How long has it been? Five...? Six-hundred summers since my departure? The breath in my lungs has tasted of so many lands in that time, so many woods and camps; it has tasted of pain and the bitterness of fatigue and it has tasted of words spoken to new friends and of the smoke of their hearths. In my previous condition, perhaps it would have known the taste of a lover's kiss along the paths and trails. Perhaps.
My mind remains focused and my body obeys me quite readily in all things, even as I sit to record my new experiences. Whence I would have rather spent my time in revelry, sleepless with my fellows for many nights, now peace befriends me in the short hours of the day. So here I write, the first of many chapters in my own story.
I set to discover what name the fire burning within me bore. Such was my purpose so long ago. I had fallen from the sight of knowledge, taken so cavalier an attitude toward my craft, as I saw it, that the music began to fade and crack within me. I had forgotten to offer proper respect to the steps I danced and to those who took them first. I sought only to pursue the new and the exciting while appreciating the past only so long as I took to experience its surface. The constant emotion and glee rent my mind from my spirit. The former understood a need for truth would arise and preserved itself by submitting to the will of the latter. When I could no longer dance with the perfect rhythm I had enjoyed my whole life, nor sing and play with the perfect pitch I so adored, my spirit sought answers from my mind for the first time in very long. I became a whole once more, and even though it was a whole built half on earth and half on water, it was a whole all the same.
Indirion, always my friend, taught me of the land and how to live off and with it. He suggested tutelage in the arts of archery and hunting. He pressed me forward when I myself knew not how. For these reasons and many more, I still wear and cherish his cloak. What I learned under his watchful eye has served me well, and with my newfound calling, I hope it shall continue to do so for a great time to come. I fall into danger attempting to summarize my long journey in so few words, though as with any great tale, the details will reveal themselves in time.
I have come to know a group of elves within these lands of Eriador, fashioning themselves the Loth-i-Lonnath. At home within all lands they travel, they do their part protecting the free peoples from the darkness which grows more bold even as we stand watch. Perhaps this is my calling now? One may only wander alone for as long as one's abilities are not wasted doing so. I offered my bow and skills in their mission and was accepted as nethvaed. Today, after several weeks waiting for the whole to arrive, I was able to begin training under my superiors. I grow weary from the day's exertion and am satisfied with what I have put to page; when next I meet my family in the flower, I shall continue the tale.
