Chapter Ten: Everybody Calms Down a Bit

DISCLAIMER: I can't think of anything clever for a disclaimer today. Darn it!

Brief Recap: Prophecy. Nuff said.

Random Quote: "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." ~ Author Unknown

After Estela left, Legolas made to clean up the mess she had made in throwing a flower vase at him. He sighed as he picked up the fragments, thinking about how strange his relationship with her was. There was no counterpart in any aspect of his life with which he could compare her to. She was utterly unlike anyone he had ever encountered, and he was becoming more wary of his feelings for her by the day.

He had known from the moment she had mentioned the tiara to him, so long ago in the woods, that either she or her sister were doomed to die. He had tried to keep his distance from her at first, knowing that any amount of even simple friendship could end drastically. But she had been so intriguing. He had become unable to keep his distance from her after a while. Listening to her talk was like nothing he had ever experienced before. She was fascinating and opinionated, unique and intelligent. She was a mystery, and the more he was in her presence the more he craved to understand her and be closer with her.

Just as he was thinking this, Aragorn stepped back into the room.

"It is true then?" he asked. "They are the ones to whom the Prophecy refers to?"

"Yes, Aragorn. It is true." Legolas was suddenly exhausted. He had never had to deal with such raw emotion in his life before, especially coming from someone like Estela.

"You are somewhat infatuated with her," Aragorn said. "I could tell by the way you two…Well, were fighting." He was grinning now.

Legolas shrugged. "I find her intriguing, is all. She is not of this world, though. And if you have indeed read the Prophecy, then you know what is to come for either her or Adonnenniel."

"Actually," said Aragorn, "I have a copy of the Prophecy with me right now. She must have dropped it in the hall when she rushed into you room. I found it just now." He held it out to Legolas. "It is quite interesting."

Legolas looked at Aragorn intently, and walked over to where he stood. Hesitantly, as if it were his own destiny he was about to glimpse and not someone else's, he picked it up and read it aloud.

His voice waned to a whisper as he reached the last line, and he looked up to find Aragorn staring at him.

"Legolas, there are many ways in which Prophecies can be interpreted, and nothing is set in stone." Aragorn placed a hand on Legolas' shoulder.

Legolas clenched his hand, crunching the Prophecy between his fingers. He knew his expression must look pained and weak, but he did not care. He was trying to ignore a strange feeling crawling into his eyes. He had not cried in a long time, and the feeling was foreign.

"Do not despair just yet," continued Aragorn. "Why don't you keep that for tonight? You can return it to her tomorrow. Sleep well." With that, Aragorn left, closing the door softly behind him.

Estela returned to her room feeling quite confused but in slightly better spirits. Emotions swirled through her like a summer storm, powerful and sweeping. For a reason she couldn't quite pinpoint, beneath her sadness and fear and turmoil there was an inexplicable underlying current of elation that seemed somehow linked to her encounter with Legolas. Images kept flashing through her mind, fleeting but poignant at the same time. Legolas asking her to meet him the following morning, Galadriel walking away from her in the forest, Legolas grasping her hand, the woman in the Mirror with flame red hair placing the tiara on her head, Adonnenniel's unmoving figure in the Mirror…

Estela turned around, and saw Adonnenniel was sprawled over her bed, asleep. Her face looked peaceful and innocent, all remnants of anger and worry erased from her beautiful features. Everything that had happened before her encounter with Legolas came swarming back even more powerfully, clouding her thoughts and bringing tears to her eyes. Her sister, now so peaceful in sleep, might die before their time in Middle Earth ended.

Or, Estela thought, it might be me who dies. She had never thought about her death before, and the thought was strange and frightening. She felt lost in its depths, and all the fear residing there like an endless abyss. She sat down on her bed, putting her head in her hands, trying to control the tumultuous emotions raging through her like a storm. She looked at her sister's face once more, at her innocence and purity and frailty, and that was when she knew what she was going to do. The idea formed in her mind quickly, as if it had been there all along but only needed a slight prompting to materialize.

She would not tell Adonnenniel about the Prophecy. If what Galadriel said was true, then the events in the Prophecy would come true no matter what they did to try and prevent them. If this was the case, then wouldn't it be better for her sister to live in peace and not have this horrible knowledge and all the awful emotions that came with it?

Thinking of the Prophecy, Estela reached into her dress' front pocket, intending to read it again. Perhaps now in the quiet of her own room she could decipher its meaning. But her pocket was empty. Estela looked around frantically, thinking perhaps she had dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found in her room.

She went noiselessly from the room, closing the door softly behind her as to not wake Adonnenniel.

Adonnenniel woke with a jolt. She had been having a really weird dream. In her dream, she was back in her own world, and in Disney World of all places. She had been sauntering through the concrete streets of the amusement park somewhere near the It's a Small World ride, eating a scoop of butter pecan ice cream. She had then somehow bonked into a guy dressed up as Pluto. Feeling horrible for causing him to face plant on the ground, she helped him up and then realized she had spilled ice cream down his front.

Adonnenniel giggled. What a weird dream, she thought. What was up with the whole butter pecan thing? I don't even like butter pecan! I mean, really, who thought of mixing butter and mushed up pecans and sticking them in ice cream? Gross. And why was it in Disney World? Can't my subconscious send me to Disney Land? That's so much cooler…Or couldn't I have been transported to France or something? So much more snazzy than creepy singing dolls and dudes dressed up as Pluto. Is Pluto even a planet anymore…?

Adonnenniel realized that, not for the first time, her thoughts were rambling. She was always like this whenever she first woke up. She sighed and rolled out of bed, feeling groggy and disoriented. Looking lethargically around the room, Adonnenniel realized dimly that the other bed was empty. The previous momentary happy feeling dissipated quickly, and left her feeling hollow and confused and guilty. She had had such a confusing and horrible past few days. Adonnenniel pressed her fingers to her forehead, feeling suddenly nauseous by the waves of memories that flickered beneath her eyelids, forcing her to relieve their time in Moria.

She was in utter shock regarding Gandalf's death. Up until then, she had still thought on some level that this was all just some big game and that nobody could actually get hurt. But Gandalf had died. Someone who she spent months with, someone who she spoken with and laughed with and shared meals with, was gone. The concepts of things such as death had always seemed remote and intangible to her, as if they may plague others but were not relevant to her. Now that illusion was shattered, and Adonnenniel was scared and confused. On top of all this, she felt horrible for lashing out at her sister. She had never really blamed Estela for Gandalf's death, but on some level had acted out of anger at herself for being too innocent, too naïve to understand something like death.

Then Adonnenniel suddenly remembered hearing Estela yelling before she had fallen asleep again. She stood up fast, wondering what could have possibly happened. A sudden wave of exhaustion hit her hard, but she stumbled out the door and went to find her sister.

Estela walked silently down the long winding hallway, skimming the ground for the slim sheet of paper. As she passed by Legolas' room, a thought occurred to her. Maybe she had dropped it when she had flung herself at him or something.

Hesitantly, she knocked on his door. "Legolas?" she said softly after a moment of silence. She was about to walk away and go back to sleep, figuring she could find it come morning, when she heard the door open behind her.

"Estela. You should be in bed. You have had a long night," he said.

Something was different about him, she noticed suddenly. He looked flustered and unhinged, and his eyes were tinged with red. Estela felt something inside her wrench at seeing his distress. She took it upon herself to walk into his room. The room was dark now, bathed in subtle moonlight.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I am fine. It is you whom I worry about." He said it fast, too fast, and Estela knew the first part wasn't true.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me." Estela drew closer to him, until they were mere feet apart. "Please." Legolas looked away from her and walked to where his window was, gazing out at the starry night. He placed his hands on the window sill and stood in silence for a few long moments.

"I am scared, Estela." He said it so quietly, Estela was almost certain she hadn't heard him right. But then he turned around to face her, and she knew it was true. He looked fearful, more so than she had ever seen him before.

She walked over to where he stood, and took his hands in hers, turning him around to face her. She looked at him piercingly, and then said, "What is it that frightens you?"

He did not answer right away. In the quiet, Estela became aware of the soft nighttime wind blowing through the room, flitting through the treetops and rustling the leaves. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear music, ethereal and poignant. It grew louder and louder, more intoxicating and sweet, as more voices joined. The atmosphere in the room became mesmerizing and dreamlike. Still Legolas had not spoken. A long silence gaped between them, a void that was filled when he spoke, closing the intangible spaces between them.

"I fear the possibility of your death. I fear that my affection for you will end in sadness."

Estela then did the simplest thing she could think of, something that conveyed so much with so little. She hugged him, embracing him warmly. At first he seemed startled, but after a moment he hugged her back. Immediately, Estela felt as if the atmosphere in the room seemed to have somehow shifted again. It was calmer and stiller, and the faint music from earlier swelled, beautiful and heavenly. A gentle nighttime breeze wafted through the windows and swirled around them.

Suddenly, a knock at the door broke through the serene atmosphere, and the magic was broken. Legolas and Estela jerked away from each other, startled.

"Estela?" A voice heavy with sleep said. Adonnenniel stumbled into the room. "Where are you? It's, like, really dark in here. I can't see."

"I'm right here," Estela said. Her limbs felt momentarily non responsive, but she forced herself to move away from Legolas and toward her sister.

"Where were you? I started getting really freaked when you didn't come back right away. I'm really, really sorry about before, by the way. I thought about what you said, and I feel like an idiot. I was just really upset and stuff." Adonnenniel sounded worried. "You're not mad at me, right?"

"No, of course not," Estela murmured, embracing her sister in a tight hug. "I could never stay mad at you."

"Are you alright? You seem kind of frazzled." Adonnenniel suddenly noticed Legolas. "Hey," she said cheerfully. Legolas smiled at her. All of a sudden, Estela felt really tired. So much had happened tonight.

"Come on, Adonnenniel. We should go to sleep. It's late," said Estela, ushering her sister out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Legolas." She paused. "Actually, make that later today. It's probably past midnight by now."

"Goodnight, Estela," he said softly as they walked out the door.

"Estela?" Adonnenniel asked sleepily. They had returned to their beds and were nearly asleep.

"Yes?"

"What exactly were you doing with Legolas?"

"What do you mean?" Estela asked, confused.

"Well, you guys were alone for so long. And at night too…" Adonnenniel said.

Estela laughed. "Nothing. Really. We were just…hugging."

"Hugging," Adonnenniel mused. "Whatever you say."

Estela rolled her eyes and turned over.

As she began to drift off to sleep, her thoughts wandered to all that had happened tonight. So much had changed within so little time. She felt as if every moment, every day of walking and journeying, had been leading up to tonight. Estela had known since they had come to Middle Earth that there must have been some larger picture and a specific reason for why her and Adonnenniel had been brought here. Yet it had always been a fleeting and nearly subconscious thought. Now that it had been forcibly thrust upon her, Estela realized that she wished she had remained oblivious.

It was then that Estela decided that, as much as possible, she would not allow her knowledge of the Prophecy to interfere with her life. She told herself that if what it said was inevitable anyway, then it would be utterly pointless to waste time wallowing in self pity about it. She would wake up tomorrow and proceed with her life as normally as she could.

This decision gave her another motive, something tangible that she could strive for, and helped to abate her fear and sadness. Within moments she was asleep.

Coming Up Next!

-A history lesson…On something to do with Middle Earth this time!

-Swordsmanship training for Estela and Adonnenniel because I feel like they should probably learn how to fight if they're going to be proper Sues!

-A library! Yay! I love books!

Author's Notes: It's been a while since I've read a really good book. The last book I read was 'The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook'. I now know how to escape from a sinking car, fend off a shark, deliver a baby in a taxicab, get to the surface if my scuba tank runs out of air, jump from a building into a dumpster, how to leap from a motorcycle to a car, and how to survive if my parachute refuses to open.

…I think I need some new books. Any recommendations? :) I like historical fiction, fantasy, some romance, realistic fiction…I'll read pretty much anything as long as it's written well ^.^