Note:
Here is another chapter and as always thank you Dusk for helping me translate Greek! Anyways I hope you enjoy the story.
Chapter 12 – Languages
Selene's POV – First Person POV
My eyes never left the door that the blonde woman had ran out of as I slowly slid over the soft blankets and off the bed. The sound of my bracelets clinking together caused me to look down, relieved that they were not removed like the first time I woke in a strange room sense I arrived on this land. My left arm fell lazily to my side, leaving the hilt of my sword after the woman did not return after a minute or two. The tense feeling seemed to leave my body and I felt a little bit at ease being completely alone in the room. I turned my head from left to right and took a longer, more focused look around the room. The base color of the walls were the same cream color as the ceiling, however there was silver molding at the base of the walls and a light jade green horizontal line that went around the entire room, it was about four feet up from the ground. Paintings hung upon the walls both in portrait and landscape views. There was an ash brown dresser with a matching vanity over on the right side of the room, adjacent from the bed. Cautiously I made my way over to the vanity and gazed in the mirror. Then directly across from the dresser and vanity was a small table with two seats.
My hair had slightly fallen out of the braid that Faervel had put it in before we left. Yes… We…. I felt realization dawn on me and I felt myself panic slightly. We. Yet it was only me here, there was no sign of the people I came here with, I hadn't seen Legolas sense I woke up. Worry started to fill me. We had left their home, and last I remembered I was on a horse with Valdon, then nothing. I woke up in a bed with a woman staring at me. What if they had just gotten rid of me, what if these were the people that had given those pirates the job to kidnap me? But then why would Legolas bring me here, was he in on it? No… In my heart I knew it could not be that. So then were we attacked and I was taken? I shook my head at that thought. Legolas and his men were skilled archers, so someone would have to get close enough to get us and I doubted that Legolas and his company would be easily approached like that. Then there was that woman… She was strange to be wearing funeral colors and yet smile as if she was as happy as could be. Her eyes and voice had sounded kind but people could deceive you. I held onto the ash colored wood tightly, until my knuckles turned white. My head bowed slightly in front of the mirror and stray hairs fell in front of my grey eyes. My eyes closed a crease formed on my forehead as I remembered his deceiving smile.
His mouth was twisted up into kind smile, the whites of his teeth showing as he spoke. The meaning of what he was saying washed over me and joy bubbled up from deep in my heart and spread through my veins. Everything around us seemed unfocused as the moon shined down upon us from the heavens. His smile was so sincere and I was foolish, I believed him, I let him trick me, I let him ruin everything. The sound of the door creaking as it opened didn't faze me. My hands gripped the wood harder and more hair fell down in front of my face. White smile… His white, deceiving, kind smile burned into my mind.
"Selene?" A distant voice called to me. His lips moved but it did not match with my name.
"Selene." The voice was stronger and more feminine this time, it did not belong to the smiling man. The traitor… The horrible, no, the terrible lying man.
"Selene? Are you alright?" The voice was clearer now, and my eyes shot open as I looked up into the mirror and saw the blonde woman from before standing behind me in the reflection. My eyes focused on hers and neither of us moved. My lips were pressed into a thin line and she stared at me and I saw a familiar emotion deep in her eyes. Worry. I had grown used to seeing those kind of eyes after Aither had died. Hers were less judging as the others I had seen, while they worried they also could not understand my suffering. Hers were less judging then my own people and I found myself wondering if she understood what it was to suffer through heart ache. Or was it that she pitied me? Or even that she merely tried to sympathize with me, but then how would she know what my hurting was in the first place? Who was this woman? I was unable to ponder any more of those thoughts and the door opened once more. This time I noticed and looked at the door in the mirror. My hand slid down towards the hilt of the sword on my hip, but it stopped a few inches above the hilt when I saw who had entered.
The first thing I had noticed was his slim figure sliding gracefully into the room, his clothing giving away who he was due to the earthy tones he wore. He was followed by a handsome man with a dark shade of brown hair contrasting with the fair hair that belonged to Legolas. I was relieved to see that he hadn't just left me somewhere in an unknown place. However I was still confused as to where we were, who these people were, and why we were here in the first place.
"Suilad, Selene." (Greetings, Selene.) Legolas spoke as he walked into the room. The blonde haired woman visibly relaxed at the presence of him and the other man in the room. I watched as she walked over to the dark haired man and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. It was sort of sweet and I couldn't help but feel as if I was looking in on a moment of privacy between the two of them. So I adverted my gaze from them, deciding to focus solely on Legolas. He watched me but I couldn't tell what he was thinking, usually eyes could give away emotions but his seemed more guarded. When I thought back on it Faervel, Valdon, and the others also had guarded eyes. I looked away from his eyes and the color brown caught my eye. As I looked down at his hand I noticed the journal he was holding. I recognized it and while I did not cry as I did before, I did feel my heart ache slightly. Legolas seemed to notice the shift in tension in the room and he walked over to me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder. He did not speak, probably knowing fully well that anything he said would be wasted breath on me now. Honestly, there was nothing he needed to say anyways, the gesture spoke more than he could have.
«Δε θρηνω πια μπροστα στη θεα.» (I no longer grieve at the sight.) I spoke softly, my eyes no longer lingered on the leather journal. It was funny that such a small item could have such a strong effect on me, even after so much time has passed I don't feel like I ever healed. No… I knew I hadn't. I would smile, wipe away the tears, and bury the feelings down so deep that it would be hard to reach them again. If I could have I would have stopped feeling anything at all, wished away my heart and all the emotions tied to it, make the pain stop. However I knew it was not good to have such thoughts. Dayita always try to give me advice when she brushed my hair in the mornings. She would tell me not to give up hope of feeling better one day. She would say things like «Ο πονος θα περασει, τα σημαδια θα μεινουν, αλλα απλα θα συμβαλλουν στην ομορφια σου. Φιλη μου, μη κλεινεις την καρδια σου, δεν πληγωνεις μονο τη δικη σου την καρδια ετσι. Θα μαθεις να αγαπας και παλι.» (The pain will pass, you will have scars but it will only add to your strength and beauty. My friend, do not close off your heart, it will not only be yours that you harm.) Or, «Ισως θα σου εκανε καλο να νοικοκυρευτεις με εναν Ελληνα, οπως εκανα και εγω.» (Perhaps it would do you good to settle down with a nice Greek man as I did.)
The found of paper shuffling caused me to refocus my mind. Now was not the time to be living in the past. I had too much I had to do and if I kept allowing myself to be pushed back into things that happened so many years ago then I would never be able to go home. I noticed that Legolas was writing again, like when we were in the woods and I first saw the book. He would flip through the pages and write down words on paper. Then he turned the paper to me, and in very broken down Greek he wrote:
«Εγω συγγνωμη για βιασυνη. Πρεπει μαθουμε επικοινωνησει.v.» (I apologize for the haste. But we need to start leaning to communicate.) It was written out very broken, he obviously couldn't write in my language properly and I didn't blame him. His handwriting was neat and practiced as that of an adult, but the way he wrote reminded me of when I was a small child. My teachers spent many years grooming my writing skills and making me write properly. I looked at him before gently taking the writing utensil from his hand. My fingers lightly brushed against his skin and for a second I felt a tingle. It terrified me and I quickly withdrew my hand. I distracted myself by writing a response on the paper. I wanted to bury that feeling, to forget it happened, to keep my distance before the feelings became stronger. A strand of hair fell in front of my eyes and I brushed it behind my ear as I finished writing. I would use this for now, the writing and focus of learning to distract myself. I promised myself that before I turned the paper so he could see what was written.
«Η συνταξη σου ειναι λαθος.» (Your structure is wrong.) I wrote it twice. The first was broken down, like how he had written things: «Συνταξη σας λαθη.», it was so that he could look it up and understand completely what I had meant to say. But then next to it I had written it again, «Η συνταξη σου ειναι λαθος.», so that he would see the difference. He looked at the paper, looking between the two written sentences. With the ink covered tip of the writing instrument I drew a line between the two sentences. Legolas nodded his head in understanding. Then I began showing the differences in the two sentences I wrote. Pointing out differences. The two other people, the woman and man stood by us and watched as they held one another's hands. I recognized confusion in their faces as they watched. Legolas spoke up, but I don't know what he was saying to them. However they nodded in understanding and watched on as I started to teach Legolas what I could.
We continued like that for quite so time, minutes turned into hours and before I knew it I could see the room growing darker as night replaced day. Legolas was a fast learner, my language was not an easy one to write, yet he seemed to catch on rather quickly. The man, whom I learned was Faramir, and the woman, whose name was Eoywn had left a while ago to tend to other matters. I discovered through writing with Legolas that they were the Lord and Lady of this place, and we were their guests. Legolas was working on making his sentences, they were less broke than they were before, I on the other hand glanced out the window. I looked at the bright moon and stars replaced the now set sun in the sky, under that sky I didn't feel like I was so far from home, like I wasn't so lost. Legolas was in the middle of writing a sentence when the door creaked open. As I turned around to see who had come inside I noticed that Legolas' head was already turned in that direction. By the time I had noticed the young woman, a servant by the looks of it, Legolas had already greeted her.
She was small, and by that I mean she was short and skinny. Her cotton dress was a little large on her and dragged on the floor slightly, nearly tripping her as she carried a tray into the room. Part of me felt like I should help her with the tray before she makes a mess. However before I act on that she had already set it down on a table in the room along with two plates. Legolas and the young maid spoke quickly to one another in polite tones and I tried to listen in, but once again I was faced with the ever growing problem of not being able to understand them. After a minute the maid curtsied and hurried out of the room, holding the ends of her dress up so she wouldn't trip over the fabric. I understood how annoying that could be, I had went through it days earlier.
A nice smell reached my nose and I saw that Legolas had pulled the lid off of the silver tray and revealed food. It smelt nice and like nothing I had really smelt before and it looked different as well. There were many vegetables and fruits on the tray, a few that I recognized from not only Legolas' home, but from my own as well. Grapes, Olives, Celery, as well as a few others. Then there were other ones I didn't recognize, large orange, tan, yellows, and some green ones too. They were shaped in circles, and some other flattened looking circular shapes. There was some meat on the tray that I had never seen before. I walked over to the table and sat across from him, eying the food warily. Legolas waited, when I realized he was waiting for me to put together my plate first I quickly placed vegetables and a little bit of the mystery meat on my plate. Then he put vegetables and fruits on his plate; I noticed that he didn't get any meat but didn't comment on it. Dinner was an odd experience, I had never eaten with him before and so I never knew what to do. Conversation was hard to make when all we could really do was write one another. Minutes passed before a slip of paper was passed to me. When I looked at the slightly improved sentence I noticed that he wished for us to start trying to speak. Pick out words and start trying to learn the oral languages of our peoples. He wrote out the word χαιρετώ (hello).
"Hello." He said, and motioned to the word, indicating that it was how it was said in one of the languages he knew.
"Hell-ro?" I spoke a little bit quieter and he shook his head.
"Hel-lo." He broke it down a little bit.
"Halo?" He shook his head at me.
"Hello." I paused for a moment. Then timidly repeated the word.
"Hello?" He smiled at me this time and nodded. He had me repeat the word a few times before we moved on to me describing how to say it in my language. It took him a few times as well before he got the hang of it. We sat at the table for an hour, even after we had finished eating we just sat there and continued to learn words. So far I learned that hello was a greeting in a more commonly spoke language. Goodbye was to either inform someone you were leaving or what to say to them if they were leaving. He told me there were other things you could say such as; good morning, afternoon, greetings, as well as other ways to greet people. Then to bid them farwell you could say; farewell, bye, there were other ones; but I could not remember them. Eoywn entered the room shortly after he taught me words to bit someone farewell, and she spoke to him briefly before he bid me good night and left. I laid on my borrowed bed and stared at the cream colored ceiling, I slowly felt sleep creeping up my body before I fell into a deep slumber. I dreamt of the red Bindi that rested upon Ramini's forehead as she was crouched in the river that day.
Note:
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and sorry if it was a little boring. I'm sorry updates are random and slow, also for anyone reading my other stories sorry those are taking forever! My co-writers are having trouble getting me their parts of chapters but we're working on it. Anyways please review and tell me your thoughts of Ithil! Feel free to ask me questions and I'll try to review either in a note or in a PM. Bye-Bye for now.