Are We Done Yet?
The next time she opened her eyes, she could see much better. There were curtains covering the windows, but just enough light managed to enter the room so that Emily could see. She shot up in bed and immediately regretted it. Pain shot up her back and she let out a quiet squeak. Much more slowly now, she swung her legs around and stood.
She found a pair of comfortable slippers on the floor, which fit her feet nicely. They felt as soft and plush as a cloud after being in those boots for an eternity, but they still stung. She slid one foot out of them and then the other and discovered the reason for it. Her feet were covered in blisters and bruises. More than one of her toenails had dried blood underneath.
Groaning, she put the slippers back on. She was sure they would be better than walking around barefoot. She looked down at the nightgown that she was wearing. She was covered up fine, but somehow she doubted she would be allowed out in it. But then, the thought of getting changed with her back hurting like this wasn't too appealing. But she couldn't be cooped up in this room. Just thinking about it was making it harder to breathe. She had to force her hands down to her sides so that she would not pull at the bandages.
Slowly, she made her way to the door and pushed it open. She stuck out her head and looked around. No one was to be seen. She took a step outside her room, but jumped back behind the door when she heard footsteps. She let out a string of curses as she stubbed her toe on the doorframe. Lifting her foot out of the slipper, she inspected the damage. It was bleeding.
Suddenly, the room shook. Emily fell to her knees; it felt like she had just ran into a wall. She was hit by a wave of nausea, and barely managed to keep the contents of her stomach where they belonged. This was worse than the seasickness. She slowly got to her feet and shivered. She was freezing. Wind was blowing in through the window, bringing snow with it.
Frowning, Emily hobbled over to the window on her sore feet. It was snowing. If she remembered correctly, it had been lovely outside last time she checked. She made her way back to the bed and wrapped herself up in the covers to keep warm.
Bang. Another brick wall, more nausea, and it was nice out again.
"What the hell is going on?" Emily asked herself. She was startled out of her thoughts when the door to her room swung open. In walked the older woman who she had seen last night.
"What just happened?" Emily asked. "I felt sick, and then all of a sudden it was snowing!"
"It is definitely not snowing, dear," the woman said. She pointed to the window. "See, nothing but blue skies and sunshine today."
"I swear it was snowing. I felt like I was going to be sick right before and right after."
The woman frowned and walked over to her. She placed a hand on her forehead.
"No fever... it must have been a bad dream," she said, shaking her head. "Try to ignore the nightmares, they come with the terrible things in life, you may relive it for a long time to come."
"It wasn't that!" Emily protested. "It was snowing, I swear! I could feel how cold it was."
"Okay dear, if you say so. Now, I think you need some more time in bed before you go anywhere. I will have lunch brought up to you." She turned towards the door.
"Um, thanks," Emily mumbled after her. At least it was a comfortable bed. She could live with one more day in here. Plus, she was sure her feet would prefer the extra rest and time to heal up.
"Oh," the woman said, turning back to face Emily as she left the room. "I found your cousin. She is fine. I told her you were looking for her. She said that she will try to visit soon." With that, she left, closing the door.
Emily nodded, unsure of how she felt about that. She was relieved that Sparkle was okay, but that didn't mean that she particularly wanted to see her in person. Wincing at the pain all over her body, she hobbled back over to her bed and sat down.
Her feet were on fire, and her back and arm were all throbbing. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. A choking sound escaped her mouth as she tried to hold back from crying.
"Shit," she whispered to herself, wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve. She took a few more deep breaths, and her attention was pulled back into the real world by a knock on the door.
"Come in," she shouted, and the door slowly swung open. In walked Sparkle. She was carrying a covered tray with her.
"Hi, I brought you something to eat." Sparkle smiled weakly and walked over to Emily. "Nice room, someone up there likes you!"
"Thanks," Emily said. Slowly, she lifted herself to a sitting position. Her back and arm were not happy about it, but she managed. Sparkle set the tray down on a bedside table and lifted the cover. There was a steaming bowl of thick soup and some bread. Emily reached for the bowl with her good arm and brought it over to herself. It smelled heavenly.
"Mary-Sue got hurt," Sparkle said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
"Good, she deserved it!" Emily brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth. She hadn't realized how hungry she had been until she started eating. Her stomach growled, and she was more than happy to oblige it and eat some more.
"But, we need her," Sparkle said. "She's the magic one, she's the only one who can take us home. And right now she's unconscious."
Emily's face fell. She swallowed the piece of bread that she was chewing, and then stared at her cousin in shock. She couldn't believe this, and she didn't know how to react. Anger and sadness both ran through her mind.
"What happened?" Emily asked eventually.
"We were trying to catch up to Frodo and Sam, and we ran into some orcs. She told me to go ahead, to try and find the hobbits. She said that she could hold them back no problem, that her magic would be enough. I guess it wasn't, because now she's in really bad shape."
Emily cursed under her breath. She ripped off another piece of bread, dipped it in the soup and ate it. They sat in silence for a few moments, Emily continued to eat, and Sparkle stared at her.
"Aren't you upset by this?"
"Well yeah," Emily replied. "But what do you want me to do? I can scream and yell, but who would that help? I'm not a doctor, I can't just waltz over there and save her..."
"Oh," Sparkle said, and the pair sat through another awkward silence. Eventually Sparkle spoke up again. "I think she's having like... magic nightmares. Whenever she starts talking in her sleep or tossing and turning or something, weird things happen. The room changed colours a few times, and it started snowing earlier, just crazy weird things."
"I saw the snow," Emily said. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one, I thought I may have been going insane.
"What do we do?" Sparkle asked. "We can't just leave her like that."
"I have no idea," Emily replied. "I'm not looking any further ahead than finishing my lunch."
"Don't you think we should have a plan?" Sparkle asked.
"What would we plan?" Emily snapped. "We don't know how long we'll be here, how to get home, or what's going to happen next. I'd say we're pretty screwed in the planning department."
"I don't want to go home!" Sparkle said. "I want to stay and live with Legolas!"
"Are you seriously still on this?" Emily asked, rolling her eyes. "He's nuts! How could you want to be with him?"
"He's a hottie!" Sparkle replied.
"Well, you can stay here, I want to get home." Emily finished the last of her lunch and replaced the bowl on the tray.
"Well then start thinking of a plan," Sparkle said. "You're on your own, I'm perfectly happy here. I do wish I'd gotten a room like this, though. But when Legolas and I are married, everything will be perfect. I'll be spoiled rotten by my wonderful husband..."
"Hey, you wanna help me get up?" Emily asked. "I'm going to go loopy if I'm stuck in here any longer."
"Okay," Sparkle said, getting to her feet. With some direction, she was able to help Emily turn and get to her feet with minimal strain on either girl. She found Emily her slippers and helped her walk out of the room. They turned to the left and began walking slowly.
"Emily," came a shout from behind her.
"Oh no," she said, looking back. Legolas was smiling and he ran up to the two girls.
"I am glad to see you awake," he said. "I was so worried about you! No one would let me into your room, but I have been watching your door to see if you would leave since we returned!"
"That's kinda creepy..." Emily said.
"No it's not," Sparkle said. "Legolas, you could watch me sleep all you wanted."
"Creepy..." Emily mumbled to herself.
"How are you feeling?" Legolas asked.
"Like I got hit by a truck," Emily replied. "But I was about to go crazy cooped up in that room. I had to get out and do something."
"Perhaps later tonight we could spend some time together. Would you join me for dinner?"
"No," Emily said flatly.
"No?" Legolas asked, wearing a sad look on his face. Tears welled up in his eyes.
"What she means is there's no way she'd miss it!" Sparkle said, laughing nervously. Emily narrowed her eyes and was about to protest when Sparkle covered her mouth with a hand. Emily struggled, but just didn't have the energy to put up a fight.
"Well, she'll see you later tonight, okay Legolas? Come pick her up at five. Okay, bye!" Sparkle laughed and walked Emily back to her room.
"What the hell was that about?" Emily demanded once they had gotten inside her room and Sparkle had released her. "Why would I want to go out with him? And why would you want me to?"
"I want you to go out with him, because it's going to be the worst date ever!" Sparkle said, smiling. "At the end of the night, he'll realize that you two are not a good match and he'll fall for me."
"There's no way I'm doing that!" Emily shouted. "I'm not spending time with him. I have my own friends that I want to see, people I want to talk to."
"You don't have a choice," Sparkle said. "You want to get home. Mary-Sue hates you. Don't you think you should try to score some points? She's in charge of this story, she decides who goes home and when."
"Wait, I do this, and you have to get her to send me home and keep Legolas away from me twenty four, seven." Emily said.
"It's a deal!" Sparkle thrust out a hand, which Emily reluctantly took.
"I better not regret this," she said. She was worried that the only thing that Legolas would take from this was that she was interested, and he would only be that much more insistent.
"Don't worry," Sparkle said, waving her hands. "We'll make sure he's so freaked out by the end of the night that he won't be able to talk to you for a long time.
"We don't have much time to get you ready, which is good. I mean, we don't want you to look very good, right? No attracting the enemy."
"Exactly," Emily said. "Hey, I just want to make something clear."
"What's that?" Sparkle asked.
"Just because we're cousins and we're working together right now, does not mean that I forgive you. I'm still pissed as hell."
"Fine," Sparkle said.
It really hadn't taken a lot to get Emily looking terrible. Her hair was as messy as ever, so they left that alone. She wore brown leggings and a man's tunic (not sure whose, Sparkle had found it) that was a few sizes too big. She loved it; you couldn't even tell she had boobs. She opted not to wear shoes, she thought it made her look dirtier.
Her and Sparkle both looked up from smearing dirt on her clothes when a knock came at the door.
"Remember," Sparkle said, looking her in the eyes. "Do everything you can to push him away. You're a hot mess... try to channel Kesha."
Emily nodded and turned to pull the door open. Sure enough, Legolas was standing there, looking as perfect as ever. Emily rolled her eyes.
"Yo," she said, nodding towards him.
"You look lovely, Emily." Legolas smiled as he took her arm.
"Well thanks," Emily said before letting out a burp. "I got my cousin to pick out all my lice before I left."
"Oh my... lice... perhaps I can give you some tips on proper hair care?" He smiled weakly at her.
"Nah!" Emily said, laughing. "I don't really like washing my hair; it's just a waste of time. What are we eating? I'm starving, I could eat a horse!"
"Well, not horse," he said. "But I do hope it is to your liking." He led her outside to the garden they had been in earlier that day. A table was set up for them. Candles were burning, wine was poured, and the food was served. For a second, Emily felt bad that he had spent all of this energy on this evening, just for her to treat it like a joke. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
"Ah yummy," Emily said, sitting down. The meal consisted of steak, mashed potatoes and some different vegetables. There was also bread set out. Seemed ahead of its time to Emily, not to mention she hadn't seen any cows roaming around Gondor. But she didn't care. She wasted no time in digging in. Remembering to plant both elbows firmly on the table, chew with her mouth open, use her fork to pick at her teeth, and use her hands instead of cutlery as much as possible, Emily began to devour the meal as quickly as she could.
"You gonna eat that? Mine's a little overdone..." Emily asked, pointing to Legolas' plate. Without waiting for an answer, she stabbed his steak with her fork and took a bite out of the large piece of meat.
"Emily..." Legolas said, giving her a strange look.
"Oh yeah, here, you can have mine," she said, picking up her steak with her fingers and placing it on his plate.
"So, how are you-"
"Man! This is so freaking good! Who cooked this? I want to hire them, 'cause everyone knows I can't cook! I'd fuck up trying to boil water." Emily took another bite of the steak. She did her best to hide a smile. This was actually kind of fun. The astounded looks that Legolas was giving to her more than made up for the spectacle she was making of herself. Thank God they were alone.
"You can cook," Legolas said. "You chopped vegetables for us."
"Luckily no one died from eating that," Emily said. "I could have sworn I heard that carrots could be poisonous if you cut it up wrong... or maybe that's some sort of fish... Anyways, I saw it on The Simpsons, it has to be true."
Legolas sat and stared at her for a moment. Emily continued piling food into her mouth in a very unladylike manner. Eventually he spoke up.
"Emily, I love you." He smiled and reached to take her hand.
"Hold on one second," Emily said. She licked bits of mashed potatoes off of her fingers before reaching out to take his hand. Legolas scrunched his face up, staring at her hand.
"How was your dinner?" Legolas asked. He gave her hand a squeeze.
"It was good, like I said, hire this guy, because I can't cook for shit... What's for dessert?"
"Chocolate cake," he replied. As if on cue, a girl walked out, carrying two plates, which she placed in front of them. She took away all of the other dishes.
"Can you bring me some alcohol?" Emily asked the girl before she left. She replied with a nod and scurried away.
"I love you," Legolas said, smiling. "Wine is a wonderful idea, very romantic."
"I have to admit to you, Legolas, you did a good job with the chocolate cake. I didn't think that this shit existed here, but it's just what I needed. I'm on my rag, and man, I have been craving chocolate like you would not believe for the past three days!" Emily smiled and took a big bite of her cake, making sure to smear some on her face.
"I don't understand. You have a rag, like a dishrag?"
"No, no, no, stupid," Emily said. She took another bite before continuing. "My... er... flow."
"I do not understand."
"For fuck's sake I'm bleeding out of my lady parts. Like heavy though. I had to have someone wake me up in the middle of the night last night so that I could change my tampon."
"That is rather... unpleasant," he said, scrunching his face up again at her.
"That's life, though," Emily said, shrugging. "I mean, until menopause. Do elves get menopause? You don't age, so I guess not. Man, periods forever, that would suck! I swear, it's worse for guys, though. Us girls, we get used to it, but can you imagine waking up one morning beside this girl you've just started sleeping with and then all you can see is-"
"Wine, I brought your wine!" Emily smiled and took the bottle from the girl. She gave her a polite thank you before turning to Legolas, bottle still in hand.
"You didn't want anything?" Emily asked. Without taking her eyes off of him, she took a long drink from the bottle, and then slammed it down on the table.
Legolas frowned he closed his eyes and muttered something to himself.
"Hey," Emily said, taking another drink. "No secrets at the dinner table! My momma always taught me that."
"I was just... uh... telling myself how beautiful you look under the night sky." Legolas smiled.
"Nah, I'm not pretty," Emily said. "You know who is? My cousin is really pretty. You should ask her out. You guys would make a great couple."
"You think so?" Legolas asked.
"Yeah, of course you would. You both have silly hair and prance about like nincompoops." She took another drink. "But, don't tell her I told you this, okay?" Emily took another long drink, leaned towards him and grinned. She could feel the alcohol getting to her head.
"Um... okay," Legolas replied.
"That girl is underage. If you have sex with her, I swear I will castrate you." Emily said simply. "Well, you know what, actually?" One more big drink.
"What?" Legolas asked eventually.
"I'm really mad at her," Emily replied. "So you can fuck her all you want, but for the sake of all that is good in this world, do not impregnate that girl. Neither of you are fit to be parents."
"Emily, I do not know if I could touch her, I'm so confused about how I feel." He sighed and stood, extending his hand towards her. "Would you care to walk with me?"
"Sure thing!" Emily said, taking the wine bottle in one hand and Legolas' hand in the other. "Where're we goin'?"
"To see the flowers," Legolas said. "Perhaps look up at the stars and decide what our destiny shall be."
And so they walked through the gardens hand-in-hand. Legolas was walking slowly, staring up at the sky. Beside him, Emily was trying not to fall over, staring down at her feet. She finished the last of the bottle, but peeked inside it just to be sure.
"Let's dance," Legolas said, taking a hold of her and spinning her towards him. Before Emily could say anything in protest, she felt the nausea hit her. Turning, she threw up into a rosebush. Legolas did the scrunched face thing again.
"Why d'you make thaa face?" Emily asked, laughing. "Gimme a napkinin..."
"Pardon?"
"A napkin, goddamn it! Fer muh face!"
"Oh, here," he said, handing her a hankie. Emily wiped her face off and spit on the ground. She dropped the hankie on the ground when she was finished.
"So..." Emily said, getting close to him. She placed her free hand (she was still holding onto that empty bottle) on his chest and wrapped the other arm around his neck. "Look... I'm havin' trouble wif this love thin... but I am kinda lonely..." Emily looked up into his eyes, smiling.
"You know what? That would be wrong, you are not well." Legolas pushed her away. Emily couldn't believe it. All this time, and it was this easy. "I would not feel right, taking advantage of you like this. But I promise not to get your cousin pregnant."
"You better not!" Emily yelled at him. "I already told you I'd castrate you!" Suddenly, she fell to her knees. It was that feeling again, like before it had started to snow.
Slowly, and trying her best not to fall over, she got to her feet. Legolas pulled her up by her arm. The garden was filled with elves, some of whom looked content, others confused. Legolas shoved her into the arms of the closest elf. Lucky for Emily elves have quick reflexes and he caught her before she fell to the ground.
"She's your problem, now," Legolas said before taking off. Emily looked up at the elf who was holding her. She dropped the wine bottle on the ground, but once the surprise wore off, a huge smile broke out on her face.
"Well," he said, looking down at her, a mixture of amusement, confusion and something else on his face. It slowly turned to a smile. "Some things never change..."
Any guesses who it is? I don't think it's much of a mystery. The next chapter will be up soon!
So, finally i got some laughs in here! Sorry it's been serious for a while, but it had to be done, I just couldn't bring myself to write jokes about people going to war. Plus, I think Emily's grown up quite a bit, and realizes there are serious moments to life. Remember, she was only 18 when she got to Middle-earth, so she's been in part of the prime growing-up time in her life.
Thanks for reading! I love you all! If you enjoyed, why not send me a review and let me know? ;) :P