Tin: Ala, our little ficcy is a teenager now/sniff/
Ala/sniff/ they grow up so fast…
Ariel: I like chocolate!
Caeli: Um, yes, this is a disclaimer Ariel.
Ariel: And I like cheese!
Elrond/grabs Ariel and throws her into the cage/
Ariel: LET ME OUT!
Elrond/gags her/
Gandalf: While Ariel is temporarily silenced, I believe that we should get this disclaimer over with as quickly as possible before she gets free!
Fell beast: ROAR!
Ala: What was that for, fell beasty?
Tin: Because I asked it to take me for a ride.
Witch-King: MY FELL BEASTY/waves pointy Morgul-blade at Tin/
Tin: Jeez… possessive…
Caeli: Are you guys trying to force me to do the disclaimer or something?
Gandalf: YES!
Caeli: Fine then. Tolkien owns everything except me, Ariel, and Tin's pot plant. Tin owns her pot plant and Ariel, and Ala owns me. The end.
Chapter 13 (wow! Our little ficcy is growing up!)
Ariel POV
Yesterday, Glorfindel had procured some corsets and dresses for me and Caeli. Although Caeli had fainted in the course of duty – ok, she fainted because corsets do not let you move, talk, or breathe much – I still wanted to try one on. So when I woke up in the morning, I asked Legolas to help me get up.
"Why do you want to get up? You should stay in bed, Ariel." He didn't sound particularly happy with the idea of me getting out of bed. God forbid I should get some exercise.
"Well, I want to try on the dress. And please can we go for a walk? I'm getting hyper from lying around too much, and Caeli can tell you that me getting hyper is never good. Well, she could tell you if she was here, which she isn't."
"Ariel, are you sure you can do this?"
Duh, I'm suggesting a short walk to use up some of my hyperness. Not a fifty-mile hike.
"Yeah, I just want to go outside for a while. The ceiling gets to be a really boring view after a while. So help me up? Pretty please with a cherry on top?" Legolas gave in and helped me out of bed once I'd finished combing my hair. Well, when I say he helped me out of bed, he practically lifted me.
Once I'd stood up and got my dress and corset out of the drawer, I went behind the screen and tried to put it on. Unfortunately, I discovered that putting on a corset by myself just wasn't possible. Much swearing, blaspheming, and cursing the corset to being used as a dwarf's nose-hair ring went on, until Legolas politely required what was the matter.
"I can't tie these STUPID bloody strings up! What do you elves think I am, an acrobat? Well here's some news for you: I am NOT an acrobat! And I'm not double jointed either!" I knew I was being unfairly grumpy to him, but I was very, very, very angry at the strings. And he was the nearest thing to take it out on.
In my frustration I kicked the screen, which, unfortunately, was a LOT less stable than it looked. Needless to say, it fell over, and I was left standing in front of Legolas with my dress undone. I grabbed and held the front of my dress up so that at least I wasn't topless, but I wasn't completely sure exactly how much he had seen.
"SHIT!" I exclaimed,
Well, at least I'm still wearing my pyjama shorts. But you know, I hadn't actually planned on him seeing me changing.
"Um, seeing as you're here, would you please do me a favour and tie this thing up?" I was so embarrassed that I figured that a little more embarrassment wouldn't hurt. And at least Legolas was being a gentleman (gentleelf?) by not looking at me. I turned around and he tied me up in the thing surprisingly quickly.
"That was fast," I commented. He shrugged, obviously embarrassed at having to dress me. The feeling was mutual. He then picked the screen up off the floor and stood it up, so that I could put the dress on over the corset. When I was finished, I emerged from behind the screen. I would have done a little twirl and shown off but I figured that doing so would probably use up more oxygen than I could get into my lungs.
"Didn't you want to go for a walk?" he asked, offering me his arm to hold onto.
"Yeah, but first I want to find a mirror. Where's the nearest one?" There was no way that I was going anywhere without checking that I didn't look like a cave troll.
"Over here." Legolas led me to a mirror. I stopped in front of it and stared. I wasn't looking at the 15 year old girl with the long nose and the moplike mess of reddish brown curls any more. Somehow, the dress drew attention away from my nose, and the green colour matched my eyes. And I don't know how, but my hair wasn't a mess. And even better, I didn't look either fat or skinny.
This has to be the first time in history that I've ever actually liked my figure! Yayness!
"I love this dress! It makes me look unfat!" I exclaimed, hugging Legolas who grinned at my happiness over a piece of clothing.
"Well, I know what to get you for your birthday then," he said, grinning.
"Yup. So lets go on that walk. And you still need to help me decide what my party is going to be like, because my birthday is in two weeks and I haven't planned the party yet." We started plotting – oops planning – my party as we slowly proceeded down to a beautiful garden. Once we got there, Legolas insisted that I sat down. I was all too happy to agree, because although I didn't want to admit, my stomach wasn't appreciating the movement of walking.
"Why was Erestor staring at me?" I asked. We had passed Erestor on our way down the corridor, and he had stood there and stared at me.
"Maybe because he has never seen you in a dress before and you look lovely in it. And may I ask why both you and Caeli are so against the possibility that you may have been sent here by Eru to help Middle-earth in these dangerous times?" Legolas asked.
Wow, did he just say I look lovely in a dress? That's so sweet! Not true, but still nice!
"Because we both refuse to become Mary-Sues. And thanks, but I really don't look that special. Especially compared to a bunch of perfect elves."
"What is a Mary-Sue?" he inquired.
"It's an irritatingly perfect teenage girl who falls into Middle-earth from my world. They are always clever and speak fluent Elvish after a single month of lessons, they steal people's lines, they always look beautiful and they generally turn out to either be the long-lost daughter of either Elrond or Galadriel, although sometimes they are long-lost siblings of Aragorn. Either way, they nearly always have tortured pasts and end up being made happy by all the people here. They are loved by everyone around them. And also, without fail, they fall madly in love with you and you end up marrying the Mary-Sue." Legolas looked horrified at the prospect of marrying some hideously perfect Mary-Sue.
"This Mary-Sue creation you speak of, do they exist? Because if they do, I think I will go and shoot myself with my own bow." I laughed at his horror.
"No, don't worry. They're just fictional characters. Don't be scared of teenage girls' bad-grammared creation. And now do you see why neither of us want to become them?"
"I can understand why you don't want to be a Mary-Sue. But why would be being sent here by Eru make you one? Because you don't fulfil most of the requirements, it seems to me."
"Hey, are you calling me ugly and stupid?" I asked, pretended to be offended.
"No, of course not! I said MOST of the requirements!" he said.
"I was joking. Sort of. But anyway, if we were sent here by Eru to save Middle-earth, we would become Mary-Sues because Mary-Sues always have a 'purpose' in Middle-earth. There's normally a prophecy about them about how they'll come to Middle-earth and single-handedly battle Sauron, and how they'll have special powers and that sort of crap. So if we were sent here for a reason by Eru or the Valar, we'd be Mary-Sues." I tried to clarify my explanation of why being here for a 'Reason' would make us Mary-Sues.
"Well, I can understand you not wanting to be one. Although I'm deeply broken-hearted that you don't want to become one just so that you can marry me. Don't you want to marry me?" he joked, clutching his heart.
"Hmph. No way in hell would I become a Mary-Sue just to marry you. No offence or anything." Legolas shrugged, grinning.
"How about if I grow that extra eyelash? Would you marry me then?" I laughed, and then stared at the hedge. I had just seen a blue-eyed female elf duck behind the hedge, an expression of shock on her face. I nudged Legolas.
"Did you see her face? I think she thought you just proposed to me! I guess she's one of your little fan club," I whispered, and an evil grin spread across his face. He got off the bench and knelt on one knee in front of me, and winked. Then he spouted a ridiculously fancy and fake proposal to me, which verged on begging. I looked at the hedge and noticed that the elf was watching intently. I shrugged.
"Maybe… I'll have to think about it…" Legolas got up off the floor and I leant against him, collapsing in silent giggles. I wasn't prepared for the sob that I heard from behind the hedge and the sound of an elf rushing off in tears. I stared at Legolas guiltily.
"Oops… I think she thought that you were saying that for real… I feel bad now."
Great, now some random elf is crying her eyes out because she thinks that the Prince that she obviously has a massive crush on has just proposed to a human girl who he only met a week ago.
"Don't, it was my idea. But at least I might have a few less elves following me everywhere, if that one announces to her friends that I am betrothed to you." I giggled at the thought of a whole group of elves thinking that I was engaged to Legolas.
"Well, yeah, but they'll find out its not true as soon as they see us and notice that we don't look remotedly in love," I pointed out.
"True… or we could just pretend that we are if a group of them is anywhere near," he suggested. I laughed, delighted at the idea of irritating a load of fangirls by pretending they'd missed out. I agreed that this could be fun, and then my stomach pointed out for me that I was hungry.
"We'd better go back, Elrond would have a fit if he came and saw I was missing. Plus as you just heard, I'm hungry." Legolas helped me up, and we slowly made our way back to the room, boringly not passing any fangirl elves.
When we got back to the hospital room, we were greeted by five open-mouthed people. Caeli, Glorfindel, Elrond, Elladan, and Elrohir were standing by my bed and gaping at us.
"What are you looking at us like that for?" I asked, when the five of them just stood there and stared at us.
"Er, congratulations, you two," said Elrond, still open-mouthed with raised eyebrows.
"What for?" I asked curiously.
"Duh, getting engaged, idiot," said Caeli. The proverbial penny dropped.
"Where did you get that idea from?" Legolas asked, the lightbulb obviously not having turned on yet.
"Elenloth came to us and said that you proposed to Ariel in the garden just now. She seemed quite unhappy about it. In fact she was crying. And Caeli saw you propose from the window," said Glorfindel.
"He didn't! Honestly you lot, I've only been here for a week! As Treebeard would say, don't be hasty!" I said. Caeli gave me a disbelieving look.
"So he didn't propose, he just decided to kneel down in front of you and make a lovely little proposal speech then you hugged him. Riiight. You can tell me you know, I'm not going to shout at you."
"For the last time, I am not betrothed to Ariel!" Legolas exclaimed.
"What, you said no?" Caeli said to me.
"OK, guys, I am going to talk and none of you is going to say anything until I say you can. I'll start from the beginning. We went for a walk, we sat down on a bench. I described the fact that Mary-Sues always marry Legolas and that neither me or Caeli wanted to be a Mary-Sue. Legolas pretended to be broken-hearted that I didn't want to marry him. We saw some female elf lurking behind the hedge and so Legolas pretended to propose to me so that she would go and tell her friends and so he could have a couple of days without all those girls following him around. She started crying and ran off. Then we came back up here. Therefore we are NOT engaged and Legolas did NOT propose to me for real." I said, hoping that this would get the point across. It did. Everyone instantly relaxed.
"That's OK then," said Caeli.
"Hey, you're supposed to be happy for your friend when you think she's engaged!" I said.
"Yeah, but not when the friend has only known the fiancé for a week!" I had to admit she was right.
"Guys, you're sitting on my bed and I'm tired," I said to the twins. My stomach was hurting a bit and I wanted to lie down. Thankfully, Elladan and Elrohir jumped up quickly and said that they would go and set Elenloth straight about Legolas' marital status.
"No, don't, please. Ariel and I decided that it would be fun to pretend to be betrothed for a couple of days." Legolas looked fairly unhappy at the thought of being beset by fangirls sooner than he had hoped for.
"Er, why?" inquired Elrond.
"Because I figured that if we pretended to be together, then Legolas wouldn't have the usual horde of gold diggers following him around," I explained. Glorfindel rolled his eyes and left, saying that he had listened to enough idiocy for today.
"Gold diggers? I have not seen any dwarves present in Rivendell for quite a while," said Elrond.
"I mean the group of girls, I mean female elves, who follow him around in the hope that he will marry one of them and they will get to become Princess of Mirkwood." A look of comprehension appeared on all the elves' faces. Obviously they had only just realised why we had done the whole fake proposal thing.
"Yes, we will keep your little secret. And now I am going to go to lunch. I will bring some food up for you, Ariel, and anyone else if they are staying here." Caeli said that she would keep me company, and told Legolas that he should go down to lunch and that he had missed enough fun at meals already. He refused and pointed out that it would look a bit odd if he left me on my own only an hour after we became betrothed. Caeli shrugged and smirked.
"Fine, but you might want to fetch some earplugs, because you are about to be subjected to Girl Talk." Legolas looked confused.
"What, may I ask, is girl talk?" he asked her.
"Its when girls talk about girly things," she explained.
"Caeli, that didn't help much," I said to her.
"OK, if you want me to spell it out, we are about to discuss things such as hair products and face wash. Well, we would normally if we were talking girl talk, but right now I'm about to demand all details about your proposal and also if she enjoyed you not having a shirt for the last day or two," she said. Legolas rolled his eyes at the prospect of having to listen to that sort of crap.
"Oh yeah, and I'm also going to describe to her how you saw me topless this morning," I added. That comment had the intended reaction: Legolas turned bright red and tried to will the ground to swallow him up, while Caeli choked and stared from me to him.
"Whaaat? Ariel, explanation wanted. Now!" she demanded. I grinned.
Heeheehee! Isn't it fun making Caeli think I've done certain things which, in fact, I haven't! And Legolas should blush more often, it's very endearing seeing him so embarrassed. In fact, I guess his reaction answers the question that I was thinking about earlier: did he actually see me topless or not? I guess from the reaction he had when I said that that the answer is yes. NOOOOOOOO!
Caeli's POV"Legolas, out!" I demanded. He left very, very quickly.
"Ariel!"
"Well it was like this…" she said and continued to describe to me exactly how Legolas saw her topless.
"But the thing is," she ended "I don't actually no if he actually saw me topless." I blinked a few times unbelievingly.
"Anyway, onto other subjects," said Ariel quickly. I raised an eyebrow. "Legolas, you can back in now" she called in the direction of the door and in came Legolas still a little pink.
There was an awkward silence. "Umm, look, I'll go see how Elrond is getting on with the lunches..." I said feeling that actually it would probably be better for Legolas' sanity if I left to save us talking about toplessness. Ok, ok, I'll admit it there was the fact that I wanted to go tell the whole of Rivendell the gossip (I mean how many good rumours can a place like Rivendell get? Not many is my guess). I scuttled out of the room.
I walked between the trees until I heard the sound of water. It must be that tributary of the Bruinen that Merenon was telling me about at dinner the other day. Sure enough, there was a little (well not that little actually) river with rocky banks. The river flowed at stately pace, as would befit an elven river and looked deep.
"Caeli!" came a voice from above me. I looked up; sitting on branch of a tree above the water was Glorfindel.
"Hey Glorfindel!" I called up and attempted to climb up the tree.
"Don't you even think about laughing!" I warned him as I cautiously climbed up branch by branch.
"Of course not," he said "You just be careful,"
"I will," I replied. Eventually I had pulled myself up to the branch he was sitting on and I gingerly shimmied over to where he was sitting above the river. As soon as I was within reach he held my arm to help me along the last bit.
"Lovely view from here," I commented, forcing myself to look at the said lovely view and not down.
"Yes," agreed Glorfindel still holding onto me, I felt kinda like a three year old like this but hey, it was better than the alternative which was falling off.
"Oh, do you want to know something really funny?" I asked remembering my Ariel story and grinning.
"What?" he asked suspiciously.
"Legolas saw Ariel topless!" I said coming straight to the point.
"WHAT!" Glorfindel exclaimed with a look of horror on his face. Well, at least I think it was a look of horror because you see at that moment he turned to face me and turned too quickly. He lost his balance and fell of the branch taking me with him.
I hit the water in a matter of seconds a fell beneath it. I felt my arm; Glorfindel's arm wasn't on it anymore. Open your eyes! I thought desperately, but the problem is I can never open my eyes under water, I just can't bring myself to do it. Yes, stupid I know, and I knew it then.
My arm hit a rock underwater and I instinctively opened my moth to cry out but I just got a mouthful of water. I struggled and kicked to try and get to the surface but I just kept on hitting rocks. Just as I was running out of air I felt strong arms around me dragging me upwards quickly. Seconds later my head broke the surface and I took in a huge gulp of air and spluttered.
"Caeli, are you ok!" Glorfindel asked panicking. We were both in the middle of the River and soaking wet. Glorfindel was holding me and my dress was trying to hold me down.
"I…I'm-" I spluttered again.
"Lets get you onto the bank, everything is going to be ok alright?" I tried to nod as I coughed out the water. He dragged me ashore.
I sat huddled shaking on the shore. Freezing cold and soaking wet. Glorfindel hugged me tightly to warm me up.
"I was so worried… thank Elbereth… I thought…" he lightly kissed the top of my head and brushed my dripping hair out of my face. For a moment I could have sworn he was glowing slightly. I don't mean that greenish glow you get from glow in the dark stickers, it was more of a white light that came from all around him.
"Are you ok?" he asked me again.
"I'm fine… I'm ok" I said between deep breaths. "At least…" I took a few more deep breaths, "as long as you carry on hugging me I will be," I whispered and gave him a little smile. He laughed and hugged me again. The glowing stopped.
"Are you ok?" I asked him; after all he was just as wet as me.
"Never better!" stupid elves!
"We better get you to the house of healing," he said.
"No, no its, its ok" I said quickly, "I'm just cold that's all, the house of healing can't do anything for me."
"In that case we'll go to my room I've got a fire burning there already," I nodded.
By the time we had reached Glorfindel's room I had retold to him what I had christened 'Ariel's little wardrobe malfunction'. Glorfindel thought it was absolutely hilarious and we were both laughing (and for me coughing) as well entered his room.
As promised the room was warm and cosy due to a fire burning in the middle of it.
"This is nice," I said then I noticed something about him "hey, how comes you're already almost completely dry and I'm soaking?" I demanded. He laughed as surveyed me and noticed that I was indeed soaking wet.
"My body heat dries me, elves body heat raises a lot when they are cold or wet," I scowled, but then burst out laughing.
"It's so unbelievably unfair!"
"I'm afraid so," he said. He put a hand on my forehead. "You're as cold as ice!" well noticed "you'd better change out of your wet clothes before you get ill," he bustled me into a bathroom type place and handed me a white fluffy towel from a drawer. "You can wear this for now," he said and left closing the door behind him to let me change.
I thankfully pulled off my wet dress tied the towel around me (and yes I did keep my underwear on). Now, for any of you with fears for my modesty let me put your minds at rest, the towel reached down to the floor and actually a bit further so much so that I had to avoid tripping over it as I went back out. So you can all get rid of the image of me in a towel that barley reached my hips ok?
"How do you feel?" he asked me as I emerged from the bathroom.
"Better," I said "Thank you,"
"You are very welcome," he said taking my wet dress and hanging it up near the fire.
I sat down on the rug by the fire to warm up. I heard footsteps walking near the door.
"That's Canadiel, she might have another dress for you," said Glorfindel and hurried to the door.
"Canadiel?" he called.
"Glorfindel!" she called back and I heard her walking back towards the door.
"Do you think you could find me a dress?" he asked her. She peered past him into his room and her eyes landed on me huddled up in a towel by the fire. She looked at Glorfindel puzzled.
"A dress please," he repeated.
"Of course, I'll be right back," she replied at last and left. Glorfindel closed the door behind him and came to sit on a stool beside me.
"Is she your girlfriend?" I asked him, I knew he did not have a wife, but come to think of it Tolkien had never written anything on the subject of Glorfindel's love interests. Glorfindel laughed.
"Canadiel? No!" he said still laughing.
"Do you have you have a girlfriend?"
"No,"
"Have you ever-"
"No!" he laughed. "You're curious today aren't you?"
"I'm always curious!" I said, "I'm sorry thought I didn't mean to… it was none of my business really,"
"That's ok, being curious is a good thing," he said smiling at me.
"Then can I ask you something else?" I asked.
"Go ahead,"
"Surely you must have had a crush on someone in all these thousands of years you've lived among the most beautiful race on the earth?"
"A 'crush' as you call it, maybe, yes, but I've never found the right person to be in any sort of a relationship with," he answered.
"I suppose it would take elves along time to decide who they want to be with seeing as they live so long."
"Well, yes and no, I have known some elves that have spent thousands of years deciding about one person, yet I know others who have met and decided they were right for each other within a week."
"Wow! Both tactics works then?" I asked
"Elven marriages very rarely fail." Someone knocked on the door. Glorfindel went to answer it.
"Thank you Canadiel," Glorfindel said accepting a simple white dress from her. Then Canadiel said something in elvish that I didn't understand while gesturing at me.
"That shouldn't concern you," answered Glorfindel in English for my benefit thank you Glorfindel! Canadiel laughed a little, said something else in elvish and then smiled and left.
"There you are!" he said offering me the dress.
"Thank you," I said taking it from him and going into his bathroom again to change.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked him as I changed.
"What she said?" came the reply why does he have to know everything?
"If you don't wish to tell me that's fine it was just that she was pointing at me and-"
"That's ok," he said "she asked the same question about you that you asked me about her,"
"You told me though,"
"You were curious, she made assumptions because you were sitting in my room in a towel, there's a difference," he said. I came out of the bathroom in my new dress.
"Well no one needs to make assumptions anymore," I said happily doing a little twirl in it.
"Again you look lovely," he complemented me. "You should come back and sit by the fire to dry your hair though," I did as he suggested.
"We used to have a fire like this at home," I said eventually.
"My parents love to sit by fires, I think I take after them," he said smiling at me.
"Are your parents here in Rivendell?" I asked.
"No, they stayed in Valinor when I left,"
"Do you miss them?"
"Not really," Glorfindel sighed, "Not because I don't love them, but I also love being in Middle-earth and I've been away from them for so long." I smiled.
"It must be nice to know your parents are waiting for you in Valinor," I said.
"Do you miss your parents?" he asked. I stared into the fire and then rested my head in my hands.
"Yes I do," I answered finally.
"I'm sorry," he said putting a comforting hand on mine.
"Don't be," I said taking his hand, "it's not your fault." We sat together in a friendly silence for a while.
There was a tapping noise at the door. Glorfindel got up and answered. It was Legolas.
"Hi Legolas," I called still sitting by the fire. "Have you remembered to invite me to your wedding to Ariel?" I asked jokingly.
"That depends on whether you told Glorfindel about the issue with Ariel's corset,"
"I haven't heard about anything about Ariel's corset," Glorfindel lied. Legolas looked at me suspiciously.
"Surely you didn't come to tell Caeli that she mustn't tell me about the whole topless thing?" Glorfindel asked.
"Caeli!" Legolas exclaimed. I grinned evilly.
"Well what did you come here to say?" I asked.
"I came here at Lord Elrond's bidding, he would like a word with you,"
"Oh, ok just coming," I said and grabbed my dress which was still kinda wet, straightened out my hair, which was dryish and hugged and thanked Glorfindel who reminded me that I may come again at any time should I wish. Finally I followed Legolas towards Elrond's office.
"Please don't tell Elrond about the topless thing," Legolas pleaded with me along the way.
"Oh really? Why not?" I said grinning with evil thoughts. Legolas stopped me and turned me to face him.
"Because I'll do anything you want if you promise not to," he said seriously. I laughed and carried on walking.
"Wow, I have an elven prince in my power, what shall I do?" I said enjoying every moment. Legolas remained silent.
"What about going round Rivendell shirtless for a week?" I suggested. Legolas looked horrified. "Ok, maybe I'm not quite that mean." I conceded.
"Propose to that elf over there," I said pointing at a random she elf.
"Please no," he begged.
"Ok, maybe not that either," I considered for a while. Suddenly I came up with the most brilliant and evil condition. "Ok, I've got it, you have to address me as 'Caeli the most beautiful talented and clever lady that you have ever had the pleasure of meeting'" paused to look at Legolas' horrified expression before added "for the rest of your life."
"No way," he said.
"Ok then, how do you think I should put it to the Lord Elrond?" I asked as we rounded to corner to Elrond's study "Legolas was in the room as Ariel was changing and-"
"Ok, ok, I give in Caeli the most beautiful talented…" he paused thinking,
"and clever" I reminded him
"Most beautiful talented and clever lady that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," he finished.
"awww, that's really sweet!" I said and hugged him. "I promise not to tell Elrond." and with that I went in.
Elrond was examining his bookcase when I stepped into the room. I hope I'm not in trouble, I don't think I've done anything wrong…
"Caeli, please don't look so worried!" said Elrond cheerfully. "I was just wondering if you had any idea as to what Ariel might want for her birthday," I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Socks," I said automatically. His raised the famous eyebrow. "She likes socks," I said nodding.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, very," I assured him. "Unless you want to get her a fell beast but I have a feeling Legolas is getting her one… then again she wouldn't object to two…" The elven Lord looked at me as if I had taken leave of my senses and looked about to question me further on the matter when her saw the wet dress in my hand.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Long story,"
"Go ahead," he said sitting down in his chair.
"Well Glorfindel and I were sitting on a branch above the river and I surprised him and we kinda fell in to the water."
"Gracious child! Are you ok?" he asked looking thoroughly alarmed.
"Fine thank you, Glorfindel helped me out,"
"Good," said Elrond looking relieved. Thinking back to the river episode made me remember something.
"Could I ask you something about Glorfindel?" I asked.
"If it is within my power to answer I will," replied Elrond.
"When he pulled me out of the River I'm sure he was glowing, sort of radiating light I dunno how to describe it," Elrond looked at me for while then said.
"He must have been very worried indeed for your safety," he paused to collect his thoughts "some elves that have come from the lands across the sea are sometimes seen in the form they appear in the distant lands, that is as you say, glowing with a white light. Galadriel and Celeborn also radiate this light but I would say more frequently than Glorfindel. It usually happens either when he is feeling a very strong emotion or concentrating. He has no control over it."
Then I remembered the part of the book where Glorfindel rescues Frodo on Asfaloth, when he first comes into view he was glowing. If Elrond noticed this sudden look of realisation on my face he said nothing of it.
"As I said, he must have been very worried about you," Elrond said. I nodded. There was silence in the room for a while then Elrond broke it.
"So socks," he said cheerfully again.
"Yes," I smiled nodding. "I'm glad I could help,"
"So am I," replied Elrond.
Thus I left the study of Lord Elrond of Rivendell, deep in contemplation, on a summer day.
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