A/N: I'm back baby.
"..."-Joseph Sage. Thank you! More are on the way :)
"..."-Falconress. Yes! I'll have to do much less research for this portion lol. And glad to hear it!
"..."-Housten. Oh thank you :) I'm not sure if there's a good type of insane, but I'll take it lol.
"..."- Guest the First. He probably won't recognize her, you'll see why in this chapter, but it's definitely possible that they met at some point previously. He might be ;) Persephone is pretty well known throughout elven circles, especially surviving noldor. Galadrial and Elrond definitely know of her, even if they never met before. And of course, I'm looking forward to writing that particular scene lol.
"..."-Angelmermaid4574. No problem! It should be interesting for sure lol. I appreciate your analysis, I guess we'll have to wait and see what the updated ruling is soon!
"..."-Helkil. The creation of things in Arda is pretty reserved to Eru, in more ways than one. Although she probably has the ability to create things, it would really be Eru working through her. The conception of anything she would create would be based upon Eru's creations, and therefore mostly his. Sorry to get all philosophical but in short, yes and no? There's not really a clear answer to that; although hopefully that made sense!
"..."-Guest The II. Arda operates on a different plane that earth, she could conceivably go back at any time she wanted, although going back to the past would be a bad idea. Because she was originally, at least partially, transported to Arda by Kronos; she is suspended out of earth time and therefore can go back whenever it suits her. The rest of the questions will be answered by updates in the distant future, I don't want to spoil too much ;)
"..."-JessSlytherin. Thank you! I'm so glad my writing can have that effect on people :)
"..."- David12leca. Thank you so much! Both of your comments were so sweet :) Haha don't drink too much though; water that Jameson down with ginger ale or something ;)
"..."-Guest the III. Technically yes? But I don't think she really cares all that much about titles and rank etc. Although a scene like that may occur ;)
All right, onto the story!
As I made my way down the winding road I became astutely aware of a change in the air, the world felt different, older somehow; as if it was drained of its magic and its life.
The trees were duller than I remembered and the songbirds sang less clearly. It felt like everything was more muted, more gray than it had been before.
I shrugged it off as mere being nostalgic for older times, and being asleep for thousands of years. If I was a betting girl I would say that my senses may have been a bit off, but all speculation.
I continued my leisurely stroll down the winding road, not really sure where I was going; but not really caring either.
It occurred to me that I was supposed to be incognito, but I was still very much recognizable as myself.
It wouldn't do me much good to help discreetly if I walked into the nearest elven city, and was immediately recognized; if any elves were alive that remembered me that is.
I concentrated, feeling every aspect of the body that I currently inhabited.
I willed my body to change, becoming taller, a little less lithe. I held out my arms in front of me to examine them, they were pretty much the same, wiry forearms dotted with light hair leading to slender hands.
My hair had changed from a raven black to a light brown and my eyes, although still green, were less intense as they were before.
The armor I was still clad in was uncomfortable, now being stretched from my extra height, it also wouldn't do me much good for me to be wearing my old equipment.
I waved my hand and the armor disappeared, replaced by a light blue tunic and robes, with a wool traveling cloak wrapped around my back, it was decently chilly after all.
I was pretty satisfied with my new appearance, even though it felt weird to be inhabiting a body that wasn't really you, I'm sure it would take me a bit to get used to doing stuff in this new form, but it was worth anonymity.
I had forgotten one thing though, I concentrated again, and felt my ears elongate to a point; I would be subject to uncomfortable questions as an immortal member of the Edain.
At last it was all taken care of. My walk along the road had carried me through maybe a quarter mile of forest by now, the colors of the trees were still beyond description, like a watercolor of maple oak and ash, all blending together for an incredible landscape.
Up ahead the trees disappeared over the horizon, there must be a cliff of some sort, hopefully the road went around it, I wasn't really in the mood to jump off tall ledges.
As I got closer to the horizon line the air got incrementally more moist and the deep constant rumbling of a waterfall reported through the forest.
My calves burned slightly as I climbed the steep hill in front of the cliff, and oh man was it a cliff. I came to a stop at the top of the hill, the road curved to the right, but up ahead was a large drop into a canyon that held a swift river.
The real wonder was beyond that though, a small collection of beautifully designed buildings was perched on the side of a waterfall, the water plummeting around a hundred feet down to the river below.
The buildings looked very eleven in construction, perfect; the pillars that held up small overhangs looked as if they were grown from trees, the wood curving and intertwining so naturally, yep definitely eleven construction.
As far as I knew men didn't have the will or the skill to construct such buildings. I followed the road up alongside the edge of the canyon, no guard rail or anything, these guys liked to live on the edge I guess.
I paused for a moment, looking at the thundering water as it passed over the lip of the river and crashed on the rocks below; Yavanna must be proud to have such a cool domain.
The now narrower road, more of a path at this point, led to a small arched stone bridge above the falls.
The small stone supports looked like they wanted to be swept away by the raging water flowing past them, but that was all perception, right?
I mean worst case scenario, I fall in, go over the falls, and am immediately healed. It obviously wouldn't be fun, but whatever.
I placed one cautious foot on the bridge, and feeling that it was deceptively sturdy, I walked the rest of the way over it.
Almost as soon as I stepped over, the aura changed, the air was brighter, full of life; and soft voices carried by the wind flowed over the small town.
It seemed like the magic was back in the world; I breathed deeply, savoring the fresh air and almost walked into one of the statues on the sides of the path, very graceful Percy, hopefully nobody saw that.
Luckily, it looked like nobody was watching, great. The path led to a stone courtyard, then beyond that a gatehouse; which it seemed that the rest of the town would be behind.
I approached the gatehouse, still in awe at the amazingly elegant construction of the place.
Nobody seemed to be guarding the entrance, and the swooping wrought iron gates were open, so I just walked through.
Right as I passed through the gate, a heavily armored elf literally jumped out in front of me, he must've come from the stairs behind the building or something.
I must've jumped around a foot in surprise; very much not expecting anyone to jump scare me, I thought that was generally limited to horror movies.
I tried to mask my shock, probably very ineffectively. "Good evening, what brings you to Imladris?" The guard asked.
I didn't want to stand there and think of an answer so I just said; "Hello, I was just uh- wandering." The elf raised an eyebrow, or at least I thought he did, kinda hard to tell when he was wearing a helmet.
"In that case, I will take you to Lord Elrond, wanderers are generally incapable of finding this valley without direction."
"Oh fantastic, I guess I'm just special." It was a joke, a pretty obvious one I thought, but he didn't laugh.
I had forgotten how some elves were total killjoys; oh well.
As we walked through what I know knew to be called Imladris I was increasingly stunned by the beauty of the buildings, the stonework, everything.
The amount of time that must've gone into everything was impressive, I had visited a few elven cities years ago, but they were never crafted to the same standard as this.
Granted; the elven cities I had been to previously were much bigger and most likely couldn't dedicate as much time to architecture as they did to building walls and forging weapons; products of the times I suppose.
I followed the elf up a long curving set of stairs to the elf equivalent of a patio. Two tall figures were standing at the edge of the platform, deep in discussion.
Two more elves, hopefully these are a bit more fun than the last one. The two people had apparently heard us coming and turned around, it quickly became clear that one of them was not an elf, at least if his long slightly unkempt beard was anything to go by.
The Guard paused at the top of the stair and announced; "My Lord Elrond, a visitor."
Who must have been Lord Elrond replied. "Thank you Tirith." The guard nodded and turned around, heading back down the stairs, I smiled slightly at him, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly in reaction; huh, maybe there was hope for him after all.
I stepped up onto the platform, striding over to Elrond, extending my arm.
He and I grasped forearms, and I stepped back.
"It is a pleasure Lord Elrond."
I turned to the other man, extending an arm; "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." He instead grasped my hand, how odd, if I remember correctly handshakes were generally rare here.
"Gandalf is what most people call me; and yours?" I briefly considered making up a new name but decided it would be too complicated; I would definitely forget that people were talking to me if I said my name was Meg or something.
"Persephone, but please call me Percy." Our hands disconnected and I stepped back.
"Good to meet you Percy." Gandalf said, that was a pretty cool name, If I ever have kids I'm definitely naming at least one Gandalf.
Elrond looked intrigued and he subtly peered at me.
"An interesting name Percy."
"Thank you, my namesake was certainly a character." I really had to work at suppressing a laugh at my own statement, I wasn't wrong though.
"Indeed, I am curious though. Where are you from, you do not resemble a Silvan elf."
Oh no.
A/N: Alright, so quick chapter there, hopefully you guys liked it! Where we are time-wise will probably be revealed in the next chapter. Until next time!