*Tries to duck the wrath of reviewers who might be a tad... displeased... at the amount of time this update has taken* Heh... hi, guys... ah.... I really didn't mean to go this long without an update... I've just been doing so much, and I have so many other stories and... yea. Well, anyways, I'm here to update now, so, here it is!
Disclaimer: They own me. Lian's practically murdered me, she says I've been "shirking my responsibilities to her and to the story and to humanity in general" (I have no idea about the last part... I think that's just general Lian weirdness) and has tried to strangle me ever chance I get. I finally had to get Dante to help protect me... he's so great. I totally wouldn't be here if I didn't have him. Anyways, to finish my disclaimer, I don't own the weirdos, I just created them, with the exception of the canons, of course, which belong to my good ol' friend John, and the charming elf Faith, who belongs to Lani, who oh-so-generously loaned her character to me.
One more thing... this is going to probably be a short chapter, sorry. But I seriously don't have a whole lot of time today.
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Lian: Part Two
By Hollie
"My lady?" Lian awoke to an unfamiliar face peering over her. Blue eyes looked at her from behind long blonde lashes, and shining hair of the same yellow coloring was tied back in a neat braid. Her face was clean and heart-shaped, and her eyes were impassive. It took a moment for Lian to remember that this was Nimia, the maid assigned to her rooms.
"Oh, ah, good morning," Lian said, trying –unsuccessfully- to stifle a yawn.
"Good morning, my lady," Nimia replied, helping the young woman out of bed and presenting her with a soft robe. Lian slipped it on and tied it with a sash around her waist, snuggling up against the soft, comfortable robe.
"Did my lady sleep well?" the maid asked as she set about immediately making the queen-sized bed. The downy dove-gray comforter that had kept Lian pleasantly warm all night was tucked and smoothed out perfectly, and the pillows arranged expertly. Within mere moments, the bed looked as if a young girl hadn't been tossing and turning in it all night long.
"Well, not precisely... but it wasn't because of the bed. I've never been in anything so comfortable before!" she quickly reassured the young maid, who had looked worried. "I just... I have bad dreams, often." Nimia nodded her understanding.
"If my lady likes," she offered, "I can procure a draft that will banish dreams and give better sleep."
Lian's eyes widened in amazement. A drink that could banish her nightmares? It seemed too good to be true! However, this was an elven realm; most likely anything was possible. She had spent enough time at Rivendell to know that the beautiful creatures were full of so many secrets that no mortal could ever know all of them.
"That would be wonderful, Nimia, thank you." A thought occurred to her. "You can call me Lian, you know. I don't really hold much with titles, and my etiquette mistress always told me that I get into too much trouble to ever be a true lady." Lian smiled at the memory of her childhood instructor, who she had always delighted in torturing. Mistress Roma'nae had tried every method short of actual physical harm to get her pupil to settle down into the life of a respectable princess, but Lian had resisted every effort with a grin on her face. Her mother had been torn between disproval and amusement, but she knew that her father had found enjoyment in her antics. Fea, being the perfect child she always had been, had been none too pleased with her youngest sibling, but Eldarion, who, at that time, had been something of a rabble-rouser himself, had only encouraged her.
"Oh no, my lady. In truth, I would be uncomfortable calling you anything other than the proper title." She hesitated a moment. "If it is not too bold for me to say, I think that your etiquette mistress was wrong of you, lady. I have heard of you, once or twice before your arrival, and all I heard was praises sung of you. I believe that you must be a very great lady indeed."
Lian was touched by the elf's soft spoken words, but also slightly confused. "Why, thank you. But... who has been talking of me?"
"When the family returned from their sojourn at your city, his highness, our great king, and his lady, spoke of you fondly. And, of course, when she would make trips up here, the Lady Faith always bragged of her fiery niece Lian."
Despite herself, she blushed at Nimia's words. She also felt a twinge of disappointment; Nimia had said that Legolas and Miriel had spoken well of her, but she had said nothing of their son's opinion.
However, before her mind could go off once again thinking of the mess she had made with herself and the elven prince, the door to her chambers burst open.
"Good, you're already awake," Faith said as she bounded in, her eyes shining, blonde hair tied back into a neat braid.
"Depends on what your definition of 'awake' is," Lian said, smiling.
Her aunt chuckled. "Hurry up and get dressed; we've got breakfast with the king in about five minutes ago."
Lian started. "We're late?"
Faith's response was to shrug and say, "that why I said to hurry."
She wasn't sure how it happened, but suddenly Nimia appeared with her clothes. She was changed in a flash, slipping not into her own clothes, but a thin, pale pink shift. It was embroidered with a design of flowers along the hem and neckline, and studded with tiny red gems; firestones.
"This is beautiful," Lian murmured as she traced the flower pattern that wove around her waist.
"The Golden Lady herself ordered fine clothes for you, my lady," Nimia told her as she combed out Lian's long dark hair, arranging it swiftly atop her head. She struggled with it for a few moments, then said, "I'm sorry, my lady, but it won't all stay up."
"That's fine," Lian said, knowing how troublesome her locks could be. "I can't usually make it behave either." After a few more attempts, Nimia finally settled on arranging a portion of it on top of Lian's head, letting the rest flow freely down her back.
"Thank you, Nimia!" Lian called out as Faith practically dragged her out the door.
"Keep up," Faith chided a minute later as she looked at her lagging niece.
"I'm sorry, I just don't know this place as well as you seem to... and it's hard to keep up with you! Not all of us are gifted with the speed of the elves!"
Faith grinned broadly at her niece. "Oh, come now, you're half-blood; and Aragorn's an elf in all but his mortality, anyways," she told Lian with a wink. "If you can't keep up, it's your own fault."
"Alright, alright!" Lian said with a laugh. "I confess! I'm just out of shape."
Faith arched her eyebrow. "After all that traveling?"
"What can I say?" Lian shrugged. "All that horseback riding... I've gone soft from it."
Chuckling, Faith was about to reply, when she saw that they had arrived. "Oh, we're here," she told Lian, who immediately smoothed nonexistent wrinkles out her dress. "It's about time too; I've got an awful lot to say to that King..." Not bothering to knock, Faith twisted the doorknob and burst in.
"Legolas, you've got an awful lot of—" She stopped dead in her tracks, and Lian, who had not been expecting that, banged into her. Peering around her aunt to see what the cause of her abrupt halt had been, Lian spotted two figures. One was one of the most beautiful creatures that she'd ever met, and one she knew to be kind as well. Legolas Greenleaf, the king of this realm, looked at herself and her aunt with sparkling blue eyes that held repressed laughter. He wore a silver circlet atop his locks of golden hair, and he made even the simple elven robe he adorned look like a masterpiece. Lian had been expecting –and looking forward to- seeing this elf-king once again, for she had become terribly fond of him in the short time she had met him. However, the being seated at his left was not someone Lian had been expecting.
He was a tall man, definitely not one of the elves, though his hair was similarly colored. He wore a tunic that was embroidered with a horse-head design, and his face was instantly familiar.
"Éomer," Faith said flatly, eyes rounded slightly. "You're... here. Now. How..." she shot a brief glance at Legolas, who was only barely restraining his laughter. "Unexpected," she finished. Lian's forehead creased. What was going on with her aunt? Why was she suddenly acting so strangely.
If Éomer knew the reason, he said nothing of it. Instead, his eyes crinkled with laughter, though he wisely kept it from his voice when he spoke; if Lian knew nothing else of her aunt, she knew how she loathed being laughed at.
"Yes, Faith, I am. And I can tell from your expression that you most certainly are surprised. I take it that Legolas did not tell you I would be dining with you this morning?"
"No, he did not." Something was very strange with Faith's tone. Very strange indeed.
Legolas chuckled as he spoke. "Must have slipped my mind."
"Indeed," Faith muttered darkly, but so quietly that only Lian heard. It was then that the elven king turned his attention to the fourth member of the group.
"Lady Lian," he said, rising, and coming over to her. He grasped her hand in his, inclining his head in an elegant bow. She tried to match it with as much grace as she could must, which, she feared, was not a great deal.
"It gladdens my heart to see you again, dear lady," he said eloquently, smiling widely.
Lian thought very carefully before she spoke, and when she did, it was a careful, halting speech. "'Quel amrun, heruamin. Nae... Nae saian luume'." *
Legolas's smile widened, and he applauded her. "Your grasp of our tongue is very good, hallaer." ** He winked at her, and she couldn't help but smile in return. There was no question in her mind as to where Galen had gotten his charm from.
"You're surprised?" Faith asked, also with a grin on her face. Whatever confusion that might have been affecting her before had vanished.
Chuckling, the elven king waved his hand. "Come," he said to the women, "shall we eat?"
They all took their places at the round, low table. Lian sat in between Éomer and her aunt, and across from Legolas. They dined in a style slightly unfamiliar to Lian; instead of chairs, they were seated upon the loveliest cushions Lian had ever seen. Each one had a different pattern or emblem weaved onto them, all to do with food and dining. Lian's was made of a soft mauve material, and pattered with grapes on a vine.
When the food was brought in, Lian was all the more impressed. She tasted exquisite flavors of foods she hadn't even known had existed, and the pitcher of sweet juice that Legolas called llaya was amazing. She especially liked the mulled wine Éomer had poured for her, and the wonderfully warm loaf of round bread that was served.
They weren't even half-way through the meal when Faith put a halt to the small-talk that had been circulating and delved right into what she clearly had wanted to say for some time.
"Legolas, has Galen spoken to you yet?"
The cheery demeanor faded from the he-elf's face. "Yes, he came last night."
"So you know then?"
"I know," he told her bitterly. "I know, but I don't believe. How those nadorhuanrim*** infested these lands without my even knowing..."
"That's exactly what Galen said," Faith told him, her mouth set in a grim line. Éomer looked at the faces of both elves as they continued their discussion, and then turned to Lian.
"Do you know of what they speak?" he asked, his confusion clear.
"Ah, yes. A group –well, we don't really know how many, actually- of Southrons, they somehow made it up here and have been picking off the elven scouts. They attacked our party as well; that's how I got this." She rolled up the sleeve of her dress to expose the skin around her elbow. Going down it was a long, pink line, beginning to scar over. An elven healer had treated it last night, but the woman had said that she would always have the scar. Secretly, Lian liked it; it made her think of the battle scars he father had, and she liked to pretend that she had done deeds as great as he had. Of course, that was only in her imagination.
Éomer whistled softly. "That's some scratch," he said, lightly tracing it with a finger. It went from a few inches about her elbow curving down and around and stopping halfway down her forearm. "Blade wound? Knife, sword?"
"Actually, it was an arrow," she replied. "The first shot they got off. I..." She hesitated, not knowing whether to disclose her embarrassing experience. However, in the brief time in which she had known him, she judged Éomer to be a kind man, and she didn't think that he would laugh at her. "I sort of... fainted... after I got hit, so I didn't do any of the actual fighting. But Anto told me about it afterwards. He said that... oh, what were his words? I believe he said something like 'the fury of the elven princess is worth the skills of a large fleet of men,' and that Faith frightened most of them off."
Éomer laughed so loudly that it even jolted Legolas and Faith out of their deep conversation.
"What, pray tell, is so funny?" Faith asked curiously.
Éomer and Lian exchanged a quick glance. "Ah, nothing," Éomer said vaguely, waving his hand. "Just a joke between friends."
Faith looked at Lian in such a way that her meaning was inescapably clear; she was saying, you'll explain later. Lian chortled, and just shrugged.
"Well," Legolas started, rising to his feet, "if everyone has finished? I am afraid to say that I have some matters that need my attention, and, Lian," she looked up as he spoke her name, "I do believe that my daughter expressed a desire to get to know you better. At this time of day, I believe she is in the Sun Room; if you would like to go, I can certainly arrange for someone to take you there. It's quite a breathtaking place." Lian nodded, curious as to what sort of room the one named could be.
"I can show her, Legolas," Faith started.
"Oh, nonsense." Legolas offered Lian an arm, which she took. He began to slowly back out of the room with her, as Faith rose from her seat, and Éomer looked on with something akin to amusement. "I imagine that you have a lot to be catching up on with our dear Rider friend, do you not? We'll leave you to it." With that, he and Lian were out of the room entirely, and the king, whom Lian began to suspect was quite mischievous, swung the door shut before anyone could do a thing about it.
Through the door, Lian could just make out her aunt's voice. She blinked; had her aunt just said "Legolas, lle n'vanima ar' lle atara lanneina!"****? She looked to the elven-king to see he was only barely holding back his laughter, and somehow, that seemed to confirm it.
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Hehe, that's it for now. Again, I'm really sorry that this update has taken such a long time. Ah, I've been going back and rereading all my Lian stuff (don't worry, I'm not going to rewrite it or anything... I know, I keep on doing that with my stories lately.... hehe, but I'm fairly satisfied with this one, anyways ;o) and I did notice a few errors, so before any Tolkien experts come along thinking I'm a hash--- I did know that elves don't actually sleep. I don't know what I was doing/thinking in the last chapter when I had Nimia sleeping. I do know they don't really sleep. Really. Also, I want to thank Miriel for alerting me to the fact that Mirkwood was renamed Greenwood the Great, but, if no one minds, I'd like to keep it as Mirkwood. I don't know why... It's just hard to change the name when you've thought of something by one name for so long.
Okay, thank you time!
Sarai-IceElf- You are sharp! Cookies for you, yes yes! Hehe, aw, shucks... I could never leave this place for long... not when there's great people like yourself here! ;o) This chapters also something of a filler... *sigh* I just keep on writing those! I don't know, I kind of like it though... not a whole lot happened, but I just wanted Lian to get to know Legolas and Éomer a little bit more... and scenes with Faith are so much fun to write!
Quiet One- Hehe! I love reviews with the whole gang... of course, that makes the crew here want to jump in with their replies... Ah, and here they come...
Lian: *to Anelith* Ah, yes... pulling topics out of the air is fun... hehe. *laughing* I can only imagine the things you must say when people aren't quite paying attention! *spots Farin* Hiiiiiiiii Farin!
Anil: Hey, stop poking my father! *looks to Lian* Oh, get over it girl! You've got lenty enough guys in this story... you don't need to go hunting around!
Lian: What is that supposed to mean?
Anil: Uh.... I don't know... forget I said anything... *disappears* *sticks head back in* stop poking my father, Farin! *leaves again*
Anto: *to Jeron & Farin* I think they must give the ladies the best rooms. Neither my nor Anil's room is that great. I mean, Magen's is pretty good, I think, but he's Magen...
Lian: I love my rooms... they're beautiful. And hey, what's Magen's story, anyways? I never really got to talk to him on the trip.
Anto: Uh... is that my brother calling me? I think it is... gotta dash... *leaves*
Lian: Both those boys... infuriating! *to Kolia* Do you have as many problems with the males around you that I do with mine? Oh... should I be worried about the banquet? Oh my, I just know I'll do something stupid in front of Galen.. aah! Maybe I shouldn't even go! Meep! *runs off*
Hollie: *looks around* just me now? Ah, yes, I do believe that they've all gone away... *waits* Yes, they have! Woo hoo! Well, thank you soooo much for the kind and humorous review! It was so much fun to read! And I know the gang here enjoyed it too. Oh, but Galen and Anto have both gotten very big headed when they found out you were torn between them... *sigh* guys... heheh! ^-^
Lani- Hey hey! How was that? Was it okay? Too much? Yeep... I wasn't quite sure about it... I hope I didn't screw up w/ Faith! Oh, and thanks for the info... it's really helpful! Hehe, I'll make sure to keep sharp objects away from Faith whenever Legolas is around... ;oD This chapter I didn't make her too murderous... after all, she did have important things to talk to him about. (But don't worry Faith, you'll get back at him eventually! ;) Anyways, thanks for the reviews, and for the lending of your wonderful character! And of course you get a cookie! Hehe, one for you, and one for Faith!
Nariko- Hey, you're back! Awesome! Hehe, well, it may be your imagination... or it may not be... we shall see! ;o) And don't worry... Galen and Lian will be talking soon... I can't promise that it will be a happy conversation, but with all the people around them that are determined to get them together (like Faith) ... well, who can say what will happen? (Okay, so I could say... but I won't! That might ruin the surprises!)
Hwesta- Here's another update! Ah yes, a flashback might be fun... hmm... hmm... I'll have to think on that... And yes, Éomer is back! There will probably be quite a lot of him in this story... Legolas too. I like them both... not as much as Aragorn (he's the man) but they're awesome too.
Miriel- Thanks so much for the info! Yes, I did read the appendices... but not all of them. I read a lot of the stuff on language, and the pronunciation and that fun stuff... hehe. The Story of Aragorn and Arwen was my favorite though... I've read it a million times... Anyways, thanks so much for all the helpful information! Ah, the phrases... I found them on line ages ago. Oh, and sorry that I was so evil with how long this took... I really didn't mean for it to take this long! Anyways, thanks for everything!
jane- thank you! I have!
crazycruzet212- Thanks to you also! Ah... it wasn't soon... but better late than never, right?
Lady Ana Maria Lorinan- Love the name change! Thanks for reading my stories, I'm glad you liked them!
vocalise- I did! And thanks!
Oh, and before I forget, the translations for the elvish used in this chapter...
*Good morning, my lord. It has been too long.
**small one
*** cowardly dogs
****Legolas, you are ugly and your mother dresses you funny!
Okay, I /don't/ think that Legolas is ugly or that his mother dresses him funny... I just absolutely LOVE that insult, and I had to stick it in somewhere! Hehe, plus, it seemed appropriate for Faith to say... heh heh. ^-^
I do believe that's it for now... Thanks for reading, and I do hope you all liked it! I know I enjoyed writing it!
Always,
~Hollie