobody?" That seems almost incomprehesible.

But he doesn't want to be rude, so he adds, "But it is good that she will teach you. Mama Lily."

A pause.

"Maglor is teaching us letters. And music."

[i_am_your_host]

He nods just as eagerly, because he wants to learn and make up for the time that he lost.

"Do you go to school? Is it very difficult?"

Mama Lily won't send him to school. He doesn't know why, but he supposes she knows best.

[starrydome]

"What is a school?"

[i_am_your_host]

Now it's Hansel's turn to be surprised.

"Oh, it's a place where children are sent to learn things. Reading and writing, and arithmetic, and history, and art and music, though I think that's for older children. I've-- I've never been. But I did see inside once, through a window. The children sit in big rooms at desks all in straight rows, and there's a teacher at the front who writes on the wall with chalk. And the children all have books to read and write in."

His enthusiasm is only a bit dampened when he realizes what he's just described. "It seems...strict, though. And so very formal. The children didn't look as if they were having fun."

[starrydome]

It does.

Although -

"It's just my brother and I and we don't sit in rows when we have lessons. Sometimes, we are doing other things. Like being wood while Lord Maglor teaches us poetics. He tries to be kind but he can be rather strict as well."

[i_am_your_host]

He giggles at the remark about being wood.

"What sorts of lessons do you enjoy the most?"

[starrydome]

He thinks this over.

"Music. Lord Maglor is one of the greatest singers that have ever lived."

[i_am_your_host]

"He sounds very important," he says, raising his eyebrows. "Do you want to become a great singer like him?"

[starrydome]

"I'm not good enough," the child says without regret.

"I did rather travel I think. And learn new things. There are so many places to see. So much to learn."

[i_am_your_host]

"You get to travel?" Now he is downright envious. But more in a 'let me live vicariously through you' way than anything else. "What kind of places have you visited?"

[starrydome]

"We used to live by the Sea. Now we have travelled across the land, to the keep of the Sons of Feanor. But I should like to see the mountains too. And the old forests."

His voice is soft.

[i_am_your_host]

The way Elrond speaks makes it sound magical.

"I've never seen the sea. Or mountains, or forests. Only in pictures. I've only ever lived in a city. It's not very nice sometimes, but I know it well."

[starrydome]

"Is it a big city?"

Maybe one with more than a hundred houses?

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh, it's a very big city," he says, nodding enthusiastically. "With lots of tall buildings and shops and churches and taverns and there's a river that goes right through it."

[starrydome]

"What's it called? The river? And is it a river you can swim in?"

He likes those the best.

[i_am_your_host]

"It's called the Spree. And-- not really, it's just for boats. There are lots of canals, too, for smaller boats. But I think beyond the city, in the countryside, that's where you might be able to swim in the river. I've never been that far, though."

[starrydome]

He nods.

"We have rivers like that too. And ones that you shouldn't try to sail on either because the current is too strong."

A pause.

"We used to live in a town. A port."

[i_am_your_host]

"What was the town called?" he asks, because he's sure it has some wonderful sounding name. "And why did you have to leave?"

[starrydome]

"The Havens of Sirion. It was very beautiful. But - it was sacked. Everyone was killed. Except for my brother and me."

Everyone.

[i_am_your_host]

Hansel's expression falls, as he presses his fingers to his lips, his eyes widening.

"No," he gasps softly. "That's terrible."

He can't imagine an entire town being massacred. With only two children left.

"Who did it?"

[starrydome]

"The Host of the Sons of Fëanor."

[i_am_your_host]

"But--"

Didn't he say..?

Oh.

"You live with them now?" he asks quietly.

[starrydome]

He nods.
"Yes. We were taken captive as tokens of the wrongs to them."

[i_am_your_host]

Hansel is a deeply empathetic child. And though he doesn't know what to say to that, what he feels for the other boy and his situation is clear on his face.

"How do they treat you? Are you and your brother all right?"