Chapter Eight Beautiful
Annwn was quite proud of herself, she had convinced a group full of stubborn, ignorant men to let her go. It was really only two men that she had to convince but it sounded better the first way. Now all she had to do was show them that she was worthy of the decision and learn how to fight. Ha! That would be interesting.
She had been walking through the halls to her room when she realised that she had no idea where she was. If she had gone via trees she would have been there already. Annwn realized that she was going in circles when she passed the same room three times. She gave a great sigh and assessed her options.
"Lost Lady Annwn?" she spun around to find Lord Elrond
"Yes, I'm afraid I am."
"I'll show you to your room."
"Thank you." Annwn was mortified to find out that she wasn't all that lost to begin with if she had turned right instead of left she would have been in the proper hall. Oh well. There was no shame in asking for help.
They were coming up on Annwn's guard who saw them and blanched. He had failed his duty. Annwn could see him getting nervous and worrying about what Elrond might do because of his failure. Annwn stepped in.
"It wasn't his fault; please don't punish him for my misdemeanour."
"He will not be reprimanded. How were we to know that we needed to have a guard on your windowsill?" Elrond sounded faintly amused.
"Thank you." The guard heard this with his elf hearing and calmed down.
"Would you like some dinner? It is being served in the dining hall. We are holding one of many feasts in honour of our departure to the undying lands."
"That would be lovely. I think I'll change first and come down with him." she pointed at her guard.
"Very well, you should hurry; dinner begins in half an hour. It is formal."
"I'll be there." Elrond nodded and went down the hall. When her guard was sure he was out of ear shot he said.
"Thank you Lady Annwn."
"Oh, well I wasn't about to let you get you trousers on fire from something I did."
"You are very merciful Lady Annwn." She didn't know about that but she nodded and thanked him anyways, then went to wash her face and change.
Annwn stripped off her clothes and pulled out a particularly stunning emerald dress with silver accents on the neck line, sleeves and waist. Before she put it on she washed and dried her face and brushed her hair so as to not damage the dress. When she pulled it on she found that like the other dress she had on, it fit her to a tee, as did the matching slippers. How the elves knew her size she didn't know, but she wasn't complaining.
Annwn looked at herself in the long mirror. With her hair down covering her ears and dressed the way she was she could pass for an elf. At least she thought she made a halfway decent impression of one.
She pulled open her door and stepped out to meet her guard.
"To the dining hall Lady Annwn?"
"Please." They walked in silence for a while before something occurred to her. She didn't know his name.
"I don't know if there is some sort of policy around this but...what is your name?" He smiled at this.
"Dressed the way you are I almost forgot that you are not an elf. There is no policy around it. My name is Halmir."
"Thank you Halmir."
"It is my duty."
When they reached the dining hall Annwn was too far into wonder that she wasn't able to stop them from announcing her arrival from the top of the stairs. Thankfully she knew enough not to try and stop them mid announcement. She just stood at the top of the stair and felt herself growing hot under the eyes of the entire Elven court.
It really was a shame that they didn't have this in the movies, or the book for that matter, though if they did it would have cost a lot to build. It was beautiful. Two long tables of dark wood set with silver. The hall its self was golden and the pillars along the sides were crafted into trees that met in the middle high above the courts heads. She tried to take in every detail while going down the stairs without falling. The tree tops in the hall were what looked like real leaves. All golden and red, the colours of autumn.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs Annwn realised how much she looked like a country bumpkin and in a state of slight embarrassment she went in search of a friendly face. She saw a few that were supposed to friendly but weren't. Like Aragorn and Boromir, when they saw her coming they scowled at her. Though she curtsied to them anyways, she was hoping to highlight the fact that they were being asses. When she saw Gimli he at least said hi, though he was engaged in a conversation with an elf about how the craftsmanship, raw materials and design of dwarf made crafts made them far superior to anything elf made. It was really more of a debate.
The next she saw was Gandalf. He was hard to miss, his hair was the greyest in the hall.
"Ah, Lady Annwn. I am very glad that you chose to join us. An elf feast is not something one should miss if given the opportunity."
"It is beautiful...I don't mean to be discourteous, but when does the feast start." Annwn was now painfully aware of the fact that she had missed lunch.
"When Elrond arrives, which should be any moment now. If I might say it you look beautiful tonight Lady Annwn."
"Thank you. Where are our Hobbit friends?" she noticed that they were nowhere to be seen.
"Oh off getting into mischief I imagine." He said with a chuckle
"We are not!" Piped up Pippin who popped up from behind Gandalf, and was closely followed by the other three. Gandalf laughed at their shenanigans while Annwn said
"If you weren't into mischief then why do you have cake on your faces? Meriadoc...Peregrine?" she looked at them waiting for answers.
"They were given to us honest." Merry insisted. Annwn smiled at them and said
"Only Hobbits." She sighed "Give me your hankies you two." they looked scared what was she going to do to then with their hankies.
"I'm not going to hurt you, promise." They handed them over. Then she flagged down on of the elves carrying a bowl for washing your hands in. She wet the hankies a little and thanked the elf. She turned to Merry.
"You first. Come here." he came slowly, she proceeded to attack the cake on his face with the hanky. He looked a little disgruntled at first and insisted that he could wash his own face. Annwn's response.
"If so then why didn't you?" though they were all laughing after Pippin's face wash.
"If someone had told me I could have washed my own face." He tried to glare at Frodo and Sam who were laughing at their friends misfortune. "Why didn't you just tell me there was food on my face?" Pippin was defensive and trying to prove that he could take care of himself.
"Friends don't let friends walk around food on their faces." This made the little hobbits smile. Maybe she wasn't as scary as they first thought she was.
Aragorn and Boromir had seen the whole interaction, though for different reasons. One watched because he still didn't trust her, the other watched, or so he thought because he did trust a woman who dressed as a man, but what it really was, was that he wanted to watch her every movement. Not because he didn't trust her (even though he didn't) but because he had seen something in her eyes that he had never seen before. He wanted to learn more about this mystery woman.
Maybe she wasn't as bad as Aragorn first thought. She seemed to put the hobbits at ease, and she cleaned them up so he wouldn't have to. He liked the hobbits and all but he had found that they needed mothering and he wasn't good at it at all. Maybe she would keep them out of trouble. That would be nice.
Thanks to ladydi1984 for the review I realize that the United States does not have Medicare. Canada was lucky enough to have Tommy Douglas. Fun fact – my friend and her immediate family was in The Tommy Douglas Movie as extras. My health care comment was manly in relation to Canada though I go on to say that 'we' also have nuclear weapons and as far as I know Canada has none, though they do exist on earth, as sad as that is. I was a little scatter brained when I wrote that. Sorry.
Thanks to Koyn for the review, I'm glad someone thought that chapter was a funny as I think it is. I also have to agree, if you're going to read vampire stuff for your own sake read Bram Stoker. And you know, I happen to like Franklin the turtle!
Thanks to MortalCoils for the review, I'm glad you like the story
Story subscription thanks to filimeala, Wondering Soul,
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