AN: Hi everyone! I'm exceedingly happy today. As of this update (on a
Monday as usual), I am officially done school! I took my Biochemistry final
today and now I'm free for the entire summer! Actually, I like school but
I'm happy my semester's over. The people I have my science classes with
decided, because of my term paper presentation on the science of science
fiction, to start calling me skiffy. Skiffy is a negative word for anything
relating to sci-fi, including its fans. Anywho, I'm going to try to update
more often now that I'm out of school! Please keep the reviews coming! All
of you rock!
elentir girl: Here's the next chapter, fresh from my computer. Sorry it took so long. I had finals and stuff.
hobbitgirl11: First things first, I hope your recital went well and everything was a great success. I know all about dancing in a location, after about 16 years, the studio where I dance moved locations. I was scared as anything of getting out there to do my ballet private because I didn't know the stage. I bet you did very well! I'm glad you liked the song I used. I figured she's just a bit jaded.
LalaithoftheBruinen: I'm glad you're liking this story and I promise more frequent updates now that I'm out of school!
A Monkey's Harp: Finishing a paper is the greatest feeling in the world sometimes...like having a weight taken off your shoulders or something. I bet you did really well on your paper. I'm glad you like Niphredil and her slightly human nature. Like the song I used in the chapter said, she's jaded because of the people she's lived around.
sunni07: I'm a huge science fiction fan. I either read that or things like Lord of the Rings. It's really cool, though, how actually science ties into the fictional stuff. Ducks rule! One of my relatives use to have a pair of ducks and my sister and I use to play with them. I'm glad you liked the song. I figured that it fit the chapter in a strange way.
Lindiel Eryn: Sorry, I have a thing for cliffhangers. They make things interesting. I know all about doing something and decided to do something else. Happens to me whenever I had to type Physics labs. You'll find out what Hope is, eventually. Here's the next chapter where she'll meet someone but I'm not saying who.
A Sly Fan: It's a plot device as old as Alice in Wonderland and as new as The Matrix Trilogy (both I'm fans of actually, considering The Matrix Trilogy is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with a male Alice). I just figured I'd use it too.
LJP: Gandalf's powers to go to and from Middle Earth are based on the same portals Patrick uses. Since Gandalf is far more powerful than Patrick, he can access them as well and be slightly more accurate about it. As for the stuff about Aragorn and Arwen not being able to see her, Gandalf's just pushing her buttons a bit. They did send the others to get her and he's just making her think.
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.
She felt a lot like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole. Down, down, down she felt through the darkness unaware of time and place. There was just darkness, unabating darkness.
Until she fell into a moonlit courtyard under a velvety dark, star scattered sky.
Gone were the markers of the neighborhood from whence she came. There were stone buildings all about her but they were nothing like the ones in her old neighborhood. No cars were present on the circular streets and no electric streetlights provided light. Even the air smelled cleaner, fresher might have been a better word.
She landed first, drinking in the sights around her. Where ever the wizard had taken her, this strange location she had landed in, felt more like home than the town she had spent most of her life in. She felt more comfortable without the marks of modern conveniences around her.
Soon after she landed, the wizard landed next to her. He seemed to find her wide eyed stare amusing as a small smile crept onto his face. To Gandalf, she had already started to change, to become the child she would be perceived to be not the almost adult she had been trained by the Muggles to be.
Niphredil jumped back, noting for the first time that both she and the wizard were not clad as they had been in the park.
The wizard, Gandalf he had told her to call him, wore snow white robes. A white pointed cap, a wizard's hat it looked like to Niphredil, was on his head of pure white hair that matched his long beard. In his hands was a carven staff of the purest white wood Niphredil had ever seen.
She, herself, wore a rustic looking top of tree bark brown and dark green leggings. Soft boots, unlike the clunky ones some in the other world wore, of brown were on her feet. Her gym bad was gone and the sword she had received was belted around her waist, resting on her left hip. She knew that, because she was right hand dominant, she would have to draw the sword up across her body. That would allow her to almost instantly block a blow directed at her. She noted that the belt holding her sword was her black belt, the markings the same as they had been before her tumble down the rabbit hole.
"What in the world just happened?" she asked the wizard, half curious, half unnerved.
"I have taken you home, just as you wanted," Gandalf replied with an enigmatic smile.
He knew she would be confused, unsure of what to make of his message and the events that had brought her out of the other world. That was why he had requested a certain path be followed. It would help make the transition more comfortable for all involved.
"And where would home be?" Niphredil questioned, wanting to know the exact name of her current location.
Her question, again, was ignored by the white wizard. She was becoming slightly annoyed by that fact. All she knew, thus far, was that she had been brought home. Where home was, she could not say because no one was telling her.
"We must make haste, if you are to meet your parents," he announced.
Niphredil was about to protest, to say something about much it was bothering her that her parents actually had to take time out to meet their daughter, but quickly changed her mind. Gandalf had started to walk away, moving with far more speed than she had figured he was capable of. Not wanting to be left in an unfamiliar place, she ran to catch up.
As she jogged behind the white wizard, passing through long halls full of interesting looking people and objects, millions of thoughts ran through her head. Thoughts about her parents and what they would be like. Would they be cruel and cold like the Joneses, making her feel as unwanted as the flu, or would they be different, welcoming her as their daughter? Was she an older sister or, even, a younger one? How come they lived in such a lavish place? What were their jobs in this strange world?
She hardly noticed when Gandalf stopped, so caught up in her own thoughts was she.
"This is your room," he announced, "I will send someone to help you get ready to meet your parents. In the meantime, please stay put. It is very easy to get lost in a place like this."
He walked away, leaving the half-elven maiden staring at the closed door. She gave a slight shrug and entered the room.
"Nice," she mused, as she surveyed the room, "a little rustic but nice."
There was a bed, a massive item with carven posts, against a far wall. A large trunk rested at the foot of the bed. Next to it was a huge closet with ornate designs on the two huge doors. On the bed's other side, was an unadorned door. She assumed it lead to a bathroom of some kind. Oh her left, was a vanity table of some kind with a matching chair. On the right side of the door, in a wooden frame, was some type of map. There were windows on either wall of the room. One faced the courtyard she had arrived in while the other faced a large, open field.
Niphredil began to investigate the room, peering into every drawer, exploring every nook and cranny. The sound of a knock on the door drew her attention away from her investigation.
"That must be the person Gandalf told me about, the one who's suppose to help me get ready to meet my parents," she decided.
Expecting an older woman, Niphredil was taken aback by what was standing in her doorway.
There stood a little girl who looked no more than twelve or thirteen years of age. Her silvery-white hair hung loose around her shoulders and a silver circlet, made to look like a crown laurel leaves. She wore a long forest green dress worked through with silver at the top, creating design of leaves and vines. Hanging out of her dress, was a silver leaf on a fine chain. The chain was similar in design to the one holding the snowflake around her neck.
Niphredil had the strangest feeling that she'd seen this child before but she could not place where or when. Her face was familiar to the recently arrived, half-elven maiden.
"Hello," she, cautiously, stated.
"Hi there," the figure said in a smallish voice, "Is your name Niphredil?"
"That it is. Did Gandalf send you?" Niphredil replied, curiously.
The little girl nodded and answered, "I am suppose to help you get ready to meet your parents."
Niphredil invited the little girl into her room deciding that there was more to her than meets the eye. She did not appear to be the average handmaiden, unless all handmaidens in this world wore ornately carved silver items on their heads and around their necks.
"May I ask you a few questions? You really do not have to answer them but I'd appreciate it if you would," Niphredil broached, sitting down on the trunk at the foot of the bed.
The little girl bit her lower lip, obviously thinking.
"I will try but I am not sure how much I can say," she replied with a friendly sort of smile.
"First things first, you know my name is Niphredil. What's your name?" the half elven maiden asked watching as the little girl took a seat at the vanity table's chair.
"My name is Emma," the little girl replied, surprising Niphredil with such a normal sounding name.
The last thing she had expected was a name that sounded like it stepped out of the world she had once lived.
"My second question may sound odd but, where are we?" she asked.
That was the crux of her questions at the moment. She wanted to know what Gandalf would not tell her---their location.
The little girl smiled, trying to suppress a laugh. She knew the reaction she was going to receive when she answered the question. Emma had gone through the same set of feelings when she arrived home.
"We are, currently, in the White City, the City of Kings. It is better known as Gondor which is in Middle Earth," Emma, carefully, replied.
Niphredil's eyes went wide, not really believing what Emma had told her. She could not be in Middle Earth since that was a fictional place found in a set of books she hadn't read.
"Middle Earth?" she half exclaimed, "You're kidding right?"
Emma shook her head, pushing some of her hair out of her eyes. She felt badly for Niphredil, as she saw the confusion setting in. It was the same confusion she had felt when Legolas, her half brother, had told her she was an elf from Middle Earth. Of course, she had bolted form his sight when she had first heard that bit of news.
"I am very sorry to tell you this but I am not kidding," Emma added.
"But how?" Niphredil continued, "Middle Earth is fake, fantasy, not really!"
Though she was ranting, denying what this young girl was telling her, some part of hew knew Emma was telling the truth.
"I can not tell you how but, please do not feel badly. I reacted the same when I first found out I was from here, too," Emma assured the older girl.
"What?!" Niphredil exclaimed.
For a brief moment, she had thought she was the only person ever to go through this. It, now, seemed Emma had come through a similar situation.
Emma sighed and launched into a brief explanation of her own past. She explained how she and her parents had wound up in Middle Earth and how she had earned the title of princess.
"So, let me see if I understand this. You're an elven princess who was taken from Middle Earth just after being born. You were raised as if you were a normal child until your brother found you and told you the truth," Niphredil summed up.
"That is, basically, it. You are an elf too, I think," Emma stated.
A strange look passed over her face and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Her cheeks tinged red as she realized what she had said.
"Oh no! I was not suppose to saw that!" she moaned, looking sheepish.
"Wait, can you explain that? I mean, if it's not going to get you into too much trouble," Niphredil broached.
"My biological dad would not like me telling you this. Since that is the case, I guess I could try to explain it. Mind you, I do not really understand it myself," Emma replied.
She thought for a moment, getting dangerously quiet as she organized her thoughts.
"Your father is a man, but he is a certain type of man that has been blessed with a very long life. Your mother was an elf but now, she is not an elf. I am not sure how that works. That is all I can tell you," Emma tried to explain, giving the older girl a half hearted shrug.
"Do you know anything else about my parents?" Niphredil asked excitedly.
She felt bad for asking the young girl so many questions but she needed to know. She wanted her questions answered and was happy to have found someone who appeared capable of doing so.
"I am not suppose to say anything else because you are suppose to decided how you feel about them yourself," Emma answered, getting up and going over to the closet.
She heaved the doors open and began to rifle through the dresses the closet contained.
"Are you telling the truth?" the older girl pressed.
"Mostly," Emma answered, extracting herself from the confines of the closet.
"I am not suppose to say but I will tell you that your parents are very excited to have you back, especially your father. My brother said that he has never seen him this excited in an age," Emma admitted.
"My father," Niphredil said, almost to herself, "what is he like?"
She recalled, somewhere, having a proper mother but never a father. Jay had been the father figure in her life and he was lacking in all departments. She was hoping her real father was far better.
"You father is a very interesting person. He is very good friends with my brother so you would have to ask him about your father. He has know him for a very long time. I can tell you that your mother said she is kind of glad he was not there when you were born because he is far more nervous than she," Emma answered, truthfully.
She pulled a long purple and gold dress from the closet, laying it on the large bed.
Niphredil picked up the dress, assuming that she was suppose to change into it. She walked over to the second door in her room, pushing it open to discover a changing room of sorts.
As she changed, keeping her eyes on her sword, more thoughts raced through her mind. Would she like these people? Would they like her? Why was her father not there when she was born? Was she ever really wanted, then? What was she, exactly?
She exited the room, to find Emma standing in the doorway.
"Come on. We must go. We are late, I think," she said in a hurried voice.
What they were late for, Niphredil could only guess as she followed Emma down several more long hallways. Her eyes grew wider, if possible, when they reached a vast marble room. A room, Niphredil assumed, was a throne room of some kind.
The two females walked the length of the room, heading for a small side door.
Emma knocked three times, paused, and knocked again.
The door swung open without a creak.
"We have to go in," Emma stated, leading Emma into the smaller room.
elentir girl: Here's the next chapter, fresh from my computer. Sorry it took so long. I had finals and stuff.
hobbitgirl11: First things first, I hope your recital went well and everything was a great success. I know all about dancing in a location, after about 16 years, the studio where I dance moved locations. I was scared as anything of getting out there to do my ballet private because I didn't know the stage. I bet you did very well! I'm glad you liked the song I used. I figured she's just a bit jaded.
LalaithoftheBruinen: I'm glad you're liking this story and I promise more frequent updates now that I'm out of school!
A Monkey's Harp: Finishing a paper is the greatest feeling in the world sometimes...like having a weight taken off your shoulders or something. I bet you did really well on your paper. I'm glad you like Niphredil and her slightly human nature. Like the song I used in the chapter said, she's jaded because of the people she's lived around.
sunni07: I'm a huge science fiction fan. I either read that or things like Lord of the Rings. It's really cool, though, how actually science ties into the fictional stuff. Ducks rule! One of my relatives use to have a pair of ducks and my sister and I use to play with them. I'm glad you liked the song. I figured that it fit the chapter in a strange way.
Lindiel Eryn: Sorry, I have a thing for cliffhangers. They make things interesting. I know all about doing something and decided to do something else. Happens to me whenever I had to type Physics labs. You'll find out what Hope is, eventually. Here's the next chapter where she'll meet someone but I'm not saying who.
A Sly Fan: It's a plot device as old as Alice in Wonderland and as new as The Matrix Trilogy (both I'm fans of actually, considering The Matrix Trilogy is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with a male Alice). I just figured I'd use it too.
LJP: Gandalf's powers to go to and from Middle Earth are based on the same portals Patrick uses. Since Gandalf is far more powerful than Patrick, he can access them as well and be slightly more accurate about it. As for the stuff about Aragorn and Arwen not being able to see her, Gandalf's just pushing her buttons a bit. They did send the others to get her and he's just making her think.
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.
She felt a lot like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole. Down, down, down she felt through the darkness unaware of time and place. There was just darkness, unabating darkness.
Until she fell into a moonlit courtyard under a velvety dark, star scattered sky.
Gone were the markers of the neighborhood from whence she came. There were stone buildings all about her but they were nothing like the ones in her old neighborhood. No cars were present on the circular streets and no electric streetlights provided light. Even the air smelled cleaner, fresher might have been a better word.
She landed first, drinking in the sights around her. Where ever the wizard had taken her, this strange location she had landed in, felt more like home than the town she had spent most of her life in. She felt more comfortable without the marks of modern conveniences around her.
Soon after she landed, the wizard landed next to her. He seemed to find her wide eyed stare amusing as a small smile crept onto his face. To Gandalf, she had already started to change, to become the child she would be perceived to be not the almost adult she had been trained by the Muggles to be.
Niphredil jumped back, noting for the first time that both she and the wizard were not clad as they had been in the park.
The wizard, Gandalf he had told her to call him, wore snow white robes. A white pointed cap, a wizard's hat it looked like to Niphredil, was on his head of pure white hair that matched his long beard. In his hands was a carven staff of the purest white wood Niphredil had ever seen.
She, herself, wore a rustic looking top of tree bark brown and dark green leggings. Soft boots, unlike the clunky ones some in the other world wore, of brown were on her feet. Her gym bad was gone and the sword she had received was belted around her waist, resting on her left hip. She knew that, because she was right hand dominant, she would have to draw the sword up across her body. That would allow her to almost instantly block a blow directed at her. She noted that the belt holding her sword was her black belt, the markings the same as they had been before her tumble down the rabbit hole.
"What in the world just happened?" she asked the wizard, half curious, half unnerved.
"I have taken you home, just as you wanted," Gandalf replied with an enigmatic smile.
He knew she would be confused, unsure of what to make of his message and the events that had brought her out of the other world. That was why he had requested a certain path be followed. It would help make the transition more comfortable for all involved.
"And where would home be?" Niphredil questioned, wanting to know the exact name of her current location.
Her question, again, was ignored by the white wizard. She was becoming slightly annoyed by that fact. All she knew, thus far, was that she had been brought home. Where home was, she could not say because no one was telling her.
"We must make haste, if you are to meet your parents," he announced.
Niphredil was about to protest, to say something about much it was bothering her that her parents actually had to take time out to meet their daughter, but quickly changed her mind. Gandalf had started to walk away, moving with far more speed than she had figured he was capable of. Not wanting to be left in an unfamiliar place, she ran to catch up.
As she jogged behind the white wizard, passing through long halls full of interesting looking people and objects, millions of thoughts ran through her head. Thoughts about her parents and what they would be like. Would they be cruel and cold like the Joneses, making her feel as unwanted as the flu, or would they be different, welcoming her as their daughter? Was she an older sister or, even, a younger one? How come they lived in such a lavish place? What were their jobs in this strange world?
She hardly noticed when Gandalf stopped, so caught up in her own thoughts was she.
"This is your room," he announced, "I will send someone to help you get ready to meet your parents. In the meantime, please stay put. It is very easy to get lost in a place like this."
He walked away, leaving the half-elven maiden staring at the closed door. She gave a slight shrug and entered the room.
"Nice," she mused, as she surveyed the room, "a little rustic but nice."
There was a bed, a massive item with carven posts, against a far wall. A large trunk rested at the foot of the bed. Next to it was a huge closet with ornate designs on the two huge doors. On the bed's other side, was an unadorned door. She assumed it lead to a bathroom of some kind. Oh her left, was a vanity table of some kind with a matching chair. On the right side of the door, in a wooden frame, was some type of map. There were windows on either wall of the room. One faced the courtyard she had arrived in while the other faced a large, open field.
Niphredil began to investigate the room, peering into every drawer, exploring every nook and cranny. The sound of a knock on the door drew her attention away from her investigation.
"That must be the person Gandalf told me about, the one who's suppose to help me get ready to meet my parents," she decided.
Expecting an older woman, Niphredil was taken aback by what was standing in her doorway.
There stood a little girl who looked no more than twelve or thirteen years of age. Her silvery-white hair hung loose around her shoulders and a silver circlet, made to look like a crown laurel leaves. She wore a long forest green dress worked through with silver at the top, creating design of leaves and vines. Hanging out of her dress, was a silver leaf on a fine chain. The chain was similar in design to the one holding the snowflake around her neck.
Niphredil had the strangest feeling that she'd seen this child before but she could not place where or when. Her face was familiar to the recently arrived, half-elven maiden.
"Hello," she, cautiously, stated.
"Hi there," the figure said in a smallish voice, "Is your name Niphredil?"
"That it is. Did Gandalf send you?" Niphredil replied, curiously.
The little girl nodded and answered, "I am suppose to help you get ready to meet your parents."
Niphredil invited the little girl into her room deciding that there was more to her than meets the eye. She did not appear to be the average handmaiden, unless all handmaidens in this world wore ornately carved silver items on their heads and around their necks.
"May I ask you a few questions? You really do not have to answer them but I'd appreciate it if you would," Niphredil broached, sitting down on the trunk at the foot of the bed.
The little girl bit her lower lip, obviously thinking.
"I will try but I am not sure how much I can say," she replied with a friendly sort of smile.
"First things first, you know my name is Niphredil. What's your name?" the half elven maiden asked watching as the little girl took a seat at the vanity table's chair.
"My name is Emma," the little girl replied, surprising Niphredil with such a normal sounding name.
The last thing she had expected was a name that sounded like it stepped out of the world she had once lived.
"My second question may sound odd but, where are we?" she asked.
That was the crux of her questions at the moment. She wanted to know what Gandalf would not tell her---their location.
The little girl smiled, trying to suppress a laugh. She knew the reaction she was going to receive when she answered the question. Emma had gone through the same set of feelings when she arrived home.
"We are, currently, in the White City, the City of Kings. It is better known as Gondor which is in Middle Earth," Emma, carefully, replied.
Niphredil's eyes went wide, not really believing what Emma had told her. She could not be in Middle Earth since that was a fictional place found in a set of books she hadn't read.
"Middle Earth?" she half exclaimed, "You're kidding right?"
Emma shook her head, pushing some of her hair out of her eyes. She felt badly for Niphredil, as she saw the confusion setting in. It was the same confusion she had felt when Legolas, her half brother, had told her she was an elf from Middle Earth. Of course, she had bolted form his sight when she had first heard that bit of news.
"I am very sorry to tell you this but I am not kidding," Emma added.
"But how?" Niphredil continued, "Middle Earth is fake, fantasy, not really!"
Though she was ranting, denying what this young girl was telling her, some part of hew knew Emma was telling the truth.
"I can not tell you how but, please do not feel badly. I reacted the same when I first found out I was from here, too," Emma assured the older girl.
"What?!" Niphredil exclaimed.
For a brief moment, she had thought she was the only person ever to go through this. It, now, seemed Emma had come through a similar situation.
Emma sighed and launched into a brief explanation of her own past. She explained how she and her parents had wound up in Middle Earth and how she had earned the title of princess.
"So, let me see if I understand this. You're an elven princess who was taken from Middle Earth just after being born. You were raised as if you were a normal child until your brother found you and told you the truth," Niphredil summed up.
"That is, basically, it. You are an elf too, I think," Emma stated.
A strange look passed over her face and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Her cheeks tinged red as she realized what she had said.
"Oh no! I was not suppose to saw that!" she moaned, looking sheepish.
"Wait, can you explain that? I mean, if it's not going to get you into too much trouble," Niphredil broached.
"My biological dad would not like me telling you this. Since that is the case, I guess I could try to explain it. Mind you, I do not really understand it myself," Emma replied.
She thought for a moment, getting dangerously quiet as she organized her thoughts.
"Your father is a man, but he is a certain type of man that has been blessed with a very long life. Your mother was an elf but now, she is not an elf. I am not sure how that works. That is all I can tell you," Emma tried to explain, giving the older girl a half hearted shrug.
"Do you know anything else about my parents?" Niphredil asked excitedly.
She felt bad for asking the young girl so many questions but she needed to know. She wanted her questions answered and was happy to have found someone who appeared capable of doing so.
"I am not suppose to say anything else because you are suppose to decided how you feel about them yourself," Emma answered, getting up and going over to the closet.
She heaved the doors open and began to rifle through the dresses the closet contained.
"Are you telling the truth?" the older girl pressed.
"Mostly," Emma answered, extracting herself from the confines of the closet.
"I am not suppose to say but I will tell you that your parents are very excited to have you back, especially your father. My brother said that he has never seen him this excited in an age," Emma admitted.
"My father," Niphredil said, almost to herself, "what is he like?"
She recalled, somewhere, having a proper mother but never a father. Jay had been the father figure in her life and he was lacking in all departments. She was hoping her real father was far better.
"You father is a very interesting person. He is very good friends with my brother so you would have to ask him about your father. He has know him for a very long time. I can tell you that your mother said she is kind of glad he was not there when you were born because he is far more nervous than she," Emma answered, truthfully.
She pulled a long purple and gold dress from the closet, laying it on the large bed.
Niphredil picked up the dress, assuming that she was suppose to change into it. She walked over to the second door in her room, pushing it open to discover a changing room of sorts.
As she changed, keeping her eyes on her sword, more thoughts raced through her mind. Would she like these people? Would they like her? Why was her father not there when she was born? Was she ever really wanted, then? What was she, exactly?
She exited the room, to find Emma standing in the doorway.
"Come on. We must go. We are late, I think," she said in a hurried voice.
What they were late for, Niphredil could only guess as she followed Emma down several more long hallways. Her eyes grew wider, if possible, when they reached a vast marble room. A room, Niphredil assumed, was a throne room of some kind.
The two females walked the length of the room, heading for a small side door.
Emma knocked three times, paused, and knocked again.
The door swung open without a creak.
"We have to go in," Emma stated, leading Emma into the smaller room.