Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own any of the character, places, names, or anything associated with the works of J.R.R Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings (books or movie, whatever). My characters are Anita, Leila, and Arlandria and that is all.

Author's Note: I know it's redundant but I have to give credit where credit is due, the song featured in this chapter is (you guessed it) Far From Home by Five Finger Death Punch.

Chapter 7: Far From Home

Legolas gently knocked on the pale wood of the door jam, merely a formality since everyone in the room was surely already aware of his presence.

"Ah Prince Legolas, please come in." At Elrond's beckoning, Legolas entered into his hosts' study, where Elladan and Gandalf were already awaiting his arrival. He gave a small bow in greeting out of respect to the others in the room before taking a seat on a cushioned bench.

"We were all quite curious about how yesterday's travels with my daughter went." Elladan removed himself from the book shelf he had been browsing through to take a seat across from the young prince.

"Your daughter Anita is quite spirited." Legolas was unsure how much of the conversation that had taken place between himself and the young girl he should reveal, and therefore tried to keep it as neutral as possible.

"So we are all coming to find." Elrond's voice replied from behind his heavy oaken desk, barely sparing a glance from the scroll he was reading.

"Anita does have her mother's spirit. More to the point, I was curious if she had spoken about her time here in Rivendell?"

Legolas hesitated to answer. Anita had of course spoken to him in confidence believing their conversation would stay between them, but Legolas wasn't in the practice of dodging direct questions. "Yes Lady Anita spoke quite, ahem… forcefully about it."

Elladan sighed heavily in response to Legolas' statement. "Their mother insisted on waiting until they had grown and that was a wish I respected, however now it seems I may have waited too long to bring them home."

"If I may," Legolas started, "Your daughter was very clear on the point that she felt she had no place here in Rivendell."

"No place?" Elladan actually scoffed, "I have done everything to make my daughters feel welcome here."

"I did not mean to say you had not made them welcome. As you told me, Lady Leila has shown an interest in studying healing under Lord Elrond's tutelage, Anita feels there is no place like that for her here, that there is no place she 'fits'."

"No place…." Elladan rubbed his chin and looked very thoughtful. "Thank you Legolas , this is very insightful information."

Legolas understood this was his cue to leave. Standing and giving another small bow of respect, the young prince exited the room silently. Part of him felt a twinge of guilt at only telling his friend half the truth about his daughter. Anita didn't feel like she belonged, that much was very true, but the answer to her behavior was far more simple than that. Anita felt utterly alone. At first Legolas hadn't seen it, for being still devoid of her Elvish features the girl had done an amazing job of masking her feelings of loneliness behind a cloud of anger and hatred. She had slipped for one second, one moment in time when those clouds of anger had parted and Legolas had seen through. When Anita had spoken of her sister, 'Leila was my family, now she's one of them', it had shown Anita at her most vulnerable.

Legolas was pulled out of his train of thought by a faint sound, a sound similar to music but not from an instrument he was overly familiar with. Curiosity won him over and the young prince followed the sounds through the halls of house until he came to a small enclave. Ani sat at the large piano, playing a very simple melody on the black and white keys. On the piano bench next to her sat a sketch pad and a bunch of charcoal pencils held together by a rubber band.

"You play very well Lady Anita." Ani didn't jump this time, but the melody stopped and her fingers slid from the keys before turning to look at Legolas.

"I'm out of practice. Since I started playing guitar I haven't spent a whole lot of time at a piano."

"One would hardly notice." The prince stepped into the music room and took a seat on a green chaise that was next to the piano. His eyes fell onto the sketch pad, which was open to a blank page.

Ani's eyes followed his gaze and sighed, "I tried to draw this morning, but I just…couldn't. Figured I should give this another try." And gestured to the grand instrument in front of her. After her time outside Rivendell yesterday, she had been so hopeful that maybe the juices would start flowing again and she could draw, draw something or draw anything. No such luck. Between the two evils, fighting herself to try and force some kind of artistic inspiration or the piano which sat as the symbol of everything wrong with her relationship with Elladan, Anita had chosen the piano.

"May I?" Legolas inquired as he reached for the sketch pad, Ani shrugged and nodded. As Legolas gingerly flipped through the pages of the sketch pad eyeing the finished pieces, Anita's finger found their way back to the piano keys, and unbidden began to play a very familiar sequence of notes. Most people, Ani knew, had a hard time with the concept of rock music being played on a piano, but Anita found that it wasn't so hard for her to take the music from one instrument and adjust it to a new sound. It had always been one of her favorite songs, even before all this mess with her father and Rivendell, and now it struck very close to home. As her fingers continued to play the opening sequence, her voice soon joined the accord….

Another day in this carnival of souls
Another night settles in as quickly as it goes
The memories of shadows, ink on the page
And I can't seem to find my way home

And it's almost like
Your heaven's trying everything
Your heaven's trying everything
To keep me out

All the places I've been and things I've seen
A million stories that made up a million shattered dreams
The faces of people I'll never see again
And I can't seem to find my way home

Cause it's almost like
Your heaven's trying everything to break me down
Cause it's almost like
Your heaven's trying everything to keep me out

Your heaven's trying everything
Your heaven's trying everything to break me down

As the notes faded out , Ani seemed to remember she wasn't alone and turned a red face to Legolas to mumble a bashful, "sorry."

"Do not be sorry. Clearly you have many talents." As he spoke, Legolas flipped her sketchpad around to indicate one of her pictures. It was one of Ani's favorites, and the only sketch she had thusfar added color to. It was of a Jumping Cholla cactus in bloom, and she had colored the flowers fuchsia, true to real life. The little pop of color was such a stark contrast to the deep shadows and lines the charcoal had created as an environment.

"Ah the Jumping Cholla. That's one of the more infamous southwest plants. It had hundreds of these big spines and each spine had thousands of microscopic barbs, they hurt so bad when they stuck to you and it takes forever to get them out of your skin once they 'jump' you. Most people avoid those things like the plague, can't give it enough room. It looks a lot less threatening when it's in bloom."

"Your home truly was your muse." It was true. Well over half of all her sketches were of the Arizona landscape, between gnarled mesquite trees and cactus to rocky mountain paths.

"I told you…I look for the beauty in what other people find off putting."

"That in itself is a talent most people so not possess…most Elves…" He quietly corrected himself as he continued to look through her sketches.

"Would you like to see more of my work?" The way Ani perked up when Legolas nodded his head was like a flower receiving water after a long drought, the elf mused to himself. She barely remembered to close the lid to the piano keys and grab her sketching materials before she was out the door, it surprised Legolas to see such a spark of excitement in the girl. Once they had reached her bedroom, Anita immediately dropped to the floor beside her bed and wrestled a large black backpack out from under the four poster bed frame.

Sitting beside Legolas on her bed, Ani produced no fewer than six large books from within the back pack. Selecting one at random, Legolas opened it to discover a collection of small paintings.

"Oh I kinda went through a weird painting phase with that, it's mostly abstract stuff." Ani reached for the book but Legolas pulled it from her reach playfully and continued to flip through the pages, much to her chagrin. Unlike the rest of Anita's paintings which were landscape, most of these pictures had been her simply playing around with colors, shapes, and shadows. But it was plain to Legolas, that more than shadows and shapes, it was also raw emotion. The choice of color and even the way the brush strokes fell told an amazing and detailed story of the girl's inner turmoil.

"This is more than just art for you, is it not?" Ani knew what Legolas was asking her, and the fact that he asked meant he already knew the answer. Of course it was more than just a hobby or party trick, it many ways her art harbored her very soul.

"It was. I've hit a…writer's block, kind of. I haven't been able draw since I got here." Ani was eyeing the fresh pointy tips on her charcoal pencils that she had yet to wear down.

"Your home inspired so much of your talent, perhaps we simply need to find you a new muse to inspire you."

"We?"

"Your father, Lord Elladan, will hardly let you outside these walls by yourself." Ani was taken aback by his offer. After the whining she had to go through with Elladan just o have gone out for one day, and Legolas was here offering her a golden ticket to the outside world of his own free will.

"Really? I mean you wouldn't mind?"

"I myself find it difficult to remain confined within the walls of Rivendell for more than a day, and you have been here for far longer than that." Legolas saw it even as Anita turned to head to hide behind the cascade of black and purple hair. She smirked. It wasn't a full smile, but it was genuine. Standing up , Legolas handed her the book which held the paintings which she gladly accepted.

"Perhaps we could start tomorrow morning after breakfast?" Anita simply nodded in response as Legolas retreated to the door. He gave a small bow before turning and exiting her room to disappear down the hallway. Ani watched him disappear out the door when Leila's thin figure filled the door frame.

"What was that?" The fair haired twin asked as she turned to head to watch Legolas continue down the hall, then turned to give her twin a wicked smile.

"What?" Anita snapped back, any trace of mirth faded from her face and became a snarl instead. Lei simply laughed before winking at her sister and then turning to disappear into her own bedroom.

"Yeah like you fucking know anything!" Ani shouted at the already closed door to her sister's bedroom. Leila had always been one of those girls who bought into the Disney princess love stories, someday my prince will come and all that crap. For Ani though, romance was a myth that Hollywood had exploited to its max, and she would be damned if she bought into it. For once though, if nothing else, it would be nice to have an ally. Even if it had to come in the form of an elven prince.

Legolas slowly wandered back to his own quarters through the familiar halls. He knew Rivendell almost as well as he knew his own home in Mirkwood, so much thought wasn't needed to find his room. His thoughts drifted towards Anita and their time together tomorrow. As he walked across one of the many breezeways that overlooked Rivendell's atriums a voice drew his attention.

"Are you amusing yourself by entertaining Elladan's bastard child?" Legolas was taken by surprise to see none other than Glorfindel walking towards him.

"Pettiness does not suit you friend." Legolas had known the older Elf far too long to miss the subtle vibes of disdain that came off him whenever he was around one or the other of Elladan's daughters. That very first time he had met Anita, when Elladan had introduced them in the receiving hall, he had seen the look Glorfindel had on his face when Ani was introduced as a daughter of the household.

"Why do play along with this charade? They do not belong here. It is bad enough Lord Elrond humors the other one by teaching her Elven ways of healing, you certainly don't need to encourage that one as well." Glorfindel gestured in the direction Legolas had just come from, indicating that 'that one' was Anita.

"That savors strongly of bitterness. Arlandria made her choice many years ago, and you take your jealousy out on her daughters simply because they symbolize what you cannot have. Yes Arlandria made her choice, and it was not you, perhaps it is time to move forward from that." Legolas had a deep respect for the older Elf, and he could practically feel his own fathers disapproving glare he surely would have received for that little speech he had just made. Legolas however couldn't overlook the fact that Glorfindel's jealousy was affecting his behavior in a bad way.

"You are young," Glorfindel countered, not bothering to hide the wrath that was now boiling over within him, "I forget that love is still just a game to you. Love is nothing more than a few stolen hours in the night with a nameless face. Perhaps when you have something you truly cherish ripped away from you, young Prince, perhaps then you can honestly pass judgment about moving forward."

The older elf pushed passed Legolas and continued down the hall without a backward glance. Legolas was left to stand there alone, the sting from Glorfindel's truthful words still bruising his ego.

Far From Home- Five Finger Death Punch