Hey! I am here to say:
I, Julia Andrade Rocha, am not giving up on this story. I have had no intent on giving up on this story and i will continue it no matter what. What happened was that my computer has been screwed up lately, and I haven't been able to access AIM to communicate with my beta, Anessa. Also, n-Case (this annoying pop-up ad thing) put a block on my computer so I wouldn't be able to use Internet Explorer. My parents took the computer to our friend from church, and he put a new program in (we now have Windows 98 instead of ME), and figured out our computer had 5 viruses/trojans. One was something that blocked IE (I must kill n-Case). Well, since he gave us Windows 98, we no longer have all the stuff saved on our computer initially. Which means chapter 6, which was practically done, was deleted. So, I have to recreate the chapter :-( Belive me, I'm not happy about this, but what must be done, must be done.
HOPEFULLY, I'll find enough time to finish this chapter this week. And I hope it'll last you a few months.... I'm going out of country for two months :-( And I'm leaving June 21st. And todays June 15th. I'm really hoping that it'll get out this out and to Anessa before Friday... the weekend will be hectic.
Day started to write: June 15th, 2003
Day taken to Anessa for OBC: June 19th, 2004
Day Anessa gave it OBC stamp: June 20th, 2004 (AT 2 FREAKIN' 10 IN THE MORNING!!)
Day posted: June 20th, 2004
Girl in the Gardens Chapter 6: Nung
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Year 2004 of the Modern Age
The Residency of Samuel and Matthew Duboir
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Elrohir walked silently through his home in Quebec, silently contemplating Anna's sudden appearance... It makes no sense, he still told himself. Yet there she had been, merely feet away from him. True, she didn't seem like the same person who had stumbled upon Rivendell all those years ago, but physically, she was the exact same way.
Elrond's son shook himself out of his daydream, noticing that he had passed his destination, by quite a bit. Turning around briskly, he didn't notice the woman carrying a large box filled with files and paperwork about to walk straight into him. The woman bumped into Elrohir, dropping the box and everything in it.
"Oh, damn!" she groaned, as the sheets lazily fell to the ground. She quickly bent down, picking up the mess. After a few moments, she looked up at Elrohir with a glare. "You could at lea--Oh..." she trailed off as she noticed who she was speaking to. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, continuing to pick up her pages. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
Elrohir stood there, fixed to the spot, while all this happened. This woman was a member of the council, yet he didn't seem to remember her name. Quickly realizing he was being of no help to her, he bent down and helped her reclaim her paperwork.
"No need to apologize," he responded, handing her a stack of paper. "I should have heard you behind me. Humans are usually so loud." She looked away, placing the box on one of her knees and pretending to look for non- existent paper. Elrohir then noticed she was offended by his comment. I must remember not to make comments like that, he scolded himself. "Of course," he continued, "You must be an exception. I didn't hear you at all, Miss..."
She smiled slightly at his pseudo-compliment, and extended her hand awkwardly. One of her arms was wrapped around the box, and she had to reach the other arm over it to shake Elrohir's hand. "Nung. Laura Nung." Elrohir shook her hand, and stood up slowly.
"Well, Miss Laura, since I have created so much trouble, I must insist on helping you with your load." Ignoring her protests, Elrohir took the large cardboard box, and continued to walk down the hall. Giving up, Laura followed reluctantly. "Where will all this be going?" he asked, watching out the corner of his eye as she twisted a strand of blond hair around her finger.
"Um... the West wing? I think... It's where Miss Dos Santos is staying," she muttered quietly. "She asked me to get this where she left it downstairs." Elrohir looked at Laura, stunned at her response.
"Miss Dos Santos thinks you are a servant?" he muttered, slightly angry. The girl had been here for a mere six hours, and she was using Council members as fetching dogs.
"I... I think so. I was going to ask her to ask one of the servants, but Lord Elrohir asked me if I would do it." Elrohir relaxed and smiled a bit.
"I think you are confused," he responded. "That was actually Elladan. I myself am Elrohir." Laura's face quickly became red, and a look of horror passed across her face.
"Oh, crap!" she gasped. "I was calling him Elrohir the whole time!" Elrohir chuckled at that, imagining the agony Elladan had gone through, once again being mistaken for his brother.
A few minutes of silence ensued, in which Elrohir thought of nothing (to his surprise...), and Laura fidgetted with her hair. Out of no where, Laura asked how long Anna and Marcos would be staying.
"We are not sure," he replied. "We have a friend who would want to see Anna, and Marcos wants to discuss the possibility of the Council funding his 'time machine'." Laura nodded slowly and another silence followed.
"Will you fund it?" she questioned curiously, trying to hide the excitement on her face.
"Probably not..." he started, stopping as he saw her face fall. "But... you never know. If by any chance he found us more proof... or maybe conducted an experiment in front of us... It's possible." A look of excitement dawned unto Laura's face, but quickly fell when she saw that they were already at the door of Anna's temporary room.
"Well... thank you Lord Elrohir," she sighed, curtsying awkwardly. Elrohir tried to hide his smirk at the sight of seeing a woman curtsy in dress pants and a blouse.
"There is no need for the formality, Miss Nung," he smiled. "We are, in fact, in the 21st century." Laura blushed and looked down on the floor.
"I found it strange when they told me that you preferred when we acted like we were from your time," she mumbled. He frowned and shook his head.
"No... I'd prefer if you would act around me the same way you act around home, Miss Nung." Laura smiled broadly, and nodded.
"Maybe not around home..." she muttered, "But definitely how I act around my friends." Elrohir handed her the box, smiling at the thought of a new friend. "Thank you... Elrohir." She turned and (forgetting to knock) walked into Anna's room as Elrohir smiled at hearing his name with out "Lord" added.
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Year 2989 of the Third Age
The Residency of Lord Elrond of Rivendell
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For weeks, all Legolas would do, besides eat and occaisionally rest, was interact with Anna. Though they couldn't speak, the two would draw pictures to show what they were thinking and what they wanted to say. It was now common to hear Anna's laughter in the halls of the palace. As their friendship grew, Legolas started to see that Anna's looks of sadness were becoming less and less. When they did appear, though, they almost brought her to tears.
One day, while sitting on a bench in the Gardens of Rivendell, Anna started to draw a picture on the parchment she received from Legolas weeks earlier. She wasn't a good drawer, but Legolas could see the shapes and lines she was creating. When she was finished, Legolas saw a large rectangular box that had many circles and symbols on the outside. In the inside, it held a person. By the end of her drawing, Anna had become lazy, so the person was merely connected lines with a circle for a head.
Not quite understanding what the drawing was, Legolas took the paper from Anna's hands and examined it. Some of the symbols, he saw, were numbers Anna had taught him. He recognized a two, a nine, and another nine, but the number in between the nines was one he hadn't learned. It was simply two circles, one on top of the other.
Legolas pointed to the figure and Anna said, "English: eight. Portuguese: oito." She then lifted her hands and put up five fingers on one hand, and three on the other. Over the weeks, Anna had been teaching Legolas simple words and numbers of the only languages she knew, Portuguese and English. In return, Legolas taught her Sindarin. He didn't want to teach her Westron just yet, as it would probably confuse her to learn two languages at one time.
"Sindarin: toloth," he whispered, pointing to the figure. She repeated the word, her pronunciation off a bit, and smiled.
That would be the last time Legolas would see Anna's smile... the last time he would see Anna.
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Response to reviews:
Iluvien:
(all three) thank you!! Hee hee.... this is funny cuz I love all your poems and stories as well... i hope you read the other chapters... you only reviewed the first 3... but thats okay...gives big hug
Lothelena:
haha. I wrote more...not much.. i'm sorry! :'( I'll try my best to write chapter 7 really long for you guys! Haha.
The One Who Has No Name (aka legolas stalker, aka Laura):
haha glad you liked. Well you're there... your name is Laura Nung though... you randomly say Nung in you story a lot...so I thought...he what the hell. Besides, you nvr told me your real last name so... haha. Well, since you figured our who you are....throws out kudos have fun. Lol. Well, hags! Lol (have a great summer)
A/N: This chapter was very very rushed since my computer was down for so long... and the original had about 1,500 words (was my longest yet) and wasn't even finished, but there's no way I'll get this version up to that length. I'm coming back August 27th. I'm finally gonna be in high school! (Anessa: Me, too!!) oO scary stuff. I plan on writing an outline for the story so it'll be easier to write chapters (it's nerve-racking going like... "What's gonna happen this chapter?" each and every chapter) and I'm probably gonna write chapter 7... hopefully it'll be long... If you have questions, you can email Anessa! (Anessa: Because you love me and want me to want you to sire my children, you lovely readers. )
cookies to all since I'm in a good mood!
Julia