Chapter Five
Hazel sparkling eyes. Staring at her, smiling. Beautiful, long, soft, honey-gold hair, sweeping across her face.
"Mommy," a girl, ten years old, laying on a flower patterned bed, smiled "I love you."
Red full lips curved in a smile. The most beautiful smile. And it was all hers. The girl had that smile all to herself. No one else.
"I love you too, honey," said the lips.
They kissed the girl on the forehead then backed away, toward the man standing by the doorway.
"Daddy? Can I have a kiss?" said the girl.
The man smiled then advanced toward the girl.
His eyes, grey, filled with happiness, looked down at her lovingly. Her father kissed her lightly on the forehead then backed away and joined her mother at the door.
They smiled at the girl then turned the light off and closed the door, leaving it cracked so she could have a nightlight.
The girl fell asleep knowing that she always had two loving guardians protecting her; never letting her be harmed, and never letting her feel sadness or worthlessness. Never letting her know fear or pain and never letting her know the meaning of the word "alone".
~~~~~~~~~~~
Estela woke to see two huge sky-blue eyes staring down at her and someone shaking her gently. She inhaled sharply and let out a cry of fear.
"Shh, Estela!" said the eyes, Pippin, softly. "I am sorry to awake you, seeing as you were smiling in your sleep and all, but Aragorn commanded that I should. Did you know you sleep with your eyes open?"
"What?" asked Estela, groggily. Her fear had subsided and she was now sitting up in the bed staring blankly at Pippin, her mind not registering what he had said.
"Come, Estela, we must go back to the parlor," said Pippin again.
Estela sighed, finally understanding what he said, and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She shivered as her bare feet touched the cold, hard, wooden floor and stood up slowly.
She followed Pippin slowly down the passage and back into the parlor. There they saw Merry, Frodo, and Sam lying on the floor, sleeping, and Strider sitting in one of the chairs that he had moved to the window. He peered out silently, turning his head a moment, and nodded a greeting then turned back to the window.
"Oh, hey," said Estela, seeing Merry on the floor, "Merry came back. Where did he go?"
"For a walk," answered Pippin.
"I see. Can I go back to bed now?"
"Yes, milady," said Strider. "Your bed is over there." He looked to a corner of the room where there were two cream coloured blankets on the floor.
"I get to sleep on the floor?"
Strider nodded, watching her with amusement.
"Wonderful," she sighed, walking to the blankets. She bent down and straightened one of them up over the floor then lay down on it and pulled the second on top of her.
She laid her hands, clasped, on top of her chest and tried to fall "asleep". After a few moments she gave up and instead gazed up at the ceiling.
'This is getting to be a bad habit,' she thought. 'Can you blind yourself for doing this too often?'
Strider's chair creaked as he shifted his weight and she sat up to look at him. She saw only his back, illuminated by the red and orange glowing of the small fire burning in the hearth, because she was lying behind him.
She carefully removed the blankets and silently tip-toed behind him.
"Hi," she said.
He looked over his shoulder, surprised. Estela noted that his hand was on the hilt of his sword, already drawing it out a bit.
"Put that back," she said indignantly. "I'd rather live if you don't mind!"
Strider smiled slightly and sheathed his sword. "Milady, forgive me," said Strider, "I did not hear you wake."
Estela smiled, held up her index finger, motioning for him to wait a moment, then went back to get her blanket, and sat down in a chair beside him.
"Where are we going, Strider?" asked Estela, once sitting comfortably in her chair.
Strider frowned slightly. "Ah, you were not here," he said softly. "My name is not Strider. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn."
"Amorman!" Estela exclaimed. "Amorman in Blee!"
"Excuse me?"
Estela laughed softly then made a wave of her hand. "Never mind, Aragorn, it will take too long to explain."
"I have time."
"Yes, well um...You never answered my question."
Aragorn laughed and looked quickly out the window then back at her. "Alright," he said. "We are going to Rivendell. The Lord Elrond that dwells there will to answer any questions that you might have."
"Lord Elrond," breathed Estela. "My mother...she told me stories of a Lord Elrond. He was...an Elf?"
"Half-Elf. Have you been to Rivendell before?"
"No. It doesn't exist."
"What do you mean?"
"Rivendell. It doesn't exist."
Estela sighed, gathering her feet up under her and resting her chin on her knees. She looked out the window silently.
"Rivendell does exist, milady," said Aragorn softly. "I have been there."
Estela didn't look at him, keeping her eyes glued to the streets of Bree. "How though?" she said softly to herself. "This world...this world is a book! You don't exist! You, you and Merry and Pippin! Frodo and Sam, Rivendell...Elrond..." she trailed off, burying her head in her knees.
"Milady?" said Aragorn, concerned. He reached over and touched the top of her head, gently. "Estela? Estela, are you crying?"
Estela looked up and Aragorn. "I'm not crying," she said almost viciously.
"Yes, milady."
They sat, silently staring at each other, before Estela said, "Tell me about Rivendell, Aragorn, tell me about..." she hesitated, "tell me about Elrond."
"What do you wish to know?"
Estela was quiet for a moment before replying. "Was there ever a person that came from a different world? And fell in love with an...Elf..?"
"As a matter of fact," said Aragorn, "there was one."
"There was?"
"Well...it is a fairy tale among the young ones, but it is still what you wish to here, am I correct?"
"Yes, please."
Aragorn leaned back in his chair and started to speak, "There was once an Elf, Andorian, who was a close friend of Lord Elrond," he said. "One of his closest they say.
"One day a mortal woman who had left her world and entered ours by means of a stone arch, or gate, appeared in Rivendell.
"The Elf Andorian fell in love with this mortal woman, Marie, and decided to help her find the gate she had used to help her get home to her world, however much it hurt him to see her leave.
"They found the gate but Marie was hesitant to leave Andorian behind, whom she had grown to love also, so she decided to stay behind.
"Andorian was overjoyed at her decision, but soon noticed that the woman was very miserable and homesick so he made a decision of his own. He chose to be mortal." Aragorn fell silent for a moment, deep in thought, then continued, "He and Marie went back to the gate and departed, leaving Middle-Earth, and Lord Elrond, behind." Aragorn sighed. "That is the end of the story. It is much longer than what I have told you, but I thought that you might want to ask a few more questions."
Estela stared at him. "My parents told me that story."
"Oh? I thought that you said Rivendell didn't exist. How could they possibly know that story if Rivendell does not exist?"
"But it is a dream! You're a dream!"
"Milady, why do you ask me to tell you of these things and then accuse me of being a dream?
"Why does this never end? Aragorn, do you understand me? This place isn't real!"
Aragorn didn't reply and sat thinking for a moment.
"Aragorn?"
"Milady," said Aragorn softly, "what can I do to prove that this is real and not a dream?"
"You can pinch me," Estela muttered.
Aragorn sighed, leaned over, and pinched her arm.
"Ow! I wasn't serious!"
"Alright, that did not work. Let me see... When dreaming, one seldom thinks it is a dream," said Aragorn. "And one seldom says to pinch oneself. Do you see?"
"Okay, maybe this is a really weird dream where I told you to pinch me and I knew that it was a dream it was a dream?"
Aragorn sighed again. "This is getting very tiring," he said. "Maybe this will help..." he unsheathed a dagger that hung on his left side near his hip and put the tip onto her arm.
"What are you doing?" asked Estela.
"In a dream you never feel pain; only a numbness when you are wounded," explained Aragorn. "Now I am sorry, Estela, I promise not to make it hurt too bad."
With a quick motion he drew the dagger back and cut a small line on her arm.
"Hey!" she cried, almost waking the hobbits. She yanked her arm away from Aragorn and looked at the cut on it that had started to bleed.
"What are you, a madman?! You know I should..." she looked at her arm. Blood, real blood, came from it and pain had settled there. "What the..?"
"Do you see?" said Aragorn as he sheathed the dagger. "This is *not* a dream. I am so very sorry for hurting you and I ask for your forgiveness, but I had to prove it to you."
"Yeah, so maybe I was wrong," said Estela, dabbing the wound with the blanket. "Do you have any band-aids?"
"Band-aids? What are 'band-aids'?"
"Never mind."
Estela looked up from her arm and toward the parlor door. Adrian's backpack lay by it, now out of the way.
Aragorn watched her get up, pick the backpack up from the floor then walk back to the chair and sit down.
"What is that?" he asked.
"It's a pack."
"If it is, than it is the strangest one I have ever seen."
Estela nodded and unzipped the backpack. She reached her hand inside and pulled out a magazine that had "Teen Life" written on the top. She sighed and threw the magazine on the floor. She pulled a few other things out: hairspray, gum, a change purse, mints, a piece of notebook paper with "Jason is hot, Jason is cute, Jason is *totally* hot" and some doodles of hearts with arrows shot through them written all over it, makeup, a pad of pink paper and a pen, head-phones and a few CDs with various songs on them, perfume, and...socks.
"Ah!" cried Estela, slapping her forehead. "Why can't she have *one* band-aid? Is it too hard for her to be prepared?"
She reached her hand in and felt around the bottom of Adrian's backpack. She was just about to take her hand out and send the backpack flying across the room when her hand bumped into a light object.
"Hey, look at this," she said, taking the object out. "Isn't that amazing? A whole *pack* of band-aids."
She took one out, her hopes for a regular bandage dashed when she saw that it had a picture of the Backstreet Boys covering it, and put it over the cut.
"This Mr. Jason must be very warm," remarked Aragorn who had picked up Adrian's notebook paper and was now reading it.
"No, that means, eh... Never mind. Why do you think I'm here, Aragorn?"
"I think...I think that that is for you to find out."
"Thanks a lot." She looked around the room. "I cannot believe that this place is really real!"
Aragorn groaned. "Please, do not make me cut your arm off!"
"Be quiet, Armorman."
A distant sound of crashing reached Estela's ears. "What's that?" she asked, looking out the window.
"I do not hear anything," answered Aragorn.
AWAKE ! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
Estela jumped in fear and fell off her chair and onto the floor. "What the heck is that!" whispered Estela, sending an I-told-you look to Aragorn.
Aragorn didn't answer, looking out the window intently.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Frodo awake and look at both of them, puzzled.
"Go back to sleep, Frodo, everything is alright," she said. The hobbit nodded, turned over and went back to sleep.
Estela turned to Strider and he drew the curtains shut and pushed back the shutters with a bang.
"Everything *is* okay, right, Aragorn?"
"Go to sleep, milady," said Aragorn turning toward her. "I will wake you in the morning."
Estela sighed and brought her blanket back to her place on the floor. She lay down and gazed up at the ceiling. "I'm going to go blind," she said and quickly fell "asleep".
I'm sorry it took so long. I hope you like it, Lúthien Arnatuilë.
Hazel sparkling eyes. Staring at her, smiling. Beautiful, long, soft, honey-gold hair, sweeping across her face.
"Mommy," a girl, ten years old, laying on a flower patterned bed, smiled "I love you."
Red full lips curved in a smile. The most beautiful smile. And it was all hers. The girl had that smile all to herself. No one else.
"I love you too, honey," said the lips.
They kissed the girl on the forehead then backed away, toward the man standing by the doorway.
"Daddy? Can I have a kiss?" said the girl.
The man smiled then advanced toward the girl.
His eyes, grey, filled with happiness, looked down at her lovingly. Her father kissed her lightly on the forehead then backed away and joined her mother at the door.
They smiled at the girl then turned the light off and closed the door, leaving it cracked so she could have a nightlight.
The girl fell asleep knowing that she always had two loving guardians protecting her; never letting her be harmed, and never letting her feel sadness or worthlessness. Never letting her know fear or pain and never letting her know the meaning of the word "alone".
~~~~~~~~~~~
Estela woke to see two huge sky-blue eyes staring down at her and someone shaking her gently. She inhaled sharply and let out a cry of fear.
"Shh, Estela!" said the eyes, Pippin, softly. "I am sorry to awake you, seeing as you were smiling in your sleep and all, but Aragorn commanded that I should. Did you know you sleep with your eyes open?"
"What?" asked Estela, groggily. Her fear had subsided and she was now sitting up in the bed staring blankly at Pippin, her mind not registering what he had said.
"Come, Estela, we must go back to the parlor," said Pippin again.
Estela sighed, finally understanding what he said, and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She shivered as her bare feet touched the cold, hard, wooden floor and stood up slowly.
She followed Pippin slowly down the passage and back into the parlor. There they saw Merry, Frodo, and Sam lying on the floor, sleeping, and Strider sitting in one of the chairs that he had moved to the window. He peered out silently, turning his head a moment, and nodded a greeting then turned back to the window.
"Oh, hey," said Estela, seeing Merry on the floor, "Merry came back. Where did he go?"
"For a walk," answered Pippin.
"I see. Can I go back to bed now?"
"Yes, milady," said Strider. "Your bed is over there." He looked to a corner of the room where there were two cream coloured blankets on the floor.
"I get to sleep on the floor?"
Strider nodded, watching her with amusement.
"Wonderful," she sighed, walking to the blankets. She bent down and straightened one of them up over the floor then lay down on it and pulled the second on top of her.
She laid her hands, clasped, on top of her chest and tried to fall "asleep". After a few moments she gave up and instead gazed up at the ceiling.
'This is getting to be a bad habit,' she thought. 'Can you blind yourself for doing this too often?'
Strider's chair creaked as he shifted his weight and she sat up to look at him. She saw only his back, illuminated by the red and orange glowing of the small fire burning in the hearth, because she was lying behind him.
She carefully removed the blankets and silently tip-toed behind him.
"Hi," she said.
He looked over his shoulder, surprised. Estela noted that his hand was on the hilt of his sword, already drawing it out a bit.
"Put that back," she said indignantly. "I'd rather live if you don't mind!"
Strider smiled slightly and sheathed his sword. "Milady, forgive me," said Strider, "I did not hear you wake."
Estela smiled, held up her index finger, motioning for him to wait a moment, then went back to get her blanket, and sat down in a chair beside him.
"Where are we going, Strider?" asked Estela, once sitting comfortably in her chair.
Strider frowned slightly. "Ah, you were not here," he said softly. "My name is not Strider. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn."
"Amorman!" Estela exclaimed. "Amorman in Blee!"
"Excuse me?"
Estela laughed softly then made a wave of her hand. "Never mind, Aragorn, it will take too long to explain."
"I have time."
"Yes, well um...You never answered my question."
Aragorn laughed and looked quickly out the window then back at her. "Alright," he said. "We are going to Rivendell. The Lord Elrond that dwells there will to answer any questions that you might have."
"Lord Elrond," breathed Estela. "My mother...she told me stories of a Lord Elrond. He was...an Elf?"
"Half-Elf. Have you been to Rivendell before?"
"No. It doesn't exist."
"What do you mean?"
"Rivendell. It doesn't exist."
Estela sighed, gathering her feet up under her and resting her chin on her knees. She looked out the window silently.
"Rivendell does exist, milady," said Aragorn softly. "I have been there."
Estela didn't look at him, keeping her eyes glued to the streets of Bree. "How though?" she said softly to herself. "This world...this world is a book! You don't exist! You, you and Merry and Pippin! Frodo and Sam, Rivendell...Elrond..." she trailed off, burying her head in her knees.
"Milady?" said Aragorn, concerned. He reached over and touched the top of her head, gently. "Estela? Estela, are you crying?"
Estela looked up and Aragorn. "I'm not crying," she said almost viciously.
"Yes, milady."
They sat, silently staring at each other, before Estela said, "Tell me about Rivendell, Aragorn, tell me about..." she hesitated, "tell me about Elrond."
"What do you wish to know?"
Estela was quiet for a moment before replying. "Was there ever a person that came from a different world? And fell in love with an...Elf..?"
"As a matter of fact," said Aragorn, "there was one."
"There was?"
"Well...it is a fairy tale among the young ones, but it is still what you wish to here, am I correct?"
"Yes, please."
Aragorn leaned back in his chair and started to speak, "There was once an Elf, Andorian, who was a close friend of Lord Elrond," he said. "One of his closest they say.
"One day a mortal woman who had left her world and entered ours by means of a stone arch, or gate, appeared in Rivendell.
"The Elf Andorian fell in love with this mortal woman, Marie, and decided to help her find the gate she had used to help her get home to her world, however much it hurt him to see her leave.
"They found the gate but Marie was hesitant to leave Andorian behind, whom she had grown to love also, so she decided to stay behind.
"Andorian was overjoyed at her decision, but soon noticed that the woman was very miserable and homesick so he made a decision of his own. He chose to be mortal." Aragorn fell silent for a moment, deep in thought, then continued, "He and Marie went back to the gate and departed, leaving Middle-Earth, and Lord Elrond, behind." Aragorn sighed. "That is the end of the story. It is much longer than what I have told you, but I thought that you might want to ask a few more questions."
Estela stared at him. "My parents told me that story."
"Oh? I thought that you said Rivendell didn't exist. How could they possibly know that story if Rivendell does not exist?"
"But it is a dream! You're a dream!"
"Milady, why do you ask me to tell you of these things and then accuse me of being a dream?
"Why does this never end? Aragorn, do you understand me? This place isn't real!"
Aragorn didn't reply and sat thinking for a moment.
"Aragorn?"
"Milady," said Aragorn softly, "what can I do to prove that this is real and not a dream?"
"You can pinch me," Estela muttered.
Aragorn sighed, leaned over, and pinched her arm.
"Ow! I wasn't serious!"
"Alright, that did not work. Let me see... When dreaming, one seldom thinks it is a dream," said Aragorn. "And one seldom says to pinch oneself. Do you see?"
"Okay, maybe this is a really weird dream where I told you to pinch me and I knew that it was a dream it was a dream?"
Aragorn sighed again. "This is getting very tiring," he said. "Maybe this will help..." he unsheathed a dagger that hung on his left side near his hip and put the tip onto her arm.
"What are you doing?" asked Estela.
"In a dream you never feel pain; only a numbness when you are wounded," explained Aragorn. "Now I am sorry, Estela, I promise not to make it hurt too bad."
With a quick motion he drew the dagger back and cut a small line on her arm.
"Hey!" she cried, almost waking the hobbits. She yanked her arm away from Aragorn and looked at the cut on it that had started to bleed.
"What are you, a madman?! You know I should..." she looked at her arm. Blood, real blood, came from it and pain had settled there. "What the..?"
"Do you see?" said Aragorn as he sheathed the dagger. "This is *not* a dream. I am so very sorry for hurting you and I ask for your forgiveness, but I had to prove it to you."
"Yeah, so maybe I was wrong," said Estela, dabbing the wound with the blanket. "Do you have any band-aids?"
"Band-aids? What are 'band-aids'?"
"Never mind."
Estela looked up from her arm and toward the parlor door. Adrian's backpack lay by it, now out of the way.
Aragorn watched her get up, pick the backpack up from the floor then walk back to the chair and sit down.
"What is that?" he asked.
"It's a pack."
"If it is, than it is the strangest one I have ever seen."
Estela nodded and unzipped the backpack. She reached her hand inside and pulled out a magazine that had "Teen Life" written on the top. She sighed and threw the magazine on the floor. She pulled a few other things out: hairspray, gum, a change purse, mints, a piece of notebook paper with "Jason is hot, Jason is cute, Jason is *totally* hot" and some doodles of hearts with arrows shot through them written all over it, makeup, a pad of pink paper and a pen, head-phones and a few CDs with various songs on them, perfume, and...socks.
"Ah!" cried Estela, slapping her forehead. "Why can't she have *one* band-aid? Is it too hard for her to be prepared?"
She reached her hand in and felt around the bottom of Adrian's backpack. She was just about to take her hand out and send the backpack flying across the room when her hand bumped into a light object.
"Hey, look at this," she said, taking the object out. "Isn't that amazing? A whole *pack* of band-aids."
She took one out, her hopes for a regular bandage dashed when she saw that it had a picture of the Backstreet Boys covering it, and put it over the cut.
"This Mr. Jason must be very warm," remarked Aragorn who had picked up Adrian's notebook paper and was now reading it.
"No, that means, eh... Never mind. Why do you think I'm here, Aragorn?"
"I think...I think that that is for you to find out."
"Thanks a lot." She looked around the room. "I cannot believe that this place is really real!"
Aragorn groaned. "Please, do not make me cut your arm off!"
"Be quiet, Armorman."
A distant sound of crashing reached Estela's ears. "What's that?" she asked, looking out the window.
"I do not hear anything," answered Aragorn.
AWAKE ! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
Estela jumped in fear and fell off her chair and onto the floor. "What the heck is that!" whispered Estela, sending an I-told-you look to Aragorn.
Aragorn didn't answer, looking out the window intently.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Frodo awake and look at both of them, puzzled.
"Go back to sleep, Frodo, everything is alright," she said. The hobbit nodded, turned over and went back to sleep.
Estela turned to Strider and he drew the curtains shut and pushed back the shutters with a bang.
"Everything *is* okay, right, Aragorn?"
"Go to sleep, milady," said Aragorn turning toward her. "I will wake you in the morning."
Estela sighed and brought her blanket back to her place on the floor. She lay down and gazed up at the ceiling. "I'm going to go blind," she said and quickly fell "asleep".
I'm sorry it took so long. I hope you like it, Lúthien Arnatuilë.