((neatly penned in Lumi-kieli))
Today we reached Rivendell! Or as they call it here, Imladris. I asked one of the vanha-väki what letters are used to spell it so I would be sure to get it right. The valley is so beautiful! The whole journey here was full of so many things I had never seen before. I kept telling Frimsi everywhere we went was the farthest east I had ever been. But I wonder if he and Beri got tired of me being so wide-eyed and awestruck by everything. There was a great swampy area which I had never seen anything like before, not even the wet land near the risen lake, and then there was a big open area with strong wind, all dry, and with this one mountain they called Weather-top that was so high, I wanted to go up to the top to see what it looked like! It must make Bree-hill seem like a little mound. And there were ruins, and trees of types I had never seen, and some animals I saw in the distance that reminded me of kalpa-kita and other animals I know and some that were not like anything I had seen before, and even the stones were different colors than I had ever seen, some of them sort of red. And we climbed, and there were more trees than I had ever seen, even in the wild wood I crossed to reach the city of the bridge!
I always felt bad about how Beri and Frimsi always had to protect me, and also do all the work of travel because they know about things like where to set a camp. I tried to learn what I could about traveling. I have been over many leagues, but always in the company of others who saw to everything. I tried to make myself useful with the cooking and cleaning up after and tending the fire. That at least I am good at; but getting a fire started using deadfall and dried wood is so easy, compared to what we did back in Lumi-mâ. We just barely brought enough food though. By the end we had nothing but dry oat-meal and just barely enough honey to sweeten it for Beri and Frimsi, and none for me, but I did not need it, we were so close to the end by then. It was never that cold. Not just to me, even to them, or at least they did not complain about the weather. It was a good journey, I think, easy.
And then we met some of the vanha-väki and I think I annoyed them with all my questions but they were all very polite and welcoming, and the valley is so beautiful. It does not even feel like winter here, there are still flowers, and leaves on the trees, and so many waterfalls. Beri was concerned about the bridges, at least the first one because it had no -- I do not know how to write it, but it sounds like pair of pets, so Frimsi and I pretended to be the pets and stood on either side of her. I wonder if she really was scared or if she was pretending, to make me feel better about not always being the one who is scared and incapable? Like every time we saw a horse. I do not know why everyone thinks horses are so gentle when they are so big and it is so easy for one to step on you or bump into you.
The vanha-väki gave us a nice dinner with bread and a kind of sweet jam and a sort of tart made with an orange vegetable and I also had a little bit of fish, and they had cider but no mead or ale, and they gave us rooms to stay in, in one of the other houses up the hill. Tomorrow we are going to see if Linglorel is in the valley, or another Elf that Frimsi knows, and I want to ask if Cesistya is here, since she left Bree a long time ago without saying goodbye, and I wanted to know if she is well. But I am hoping that the Elves are all not available for a few days or busy or something, because that way we can have some time to explore. I want to see everything about the valley, and explore everything. There are bridges and rivers and lakes and hills and paths and a market and statues and something they call a gazebo and I do not even know what else! And there is singing outside right now, now that the sun went down, and it is lovely and haunting and I want to learn the songs. And I want to hear and see it all before we have to go back.
Except the horses.
