Four years later, and Anya's spirit was finally rebuilding and making progress. All thanks to Dimitri and his affectionate grandchildren; Dorothy and Jack. They had shown her more kindness than any person she had ever known and they had managed to in fact help her forget the tortures of her past. With them, she had no time to think about it.
Jack always kept her on her toes, wanting to play, Dorothy always wanting to hear stories and on top of all that, she helped Dimitri with duties such as field work and delivering things like hay and wood for his old age was beginning to catch up on him.
These five years had been a gift to her. Years that gave her happiness and hope to finally live a peaceful and ordinary life with these people. She would happily settle for this life if it meant no more hurt and pain; settling for this life with the name of "Autumn".
"Where are we going?" Young Jack asked, looking up at Anya with his big eyes. Anastasia still never uttered words around the family however, but she was glad it was this way. It helped her to focus on the noises around her. To listen. The family-oriented conversations, and the happiness around them all. No matter how many times young Jack tried to pester the she-elf, she would only smile and look away like she had just done now.
"Don't bother Jack, you know she don't talk. If Grandpa finds out you've pestered her again, he won't be happy" Dorothy replied to him as a matter of fact. She had now grown into a beautiful young lady with long brown curly locks yet still had freckles over the tops of her cheeks. Frowning, looking to the side with a scowling pout, Jack replied with a tone which reflected his teenage attitude.
"I'm not scared of that ol' man"
"Who's an old man?" Dimitri asked, coming round to the cart which Dorothy had just gotten on. With his cheeks going red, Jack looked at him nervously.
"N-no one!" With an eyebrow raised, the elderly man just shook his head and gestured to the cart.
"Alright. Get in now, we're heading right into the country today" Whilst Anya helped the young man onto the cart, with Dimitri going to the top of the cart to grab the reins of the hired carthorse, he continued. Anya got on and the horse began to walk away, pulling the cart with its almighty strength. "Thanks to the overtime both Autumn and I have been doing, it seems that we can finally pay back Victoria for paying off our debts a couple of years ago"
"Cousin Victoria? I haven't seen her in ages" Dorothy said with thought in her voice.
"She's been doing well for herself, got horses and everything now"
"Then why are we paying back money she doesn't need?" Jack asked with a slight frown. This earned a slap around the head from Dorothy.
"Because it's called being polite, Jack!"
"Ow! Autumn, she's being horrible to me again! Tell her to leave me alone!" He yelled, getting behind Anya and peering over her shoulder with a frown towards his older sister. Anya just smiled nervously, closing her eyes; holding back a small laughter that wished to escape her lips. The two of them continued to bicker with Dimitri coughing along the way. Small things such as the cold and bitter morning air had now become a nuisance to the elder. However, as they got further into the country, the brighter it got, until they were actually on beautiful green land that revealed blue forget-me-nots with thousands of daisies just covering the land.
Anya peered her head out to the side more to look in the direction of the carthorse and they were coming up to a white and beige cottage that had a large pen attached to the side where a couple of horses fed on the fern peacefully. A few yards away, there stood a low willow tree with his long vine branches bellowing and fluttering so softly against the country's breeze.
It had been so long since Anya saw such a sight, her eyes filling up with wondrous serenity from seeing the haven they had entered. Her breath came out fresh, like she was sucking life back into her lungs and soul, causing goosebumps to arise on the skin of her arms. Looking over his shoulder, Dimitri saw her lively state, seeing how she was leaning out of the cart to look more at their surroundings with such a calm and happy face. This caused the elder to weakly smile before looking back ahead to see that Victoria was already outside her cottage, waving at them. Pulling the reins, Jack got out of the cart and walked over to her along with Dorothy.
Sliding off of the cart quietly, the maiden's feet touched the tips of the grass, pressing down on them and walking forward a few steps in a way that made her seem like she was gliding. Her fuchsia hair now long enough to pass her shoulders. A few strands crossed over her face from the direction of the wind but this never altered Anya's gaze at the tranquil offspring of nature around her. She actually felt the warmth of the sun against her pale face causing her to feel some sort of nostalgia transcend from the top of her heart. With her exhaling breath becoming jagged for a moment, a small smile escaped from her. From all the darkness she had experienced... she could still see the beauty of life and the light that fell upon everything. Blinking quickly a few times, to prevent any tears from prickling, Dimitri stood beside her, looking up at the sky with the silent maiden, his hands holding each other over his front.
"It's unreal, isn't it?" She turned to look at the elder, softness in both their eyes. "One would think that with all the suffering in this world, that there could be no light" Anastasia's eyes softened some more but in slight sorrow as she looked away, knowing that his words were all too true. "But then someone can enter your life, bringing their light to cast down on your perception of the world. It's these people who give you a reason to live. To give you the strength to keep your eyes open even when there's darkness; to always search for your own light" Hearing him say this, the silent maiden looked at him with slight shock and realisation in her eyes. This was all because the words he spoke were once again true. "No matter how broken a person may be... there's always someone whom can mend them and in return... they mend you"
'Thranduil...' Lifting her petite hand, rubbing away the water on the bottoms of her eyes, Dimitri looked at her with his ageing yet kind eyes. "And no matter what happens from there on out, once they've fixed you, you will always be able to see light and beauty" He smiled, his grey eyebrows furrowing upwards as he spoke to elf. "Do you still see beauty, Autumn?" Gritting her teeth, she looked up from her arm which had been shielding away her tears and with urgency in her step, she slung her arms around the old man's body, squashing her cheek up against his collarbone as she sobbed from his words. This elder, being the father-figure she had yearned for all this time, rested his hand on the top of her back, stroking the ends of her hair as he allowed her to let out all her feelings that she had been holding back since they met, five years ago.
He was more than correct. Thranduil, Kili, Tauriel, the people of the Isen village, Gwen, Romeo, Dimitri and his family... they were all examples of what he had just preached. They all brought light and happiness into her life. She had fixed some but they all fixed her.
Every one of them.
And if it weren't for them, she would never have gotten as far as this. She never would have experienced so much joy if it weren't for their love and kindness.
"Th-thank you..." She permitted. From all those years of not uttering a word, it was hard to her to now speak but still, she managed. Dimitri shook his head with a smile, not expecting her to say anymore. 'No Autumn. Thank you for fixing my family and I'
"Autumn! Come on, come on! Let's go round up some of the horses!" Jack exclaimed, holding onto her hand and dragging her away from his Grand-father, excitement beaming from his youthful face. "Victoria says if we round them up quickly, we can ride on them!" Sniffing, a smile then breaking through, Anastasia nodded to the boy with a grin as she lifted her dress up with one hand and continued to run with the boy. Letting go of her hand, Jack grinned wider at her as he challengingly said "Race ya!" and speeding up a great deal. With a laughing bubbling in the back of her throat, the she-elf speeded up herself, the lightness in the balls and heels of her feet working to her advantage as she ended up being level with the boy. But of course, his competitive attitude born from his youth allowed him to reach the pen of horses before the she-elf and he cheered, with his arms fisting the air. Once Anya reached him, she laughed at the top of her lungs, lifting the boy into the air to celebrate his victory.
From afar back, Dimitri watched them, seeing and hearing their cheers and laughter emulate from their bodies, causing him to nod his head in proud approval. The rare maiden, Anastasia, looked back at the old human and there, through her smile, a look of content and mutual equality being held between the two very different races.
But a moment's happiness cannot last forever.
A week had passed since that placid afternoon. It had been very quiet in Dimitri's house during those days. He had fallen ill once they came back from the countryside. Small things like the cold, bitter air were causing infections. Things were weighing against him; his age and the season. It was now the season of Autumn, where the warmth of the summer's glow was no longer welcomed and the air was icy and crisp as frost. Doctors had been seeing him that entire week to see if there was any way they could save the man and in that time, Anya had been looking at Jack and the housework along with Dorothy.
Both Dorothy and Anya were making their way back from a market stall in Rohan, back to the barn and house. Dorothy held a basket of fruit and veg whilst Anya held a bucket of water. Getting back to the barn, upon taking a couple of steps inside, there was Jack who seemed like he was packing things into a bag.
"What are you doing?" Dorothy asked, walking over to him but Anastasia stayed put just to listen.
"We're moving in with cousin Victoria! There's just enough for Grand-dad, you and I and the doctor says that Grand-dad won't ever have to work again!"
"Really? Come on, that's such good news!" She grabbed onto his wrist and they both ran right past Anastasia to get back to the house. "Grand-dad! Grand-dad!" Dorothy called, leaving Anastasia on her own in the barn to look at the bag.
'What would happen now?' Her melancholy thoughts whispered.
Now came the unwanted day for Anastasia. Both Dorothy and Jack stood in front of her. Dorothy had her arms gently around the maiden, stroking her hair whilst Jack tried his best to avoid his eyes from meeting hers. Dorothy was calm. Sad, but calm. She was the wise one in the situation; to not dwell upon the sadness in the choice but to celebrate the awaiting recovery for her Grand-father. She smiled through it, but she would indeed miss the elf she had grown up beside. "Thank you, for everything, Autumn" She whispered, pulling away with a small flicker of a smile before walking over to the horse and carriage that Dimitri was already in.
Anya's eyes were cast ahead, not daring to look at any of the family members, for fear her heart would break and she would fall back into that darkness. She tried to make herself dead upon the inside, to not let any tears fall for she knew that it were supposed to be a happy time for them moving to the countryside meant that Dimitri would get better, and live the rest of his days in peace and good health. The dear man had promised she would go to people who would take care of her and treat her kindly like he had done. It seems that he was most sad of all.
"Come on, Jack" Dorothy called to her brother. The boy looked back at her and then for the first time that day looked up at the girl would took care of him.
"Grand-dad said to give you a kiss for him" Going onto the tips of his toes, the boy lightly kissed her pale cheek and walked over to the carriage, getting inside. Swallowing the ball in her throat, Anya continued to blankly stare ahead. But something inside her made her turn her head to the carriage to see Dimitri looking out the window, right at her in solemn silence. The elder's skin more sickly than before, his throat sore and red looking but his eyes were strong. He too was holding back any emotion. The both of them stared at each other, their eyes speaking their emotion instead of their face. His eyes had a thin glaze of water over them, telling the story of how he had no choice and how sorry he really was to leave her behind when he had promised her everything would be okay.
But of course, nothing was ever certain.
The two held each other's gaze, Anya's eyes weakly looking at his as a sad smile came to her lips.
'Don't go...' She begged through her eyes.
But he was gone.
The carriage was pulled away, never for her eyes to see again.
Anastasia, the last flower of the rare Moonthorne clan, did not go to the kind hearted people that Dimitri had promised her. The people whom he spoke to, lied to be normal farmers, but in reality they were men who recruited lower beings for human slavery. They used humans to pull their carts, build houses and deliver back food for not themselves but those who controlled them. Anya had been situated in the group who delivered the goods to those higher up from her; the ones who held the whips.
With the frost biting at her feet, having nothing but rags to hide her body, she carried the sack of grain on her back, being hundreds of metres behind the rest of the slaves as she heaved quietly for air, seeing puffs of white every time she tried. A man on his horse was behind her, continuing to whip at the backs of her legs to make her catch up. He yelled, shouted and bellowed at her, unaware that she was in a state that made her unable to hear anything around her.
Her legs hurt. They ached, pleading to stop by shaking. Her whole body shook as the blood trickled down her legs from the whip lashes until she could no longer feel them. One foot came off the ground in pain. Anya tried to press it back onto the ground but because of the weight on her back and soaring pain flowing through her body, no such thing could happen. The sack of grain slipped from her back and she fell down to her knees, her eye sight making her see things in slow motion. Eventually the side of her body hit the ground and she laid there on the dirt, with cuts and bruises all over, unable to carry anything any more.
Her thoughts took her to a place of white, dots falling from the sky, where a man whom she knew was waiting there for her. She couldn't recognise him, however. But with that icy gaze of blue and crown of autumn thorns, she knew he made her feel safe enough to sleep.
No excuse can be given for my absence other than college work. It's now summer break and I intend to finish this story. This is not a spoiler, however you readers deserve to know so you will not lose interest in this story; but Anastasia and Thranduil will see each other again in the next chapter. ^_^
As a few of my readers have kindly reasoned with me on this decision, I have decided that in future chapters there will not be any smut due to it going against the style of writing I have used and how it would just be out of place because this is a ROMANTIC story, not a smut story.
And Aries, thank you for all your kind words. You're a sweetheart.
But lastly, I know I write this way too often, but THANK YOU. Everyone. I honestly mean it. For just bearing with me. I'm now back and here to regularly update :) New chapter already being written.