But first- thanks to everyone who reviewed:
Lilena of course I would make you pretty! haha!
aquitaineq
Aww! =') I'm so glad you liked it! Eak... flattered! =)
Anilmathiel
yes yes... I have to think of something.... mwahaha!
Melissa haha! I
know... good ol' Saelbeth and Glorfindel...
icy878 well... she is a
'princess' and all... so she needs a royal family and considering Gil-Galad is
the only one who I could think of... he was it... haha! Plus, we couldn't kill
her anyway, considering she's an Elf and all... but that's quite all right
because I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner!
And I'm so so sooooooo soooooooooooooo sooooooooooooooo sorry it took me such a long time to get this out- I just got back from vacation and I've been getting ready for school AND I've been beta-ing this new story- 'The Secrets We Keep' by Menthol- and it's excellent! =)
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I stand, tentatively, toward the back of the large grassy area that couples are dancing in.
Somehow, I feel like I have been in this position before- watching marvelously dressed couples dancing while I stand in the back, wondering what it feels like...
They stop singing and the only sound is the music, hanging shrilly in the air, taunting, acerbic and cruel. My eyes scurry across the grass that looks blue in the moon... Saelbeth and Lithelena are dancing... Náro and Calwaiel, looking lost in the depths of each other's eyes, unconscious to anyone around them... Elladan and Annacálë holding each other, but looking disgruntled... Elrohir dancing with another maiden with fair hair and a pretty dress- he keeps moving awfully close to Saelbeth and Lithelena- who are moving away from them...
Where is he? I touch the prickly tip of my long hair self-consciously and glance up again. Lithelena and Calwaiel are lost in the moving dancers.
"Elerrina! Elerrina!"
I turn my head elegantly in the opposite direction, where the gentle call came from, "Why do you call me by that name?" I ask delicately.
He raises his arm quietly and tries to touch my face, but his hand falls, worthless, and his long, pale, slender fingers coil back into the safety of his hand, which he pulls back to his face, "I thought you were a dream... I thought you would vanish."
I turn my head away from him, both saddened and flattered, "You know as well as I that I am very existent."
"You look ethereal..."
I start walking away from him, never looking back at his soothing grey eyes, "Thank you, my Lord."
"Why are you acting like this?" he hisses into my ear.
I turn around calmly, "You know why." I look up at the sky, at the stars, "You gave up, just as you told me not to... once. You let yourself succumb to her. You are not the same..." I try to say his name but it gets lost in my throat. He reaches out to touch my arm, but almost as if there is a shield of flames between his finger tips and my skin, he pulls it back instantly.
"Lady Elerrina, be that the new name by which Lord Elrohir calls you?" I look to my left and see Glorfindel standing there, smiling and looking very amused.
I laugh a little, "No, Lord Glorfindel," I smirk, clearly not looking back at him.
"May I have this dance?" I nod and let him take me away- far away into the clouds of heavenly grass- away from Elrohir's jealous stare. I remember when he always used to ask to dance with me first, before anyone else…
"Thank you," I whisper, not sure if I should feel thankful or not.
He just smiles, "You looked like you needed the help."
"I just do not know what..." I sigh and smile back in what I hope is a heartening smile. We sway together to the music, and I feel contented in his arms.
Someone taps me on the shoulder and I turn around. Saelbeth is standing there, smiling gallantly, "If you do not object," he looks up at Glorfindel and back to me, "May I have the next dance?"
"Certainly," I reply, grinning frantically. Glordinfel squeezes my hand and twirls me under the bridge our arms create as Saelbeth takes the other hand and I spin into him. I see Elrohir between Glorfindel and Saelbeth and almost feel a pang of guilt.
Almost.
After a dance with Saelbeth, I retreat to a table holding glasses of wine ranging from white to rose to red to purple. I take a glass of white wine and sip it regally. A maiden walks up to my left in a flash of aqua.
"Getting tired?" I ask placing the empty glass back with a little click.
Lithelena smirks and swallows the small glass in one gulp, "Not at all."
Another maiden walks up, this time fuming, sudden, and in a rage of fire within a bright red dress. Her pale hair is curled to perfection and hanging down in a disarray of curly insipid vines, almost falling into the fire. She snatches a glass of red and swallows it quickly, then glares up at me with sizzling brown eyes.
She nods toward me and leans across the table, tassels of scarlet silk dipping into the crimson wine, "Canyaiel," her eyes have pink lines of thunder dancing across them, "I do not understand," she gropes for another glass of red wine and walks around the table towards me, holding the skinny glass handle between two long, oval, shell-colored finger nails, tipping it spryly to each side.
"Are you feeling all right?"
"I am fine," she snaps back, taking a sip from the wine. I watch her vigilantly, but she glares at me so I decide that the skirt of my dress is a little crumpled and work on smoothing it out. "What is wrong with you?" she shrieks as the couples stop dancing to watch.
"I wanted to be friends with you... but you did not want to count me amongst those you loved..."
You are not Arwen- you will never be...
"So I tried making friends of my own... The friends that left you for me... you had to take away!" she shouts. As her voice increasingly gets louder and higher, the music stops abruptly, with one instrument at a time dropping out of the quick tempo song and ending with the voice.
I slowly walk backwards, swift yet unhurried in my step. She takes an empty glass and throws it at me, missing me easily. I watch it fly by me before shattering into a million pieces as it hit the bark of a tree. Shards of glass fly everywhere and I cover my eyes just as one scrapes my hand and arm.
It seemed like a blur originally, but now everything rushes back to reality- speeding up until it is normal. Lithelena lunges towards her, but Elrohir holds her back by her arms. I freeze, unsure of what to do, watching Elrohir holding a struggling Lithelena and listening to Calwaiel, among others, hurl rude Elvish curses at Annacálë...
But I stand there. A world apart- frozen and cold while everyone else is live and boiling with livid anger. And through the flames a misted glass appears. I pick it up, suddenly diving back into the smoldering world and aim carefully at Annacálë's head, but someone pulls the glass out of my hand and it falls to the ground, exploding and cutting my legs. The same person grabs my hands and pulls me back a few more steps.
Annacálë takes another glass and throws it at me, more accurately this time. I duck quickly but I never need to for a strong, pale hand blocks it and for a moment my arm is free. But the freedom leaves just as quickly as it came.
"What are you doing?" I shout, kicking the elf holding me with my slipper-covered foot, "You are simply going to let her just throw things at me? Is this some sort of practice for the Princess's aim? If so, I wish not to be the target!" I kick harder and poke mercilessly with my elbows; I try to bite but can not even turn my head around. "Release me!"
I struggle but no avail. "Tangado rûth!" Calwaiel shouts, spitting at Annacálë's feet as Náro holds her back.
"Leithio nin!" I shout again, kicking harder. Annacálë takes another glass from the table and I shove my head downwards but before the glass even leaves her fingertips, there is more commotion.
"Stop this!" Lady Celebrían shouts, glaring at everyone, especially Annacálë, who instantly places her glass back on the table.
Annacálë's eyes fill with immense, magnified tears over her green eyes, "Oh, Ada! Ada!" she wails.
I take advantage of this moment to kick my captor and shout, "Leithio nin!"
Still nothing.
Lord Elrond glances at me and sighs, "Leithio lîn, Legolas." He releases me, but I immediately turn on him.
"What made you think you had the right to try and hold me down like that?" I shout, lunging toward him, as someone else grabs my hands and pulls me away from him.
"Ada!"
"Did you not see her? Are your eyes not as keen as they once were?" I hiss, mostly out of resentment.
"Ada!" she wails again and again, like the ocean's waves, continuing to thrash avariciously at the sandy shores.
I glance pleadingly at Lady Galadriel, but her face remains still, "Perhaps," she says delicately, to which everyone stops instantaneously, "There is more to the story."
No one dares to contradict Lady Galadriel, so Lord Elrond leads us back inside into a small room, walking through a path that the elves made for us.
"Lord Gil-Galad fair and just... certainly nothing will happen?" an elf says loudly, as if scandalized.
"Yes, he is fair and just," a maiden titters, "but when it comes to his daughter..."
We walk out of hearing range, but I am not so sure that I wanted to hear that last part. Calwaiel walks beside me, carefully glancing at the throng of onlookers.
Curses fly through the paths inside my head, but no excuse seems to enter the realms of my mind.
This is it. I am definitely in trouble now.
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Thanks sooo much! Please please please review and I'll try and get the next chapter out by this week!
