Epilogue

Few weeks later, I resumed to a normal life and to active duty. Life had a different tone and light a different shade. All was different and new. I wondered whether this was how men feel their life? I was now no different from them, just a bit older, yet I felt their equal.

After all the doubts, all the fears and all the question deprived of answers and dreams deprived of substance, I took the way back home. Just one last step, just one; the very last step.

Home has been Lothlórien. Home has been Atlantis. I have had many Homes. Overall, Home was his heart and his eyes.

I went along his body, I went along his life. I've been transported. I've been transported beyond the limits and beyond the forests. Leaving ease aside, I've taken no shortcut nor side path. He was my ship, my tree.

The last step has been the gift. And so was it: the gift of men. The gift of mortality was mine to carry away until the remainder of my days. My life, an open book, still bears few pages to fill up. Yet I know now the last line.

I was a warden of Lothlórien. I was a soldier of Atlantis. I was an Elf. I was Dëna.