Hiya! I like dis chapter 2, hope you do to. (
El looked at Ivy. "How did you push him backwards like that? Do you have powers?"
"Yes," Ivy replied. "So do you. You may not remember them now, but they will come back. Here, watch." She placed her hands over the water. "Estryas?"
"Yes Iavas," came the answer from in the water. Slowly, before El's eyes, a figure of water formed before her until it looked nearly totally human, although she was blue from head to toe. The blue figure turned her gaze to El and smiled.
"El," said Ivy; "This is Estryas, one of the guardian water dryads of this river." Estryas curtsied shyly, lifting the blue-silver folds of her dress a little off the ground.
"I know who you are, Gathiel. Welcome back to your home," Estryas' sweet running voice sang. The water dryad turned and disappeared into the stream again. El looked a little shocked.
"I never knew there were more than four dryads," she said, still looking into the water. Ivy smiled.
"There are many dryads; they are of the waters, and of the earth... In fact there are even more than that." El stayed silent for a while.
"Do you think you could teach me how to use my powers again?" she asked tentatively, fearful of the answer she might receive. Ivy nodded.
"Let us see," she thought aloud. "What were Gathiel's powers? Ah yes. Here." Ivy pointed to the bare ground beneath her feet. "I want you to give life to a flower. Concentrate and it should happen."
El began staring intently at the forest floor, and soon, sure enough, a tiny daisy appeared, uncurling from the surface. El looked a little disappointed as it began to whither.
"What a measly attempt; not even weeds would bother to strangle that pathetic thing!" The voice of Riwel mocked her from behind a tree. El pulled her daisy from the ground and threw it in the water.
"Go away Riwel, we do not need your snide remarks here," Ivy said. Riwel snickered.
Ivy turned back to El. "That was a good try, but you were thinking too small and I suspect you did not believe it was going to work." Ivy held her hands over the small area and a huge elegant flame lily erupted from the earth. It glittered in the sunset light.
Riwel walked away from his tree towards the lily, he snapped his fingers and it turned immediately to ice. He moved closer and tapped it with a gold, silver-toned finger and the ice crumbled into tiny shards.
"It thrills Riwel to kill beautiful things, it seems," El said to Ivy.
Riwel laughed. "That is just child's play!" He walked towards the other three sitting around the campfire.
"Watch." He clicked his fingers, the three around the fire froze as iced covered around them. "Let me see." He walked towards Elladan and put a cold finger close to the ice. "Which one should we crumble first, Elladan, Elrohir, or-" He stood next to Legolas. "Maybe the prince!" A wicked smile spread across his face, and his eyes gleamed maliciously. El felt as though the bottom had dropped out of her stomach.
"Don't you dare touch them, Riwel!" Ivy cried, running towards him. Riwel's finger went closer. El suddenly was furious; her eyes began to glow red. She looked at the vine that was hanging close to Riwel's head, and it started to twitch. It coiled itself around his neck, squeezing tighter. Riwel gasped and struggled for breath.
"Release them from the ice 'Riwel'," El said angrily. Riwel smiled, but the vine squeezed tighter. "Now!" El commanded fiercly. He looked at the ice and it melted. Legolas, Elrohir and Elladan shivered and looked around themselves. "Do not hurt my friends again," El said walking closer to Riwel. She looked again at the vine and it uncoiled from his neck. Riwel backed away slightly. El's eyes were still flame-red and glowed yet brighter.
"Hmm, your powers improve when you are angered, Gathiel, I am relatively impressed. Though I was expecting something a little worse then that trick you played with the vine." El's eyes subdued back to green. "I would not have been stupid enough to kill them, though. To kill the son of Thranduil would not be looked upon kindly." He sat down by himself on the other side of the fire and warmed his hands on the blaze. Legolas, Elrohir and Elladan did not look happy to have the conceited dryad sitting opposite to them. Riwel smirked.
Everyone fell silent.
"Thranduil knows you are coming," Riwel said slowly, getting up. "I shall now go back to my dwelling. I would offer you to come with me, Iavas, but as it seems you will not leave these slow elves behind, so I shall see you in Mirkwood." Before their very eyes he turned into a shining silver bird of prey, and flew off into the distant canopy.
"Can we do that too?" El asked with both wonder and apprehension, and Ivy nodded.
"Twice in one day, hey? Riwel is becoming a frequent visitor," Elrohir said sarcastically. Legolas looked into the fire, deep in thought.
"Sometimes I really wonder about Riwel," Legolas said finally. He looked up at El and smiled. "You seemed to have discovered some of your powers already!"
"Yes, what you did was very brave," Ivy added, resting her head on a tree trunk.
They ate some waybread and then got into their sleeping bags. El looked above at the spot of sky not covered by the trees. Something glinted on one of the boughs then took flight. Riwel had not left after all.
El woke to frosty air stinging her face. The sun had not yet risen, but there was a dull glow in the sky. She pulled the covers back quietly, because the others were still asleep around her, and tip toed to the edge of the stream. She washed her face with the cool water. Next to her she saw the shards of ice from the night before. She placed her hands over the area and the ice melted leaving the tiny bits of red and yellow lily behind. El closed her eyes and concentrated hard, then jumped when she heard someone clapping behind her. In front of her now was the old flame lily, looking good as new as it twinkled in the early morning sunlight.
"Nice flower, El," Elladan said as he sat down next to her. "You are getting the hang of your magic nicely." She smiled at him and concentrated on his hair. To Elladan's surprise a wreath of blue bells was now settled on his head. Elladan took it off to get a good look at it, and then placed it on El's head. "They are beautiful, but they look far prettier on your fair hair," he said, smiling at her for a moment, and then looked puzzled. "Do you feel a breeze?" he asked.
El shook her head. "No, I do not think so."
"Well, then your hair seems to think there is." El grasped her hair in her hand, and she noticed that the ends of it were swaying slightly. It was also considerably longer and it now hung below her lower back.
"It shall be amusing to see you with green hair!" Elladan said, laughing. El did not join him in the merriment.
"Green is not the color I would like my hair to be" she told him sternly.
"Why not? Lots of things are green; the grass, the leaves, the mould that grows on old food!" He grinned at El and she laughed cheerfully.
"What is my brother doing here, with the dryad of Spring, in this nice little remote spot?" Elrohir said sitting down on El's other side. "And," he added, "she has a wreath of flowers on her head, though I am sure, Elladan, you did not make those as you are not skilled in crafts."
"Who says I am not?" Elladan asked annoyed.
"Both Arwen and I, oh yes, and Father too," Elrohir replied. "What is a beautiful lily like that doing in a cold place like this?" He added, looking at the large flower.
"That, my 'darling' brother, is the creation of El here," Elladan said, with a touch of pride.
"She is very talented indeed."
"Actually, Ivy created it yesterday, and then Riwel froze and shattered it, so I decided to have a go and bring it back from the dead," El said.
"To think we may have met the same icy fate..." Elrohir said, looking at his brother.
"Yes, we owe our lives to you, El," Elladan added, his voice serious.
El blushed slightly. "Riwel did not mean to try and kill you, as he said. He would not be liked by Thranduil if he did."
"He is not one of my Father's favorite people anyway. Many people despise him," Legolas said, turning up behind them.
"Well, is this not a nice little gathering of people," Ivy said stepping from behind Legolas. "Oh the lily! El, you fixed it!"
"El has become quite talented, and her hair seems to have grown," said Legolas.
"Now her hair is almost as weird as Ivy's!" Elrohir teased.
"Well, breakfast is ready," Ivy said, and ignoring Elrohir's comment, she turned and walked back to the dwindling fire. The others followed.
After a quick breakfast, they packed everything up and set off on the path again. The day passed uneventfully and so did the night. El woke up the next morning when she heard her name being called from far off. Her hair felt strange. It was still dark around her, so she rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.
"Wake up, sleepy head!" Elladan's cheerful voice whispered into her ear. El opened a mint green eye. "No. I think I mean, wake up green head. You have lost your golden locks, El!" El sat up straightaway, and removed her hair from the tight bun she had put it in, fearful of what it now looked like. Bright green hair with silver stripes waved past her waist.
"El!" cried Ivy as she jumped out of her sleeping bag, "It's gorgeous." Ivy started playing with El's hair.
"Elladan? Where did you p-. Wow," Elrohir said now looking intently at El's sparkling locks.
"Elrohir, what is taking you so.long." Legolas was now, too, staring at El's head. Everyone was standing, or sitting, in utter silence. El felt very awkward at the unwanted attention and put her hair quickly back into its bun. There was a very large grin spread across Elladan's face. El pulled herself totally from her sleeping bag and ran behind the nearest tree. Ivy shot an evil glare at Elladan who had now stopped smiling, and was beginning to feel very guilty.
Ivy stood up and walked around the tree slowly to where El was sitting. El's head rested against her knees, which were drawn up to her chest.
"El, what is the matter? Do not listen to Elladan, he was just being cruel!" Ivy sat down on the ground next to her.
El lifted her tear-stained face to meet Ivy's eyes. "It is just so green!"
Ivy started twirling her finger around her own flaming red hair of middle length. "El, your hair is beautiful. You have no idea what it looks like; here, look into this," Ivy said as she pointed to the frozen puddle next to them. El looked down into the water. Her hair was draped around her shoulders, and so long she could nearly sit on it. The silver strips sparkled in the early morning light.
"See, I told you it was beautiful! I know it was a shock; having green hair appear when you wake up definitely would be. But you'll get used to it, and, well, that was what you were famous for in Middle-earth. "'The lady Spring is said to be the fairest lady of all the lands, with her deep green eyes and flowing hair, and skin like the last winter's frosts.'" Ivy quoted. "She is, you are, the most beautiful woman in all of Middle-earth. For you are the Spring." El smiled, though her eyes showed she did not believe it. "In fact," Ivy added, "you know Elladan cracks jokes to hide his feelings, but he too has heard of Lady Spring, and I am quite sure he did not realize you could be any more fair you were."
"Well," El said finally, "if the Lady Spring is fair, then the Lady Autumn is just as fair as she." They laughed, and walked back to the breakfast area. Everyone was still looking at El as she walked shyly behind Ivy.
"Did you not hear, Elladan, that the beautiful bud will bloom into an even more beautiful flower and will carry on to do so?" Elladan smiled at Ivy though he made no eye contact with El.
So what do you think? Please review to tell me. (
El looked at Ivy. "How did you push him backwards like that? Do you have powers?"
"Yes," Ivy replied. "So do you. You may not remember them now, but they will come back. Here, watch." She placed her hands over the water. "Estryas?"
"Yes Iavas," came the answer from in the water. Slowly, before El's eyes, a figure of water formed before her until it looked nearly totally human, although she was blue from head to toe. The blue figure turned her gaze to El and smiled.
"El," said Ivy; "This is Estryas, one of the guardian water dryads of this river." Estryas curtsied shyly, lifting the blue-silver folds of her dress a little off the ground.
"I know who you are, Gathiel. Welcome back to your home," Estryas' sweet running voice sang. The water dryad turned and disappeared into the stream again. El looked a little shocked.
"I never knew there were more than four dryads," she said, still looking into the water. Ivy smiled.
"There are many dryads; they are of the waters, and of the earth... In fact there are even more than that." El stayed silent for a while.
"Do you think you could teach me how to use my powers again?" she asked tentatively, fearful of the answer she might receive. Ivy nodded.
"Let us see," she thought aloud. "What were Gathiel's powers? Ah yes. Here." Ivy pointed to the bare ground beneath her feet. "I want you to give life to a flower. Concentrate and it should happen."
El began staring intently at the forest floor, and soon, sure enough, a tiny daisy appeared, uncurling from the surface. El looked a little disappointed as it began to whither.
"What a measly attempt; not even weeds would bother to strangle that pathetic thing!" The voice of Riwel mocked her from behind a tree. El pulled her daisy from the ground and threw it in the water.
"Go away Riwel, we do not need your snide remarks here," Ivy said. Riwel snickered.
Ivy turned back to El. "That was a good try, but you were thinking too small and I suspect you did not believe it was going to work." Ivy held her hands over the small area and a huge elegant flame lily erupted from the earth. It glittered in the sunset light.
Riwel walked away from his tree towards the lily, he snapped his fingers and it turned immediately to ice. He moved closer and tapped it with a gold, silver-toned finger and the ice crumbled into tiny shards.
"It thrills Riwel to kill beautiful things, it seems," El said to Ivy.
Riwel laughed. "That is just child's play!" He walked towards the other three sitting around the campfire.
"Watch." He clicked his fingers, the three around the fire froze as iced covered around them. "Let me see." He walked towards Elladan and put a cold finger close to the ice. "Which one should we crumble first, Elladan, Elrohir, or-" He stood next to Legolas. "Maybe the prince!" A wicked smile spread across his face, and his eyes gleamed maliciously. El felt as though the bottom had dropped out of her stomach.
"Don't you dare touch them, Riwel!" Ivy cried, running towards him. Riwel's finger went closer. El suddenly was furious; her eyes began to glow red. She looked at the vine that was hanging close to Riwel's head, and it started to twitch. It coiled itself around his neck, squeezing tighter. Riwel gasped and struggled for breath.
"Release them from the ice 'Riwel'," El said angrily. Riwel smiled, but the vine squeezed tighter. "Now!" El commanded fiercly. He looked at the ice and it melted. Legolas, Elrohir and Elladan shivered and looked around themselves. "Do not hurt my friends again," El said walking closer to Riwel. She looked again at the vine and it uncoiled from his neck. Riwel backed away slightly. El's eyes were still flame-red and glowed yet brighter.
"Hmm, your powers improve when you are angered, Gathiel, I am relatively impressed. Though I was expecting something a little worse then that trick you played with the vine." El's eyes subdued back to green. "I would not have been stupid enough to kill them, though. To kill the son of Thranduil would not be looked upon kindly." He sat down by himself on the other side of the fire and warmed his hands on the blaze. Legolas, Elrohir and Elladan did not look happy to have the conceited dryad sitting opposite to them. Riwel smirked.
Everyone fell silent.
"Thranduil knows you are coming," Riwel said slowly, getting up. "I shall now go back to my dwelling. I would offer you to come with me, Iavas, but as it seems you will not leave these slow elves behind, so I shall see you in Mirkwood." Before their very eyes he turned into a shining silver bird of prey, and flew off into the distant canopy.
"Can we do that too?" El asked with both wonder and apprehension, and Ivy nodded.
"Twice in one day, hey? Riwel is becoming a frequent visitor," Elrohir said sarcastically. Legolas looked into the fire, deep in thought.
"Sometimes I really wonder about Riwel," Legolas said finally. He looked up at El and smiled. "You seemed to have discovered some of your powers already!"
"Yes, what you did was very brave," Ivy added, resting her head on a tree trunk.
They ate some waybread and then got into their sleeping bags. El looked above at the spot of sky not covered by the trees. Something glinted on one of the boughs then took flight. Riwel had not left after all.
El woke to frosty air stinging her face. The sun had not yet risen, but there was a dull glow in the sky. She pulled the covers back quietly, because the others were still asleep around her, and tip toed to the edge of the stream. She washed her face with the cool water. Next to her she saw the shards of ice from the night before. She placed her hands over the area and the ice melted leaving the tiny bits of red and yellow lily behind. El closed her eyes and concentrated hard, then jumped when she heard someone clapping behind her. In front of her now was the old flame lily, looking good as new as it twinkled in the early morning sunlight.
"Nice flower, El," Elladan said as he sat down next to her. "You are getting the hang of your magic nicely." She smiled at him and concentrated on his hair. To Elladan's surprise a wreath of blue bells was now settled on his head. Elladan took it off to get a good look at it, and then placed it on El's head. "They are beautiful, but they look far prettier on your fair hair," he said, smiling at her for a moment, and then looked puzzled. "Do you feel a breeze?" he asked.
El shook her head. "No, I do not think so."
"Well, then your hair seems to think there is." El grasped her hair in her hand, and she noticed that the ends of it were swaying slightly. It was also considerably longer and it now hung below her lower back.
"It shall be amusing to see you with green hair!" Elladan said, laughing. El did not join him in the merriment.
"Green is not the color I would like my hair to be" she told him sternly.
"Why not? Lots of things are green; the grass, the leaves, the mould that grows on old food!" He grinned at El and she laughed cheerfully.
"What is my brother doing here, with the dryad of Spring, in this nice little remote spot?" Elrohir said sitting down on El's other side. "And," he added, "she has a wreath of flowers on her head, though I am sure, Elladan, you did not make those as you are not skilled in crafts."
"Who says I am not?" Elladan asked annoyed.
"Both Arwen and I, oh yes, and Father too," Elrohir replied. "What is a beautiful lily like that doing in a cold place like this?" He added, looking at the large flower.
"That, my 'darling' brother, is the creation of El here," Elladan said, with a touch of pride.
"She is very talented indeed."
"Actually, Ivy created it yesterday, and then Riwel froze and shattered it, so I decided to have a go and bring it back from the dead," El said.
"To think we may have met the same icy fate..." Elrohir said, looking at his brother.
"Yes, we owe our lives to you, El," Elladan added, his voice serious.
El blushed slightly. "Riwel did not mean to try and kill you, as he said. He would not be liked by Thranduil if he did."
"He is not one of my Father's favorite people anyway. Many people despise him," Legolas said, turning up behind them.
"Well, is this not a nice little gathering of people," Ivy said stepping from behind Legolas. "Oh the lily! El, you fixed it!"
"El has become quite talented, and her hair seems to have grown," said Legolas.
"Now her hair is almost as weird as Ivy's!" Elrohir teased.
"Well, breakfast is ready," Ivy said, and ignoring Elrohir's comment, she turned and walked back to the dwindling fire. The others followed.
After a quick breakfast, they packed everything up and set off on the path again. The day passed uneventfully and so did the night. El woke up the next morning when she heard her name being called from far off. Her hair felt strange. It was still dark around her, so she rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.
"Wake up, sleepy head!" Elladan's cheerful voice whispered into her ear. El opened a mint green eye. "No. I think I mean, wake up green head. You have lost your golden locks, El!" El sat up straightaway, and removed her hair from the tight bun she had put it in, fearful of what it now looked like. Bright green hair with silver stripes waved past her waist.
"El!" cried Ivy as she jumped out of her sleeping bag, "It's gorgeous." Ivy started playing with El's hair.
"Elladan? Where did you p-. Wow," Elrohir said now looking intently at El's sparkling locks.
"Elrohir, what is taking you so.long." Legolas was now, too, staring at El's head. Everyone was standing, or sitting, in utter silence. El felt very awkward at the unwanted attention and put her hair quickly back into its bun. There was a very large grin spread across Elladan's face. El pulled herself totally from her sleeping bag and ran behind the nearest tree. Ivy shot an evil glare at Elladan who had now stopped smiling, and was beginning to feel very guilty.
Ivy stood up and walked around the tree slowly to where El was sitting. El's head rested against her knees, which were drawn up to her chest.
"El, what is the matter? Do not listen to Elladan, he was just being cruel!" Ivy sat down on the ground next to her.
El lifted her tear-stained face to meet Ivy's eyes. "It is just so green!"
Ivy started twirling her finger around her own flaming red hair of middle length. "El, your hair is beautiful. You have no idea what it looks like; here, look into this," Ivy said as she pointed to the frozen puddle next to them. El looked down into the water. Her hair was draped around her shoulders, and so long she could nearly sit on it. The silver strips sparkled in the early morning light.
"See, I told you it was beautiful! I know it was a shock; having green hair appear when you wake up definitely would be. But you'll get used to it, and, well, that was what you were famous for in Middle-earth. "'The lady Spring is said to be the fairest lady of all the lands, with her deep green eyes and flowing hair, and skin like the last winter's frosts.'" Ivy quoted. "She is, you are, the most beautiful woman in all of Middle-earth. For you are the Spring." El smiled, though her eyes showed she did not believe it. "In fact," Ivy added, "you know Elladan cracks jokes to hide his feelings, but he too has heard of Lady Spring, and I am quite sure he did not realize you could be any more fair you were."
"Well," El said finally, "if the Lady Spring is fair, then the Lady Autumn is just as fair as she." They laughed, and walked back to the breakfast area. Everyone was still looking at El as she walked shyly behind Ivy.
"Did you not hear, Elladan, that the beautiful bud will bloom into an even more beautiful flower and will carry on to do so?" Elladan smiled at Ivy though he made no eye contact with El.
So what do you think? Please review to tell me. (