A/N: Ug. I hate being an insomniac. Sleep has not been friendly this week. Guess I need to stock up on my chamomile again.

Now as I hope I have made obvious I write fanfiction for practice in the craft of writing. And if you like my writing style, my original works are much the same style, although varying subjects and genres. I just need to get over my own nerves and publish them. Can I get a supportive hug, please?

Also because my Ao3 readers have caught up with my readers you are now on the regular update schedule so you get parts of insanely long chapters. Cause 25+ pages in my writing program is a bit of an eye strain for me to write and edit each week. So love you all but I love not being sick all week from migraines and pain more.

Well on with the show and here we go! (I'm a poet and I didn't know it. Bad poet, but hey.)

Like, Subscribe, Favorite, Follow, Kudos and Review, (and consider following or supporting on P-atreon and Ko-fi. Cause you know adulting.)

Much Love

JR

P.s. P-atreon and Ko-fi update: Why aren't there tiers and goals yet on either? Mainly because I'm trying to get used to writing regularly on them. I don't want to promise my patrons something and not be able to deliver. So I'm working on building slowly and getting my routine down, then I will be doing some patron-only content like polls for story design and personalized thank-yous and inspiration videos or packages that contain some of the things that inspire each story and other various things. Maybe even some world-building polls. I dunno. I'm winging it. So hang in there with me, I'm still learning, and sign up to follow me so that when the tiers and goals go live you'd be the first to know. (Edit: There is a poll up on my P-atreon page now! You can help me choose my 2021 NaNoWriMo project!)

Pps. I've caught up on posting on my older stories to Ao3. I am now free to post any deleted "scenes" and extras in conjunction with the older stories and the ones I am currently working on. They will only appear after a story is completed. And after Patrons get the first crack at them. Sorry. What do I delete? Mainly anything that needs to be edited out to meet the rating rules on this site. But also little interesting snippets that just slowed down the pacing. I will not be posting them here on this site. Apologies. But it has more "interesting" rules.

Chapter 2

Caelann stared at the apple that Sherilynn was slicing into pieces as if she was about to bite it out of her hand, making Lynn quite nervous. Did she feel hunger in her state? That was not a complication that they were prepared to deal with. "You feeling okay there? Hungry? Thirsty?"

Blinking Caelann looked up, pulling her eyes away from the nearly dripping apple with effort. "Oh aye." She swallowed. "I think 'tis just the idea o' eating. I dinnae actually feel hungry but all I can think about is how good the food tasted here. Even Cram and tha' is truly saying something." Her mouth worked as if she tasted something… not bad exactly, just bland. Then, thinking about Beorn's giant hives and the golden flowing honey that the bees gave him, she wanted to weep. She wouldn't get the chance to taste it.

Maybe she could convince Thranduil to trade for some. Honey didn't go bad after all. She hoped.

"You sure?" Sherilynn asked, studying her. "You were feeling pain before. You sure you're okay now? You can rest longer if you need to."

"Pain is still there," the queen admitted. "But 'tis manageable at the moment." Swallowing, she turned away from staring at the apple. No use making her craving for food, or anything else now that she thought about it, worse by staring at it. "Now let's look at the wee problem o' you no singing. Why ye stopped singing is important but 'tis yer own business unless ye see fit to explain." Watching carefully, with the eyes of a trained healer that could watch without seeming to, she noticed Lynn relax as she popped a slice of apple into her mouth. "So we'll go on to what the music of Arda is. What do ye believe it ta be? What style of music I mean?"

Stunned by the question, and having no real frame of reference, Sherilynn looked down at her hands in her lap. Sitting in the garden as the sun rose and the day came alive, she thought back to a time long ago in her own life when her mother was alive and they were in a similar place and closed her eyes to listen in a way she hadn't for so very long. And it hurt to think of the memories. It ached in her chest and made tears sting at her eyes as they welled in the corners of them even as she tried to listen to the world around them. "I dunno." She whispered. "Classical, maybe. Opera even."

Opening her eyes she saw the queen smiling happily.

"You were trying to hear the music." Caelann nodded. "'Tis good." Reaching over to Lynn's folded hands, she squeezed them softly. Or at least she tried to and for a moment Lynn could feel a slight warmth, no pressure yet. "And 'tis but 'tisn't. No for us at least. Think jazz and jam sessions."

She jumped at the thought. It was so foreign. The elves felt like opera. Each one she had been around she could almost hear a soloist's voice swelling and falling with every movement they did or word they spoke. She hadn't met any of the other races yet but even in their other world, the elves had reminded her of opera. So had the dwarves and hobbits. Elves sounded like string instruments in her head. Dwarves had sounded like the percussion section of an orchestra with their hammers and anvils. And hobbits? They had always reminded her of woodwinds. Flutes and piccolos especially. Humans were brass. At least watching them in the movies they did.

Gandalf had always reminded her of a conductor. But if the song was more of a jazz piece? And it wasn't an organized piece but a jam session? Well that changed the picture, didn't it?

"What instrument are we then?"

"Any that works in the situation." Her friend's eyes danced gleefully. "Close yer eyes and listen again knowing that. Listen to the swelling sound of the sun and the tiny voices of the leaves as they turn to greet it." She began, pointing to the softest tones of the song of the world. It was like teaching someone to see again after so long in the darkness, she thought when Sherilynn closed her eyes again. "Start with the smallest notes."

For a time, she heard just the breeze that gently stirred the dew-covered grasses around them. In frustration, Sherilynn squeezed her eyes shut until her eyes began to ache from the strain of it. "Breathe," Caelann whispered and warmth brushed over her eyes. "Relax and just breathe."

She did as she was told, but knowing that it wouldn't be any easier than some of her clients learning to walk again, she folded her legs under her and buried her hands in the soft grasses. Focusing on her breath and the almost velvet texture of the blades beneath her fingers, it became almost like meditation for her. She had never had an easy time of it in yoga class when it came to that part. But somewhere between minute one and hour two, she heard it. A tiny whisper.

Her eyes popped open with a start. "What was that?"

"What did it sound like?" The smile was softer this time. Not overly excited, like all of a sudden Caelann expected Sherilynn to begin singing and dancing like a Disney princess with woodland creatures skipping about her heels. But she looked more like a patient mother ready to sip her tea while her child told her all about their exciting first day at school.

Snorting, after all, it was kind of true in a way, Lynn looked down at grass again. "Like something was whispering to me."

"Was it a spoken whisper or was there a tune?" Caelann asked. Her nearly electric green eyes shone serious and grave from her countenance.

Unable to put a word to what she had heard, Sherilynn hummed it. The rise and fall of the tiny little sound echoing in her head. At a quiet chuckle from her companion, she blinked in surprise. "You don't have to laugh at me."

"I'm no laughing at ye," Caelann assured, pressing her incorporeal hand to the other woman's arm. "The grass and leaves were waking up. That's what ye heard and no even the elves hear that anymore. As far as I know only the eldest o' them eve' remember that the trees can talk, let alone sing. So ta ha'e ye hear the grass and leaves singing to the morn' sun?" As she talked, her excitement made the rolling tones of her highland burr run thicker and more pronounced until Sherilynn had to strain to make out her meaning. "I'm thrilled! No laughing at ye."

"Shouldn't it be easier to hear the song though?"

Eyebrows knitting together, Caelann lay her head on her shoulder confusion suffusing her gaze. "Why would it?"

"Cause that's what we were made to do here?" Lynn said, confused herself now. "Isn't it?"

"Aye 'tis." Her friend agreed slowly. "But that does no make it easy. Like any skill, ye must practice it. It took me near twenty years of traveling the length and breadth of Arda and sailing to the dark lands and back to Numenor to get the hang of hearing the song. And then it took me near losing one of my traveling companions and desperation to know how to sing. Ye've been at this a day." Snorting, she rolled her eyes. "Dinnae be so arrogant to think ye'll understand everything and do it perfectly right out o' the gate. It takes time."

Impatiently, Sherilynn pushed to her feet and shoved the last bite of apple into her mouth. "We don't have years for me to get the hang of this. The expedition to Erebor will happen in less than a month. I will have to be ready by then and you know it." She growled, shoving a frustrated hand through her hair.

"And ye will be," Caelann assured, not moving from her place on the grass. "But fashin 'bout it will do ye no good."

Sherilynn only growled as a gentle breeze began dancing around the trees and through her hair. A deep rumbling chuckle crept along on its heels and made her whip around to the trees that bordered the gardens.

Glorfindel in all his shining glory stood leaning against the trunk of one of the ancient trees as if he had sprouted from it. "I guess the Queen has not given you her lecture about unnecessary haste making waste then." He stood, rolling his shoulders under the padded gambeson that had seen more than a few battles before he strode into the clearing. "If I remember correctly it was very succinct. Along the lines of 'less haste, more speed.'"

Picking up one of the slices of cheese that Sherilynn had been having for breakfast and quickly popped it into his mouth before he nodded to the invisible queen. "Majesty. Apologies for my tardiness. I had to make sure my second could handle the guard training today."

Smiling indulgently, Caelann nodded, a tiny glimmer dancing away in the corner of her eyes. "I was just about to tell Sherilynn that you had agreed to help make sure she could handle herself on a quest beginning this morning." Danger flashed in Sherilynn's eyes but Caelann continued as if she hadn't seen it. Although it seemed she fooled no one as both the guard captain and the pink-haired singer shared an assessing look. "After all not only does she need armor and weapons, but a mount and someone needs to make sure she can handle herself against goblins, orcs, and spiders. And who better than you, my dear captain?"

"Flattery," he snorted, not fooled at all by her attempt at guile considering her had seen her at one point covered in black blood and standing in mud that reached her knees. Her arms had been shaking from so long on the field and a gash had cut her cheek. He wasn't blind, that female that he had known then looked stronger than before, even with the web of scars that he noticed curling up her neck and into her face. He had recognized those scars. Fire, and a bad enough one to leave not just raised scars but to leave depressions where once there had been smooth skin. "Will get you no where. And I already admitted the wisdom of your suggestion."

Turning to the female in question, Glorfindel looked her from the top of her pink head to the tips of her toes hidden among the damp morning grasses. "You said she is the one who helped you get back to full health?" He asked, blatant disbelief coloring his question.

She flushed, not needing him to put his doubt into words. "I can handle anything you throw at me, Captain."

An acknowledging nod paired with a somewhat skeptical lift of one brow was the only answer she received to her somewhat petulant assertion. "The queen vouches for you." He said on a weighted breath, popping a small berry into his mouth with relish. "'Tis good enough for me." Without warning, he reached out and caught first one in an assessing hold, then the other. "Right hand dominant. That will be a problem. You need both hands in battle. Either to hold a shield or another weapon."

"She's a dual wielder," Caelann added, staring at one of the berries that was as big as her thumb and an almost jewel-like purplish black. Wrenching her eyes away, she looked back to the golden captain. "She needs a fully articulated breastplate. Her style of fighting is very bendy."

"I started with Asian martial arts." Sherilynn ground out defensively, even though only one of the beings she spoke to understood what she meant. "You know this."

"Again, very bendy." Caelann shrugged, biting the inside of her lip as she tried to touch one of the berries. They were small and she wondered if maybe, just maybe she could feel it if she concentrated. "I quite like the Caribbean one you do. Have no talent for it mysel' but I like watching it." Distracted by her goal, she addressed Glorfindel again. "She'll need hardened leather guards over her shins and arms. I'd say metal but…"

"Not if she needs to move quickly." He agreed. "The extra weight would just fatigue her quicker."

"I'd be able to keep up just fine." Sherilynn hissed through her teeth. She hated it when people talked about her like she wasn't there.

"I agree," Caelann lay a hand on her friend's knee without looking away from the berry. "Sherilynn has amazing stamina. I was thinking more along the lines of the metal would make rock and tree climbing more troublesome."

Mouth dropping slightly, Sherilynn nodded. "I forgot all about that."

"Rock and tree climbing?" Glorfindel asked, swiping the berry that Caelann had been trying to move which earned him a hiss.

Turning a baleful look on the lord, Caelann squeezed Sherilynn's knee before she answered. The slight warmth of the contact turning hotter, like standing next to a bonfire Sherilynn thought, understanding the cue before said anything about future events. "Singer thing." Was all she said instead.

A bit spitefully, Glorfindel swiped the last of the sliced apple and popped it into his mouth.

While Lynn narrowed her eyes and was about to snap at the elon, Caelann interrupted with a tired sigh. "Hungry, Lord Glorfindel?" She turned to her friend without waiting for the reply. "Ye'll hae to forgive his lack o' manners. He can't help it. Chasing all those orcs away from Rivendell tends to make those manners get a bit rusty."

Chastened, he put the bit of cloud-soft bread he had been about to stuff into his mouth down with a cough. "Are you ready to visit the armorers? It is best to do so before they get swarmed by the guards needing repairs. If you are, you will need to change into what you intend to travel in so they can measure you."

With a nod, she stood.