I'm sorry I'm so bad with multi-chapters that you have to wait for updates on stories. To my defence I can reveal that I have other stuff to do, one of them being another lengthier Silmarillion fic I am currently working on. But I promised Crackers I'd post this second chapter in September if not earlier. And earlier it is.
I was delighted to see the positive feedback the first chapter received. It took me by surprise! Not as much is yet happening in this second chapter, but it's important in building up the story towards the third chapter which will have so much stuff happening I don't even know when I'll finish writing it. XD
Anyway, enjoy! And if you want to, do check out a small comic I drew based on the first chapter: it's on my deviantart. art/Fairy-Godbrothers-comic-page-322889229
Chapter 2 - Only Child, Lonely Child no longer
The dinner that day was fixed easily. Celegorm had casually remarked that pheasant was plentiful in this neighbourhood - that was true: the shrieks of the green-tailed birds could be heard every now and then now that the weather had become warmer. With that Celegorm had left them and returned two hours later, a bow on his shoulder and a pheasant in his hand. Curufin, the eligible and dutiful family-father as he once had been, promptly roasted it along with roots and vegetables, and he even whipped up a dessert to present. (Slightly disappointed at the fact that there was little wine to serve with the food, he asked whether somebody should go get some from the store. Gwenniel's dad, having returned from his work, immediately reported that alcohol in this house would be used for cooking only. Curufin scoffed but served water instead.)
One good aspect in choosing this family as their host, was that the Elves needed no greater introductions as to who they were, because no one had escaped the basic facts about the history of Eldar. (When Gwenniel explained the Elves' visit to her father, he was of course surprised at how it was possible, but... seeing as his wife had already agreed to the Noldor residing in their house a while, he had not really any objections or requirements, except for that it would be up to Gwenniel to keep an eye on the new household members. The Elves assured of that they had already basic knowledge of the world of today: mainly how some things worked and how society behaved. Gwenniel had never been that good at explaining things, so she was happy about that.) That first evening she took the Elves to a small walk around the neighbourhood, just to give then an idea of how to it looked like in these parts. From the old bookshelf in the house, her mother found dictionaries, grammar books and tapes in Finnish (and some Swedish) for Curufin to read. The genius of an Elf had already picked up some Finnish phrases and, naturally, his Quenyan pronunciation fitted perfectly for the synthetic Ugric tongue.
Lying in her bed that evening, Gwenniel could not help but pondering of the eventful day. She was still half sure of that this was just some crazy daydream or some delusion, something that was not real.
"Maybe you should write a book about this," Celegorm had laughed when Gwen expressed her thoughts. "Might get popular, just as popular as the account Ronald wrote when he hosted an Elf."
"I doubt..." she had muttered. "A fanfic-like creation at the best, if even that, though I wonder who would read about this, anyway. You know my writing, and I'm not sure about it."
But as Gwenniel now lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling, absentminded, unravelling knots in her hair, she realised that she had no idea on how long it would take for the Elves to fulfil and complete those good deeds and the kindness stuff. She didn't even know what deeds were considered good enough - maybe today's dinner had been the first step. She reached for her phone and posted one last tweet before getting some proper sleep.
"These Elves: enough of good deeds could take them 10 years and three novels, for all I know, because of their canonical temper and personality. #Noldor"
Then she leaned back into her bed and grinned into her pillow. She had always been an only child. It had always been her, her mum and her dad. And the dog. But now... she was definitely ready for something new.
That night was peaceful. The morning was quiet as well. Gwenniel's father left for work around 7am and the dog usually wanted outside an hour later. Gwenniel herself woke up no later than when a knock on get door forced her to open her eyes.
A refined, well-articulating and smooth voice called out to her in Finnish. "Your mother said she had to visit your grandmother today. She asked you to keep an eye on us."
Gwenniel yawned and blinked her eyes, confused for a while. She had certainly slept longer than usually, no doubt tired after yesterday. Wait, yesterday? Everything came back to her. She blinked.
"Curufin, did you just achieve every linguist's ambition of learning Finnish overnight?"
Curufin opened the bedroom door. "Yes," he said as only a native can. "It's grammatically a rather simple language after all, and the phonetics and pronunciation is quite charming, except for that distasteful rhotic R... " He trilled his tongue as if he had used rhotics his whole life. "Sounds rather vulgar, doesn't it?" he frowned. "Even the S instead of þ seems better."
Gwenniel let her head fall back into the pillow. "You are quite amazing, you know that?"
Curufin gave her his characteristic smirk and returned the grammar books he had borrowed the night before. "Obviously," he said.
"I don't even know. Except for that I am mildly jealous."
A secret language is always good to have. Those who have siblings might be find of coming up secret codes with their brothers and sisters that no one else in the house understands. This is made even easier if you happen to be are Elves who speaks Quenya in a world that doesn't. Gwenniel had no siblings, no secret language, not even a secret alphabet. What she did have were two Elves sitting by the dining table, conversing calmly in a tongue she could not follow. Flipping to the obituary section of the latest issue of The Economist, she let the two men (men in the sense of gender rather than race) keep on talking - until she heard her own name being spoken.
"What? What did you say?" she looked up.
"Nothing, no nothing," Celegorm assured her. "We were just talking..."
"About what?"
"Um..."
"Gwenniel," Curufin said calmly, ignoring his brother, "do you have plans for today? Because we thought about going to town to see if there is anything we can do to show kindness."
"I was just going to stay at home, I guess, do some studying, play the cello and stuff..." The girl sighed. "Little plans, as usual."
"You play the cello?" Celegorm asked vaguely interested.
"You didn't see the instrument in her room?" Curufin scoffed.
"I haven't been into her room," his brother frowned, as if it was the most obvious thing on this planet. "Have you?"
"Let's not-" Gwenniel tried feebly to say something as the Elves' discussion slipped into Quenya again. "I was actually wondering: what is counted as doing good deeds and showing kindness? Does it have to be something really special or are small favours enough?"
The Elves looked at each other. Apparently Curufin was the one expected to answer, because he soon cleared his throat and said: "Good deeds, as defined by the Valar, are actions that are helpful, receive appreciation, come from the heart. Thus they cannot be anything too insignificant, something done out of general expected politeness or something done with your own goals as the reason."
"Well, your reasons are to get back to Valinor..."
"If it's something you would do even if it didn't help you personally," Curufin specified. Gwenniel decided that it made enough sense.
"But opening a door for someone else is not a good deed that you two would get points for?" she made sure she had understood it correctly.
"Precisely," Curufin said. "But remember that in the end it's all up to the host."
"What do you mean?"
"As our host, it is up to you to evaluate how well we have behaved," Celegorm clarified. "Mandos will give his verdict based partly on your report."
"Partly on my report," Gwen repeated. "And partly on what else?"
The Elf made a sour face. "He is a jerk, that Vala. Over 40% of whether he will deem your report on us good enough depends on his mood."
It wasn't funny in any way, but Gwenniel could not help but smile a little. Curufin saw it, frowned, and told her to stop grinning. She obeyed sheepishly and changed the subject.
"I should go study now, if you excuse me," she said, rising up from her chair. "I still have a book I need to do notes on."
"What book?"
"This one bastard." She lifted The Economist to reveal two thick books lying underneath it. She sighed and stared sadly at them. Celegorm frowned at the sight of such thick and boring looking books as these. Curufin picked up one of the thicker books.
"Introduction to Linguistics," he read out the title. "Well this should be interesting enough. My father is a linguist - he paid great attention to language and he even revised the orthography of-"
"I know," Gwenniel said. "I find languages very interesting, too. But I'm not a genius like him. I can't revise my own orthographical systems just yet. I need to study things from books written by other people so that I can get to a place where I can study the theories of other people. Only then can I start doing any research of my own."
"Seems rather stupid to me," Celegorm commented, "but fine." He picked up the other book and browsed through it. His expression changed. "Okay, it's true - these are not that difficult at all. I believe you've already read them once through by now, so learning it all..."
Gwenniel groaned and leant against the kitchen counter behind her, ignoring the rest of what the Elf was saying. It wasn't that she hadn't read the books or that she hadn't understood what they said. It was the fact that the books were about a subject she knew she was good at, but for a test she wasn't sure - after calculating it by methods of statistic probability - she would pass with high enough grades. These were her books for the University entrance exams. These books were the keys for one of the most important exams in her whole life so far.
"...and that would be a good deed, too." Celegorm finished the sentence he had been saying. Gwenniel looked up again, and saw Curufin nodding.
"Only, you can't put it that way or you will appear selfish and it won't count," the dark haired elf said as he leant his chin into his fingers. "But I don't think you are one for the job, to be honest," Curufin went on. "Your... talents lie elsewhere." His brother rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
Curufin turned to the mortal girl who stood nearby pretending she had been listening the whole time and knew exactly what they were talking about. "We - or mostly I - shall help you in your studies," he said. "It is the least we can do: we know that yesterday you didn't have any time to study at all, because you had to help us. That is why, from now on, we shall help you instead."
Gwenniel could not but quirk her eyebrows. To her it still seemed as if the Elves were but interested in helping themselves by helping her. That this was one of those ways to get her acceptance and be released. And she suddenly wasn't that sure anymore of whether she really wanted a tutor. Curufin seemed to guess her thoughts and assured her of that he would do this even if he himself got nothing from it. It was his duty, after all, he explained, to help a friend who thus far had so willingly helped him. Gwenniel thought this sounded very out of character, but she didn't object - there was something too persuading in the way Curufin spoke. (That determined shotgun-style way of providing orders and directives? Surely it was a lovely voice they were given in, but... Hmpf. Curufin was very used to persuading.)
"I guess there is nothing surprising in that Curufin is a good teacher: he did have a son and two younger brothers."
The problem was actually the fact that Curufin kept asking questions about all those tiny details that Gwenniel had not bothered to learn by heart. "There's no point in learning it, my father always said, if you are not going to learn it properly," Curufin replied to her complaints about not focusing on the greater picture. But as Curufin put it, there was no greater picture if one didn't learn it's full greatness. But unlike Curufin, the poor mortal girl did not have what it took to memorise every single detail. At the end of the day Gwenniel was utterly exhausted and went to bed earlier than usually - or rather she even fell asleep sooner than normally.
Before she fell asleep she could hear the Elven brothers talk silently as they stood outside, discussing something in Quenya. Wondering for a while what their subject might be, Gwenniel decided at last that it was probably just some scheme to further make her go nuts.
"I realized I've got a party to throw. D:"
Her mum had mentioned it that morning. Apparently, the number of relatives that wished to attend a graduation party in a few weeks was beyond Gwen's initial guess.
Celegorm and Curufin shared half-amused glances as the girl on the other side of the table sat poking her breakfast.
"It will be thirty guests!" Gwenniel moaned while having her breakfast before Curufin would tell her it was time to study again. "Thirty-one, if my uncle gets his flight from Hungary."
"You have an uncle in Hungary? That's close to one a thousand and five-hundred kilometres (somewhat over nine-hundred miles as exact locations aren't given) from here is it not?" Curufin said thoughtfully. Gwenniel nodded.
"I wish I had my uncles in Hungary," Celegorm muttered, drinking his morning cuppa.
"Thirty doesn't fit," Gwen ignored him. She let her spoon fall into her müsli and promptly leaned her elbows onto the table, ignoring any teachings of manners her mother would had had her to learn. The two Elves did not see her problem. Whereas she thought this would prove an impossible feat, thirty guests was nothing compared to how many persons a normal formal dinner in the house of Fëanor could include.
At some point Gwenniel realised this, too. She looked up at the Elves, a grin forming on her lips: "You would help me, wouldn't you, even if there was nothing in it for yourself."
The Elves warily glanced at each other again.
"Well, we do live in the same household now."
"And we did promise to treat her as a sister."
"You did."
"No, we both did."
"So would you mind helping me?" Gwenniel asked eagerly, having suddenly found her inner energy again. "We need invitations, we need to plan something to eat, I need to figure out what to do with my hair... it's flat, straight and boring," Gwen said before shutting her mouth upon noticing Curufin's annoyed expression.
"You know, this might be a good way for getting back to Valinor sooner," she pointed out.
Curufin still looked annoyed, but once again he exchanged glances with Celegorm. Gwenniel could see that the brothers were trying to decide whether helping the mortal girl really was worth it. After exchanging frowns, rising eyebrows and an annoyed sigh, the Elves agreed to help out. "But remember, girl," Curufin added hastily, "we are but to help in some of the chores, not host the whole party start to finish."
"Exactly," Celegorm agreed. "In the end it's your party."
Gwenniel saved her happy-dance for later and merely nodded, assuring them of that she understood. She loved these Elves. (Uh, more than she had loved them before, that is... And not in that kind of way.) This deal actually had its advantages. The Elves could not mess around without her consent or she would simply refuse to give them a good report to show Mandos. Handling these two was actually easier than she had expected, she thought.
"Mind you, I'm not doing it just to please you," Celegorm said as if she had read her mind. "I'm doing it because people always say I host such great parties."
"I'm doing it because the party is going top be in the same house I currently live in, so I might as well do something," Curufin muttered, looking as unaffected as possible. Gwenniel didn't care about his grumpy-on-the-outside personality. She was just glad that these two would finally get a good deed fulfilled. And help her out.
"Well they are not all a nuisance."
She placed down her bow on the cello. Stuffing away the notes under a chair, she left the room and walked into the living room where two Elves had been sitting and apparently heard her play. Curufin looked as if he had been meditating. Celegorm had been reading a magazine. Whatever magazine it was, he didn't care – he merely browsed through to pass the time as the sports news on telly hadn't started yet. As Gwenniel entered the room, they both looked up. Celegorm put his finger thoughtfully on his chin.
"Well it's not bad, but still not as good as my brother..."
"Celegorm, however do you think I could possibly be better than Maglor?" Gwenniel half laughed, taking a seat.
Curufin smiled as well. "No, he meant Caranthir."
"..."
"This how it is when you have a big-brother? Jibes and fun and stuff. Guess it's a good sign they feel comfortable enough to start joking with me. Right?"
"You are writing again?" Celegorm asked. Gwenniel nodded, but didn't look up from her phone. "About what?"
She didn't say anything for a moment, but then glanced up at the Elf lying on the couch opposite of her armchair in the living room. "Just writing," she said, avoiding a direct answer.
"Fanfiction?" Celegorm asked with a smile. Or rather, a smirk. A smirk of someone who guessed too near the truth.
"No," Gwenniel lied.
"As long as it's not about me and Aredhel again."
The girl hoped she could shrink into the nothingness. She coped with the embarrassment by promptly deleting the plot bunny she had been typing down and folding her arms
Damn these Elves. It was because of them she was a slow writer. Her sincere apologies to her readers (in case she still had any left), were in order.
"You wanted something?"she said sharply.
Celegorm smirked. "No."
"That is just the way he is," a voice said. Curufin was standing in the doorway. "He often likes annoying others. Clearly you are not used to having brothers."
"How could I be?" Gwenniel replied. "I have always been an only child."
The Elven brothers were quiet for a moment, processing how it would feel like not to have a single brother. Unable to picture the idea, they soon brushed off their failed attempt.
"It will be different now, though," Gwenniel mused with a smile. With you two around here, I mean." The Elves did not reply. Gwenniel's mouth became a thin line and she cleared her throat. "You yourself did proclaim that you would come to regard me as your sister. You both did. And you're helping with the graduation."
"Yeah..." Celegorm said slowly. "We've never had sisters, though, so I don't know how..."
"Of course we will hold that word," Curufin interrupted. He had stepped forward. "You have been an only child all this time and now we are here: that is a sign of our goodwill in itself, is it not?" He walked over to Gwenniel, raised his hand and... for a moment he looked as if he would pull it back, but then he placed it on her shoulder as she sat still crouched in her armchair. "Yes, a sister."
Gwenniel did not move a muscle. To be acknowledged as somebody's sister... She had never considered herself very lonely or longed for a sibling in particular, but... being a sister of somebody didn't seem so bad now. She could feel a grin on her face, unable as she was to stop it.
Curufin looked at Celegorm. "We've never had sisters, but this should really be no trouble," he said. "Think of her as Aredhel or something."
Celegorm turned his eyes from his brother to the girl sitting in the armchair. He squinted and tilted his head. His face turned slightly pink. "I can't," he muttered. "But yeah, I know now what you mean."
Gwenniel counted this day as one of the happiest days in her life so far.
They would be her brothers. Not brothers by blood, but brothers by... friendship? By adoption. Both sounded strange. Housemate-brothers? Pretend-to-be-brothers? Godbrothers? What? She didn't even have godfather or a godmother, why would she have a godbrother? Then again... Those God-familymembers always fulfilled those good deeds...
Not too bad, she decided. But of course she'd never reveal this nickname to the Elves. Hearing it would probably make them forget all brotherly bonds.
Later in the evening the living room was empty except for one single person sitting on the couch.
Curufin picked up the magazine Celegorm had left on the couch. Browsing through it, he had no idea why his brother had been reading such mumbo jumbo. "Pastel colours were in season": what on earth? He skipped to another page. Horoscopes. Looking up the horoscope that would suit him, he read what it foreboded. "Venus has entered the system. You will form new bonds, bonds you had not expected..."
Venus has entered...
Curufin frowned.