OK, here is chapter 4... I'm sorry I haven't got it to you earlier; you have my permission to send me a herring in the mail and bill me for it.
Once again, all the words that are NOT Elvish and NOT English are mine. Kienariel is mine and Legolas is MINE, MINE, MINE, YOU FOOL! He's all mine! Stay away!
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The fire burned low, and the last faggot was thrown on.
"The night is getting old," Said Aragorn "The dawn is not far off."
"If any dawn can pierce these clouds." Said Gimli.
Boromir stepped out of the circle and stared up into the blackness. "The snow is growing less," He said "And the wind is quieter."
Frodo gazed wearily at the flakes still falling out of the dark to be revealed white for a moment in the light of the dying fire; but for a long time he could see no sign of their slackening. Then suddenly, as sleep was beginning to creep over him again, he was aware that the wind had indeed fallen, and the flakes were coming larger and fewer.
Very slowly a dim light began to grow. At last the snow stopped altogether.
As the light grew stronger it showed a silent shrouded world. Below their refuge were white humps and domes and shapeless deeps beneath which the path they had trodden was altogether lost; but the heights above were hidden in great clouds still heavy with the threat of snow.
Gimli looked up and shook his head. "Caradhras has not forgiven us," He said "He has more snow to fling at us, if we go on. The sooner we go back and down the better."
To this they all agreed, but their retreat was now difficult. It might well prove impossible. Only a few paces from the ashes of their fire the snow lay many feet
deep, higher than the heads of the hobbits; in places it had been scooped and piled by the wind into great drifts against the cliff.
"If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might melt a path for you," Said Legolas. The storm had troubled him little, and though Kienariel puzzled him more
than ever now; he alone of the company remained still light of heart.
"If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun to save us," Answered Gandalf. "But I must have something to work on. I cannot burn snow."
Kienariel smiled a little, appreciating Gandalf's humour in so serious a situation.
"Well," said Boromir, "When heads are at a loss, bodies must serve, as we say in my country. The strongest of us must seek a way. See! Though all is snow-clad, our
path, as we came up, turned around that shoulder of rock yonder. It was there that the snow first began to burden us. If we could reach that point, maybe it would prove
easier beyond. It is no more than a furlong off, I guess."
"Then let us force a path thither, you and I!" said Aragorn.
Aragorn and Boromir moved off and were soon heavily toiling in the heavy white drifts. In places the snow was breast-high, and Boromir often seemed to be swimming
with his great arms.
Legolas watched them for a while with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. His eyes flashed momentarily to Kienariel, a plan in his mind.
"The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming; and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow - an
Elf."
He sprang, agile as a cat in his light shoes and stood on the snow, his feet making little imprint. Pippin marvelled that the Elf stood firmly on snow through which he knew, he himself would sink. Kienariel's eyes, strangely, were almost as wide as Pippin's. Legolas looked down at her.
"Do you wish to come?" Legolas asked lightly, extending a hand to help her up. She looked at the snow, her face flushing, and not from the cold. She seemed indecisive.
"Come, let us run across the snow and find the Sun." Legolas pressed.
"I - I think I shall sink." She said with some timid discomfiture.
"Of course not." replied Legolas dismissively, stretching his hand further towards her.
She clasped his hand reluctantly and delicately braced one foot against the snow. With a strong tug that pulled him deeper into the snow Legolas lifted her up,
but, as she predicted, she sank right through the snow. He gasped, as did those standing near, for not only had she sunk, she had gone and left no trace upon the snow. It
was as if she had never touched it. An instant later her head pushed up through the snow and it fell down around her like droplets of water.
"You see?" She said miserably, bobbing slowly up and down as if treading water. She looked around at Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Gimli. She sighed. "Can't
get any worse now." She thought. "Are you still to find the Sun?" She asked.
Legolas nodded dumbly.
She frowned, but then looked as if an idea had struck her. Wriggling, pulling and kicking she eventually was able to sit upon the snow through which she had fallen earlier. She stood up gingerly, breathed deeply and tossed her head to remove the snow. "Let us go then." She said, and shot off across the snow. Legolas followed her, casting one questioning look back at Gandalf and then speeding into the distance. They soon passed the Men toiling in the snow. Boromir paused gaping at the running elves, but Aragorn smiled as he watched the streaming gold and rippling sienna hair fly off into the distance.
Legolas looked at Kienariel. Her face was flushed with the cold and her eyes bright. Her feet sent up a spray of light snow where they touched the brittle
surface, although Legolas' merely left a light print. They flew fleetly across the white snow, and as they ran it quickly depleted. At last they found the familiar bleached grasses of Hollin rising from patches in the snow under their feet. Kienariel hummed a bright tune as
she ran, and she began to skip. Legolas laughed merrily. She stopped her song and looked at him as she ran, tilting her head and studying him. He felt unnerved under her
forward stare, but stared back.
"You are very strange." She said slowly.
"So are you!" Legolas replied, "The strangest Elf I've ever met!"
Her brows furrowed. She sprang ahead like a deer through the grass. Legolas breathed hard, chasing after her. She stopped atop a high hill and surveyed the land around. They had come far, but the Sun was not to be seen amidst the clouds, though these were lighter than the sky above Caradhras. Legolas halted, shading his eyes from the glare of the clouds and peering West, sighting distant Hollin ridge, and looking down to the Sirannon and far off to Dunland. Over Dunland he saw the Sun dancing through the clouds in the distance, but she was far off and would not break through the clouds. He sighed.
"We have come a league or more, I make it, yet the Sun is far away."
Kienariel accepted his words in silence, taking in the silent country around her. "This is a beautiful land." She breathed, looking down to Celebdil, or the Silvertine
as Men know it. She sat down upon a patch of dry grass and looked West. They stood long in silence, observing the surrounding area.
"What is that marshy place yonder?" She asked, pointing away over the grassy hills and barren rocks.
"What?" Said Legolas, leaning his head closer to hers, trying to see where it was she was pointing to.
"There, by the river." She said, the slightest hint of frustration audible in her voice, though whether it was frustration with herself or with him, Legolas was not sure. He
looked, following her gaze, but saw nothing, be it the slightest hint of green West-South-West. He stood up, marvelling at her eyesight.
"You have keen eyes!" He said, "What you must see must be Nîn-in-Eilph, and the Mitheithel; and they are some fifty leagues off!" He said, awed at her sharp eyesight. Kienariel tried the words in her mouth, mouthing them. Legolas looked amused.
"Nîn-in-Eilph?" She said, questioning her pronounciation.
Legolas was taken aback. Her accent was so strange and her grasp on the Common Speech itself was not as firm as it might be, but the Elvish words had slid off her tongue as well, if not better, than Aragorn or Gandalf!
"Very - very good!" He said, impressed.
"Something to do with a swans?" She questioned again, distractedly excited enough that she erred in her grammer.
"Yes!" Legolas said, even more suprised. "Swanfleet is its name in the tongues of Men, and the River Mitheithel is Hoarwell. But tell me, do you speak Elvish after all?"
She looked confused, and then shook her head "No".
"How did you guess then, that 'eilph' was 'swan'?" He said with growing interest.
"Well," She seemed reluctant, "It sounds like a word I know for swan. It was merely a guess." She didn't sound as if she wished to go further with the conversation, but Legolas pushed on.
Kienariel sighed and looked up at him. "Ilph." She said, pronouncing it with a long 'ee' sound and dropping the last syllable. "The double, no! The plural, is 'iliiph'."
Legolas was enthralled. "You must speak some version of Elvish! Sindarin, it seems. 'Swan' is 'alph' and the plural is 'eilph'."
Kienariel tasted the words, and then brightened. "That must be! What is the word in Elvish for 'ocean'?" She asked.
"Gaearon." Legolas replied instantly. Kienariel's smile fell.
"No, that does not match. The word is 'unles'ata'."
"Oon-leh-sooh-ah-tah?" Legolas said slowly.
"Oon-LAY-suh-ah-tah." Kienariel corrected, resting her chin in her hands and looking off over Hollin.
Legolas mouthed the word, unused to the strange arrangement of sounds.
"Let us continue this comparison." Kienariel said at last. Legolas nodded and she continued, "What is the word for 'water'?"
"Nen." He answered.
"No, that does not match. I know it to be 's'at'."
"What about 'forest'?
"'Turr'."
"In Elvish it is 'tuar'!"
"That at least matches!" She said ecstatically, smiling. Legolas himself could not help but smile at her sudden childish delight. She looked at him, "What does your name mean?"
Legolas was taken aback. "My name?"
She nodded.
"Green leaf."
"Which word means which?"
"My name is of a different dialect, the Silvan dialect."
"You do not speak..." She faltered "Sindarin?" She looked discouraged.
"No." He replied.
"Which is more widely spoken?" She asked slowly.
"Sindarin."
"Ah! That is good." She said, relieved and smiling. Her sea-grey eyes danced as she looked at him. Legolas was unknowingly mesmerised, studying the blends of colours, the foamy whites and greens and hints of dark, green depths. She blinked and leaned back, uncomfortable and her eyebrows raised.
"Legolas?"
He blinked, suddenly aware again of Kienariel. "Your pardon, but I have never seen eyes that - that particular colour before."
She smiled softly. "Sea-green." She gazed out over Dunland, as if to pierce the distance between her and the waters. "I wish I could see it now." She said, and her voice was sad, "I can almost hear the waves upon the shore." She rested her head in her hands again and studied the ground.
Legolas sat in amazed silence. "You have seen the sea?" He asked, eyes wide.
She looked up, politely suprised. "Have you not?"
"Of course not!" Legolas said "I, I would - it would be dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Kienariel repeated, voice still soft yet incredulous.
Legolas shook his head and leaned back, supporting himself with his arms. "You are no Elf of any kind I know."
Kienariel's eys flashed. She opened her mouth to say something angrily, but Legolas let himself fall back and lay back upon the grass and did not continue. Her eyes softened again. She gazed westward. They stayed there in silence for a time, until Kienariel stood up at last and stretched her arms luxuriously. Legolas chuckled.
"You look like one of the hobbits when you do that." He said lazily.
"Come on. We should go back to the others." She reminded him, and took off, fleet-footed and graceful across the snow.
Legolas lept up after her and they ran side by side. Soon they were upon the higher slopes of Caradhras, picking their way lightly across the snow. Aragorn and Boromir came into view, forcing through the last great drift in the high snow. Kienariel looked at it, noticing that high as it was, it was little more than an ell in width.
"Perhaps the Dwarf was right in thinking that the storm was the malice of the mountain." She wondered aloud and strode to meet the toiling men, followed by Legolas.
"Aragorn! Boromir!" Legolas called. The two men looked up. "This last drift of yours is barely as dense as Gimli! A bit more and you shall be through!"
Aragorn smiled and nodded his head. Boromir slammed the mound with his shoulder and it split down the middle, spilling light snow into the pathway but giving a glimpse at last of the light blanket of snow that covered the rest of their path. With one last heave the snow gave way. Boromir brushed himself off and caught his breath while Aragorn did what he could to widen the trail.
"Thank you for your help, friend Legolas!" Aragorn called back as he stepped out to join Boromir. The men started back up the trail. Legolas and Kienariel sprang lightly over it and continued round the bend in the rock to that evening's campsite.
"Vandana, but Aragorn reminds me of my brother!" Kienariel said wonderingly as she ran.
Legolas ran back to join the rest of the Company with a light heart. He had at last made friends with Kienariel, although he still did not understand why she had seemed to dislike him in the beginning. He was glad, however, that there would be less tension in the Fellowship for him at least. Kienariel was bright and interested in the things around her and he would enjoy not being the only Elf in the expedition. Perhaps the Dwarf would be less rude around a lady, but you never could tell. Dwarves were strange folk. Legolas fell to wondering, as he did so often, where Kienariel was from and what language it was that she spoke. What had made her very blood seem to freeze so last night? And what made it that first she sank through the snow and then stood on the snow as any elf would? She was certainly not a human, not a Dwarf, not a Hobbit - he amused himself with that image. She must be some race of Elf, and a rare race at that. How could she have a brother who bore resemblance to Aragorn? Aragorn was had proud and noble features, but his features were not those of an Elf's. Did she merely mean his personality? Was that why she seemed to feel closer to him?
Legolas searched for the answers to these questions back at the end of Boromir and Aragorn's pathway, waiting with the hobbits who had been carried through, but no answers came.
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There ya have it! Chapter 4! I'll start working on 5 as soon as I can. Thank you for waiting!