Chapter Twelve

I woke up the next morning buried in very soft sheets, very reluctant to get up. But looking through the window, I saw the Sun was already well up in the sky, and thought it best if I got up in time for breakfast. Hopefully there was still some left. Wherever we were, Bombur still seemed to eat an awful lot.

Seeing that Gweyr had already been in and laid out a dress on my chair near my dressing table (a forest green dress with long sleeves this time which looked like it was for more casual use), I quickly changed and looked at my reflection in the mirror. The braids that had been put in my hair the previous day had held pretty well, so I decided to just brush the rest of my hair and leave them in. Kudos for Gweyr; she'd done a good job.

Walking out of my room, I retraced my steps back to the room where we'd eaten the night before.

"Amaya!" I heard a voice behind me shout. Turning, I saw Bofur running to catch up with me. "Late too, huh?"

"I guess. I didn't know when I had to wake up though. Where are you all staying?"

"Just around the corner from you, lass. Why, planning on visiting Fili for a little late night…"

"No! God, no, I was just wondering because I was…you know, wondering why you were down here, is all." Wow, that sounded reassuring.

"Right, lass. I believe ya." Rolling my eyes (he obviously didn't), I talked to Bofur until we reached where we would be eating breakfast. Breakfast certainly seemed a lot tastier than dinner last night. There was toast, different flavours of jam; a lot more than I was currently used to. Sitting beside Bilbo (who also seemed a lot more at peace here), I smiled at him before helping myself to several slices of toast with different flavours of jam that caught my fancy.

"So, how do you like Rivendell, Bilbo?" I asked between mouthfuls of food.

"It's amazing! You know I've always wanted to come here, visit the Elves. And now I'm actually here…it's like something out of my books."

"I know what you mean. Well, kind of. I mean, I never even knew Elves existed! Well they didn't exist, so it's kind of different. Anyway, now they're everywhere! It's quite weird."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah, well," I said, eating my last bite. "I think I'll see you later. Go exploring. Maybe see you around."

"Oh! Ok, see you later." Smiling, I got up and left the room, going in the opposite direction to where I came from. Exploring this place seemed like a good plan for the day, and it would allow me some alone time with my thoughts. (as if I needed any more after last night, I thought to myself). This was true. I'd stayed awake for at least three hours last night unable to get to sleep and just thinking to myself. I was beginning to get sick of my thoughts. They ranged from angry, to depressed, to 'just try and relax Amaya'.

Walking absentmindedly through the corridors, I didn't realise where I was going, and was soon sent crashing to the floor with a crash. What a good start to the day.

"Oh, I'm very sorry, my lady. Here." I lifted my head to see someone offering me their hand. Thinking that it was rude to not accept it, I held out my own and allowed them to pull me up.

"There's no need to apologize. It's my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going." Looking up, I saw that I was talking to by far the best looking elf I had ever seen. He had long, dark brown hair that was braided back, a silver head band what went across his forehead that I'd seen many elves wearing (although his seemed a lot more extravagant), silvery grey eyes and sharp cheekbones. Needless to say, I went a bit speechless. I mean, sure, I knew I liked Fili (maybe more than liked, and therefore was more partial to the more rugged look) but this elf was darn right attractive and you'd be a fool not to admit that.

"We'll call it no one's fault then." He smiled. "My name is Elladan, son of the Lord Elrond." Huh, I didn't know that Lord Elrond had a son (then again, why should I? I barely knew the elf!).

"I'm Amaya, daughter of…Mr. Osbourne." I guess that's as formal as I'm ever going to sound.

"Yes, I saw your company arrive yesterday. You're with the dwarves." I smiled and nodded. These elves were a bit blunt. Oh well!

"Indeed I am."

"Have you been shown around Rivendell yet. There is much to see, and if you don't have someone to show you around, you can miss a lot."

"Are you offering to show me around?" I grinned.

"If you want me to." He grinned back.

"In that case, lead on." Elladan first started the tour by showing me the gardens. There was a small stream that ran through them leading to a waterfall on a nearby cliff, there were far too many species of flowers to count (although they were all beautiful), and I could hear birds sing in the distance songs that were far more complicated than I was used to them singing.

"So how do you like my home so far, my lady?"

"It's very refreshing. Very beautiful. It's quite the change. But everyone's so tall! It's annoying."

Elladan laughed. "I can imagine. You are rather small."

"Ever thought that you were just really tall?"

"I don't think that ever crossed my mind, Shortie." Great, yet another nickname.

-8-

"Do you have a training area?" I asked Elladan a couple of hours later.

"Of course, Shortie."

"Can you show me?" I said, ignoring the very condescending nickname I now had. Honestly, it was worse than 'Blondie'.

"Would you like to train?"

"I can?"

"If you'd like."

"Okay then! Yeah. I probably need to." Smiling, we walked back through the corridors (He'd currently been showing me a huge tapestry of some war fought a long time ago. I was already forgetting the details) towards a large grassy field. It had a shelf like structure that held different types of swords, bows and daggers.

"What would you like to train with?"

"A bow? I haven't done that in a while."

"Excellent choice." I smiled as he picked the exact bow I had been looking at. It had what I assumed was Elvish writing along the side and had a slight curve to its shape. That, and it looked big enough for me to hold and not be too big. That was probably why he picked it, I thought to myself. "Okay," he said as we made our way to the shooting area. "I'm guessing you've shot before?" I nodded. "But you've never had an excellent Elven teacher such as myself instructing you. So, I want you to show me what you can do." Suddenly quite nervous, I slid an arrow into the bow, got into position, and released the arrow. Wham! It hit the outer blue ring. Not bad, I thought to myself, although I knew that it had been a fairly lucky shot. I heard Elladan laugh. "Not as bad as I thought you'd be."

"You were expecting me to be bad!" I said, pretending to be outraged.

"Yes. Your posture was all wrong. You've obviously been taught the correct way to shoot, but you are awful at it."

"And I suppose I'll be an expert once you've finished with me?"

"I can guarantee you've taken the words right out of my brother's mouth." Came a voice from behind. Turning, I could have sworn I was seeing double. There, in front of me, was another Elladan, or someone who looked a lot like him in slightly different clothes, which was making sense from the word 'brother'. "You did not tell me you were in the company of a lady, brother. Especially one as pretty as this one." He smiled playfully as he bent down and kissed my hand. Blushing, I smiled back. "I am Elrohir, Elladan's older and better brother."

Rolling my eyes, I laughed. "Are you sure about that?"

"Very sure."

"Well your ego is certainly bigger, I'll give you that. Now if you don't mind, we're in the middle of training." I gave him a smug smile, and reloaded my bow. "So, what am I doing wrong?" I asked Elladan.

"Well." Said Elladan, and I could hear the smugness towards his brother as he spoke. "Your shoulders are much too tense. You need to relax them." Taking his advice, I got into position again, and shot. This time…yay! It hit the outer red ring. Okay, the elf's a good teacher, I'll give him that. "And that, brother, is why the lady prefers me."

"Oh, you wish!"

"Indeed I do." Okay, this pair of elves were definitely trouble makers. I would have to watch out for them during my stay.

"Well, let me try to change her mind." Said Elrohir, shoving his brother out of the way. "I can guarantee you get a bull's eye your next shot under my instruction."

"You seem awfully certain about that. What if I deliberately miss to prove you wrong?"

"You won't. Because like I said, you'll get a bull's eye. Now, load your bow. Good. Okay, move this foot here…" he positioned my feet into place. "…and move your hand slightly lower down." I could feel him secretly aiming the bow. Pretending to be oblivious, I made no comment. "And shoot." I was only slightly surprised when the arrow hit dead centre, and made to hug him. "And thus, her mind is changed!" he said, hugging me back.

"Don't be too smug, I felt you aiming for me." I whispered.

"Oh, she is too smart for me! I give up, brother, she is truly yours!"

"I am no one's thank you very much." I said, my hands now on my hips as the brothers cheered.

"Oh no?" said Elladan, now standing beside his brother with an equally cocky expression on his face. "Not even that blonde dwarf we saw you talking to last night when we were patrolling the corridors?"

"What, I didn't see you!"

"Well you wouldn't. We Elves are sneaky. You would never know we were there if we didn't want you to. And don't try to change the subject."

"Yeah, well…I'm not his either. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

-8-

Fili

I'd awoken to my brother shaking me the following morning. I hadn't slept very well; I was too busy kicking myself for taking so long in telling Amaya how I felt. If I'd just, not hesitated…she would know right now. Maybe, if I was lucky, she would have told me she felt the same. We could be together, and I would feel like the luckiest dwarf in Middle Earth. But no. We had to be interrupted. Again.

"Come on, Fili." Said my brother as we walked to breakfast. "Don't be so disappointed. It's not as if she doesn't feel the same way. You never told her. And from what you told me, she seemed quite interested as to what you had to say! Surely that means something! Maybe she already knows and is waiting for you to say something!"

"How could she know, Kili? As you are so keen to remind me, I never told her! That's the problem."

"Well, she could have figured it out! I mean, it's not as if you're subtle about anything."

"Kili, please…just drop it for now, okay?"

"Fine, fine." He held his hands up in surrender. Most of the others had already arrived to breakfast by the time we had arrived, so we took our seats in the middle of the table and loaded our plates. At least there was more than green things on the table this morning.

I was in the middle of eating a slice of toast when Amaya came in. She was laughing at something Bofur said and I couldn't help feeling jealous. I watched her as she briefly scanned the table and sat next to Bilbo. She didn't even look in my direction, and I wasn't sure whether that was deliberate or not. Tearing my toast apart, I glared at my plate. "Woah, Fili, what did the toast ever do to you?" asked Kili, looking amused.

"Nothing…"

"Seriously, you really need to tell her. No! Seriously, now." He insisted when I glared at him. "I can guarantee you'll be a lot happier if you do. Maybe…even if she still wants to only be friends. Which won't happen because anyone with eyes can tell she feels the same. But it will just feel like a load of your mind, won't it?"

"Right, yeah." I replied, not sounding at all like I agreed, which I didn't.

Deciding I wasn't in the mood for talking, I got up from the table and walked back towards my room (Amaya had already gone, and I had no idea where). Most of the elves I passed seemed quite upbeat about our arrival yesterday. Something which confused me, as surely it was well known that most dwarves hated Elves?

"Excuse me! Urm…excuse me!" I walked on, because there was no way any Elf would want to speak to me anyway. "Master Fili." Stopping, I turned around to see Amaya's maid, Gweyr. "I'm sorry, is this a bad time? I can come back…"

Seeing her dejected look, I smiled and nodded my head. "Okay, good!" Well there was a quick mood change. "Well, I just wanted to say, well…sorry, about last night. You were obviously in the middle of something important, I shouldn't have interrupted. My mother is always telling me I'm a bit hyperactive. I apologize, it won't happen again."

Feeling a bit odd at having a basic stranger apologizing to me, and feeling a little better, I gave her a nod that she seemed to accept and continued my way to my room.

I must have been in my room a couple of hours doing basically nothing before I made the decision to find Amaya. The others were probably who knows where, and I didn't really have anything much to do as I didn't know where anywhere was.

After stumbling around for a few minutes, I found myself on the edge of the training area. It seemed quite nice, and I thought to myself that I should use it from time to time. Walking forward a little further, I heard laughter coming from up ahead. Looking forward, I saw Amaya surrounded by two tall, and even I had to admit, good-looking elves. They seemed to be helping her with her archery, and I heard her squeal as she released an arrow and it hit the centre of the target. About to walk forward, I stopped dead in my tracks as she hugged the Elf to her right whispering something in his ear. I continued watching again as she pulled back and seemed to joke with them as they stood side by side with their arms crossed over their chest.

Just when they were about to walk off again, I thought that that was enough. I had felt the jealously rise up in me as I had stood there, and my thoughts immediately turned negative. Of course she would never like me back! She'd much rather be with some Elf Lord who's much better looking and funny than I am.

"Amaya!" I shouted, taking a deep breath to calm me down. Taking out my frustration on her would not make things in my favour, and it was her decision as to who she wants to be with. I could respect that. I would probably kill me inside, but I would respect it.

"Oh, Fili! Hi. Sorry, I didn't see you over there. Elladan was just telling me…"

"Why, Amaya, where are your manners?" said the elf who she'd referred to as Elladan. "Will you not introduce us to your friend?" I saw him smirk to his brother.

"Right…" I saw Amaya look uncomfortable for a second. "Fili, this is Elladan and his brother Elrohir. Guys, this is Fili. They're Lord Elrond's sons. They were just taking me to meet their sister if you want to come with us, Fili." She gave me a breath-taking grin that had me smiling back. This particular grin caused her to have dimples on her cheeks, which I loved, and her smile was crooked to the right.

"Urm, no, thank you. I should probably find my brother, he's Durin knows where. But I'll see you at dinner" Giving her another smile, I turned and walked away, back from where I came.

I could vaguely hear one of the elves say, "I can see why you like him.", making my chest swell with happiness for a moment.

-8-

A/N: and there we go! Rivendell, chapter one! Let me know what you think, and thank you all for the reviews!