Eddy - May 21st - Rivendell

"Hey, Haldir," I called, running across the field to the archery range.

"Good morning, Eddy," Haldir replied. It had taken him a while to get used to calling me "Eddy", since it's such a strange name in Middle Earth, but he had finally gotten the hang of it.

"What are we going to work on?" I asked, quickly taking an arrow and shooting it at a target just for fun.

"Well, today, we're going to work on long-range shooting," Haldir replies. "You have mastered regular archery and working on using your sight will be a challenge for you."

"Great. So, what do I do?"

"First of all, you have to go up there." Haldir pointed to a far off cliff overlooking Rivendell.

I raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding right?"

"I am perfectly serious. Come on now - rock climbing is not too dangerous."

"It's dangerous without a harness," I mumbled.

"What is this...harness you speak of?" Haldir had started picking up most of my slang, but there was still a lot he didn't know.

"It's a...nevermind. You sure I'm not going to fall to my death?"

"Well, it's always a possibility, but if you fall, I'll be there to catch you." He started up the cliff.

"You're going before me? How are you going to catch me if you're above me?"

Haldir didn't hear me. I sighed and started my climb. I figured that if Frodo could do it, I could do it too. Hopefully.

I managed not to die, and I immediately turned on my sight - looking around Rivendell. I found Hallie, who was attacking Aragorn with a spear. I found Iris, who was mumbling something with fire alive in her hands. As I watched, she lobbed the fireball at a wooden dummy, and it died a quick death. I made a mental note not to get on her bad side ever again. Arwen was there too, and said something to Iris, obviously praising her, as Iris glowed with happiness. I couldn't find Liz, but that was normal, since she hid in her room most of the time these days. Finally, I closed in on the archery range. The target looked like it was right in front of me, but I knew it wasn't.

"So, using archery with the power of sight is a little complicated," Haldir started. "I still haven't mastered it and I've been working on it my entire life."

I turned off my sight and looked at him. "So, how does it work?" I took and arrow and notched it on my bow, aiming in the general direction of the archery range.

"When you have your sight on, you can shift the focus, yes?"

I practiced zooming my vision. It had taken a lot of practice, but I had picked it up quickly. Now I would zoom in on Haldir's face and back to the archery range in a matter of seconds. "Yeah," I answered.

"But you always have that one spot in your peripheral vision that never focuses on what you are looking at."

"Yeah, I know," I replied. Right now, I could see the target clearly, but if I looked out the corner of my eye, I could see Haldir. It was kind of like a blind spot.

"So, you put the bow up to your face, so that you can still see it out of the corner of your eye."

I saw what he meant. I could see the target, but I could also see the shaft of the arrow. I didn't know how exactly it worked, but I figured out a way to aim the arrow so that it would hit the target.

"You also have to factor in the path the arrow is going to take. Since this is long-range, the arrow is going make an arch in the air, instead of going straight. You have to keep that in mind."

I focused in on the target, did the math in my head, visualized the arrow's path, and released. I quickly turned off my sight and watched the arrow cut through the air and into the clearing. Beside me, Haldir started.

"What? What happened?"

"Y-you hit the center of the target," he answered, looking wondering at me. I felt a little guilty, since Haldir had said that he still hadn't mastered it, but I had gotten it perfectly on the first try.

I shrugged. "Beginner's luck?"

"You are lucky indeed, my friend." Haldir looked at me like he could have worshipped me, which made me feel uncomfortable.

"Not in the field of love, though," I said ruefully, thinking of Iris.

"Your friend, I'm guessing? Iris?"

We both sat down cross-legged on the ground. I picked at the grass. "Yeah, we had a fight."

"She's been spending an awful lot of time with that strange fellow - Raordell," Haldir said unhelpfully.

I scowled, falling on my back in the grass. "I know."

"I've always wondered about Raordell," Haldir said absentmindedly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, sitting up.

"He showed up a few moons ago. No one knew where he came from. We contacted our elvish brethren, but they had never heard of him. We kept him under guard for a few days, until a consort from Lothlorien came and saw Raordell, saying that he had seen him before, and we let him go free."

"You should have locked him away," I mumbled angrily.

"You should have such animosity towards Raordell just because Iris fancies him. He really is a nice fellow."

"Too nice," I grumbled. "I think that Iris might like him simply because he's good looking and compliments her! He has her completely fooled!"

"How do you know? Perhaps he really does care for her."

"I wish I could be as cool as Raordell...he has a way with words and he's good looking too. How can I compete with that?" When I had first seen Raordell, he had been ugly, and I thought I might actually have a chance. But when I met Raordell again, he had been just as handsome as described. The whole seer thing was probably messing with me that first time.

"Well, first of all, you should repair your friendship with Iris. How can you be her lover if you're not even friends?" I hated it when Haldir said, 'lover', since it means something...inappropriate where I came from, but obviously it just meant 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' here.

"Maybe you're right." I sighed and leaned back into the grass again, staring up at the clouds. One of them looked like the shape of a heart - was it mocking me?

"Talk to her," Haldir suggested. "I'm sure it will turn out well."

"Thanks Haldir. You're a good friend."

We lay there in silence for a while, before Haldir said that he needed to help his father with some woodwork. He left, and soon I got bored so I decided to go look for Iris.

She was in the garden, as usual, and she was watering plants, her back turned to me. "What are you doing here?" she asked icily.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I could smell you from a mile away," she answered sharply. Ouch.

"Listen, I know you're mad at me, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." Iris made a little 'hn' of annoyance. "I know I don't have control over your emotions, and I just wanted to say I'm sorry for trying to dictate what you can and can't do."

She turned around. "Listen, Eddy, I - I'm sorry too. I shouldn't let any guy get between our friendship."

"So, am I forgiven?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, you're forgiven." Iris smiled. "Promise you'll be civil around Raordell?"

"I promise to be civil, but I can't promise that I'll like him."

"Well, that's all I'm asking." Iris smiled at me again, but I could tell that things between us definitely weren't like they should have been.

Suddenly, she gasped. "Eddy! What happened to your hands?"

I realized that my hands looked pretty scratched up from my climb up the rock face. "Oh, uh...I went rock climbing."

"You should have washed these cuts! They could get infected." Iris fussed over me, first washing my hands, and then using a simple healing spell.

I watched her, face slightly bent over the glow of her spell. She had her hair tied up, and a strand had fallen into her face. She blew it away in annoyance. I thought she had never looked so beautiful.

Iris - May 22nd - Rivendell

I was laying in a field of flowers. The aroma filled the air, and the flowers' soft petals made a comfortable cushion. I stared up at the sky, picking out shapes in the clouds. The only thing that might have made this moment more amazing was if Raordell was here. But he had gone to visit his ailing mother in the eastern mountains. He'd only be gone a week or so, he said, but I knew that time would seem so much longer to me.

Arwen was going to come find me any minute. It would be training time soon. We were working on spells right now- I had mastered the basic healing spells, so Arwen was teaching me how to defend myself with simple nature spells. I had mastered a fire spell, so now we were working on air spells. Just when I starting to get really comfortable...cue Arwen...

"Iris! It is time for your training." I groaned. I was so content right now.

Suddenly the sun was blocked from my eyes. I looked up to see Arwen standing over me. She started to say something, and then looked around. I could see her thinking for a second, and then she said, "This will be a perfect spot for today's training."

Sweet, I thought. I sat up in the bed of flowers. Arwen herself sat down with me, to my surprise.

"As you know, we are working on control of the elements," Arwen started. "Usually when you think of air, you think of peace and serenity. However, air has its destructive purposes."

I nodded, hanging onto every word. When Raordell returned, I would be eager to show him how much I had improved.

"Given time, air can erode all traces of life. If Rivendell were abandoned, time would slowly wipe away all traces that this architecture ever existed. Entire civilizations are forgotten, because the wind was given time to do it's work." Arwen has always been poetic. It almost makes me want to bring a notebook with me wherever I got, so that I can write down everything she says. It might seem like I'm an overzealous reporter if I do that though...

"Tell me Iris, can you dance?"

"Well, not really..." Actually, I danced a lot at home, but it was horrible, and shouldn't even be considered dancing.

"Air is the element of freedom. You cannot trap air, and so, when you dance, you become the air."

"How can air be destructive then?" I asked.

"Those with great spirit have the power to unleash the power of air and use it to their will. However, air is not to be tampered with. Deny it its freedom, and it will deny you yours." That didn't sound too fun. "Iris, you have the strongest spirit I have ever seen - you and the rest of your friends. I believe that you will be able to do very well with this element."

As Arwen instructed me, I stood up, closed my eyes, and felt the air blowing across my face. Slowly, I began to sing the words Arwen told me, and suddenly I was filled with a strong urge to dance. And I did. And suddenly, the air was filled with a maelstrom of flowers. I had made my very own flower storm.

"Very well done!" Arwen smiled as I stopped. "Soon, you will learn how to dance with your mind and soul, and you will not have to physically dance."

"That's good...it would be pretty strange to be dancing if I was battling someone." I started to spin around again. "But...I will dance now...because it's fun." I had never felt happier, than when I was dancing in my whirlwind of flowers.

That night at dinner, there was much less tension. It was just our group of friends, and for once, everyone was smiling, and the atmosphere was comfortable, because we had all pretty much made up.

Suddenly, Hallie said, "Hey...should one of us go and get Liz?" I realized that I hadn't even been thinking of getting Liz. I had just assumed that she was being moody again and wanted to be left alone.

Eddy and I just looked at her. Neither of us wanted to be the one to get a moody "I-want-to-kill-the-world" Liz. Hallie sighed and got up, leaving the room.

"So..." An awkward silence fell between me and Eddy. I realized it sort of looked like a date now...hurry back Hallie! "How's archery going?"

"It's going well. I can shoot from really far away, because of my eye technique. How's your spells and herbs going?"

"I learned how to make a fireball," I said proudly. Eddy looked slightly scared. "Don't worry! You'd have to make me really mad for me to throw a fireball at you!"

He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Oh good. What else?"

"Obviously, I know how to do some healing spells, and today, Arwen taught me how to control air."

"That's really cool. I bet Liz would be proud, what with all her nerdiness with Avatar, The Last Airbender and all that."

"Yeah, speaking of Liz, what's going on lately?"

"She's been really moody..." Then he paused and thought for a moment. "I hope she hasn't been feeling left out. I mean...she doesn't seem to have any special abilities or anything."

"Yeah..." I looked down at my hands, realizing how she must have been feeling. I felt really guilty. I never really thought about how she might feel.

Eddy and I talked about other things. He tried to explain how his whole sight thing worked, but I just got confused. We joked and laughed and I didn't think about Raordell once. I was in a really good mood.

Of course, that all changed when Hallie burst into the room, waving a small piece of paper.

"Guys, it's Liz. She's gone!"


Where oh where would Liz have gone? Is this the start of a great adventure? WHY YES, YES IT IS.