AN: Another Monday, another update! I hope everyone had a most excellent
Easter/Spring break. Mine would have been better if had been longer and I
didn't have so much homework to do. Not that I'm complaining about the
work. I really don't mind it. It's just that I don't get the whole theory
behind giving homework during breaks. Maybe it's just me! Anyway, I know I
always write something like this but you guys are the best. You make typing
out this story worth it. I'm always shocked to see that people are reading
and reviewing!
sunni07: She'll get home eventually. Let's just say the first step into a wider universe has been taken for her. Emma and Thranduil's relationship is expanded in the sort of sequel to this story. He doesn't like her at all.
hobbitgirl11: I'm glad you like this story! Now everyone is where they're suppose to be and the adventure can get underway.
A Monkey's Harp: Thranduil's just a little cranky, so to speak. I'm happy you like Emma. She's a fun character to write. As for the chemistry thing, I'm a biology major (hoping to get into genetic engineering someday) and I've had to take every kind of chemistry known to man (and elf) kind. Chemistry's not so bad...it's just that my professor is an evil witch.
LadyJadePerendhil: Good Guess! Legolas and Emma will play their parts in this little adventure soon. You shall soon see how much it takes to get Niphredil to go back home and how she acts when she gets there.
Lindiel Eryn: Emma and Niphredil will get to meet eventually. I'll just say that the differences between the two may not play much of a role once they get to talking.
arwen721: Thanks! Here's my next chapter!
LalaithoftheBruinen: It's funny; I got your review just as I was working on this update! Here's the next chapter, fresh from the preverbal presses.
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.
It was early in the fall, with the chill winds just starting to sweep through the air. The leaves began their turning of colors, filling sidewalks and yards with vibrant colors. People came from miles around to "ohhhhhh" and "ahhhhh" at the turning leaves. Even those who lived in the small town of Salem Center came out to appreciate the particularly fine colors this year.
Everyone, that is, except one person. She'd stopped going out unless she completely had to. It wasn't that she had no love for nature. In truth, she felt a kinship, some kind of deep down bond with the large trees that lined the streets and yards of her neighborhood. The roots of this bond, like the roots of the trees themselves, went deep and were so tangled up with other feelings that she was not sure she could discern from whence they came.
Niphredil knew why she was so apprehensive about going out alone and laughed every time she thought about it. She felt was silly for someone like her, with her background in the marital arts, to be afraid to walk the streets alone, but afraid she was.
Telling Jay and Kay about it was a moot point. They would not care anyway unless it was their own children in jeopardy. Niphredil just happened to be the fifth person in the car, an extra mouth to feed and body to clothe. With their ample money, it should not have posed a problem but Jay and Kay made sure she knew her role in their household.
She just lived there, it was not her home. She was subordinate to Jane and James.
Her only escapes, so to speak, were her weekly Girl Scout meetings where she could speak with Hope, her Tae Kwan Do classes, and school, of all places.
It was going to and from those places that she discovered something that made her afraid to simply walk alone.
Simply enough, it had started. Eyes watching her as she walked or a figure, sometimes an ancient looking man with a beard and a cane or a little girl with silvery-white hair holding the hand of someone who looked to be close kin, following her from place to place. At first, they said nothing to her, did nothing to her. They were just simply there no matter the time or place.
Lately, though, it had escalated into something more. Whispered conversations that she knew she was meant to hear. Words that sounded vaguely familiar but in a langue she could not speak. Words that did not seem to belong together were put into context with one another---"home" and "Middle Earth" seemed to be among the most popular.
She had told Hope about the figures that seemed to be following her. The tiny girl, in turn, told her own parents. They urged Niphredil to speak to the police but she knew Jay and Kay would not back her up. She was alone, in every sense of the word.
It was on a fine fall day that Niphredil sat on the ultra expensive living room couch, her nose firmly planted in her chemistry text book and a set of headphones dangling around her neck. She had discovered when she was very young, that her hearing was rather acute and that her eyesight was beyond the normal 20/20 vision.
"Freddy, don't you think Janie is going to be the cutest cowgirl at the ranch," Kay squealed, drawing Niphredil's attention away from her homework.
Niphredil placed the book her lap and regarded both Kay and Jane for a few moments. Jane stood in the center of the room wearing too tight denim jeans and a tiny tank top that would have been big on a small child. "Or on Hope," Niphredil mused, suppressing a smile.
Garish red cowboy boots were on her feet and a velour cowboy hair was on her head.
Kay was sitting in a puffy armchair, beaming at the sight of her daughter.
Niphredil heaved a sigh, wanting nothing more than to go back to her textbook. The dude ranch trip was a rite of passage all young students at the local school went through. Though it was nothing more than a trip to Upstate, New York to ride horses, it became a completion between the parents in the neighborhood. Parents spent, what Niphredil thought to be, ridiculous sums of money to buy clothing that was only going to get filthy in a day and never worn again.
She shrugged the question off, not wanting to say anything either way, but replied with, "Please, Kay, do not call me Freddy. I do not like nicknames like that."
Jay, who had been sitting across the room reading the New York Times, snapped his head up. He'd been looking for an opportunity to catch Niphredil in, what he referred to as, "the act." His hatred for his adopted child had not abated over time. To him, she was an embarrassment and a burden.
"Why you ungrateful little witch! We give you food and clothing and shelter and, what do you give us in return? Backtalk! If I had my way, I'd take a strap and give that overly white complexion of yours a good reddening," he started.
"I am going upstairs to my room. I will be back down later," Niphredil stated, cutting Jay off before he could say anything more.
She'd heard his rants before-had grown up with them actually. They affected her like strong winds affected palm trees. She swayed under his bluster but never broke in a way similar to how palm trees swayed in hurricane force winds but never snapped in half.
Snapping her text shut, she stalked up the stairs meaning to bang her feet on each step. No matter how hard she tried, though, no sound ever game. She moved with silent speed.
Her room was far smaller than either James or Jane's rooms. It contained the basic furniture---a bed, dresser, and a stand to hold up her CD player. There was a closet off to one side and a few trophies lined the walls.
Her favorite aspect of the room, though, was the window seat. It afforded her a view of nearly the entire neighborhood.
Walking past her CD player, she turned it on without a thought. Then she settled herself on the window seat.
"Now, that's ironic," she mused a song called "Who Am I?" filtered out of the speakers.
Leaning her head against the wall, and trying not to sit on her hair, Niphredil began to consider the situation she had found herself in.
There was no way should could not pretend she was not adopted. It was plain as day that she was not born into the Jones family.
Jay and Kay, and their twin children, all had hair the color of sand and light blue eyes. They were not extraordinarily tall or in the best of shape. At best, they were ordinary, everyday figures, though they, themselves, though otherwise.
In stark contrast, Niphredil was of medium height, certainly taller than Jane, and could be considered thinnish. Her hair was the color of black ink and her eyes were nearly the same shade. What's more, her ears came to slight points.
The twins were average students, more interested in their social lives than in the learning process. She was rather the opposite; school taking precedence over socializing.
Niphredil had been well aware, stemming from as far back as she could recall, that the Jones's did not like her. Jay was the keenest on showing his ill will for her. He made it a point to tell her that nobody loved her and that she was unwanted.
As much as his words sunk in, they were equally rebuffed. She knew there had once been someone who had loved her and had made these feelings known to her.
Those feelings were ones she had been wrestling with for a very long time. Twisting the necklace she always wore around her neck, the one she had since before her adoption, she considering why she had been wrestling with these feelings.
"Maybe it has something to do with that dream I get every once and a while," she mused, closing her eyes.
When things got really bad and she started to find that she lacked the ability to go on, a specific dream came to her. It was always the same dream without fail. In the dream there was a child and a woman. The woman cared for the child until someone came and took the child away.
For some reason, she had always identified with the child in the dream. Like the dream child, she had been ripped from her parents.
"It's just stress," she decided, "from studying too hard. I just need to relax, that's all."
She had just started a chemistry class that was proving to be trickier than all the other science classes she had ever taken. Doing well in the class, in order to prove the professor she knew hated her wrong, was utmost in her mind.
She glanced around the sparsely decorated room, eyes falling on a small clock she kept next to her bed.
"Oh no," she breathed, "I'm going to be late."
With a silent leap, she hopped off the windowsill and picked up the battered orange and blue gym back that sat by her door.
Taking the stairs two at a time, she headed for the front door. There was no time to do anything but get to her destination. She'd miss all the fun if she was late.
"Where do you think you're going, Fred?" Jay called, as he spotted her dash past.
Silently skidding on the wooden floor, Niphredil walked over to the living room doorway. She was displeased with the face Jay had interrupted her dash from the house.
"Tae Kwan Do, Jay. It is Doc's last class and we're doing something special for him," she replied.
"Can you try to come home late, Freddy?" Kay questioned, "We're having guests over and we don't want them to see you here."
"Sure thing," Niphredil called, making her way to the door, "You know, maybe I will not come home at all."
(AN: The song "Who Am I?" is off of the soundtrack to The Animatrix and is used, I think, in the short "Kid's Story." I just stuck it in there because it just so happened to be what was playing on my CD player as I typed this.)
sunni07: She'll get home eventually. Let's just say the first step into a wider universe has been taken for her. Emma and Thranduil's relationship is expanded in the sort of sequel to this story. He doesn't like her at all.
hobbitgirl11: I'm glad you like this story! Now everyone is where they're suppose to be and the adventure can get underway.
A Monkey's Harp: Thranduil's just a little cranky, so to speak. I'm happy you like Emma. She's a fun character to write. As for the chemistry thing, I'm a biology major (hoping to get into genetic engineering someday) and I've had to take every kind of chemistry known to man (and elf) kind. Chemistry's not so bad...it's just that my professor is an evil witch.
LadyJadePerendhil: Good Guess! Legolas and Emma will play their parts in this little adventure soon. You shall soon see how much it takes to get Niphredil to go back home and how she acts when she gets there.
Lindiel Eryn: Emma and Niphredil will get to meet eventually. I'll just say that the differences between the two may not play much of a role once they get to talking.
arwen721: Thanks! Here's my next chapter!
LalaithoftheBruinen: It's funny; I got your review just as I was working on this update! Here's the next chapter, fresh from the preverbal presses.
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.
It was early in the fall, with the chill winds just starting to sweep through the air. The leaves began their turning of colors, filling sidewalks and yards with vibrant colors. People came from miles around to "ohhhhhh" and "ahhhhh" at the turning leaves. Even those who lived in the small town of Salem Center came out to appreciate the particularly fine colors this year.
Everyone, that is, except one person. She'd stopped going out unless she completely had to. It wasn't that she had no love for nature. In truth, she felt a kinship, some kind of deep down bond with the large trees that lined the streets and yards of her neighborhood. The roots of this bond, like the roots of the trees themselves, went deep and were so tangled up with other feelings that she was not sure she could discern from whence they came.
Niphredil knew why she was so apprehensive about going out alone and laughed every time she thought about it. She felt was silly for someone like her, with her background in the marital arts, to be afraid to walk the streets alone, but afraid she was.
Telling Jay and Kay about it was a moot point. They would not care anyway unless it was their own children in jeopardy. Niphredil just happened to be the fifth person in the car, an extra mouth to feed and body to clothe. With their ample money, it should not have posed a problem but Jay and Kay made sure she knew her role in their household.
She just lived there, it was not her home. She was subordinate to Jane and James.
Her only escapes, so to speak, were her weekly Girl Scout meetings where she could speak with Hope, her Tae Kwan Do classes, and school, of all places.
It was going to and from those places that she discovered something that made her afraid to simply walk alone.
Simply enough, it had started. Eyes watching her as she walked or a figure, sometimes an ancient looking man with a beard and a cane or a little girl with silvery-white hair holding the hand of someone who looked to be close kin, following her from place to place. At first, they said nothing to her, did nothing to her. They were just simply there no matter the time or place.
Lately, though, it had escalated into something more. Whispered conversations that she knew she was meant to hear. Words that sounded vaguely familiar but in a langue she could not speak. Words that did not seem to belong together were put into context with one another---"home" and "Middle Earth" seemed to be among the most popular.
She had told Hope about the figures that seemed to be following her. The tiny girl, in turn, told her own parents. They urged Niphredil to speak to the police but she knew Jay and Kay would not back her up. She was alone, in every sense of the word.
It was on a fine fall day that Niphredil sat on the ultra expensive living room couch, her nose firmly planted in her chemistry text book and a set of headphones dangling around her neck. She had discovered when she was very young, that her hearing was rather acute and that her eyesight was beyond the normal 20/20 vision.
"Freddy, don't you think Janie is going to be the cutest cowgirl at the ranch," Kay squealed, drawing Niphredil's attention away from her homework.
Niphredil placed the book her lap and regarded both Kay and Jane for a few moments. Jane stood in the center of the room wearing too tight denim jeans and a tiny tank top that would have been big on a small child. "Or on Hope," Niphredil mused, suppressing a smile.
Garish red cowboy boots were on her feet and a velour cowboy hair was on her head.
Kay was sitting in a puffy armchair, beaming at the sight of her daughter.
Niphredil heaved a sigh, wanting nothing more than to go back to her textbook. The dude ranch trip was a rite of passage all young students at the local school went through. Though it was nothing more than a trip to Upstate, New York to ride horses, it became a completion between the parents in the neighborhood. Parents spent, what Niphredil thought to be, ridiculous sums of money to buy clothing that was only going to get filthy in a day and never worn again.
She shrugged the question off, not wanting to say anything either way, but replied with, "Please, Kay, do not call me Freddy. I do not like nicknames like that."
Jay, who had been sitting across the room reading the New York Times, snapped his head up. He'd been looking for an opportunity to catch Niphredil in, what he referred to as, "the act." His hatred for his adopted child had not abated over time. To him, she was an embarrassment and a burden.
"Why you ungrateful little witch! We give you food and clothing and shelter and, what do you give us in return? Backtalk! If I had my way, I'd take a strap and give that overly white complexion of yours a good reddening," he started.
"I am going upstairs to my room. I will be back down later," Niphredil stated, cutting Jay off before he could say anything more.
She'd heard his rants before-had grown up with them actually. They affected her like strong winds affected palm trees. She swayed under his bluster but never broke in a way similar to how palm trees swayed in hurricane force winds but never snapped in half.
Snapping her text shut, she stalked up the stairs meaning to bang her feet on each step. No matter how hard she tried, though, no sound ever game. She moved with silent speed.
Her room was far smaller than either James or Jane's rooms. It contained the basic furniture---a bed, dresser, and a stand to hold up her CD player. There was a closet off to one side and a few trophies lined the walls.
Her favorite aspect of the room, though, was the window seat. It afforded her a view of nearly the entire neighborhood.
Walking past her CD player, she turned it on without a thought. Then she settled herself on the window seat.
"Now, that's ironic," she mused a song called "Who Am I?" filtered out of the speakers.
Leaning her head against the wall, and trying not to sit on her hair, Niphredil began to consider the situation she had found herself in.
There was no way should could not pretend she was not adopted. It was plain as day that she was not born into the Jones family.
Jay and Kay, and their twin children, all had hair the color of sand and light blue eyes. They were not extraordinarily tall or in the best of shape. At best, they were ordinary, everyday figures, though they, themselves, though otherwise.
In stark contrast, Niphredil was of medium height, certainly taller than Jane, and could be considered thinnish. Her hair was the color of black ink and her eyes were nearly the same shade. What's more, her ears came to slight points.
The twins were average students, more interested in their social lives than in the learning process. She was rather the opposite; school taking precedence over socializing.
Niphredil had been well aware, stemming from as far back as she could recall, that the Jones's did not like her. Jay was the keenest on showing his ill will for her. He made it a point to tell her that nobody loved her and that she was unwanted.
As much as his words sunk in, they were equally rebuffed. She knew there had once been someone who had loved her and had made these feelings known to her.
Those feelings were ones she had been wrestling with for a very long time. Twisting the necklace she always wore around her neck, the one she had since before her adoption, she considering why she had been wrestling with these feelings.
"Maybe it has something to do with that dream I get every once and a while," she mused, closing her eyes.
When things got really bad and she started to find that she lacked the ability to go on, a specific dream came to her. It was always the same dream without fail. In the dream there was a child and a woman. The woman cared for the child until someone came and took the child away.
For some reason, she had always identified with the child in the dream. Like the dream child, she had been ripped from her parents.
"It's just stress," she decided, "from studying too hard. I just need to relax, that's all."
She had just started a chemistry class that was proving to be trickier than all the other science classes she had ever taken. Doing well in the class, in order to prove the professor she knew hated her wrong, was utmost in her mind.
She glanced around the sparsely decorated room, eyes falling on a small clock she kept next to her bed.
"Oh no," she breathed, "I'm going to be late."
With a silent leap, she hopped off the windowsill and picked up the battered orange and blue gym back that sat by her door.
Taking the stairs two at a time, she headed for the front door. There was no time to do anything but get to her destination. She'd miss all the fun if she was late.
"Where do you think you're going, Fred?" Jay called, as he spotted her dash past.
Silently skidding on the wooden floor, Niphredil walked over to the living room doorway. She was displeased with the face Jay had interrupted her dash from the house.
"Tae Kwan Do, Jay. It is Doc's last class and we're doing something special for him," she replied.
"Can you try to come home late, Freddy?" Kay questioned, "We're having guests over and we don't want them to see you here."
"Sure thing," Niphredil called, making her way to the door, "You know, maybe I will not come home at all."
(AN: The song "Who Am I?" is off of the soundtrack to The Animatrix and is used, I think, in the short "Kid's Story." I just stuck it in there because it just so happened to be what was playing on my CD player as I typed this.)