Disclaimer: I don't own Sindrian/Quenya or whatever form of elvish I'm using or LotR, not that I wouldn't mind. I also do not own any of the books mentioned or their authors.
A/N: Hehe, had to write this at some point. Anyway, anything with a * next to it I could not translate into elvish, not that I didn't try for ages.
I'm NOT an Elf!
Liz slunk from her bed that Monday morning, wishing that she could have gotten more sleep that night. For some odd reason, she had kept hearing odd voices speaking to her in an odd language throughout the night which kept her from doing anything but doze for a half hour at a time. It didn't matter much in the end, she decided. She was always tired at school. It wasn't as though anyone would notice a difference. She spoke little, focusing on keeping awake as she got ready and waited for Kathy to arrive at her house.
"I'm going to Cancun!" she greeted semi-cheerily, only to be turned around to go to the car, where Blaine was already waiting. They still had a minute to wait before Liz's little brother, Charlie, finally came and got in before they finally left for school.
The morning went by quickly and slowly at the same time, dragging on during work and speeding fast through conversations with friends. Desktop that day they explored a new program used to create graphics and posters. Liz had spent the majority of the time creating odd shapes rather than working on the actual project, but did not worry because it seemed easy enough to accomplish and it shouldn't take her more than a class or two to complete it. Once desktop finally wound to an end, the students were ushered to their next classes by the bell.
Liz took her seat and chatted with Ann and Cristina, waiting for Mr. Wood to begin the class, though secretly she really wished that he wouldn't. He was a truly boring teacher who could not seem to understand that no one in the class was taking it of their own free will and thought that history was a wonderful subject. For most, it was quite the opposite.
It was half way through class by the time he finished with the homework discussion and it took another ten minutes to discuss a three minute in class assignment before they had their own free time to work and chat with their friends. Liz tapped Ann on the shoulder as she and Cristina began on the mini project assigned. "Guess what," she said with a slight mischievous smile. Before Ann had a chance to guess, she said, "I memorized that first bit of the Lord of the Rings Script."
"Oh dear," she said, her face a mirror of disbelief.
Peredhel, you are mine, the odd voice that had kept Liz up all night proclaimed loudly, or at least more so than it had been all day while laying down a very quiet chant which Liz ignored until it became little more than a gentle hum. She ignored the voice even now, though it was a surprise for her mind to have fallen so quiet at it's departure.
"Well, let's hear it, I guess," she said, a bit worried that Liz's sanity had been compromised. She had threatened to bring in an entire script today, or at least memorize the entire first speech at the beginning.
"I amar prestar aen," Liz recited. "Han mathon ne nen. Han mathon ne chae. A han noston ned gwilith. Much* taus eru nadhor si hiam an alpen si cuinar taus garo enyalie ha."
"Wow," Cristina said in amazement. "You've seen that movie way too many times."
"No, it was off a script, right?" Ann said, turning to Liz for clarification. Liz only nodded and turned back to her work as Mr. Wood came over to check and make sure they were all doing their work.
The bell went only a few minutes later and they scattered from the class to get their lunch, all meeting up again with all of their friends in the second floor common area, the Quiet Area which never kept it's namesake. Leigh and Louise were once more talking about Leigh's boyfriend as usual and everyone else seemed to be pretty much minding their own business. Janet had somehow managed to pull Nicole from her book to watch the Olympics on the television screen above them.
Ruth came up behind Liz and put a hand on her head for no apparent reason, as she did so often since she had come back. Once Liz finally was able to poke her in the leg enough, Ruth lifted her hand and sat down next to her bag and Liz. "Hey elf girl," she said with a smile, knowing just how much it annoyed her.
"UMIN edhel!" Liz protested in a growl. Ruth looked at her oddly but didn't make any further comment aloud. Liz let herself be bothered by it for about five seconds longer before shaking it off. It's not like I wanted one of my ears to be pointed.
Liz made her way over to Janet and Nicole. "I telio?" she asked, trying to make heads and tails of the red and white teams on the ice and checked to make sure that they were not watching the American channel. For a moment, she thought she saw a blue dot highlighting the black puck on the white ice.
At first the pair ignored her, but she tried a second time, tapping them both hard on the shoulders and asking again.
Janet and Nicole looked at her in extreme puzzlement. "What?" Janet asked.
"I telio?" Liz asked for the third time, growing annoyed at repeating herself.
"Yeah," Janet said sarcastically with a nod. "How about in English this time?"
Liz looked at her judgingly, and then at Nicole who's face was a mirror of puzzlement. "An agor," she said weakly.
"You're talking in elvish!" Nicole declared, recognizing the language. "Where did you learn that? I couldn't quite make it out from the appendix in the back of the book."
Both Liz and Janet looked at her blankly. "When did you read Tolkien?" Janet asked. "You haven't finished with the Tamora Pierce books yet."
"Oh, I just read those at lunch here," Nicole replied dismissively. "At home I've read Tolkien, Brooks, Piers, Salvator, and I'm half way through The Mists of Avalon." At both of their blank gawking stares, she asked, "What?"
Janet turned to Liz and muttered, "We should have known."
Liz only nodded in agreement, not trusting herself to speak. When had she begun to speak in elvish, and why didn't she know about it? Moreover, why had no one told her about it? More importantly, how did this happen? She didn't even know elvish beyond the few things she had looked up in the back of The Silmarillion.
"Man…?" she asked defeatedly, but expected no one to answer her.
"Hey, there was this theory in an astrophysics paper about wormholes I read a week ago that might help. If it's right, there should be a wormhole to the Lord of the Rings world in the construction area by the computer rooms. There, we could find someone who could understand her and find a way to fix her."
"Men gwanno, taare" Liz said, not bothering to be question anything, including the fact that Nicole had managed to understand an astrophysics book.
Janet and Nicole clearly got the meaning and picked up their bags. Liz went to the other side of the group to where she had left hers and retrieved it. There were a number of customary, "Where are you going?"s exchanged and Liz left it to the other two to explain as best they could.
"We're going on a quest," Janet said with a smile across her face. "Anyone want to join us?"
"You're just going to the library again," Louise stated.
"No, we're going on a quest to make Liz speak English," Nicole interrupted.
"Ammen toi," Liz added, regardless of whether or not they could understand her. "Thenid."
"We are," Nicole added insistently. "Really."
"You're faking," Kathy said.
"An iest," Liz muttered in a retort.
Once they were thoroughly convinced that Liz was indeed not faking and that there was something wrong (by making her go up to Ms. Peters and inquire about her mark without laughing her head off, which she would have done under false circumstances), Kathy, Ruth, Louise and Leigh agreed to join them. Together, they managed to make their way around the duty teachers and into the construction area of the school which would one day hold new classrooms. They were lucky that the workers working on the section Nicole lead them through was off on their lunch breaks.
"Okay, it should be right at this post," Nicole said, indicating a post ahead of them. She went first, putting a tentative hand through it, then pulling back quickly before rushing in. The rest followed one by one, Leigh being the last. "I always thought these things would be more like in the cartoons," she commented before following.
A/N: Yeah…. I don't know what that was, but next chapter we will be meeting up with our favorite LotR characters. And next time I am definitely NOT going to be translating everything in elvish. If I can't find my way around the font thing, I'll find some way.