Grey Dawn 1
Disclaimer_- I do not own Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth or any of that stuff, it all belongs to Tolkien. What belongs to me is any character you don't reacognise, any typo's or story mistakes and my student loan. I only write for my reader enjoyment and my own enjoyment (reviews my me feel popular!), please don't sue, all you will get is bad grammar and a large amount of repayments.
Prologue.
He and his brother snuck along through the night and closer to Lake Evendim and the settlement of the Elves there. They both sensed a presence they knew, that of the Princess Artanis, or Galadriel as she was generally known. They had not felt that presence since their childhoods when they were brutally forced from their homes to live in the wild. They had been taken and cared for by a small group of nomadic Elves and had become lost to the world they knew.
He had taken a wife from among this group and she was the mother of the child he carried in his arms. The group were leaving Arda now, though, and his wife had been killed in an attack on the group. It had been decided that the child should return to the race of his parents, though, and, since they had felt that familiar presence, the decision had resulted in them sneaking through the night to the dwelling of Galadriel.
His brother stood guard as he sneaked in to ensure the child was as near to Galadriel as possible and he left her there with a simple note, explaining her name and her origins to Galadriel. There was a cot with another young child, this time with pale blonde hair and features as extraordinarily beautiful as those of his own child. He placed his own daughter in the cot beside her and both infants opened their eyes momentarily before curling close to each other.
The dawn broke as they were a fair distance from the camp; the sounds of two infants crying reached their ears. One was recognisable as his daughter's cry. Soon both infants quietened down again, though by now, all in the area were awake.
He smiled sadly at having to leave his only child alone and hoped that she would be well looked after. He sent a prayer to Yavanna to care for her and to Estë to look after her as well, for his daughter was descended from one of her Maia.
The year 100 of the Third Age.
Today was the day the ruler of Imladris arrived. Mithiliel and Celebrian had heard of the Peredhil-Lord who had been the herald for High King Gil-galad, but neither had seen him. Mithiliel was curious for another reason, though. She was the only Elf in Lorien who had dark hair and she had heard that this Lord, a Noldor – unlike most of the Elves in Lorien, also had her dark hair.
Thankfully, her position as the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn meant that both she and Celebrian would be with King Amroth's welcome party for the Lord of Imladris. Giggling, the pair dressed up for the welcome party, Celebrian in white and Mithiliel in the grey her name implied. Today, she was in a pale silver-blue grey while her sister was in a dress of blue tinted white; both dressed in velvet with a scoop-neck and a raised waist with only light embroidery decorating it.
It was early afternoon when their Ada came to collect them and their mother to join the party in the Kings talan. As a Princess of the Noldor and a Prince of Doriath, the pair stood next to the King of Lorien with their daughters in front of them, held protectively. They waited for maybe half-an-hour before the Lord and his party entered the receiving talan.
The Lord was dark-haired, he had dark-brown, almost black – just like hers was! In fact, most of Lord Elrond's party was dark-haired, bar the Golden Lord, who stood beside Elrond and truly lived up to his epithet. He was also armed to the teeth. Mithiliel then heard a quiet gasp beside her and turned her head to see her sister's lips curve into a speculative smile. The next gasp from Celebrian was because her sister had just shoved her elbow into her ribs.
XXX
That evening there was a welcome ball for the state party, where they could be more informally introduced than they had been that afternoon. Celebrian had spent the entire preparation time talking about the good looking ellyn in the party, particularly Lord Elrond who was particularly fair for an Elf, his human heritage provided him with a broader build and a sturdier set of features than was common among Elves. Most Elves had delicate features and a willowy build that concealed a deceptive strength. There was no hidden strength in this ellon and his face had sharper angles with tempered muscle-strength clear in every move. Even with this harsher, stronger build, he still maintained elven beauty and this strange combination of mortal and immortal created a truly beautiful ellon.
Mithiliel laughed at her sister's monologue and the relative attributes of the new males and her gushing over the exoticness of Lord Elrond. Mithiliel felt no attraction to the Peredhil-Lord, just curiosity. She wanted to talk to the Lord alright and she had to admit he was unusually fair, but there was no spark.
Then again, Celebrian was always the one interested in the ellyn and always the one that got all the attention from the ellyn as well. Mithiliel was pretty sure most of the attention she got was because she was exotic looking rather than any real beauty. She didn't fall into the usual blonde hair, blue eyes description that all the other ellyth did, she had dark brown-black hair and grey eyes.
This night, both girls dressed in their respective white and grey, though this time they wore silk-satin that was light enough for dancing. Once again, the gowns were mostly unadorned, though Celebrian's was solid white and Mithiliel wore pearl-grey. Sometimes Mithiliel wished she could wear something other than grey for formal occasions, but with a name that meant 'grey heroine', grey was what she got put in every time. It was like grey was her colour. Why couldn't she wear blue sometimes? Or green?
XXX
"Lady Galadriel, well met! And these are your lovely daughters?" Lord Elrond asked as they waited for Celeborn to return with drinks. The half-Elf had come over to them with a politely curious expression on his face. Equally politely, they returned the greetings. After a small amount of small talk, he turned to Mithiliel with a slight frown.
"One wonders as to how you and Celeborn had a dark-haired child. I have noticed over the years that though dark-haired parents will occasionally have blonde children, but never have two pale-haired people had a dark-haired child. I have to admit to finding this curious." Galadriel looked at him for a few moments.
"Mithiliel is our adopted daughter, she was left in Celebrian's cradle as a little infant, shortly after she and my daughter had been weaned. They refused to be separated and since we could not find the parents, we adopted her and brought her up as our own. We love her as our own and have never felt the need to make any distinction between our daughter by blood and our adopted one." There seemed to be a tightness about how she said this and the last part seemed more aimed at Mithiliel than Elrond. Mithiliel was trying not to look surprised, never having heard this story before. She was not their blood daughter? As she looked at Galadriel, her eyes promised a long talk at the first opportunity.
Mithiliel faded into the background for the rest of the night, not wishing to be coerced into dancing when she suddenly had this to think about. Thankfully, Celebrian realised that she wanted to be left alone and left her to the side while she flirted with Elrond, as well as a few other members of his party.
XXX
It was the end of the visit and, to the general surprise of the Elves of Lorien, Mithiliel was going with them. When she had expressed an interest in going to visit Imladris, Elrond had invited her to return with him, as curious about her origins as she was. As she finished preparing, she zoned out Celebrian's latest monologue telling her to write and suchlike and thought back to the conversation that had followed the ball and sparked her sudden wanderlust.
"You knew I was not your daughter and you never deigned to tell me? What I am then? Why am I so different?"
"We are not sure exactly who you are, though we are fairly sure that, like Elrond, you are part human though I am not sure of the exact percentages, Mith. Please don't be angry, we loved you as our own and never felt any need to tell you that you were not ours." Galadriel actually sounded sad.
"You mean you felt no need to tell me why I was so different, the local freak? The one who only ever got looked at as different!" Mithiliel was angry beyond belief.
"You are not a freak, Mith! You are our daughter and as you have now seen, far from the only one to appear as you do. We never realised how you felt about your appearance. It never occurred to us that you would find it so." This was Celeborn, though he sounded little more emotional than he usually did. It was almost like he was keeping something from her. There seemed to be the same thing about Galadriel. Mithiliel was sure there was much they were not telling her.
It was that surety and her desire to know who she is, who her parents were, and what her heritage was. Why was life so difficult all of a sudden? She would miss Celebrian and her parents, but she really needed to go. At least she wouldn't look different in Imladris.
She wrapped her grey cloak around her and swung onto the matching grey horse. She really did seem to be destined for the colour grey, even her horse was grey. She was not far behind Elrond in the party and as armed as everyone else, even the ellyth of Lorien were taught some basic self-defence skills, archery, and a certain amount of knife work.
All the same, she was in the middle group and protected. She had already said goodbye to her family but still turned and waved at them. They all waved back, though Celebrian still managed to bat her eyelids at Elrond a couple of times. She had, the previous night, told Mithiliel to pass on everything she could about the gossip of Imladris, though Mithiliel was planning on being a little selective. Elrond and Celebrian would make a good couple and it would mean she would have her sister with her in Imladris.
Not that she had priorities occasionally.
As the party went out of sight of the city, she smiled. It was the first time away from her family, but it felt good to be getting free and finding out about what had confused her for most of her life. It was a new chapter in her life and, Valar, she was going to enjoy it!