Disconnected

Chpt 14.

            Thranduil glared at me, but I didn't sway, "I'm a firm believer in the truth and honesty.  And honestly, if you help us, then you're gonna be fightin' some tough shit.  And truthfully, I don't know if we can beat it.  But we might as well try.  Because there is alternative, we have no other choice.  It's either fight to survive, or you're already dead, and I'm still here.  So what's it gonna be?"  I asked.  I could care less if I sounded appropriate or not at the moment.  Right now I was just trying to be myself, and be strong, like my mother.  My voice didn't falter and my stare didn't stray.  I kept my eyes looked on Legolas' father, trying to make him understand.

            We took a vote after five minutes of silence.  It was divided equally between the elves.  There would have to be another debate, and another counsel; as the seconds ticked by, closer and closer to the end.

            Elrond let the counsel leave for the time being.  I stalked down the path.

            "Jonica," called Legolas from behind me, I stopped in my tracks and waited for him because I needed to yell at an elf, and so far he hasn't stopped me.

            "What the hell is wrong with your people?" I asked thoroughly pissed off as soon as he caught up to me.

            "Nothing is wrong, we a just skeptical about fighting along side demons," he said with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

            "Not that!  I would be skeptical too, but I still have enough sense to help if someone, even my enemy, asked for it!"  I argued, flinging my hands in the air.

            "Sense?  Is it not hasty to rush into a war one does not understand?"

            "Not if people are dying!"

            "How do we know that you are truly the right side?"  he asked, and I paused, he had a point.

            "Because the other side is trying to destroy the world?" I stated more than asked.

            "You are young, you'll understand later," he sighed, and looked away.

            That is it, no way in hell am I gonna let the elf talk to me like that.  "I am so sick of your arrogant bullshit!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, people stopped all around us, "There's no fucking way you're gonna sit there and tell me what I do and do not know.  What I have and haven't gone through!  You don't know me, don't judge me," I calmed my voice down to a normal tone and walked away leaving him stunned behind me.

            I decided that I needed to find that waterfall I heard last night to take my mind off the prophecy.  Unfortunately it didn't take long, evidently they surround Rivendell, and I wondered why I hadn't heard them before.  No matter, I sat with my legs dangling over the side of one of the bridges.  And I decided that I couldn't delay my 'flight' back home any longer.  If this counsel thing is going to take longer, then I could be doing something productive at home.

            I saw boots in the corner of my eye.  I looked at them, and then followed the legs protruding from the boots up to the face of the owner.  I shook the hair out of my eyes.

            "I am sorry if offended you Jonica, I was merely stating-," he started.

            "I know what you were stating," I snapped and sighed to regain control, "I was fifteen when I read the prophecy, a year later I was in a car accident that resulted in the deaths of my mother's co-workers who were in the front seat.  Then I was kidnapped and tortured by Them, all before I was to be ritually murdered to bring about the end of the world." I showed him the scars that still lay on the flesh of my wrists, "They were trying to make it look like a suicide.  They beat me pretty bad, but They made the mistake of untying me, thinking I had no strength left to get away," I paused.

            "What happened?" he asked, sitting down next to me.

            "I ran.  I got up and started to run.  Trying all the doors I could find, all of which were locked.  They almost caught me again, but I fought them off, and ran for the staircase ahead of me.  I thought I was going to make it, I was running down the stairs and no one was behind me.  Then I tripped, and fell down half of the last flight of stairs.  I felt my leg break, and again I thought I was going to die.  But I once again pulled myself up and staggered down the last few stairs.  I felt my leg pieces rub together.  I when I got to the floor, the door was locked," I looked down, remembering how painful it was, how scared I was.  I shivered.

            "What did you do?" asked Legolas after a few seconds of silence.

            I shook my head, "I used whatever strength I had left to unlock the door with magic.  It burst open and I collapsed on the grass, just as the sun was rising," I said, then let out another sigh.

            "What stopped…Them, from getting you then?" he asked.

            "For my sixteenth birthday, Mab, Queen of the fairies gave me this necklace," I showed him what I had been fingering though out my tale.  My silver chain necklace that looked like a vine, and twisted around a diamond that seemed to glow from within its hold.  "She said it would protect me from Them," I sighed as he examined it with his long elfin fingers, then released it.

            "You truly are the One?" he gasped and I nodded.

            "Last year I was sucked into another world by accident, and found out that I was more like my parents than I thought.  I now have to eat blood or else I get really sick and die, it sucks," I said, no pun intended.

            Then I realized everything that I told him.  I let down my barrier; I let him see into my thoughts, my world.  How could I be so blind, so stupid?  I was off thinking about going home, and I told him everything.  I'm no longer strong in his eyes, how can I be?  I just told him why I act the way I do, why I'm so disagreeable.  Then I realized…

            "I'm telling you this, because you are my friend…are you not?"  I asked.  This statement surprised him, maybe because I was the one saying it.

            "I am," he smiled, and took my trembling hand in his, "I am."

            I looked into his eyes, and I no longer resented his pointy ears, or the elfin way of life.  I admired it, the everlasting life and arrogance.  "I wish I was ignorant," I stated off handed.

            "You are," Legolas joked, smiling in a way I had never seen before.

            "What day is today?"  I asked.

            "Today is Beltane, my lady," he told me.

            "Ahh, no wonder."

            "What does that mean?" he grinned.

            "Nothing," I said and looked back at the waterfall, I kept my hand in his.