Ala: Hmph. Elrond is absolutely REFUSING to take ANY part in this disclaimer.
Elrond's eyebrows: But we will!
Tin/gulp/ where did those come from?
Ala/rolls eyes/ Elrond's forehead. /dodges slap from Tin/
Fell beast: Get back in the cage, the lot of you! ROAR!
Tin: I'm not sharing my cage with a pair of eyebrows!
Elrond's eyebrows: but… but… I don't have nits or anything…
Ala: I should hope not!
Fell beast: ROAR/Ala, Tin, and Elrond's eyebrows get into cage/
Tin: YOU CAN'T KEEP US HERE! YOU CAN'T L… /Ala gags Tin in order to shut her up/ mmp mmbphm…
Nazgul Number 3: In order to end this sham of a disclaimer, I shall now proceed to actually DO IT!
Ala: Oooooh er…… /giggles/
Nazgul Number 3/death glare at Ala/
Ala: You don't have eyes. Stop trying to glare at me.
Nazgul: Well, the /sob/ disclaimer/hic/ Ala /sob/ and Tin /sniffle/ don't own anything /hic/ except Ariel and Caeli /sniffle/ and Tin /sob/ owns her pot plant /bursts into sobs and runs away to nurse its pride/
Chapter 14Ariel POV
I spent another week in the House of Healing, getting well acquainted with the exact pattern on the ceiling. I had quite a lot of visitors over the week; Caeli visited me three times a day, Elladan and Elrohir dropped in most days, and everyone else visited me a couple of times. Legolas had spent most of the first few days sitting with me, trying to stop me slitting my wrists out of boredom, but four days before my birthday he told me that he wouldn't be able to be there as much because he had 'plans to prepare'.
"Oooh, anything good? Or something bad like going out chasing Orcs?" I asked, not wanting to press him too much in case he didn't want to tell me about his plans. We had become pretty good friends over the last little while. We'd had quite a lot of time to talk, after all, seeing as I wasn't exactly able to have archery lessons while sitting in bed.
Actually, that could be a very funny variation of Pin the Tail on the Donkey…"Something good. You'll find out in a few days," he said, and smiled. I sighed, having always hated having secrets kept from me.
"Ok ok, but don't completely abandon me, I think I'd go mad if you didn't come at all." He smiled again and reassured me that he would still visit me.
To my surprise, he then bent over and gave me a hug. The surprise wasn't from the hug, which happened quite often, but from the fact that he'd initiated it. Not that he had anything against hugs, in fact I knew perfectly well that he liked them, but I think that he wasn't very used to going round hugging people. Or, of course, he was just a typical male, unable to show any affection. I didn't think that was the case, though. I think he just wasn't used to starting off hugs.
Anyway, I hugged him back, and then he left, saying that he'd visit me in the evening. I heard him say something to someone outside the door, who then knocked.
"Come in," I called, surprised that I had a visitor who actually knocked. My surprise turned into shock when I saw who my visitor was.
"Hi, Erestor," I said, after picking my jaw up from the floor and dusting it off.
"Hello, Ariel. I heard you were unwell and wanted to see if your health is improving," he said.
Wow, Caeli will be surprised, no, not surprised, she'll probably faint, when she hears about this!
"Um, thanks," I said, smiling at him.
He may have been a bastard, but when he's being nice why treat him as if he's not?"So, how are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm much better thanks. I'm mainly bored, actually. So if you had asked me that in a few days time, I'd probably be very ill after slitting my wrists," I said.
"Well, I am glad that you are feeling better. Caeli will be coming shortly, in order to assuage your boredom, and I believe that she will be bringing some new guests with her." At the word 'guests' Erestor's face contorted into a strange expression which seemed to contain fascination and disgust at the same time.
Ah, I believe I know what guests these are."Would these guests happen to be dwarves?" I asked curiously. Erestor nodded. I gasped and decided that no way was I meeting anyone I didn't know while wearing my pyjamas.
"Erestor, please could you help me up? I need to get dressed," I asked the elf. He nodded and helped me up. I wobbled when I stood up, and teetered over to the drawers to extract some clothes. I found a tank top and some shorts and began wobbling over to the screen, when Erestor stopped me.
"Would it not be more appropriate to wear your dress?" he asked.
"Yes it would. But I can't do it up by myself and so unless you want to tie my clothes up, I can't wear it." I rolled my eyes at the slightly embarrassed look of comprehension on Erestor's face.
Luckily, we were both saved from him having to do my corset up by Caeli bursting into the room. She soon stopped, however, and glared at Erestor.
"What's he doing here?" she asked, scowling.
"He came to visit me because he heard I'm ill, duh. And guys, can you PLEASE just stop fighting? Erestor, Caeli is not evil in any way, shape or form, except for when she's teasing my about my nose. Caeli, Erestor is not the elven embodiment of Hitler. Kiss and make up?" I pleaded, then grinned at the expressions on their faces.
"Kiss and make up? And who is Hitler?" inquired Erestor, looking revolted.
"Fine, just shake hands and stop arguing! And Hitler was an evil git who wanted to rule the world. End of discussion, end of fight, end of feud. Get it?" I said, glaring at both of them. They both sighed, and shook hands.
"Well, Ariel, I must be on my way, and I hope that you feel well again soon," Erestor said. I smiled at him and once he had left, made Caeli help me into the dress.
"So, Wind, why…" I cut her off.
"Why the name Wind? My name is Ariel," I said.
"Duh, Ariel, Air, Wind. Your nickname is now Wind." I scowled at her.
"Fine, your new nickname is Flatulence," I smirked, and was rewarded with a Death Glare of Doom. Not as good as mine, of course, but still a good glare.
"Fine, no nicknames. AS I was saying, why do you want to get dressed? It's not like you're going anywhere," she asked.
"Because Erestor just informed me that you were bringing a load of dwarves to see me," I said. Her face fell.
"It was supposed to be a surprise!" she said, looking downcast.
"Have I heard of any of them?" I asked, wondering if the group of dwarves included Gimli or Gloin.
"Yup, two of them. Oh here they are," she said, when a knock was heard on the door. I sat down on the bed as she opened the door and seven dwarves trooped in. She quickly introduced them to me.
"This is Oin, Gloin, Gimli, Bari…" she continued with the names of all seven of the dwarves.
Doesn't she mean Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey and co? lol, I guess not.
"Hiya, nice to meet you," I said, grinning at the dwarves. They looked like nice guys, even though the elves hated them.
"The same to you, miss," said one of them. I looked at him, and grinned. I was talking to Gimli!
Wow, I've met loads of the Fellowship now! I mean, I've met Legolas, and Gimli, and… ok, I haven't met loads of the Fellowship. But I've met two of them! And unless we go home suddenly, I'll be meeting the others fairly soon!
I started humming the Seven Dwarves song, and Caeli gave me a pointed look that clearly said 'SHUT UP!' I sighed, and stopped humming.
"What was the tune you were singing, Ariel? It reminds me of when I visited Balin in Moria many years ago, and the cheerfulness of all the dwarves who were working to mine precious mithril and gems," asked Gloin.
"It's not surprising that it reminds you of working in the mines, because the song was a description of some famous dwarves on their way to work," I said.
Let's hope they don't ask for the lyrics; I don't suppose they'd like 'hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go, hi ho hi ho hi ho hi ho'.
"Caeli, I thought you said that dwarves are not known of in your country," said Gimli, looking confused.
"Everyone's heard of dwarves, only no-one thinks they're real. Dwarves are characters in stories, but until we came here we didn't realise you actually exist," Caeli explained. The dwarves looked satisfied with this explanation.
The nine of us sat in the room, chatting and telling stories, until the dwarves' stomachs started informing them that it was time for dinner.
I have to say, dwarven stomachs make impressive rumbling noises when empty! Even better than mine! Which is always at its loudest during things like exams which require silence… oh well, no exams here YAY!
The dwarves then excused themselves, leaving me and Caeli sitting there happily.
"Oh my god, we just met dwarves! That's so cool!" Caeli exclaimed.
"I know! I can't believe we've met TWO members of the… thingy," I said, realising halfway through my sentence that elves had excellent ears and did NOT need to know that we knew about the Fellowship. Which they didn't know about yet, but in a couple of months we really weren't going to need all the elves to suddenly look at us suspiciously.
"I'm going to go to dinner and see if I can spy any more members!" said Caeli.
"Have fun… hey, I've just thought of something…" I said, contemplating something in the film.
"What?" she asked.
"You know in the film, when Boromir is talking to Aragorn and he sees the shards of Narsil, when will he have time to do that? Because it happens before the Council." I said.
"So? Didn't he leave Gondor in what, June?" said Caeli, shrugging.
"Yeah, he LEFT Gondor in June. He arrived HERE at night on the 24th October," I explained, with the air of one resisting the urge to say DUH in a very long, drawn-out fashion.
"Oh yeah… oh well, does it matter? No, it doesn't. And I am HUNGRY so see ya later," she said, leaving the room.
Uh oh… mental note: avoid Caeli for a week or two. Just because I'm that bad at that time of the month does NOT mean I want to get treated to Caeli's mood swings.
I heard a quiet conversation between Caeli and someone outside the door, but I couldn't hear it well enough to hear what they were talking about. The door started to open and then I heard something that I did NOT want to hear.
"Of course I will do as you say, Caeli, as you are the most beautiful, talented, and clever lady that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," said a voice that unmistakably belonged to Legolas. A giggle from Caeli also made its way to my ears. I scowled at the doorknob, trying to convince myself that it wasn't Caeli's fault that Legolas obviously loved her.
The door opened, revealing the Prince that I least wished to see. Legolas was carrying a plate of food for me. He gave it to me, and sat down in a chair by my bed. I picked at the food, not really wanting to eat, but knowing that if I didn't eat then I would have Elrond on my case. After ten minutes in which I had sat there and scowled at my food, occasionally eating a bite, Legolas stopped watching me with a concerned look on his face and spoke up instead.
"What is wrong, Ariel?" he asked. I bit back a laugh at the absurdity of the question.
"What is wrong? What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! What's wrong is that my best friend is not only liked by one handsome elf who likes her back, but now the elf that I like likes her! And she knows that I like him! And I'm angry because she can't just stick with one, she has to leave me alone for a week and then drag him away from me as well so I'm just sitting up here on my own while my best friend is off snogging my crush!" I said loudly. An odd look went across Legolas' face. For a moment he looked… disappointed, maybe? Then the look disappeared and was replaced with surprise.
"Ariel, you love Glorfindel?" he asked. I spluttered and stared at him.
"No! That's what I was saying, they like each other, but she's off with my crush too which is why I'm angry!" I explained.
"Who do you love then, Ariel?" Legolas asked, a hopeful look crossing his face. I presumed that he just wanted to find out. I supposed it would make good gossip, who the mortal human in the hospital bed fancied.
YOU! Idiot, I like YOU!
I stared at him, as red as a tomato. Luckily he figured that I was embarrassed because I just didn't want to say.
"Forgive me, that is something private to you. But I have not noticed Caeli having a close enough relationship with anyone except Glorfindel and myself for her to love them," he said.
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying," I snapped, irritated at him for trying to lie to me about his relationship with Caeli.
"What?" he said, feigning confusion.
I'll give you one thing, elfy, you're a good actor.
"Look, you can tell me that you fancy Caeli! I'm not going to dye you blue! I'm not some stupid possessive girl. If anyone would be mutilated it would be Caeli for having both of you!" I exclaimed, then realised my little… ok medium… ok huge mistake.
Shit… please don't notice that I basically told you I like you… please….
Legolas' jaw didn't drop, but it definitely descended a few feet and stopped a couple of inches off the ground.
I guess he did notice. SHIT!
"I don't love Caeli!" he said, looking surprised. I raised my eyebrows.
"Then what was with the beautiful-talented-cleverest-lady-I've-ever-met thing?" I asked. He blushed and winced.
Ha! I knew it!
"Caeli threatened to tell Elrond that I saw you topless if I didn't call her that. And I definitely do not feel that way about Caeli. There's someone I do feel that way about but it isn't Caeli," he said very quickly. I took a few seconds to separate the words in my head into a sentence.
"Oh… I think I just got grumpy over nothing… So who is it?" I asked. Legolas looked at me, deciding whether to tell me or not.
"Well… the girl I like is a friend of mine although I haven't known her for very long. She is not courting anybody at the moment… and from something she said to me earlier I know she likes me too. You can guess from that. Now tell me about the person you like," he said.
"Ok, he's an elf, he's a nice guy, and he's a friend of mine. He isn't courting anyone but he fancies some girl and I have no idea who because he only gives me hints. And there's no way that he'll ever like me back. And I'm not saying anymore because if I do it'll be really obvious who it is."
"Why would he not like you back?" he asked in a way that made me think that he would get seriously angry with the elf in question.
"Hm… let's see. 1) he's an elf and there've only been 3 elves in history that actually loved mortals. 2) he's amazingly handsome and I'm ugly. 3) he likes someone else," I informed him.
"Well, if you want a list, 1) the fact that it's uncommon makes it special. 2) you are not ugly. And finally, maybe the person that he likes is actually you, and he just does not know how to tell you, even though he knows you like him," Legolas said, a careful expression on his face as he went through point 3.
I wish.
"I wish. Let's face it, it's never going to happen." I sighed, wishing that Legolas would love me. But obviously, he wouldn't. He'd just told me himself that he was interested in someone.
"Ariel?" he asked cautiously.
"Yeah?" I said, wishing that we could be anywhere else but in the hospital. It would have just been so nice to be outside by a fountain. But I was stuck in bed, talking to my friend who I had a HUGE crush on and would never like me back.
"Will you tell me who you like, if I tell you first?" he inquired. I had to smile at the childish way he said it. It was too cute not to.
Um, I really don't want to… oh well, might as well destroy our friendship sooner rather than later. It'll just hurt more if he rejects me when I know him better. At least rejection isn't quite as bad if it's not someone really close to you already. Not that it wouldn't be humiliating anyway, but oh well.
"Ok, if you say it first," I said, sighing.
"Ariel, I like…" he started, and was interrupted.
"Hi you two!" said Caeli, who just happened to burst in through the door at the moment of truth.
I'm going to kill her!
"Caeli…" me and Legolas said in unison, in fake sweet voices. She looked from me to Legolas and back to me.
"Um, am I interrupting something?" she said, raising her eyebrows at me. I glared at her.
"Yeah actually," I said. And with that, she shrugged and left.
Great, today's been so fun. I think that my friend's going out with my crush, then I find out that my crush is crushing on someone else and then I insult my best friend. Yippee. Not.
Caeli's POV
I quickly exited the room. I was really tempted to wait outside the room to see what they were going to say but alas I realised Legolas with his elven ears would easily be able to detect my presence. I slumped down beside a tree intending to wait for the happy couple to emerge.
After all that's got to be what's happening in there, Legolas is declaring his undying love for Ariel. I could be sitting here for a while.
I thought of going to see the dwarves -fascinating creatures by the way, did you know dwarves were the first race to come up with the idea of building cities underground for protection purposes? Apparently they would grow identical grass and flowers on the earth above where their settlements were so that they exactly resembled the environment around them and no enemies could find them – but then I remembered that they were still eating.
Never disturb a dwarf while it's eating. I learnt this the hard way when my left hand was almost sliced off one dinnertime when I accidentally surprised one. The said left hand is only still with me because Elladan pulled me out of the way just in time. Honestly, dwarves are worse than hobbits! Speaking of the devil…
Bilbo was hobbling towards me with his stick. He waved in salutation when he saw me and I waved back. We had actually met in rather odd circumstances, it started one morning when I was being taught how to throw a knife by Glorfindel…
Flashback:
"How in middle earth are you supposed to hit that?" I gaped. The target was about a mile away.
"Being an elf would probably help," answered Glorfindel smiling and taking some small throwing knives out of a box. "Do you want to try?"
"Me, I don't even know which way round to hold them never mind hit it, the bullseye's tiny for goodness sake!"
"To your eyes maybe," said Glorfindel.
"Oh, so if you're so clever and elfy you try and hit it,"
"Ok," he said and aimed a knife at the target in front of us. I went behind him and whispered in his ear:
"Hit the bullseye and I'll sleep with you,"
"WHAT!" the knife flew into the air and implanted itself into a nearby tree.
"Don't say 'what' say 'pardon'," I informed him whilst clapping sarcastically. All the elves nearby had gone completely silent in shock.
"Is it the custom in your world to offer to sleep with a man in such an off hand way?" he asked, his face was priceless!
"Well, that would depend on how... loose you were," I said smiling mischievously.
"And do you consider yourself loose?" he questioned me.
"How dare you question my chastity!" I said pretending to be shocked and playfully hitting him.
"Then why did you say that to me?" he challenged back.
"I knew you would never hit the bullseye if I distracted you like that, you startle when you're shocked, like that time in river"
"I could have hit it, what then?"
"Well, in the very unlikely event that you did hit that microscopic little dot over there," I gestured to the target, "and in the even more unlikely event you would consider sleeping with me… well we would have to see…" I said grinning. Luckily Glorfindel took this the right way.
"A pity I missed then!" he said laughing. He handed me another throwing knife.
"If you manage to hit anywhere on the target, I'll give you any pink fish that comes my way for a week." The pink fish did have an elvish name that he told me over lunch once but was so shocked at my pronunciation he asked me never to say it again and referred to it always as 'the pink fish'.
"You wouldn't joke about pink fish now would you?" I checked, I didn't want to get my hopes up for nothing.
"Never," he assured me solemnly placing a hand on my shoulder. We both burst out laughing.
"Very well sir, I shall take you up on that challenge!" I took the knife and held it at arms length and closed one eye so that I could see the point of the blade and the bulls-eye lined up. I drew the knife back and threw it so that it spun threw the air.
Time seemed to slow down, just like it does in films when you see a bullet going in the direction of the baddy. The only difference between this and real life was that there's usually a voice over to fill in the silence in films saying something along the lines of: if that kills that guy over there the world will be saved and I will be the greatest hero that ever lived, right there, right now. However in real life I was thinking: a week of the heavenly much worshipped bright pink florescent fish, right there, right now.
My knife hit the very edge of the target. It wobbled for a moment as if considering then fell back down to middle-earth, off the target. I stared, it couldn't do that, I hit it! Well, I wasn't going to let a knife that was too keen on gravity destroy my chances of extra pink fish!
"It hit!" I told Glorfindel triumphantly.
"It fell off again," replied Glorfindel stating the obvious.
"But it still hit!" I argued. "You owe me all your pink fish for a week!"
"Half,"
"What?"
"Pardon." he corrected me.
"What!"
"Because it fell off the target you get half my pink fish for a week,"
"Two weeks,"
"I agreed one!" he laughed.
"One and half,"
"Deal."
End Flashback.
Well, Glorfindel of course being an elf of honour kept his word and I was still getting half his pink fish, however, delicious, as the pink fish is, that is not the point of the story. The point is, when Glorfindel missed the target an elf who had been witness had then told his duelling partner at the other side of the training grounds of the news, apparently Glorfindel missing was a once-in-a-lifetime (even for elves) experience. Anyway, his duel partner then told his wife...
Who told the seamstress…
Who told Elrohir…
Who told Elladan…
Who told Elrond…
Who told Bilbo…
Who then came to meet me wishing for a first hand account but thinking it safer not to get it from Glorfindel himself. And that ladies and gentlemen, is how we met. Back to me sitting by a tree…
"Bilbo!" I called over as I walked up to him.
"Caeli! Not with Ariel today I see?"
"No, her and Legolas kinda shoved me out of the room."
"How rude!"
"I think they had something to say to each other in privet," I said grinning.
"Oh I see…" said Bilbo knowingly. Of all the races of Middle-earth it isn't the hobbits that generally spring to mind as being the most gifted in the intelligence department but I swear this one was as wise as an elf, wiser, I felt sometimes.
"I sometimes think that you and Glorfindel have some talking to do in that area," he said watching my expression carefully.
"What? Me? Glorfindel? Just because we practise together…" I protested.
"and from what I hear, fall into rivers together,"
"That was an accident!"
"And the fish,"
"That's an agreement between me and him, he gives me half his-"
"He gives you a lot more than half and you know it," said Bilbo smiling. I fell silent.
"Do you think he likes me?" I asked him cautiously. He gave me one of his omniscient looks.
"I don't know. To learn exactly how the Lord of Gondolin feels would, I think, take a lifetime of study. More than I am prepared to give!" he said cheerfully. I smiled sadly. Bilbo looked at me for a while before saying: "Do you like him?" I paused for a moment.
"Well yes… yes of course I do I mean his clever and kind and talented…" I said slightly dreamily, "and he's got the most beautiful blue eyes-"
"You're starting to sound like the elven ladies round here," laughed Bilbo cutting off.
"I thought they liked Legolas?"
"They do, but in the words of one fair lady, who shall remain anonymous, 'Glorfindel is better than amazing all round apart from being possible to attract, Legolas however, is exotic, that's why everyone likes him'"
"That's what she said, impossible to attract?" I said incredulously, if elves couldn't do it I hadn't got a hope in Valinor.
"Those were her exact words." Bilbo confirmed. I sighed. "So you do like him?" persisted Bilbo. I smiled and looked at the grass beneath my feet, Bilbo had a habit of asking exactly the right questions, but ones that you didn't always know how to answer.
"Even if I did," I sighed "In the words of the fair lady 'he's impossible to attract',"
"For elves," he reminded me.
"Exactly!" I said, "Which means that I, mere mortal-" but then I was cut off by a voice behind me.
"Who ever said anything about you just being a 'mere' mortal?" I temporarily lost the power to speak because… it was Glorfindel himself. Bilbo looked at me pointedly as if that was exactly what he was about to say.
"How much did you hear?" I said defensively.
"Just something about elves and what you said about being a mere mortal," he said quickly "I sorry if I disturbed you if you were talking about privet matters, I shouldn't have surprised you like that."
"That's ok its… don't worry," I replied. Please say elves don't lie, if he heard the part about him may the earth devour me right now! Ok, ok, make sensible conversation or he'll think there's something wrong with you… then again he probably knows that already…
"Erm so… lovely weather!" I commented cheerfully filling in the silence. Bilbo gave me a very obvious 'you can do better than that look' and Glorfindel looked worried.
"Are you feeling alright Caeli?" he said and put his hand against my forehead. A tingle went all the way up my spine and I shivered. "You should lie down for a while," he said leading me to the house of healing.
"No, no its ok, I'm fine, don't worry." I said quickly turning round.
"I think Legolas and Ariel are have a little discussion that they would rather wasn't intruded upon," said Bilbo to Glorfindel.
"Oh," said Glorfindel. "Do you want to lie down somewhere else?" he asked me again.
"No, really I'm absolutely fine, you worry too much." I said smiling.
"You sure?" he asked again.
"YES!" I said impatiently. He looked taken aback and I regretted it. "Sorry…sorry I'm just, its just that time of the month… I get annoyed easily just ask Ariel, well don't, not now anyway, I mean you can asked her another time just… oh my god what am I talking about? I'm sorry…"
I collapsed into a pathetic emotional heap on the ground.
Glorfindel tried to help me but I waved him away and got up again.
"I'll go… actually can I go and sit by your fountain for a bit?" I asked him. I seriously needed some peace everything was just confusing me. Despite what I say about hobbits and dwarves being lovely (as they are), they were also a lot to take in, they just look weird, I don't mean that in a horrible way but it's the truth. I wasn't used to it and my mind was finally starting to register that there was something really wrong with where I was. Elves I can cope with as they look like humans apart from a more beautiful version and I think I just imagine that the ears plastic surgery but hobbits and dwarves… I just couldn't come up with a rational explanation for so many of them.
"Of course," said Glorfindel kindly "take as long as you like,"
I thanked him and went off towards his room and thanked him silently when I realised he wasn't following me meaning he knew I needed some time alone. He wasn't really such a bad guy thinking about it: D
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Heya everyone, we are so sorry this chapter took ages, but we've both been revising for our mocks until 3 in the morning for two weeks and so we just haven't had time to write. Now we're back at school we should be able to update once a week, and we'll try and make sure we do. Mints to everyone who reviews!