By Elelome
(surely even elvish maidens can be playful)
Arwen caught hold of a low hanging branch and swung herself up into the golden-leaved tree. Deliberately, she climbed up as far as she could go, until the slender branches would no longer hold the weight of even a fifty-year-old elven girl.
Dark hair streaming back into the wind, she looked out over the land, pretending for a moment that she was Luthien imprisoned in Hirilorn, plotting to get away to her lover. Leaves spun in the breeze, some twisting loose from their tenous perch on the branches, flying down to the ground, lazily.
A voice called out to her suddenly, and she laid a hand on the branch to steady herself before looking down.
"Sister! You're too old to climb trees!" the laughing voice of Elladan greeted her.
"Am not!" she shouted back down at him.
"Are too!" he said, and he was suddenly swinging up the branches to her perch.
"Playing at being Luthien again, sister?" he asked, running a hand over his sweaty brow.
"Yes, a little," she said. "What have you been doing today?"
"Receiving messages," he said. "The Eagles told us today that Galadriel is coming to Rivendell to visit Mother and us!"
Arwen clapped her hands together, eagerly. "What fun!"
Then she began climbing back down the tree.
"What are you doing?" Elladan asked, bemused, watching her.
"We've got so much to do," she said. "Let's go!"
"Arwen, they won't be here for another four weeks...."
"And that's about how long it's going to
take me to clean my room," Arwen said, laughing. "Come on!"
