Chapter 3 Jack Hudson
As Queen Varda had said, work. Work. Work. Work! WORK!
Sixty years passed in the blink of an eye. I did this, and I did that, and on and on and on. Mean while, our lovely reincarnated elleth was living and growing on a planet completely different and far removed from Arda. Along with learning all that was happen on Arda, what was going on in Valinor concerning Morgoth (or Melkor as most the Valar called him), and relearning to fight (apparently you lose all muscle memory and bodily skill upon being reborn), I also had to learn about the world that she'd been reincarnated to. When the time came, I would have to go to that world and convince her to come back to Arda with me, so, needless to say, I had to learn to blend in.
But, after long years, hard work, and a lot of snobby elves and overly wise Valar, the time came to make my decent back into the world of the living. I had six months to convince her to come with me. At the end of that time, the Valar are going to send us back to Arda, ready or not.
Thus began my very short life as Jack Hudson.
I opened my eyes, then blinked, then sneezed, successively. "Jack!" A feminine and rather motherly voice called to me. "Jack, get up or you'll be late for your first day of school."
I let out a sigh. This was going to suck. It had been years since I acted young and now I was going a full time job of it. "Jack!"
"Yes! I am up!" I shouted back at the voice.
"Don't get snippy with me, young man!" The voice answered, sternly. "Hurry or you go without your breakfast. And don't forget you have to drop Lilly off."
Lilly? My mind went blank for a moment. Oh! The young human girl that was supposed to be my younger sister. "Yes, Mother. I am up."
I got out of bed and opened my closet door. It wasn't as big as I'd like and the choices were limited, but all in all, for two weeks, it would do. I picked out a white polo shirt, black skinny-jeans, and black boots. I stepped into the bathroom. Catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I couldn't help but gasp.
I looked so strange!
"Holy Varda." I whispered to myself, taking a closer look.
My eyes were still the same alarming, icy color they'd always been, but now they were framed by long black locks that reached only to mid back. I was as pale as a ghost, but surprisingly enough, didn't look that bad. I wasn't anywhere near as tall as I had been, but (thankfully) my body was still toned and muscled after my long hours of training with Lord Tulkus, Lord Ormoe, and Lady Nessa. What surprised me the most, were the freckles. Pale speckles dotted my whole face, like someone had thrown a bucket of brown sequins all over my face.
"You have to be joking?" I mutter.
"What?" I jumped and spun around at the sudden sound of another voice. A young girl stood behind me with a smirk on her face. She looked a lot like I did now, with dark hair, pale skin, lots and lots of freckles, and pale blue eyes. This must be my younger 'sister.' "You don't have a pimple do you? You never get pimples."
I frowned at her and in a very brotherly manner, asked, "What are you doing in my room?"
Lilly shrugged and sauntered out of the bathroom, plopping herself on my unmade bed. "I don't know. You were taking so long, I decided to come see if you'd gotten kidnapped by the monsters that live in your closet."
I threw her a are-you-serious look. "You are strange." I remarked.
She shrugged again. "Yeah, well you are too. So what?"
I just shook my head and closed the bathroom door. I changed quickly, but took my time doing my hair and taking care of my general hygiene. When I opened the door again, Lilly was still seated exactly where she'd been before. perfectly still, staring at me intently. Since she was staring herself, I took the time to really study her.
She looked about thirty or forty in elven years, eleven or twelve in human. Her face was as pale as mine and covered in freckles. She was thin and petite, the first signs of womanhood were beginning to show. Her hair was inky black and shown beautifully, falling almost four inches past her waist. Her eyes were icy blue and very serious. within them I saw signs of depression and fear. They looked young but also held a look of intelligence and divine knowledge, for lack of a better description. The close she wore were a simple, black, long-sleeved shirt and black skinny-jeans, not unlike mine. Her boots matched mine, as well.
She stared at me for a very long time. Taking on the strange and eerie look of a living statue, before suddenly jumping off the bed. She came and took my hand in hers, pulling me out the door. "I love you, Jack. You never care when I stare at you. And you never think I'm weird. And you always protect me from the people that think I am weird."
My heart jerked in my chest. I'd known this girl all of twenty minutes and already I felt drawn to her. I couldn't help but wonder what her life had been like before fake memories of Jack were placed there. Who had teased her or hurt her? And how had she reacted, because in truth, there'd never been a Jack there to protect her. It was fake. I was fake, here only for her.
I squeezed the small hand that held mine, resisting the urge to sigh. Maybe in my short amount of time here, I could teach her how to defend herself, verbally and physically. It suddenly seemed a lot less fair to have placed false memories in the minds of this family. "I love you as well, Lilly." I answered finally.
She giggled and set herself down at the kitchen table. "You're so weird, Jack." I smiled as my eyes met hers. And in those icy blues, I saw depression and fear fall away and sweet and innocent love of a trusting child.
No! It was official, this wasn't fair to her and I was not leaving this world until I knew this little girl would always be cared for and loved.
