[Bill]

The one known as "Ma" has discovered my true being, so, I must tell my tale, in accordance with "elfin" law, within three risings and settings of the golden orb, lest I wisp away. So be it...it has been decreed... Please bear with me as I pile more wood upon the crackling fire before us.....I was "born" on a night no man can remember. Our language is not yours. Your "people" seem to name things and objects whereas we do not. Everything just "is". My name in your language would be "night-watcher-runner-thinker". I will try to speak to you in your own tongue. We are not "elves", as you call us. We call ourselves the "age-nots", but we lack what you have. I've run through many nights and been through all of the streams and rivers throughout the land, but something was missing, so I ran "through-the-night" to speak with the Queen Elf, as you would call her. "Yes, night-watcher-runner-thinker?" I knelt before her. "My Queen, those I watch seem to greatly enjoy one certain day of the year....a 'birthday', they call it. May I be permitted to try one? They seem to enjoy them!" My queen gazed skyward as a meteor streaked across the sky, "they seem to enjoy that one particular day more than the others. You can go now, and do as you wish, night-watcher-runner-thinker". That is what I do now, as I wish. That fire shot through the eyes of my queen thousands of your years ago.