Chapter four: You're hot then you're cold

The next morning when Fiona awoke, she almost fell from her bed in her room as she tried to jump off to run and see if it had been a dream. Silently she peeked into the open doorway of the room in which Elladan was supposed to be, but there was no one. The bed was nicely done and even the stuffed animals remained in the exact same position as they had been for the last several weeks. Fiona carefully scanned the room for evidence that the lord Elladan was real and had been there last night. Seeing that nothing had changed, she wondered, 'Was it all a dream?' Before she could reflect on this anymore, her silent question was answered.

"No, you did neither imagine nor dream the whole thing," said a low pitched, musical voice from behind.

Fiona yelped and frantically spun around to come face to face with a grinning elf prince.

"You son of a Jack! You almost gave me a heart attack!" she exclaimed while clutching at her heart.

"Son of a Jack? What does that mean?"

"It means I decided to omit what I wanted to say, and not to insult your parents," she said coldly.

"I am sorry to have frightened you. I did not think that you would have reacted so strongly," he said, now frowning slightly.

She sighed. "No, I'm sorry. You meant no harm."

Elladan smiled gently. "It is alright."

Feeling penitent, she walked past him into her room to change. Smiling, she shut the door, then considered what she would to wear for the day. Sighing in frustration as she looked at her shorts, she chose some loose capris and a t-shirt. Then, she went into the bathroom and prepared for the day. After brushing her teeth and checking her appearance in the mirror, she left her room to search for Elladan. Fiona was not surprised to see him sitting in the dining room waiting patiently for her.

"Did you sleep well last night?" she asked trying to find a topic to start a conversation.

"I did not sleep last night."

"Oh, is it the room? Do you want another one?"

Elladan smiled gently. "The room is fine Fiona. I just did not feel tired and stayed up. Elves have not the same needs of sleep that humans do."

"Oh okay. Don't you want to take a bath?"

"I do not need one, Fiona. I usually bathe after working out or at the end of the day, before I sit for dinner with my family."

"Oh right. Anything else I should know about you to make your stay more pleasant?" she asked as she started to look for something to make breakfast with.

"Your world is very different from mine, Fiona. What would you suggest? I would be happy with most anything that you would choose."

"But I would feel more comfortable knowing that I am not forcing you into just taking anything I throw at you. Just start with something simple. What do you do in the mornings?"

Elladan smiled and his gaze went into the distance as he thought of his life back home.

"I go to breakfast with my brother and Adar. After that I would either go to hunt or practice sparing with my brother."

Hunt? Hunt? Is there anything to hunt in this little Island. She thought to herself.

"Uh okay um, yeah anything else you like to do beside skewer helpless animals or try to get gorged by your brother?" she teased.

Elladan chuckled.

"I like to read."

"That's good. I have plenty of books. Anything else?"

"I like to spend some time outside every day just to myself. It helps me relax and meditate."

"Alright that's good. I too like my time outside the walls. So next thing; what do you eat?"

"I am very happy with whatever you have to offer." he said in all honesty.

"Yeah I know, but you see, food here...isn't exactly healthy. Heck it will kill you with the passing time. Every time we eat we just seal our death and hurry our clock to death."

This last part she had consciously exaggerated to see his reaction. And by God did she get what she wanted. Elladan had leaned forward and was looking at her with shock and even a hint of bewilderment. A mischievous grin spread across Fiona's face and she laughed.

"I am kidding." she said.

Elladan raised an eyebrow.

"It means I am joking."

Elladan narrowed his eyes. "Your idea of jesting is most bemusing."

Fiona chuckled. "Some have said that before. So back to the food topic."

Elladan softened his gaze and returned to his comfortable position leaning back on the chair.

"We mostly base our meals with fruits and vegetables from the forest. For heavier meals we eat deer or rabbit meat."

"Uh...dear and rabbit?" she asked nervously. "Do you by any chance have chicken, cow or pig?"

Elladan smiled as he saw her concern. "We do consume those as well. Normally eat those when we visit the Dunedain."

"And what about meal times?"

"We normally break our fast in the eight hour of the day. Lunch is at midday and dinner at the sixth hour after midday. But you do not need to follow those hours. I tell them to you because you asked, but I will follow any time you already have."

"Actually I have no time. Since I was living alone I ate when I felt like it. Now I can just follow your time and all will be well. Okay so I think that will do for now. Oh and one more thing; Elladan, can I ask how old you are?"

He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I am 2621 years old."

Fiona dropped the utensils she had and turned to look at Elladan with wide eyes.

"Two-thousand-six-hundred-twenty- one-years-old?"

"What did you expect?" he asked amused.

"I-uh-well, I don't know. No more than a thousand I guess. But close to three thousand? No, never imagined it," she said returning to preparing breakfast.

Fiona looked at the box of frosted flakes. 'Is it right to feed an Elf Prince with frosted flakes?' she wondered silently. Realizing that he probably never had experienced processed foods or sugar, she decided to take a more natural approach to breakfast.

"I'll make eggs and toast."

"May I help you?" he eagerly offered.

"Um, sure," she offered hesitantly. Looking at him in surprise, she asked, "You can cook?"

"Well, normally among the Noldor, we do the cooking."

"We, as in 'guys,' do the cooking?" she asked wide eyed.

"Yes. Is this unusual for the men of your world to do?" he responded curiously.

"In this world? Oh yeah, definitely." she said while turning to attend the eggs gather the food.

After Elladan helped her cook the simple meal, they sat down together to eat. It was a silent meal and Fiona felt uncomfortable with his silence since it was a sudden change in his character.

"Are elves always this quiet when they eat?" she asked while starting to prepare the coffee.

"Not really," he laughed; "but I wanted to see how you would react to my silence."

There was a moment of awkward silence, at least it was awkward for Fiona.

"How is the wound on your head?" Elladan asked, changing the subject smoothly.

Fiona glanced at him, unsure of the new change in conversation. "It's coming along," she offered carefully.

"It looks like it needs something to help it heal," he responded, noting that the cut on her temple was turning black around the edges.

Having worked in his father's halls, he knew that such wounds often appeared minimal but could easily turn septic in elves without additional care. Mortals were even more prone to infections and it was a general rule that all injuries were disinfected with the herbal washes to prevent life threatening complications from developing.

Taking her hand, Elladan led her to the bathing room and pointed to her reflection in the mirror.

"All wounds are dangerous to mortals in my world," he started. "We need to clean and treat this, given that orc wounds are more often than not, poisoned."

Fiona studied her reflection and agreed that it did not look as good as it should have. Rummaging behind the mirror, she pulled out a small tube of ointment. "I think that you are right, Elladan. This antibiotic should work."

Elladan had no idea what an antibiotic was, but assumed that it related to medicine, since that was what she needed. He watched her as she removed a bottle from the cabinet and opened it. As he studied the two tablets in her hand, she answered his unspoken question.

"Would you care for some medicine?" she asked, guessing that his head might be aching to the same level as hers was.

Cautiously, he accepted them. He had never taken a pill, and copied her putting the tablets into his mouth. However, he did not understand that he was to swallow it; so when he crushed the pill in his mouth, he cringed at the sudden acrid and bitter taste. Fiona also cringed when she saw his face contort, and realized what had happened. "No Elladan," she chided playfully. "You were not supposed to chew them! You were supposed to swallow them! Here," she said, quickly handing him a cup of water.

After he had finally washed away most of the horrible flavor, he stopped to look at Fiona. She was biting her lower lip to keep herself from laughing. When she saw him watching her, she turned around, trying to conceal her laughter. Unfortunately her shoulders were quivering so hard that it made no difference. Began to chuckle with her and gently turned her back to face him.

"I have much to learn of your world, Fiona," he shared playfully, then continued on a more reflective note; "but I can honestly say that this tastes as bad as one of my father's pain draughts that he makes with willow bark. When we return, I would like to take this with us to show him."

Fiona laughed not being able to confine her laughter any longer. "I am sorry for not warning you. I forgot that elves don't use pills and since I swallow them without water I forgot to offer you some. Forgive me?"

"Do not worry, all is forgiven."

"Well this has certainly been an eventful morning. I can't wait until I see mom and dad. Wait 'till I tell them-" Fiona stopped suddenly, and all the laughter and joy vanished from her face.

"Fiona I am sorry. I did not wish you to react this way."

"No it's not your fault. I'm going to, I'll just be in my room."

"Fiona wait." he said as he held her wrist.

Fiona slightly cringed. She did not look at him, but slightly looked back under her arm, yet this was enough for Elladan's eyes to catch what was in her eyes. It was almost hate. This surprised Elladan so much that he released her wrist. She left him without another word.

Elladan could not understand. One moment she was happily talking to him, the other her eyes were darkly lit with something related to hate. Had she not spent many hours the day before and just this morning showing him things of her world and having a good time at the same time? Why was she now all of a sudden acting like he was an enemy? He was there for a while trying to make things have sense when he heard Fiona's silent sobs. He sighed. He walked to her room and peeked into her room.

"Fiona, are you alright?"

"Go away please." she said in a low whisper.

"Fiona please talk to me."

"I said go away!" she yelled while throwing her bunny doll at him which he dodged easily.

"Fiona please, I do not understand. You were happy with me around yesterday and just moments ago. Have I done or said anything to offend you?"

"I don't want to talk about it so please just leave me alone."

"Fiona we will be living together for two months. To leave you alone it is not an option. I came here to protect you."

"Protect me? You came here to take me away from my home!" her tongue was faster than her mind and her words left her mouth before she could even think them through.

For a moment Elladan was silent as he processed that bit of information.

"So that is why you are angry at me. Yet it is not at me that you are angry at. You are angry because of what I am here to do, but you do not hate me. You hate what is happening at the moment. Am I right?"

Fiona did not answer him. She kept her head buried in her pillow as she muttered stupid elves with their stupid ability to read minds.

Elladan smiled. "I cannot read minds, but I can read your emotions. I was taught to do that. And I can understand why you have such feelings towards me. To say that a man or an elf just comes by and tells you to leave everything without the knowledge of your family is not an easy thing to accept. I truly wish I did not have this mission. Seeing how you suffer for the upcoming separation gives me a feeling of guilt for not being able to stop it and having to be the one to carry out this deed. But please, do not grieve so much. There is enough grief in the world and too many tears have been spilled. Please, tell me what I can do to stop you from crying."

Fiona had stopped sobbing and was now just recovering from her weeping. She sat up in her bed and wiped away her tears.

"You could chew on another pill and let me see you when you cringe again." she said with a soft grin.

"I will go get it right now." he said with a smile.

He made as if he was about to leave to do it. Fiona didn't believe he was actually planning on doing it, but just to be sure she called him.

"Get back in here elf."

Elladan entered the room and walked closer to her, she lowered her head as she spoke.

"I'm sorry for being such a jerk. It is not your fault that those orcs are after me and you need to take me away. I was having a good time with you and I really wished to make my parents a part of it. I guess the thought of them not being able to be part of my happiness and future life were like an acid that consumed my happiness and turned it bitter. But it was very rude and immature from my part to react the way I did. I am sorry. And I am sorry for calling your ability to read minds stupid. I wish I had it as well." this last part she added it with a hint of mischief.

Elladan smiled. "Well there are things here that I wish I could do that only humans here can do, like drive one of those things you call car."

"You know you can just call it a car without the 'that thing you call' part. And I think you are just hinting that you want to drive one."

Elladan smiled. "You see? You also can read me easily."

"Nice try, but I've read a lot more about you elves, and I know that if you don't want to be read, hell can rain on you and you will not show your true emotions."

"I suppose you got that information from those books you said you have."

"Yes, but you are not going anywhere near those books. I think that if the mirror of what's-it-called-again didn't let you see it, neither should I."

"Perhaps you are right. So are we at peace?"

"Only until something else upsets me and I end up taking it out on you." she said with mock seriousness.

"I will do my best to endure your wrath."

Fiona threw her pillow at him which he dodged easily.

"Show off!"

"It is not my fault that humans have such bad aim." he teased.

Fiona's eyes widened. "Oh no you didn't."

"I think I did."

Fiona jumped from her bed with a pillow in her hand and darted towards Elladan who had already raced out of the room. She ran after him through the large house and all the way outside. The front yard was, as most houses in the mountain, was really big and Elladan, being much faster and agile than Fiona, could get away from her with ease. They ran around a while Fiona threatening him with what she would do once she caught him. Finally when Fiona's strength was spent, she allowed herself to drop on the grass under grove of palm trees panting hard. Elladan came close just above her head and bent slightly looking as fresh as a flower in the morning. He smirked triumphantly.

"Are you tired already?"

Fiona swung the pillow over her head and almost got him, but knowing she had better luck at winning in a crocodile wrestling match than against an elf, she sighed in defeat.

"You…are…sleeping…outside…tonight."

"I do not mind sleeping under the stars. And I think you would like it as well. I have seen you when you take a walk in nature. You look so free when you are under the mantle of the trees, like both humans and elves were meant to be."

Elladan took a deep breath and gazed into the horizon. Fiona was still breathing hard, but she noticed how he was deep in thoughts. She wondered how much he had seen of the world through her.

"Elladan, how much have you seen besides my house when you observed me?"

Elladan looked down at her. "I have seen what you call the city. I have seen places where the mountains have been torn and forest destroyed. I have seen places where there is not a single tree, and if there is, it is just one or two that are struggling to survive surrounded by rock and smoke. And I have seen people, destroyed by what I have heard you call drugs. They live in the streets, their auras are dark, stained. I have heard the weeping of the earth, begging to be healed and lamenting how it will never be heard until it is too late."

Fiona was staring wide eyed at the elf. "Boy, talk about Doom's day prophesying."

"Are you still mad at me?"

"You will have to sleep with your eyes open tonight." she said with a threatening voice.

"I already do."

"Oh, right, you elves sleep with open eyes. Ugh freaky."