[The Silmarillion] Romimus

When Angedil opened his eyes again with a sore body, he was already lying outside the cave. Judging from his clothes that were completely wet with dew, he had been thrown out for a long time.The goblin girl in the cave is indeed as beautiful and charming as in the legend, but she is not as gentle and kind as in the legend, bandaging the wound?Cook and feed water?Worried that there are still wild wolves out there who haven't gone far, so temporarily take him in as a poor passerby?All do not exist.

The only good thing is that at least the goblin girl doesn't eat people.

Angedil hesitated outside the cave for a long time. In fact, he really wanted to see the young woman again, but he was afraid.He lingered for a long time, but finally he didn't have the courage to go into the cave again. He just called out from outside the cave: "Although I don't know who you are, thank you for your help yesterday. If you need any help in the future, Angadil of the Harris family is duty-bound!"

No one paid attention to him, only a few crows on the nearby tree looked at him with the eyes of the second fool.

Angedil waited for a while, but still didn't hear back, so he could only leave resentfully.

This brief encounter with only one glance ended in such a hurry, and Angedil quickly put this matter behind him. The girl is indeed a beautiful girl, and she is the only beautiful girl in the world. It doesn't matter to him, the pie that the fairy fell in love with at first sight, has fallen and hit Beren alone for thousands of years.

Moreover, Angedil didn't have so much time to reminisce about the beauties. As the leader of a clan, or the leader of a declining ethnic group in a less peaceful period, Angedil had endless worries every day.After that adventure, it didn't take long for Angdil to move away with his people.

But the situation is still not optimistic. Sauron's power is growing day by day. In the wilderness and forest, he can encounter half-orcs wandering around more and more frequently. Later, Angedil led the tribe almost every day. The people were worn out, and even so their numbers dwindled slowly, and some were slain by the Orcs, and some of the weaker ones, who could not stand the long journey about, fell sick and died.

During this round and round migration to avoid the orcs, Angedil found that after a long circle, they returned to the original place again.

After traveling through most of Middle-earth, except for the kingdom of the elves, only this small forest in the Ened area is peaceful and quiet, and few orcs come here.

Angedil wasn't stupid either, he guessed with a little guesswork that the reason why the orcs shunned here unnaturally was probably because of the girl in the cave.

Although the girl's identity is a mystery, her position is unknown, and she doesn't seem like a lord to be provoked, but no matter whether the other party is intentional or not, it is because of her help that Angadil saved his life from the wolf's mouth that day, so It shouldn't be a vicious person, not to mention that he is so beautiful...

In this way, nearly ten years later, Angedil returned to the cave again. Of course, he still didn't dare to go in so rashly, so he could only poke his head in from the outside of the cave.

"Cough, uh...Miss? Ma'am? I don't know how many years have passed, do you still live here?" Angedil tentatively opened his mouth, his voice drifted into the cave, and it took more than ten seconds for him to speak again. There was an echo, "Well, I am the patriarch of the Hales clan, Angedil."

After saying this, Angedil took a deep breath, and when he spoke again, his voice was louder and calmer: "It's like this, for a long time, my people and I have been living in an uncertain place. So, but now I want to lead them to settle down here, your place is one of the most peaceful and abundant lands I have ever seen, but we don't want to disturb you, if possible, I hope to get your permission."

The cave was silent.

"Are you acquiescing in this?" Angedil walked back and forth a few steps hesitantly, "Can I see you in person? If you don't want to see the sun, I can go in... I really want to go in."

"...Stay there and don't move." Finally, the cave gave him a response.That voice made Angedil shiver. It was not the clear or sinister voice he expected, but very low, but it had a musical instrument-like sound, reminiscent of a dark silk.

A few minutes later, a white ghost-like figure quietly came out from the depths of the cave. The cave was dark and dark, but it seemed to have no effect on her at all. She does not live in a cave in the wild, but a lady who is preparing to attend a palace banquet.The hood attached to the robe covered most of her face, only a few strands of black hair hung down on her chest, shining like black jade in the sun.

This was the second meeting between Angedil and Romimos.

Faced with such a mysterious figure, Angedil was still somewhat nervous. He cleared his throat, and wiped the sweat of his palms on his pants as quietly as possible: "We actually met once before, sir, you Maybe I don't remember..."

"I remember you." But to Angedil's surprise, the other party said coldly, "I seldom forget anything, you are the one who lured a pack of wolves here ten years ago, and then fainted here and pretended to be dead." people."

"Then... as I said just now, my people and I hope to stay here, I hope you don't mind." Angedil changed the subject awkwardly, "We don't mean to offend, if you have any requests, We can all discuss..."

"Wherever you like to go, it has nothing to do with me." Romemos interrupted him directly, not polite at all.

"So you agreed?" Angedil was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

"Whether you agree or disagree, I can control you, I don't know why." Romemos muttered, then turned his head and left, "Just don't bother me anymore."

"Thank you! You are so generous, my lord!" Angedil waved his hat excitedly regardless of Romimos' rolling eyes at him, until Romimos disappeared into the darkness again, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

After hundreds of years of wandering, the Hales clan has finally settled down again.

There are many people in the clan who express concern about Angadil. The long-term life of hiding in Tibet makes them always vigilant, and staying in one place makes many people feel insecure. These people pessimistically think that once they stop continuing Migrating around, they will soon be chased by Orcs, and the Hares family doesn't have the strength to fight against Sauron at all.

But more people are tired of running around day after day, especially women and children, many of them are sallow and emaciated.

Except for Angedil, no one has seen Romemos again, and Angedil has no intention of making the matter of Romemos public. Feeling suspicion and uneasiness is always inevitable, in order to avoid causing unnecessary panic, Angedil just said to the others vaguely: "Everyone, please believe me, I swear on my name, I will never give any of you Life is child's play. I have a feeling that this time we can really settle down here for a long time. I had a dream a few days ago in which a god told me that this land is under her protection, O Ke simply wouldn’t dare set foot here.”

At that time, no one believed Angedil's words, because he could neither name the name nor reveal where the god was; Among them, human beings—especially those who have no kinship with elves—has never been favored by the Vera. After repeated devout prayers but no response, they no longer expect to be favored by the gods.

That's why most people just thought that Angdil had made up a not-so-smart lie to appease them, but because he was a pretty good patriarch, no one tried to expose him.

But soon these people realized that what Angedil said was true.In this place, a large group of Orcs really rarely came to harass them. Even if there were a few orcs occasionally, they only circled around the periphery of the forest and rarely went deep into it, as if this place was a forbidden place for them to avoid.

As a result, more and more people began to believe that Angdil's story was actually a nonsense made by himself, thinking that this place might really be some kind of god-blessed place.Although the god neither speaks nor shows his face, these people easily rekindle hope, full of gratitude and awe for the god who knows whether it exists or not.

"How shall we repay her kindness?" they asked Angedil.

Angedil actually didn't think that Romemos would care about their rewards, just like when he first met her, Romemos didn't mean to save him, if he hadn't stumbled into her by mistake In the opponent's territory, even if he was killed by a hungry wolf outside the cave, Romimos would not have blinked his eyelids.It's the same now, people probably don't have the consciousness of protecting these human beings at all, and naturally they don't think of asking for anything in return.

Having said that, Angedil also felt that they should express to Romemos to some extent, firstly, no matter whether they were intentional or not, they were always in the favor of each other, and secondly, like everyone else, apart from being simple and kind, showing kindness In addition to the newspaper, more people are actually just afraid of finally getting God's favor. If one day the God is in a bad mood and just leaves, they will have to live the old days of wandering around again.

In the end, Angedil chose a day in late autumn. On this day every year, people can voluntarily offer tribute to the gods who protect them, and the location of the offering is in the open space less than a hundred meters away from the cave.

"Here she is," Angedil said.But he still remembered Romimos' words that he didn't want to be disturbed, so he strictly forbade anyone to enter the cave.

In this way, every year on that day, all kinds of gifts were piled up outside Romemos' cave.Men offered cattle, sheep and grains, women offered cloth and cakes, girls offered flowers and oil, and children reluctantly took out their precious honey and toys.

However, no matter what the tribute is, precious or cheap, the gods have never taken any of it. She is still silent and mysterious, never letting anyone feel her existence.

Although the gods did not accept their gifts, they never expressed dislike, did they?And the forest is as peaceful and tranquil as ever, these humans thought optimistically.They are still happy to pile up the best things they are willing to give at the door of Romemos' house every year, not so much for repaying gratitude, but for peace of mind.

The only thing that actually benefited from it was probably the group of big crows that were always circling outside the cave, and this day of the year was simply their carnival, where they feasted on each other and made their bellies round.

Such a harmonious life has lasted for decades. Heiman Land has always been a rich and fertile land, otherwise it would not have attracted Romimos here.The Harris family lives and works here in peace and contentment. Whether it is farming or animal husbandry, they can basically usher in a bumper harvest over the years. Of course, they also attribute a large part of this to the blessing and protection of "God".

However, Heimandi is not a real god-blessed land after all. Although Romemos is indeed a god, she has neither the ability nor the will to protect this place. Her intimidation (if she has such a thing) avoids the infestation of orcs, and she doesn't feel that she is doing favors or being taken advantage of, and she doesn't want to see those unappetizing things for the sake of those humans. Yes, those humans are also sensible, and most of the time they don't bother her. For a long time, Romimos is quite satisfied with such a peaceful appearance.

But one year, there was a flood in Heimandi, and the situation was quite serious.

From the very beginning, the temperature of that year was obviously hotter than before, more snow melted and flowed off the snow tops of the Misty Mountains than in any other year, and the rain was much more abundant than usual.

Romemos actually noticed that, thanks to her experience at Manwe, she has always been very sensitive to changes in temperature and airflow, but she just noticed that, and didn't take it to heart at all. Anyway, this change has little effect When she saw her, she didn't even think about warning other humans. What did those people have to do with her?

It would be fine if it just rained a few more times, and the land of Heiman is not that fragile, but unfortunately, in those few years, there seemed to be a wave of sailing to the sea in the Numenor continent, up to the royal palace and nobles, Down to the ordinary people, all fanatically threw themselves into the embrace of the depths of the sea.This was not unexpected by Romimos. She still remembered the way Turr talked about the sea in Gondolin with passion and yearning. Since their ancestors, the yearning for the sea has been engraved in the Numenorans. in the bones.

But people are not fish. If you want to go to sea, you need a boat, and if you want to build a boat, you need wood. Naturally, the Númenoreans set their sights on the lush forest in the Ened area.Romemos also knew about this. The crows were all chatterboxes, happy to share with her big and small things all over Middle-earth. And the fact that the Numenoreans came to Middle-earth to lumber, was also classified by Romimos as something irrelevant to him. One reason was that the Numenoreans were mainly active near the coast at that time. , there is still a distance from Romemos; secondly, Romemos miscalculated the consequences of this matter, is it normal to cut down trees, elves and dwarves will also cut down trees to burn firewood or build houses And so on, the forest will grow back by itself in a few years.

However, the appetite of human beings is obviously much greater than that of elves and dwarves. They unceremoniously cut down the entire forest area in the outermost part of the Ened area, even the young saplings.In just a few decades, the forest that had been growing slowly for thousands of years since the sun rose, the forest that was as old as Fangorn disappeared, leaving only a bare dry land.At this point, Romemos still didn't intervene, she still felt that it had nothing to do with her, she didn't know Yavanna well when she was in Valinor, and she didn't have any friendship with the tree people when she came to Middle-earth, what happened to this matter? It's not her turn either.

Then came the rainy year. Almost one-third of the days in the summer of that year were rainy. It was not the rain stars but the big raindrops that fell straight down. Standing outside, you can get drenched from head to toe in less than 3 minutes, and occasionally catch up with one or two downpours, giving people the illusion that they are under the waterfall.

How could the cut wasteland withstand such a heavy rain? The sand, gravel, and gravel on the surface of the ground did not make any resistance, and they mixed with the rainwater and flowed into the nearby streams and rivers, depositing layers upon layers. underwater.

Until then, the humans in the nearby forest finally felt that this year was different. At first, the water level of the river in the forest rose significantly. People thought it was because there was a lot of rainfall this year. They only thought that after the rainy season, the situation would gradually improve. , but after a while, the amount of water in the river increased, but the speed of the water flow slowed down instead. Someone went to check it out, and came back in a few days, with a face like dirt, and said, "It's not good. , there are several slightly narrower river channels below that are blocked by silt, and in some places, the riverbed downstream is actually higher than the upstream.”

Only then did everyone turn pale with shock, but it was too late. Within three days, as another heavy rain fell, the river finally broke free from the shackles of the river bank, roaring and rushing out aggressively, and the beautiful and peaceful village changed overnight. It became a vast ocean.

Fortunately in misfortune, because of the vigilance in advance, this natural disaster (perhaps also a man-made disaster) did not cause casualties, and everyone escaped safely to a higher ground in time, but this was only the beginning of the suffering.After half a month of living in the wind, eating and sleeping in the open, the flood finally receded gradually. When people walked down the hillside and returned home, it was no longer what it used to be.All the houses were damaged to varying degrees. The furniture in the houses—mostly made of wood—had been soaked in water for more than ten days, and they were basically useless; almost all the grain and fruits accumulated in the warehouse were lost. The mildew rotted, and the immature crops in the field were all soaked up as expected; piles of drowned pigs and sheep carcasses in the livestock pen stink to the sky, attracting people who can't be blown away Large swarms of flies.

If it is said that homes can be rebuilt, crops can be planted again, and livestock can be raised again, it will take time for the vitality to recover slowly. How will they survive the cold winter?

Wave after wave of people came to Angedil crying for help, but even Angedil couldn't do anything at this time, he was already an old man, and it was difficult to straighten his back at ordinary times, and he was no longer as vigorous as he was when he was young. Energize others with energy and enthusiasm, and it's not something you can get through just by encouraging.

The patriarch's silence and helplessness made the rest of the clan even more depressed, and they complained in despair: "We have been abandoned by God again."

Angedil was smoking a cigarette. Of course, this complaint from the clansman was useless nonsense, but it reminded him of a person again, and that may be the reason why they can survive this winter smoothly. Finally hoped.