Disclaimer: Please note that I do not own Middle Earth or any other parts of Fictional Literature that J R R Tolkien has thought up. If you try to sue me for writing this, here is the extent of what you'll get. A few Legolas bookmarks, some posters of Legolas, a few drawings of him, some Manga novels, and a Lord of the Rings soundtrack. The latter two you will only get if you pry them from my cold, dead fingers, and even then you'll have a tough time getting them.
The day was exceptionally warm and sunny, and the birds sang loudly as they constructed their nests. Airedelothwen, or Airedel as she was commonly known, paid no mind to the outside world, instead snoozed lightly beneath a large, gnarled tree near the River Brandywine. What she was doing there was none of her concern, nor was it anyone else's.
She slept lightly, still cautious even though the One Ring had been cast into the flames of Mt. Doom over ten years earlier.
Ten years, seven months, three days, twelve hours,54 minutes and thirty seconds.
She awoke, the voice still echoing in her head. Had it been real? Had it been a part of the dream she had been weaving?
Honestly, you Elves have no sense of time whatsoever...unless you keep track.
There it was again! What was this strange echo of a voice? Where was its source?
Look above, to the sky, to the Heavens, and you shall find what it is.
Airedel looked up, though she saw nothing but the branches of the tree.
Then she saw them.
Two crimson eyes were peering down from behind the foliage, a soft chuckle emerging from the unseen mouth. Airedel grabbed her bow from a low hanging branch and removed a mythril arrow from her quiver. She aimed with deadly accuracy at the pair of eyes, her own azure ones glaring back.
It won't work, you know...
This time the voice was different.
The first voice, the one that belonged to the crimson eyes, spoke again, mentally.
You can't harm me, Elf...
Airedel released the arrow, but the eyes dissipated before the arrow was even close to the upper foliage where they had been. The same arrow flew back at Airedel, clipping her shoulder plate. It was then that she was glad that she wore armor, for that blow would have surely dismantled her right arm, and would have knocked her to the ground.
Told you so. Didn't work!
"Who or what are you?" Airedel was getting impatient with these nuisances. If only she had been taught to properly climb trees...
Did the Elf actually speak? AMAZING!
She was especially annoyed with the one that seemed to think herself higher than anyone...
" If you can do better, then speak with voice, not with mind!"
If you wish it...
"Why must a demon be bound by Earthly traits? I see not the reason of this."
Airedel was surprised to find that the voice, drenched in echo and vain in her mind, sounded quite harmonious when speaking aloud. And what of the other voice, that had been dripping with haughty snobbishness?
" Maybe if you would look upon lowly beings with pity in place of spite and vain, the reason would be plain."
The second voice was sweet and melodious, and Airedel suspected the two to be at least part Elven.
" Not I, for I am a demon, through and through, restraining my human quarter with ease, feeling no remorse for the killing of light."
" I am, as you say, part Elven, but not completely. For I am Drow, Demon, and Human, easily masked behind a human body, my fair ears the only aspect of Elven."
Airedel looked about in the foliage for the second voice, and a brief glimpse of burgundy was seen before both pairs of eyes vanished, a cold breeze causing Airedel's brown hair to flow to the side.
The sudden disappearance of the two that have yet to be named caused her to think.
Why was she near Hobbiton? Where had she been going before she stopped to rest?
She heard something on her right side, and the harmonious voice spoke again.
" You had been questing to find your origin, heading for Mirkwood to see if you were a lost child from that realm."
Airedel hadn't time to look at the owner of the harmonious voice, for the melodious one appeared at her left side.
" And if you didn't find anything there, you would quest to Rivendell, to seek the voice of Elrond, looking for the reason you were gifted with the sacred jewel from Amon Hen."
" Who knows, maybe you should go to Amon Hen?" Said the first sarcastically.
Airedel looked to her right, the dialogue now seemingly finished. There a young woman sat, suspended in air by an invisible force. Her long hair was silver in color, not gray, nor white, but silver, catching the sun's rays and sparkling unusually. Her eyes were dark, looking as though an artist heavily outlined them, though no trace of makeup could be found on her fair face.
She was garbed in a tunic-like top, light blue in color, with a white stripe down its center and white hems. Around her slim waist was a brown belt, with golden inscriptions written in a foreign language, unreadable by Airedel.
Beneath the tunic top, she wore a pair of black pants, almost skin tight. Her boots were a dark blue, with white laces up the front. The boots were made of a strange sort of leather, but not from the hide of a beast.
The young woman on Airedel's left seemed to be older, but only by a few human years. She had long black hair, darker than the mane of her stallion, which was recently released to be free. The young woman was also suspended in air, but her eyes were burgundy, and the style of clothing was much different.
She was clothed in a bell-sleeved shirt, the ends of the white shirt blended to red. The shirt exposed her thin belly. Her lower body was garbed, at the moment, in a silky skirt, red in color, then fading to white at the bottom, which was narrowly above her knees. She also wore boots, black, of the same material as the first's boots.
" And who are you two, who cannot resist the opportunity to bewilder and annoy an Elf that has no birth-given name?" Airedel said plainly, almost recognizing the bow and quiver on the black haired woman's back.
" I am the Demon Telpëmeliel, of whom is called Meliel, for reasons that are inconceivable by another besides myself."
" And I am the Dark Elf Thaliramien, of whom is called Raven, for reasons that are my own and not any other's."
Airedel raised her eyebrows, not getting even the gist of what they had said besides what they were called. She mentally shrugged and picked up her bow, now ready to be on her way towards Mirkwood.
* * *
Airedel had thought she was rid of the two, Raven and Meliel, when she left the Shire, but she had been sadly mistaken. The two had decided to follow her, Meliel having never been to Mirkwood before, and Raven for purposes unknown, which see seemed to have an abundance of.
They came across a three-way fork in the road, and had no clue to as which way they should go. Meliel, choosing to touch down to the ground and walk, stepped forward and stood near the road that was heading in the direction they had been going.
" This way, this way, for I can see the mountains we are to cross!"
She sang, twirling on her Tipp toes.
Raven did the same with the path to their right.
"This way, this way, for I see the river we are to wade!"
She sang, doing a gracefully clumsy cartwheel.
Airedel sighed, and looked at the third road, upon which was a man, leading his horse. Airedel approached the man and smiled sweetly.
"Excuse me sir… but do you know the way to Mirkwood?"
The man looked at her and smiled back.
"Of course, for my friends live there! Just follow that road by that…EGH!"
The man stopped short as he pointed to the path where Meliel was standing. She looked at him and grinned, waving. The man backed away from her, shaking his head, and turned to run, as did his horse.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Airedel watched as he disappeared into the distance, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. She turned to Meliel, who turned and whistled innocently, starting down the path she was on.
Airedel knew that she shouldn't ask, but her curiosity grabbed her and forced her to speak.
"What just happened? The man looked as though he saw Meliel as a ghost."
Raven appeared at Airedel's ear.
"That man was there ten years and nine months ago, when Meliel was shot by an arrow. He thought she was dead, and, naturally, felt remorseful because he had fired the arrow, and thought she was dead. Two months after that, Meliel approached him from behind and shot him in the shoulder, disappearing right as he turned to look who had fired."
Airedel raised an eyebrow and shrugged, walking after Meliel, who had disappeared behind a bend in the road. Airedel felt something tap her shoulder once, before she was suddenly jolted into the air.
Meliel grabbed her right hand, and Raven her left. In unison, they swung the perplexed Elf back and forth before saying,
"We'll get there faster…"
"If we fly…"
"So don't look down…"
"Look to the sky!"
They released Airedel's hands and sent her flying forward, quickly following her as they sped off towards Hitchaeglir.