Elandili

by: Kristall

A/N: This is a spinoff (kinda) on a fic I wrote (for LOTR), but never posted. Some of the ideas are the same, but I've changed a few (well maybe more than just a few *grins*) details to make this a new story. Actually, it's not so much a new story as it is a different ending to my original story. Or something like that. Oh well, enjoy the story, and review to let me know what you think.

Preface

A few things you need to know. 1) Elandili (a.k.a. Elan) is the daughter of Elrohir, which is part of the reason she's so good at fighting. 2) Elan was a student of Gandalf (Mithrandir) when she was real little (for an Elf). That's where she learned to change her looks. 3) Elan had to go up against the Black Riders once and nearly got killed. She still has nightmares about it. 4) It's been about 3,005,000 years since Middle-earth sank into the sea (it used to be off the west coast of Ireland). Elan herself is 3,009,630 (in the year 2000) years old, which means she was born midway through the third age. The fourth age lasted for 3120 years, then the world ended for practically everyone by sinking into the sea.

I could go on and on with this, but I probably am boring you. So sorry. Here's the story, set in New Zealand, year 2000 AD.

Chapter 1: Memories of Old

There were four of them, coming down the short slope. She was on the bridge, her trainer beside her. One of the Riders brought down his sword on her...and then with a jerk that threw her out of bed, Elan woke up. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was four in the morning. She wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, so she went to take a shower.

While in the shower, she wondered about her "dream". It was actually a memory of what had befallen her in her youth, back when she had been struggling to prove herself to the other Elites. She had always done her best and worked hard, harder than any of the others. But that day, she had lost her trainer who had taught her to be an Elite, and she had nearly lost her life as well. She still bore the scar on her shoulder and across her back where three sword strokes had joined together. Shuddering with , the cold, she went and got dressed.

Elan would never admit that she knew what fear was. She had done so many reckless things in her life, slaying dragons and even following the Fellowship, which had finally won her the respect of the other Elites. She could not say that she was afraid of a mere memory. But that battle, or rather the Black Riders she had fought against still haunted her, even though it had happened so long ago. Elan sighed, and looked at the clock.

"Aniron Elandili."* Two words, and she had transformed into her true looks. She had learned several things that the other Elites never had. She checked the mirror, made a few adjustments to her ears, and was ready to go. Smiling, she went to get into her costume for today's filming. Her glasses were now unnecessary, and she slipped them into her bag. She got her hair done and into her costume as the other cast members showed up.

Elan collected her breakfast, and slid into a seat. She briefly paused while she looked out the western window, and then dug in. She was soon joined by the Hobbits, her closest friends on the set. She just had a knack for making friends, and they had watched her tryout. Amazed at her skill in fighting, they had come to meet her in the hall, and their friendship had begun then. Now they were starting to film the third and last film of LOTR. They ate quickly, still taking time to cheerfully complain about getting up at four in the morning and then getting only five minutes for breakfast.

"Well, we actually get fifteen minutes for breakfast.", said Elan.

"There goes our perfectionist again. How long do you figure it will take for the crew to set up the equipment, and could we grab some more food before we go?" Elijah was teasing her, but she didn't mind it.

"You should grab some food from here, and a sack. We'll have about half an hour before everything is ready for filming, so we can all have second breakfast." Elan smiled at him and went to get a sack and a cooler, as well as some drinks. Elijah reminded her of Frodo. In fact, all of the main cast reminded her of the people they were representing. It made her feel young again, like when she had lived in Rivendell. Her smile grew sad for a moment. She missed her family so much.

Elan's expression grew thoughtful. It had been well over three million years since she had last seen her family, Rivendell, her old friends, or the land she had called her home. She could still remember the feel of the ground shaking beneath her feet as she ran, the cracks that had split open in the earth. The tsunami as it had covered her home, the earthquakes that had brought her home to its grave.

She shook those memories from her mind. She had to play her part as a serving maid in Minas Tirith. Concentrate on your job, come on focus. You are an Elite and far better than any of the others had been. Focus! Finally, she heard someone call out: "That wraps it up!" She had had fun, but she was longing to get back to the hotel. It was there, where they kept their sword fighting skills up, that she could really unwind. She felt like taking on one, maybe two, of the guys.

Sure enough, Viggo was there, as well as Orlando. She smiled as Viggo tossed a sword to her. It was an "elvish" blade, as if these humans could copy the works of art that the true elvish smiths had created, herself among them. She swung it around a few times, getting the feel of the blade. For a human crafted weapon, it wasn't all that bad. That was pretty big praise coming from her, as she had had thousands of years to perfect her smithying before she had even met Aragorn.

She turned to look at the two guys, and saw Viggo grinning in a very suspicious way. She smiled as she stepped to the side, sending Orli running past her and then turned to take on Orlando. She soon gained the upper hand, and Viggo joined in. Elan wasn't even aware that the Hobbits had come in to watch. Her skills were coming back, and her sword neatly parried each attack. Leading the other two over to the weapon stores, not stopping for an instant, she grabbed another sword, and spun to the attack. Moments later, Elan had disarmed both of her opponents, and had her sword points at their throats.

Orli and Viggo both looked at her in surprise, more at the sword points than at her having beat them. As Elan moved the swords away, they relaxed. She had only been showing them that she had won. Viggo, however noticed her hands trembling. As they all watched, Elan dropped the swords and slumped to her knees.

Elan didn't notice the others walking towards her. She stared at her hands, which still trembled. She had been so close to losing control. She had been fighting Viggo and Orli when suddenly they had been replaced with Orcs. She had almost killed Viggo and Orli as a result. She walked over to the weapons and found a dagger. Snatching it up, she turned and flung it at a target hanging on the wall as hard as she could. The ten inch blade, missing the target, sunk into the wooden wall. Only two inches stayed out of the wall.

"Elan, you ok?" Viggo's quiet question did a lot to restore her mental peace. For the moment anyway.

"Yeah. Come on, it's dinner time."

Chapter 2: Longing

Elan was sitting up in bed reading when there was a quiet knock on the door. She put her book down and went to see who it was. Viggo stood outside the door. Luckily for him, she was decently covered. "Come in.", she invited, but Viggo smiled and shook his head.

"No thanks, I'm on my way to bed, and Pete would be after my blood if I fell asleep in your room." Elan laughed. "But I was wondering, tomorrow's a free day. Would you teach me that move you used to disarm Orlando and me?" Elan gave another soft laugh and said that he'd better be in the practice field by eleven the next morning. Viggo thanked her and said good night.

Elan sighed as she shut the door. She was not exactly thrilled with this. It would bring back memories of when she had trained the real Aragron when he was a young man, only about thirteen, learning to fight with sword and knife. But there was no help for it, she would never be able to refuse to teach a move she knew to someone else.

With a feeling of longing for her people, especially her family, Elan tried to fall asleep, but it was hard. In fact, the only reason why she fell asleep at all was pure exhaustion. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed that she had never been separated from her family, and that she was in Valinor with them all, even Arwen. She missed them all so much.

The next day, she got up later than usual, but still managed to get to the field an hour before Viggo was due. She spent the hour in target practice, using the dagger she had created when she was young. The sun caught the sapphire blade, sparkling brightly. She tried every move she could think of, the more difficult the better. She had been a dead shot since she had learned a trick or two from Merry and Pippin when they had come to Rivendell with Frodo and Sam, and she had not lost her skill.

Viggo came along just as she was sheathing the blade. Elan took her sword, the one she had created, while Viggo chose one of the other blades. They spent all morning practicing the move, and a few others as well. Viggo was a good student, and had the moves perfected by lunchtime.

Elan decided to go rock climbing after lunch. Hopefully, that would take care of her longing, but it was only a slight chance. Elan listened with one ear to the conversations of the others, but for once stayed out of the talks. Viggo and Elijah both noticed this, but said nothing about it. The other actors thought she was just tired after the fights from yesterday and this morning.

An hour later, Elan was headed out for the hardest slope she could find. There was one none of the others had tried, not even that daredevil Orli. It would be perfect for her. She was about to go up when a hand caught hers. Spinning around, she saw Elijah was holding her. "You want me to hold the rope for you on your way up?"

"No, but thanks for the offer 'Lijah. I want a challenge, and with you holding the rope, this is gonna be too easy. You can hold the rope when I come down though." Elan grinned at the shock on Elijah's face and grabbed a handhold. Minutes later, she was half way up, all of her concentration on the rocky ledge she was scaling. Her muscles were starting to tremble with the strain when she ran out of handholds. Looking to her left, she saw several above her, one within reach. Time to play musical feet now, she thought to herself. Moving her right foot to where her left foot was, she almost lost her grip on the handhold in her right hand. Had she missed it, she would have gone plunging straight back down to the ground. Giving herself a push with her right hand, she managed to get herself upright. She grabbed the handhold to the left with her left hand, and stared back up again. A minute later, she was at the top of the small cliff.

Smiling with pleasure, Elan tossed down a rope for Elijah to hold. Falling on the way down would be a quick way to land her in the hospital, if she were lucky enough to survive. She was down in about half the time it had taken to go up. Elijah was frowning as she put away her gear. "That was crazy. Who taught you how to climb dangerous slopes without any kind of safety gear? You almost fell."

"When you've been around as long as I have, you learn a thing or two. Especially how to get out of tricky situations."

"What the heck are you talking about? You're only eighteen, Elan! Is there something you haven't told us?" Elan silently, and heartily, cursed herself. She had made another slip of the tongue. She had lied about her age, and for good reason. If she had told them that she was about 3,009,000 years old, they would probably have all had heart attacks, or reactions along those lines. No one had suspected anything wrong. Or so she had hoped.

Unfortunately, Elan had to admit that her verbal slips were getting more frequent. Elijah was already suspicious, and it was more than likely only a matter of time before the others also started to suspect her. She sighed as they entered the mess hall. That night, Elan sat alone in the corner, playing with her food. She wasn't really hungry. Her thoughts kept on drifting back to the real Middle-earth, her Middle-earth. She was remembering her training as an Elite when the image of the Black Riders coming for her sprang into her mind.

The vision was so real she started out of her chair. She saw Elijah looking at her with concern. Looking around, she saw others watching her with puzzled looks on their faces. Elan saw the vision again, shuddered violently, and ran from the room with a strangled cry.

*Aniron Elandili. = I desire Elandili. A spell Elandili came up with when she was only twenty years old (in our reckoning) to return her looks to normal from a disguise.