AN: Well, this is a record! I'm updating again! Anyway, I'd like to thank
all of you for your reviews. It really makes my day to get them, especially
when you find out that next semester you have to have a professor you don't
at all like, again. Such is life at a small college. It makes me happy to
see people are taking time out to review my story. All of you are great!
Lomiothiel: My younger sister would do something like that to me. As a matter of fact, she has but that's a different story. You'll get your answers in time. I will tell you that he asked her to dance because he figured that doing something as familiar as dancing would make her comfortable. Thanks, as usual, for your review.
neo serenity: I'm trying my best to stay away from Mary-Sue type things. I only included the dance am I alluding to as a means of making a character comfortable in an awkward situation.
PixiePea000: I would have continued if it wasn't inching dangerously close to 4AM. I'm sure my mom wouldn't have liked me waking her up at 4AM. Spiro is as Spiro does and I get to see him tomorrow. By the way, GOLLUM!
kender girl: Thanks! That was a very interesting review and I appreciate it!
TitanicHobbit: I'm just glad you reviewed. I've never seen The Matrix and my Storytelling: Then and Now class is going to see the third one. I have to watch the first two because everyone is saying I'll be lost if I don't.
kurleyhawk2: She'll dance. As always, I appreciate your review.
*words*---indicate something being sung. (This time the song actually gets involved. I don't own the song either. It's "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for a handful of made up characters. Tolkien thought up the concept and, as such, it belongs to him. I'm just playing in his world. I'm broke and in college. All I own are Pointe Shoes.
Emma's mind became a land of a thousand dances. Private ballets, company ballets, tap dances, jazz dances, and acrobatic routines swirled around in her head. She eliminated any tap dance because, without her tap shoes, it would look sort of odd. The floor looked far too hard to execute any acrobatic routine. It would hurt like nobody's business if she fell. She didn't feel comfortable doing a jazz dance and a company ballet wouldn't work because of all the cannons and partnering. All she was left with was her private ballets.
With the narrow list, Emma began to consider her choices. For some reason, the one dance that stuck out in her mind was one of her more recent dances. She, mentally, giggled. This private had been one of her favorites because the costume fit the music so well.
The costume had a copper, body suit like bodice. Attached at the waist was a knee length, layered ballet skirt. Pink tights were on her legs and, much to her delight, black Pointe shoes-complete with black elastic and ribbons- were on her feet. Her hair was up in a tight ballet bun, around which sat a copper colored scrunchie. She felt she looked very much like a seal of some kind which was ironic because she was dancing to Seal's "Kiss from a Rose."
She started to dancing, singing the song to herself, because the words dictated the motions of dance.
All of a sudden, the king called, "Stop!
Emma stopped, mid-step, afraid she had done something wrong or offensive.
"Are you singing?" he asked.
Emma nodded and, quietly, answered, "I'm sorry if I offended you, sir."
She knew her singing voice was not all that great having been told so during a rehearsal for a tap dance where the class had to sing a few bars of an old song. She rarely ever sang, preferring to express herself through dance.
"I did not, child. Please start again and sing for all of us to hear," he ordered Emma.
Emma wanted to give the king a skeptical look but decide against it. That might be rude.
She began again, this dancing starting with a walking step.
*There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh,
The more I get of you,
Stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grey.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain,
My power, my pleasure, my pain, baby
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny.
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grey,
I've been kissed by a rose on the grey,
I've been kissed by a rose
I've been kissed by a rose on the grey,
...And if I should fall along the way
I've been kissed by a rose
...been kissed by a rose on the grey.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain
My power, my pleasure, my pain.
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny, yeah
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grey.
Yes I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
And now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the gray.*
The dance ended with a series of leaps that lead to a pose on the floor. Unlike the other dance she had preformed, this one was far more intricate with many jumps and complex chains of steps.
With a small bow, Emma scurried off to her brother's side.
"That was wonderful, little elf. You are quite the talented dancer," the king told Emma, after watching her scurry away.
"Thank you, sir," Emma replied, quietly.
The king then turned to Legolas.
"I do not believe you came all this way to show us a new dancing girl. Who is this little elf?" he questioned the prince.
"Her name is Emma," Legolas started, "and she is my sister."
"Your sister! I did not know you had a sister," the queen exclaimed, incredulously.
"Neither did I, my friend. That is, up until a few days ago. She is the 'lost elf' of recent myth," the prince replied.
"Will you two join us in a meal? We can discuss this more fully on full stomachs," the king suggested.
"Of course we would," Legolas replied.
The woman got up and said something to the man in a strange language. The king replied to her in kind, using the same language.
She turned to Legolas and asked, "May I take the child to get cleaned up and properly dressed?"
"I do not see why not," Legolas answered.
Emma did not budge. She just stood stock still and stared. This place, to her, seemed awfully large and she was afraid that, if she left, she was going to get lost and never find her way back.
Legolas turned to Emma, taking not of the half frightened expression on her face.
"Go on, Emma," he urged, "she will not hurt you."
Nervously, Emma followed the woman out of the room. She was nearly running to keep up with her strides. The woman took not and slowed down, allowing the child to catch up.
The two walked in silence for a while, the woman glancing at Emma with a sad smile every so often. Emma glanced around the corridors, watching everything with rapt interest.
The older woman broke the silence by commenting, "You dance very well, little elf. How long have you been dancing?"
"Nearly my whole life, this will be my tenth year, ma'am," she answered.
"Please do not call me ma'am. My name is Arwen. What shall I call you?" the other woman said with a laugh.
"Just Emma, no title or anything," the child answered.
"Not even princess?" the queen questioned, looking the young elf over.
"Especially not that," Emma, firmly, responded.
"Emma, how old are you?" the queen asked, suddenly.
"I'm twelve years old where I'm from. I'll be thirteen soon. Is it different here?" Emma replied.
"Somewhat, since elves age more slowly than humans and some one I know believes that time here passes differently than time in his world," Arwen explained.
"Are you an elf? You have pointed ears like me and my brother," Emma inquired.
Arwen gave Emma yet another sad smile. Seeing this somewhat confused, somewhat happy elfling was not making her feel very guilty.
"I was once an elf but I chose to be mortal, like my husband," she replied.
"What can call your husband?" Emma asked, thoroughly enjoying having all her questions answered.
"Aragorn, that is his right name," answered the older woman.
"Not your highness or anything like that?" Emma probed.
The older woman shook her head and lead Emma into a large room.
Meanwhile, Legolas and Aragorn sat in the other room. Legolas had seated himself on the stairs leading up to where Aragorn sat. He sat at a diagonal to the human's throne.
"She is not your full sister is she?" Aragorn questioned the seated elf.
He recalled Legolas telling him that his mother had been killed when he was but a child.
"No, she is not. We share a father but not a mother," Legolas confirmed.
"You are very fond of her, though," the king guessed from watching the small sampling of interactions between brother and sister.
"I do but in an almost protective way," the elf explained.
"The same way the twins feel about their sister. It is only natural. You look puzzled, my friend. What is wrong?" the king requested to know.
"Many things about Emma's existence perplex me. One of the things I would like to know is if my father was aware of her existence, so to speak, before he sent her mother away," Legolas admitted.
A bell tolled in the distance.
"Come, I do believe you will find answers over a good meal," Aragorn said, getting up.
The two men walked to an adjacent room where a large table had been set. No sooner had they sat down, then the two females entered the room. Legolas recognized Arwen but not her small companion.
Then it hit him. Her companion was Emma.
The young elf was dressed in a long powder blue dress with long, sheer blue sleeves. The straps were trimmed in tiny pink flowers and the same flowers were weaved into the intricate braid that had been done in Emma's hair.
The two females sat at the table, respective males holding their chairs out for them.
"You look very nice," Legolas whispered to Emma, making her turn slightly pink.
"My dad said I clean up well," she replied with a giggle.
"Yes, well," Legolas started, slightly confused.
"Not your dad. My dad, you know, Mitchell," Emma explained.
Several trays of food were brought it and the quartet around the table began to eat. Unsure of what much of the food was, Emma took small portions of what she could recognize. This made it look like she was eating very little.
"So, tell us about how you came across Emma," Aragorn requested.
Legolas launched into an explanation, discussing everything from his mission to retrieve her to the images in the mirrors at the dance studio to Galadriel's Mirror in Lothlorien. Emma interjected where she could, adding tiny details.
"There are only two things I do not understand---this red-haired person or this woman in armor," Legolas finished.
"I do believe I have an answer for you," Arwen started.
Lomiothiel: My younger sister would do something like that to me. As a matter of fact, she has but that's a different story. You'll get your answers in time. I will tell you that he asked her to dance because he figured that doing something as familiar as dancing would make her comfortable. Thanks, as usual, for your review.
neo serenity: I'm trying my best to stay away from Mary-Sue type things. I only included the dance am I alluding to as a means of making a character comfortable in an awkward situation.
PixiePea000: I would have continued if it wasn't inching dangerously close to 4AM. I'm sure my mom wouldn't have liked me waking her up at 4AM. Spiro is as Spiro does and I get to see him tomorrow. By the way, GOLLUM!
kender girl: Thanks! That was a very interesting review and I appreciate it!
TitanicHobbit: I'm just glad you reviewed. I've never seen The Matrix and my Storytelling: Then and Now class is going to see the third one. I have to watch the first two because everyone is saying I'll be lost if I don't.
kurleyhawk2: She'll dance. As always, I appreciate your review.
*words*---indicate something being sung. (This time the song actually gets involved. I don't own the song either. It's "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for a handful of made up characters. Tolkien thought up the concept and, as such, it belongs to him. I'm just playing in his world. I'm broke and in college. All I own are Pointe Shoes.
Emma's mind became a land of a thousand dances. Private ballets, company ballets, tap dances, jazz dances, and acrobatic routines swirled around in her head. She eliminated any tap dance because, without her tap shoes, it would look sort of odd. The floor looked far too hard to execute any acrobatic routine. It would hurt like nobody's business if she fell. She didn't feel comfortable doing a jazz dance and a company ballet wouldn't work because of all the cannons and partnering. All she was left with was her private ballets.
With the narrow list, Emma began to consider her choices. For some reason, the one dance that stuck out in her mind was one of her more recent dances. She, mentally, giggled. This private had been one of her favorites because the costume fit the music so well.
The costume had a copper, body suit like bodice. Attached at the waist was a knee length, layered ballet skirt. Pink tights were on her legs and, much to her delight, black Pointe shoes-complete with black elastic and ribbons- were on her feet. Her hair was up in a tight ballet bun, around which sat a copper colored scrunchie. She felt she looked very much like a seal of some kind which was ironic because she was dancing to Seal's "Kiss from a Rose."
She started to dancing, singing the song to herself, because the words dictated the motions of dance.
All of a sudden, the king called, "Stop!
Emma stopped, mid-step, afraid she had done something wrong or offensive.
"Are you singing?" he asked.
Emma nodded and, quietly, answered, "I'm sorry if I offended you, sir."
She knew her singing voice was not all that great having been told so during a rehearsal for a tap dance where the class had to sing a few bars of an old song. She rarely ever sang, preferring to express herself through dance.
"I did not, child. Please start again and sing for all of us to hear," he ordered Emma.
Emma wanted to give the king a skeptical look but decide against it. That might be rude.
She began again, this dancing starting with a walking step.
*There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh,
The more I get of you,
Stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grey.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain,
My power, my pleasure, my pain, baby
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny.
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grey,
I've been kissed by a rose on the grey,
I've been kissed by a rose
I've been kissed by a rose on the grey,
...And if I should fall along the way
I've been kissed by a rose
...been kissed by a rose on the grey.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain
My power, my pleasure, my pain.
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny, yeah
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grey.
Yes I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
And now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the gray.*
The dance ended with a series of leaps that lead to a pose on the floor. Unlike the other dance she had preformed, this one was far more intricate with many jumps and complex chains of steps.
With a small bow, Emma scurried off to her brother's side.
"That was wonderful, little elf. You are quite the talented dancer," the king told Emma, after watching her scurry away.
"Thank you, sir," Emma replied, quietly.
The king then turned to Legolas.
"I do not believe you came all this way to show us a new dancing girl. Who is this little elf?" he questioned the prince.
"Her name is Emma," Legolas started, "and she is my sister."
"Your sister! I did not know you had a sister," the queen exclaimed, incredulously.
"Neither did I, my friend. That is, up until a few days ago. She is the 'lost elf' of recent myth," the prince replied.
"Will you two join us in a meal? We can discuss this more fully on full stomachs," the king suggested.
"Of course we would," Legolas replied.
The woman got up and said something to the man in a strange language. The king replied to her in kind, using the same language.
She turned to Legolas and asked, "May I take the child to get cleaned up and properly dressed?"
"I do not see why not," Legolas answered.
Emma did not budge. She just stood stock still and stared. This place, to her, seemed awfully large and she was afraid that, if she left, she was going to get lost and never find her way back.
Legolas turned to Emma, taking not of the half frightened expression on her face.
"Go on, Emma," he urged, "she will not hurt you."
Nervously, Emma followed the woman out of the room. She was nearly running to keep up with her strides. The woman took not and slowed down, allowing the child to catch up.
The two walked in silence for a while, the woman glancing at Emma with a sad smile every so often. Emma glanced around the corridors, watching everything with rapt interest.
The older woman broke the silence by commenting, "You dance very well, little elf. How long have you been dancing?"
"Nearly my whole life, this will be my tenth year, ma'am," she answered.
"Please do not call me ma'am. My name is Arwen. What shall I call you?" the other woman said with a laugh.
"Just Emma, no title or anything," the child answered.
"Not even princess?" the queen questioned, looking the young elf over.
"Especially not that," Emma, firmly, responded.
"Emma, how old are you?" the queen asked, suddenly.
"I'm twelve years old where I'm from. I'll be thirteen soon. Is it different here?" Emma replied.
"Somewhat, since elves age more slowly than humans and some one I know believes that time here passes differently than time in his world," Arwen explained.
"Are you an elf? You have pointed ears like me and my brother," Emma inquired.
Arwen gave Emma yet another sad smile. Seeing this somewhat confused, somewhat happy elfling was not making her feel very guilty.
"I was once an elf but I chose to be mortal, like my husband," she replied.
"What can call your husband?" Emma asked, thoroughly enjoying having all her questions answered.
"Aragorn, that is his right name," answered the older woman.
"Not your highness or anything like that?" Emma probed.
The older woman shook her head and lead Emma into a large room.
Meanwhile, Legolas and Aragorn sat in the other room. Legolas had seated himself on the stairs leading up to where Aragorn sat. He sat at a diagonal to the human's throne.
"She is not your full sister is she?" Aragorn questioned the seated elf.
He recalled Legolas telling him that his mother had been killed when he was but a child.
"No, she is not. We share a father but not a mother," Legolas confirmed.
"You are very fond of her, though," the king guessed from watching the small sampling of interactions between brother and sister.
"I do but in an almost protective way," the elf explained.
"The same way the twins feel about their sister. It is only natural. You look puzzled, my friend. What is wrong?" the king requested to know.
"Many things about Emma's existence perplex me. One of the things I would like to know is if my father was aware of her existence, so to speak, before he sent her mother away," Legolas admitted.
A bell tolled in the distance.
"Come, I do believe you will find answers over a good meal," Aragorn said, getting up.
The two men walked to an adjacent room where a large table had been set. No sooner had they sat down, then the two females entered the room. Legolas recognized Arwen but not her small companion.
Then it hit him. Her companion was Emma.
The young elf was dressed in a long powder blue dress with long, sheer blue sleeves. The straps were trimmed in tiny pink flowers and the same flowers were weaved into the intricate braid that had been done in Emma's hair.
The two females sat at the table, respective males holding their chairs out for them.
"You look very nice," Legolas whispered to Emma, making her turn slightly pink.
"My dad said I clean up well," she replied with a giggle.
"Yes, well," Legolas started, slightly confused.
"Not your dad. My dad, you know, Mitchell," Emma explained.
Several trays of food were brought it and the quartet around the table began to eat. Unsure of what much of the food was, Emma took small portions of what she could recognize. This made it look like she was eating very little.
"So, tell us about how you came across Emma," Aragorn requested.
Legolas launched into an explanation, discussing everything from his mission to retrieve her to the images in the mirrors at the dance studio to Galadriel's Mirror in Lothlorien. Emma interjected where she could, adding tiny details.
"There are only two things I do not understand---this red-haired person or this woman in armor," Legolas finished.
"I do believe I have an answer for you," Arwen started.