So this will be a series of one-shots in the lives of Randiriel, Haldir, Morwen, Quethiel, Legolas, and Huidhenel before the events of Ash Nazg of Sauron, Huidhenel of Middle Earth. I would recommend that you read that one first just to get an understanding of who these people are, but you don't really need to if you don't want to. So I'll give a tiny description at the beginning of every chapter, which will be around 1,200 words each. So, without further ado-I present the first chapter of
"The Waking of the Past."
Some notes:
Randiriel = Vande Vanya = Haeronwen. Sairalinde is her older sister. They are both siblings of Legolas. Eleniel is their mother.
Chapter One: Pranking Thranduil
How did Eleniel meet Thranduil? Here's what she tells her little daughter, Haeronwen.
"Fly!" shouted Haeronwen, jumping on her bed, waving her pillow in the air. "Fly, nana, fly!" She propelled herself into the air and then fell back to the bed with a soft thump.
Queen Eleniel laughed, pulling the tiny elfling close to her. "It is time for bed, small one. Sairalinde will come and tell you your story."
"I want to hear one of your stories, nana," pleaded the little elf, pouting at her mother. "Please, nana? How about the story of the sea? How it calls us in our sleep?"
Seeing that the conversation was heading into dangerous waters, Eleniel steered it quickly away; sea-longing came upon even the tiniest of elves at times. Haeronwen was already beginning to get a starry, breathtaken look in her wide green eyes, so exactly like her own.
"How about I tell you the story of the day I met your ada?"
Haeronwen's eyes widened and she jumped up and down. "Yes! Yes nana, I want to hear that one!"
Eleniel chuckled, swinging her daughter onto her lap and settling her there.
"Well, it all began when I was only twenty-five years old...and I was playing in the mud outside our talan..."
Eleniel Estelion was sitting outside her family's talan. Before her she had a complicated little building made out of twigs and mud; it seemed to be a tiny house. Carefully, she placed grass onto the damp roof, creating a thatched effect.
Suddenly, she heard a faint creak behind her. Turning around, she glanced about her, but saw nothing. She went back to her mud hut, and just then, a bush rustled ominously beside the talan's front door. Eleniel stood and stared at the bush; it gave another wriggle and a small elfling tumbled out. He, too, was covered in the mud that the recent spring rains had brought to Eryn Lasgalen. His hands were full of violets that smelled heavenly, but looked as if they had been trampled on.
"Who are you?" asked Eleniel. She seemed to recognize this mud-splattered elfling, but she could not remember where she had seen him before.
"I'm Maidhfinden," he said, before turning his mournful gaze to the crushed violets he held.
"What happened to your flowers?" asked Eleniel.
"My brother sat on them," he said miserably. "I had picked the finest violets in the gardens for my Nana, and I put them on a bench-and he sat on them and squashed them flat! I know he didn't do it on purpose, but by Eru! He has ruined them!"
"You can pick some from my nana's garden, I'm sure she would let you," said Eleniel, gesturing to the bright patch of flowers that she and her mother had planted the year before. "And then you can give them to your naneth."
"No, I know I can find more, but these were the best violets in all of Eryn Lasgalen!" said Maidhfinden, heaving a dramatic sigh and plopping down into the mud next to Eleniel.
"How about you play a prank on your brother?" said Eleniel, a wicked spark coming to life in her eyes. "If you can't get any violets that are as nice as these ones were, maybe you can pay him out for spoiling them."
"Maidhfinden wasn't Ada, was he, Nana?" asked Haeronwen, perplexed, for she had never heard this story before.
"No, Maidhfinden was not Ada! He is your uncle Finden!"
"Oh," said Haeronwen, dropping her small chin into the palm of her hand. Then her eyes lit up. "I know! The bad big brother was Ada, wasn't he, Naneth!"
"Yes, indeed," said Eleniel with a chuckle. "Though I remember very well that our very first meeting went over very badly."
"Why?" asked Haeronwen.
"It was simple. The first time I met him, Maidhfinden and I were in the process of playing a trick on him..."
"What do you think we can do?"
It was a quiet, sunny afternoon a week after their first meeting. Maidhfinden and Eleniel were lying on the grass on their stomachs, with copious sheets of parchment before them. Some were trick letters, some were diagrams of complicated booby traps, and some were lists of dates. Eleniel picked up one of the diagrams and looked at it.
"You know, if King Oropher were to see these, he'd think we were drawing up battle plans."
"Good idea," said Maidhfinden, taking up a quill and dipping it into the pot of lilac ink that Eleniel had brought along. He then labeled every single sheet of parchment with the words "BATTLE PLANS" in capital letters.
"There; then if my father does see this, he won't know what in the world we are talking about!"
"King Oropher is your father?" asked Eleniel. "You never told me."
"Not really important; I'm not the crown prince anyway, so I like to stay...in the shadows!" he said, looking around conspiratorially. Eleniel burst into laughter.
"All right then! Let us set our mission to Prank Prince Thranduil into motion!"
"The best part of our plan is that we won't even have to be nearby when he sets off the trap," said Eleniel, looking over the diagrams. "You're sure he won't get hurt?"
"He's my big brother, he never gets hurt," said Maidhfinden dismissively. "Come on, Eleniel!"
The two elflings got up and ran away to set their complicated booby trap.
"Did Ada get hurt?" asked Haeronwen, her large green eyes wide with worry.
"No, he did not. But he was very angry..."
"Let's go! It's ready!" said Eleniel, looking at the perfect trap they had built in a willow tree. The moment Thranduil passed under the overhanging boughs, he would be caught up in a net and a bucket full of cold water would be dumped on his head.
"I'm coming!" cried Maidhfinden, giving the tree one last checking to make sure that nothing about it boasted of their plan.
The two elflings ran away to await the arrival of Prince Thranduil...
TO BE CONTINUED...SOON...!
READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! I will give you cookies if you do!
