A/N: Am I getting this right? Er... I hope so! =) Please r/r, as always...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 2- Fairy Tales
( "And yet--and yet--it's rather curious, you know,
this sort of life! I do wonder what can have happened to me!
When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened,
and now here I am in the middle of one!
There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought!
And when I grow up, I'll write one--but I'm grown up now..." )
She groaned as she felt herself once more rising to consciousness.
No, let me stay asleep, she thought but eventually her mind unfolded itself into wakefulness. She opened her eyes and blinked up at the curved ceiling above her. A scene of summer clouds had been painted there and they looked so real that for a moment it seemed as if the clouds were actually moving.
But she blinked again and realized that it was merely the skill of a very talented painter.
"Michelangelo. Reubens. Di Vinci." she said the names as they floated up to the surface of her mind. A familiar name. A safe name. "Luke.. no, Lah.. Leh.. Leonardo? Leonardo Di Vinci?"
"Is that your name?"
She sat up with a start and her eyes grew wide at the sight of the man, no- the elf, sitting on a chair near her.
It was Legolas, the man, no- elf, from the forest.
She was no longer in the forest.
She quickly glanced around her, trying to orient herself and found that she was in a small yet richly furnished bedroom. A large window to her left had been thrown open and the early morning sunlight filtered through cheerfully. She looked down around her body and saw that she was in a bed, covered with thick, dark blue blankets and sheets. It was the softest material she had ever encountered, of that she was sure, and she moved her legs around underneath the material to marvel at the feel of it against her skin.
She looked down at her arms and realized that she was no longer wearing the familiar clothing from before.
She was in a nightgown and this made her uneasy.
Someone had changed her?
Touched her?
Removed her clothing?
She looked back up at Legolas and moved as far away from him on the bed as she could without falling out. Though his face remained calm and expressionless, she sensed that her actions somehow pained him.
But she didn't care.
He was an elf.
This had to be a dream- all of it.
"Do you remember your name now?" he asked.
She didn't answer. Her widening eyes took him in, studying every detail of his body. He no longer wore the brown and green clothing from the forest. Now he was clad in a light blue tunic, the color of the painted sky above her, and a small silver belt hung around his waist. His pants were also silver in color but of a darker shade. The style of his outfit was unfamiliar and this caused her even more anxiety. His long blonde hair was the same but now a very thin, golden circlet lay on top of his head, ending in a bejeweled point on his brow.
( ...royalty?... )
That didn't make sense to her. Her eyes moved to his ears and confirmed the fact that she had not been dreaming earlier.
This was real.
He was an elf.
"Not human." she whispered out loud.
"Do you remember your name?" he repeated the question, patiently ignoring her comment.
"No."
"Do you remember my name?"
"Yes. Legolas." she said, rolling her mouth around that strange name again. "Legolas Greenleaf."
He smiled suddenly and she smiled back before she could roadblock it with her lips. Though she no longer felt the stark, maddening terror that had consumed her earlier- she was still wary.
"That's right. You remembered." he said, obviously pleased. "I heard you say a name when you awakened. Leh-oh-nardo? Deh-vinshi?"
"That's not my name." she said. She lowered her eyes and frowned. "It's someone's name. Someone... I looked up at the ceiling and saw the painting and it just..."
She shrugged helplessly and saw a flash of sympathy flit across his face.
"Where am I? How long have I been unconscious?" she asked. "Why can't I remember what my name is? Or anything else for that matter?"
"You have no memories whatsoever?" he asked, tilting his head to the side curiously.
She shook her head.
"Names and.. and things... I know the names of people and things but I don't remember anything else. They just float up but they... they mean nothing, I think." she said. "Feelings... emotions... I feel things are either right or wrong, familiar or not. That's all I know."
Legolas sighed and waved his hand in the air, as if brushing away her anxiety.
"Trouble yourself not, my lady." he said in a kind, warm voice. "The healers examined you while you slept and said that your memory loss might be due to a fall or head injury. Yet they can find no such injury on your body. They do, however, feel that you will regain your memories soon- that perhaps a great shock has momentarily clouded your mind."
"That's not exactly comforting." she muttered and Legolas smiled.
"No, I suppose it's not." he said. "I'm sorry. I only meant to offer hope. To answer your first two questions, you have been unconscious since yesterday afternoon. You are in the palace of King Thranduil, ruler of Mirkwood. I have informed him of your.. situation.. and he wanted me to tell you that you can stay here for as long as you wish. He has already sent out messengers to go to the human kingdoms to inquire about you. Hopefully by this week's end, we shall have more information about who you are."
She stared at him, stunned.
"King Thran-duel? Thranduil?" she said. "King? Palace? Elves? This sounds like some sort of fairytale that my mother..."
( ...My mother... )
A flash of light appeared before her eyes and her head began to pound viciously as an image arose in her mind. She grabbed her head and fell backwards onto the bed, twisting around with the sudden and frightening pain.
( Mother.
She was sitting on her mother's lap, listening to her voice as she read the fairytale outloud.
"Once upon a time and long ago..."
Mother.
She laughed and held out her arms as her mother bent down and picked her up, twirling her around and around...
Laughing. Happy. Safe.
Karalynn is safe in her mother's arms.
Mother's face.
Her pretty gray eyes and her soft black hair... such pretty eyes....
Such pretty gray eyes. )
She cried out and she felt tears gathering in her closed eyes, partly because of the painful throbbing and partly because of the memory. Her hands clutched at her hair and she tried to stop the pounding by blocking out the memory, by stopping the flow of images. She arched her back and kicked the sheets away as if she were trying to outrun the pain.
It was too much to deal with all at once.
She felt herself being picked up and then....
.... and then being rocked back and forth soothingly in someone's arms. She opened her eyes, dropping her hands from her head. Legolas was staring down at her intently, his blue eyes serene and dark. He was singing softly in her ear and it was then she realized the pain was gone.
It seemed to her that his song was of a different language. It was beautiful and lilting, the melody haunting but simple and her head lolled against his chest as he sang. For the first time since she had woken up in the forest, she felt no fear, no trace of anxiety.
Only contentment and peace.
"Are you alright?" he asked, after the last note of the song had died on his lips. She looked up at him and found that worry was now stamped clear on his face.
"Yes." she said. "I saw... I saw my mother, I think. Maybe? I think it was my mother. Just a brief flash of her but... it was like it was being drilled into my head. Into my brain... "
Legolas frowned and his grasp on her tightened.
"You were in great pain." he said quietly.
Something in his eyes and in his tone made her sit up and pull away from him and he loosened his grasp on her. She moved a few feet away from him on the bed and they looked at each other in silence. For the first time, she noticed how beautiful he really was. How perfectly formed his features were, how smooth his skin was, how small and pink his mouth was. Instead of comforting her though, his beauty made her nervous. He was like a... like a...
( ...mannequin, doll, fake, unreal... )
It was too odd and more than a bit unsettling to realize that he was nearly perfect.
Perfect?
( ...there's no such thing as perfect where I come from... )
"Karalynn." she said suddenly. She blinked and inhaled sharply. "My name is Karalynn."
Legolas said nothing for a moment and then smiled at her once again.
"Karalynn." he said her name as if he were touching her with his voice. "Do you remember anything else, Karalynn?"
She shook her head. She watched as he reached out for her with his hand and then jumped when she heard a voice from behind say:
"Ah, the maiden is awake."
Karalynn turned around and froze. It was another elf- a female this time. She was beautiful, like Legolas, with an angelic countenance and peaceful aura. Her eyes were a dark green and her hair was an almost white blonde. Yes, she was beautiful but unlike Legolas, her beauty was not disconcerting.
She smiled at Karalynn and Karalynn smiled back easily.
Karalynn felt the bed shift as Legolas stood up and she leaned on her arm as she watched him walk towards the door. He glanced back at her and nodded towards the elf-woman.
"This is Kythe." he said. "She'll be helping you get dressed. She is one of my most trusted friends and I'm sure that she will help you get settled this morning."
He paused and his features seemed to soften slightly.
"Please trust her." he said. "Trust us. No harm will come to you. I promise that. I'll come back in an hour's time to escort you to the dining room. I'm sure you must be hungry."
He hesitated for a moment, as if unsure of whether or not to keep speaking and then finally turned away and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
Kythe turned to Karalynn and sat down on the bed next to her.
"My name is Karalynn." she said and Kythe smiled. She clapped her hands together in joy.
"You remembered your name!" she exclaimed happily. "The Prince, Faran and Fortinbas were ill with worry yesterday evening when they brought you in. They were.."
"Prince?" Karalynn repeated. Kythe looked at her oddly and then sighed.
"Aye, I suppose he hasn't told you then." she said. "Of course, I should have expected that. Growing up, he hated the title. Thought it made him sound..."
"Prince?" Karalynn said again. "Legolas?"
She began to feel nauseated once more.
Had she fallen into some kind of fairytale? Fairytales... the kind her mother used to....
( ...fall into the rabbit hole, Alice, and see what wonders await you... )
She stopped the thought before the painful image of her mother could rise up again. She looked down and forced herself to clear her mind.
She jerked back, startled when Kythe touched her hair.
"Oh, I'm sorry." she said, blinking. "I just... they said you were human. Your hair is as black as night and that should be enough to prove it to me but... somehow that just doesn't seem right. You speak Sindarin so well... and your eyes are... Are you half-elven, perhaps?"
Karalynn shook her head.
"I didn't know elves existed for real until I saw..." She gestured at Kythe's pointed, seashell ears. "Until I saw your ears."
Kythe flushed slightly and smiled. She pointed to Karalynn's ears.
"May I?" she asked. Karalynn didn't know what she was asking but she was sure that Kythe meant no harm.
Karalynn nodded her permission.
With exaggerated slow movements, she reached up and brushed back a few strands of Karalynn's hair, tucking them behind her ears. Her touch was gentle and soft and Karalynn sat as still as she could, feeling as if she were being tested for some reason.
"Yes, you are human." Kythe said, sounding still unsure. She looked into Karalynn's eyes and frowned slightly. "But your features are..."
Karalynn touched her face, alarmed.
"What?" she asked. "Is something wrong with my face?"
Kythe shook her head and her eyes widened.
"No, no, quite the opposite." she said. Her face broke into another smile. "Karalynn, do you know what you look like? Have you seen your reflection in a mirror yet?"
Karalynn shook her head at both questions and Kythe jumped up. She reached towards the small bedside table that Karalynn had just noticed and picked up a small ornately decorated mirror. Kythe handed it to her and sat down again.
"Perhaps seeing your face will help you remember more things." Kythe said.
Karalynn lifted the mirror up and looked at her face. It was like staring at the face of a stranger.
She frowned and the stranger frowned. She blinked and the stranger blinked.
But the stranger was her.
She was pale and a little gaunt. She touched her cheek and traced the slight curve inwards. Her lips were full and small but dry. She licked them self-consciously and continued to study her face. Her features were small and delicate, like Kythe's but yet different. She wasn't ethereal and otherworldly as the elves she had seen but to her surprise, she found that she was beautiful in a startling way. Her eyes were perhaps the most unusual aspect of her face. They were a strange gray color- almost silver and as Karalynn turned her head slightly, they seemed to change color in the light.
Her eyes were like glass.
( ...pretty gray eyes... )
"I've seen many humans in my lifetime." Kythe said softly. Karalynn slowly lowered the mirror and looked at her as she spoke. "Many humans. Some of them were ugly and some of them were beautiful. Estel is one of the beautiful ones. He was handsome in his own way, of course. You are one of the beautiful ones but.... it's different, isn't it? Your beauty, I mean. I think you can sense what I mean."
Karalynn nodded slowly, unable to put into words how she felt. Kythe was right. She knew instinctively that she was human but something about her face nagged at her. Something about her eyes whispered to her mind.
Kythe noticed the expression of deep uneasiness in Karalynn's face and she jumped off the bed gracefully, whirling around to grab her hands.
"But nevermind that right now, my dear." she said, grinning sweetly. "Let us get you washed and dressed for breakfast. The Prince will be coming soon and we musn't keep him waiting..."
Karalynn set the mirror aside and got to her feet as Kythe pulled her towards a small door adjacent to the window.
"I'll clean you up and dress you in one of the gowns that the King has provided for your use." Kythe said happily. She turned around and looked at Karalynn, narrowing her eyes. "A gown of gray would bring out your eyes but that is too drab a color for such a fine morn. Perhaps a gown of silvery blue? I have feel that the Prince might like that- it would match his own clothing. What a fine vision that would make! Or maybe..."
As Kythe chattered happily about gowns and the color of her eyes, Karalynn's thoughts wandered.
Had Kythe said something about speaking another language well? But what other language? She only spoke English like the rest of them.
Ah, English.
That was a language, right? Karalynn was sure it was the only language she knew. So what had Kythe meant?
( ...Sindarin?... )
"Kythe." Karalynn said. Kythe opened the door to what looked like a bathroom and paused. "What is Sindarin?"
Kythe looked at her strangely, still smiling.
"It is the language of the Northern elves." she said. "The language you're speaking right now, Karalynn."
Karalynn felt her breath grow cold and she exhaled loudly.
"No, I'm speaking English." she said slowly. Kythe's smile grew confused.
"Ing-Glesh?" she repeated, twisting up her mouth to say the word. "My lady, we are conversing in Sindarin. And I must say that for a human, your pronunciation is..."
Karalynn shook her head violently and pulled her hand back. Kythe looked at her, alarm creeping into her features.
"Karalynn, are you frightened?" she asked in a gentle tone. "Please don't be. What have I said to..."
"No, this is English!" Karalynn insisted. "We're speaking English. I know because I only know English."
"And I only know Sindarin." Kythe said quietly. She held out her hands to Karalynn. "Come. I see that I have badly frightened you and for that I am sorry. Perhaps the King may be of more help than I have been. I'm sorry. Let me make amends, dear friend."
Karalynn stared at for a moment before sighing heavily. It was clear that Kythe was being sincere- about everything. Especially about Sindarin.
She forced herself to push aside the confusion in her head and took Kythe's hand.