Faulkner: My next chapter on this story and In The End, Does It Matter?
will be in a few weeks probably. I'm moving to bluegrass country (for those
of you that don't know, that's Kentucky) and will be occupied with softball
practices and games, packing, homework, and financial crap also. Just so's
ya know.
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I woke up feeling extremely warm and comfortable. The smell of the forest and rain tainted with muskness surrounded and wrapped around me like a blanket. A very comfy blanket that I didn't want to leave.
I sighed, knowing that Haldir and I would eventually have to get up. I hate to sound like a baby, but I dun wanna! I was perfectly content where I was. Eh, i'd just enjoy it while I could. So, I closed my eyes and relaxed into him, drifting back into sleep.
"I know you're awake. Don't you try to go back to sleep. We've both slept for long enough."
I sighed again, this time in annoyance. Why did we have to go and get up?
I rolled over and he sat up, smirking at me. Then he frowned, and his eyebrows furrowed in thought. I got up and stretched, then looked around for a clean pair of clothes. I was walking over to the chest of drawers when Haldir asked me that question.
"Why were you scared of me last night?"
I stopped in my tracks and thought for a lie, or excuse. Anything but the truth. He, or anyone for that matter, didn't need to know about what went on in the Institute.
I shrugged and started walking again. "Nightmares." Whew, not a lie, but not exactly the truth either. I opened up the top drawer and found a bunch of pants and shirts. Among them, my own clothes, now clean.
I pulled out my hoodie and set it down. Then I got out a nice pair of black pants and a dark green shirt. I turned around and saw Haldir watching me thoughtfully.
"Um, Haldir? Do you mind if I change in privacy?"
He blushed and mumbled something. After getting his weapons he left me alone to change.
I couldn't help but look at my tattoo in the mirror. I wondered how it got there, and why it was there in the first place. What did it mean anyway?
As on most days when I wondered about it, I shrugged it off and changed. I put on my hoodie over my clothes and brushed my hair.
I met Haldir outside and he asked me to follow him.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You do eat breakfast, don't you?" he answered.
"Yep." I looked around as we walked, watching the elves we passed and the beautiful trees. I wasn't sure of what kind they were though. "Hey Haldir."
"Yes?"
"What's for breakfast?"
"You will see." he answered. I scowled at him. Damn, he didn't need to be secretive about something like food. I was going to have ta do something about that.
We reached a giant building that I guess was a hall of some sort. The guards at the entrance nodded at us as we went past them and I couldn't help but stare at the inside. It was beautiful, more glowy than all the other buildings that I saw.
Inside there was a long table, filled with food and empty plates. I guess the elves were waiting for something or someone before eating. Then at the very end on a dais was the head table where the important people must be seated. Many pairs of eyes watched us pass by.
"Uh, Haldir? Can't I sit down there somewhere?" I whispered so quietly that only he could hear.
"You are a guest of honor. You will sit where you belong. Which is at the head table along with others of importance." he answered. I gulped and kept my eyes on the floor. I had a horrible condition called stage fright.
"Do not lower your head in shame. Raise your head in pride, you have no reason to be embarassed." Haldir whispered in my ear. Trust me Haldir, I did want to look up, but my stupid stage fright kept it down.
I heard Haldir sigh, and I elbowed him in the stomach and frowned at the floor. Damn elf.
We reached the head table and he led me to a chair. He pulled it out for me and I sat down and started cracking my knuckles. Geez, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop from a mile away.
Haldir took a seat to my left, and to my right were two empty seats. I glanced up at the table in front of me, and saw that all eyes were still on me. I looked at my hands, which were still cracking knuckles.
"Stop that." Haldir put a hand over mine and my hands stopped. I looked up and gave him a nervous smile.
"Sorry. Nervous habit." Then I looked at my hands that were sitting in my lap. Just for the sake of something to do, I practiced the sign language alphabet. There were a few people at the Institute that were deaf, and occasionally needed someone to talk to. Er, sign to I mean.
"My lord, my lady." Haldir said and snuck a peek at who he was talking to.
I nearly jumped out of my skin to see Celeborn and Galadriel taking the two empty seats. Celeborn took the seat nearest to me and gave me an encouraging smile. There was some kind of signal that I missed because the elves started talking and putting food on their plates.
Despite my nervousness, I was starving. I kept asking Haldir what everything was, and I think he got slightly annoyed.
Haldir sighed at my latest question and snapped, "What does it matter what it's called? If you like it, eat it!"
I scowled at him and stuck out my tongue at him. I think some elves noticed, because they pointed our way and started whispering. I blushed and ducked my head, crossing my arms. At this rate, I was gonna lose my appetite.
"Come now Haldir. You cannot scold her for curiosity." Celeborn came to my rescue. "Pay no mind to him. He is not a morning person."
"Well neither am I, but you don't see me snapping at people." I gave Haldir what I thought was a scathing glance.
He was about to retaliate, when Celeborn spoke. "Would you like some cheese?" and he held out a basket of some kind of cheese. It looked like a cross between cheddar and swiss.
I grinned at him. "Yes please." I grabbed a couple chunks and passed the basket on to Haldir, who grumbled and passed it on to the elf sitting next to him.
The rest of breakfast was really pleasant. Celeborn held a couple of conversations with me, mostly about my world and what my lessons that he was planning would entail. But I soon found out that he was uncomfortable with calling me Gostannen. I told him it was okay with me, and I under no circumstances wanted to be called by my birth name, Ashley. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he started talking to me about another name.
"Well, I cannot keep calling you Gostannen." Celeborn was saying.
"Yes, you can. I don't see what's wrong with it." I replied. My fork was half-way to my mouth, and forgotten.
"What would the people think if they heard that your name was Gostannen. They would be more scared of you than anything."
"So? Point being?"
Celeborn sighed, and was about to say something else when Galadriel interfered.
"I have a good name for you, that I think you will like."
"Yeah? What." I asked.
"Narya." she said simply.
"Narya." I tried the name out. Easy to say, probably not hard to spell either. "What does it mean?"
Celeborn answered me. "Fiery one. I must say, it does fit." and he smiled at his wife.
"Narya. I like it. Okay then. You can call me Narya." I smiled, then remembered my fork. "Ooops." and ate the food that had gone cold. Haldir sniggered, and I elbowed him.
Right in the stomach.
"Unless you want to see the contents of my stomach, I suggest you don't do that again." he remarked.
"Cool. I wonder what the she-elves would do when they saw it." I got an evil grin and chuckled when I saw Haldir's horrified look. "Relax, i'm only messing with ya."
He frowned and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'not normal.'
"And proud of it." I mumbled. He heard me and frowned. "Careful. What would you do if that look was frozen on your face for the rest of your life?"
Haldir narrowed his eyes at me and returned to his food. I smirked.
Victory!
Breakfast ended and all the elves got up and left. I waited until all of the elves had left before leaving myself. Thankfully, I remembered how we got to the dining hall, and found my way back to where I was staying with only taking two wrong turns.
I explored the tree house thingy that I was staying in and found my clothes cleaned. Next to them were the things in my pockets.
Let me see here... I had a deck of cards (including jokers), a superball, a stick of Big Red, two pens, a mechanical pencil, a napkin, a list of people I hated, a pocket dictionary, a rubberband, the small box I had kept my necklace in, and a rolled up black beanie with patches all over it.
I decided to save the stick of gum for a special occaison and put it in the small box. I tested the pens on the list and found that they both worked. I checked out the mechanical pencil and saw that I had five pieces of lead. After putting the pens and pencil in my pocket, I checked out some of the other stuff. I hadn't the slightest idea where I got the pocket dictionary and set it aside with the list and napkin. The superball was small, about the size of a half dollar and was *really really* bouncy. I stuck that in my pocket and put everything else besides the cards in the beanie, closing the top with the rubberband.
I took the jokers out of the deck and shuffled the cards, then played solitaire.
I had been playing for about an hour, and was winning so far, when Haldir decided it was time to interrupt my fun.
"The lord and lady wish to see you." he announced as he walked in.
I frowned at the cards, then sighed. "I guess i'll finish the game when I get back." I stood up and stretched. I had been sitting over the cards on the floor, which wasn't an very comfortable postition after a while.
Haldir knelt down and studied them. He reached out and picked up a card from the top of the deck. I looked up and saw the King of Hearts. I smirked, knowing a little of tarot reading and knowing what the King of Hearts meant.
I leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You will find a great and powerful love right under your nose."
"What?" He turned and faced me. I leaned back on my haunches and and studied him. He seemed a bit paler than usual. Eh, probably the light.
"That's the King of Hearts in your hand." Haldir looked at the card. "The King of Hearts usually foretells love. Whoever draws him will be the victim of that love." I nodded sagely. "You drew him from the deck. Obviously you will find love." I stood up and watched him place the card facedown on the pile rather quickly. "Or love will find you." I said with a shrug.
"Impossible." he whispered to himself.
"Hey, the cards don't lie."
Haldir looked at me and stood up. "Come. We can't keep the lord and lady waiting." and he brushed past me and out the door. He seemed a little uncomfortable.
Haldir? Uncomfortable? Nah! But then again.....
As I watched him closely, he looked a little stiffer and more uptight than usual. I snorted. Stick-up-the-ass probably wasn't capable of love. He could be capable of compassion, i'd seen that. But love? That was like asking the sun to stop rising every morning and for the stars to stop shining.
Impossible!
Wasn't that exactly what he had said? Maybe he knew he wasn't capable of love. Or maybe he was scared of it...
Argghh! Why should I be thinking about this? It's none of my buisness! Not like I care either, but it was still kinda odd. Hmph. I think i'm gettin' soft.
This time we didn't go up those stairs. Instead, we passed them by and came to a small flight of stairs that went up to one of the most beautiful treehouse things that they lived in. Whew, these elves sure knew how to live.
Haldir led me up the stairs and nodded at the pair of guards. The guards nodded back and moved aside. Haldir knocked and waited a second, then entered like he had been given some signal. Wait a sec.... Drat it, he was an elf and had super hearing! I gotta get me a pair of those ears!
We entered into a library that had floor to ceiling bookcases stuffed with books and scrolls. This was my one weakness that would be my downfall.
I had a soft spot for books.
I recognized Celeborn sitting at a table with a book in front of him. Galadriel was sitting in a comfy armchair with a cup of something in her hand. They were both looking at us, and I barely came to that conclusion before I sped over to the nearest bookcase.
My hands searched the spines of books as a looked over them all. Some were really really old, some were old, and some were a bit newer. But all were well cared for, I could tell. I was so used to seeing ruined and abused books that it was a relief to see these so well looked after.
I pulled one out on a whim and flipped through the pages. The words were all flowy and crap and completely unreadable to me. I shrugged and put that one back, then pulled out another one a little ways down. It was also written in the flowy script that was more like designs than writing to me.
Catching on, I put this one back and pulled another one out. I scowled as the weird writing looked back at me.
"Fuck." I whispered as I put the book back. I turned around and noticed Haldir's scandalized look. Celeborn and Galadriel's eyes were twinkling in amuesment.
"Are they all the same?" I asked. I was gonna actually go insane if I couldn't read a decent book!
"If you mean written in our language, then yes." Galadriel answered, then took a sip from her cup.
"Well that's just bloody perfect. Hundreds of books and I can't read even one of them!" It was a scandal I tell ya!
"This is an elvish city. You cannot expect us to keep copies of books in the Western Tongue. Especially since Men have less than rarely ever come here." Haldir snapped.
"Well ya'd think that you would keep one or two out of curiosity." I mumbled dejectedly. As far as I knew, the only book that I could read here was the pocket dictionary in my room.
"You won't have any time for reading anyways. Your training will take up most of your time." Celeborn said. "Come. Sit." He motioned to a chair next to him and I shuffled over and sat.
"So what's the schedule?" I asked.
"From what I gathered in our talk at breakfast you don't know anything about weaponry." Celeborn started.
"I do too! I know the names of weapons and some of 'em I know the basics of how to use!" I interrupted.
"Have you ever actually held and used a weapon before? Any weapon?" Haldir asked from incredibly close. I jumped slightly in my chair and saw Celeborn's lips quirk. Smart elf, he wasn't gonna try to cross me! I hope.
"Well.... Sort of." I replied.
"Sort of?" he scoffed. Okay Haldir, you are gonna piss me off. "It's a simple yes or no question."
"There was this one time I tried to stab an orderly with this butter knife. I grazed his cheek, and left a tiny white scar on his cheek. It's pretty hard to see unless you're lookin' for it." I remembered that day. It was rainy and I was sick. I had a cold and an orderly was trying to shove horse pills down my throat. In the end, he had to give me an injection.
"I don't think that is an actual experience with a weapon though. But I did fight, so that counts right?" I asked them. I looked from Celeborn's amused face to Haldir's slightly confused one.
"I think it counts as assault with an eating utensil. Not fighting experience." Celeborn finally said.
"Shucks."
"As I was saying, the first thing that you will learn in your training is how to fight. You will find out which style suits you and learn it." Celeborn explained. "That will be the morning training. After lunch, you will learn how to ride a horse."
"A horse?!" I exclaimed. "Don't get me wrong, I like animals. But riding a horse? I doubt I could mount one, let alone ride one."
"That is why you will be taught. After supper you will take history leasons, and maybe some elvish too." he continued.
"Urgh. It's school all over again. It was hard enough in the Institute. I have a bad feeling about this." I groaned. This was not sounding good to me. Why did I have to open my big mouth and agree to help a world that wasn't even mine in distress?
I get myself into the worst situations.
"Relax. You have nothing to fear. Besides, it is all for your own good." Celeborn gave me a rather fatherly smile. But then again, how would I know how a father would smile at his kid? I barely knew my dad. I can't even remember what he looked like...
"Narya?"
I looked up at Celeborn who seemed a little worried.
"Hmmmm? What? Did I miss something?"
Celeborn studied me for a second before answering slowly. "I was just saying that it would be best that these lessons should start as soon as possible. What do you think?"
"Tomorrow sounds good to me. Plenty of time to arrange stuff." I answered. My eyes wandered and stopped on Galadriel. For the first time I noticed a strange ring on her hand. It seemed to wink at me, and I shivered slightly.
Creepy.
"Well." I said, standing up. "If that's everythin', i'd like to get back to my solitaire game."
I got the feeling that they didn't have a clue what solitaire was. But they let me go anyway without any questions.
After Haldir left the room I fell on the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. Galadriel was as creepy as they got, not to mention as beautiful as they got. What had Rumil said about her?
"'She can read minds and speak to one through telepathy. All with the help of her ring.' That must've been the ring Rumil was talkin' about." I muttered to myself. "Yeesh. Things just keep gettin' weirder and weirder."
I got up and sat down on the floor in front of my solitaire game. I lost eventually and started to shuffle the cards. I kept thinking about the odd way Galadriel seemed to understand. Had she read my mind during those times? Probably.
I got bored and started making a card house. It kept falling over every time I got to the second level. But when I finally did reach the top, I carefully and slowly lowered the last two cards down-
-when Haldir walked in and scared the shit out of me. I yelped and knocked the card house over.
"AW HELL. I give up!" I jumped up and glared at the fallen cards. "Stupid cards." I grumbled.
I looked up and saw Haldir watching the cards suspiciously. I got the feeling he didn't like them that much. Maybe he thought they were possesed. I snickered at the thought of my deck of cards chasing a hysterical Haldir.
He glared at me. "What is so funny?" he growled.
"Nothing, nothing." I waved my hand and calmed myself. "Just thought of somethin' funny."
"Do tell."
"Ah, no." I replied. "You wouldn't find it funny. Besides, why'd you come here?"
Haldir glared at the cards again and carefully walked around them.
"I thought you might be bored." he said as he watched the cards like they were gonna jump up and bite him on the butt.
I was about to say something kinda rude when I decided that I needed entertainment a lot more than to see Haldir's tights get all in a bunch.
"Well, you thought right." I replied and stared gathering up my cards. I stacked them and set them on a small table that was off to the side. "What do you have in mind?" I asked.
I thought I saw his lips twitch. "Follow me and you will see."
I stared at him suspiciously, but decided to come.
He took me out into a more remote part of the forest that was on the outskirts of the city. I suddenly heard thunking in the direction that he was taking me.
"Whuzzat?"
"You will see. Just a little farther." I noticed for the first time that he had brought his bow and arrows with him. Maybe he forgot to take them off?
Uh-oh.
We breached the trees and came to a clearing with targets on one side and archers on the other. Right now there were only about five of them. All of them kept hitting the center of their targets. That was what was making those thunking sounds.
"Please tell me you're not gonna do what I think you're gonna do." I said.
"Is learning archery so bad?" he asked, looking down at me with a raised eyebrow.
"When you have my coordination, yes." I replied. I think he was trying not to smirk at me.
The nerve of some people. Why couldn't I have at least a little elegance? Only a tad bit of it would do wonders for me. Mystical powers, bad attitude, and the worst case of clumsiness you'd ever see all wrapped into one.
Yep, that was me. I'm lucky I haven't embarrassed myself by tripping over something by now.
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Faulkner: For some people who might be wondering who Ashley/Narya is modeled after, she is actually completely made up. The only thing that she has in common with anybody is the klutziness. Myself and my friend Kailee happen to be very major klutzes. We always somehow manage to trip over our own feet and something that isn't even there! It is very embarassing, and yet very funny at the same time!
Pinky: They always manage to provide some comic relief!
Faulkner: Shush you! Oh, side note! Narya is actually the name of one of the Elven Rings! I do believe it is the one that belongs to Cirdan, that Gandalf borrowed.
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I woke up feeling extremely warm and comfortable. The smell of the forest and rain tainted with muskness surrounded and wrapped around me like a blanket. A very comfy blanket that I didn't want to leave.
I sighed, knowing that Haldir and I would eventually have to get up. I hate to sound like a baby, but I dun wanna! I was perfectly content where I was. Eh, i'd just enjoy it while I could. So, I closed my eyes and relaxed into him, drifting back into sleep.
"I know you're awake. Don't you try to go back to sleep. We've both slept for long enough."
I sighed again, this time in annoyance. Why did we have to go and get up?
I rolled over and he sat up, smirking at me. Then he frowned, and his eyebrows furrowed in thought. I got up and stretched, then looked around for a clean pair of clothes. I was walking over to the chest of drawers when Haldir asked me that question.
"Why were you scared of me last night?"
I stopped in my tracks and thought for a lie, or excuse. Anything but the truth. He, or anyone for that matter, didn't need to know about what went on in the Institute.
I shrugged and started walking again. "Nightmares." Whew, not a lie, but not exactly the truth either. I opened up the top drawer and found a bunch of pants and shirts. Among them, my own clothes, now clean.
I pulled out my hoodie and set it down. Then I got out a nice pair of black pants and a dark green shirt. I turned around and saw Haldir watching me thoughtfully.
"Um, Haldir? Do you mind if I change in privacy?"
He blushed and mumbled something. After getting his weapons he left me alone to change.
I couldn't help but look at my tattoo in the mirror. I wondered how it got there, and why it was there in the first place. What did it mean anyway?
As on most days when I wondered about it, I shrugged it off and changed. I put on my hoodie over my clothes and brushed my hair.
I met Haldir outside and he asked me to follow him.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You do eat breakfast, don't you?" he answered.
"Yep." I looked around as we walked, watching the elves we passed and the beautiful trees. I wasn't sure of what kind they were though. "Hey Haldir."
"Yes?"
"What's for breakfast?"
"You will see." he answered. I scowled at him. Damn, he didn't need to be secretive about something like food. I was going to have ta do something about that.
We reached a giant building that I guess was a hall of some sort. The guards at the entrance nodded at us as we went past them and I couldn't help but stare at the inside. It was beautiful, more glowy than all the other buildings that I saw.
Inside there was a long table, filled with food and empty plates. I guess the elves were waiting for something or someone before eating. Then at the very end on a dais was the head table where the important people must be seated. Many pairs of eyes watched us pass by.
"Uh, Haldir? Can't I sit down there somewhere?" I whispered so quietly that only he could hear.
"You are a guest of honor. You will sit where you belong. Which is at the head table along with others of importance." he answered. I gulped and kept my eyes on the floor. I had a horrible condition called stage fright.
"Do not lower your head in shame. Raise your head in pride, you have no reason to be embarassed." Haldir whispered in my ear. Trust me Haldir, I did want to look up, but my stupid stage fright kept it down.
I heard Haldir sigh, and I elbowed him in the stomach and frowned at the floor. Damn elf.
We reached the head table and he led me to a chair. He pulled it out for me and I sat down and started cracking my knuckles. Geez, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop from a mile away.
Haldir took a seat to my left, and to my right were two empty seats. I glanced up at the table in front of me, and saw that all eyes were still on me. I looked at my hands, which were still cracking knuckles.
"Stop that." Haldir put a hand over mine and my hands stopped. I looked up and gave him a nervous smile.
"Sorry. Nervous habit." Then I looked at my hands that were sitting in my lap. Just for the sake of something to do, I practiced the sign language alphabet. There were a few people at the Institute that were deaf, and occasionally needed someone to talk to. Er, sign to I mean.
"My lord, my lady." Haldir said and snuck a peek at who he was talking to.
I nearly jumped out of my skin to see Celeborn and Galadriel taking the two empty seats. Celeborn took the seat nearest to me and gave me an encouraging smile. There was some kind of signal that I missed because the elves started talking and putting food on their plates.
Despite my nervousness, I was starving. I kept asking Haldir what everything was, and I think he got slightly annoyed.
Haldir sighed at my latest question and snapped, "What does it matter what it's called? If you like it, eat it!"
I scowled at him and stuck out my tongue at him. I think some elves noticed, because they pointed our way and started whispering. I blushed and ducked my head, crossing my arms. At this rate, I was gonna lose my appetite.
"Come now Haldir. You cannot scold her for curiosity." Celeborn came to my rescue. "Pay no mind to him. He is not a morning person."
"Well neither am I, but you don't see me snapping at people." I gave Haldir what I thought was a scathing glance.
He was about to retaliate, when Celeborn spoke. "Would you like some cheese?" and he held out a basket of some kind of cheese. It looked like a cross between cheddar and swiss.
I grinned at him. "Yes please." I grabbed a couple chunks and passed the basket on to Haldir, who grumbled and passed it on to the elf sitting next to him.
The rest of breakfast was really pleasant. Celeborn held a couple of conversations with me, mostly about my world and what my lessons that he was planning would entail. But I soon found out that he was uncomfortable with calling me Gostannen. I told him it was okay with me, and I under no circumstances wanted to be called by my birth name, Ashley. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he started talking to me about another name.
"Well, I cannot keep calling you Gostannen." Celeborn was saying.
"Yes, you can. I don't see what's wrong with it." I replied. My fork was half-way to my mouth, and forgotten.
"What would the people think if they heard that your name was Gostannen. They would be more scared of you than anything."
"So? Point being?"
Celeborn sighed, and was about to say something else when Galadriel interfered.
"I have a good name for you, that I think you will like."
"Yeah? What." I asked.
"Narya." she said simply.
"Narya." I tried the name out. Easy to say, probably not hard to spell either. "What does it mean?"
Celeborn answered me. "Fiery one. I must say, it does fit." and he smiled at his wife.
"Narya. I like it. Okay then. You can call me Narya." I smiled, then remembered my fork. "Ooops." and ate the food that had gone cold. Haldir sniggered, and I elbowed him.
Right in the stomach.
"Unless you want to see the contents of my stomach, I suggest you don't do that again." he remarked.
"Cool. I wonder what the she-elves would do when they saw it." I got an evil grin and chuckled when I saw Haldir's horrified look. "Relax, i'm only messing with ya."
He frowned and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'not normal.'
"And proud of it." I mumbled. He heard me and frowned. "Careful. What would you do if that look was frozen on your face for the rest of your life?"
Haldir narrowed his eyes at me and returned to his food. I smirked.
Victory!
Breakfast ended and all the elves got up and left. I waited until all of the elves had left before leaving myself. Thankfully, I remembered how we got to the dining hall, and found my way back to where I was staying with only taking two wrong turns.
I explored the tree house thingy that I was staying in and found my clothes cleaned. Next to them were the things in my pockets.
Let me see here... I had a deck of cards (including jokers), a superball, a stick of Big Red, two pens, a mechanical pencil, a napkin, a list of people I hated, a pocket dictionary, a rubberband, the small box I had kept my necklace in, and a rolled up black beanie with patches all over it.
I decided to save the stick of gum for a special occaison and put it in the small box. I tested the pens on the list and found that they both worked. I checked out the mechanical pencil and saw that I had five pieces of lead. After putting the pens and pencil in my pocket, I checked out some of the other stuff. I hadn't the slightest idea where I got the pocket dictionary and set it aside with the list and napkin. The superball was small, about the size of a half dollar and was *really really* bouncy. I stuck that in my pocket and put everything else besides the cards in the beanie, closing the top with the rubberband.
I took the jokers out of the deck and shuffled the cards, then played solitaire.
I had been playing for about an hour, and was winning so far, when Haldir decided it was time to interrupt my fun.
"The lord and lady wish to see you." he announced as he walked in.
I frowned at the cards, then sighed. "I guess i'll finish the game when I get back." I stood up and stretched. I had been sitting over the cards on the floor, which wasn't an very comfortable postition after a while.
Haldir knelt down and studied them. He reached out and picked up a card from the top of the deck. I looked up and saw the King of Hearts. I smirked, knowing a little of tarot reading and knowing what the King of Hearts meant.
I leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You will find a great and powerful love right under your nose."
"What?" He turned and faced me. I leaned back on my haunches and and studied him. He seemed a bit paler than usual. Eh, probably the light.
"That's the King of Hearts in your hand." Haldir looked at the card. "The King of Hearts usually foretells love. Whoever draws him will be the victim of that love." I nodded sagely. "You drew him from the deck. Obviously you will find love." I stood up and watched him place the card facedown on the pile rather quickly. "Or love will find you." I said with a shrug.
"Impossible." he whispered to himself.
"Hey, the cards don't lie."
Haldir looked at me and stood up. "Come. We can't keep the lord and lady waiting." and he brushed past me and out the door. He seemed a little uncomfortable.
Haldir? Uncomfortable? Nah! But then again.....
As I watched him closely, he looked a little stiffer and more uptight than usual. I snorted. Stick-up-the-ass probably wasn't capable of love. He could be capable of compassion, i'd seen that. But love? That was like asking the sun to stop rising every morning and for the stars to stop shining.
Impossible!
Wasn't that exactly what he had said? Maybe he knew he wasn't capable of love. Or maybe he was scared of it...
Argghh! Why should I be thinking about this? It's none of my buisness! Not like I care either, but it was still kinda odd. Hmph. I think i'm gettin' soft.
This time we didn't go up those stairs. Instead, we passed them by and came to a small flight of stairs that went up to one of the most beautiful treehouse things that they lived in. Whew, these elves sure knew how to live.
Haldir led me up the stairs and nodded at the pair of guards. The guards nodded back and moved aside. Haldir knocked and waited a second, then entered like he had been given some signal. Wait a sec.... Drat it, he was an elf and had super hearing! I gotta get me a pair of those ears!
We entered into a library that had floor to ceiling bookcases stuffed with books and scrolls. This was my one weakness that would be my downfall.
I had a soft spot for books.
I recognized Celeborn sitting at a table with a book in front of him. Galadriel was sitting in a comfy armchair with a cup of something in her hand. They were both looking at us, and I barely came to that conclusion before I sped over to the nearest bookcase.
My hands searched the spines of books as a looked over them all. Some were really really old, some were old, and some were a bit newer. But all were well cared for, I could tell. I was so used to seeing ruined and abused books that it was a relief to see these so well looked after.
I pulled one out on a whim and flipped through the pages. The words were all flowy and crap and completely unreadable to me. I shrugged and put that one back, then pulled out another one a little ways down. It was also written in the flowy script that was more like designs than writing to me.
Catching on, I put this one back and pulled another one out. I scowled as the weird writing looked back at me.
"Fuck." I whispered as I put the book back. I turned around and noticed Haldir's scandalized look. Celeborn and Galadriel's eyes were twinkling in amuesment.
"Are they all the same?" I asked. I was gonna actually go insane if I couldn't read a decent book!
"If you mean written in our language, then yes." Galadriel answered, then took a sip from her cup.
"Well that's just bloody perfect. Hundreds of books and I can't read even one of them!" It was a scandal I tell ya!
"This is an elvish city. You cannot expect us to keep copies of books in the Western Tongue. Especially since Men have less than rarely ever come here." Haldir snapped.
"Well ya'd think that you would keep one or two out of curiosity." I mumbled dejectedly. As far as I knew, the only book that I could read here was the pocket dictionary in my room.
"You won't have any time for reading anyways. Your training will take up most of your time." Celeborn said. "Come. Sit." He motioned to a chair next to him and I shuffled over and sat.
"So what's the schedule?" I asked.
"From what I gathered in our talk at breakfast you don't know anything about weaponry." Celeborn started.
"I do too! I know the names of weapons and some of 'em I know the basics of how to use!" I interrupted.
"Have you ever actually held and used a weapon before? Any weapon?" Haldir asked from incredibly close. I jumped slightly in my chair and saw Celeborn's lips quirk. Smart elf, he wasn't gonna try to cross me! I hope.
"Well.... Sort of." I replied.
"Sort of?" he scoffed. Okay Haldir, you are gonna piss me off. "It's a simple yes or no question."
"There was this one time I tried to stab an orderly with this butter knife. I grazed his cheek, and left a tiny white scar on his cheek. It's pretty hard to see unless you're lookin' for it." I remembered that day. It was rainy and I was sick. I had a cold and an orderly was trying to shove horse pills down my throat. In the end, he had to give me an injection.
"I don't think that is an actual experience with a weapon though. But I did fight, so that counts right?" I asked them. I looked from Celeborn's amused face to Haldir's slightly confused one.
"I think it counts as assault with an eating utensil. Not fighting experience." Celeborn finally said.
"Shucks."
"As I was saying, the first thing that you will learn in your training is how to fight. You will find out which style suits you and learn it." Celeborn explained. "That will be the morning training. After lunch, you will learn how to ride a horse."
"A horse?!" I exclaimed. "Don't get me wrong, I like animals. But riding a horse? I doubt I could mount one, let alone ride one."
"That is why you will be taught. After supper you will take history leasons, and maybe some elvish too." he continued.
"Urgh. It's school all over again. It was hard enough in the Institute. I have a bad feeling about this." I groaned. This was not sounding good to me. Why did I have to open my big mouth and agree to help a world that wasn't even mine in distress?
I get myself into the worst situations.
"Relax. You have nothing to fear. Besides, it is all for your own good." Celeborn gave me a rather fatherly smile. But then again, how would I know how a father would smile at his kid? I barely knew my dad. I can't even remember what he looked like...
"Narya?"
I looked up at Celeborn who seemed a little worried.
"Hmmmm? What? Did I miss something?"
Celeborn studied me for a second before answering slowly. "I was just saying that it would be best that these lessons should start as soon as possible. What do you think?"
"Tomorrow sounds good to me. Plenty of time to arrange stuff." I answered. My eyes wandered and stopped on Galadriel. For the first time I noticed a strange ring on her hand. It seemed to wink at me, and I shivered slightly.
Creepy.
"Well." I said, standing up. "If that's everythin', i'd like to get back to my solitaire game."
I got the feeling that they didn't have a clue what solitaire was. But they let me go anyway without any questions.
After Haldir left the room I fell on the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. Galadriel was as creepy as they got, not to mention as beautiful as they got. What had Rumil said about her?
"'She can read minds and speak to one through telepathy. All with the help of her ring.' That must've been the ring Rumil was talkin' about." I muttered to myself. "Yeesh. Things just keep gettin' weirder and weirder."
I got up and sat down on the floor in front of my solitaire game. I lost eventually and started to shuffle the cards. I kept thinking about the odd way Galadriel seemed to understand. Had she read my mind during those times? Probably.
I got bored and started making a card house. It kept falling over every time I got to the second level. But when I finally did reach the top, I carefully and slowly lowered the last two cards down-
-when Haldir walked in and scared the shit out of me. I yelped and knocked the card house over.
"AW HELL. I give up!" I jumped up and glared at the fallen cards. "Stupid cards." I grumbled.
I looked up and saw Haldir watching the cards suspiciously. I got the feeling he didn't like them that much. Maybe he thought they were possesed. I snickered at the thought of my deck of cards chasing a hysterical Haldir.
He glared at me. "What is so funny?" he growled.
"Nothing, nothing." I waved my hand and calmed myself. "Just thought of somethin' funny."
"Do tell."
"Ah, no." I replied. "You wouldn't find it funny. Besides, why'd you come here?"
Haldir glared at the cards again and carefully walked around them.
"I thought you might be bored." he said as he watched the cards like they were gonna jump up and bite him on the butt.
I was about to say something kinda rude when I decided that I needed entertainment a lot more than to see Haldir's tights get all in a bunch.
"Well, you thought right." I replied and stared gathering up my cards. I stacked them and set them on a small table that was off to the side. "What do you have in mind?" I asked.
I thought I saw his lips twitch. "Follow me and you will see."
I stared at him suspiciously, but decided to come.
He took me out into a more remote part of the forest that was on the outskirts of the city. I suddenly heard thunking in the direction that he was taking me.
"Whuzzat?"
"You will see. Just a little farther." I noticed for the first time that he had brought his bow and arrows with him. Maybe he forgot to take them off?
Uh-oh.
We breached the trees and came to a clearing with targets on one side and archers on the other. Right now there were only about five of them. All of them kept hitting the center of their targets. That was what was making those thunking sounds.
"Please tell me you're not gonna do what I think you're gonna do." I said.
"Is learning archery so bad?" he asked, looking down at me with a raised eyebrow.
"When you have my coordination, yes." I replied. I think he was trying not to smirk at me.
The nerve of some people. Why couldn't I have at least a little elegance? Only a tad bit of it would do wonders for me. Mystical powers, bad attitude, and the worst case of clumsiness you'd ever see all wrapped into one.
Yep, that was me. I'm lucky I haven't embarrassed myself by tripping over something by now.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Faulkner: For some people who might be wondering who Ashley/Narya is modeled after, she is actually completely made up. The only thing that she has in common with anybody is the klutziness. Myself and my friend Kailee happen to be very major klutzes. We always somehow manage to trip over our own feet and something that isn't even there! It is very embarassing, and yet very funny at the same time!
Pinky: They always manage to provide some comic relief!
Faulkner: Shush you! Oh, side note! Narya is actually the name of one of the Elven Rings! I do believe it is the one that belongs to Cirdan, that Gandalf borrowed.