AN: Happy Belated Fourth of July to all those who celebrate it! I hope everyone had a good weekend, either way. I saw "Spider-Man 2" last week...not exactly as good as the first. Though I rather like The X-Men better than "Spider-Man" but that's neither here nor there. Now that movie's off my list of summer movies, all that's left to see is "King Arthur" and "I, Robot." Even though, from the look of the commercials, "I, Robot" the movie isn't going to be anything like "I, Robot" the book. At least, Peter Jackson tried to stay (somewhat) faithful to the text! With that said, I'm so happy all of you are reviewing! You all rock like a box of socks!
Midnight-Insomniac1532: Sorry about the cliffhangers. I'm just a little fond of them. I'll try to get some closure to for that cliffhanger very soon!
KapOfDaPipers: Thanks very much! Here's my latest update! Hope you like it!
PixiePea000: Let's leave elves and agents out of fishnets. (You know how annoying they are...SERIOUSLY!) They dynamic duo are separated, for now, but both are very busy at the moment. They'd like to know if you'd rather a dress wearing dude pay you a visit. Best get out before they unplug your head (Though I rather think Sparks wouldn't). By the by, GOLLUM and watch out for Agent Elrond Smith...he can multiply!
LalaithoftheBruinen: I'm very glad you liked the chapter a lot! The twins will pop up sometime and find out about Niphredil. They all will, eventually. Of course, some may find out from Aragorn or Arwen. Others, from Niphredil, herself. I hope you like this chapter just as much as the last.
LadyJadePerendhil: Updating now! I'm glad you liked how Elrond came out and I'm glad you liked his reaction. There is really nothing he can do about Niphredil but accept her. Well, he could behave like Emma's biological father but that wouldn't be nice.
sunni07: I've been doing ballet the longest (17 years) but I also do two kinds of tap and jazz. I use to be an acrobat but I had to stop when my sister blew her knee out. That kind of made the class less fun so I stopped too. I'm happy you liked the chapter and the little bit of elvish thrown in there.
Elainor: I'm glad you liked his reaction. I figured he wouldn't go either way with it. Just play the middle until he could get all the information.
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.
Night had, finally, fallen over the White City. The sky grew velvety dark and, like little lights, the stars winked on. Watching the stars wink on, with a rapt interest borne of someone who was use to watching things, was Niphredil. She sat on her bed in the room she had been given, dressed in what amounted to night clothing.
At the moment, she was thinking about families. Her family, Emma's family, and the families of the people she had known back in the other world.
She was still thinking about families when a familiar sound entered the room. Every evening, at the same time, someone knocked at her door. A certain someone Niphredil was starting to enjoy spending lots of time with. Even if they were just learning bits and pieces about each other.
It was a start...wasn't it?
Pulling open the door, the wood creaking on its hinges, Niphredil smiled.
"Good evening, Aragorn," she announced with a warm smile.
Aragorn returned the smile, entering his daughter's room and taking his usual seat. That seat being at the vanity table in her room. Niphredil, generally, preferred to sit on the bed or on the floor if the mood struck her.
The bed was her choice of seating at the moment.
"I'd like to hear more about this friend of yours," Aragorn broached, wanting to pick up the conversation the pair had been having that afternoon, "she sounds...most interesting."
Niphredil gave a laugh, trying to recall the last story she had told her father.
He had asked about her family and she had declined to answer; always stating that bringing them up would spoil the mood. His experience with politics, such as it was in Middle Earth, had given him the knowledge not to press her until she was ready.
So, he had asked about what she liked to do and her friends. Those subjects she freely spoke about, telling him stories about earning merit badges as some kind of scout and learning how to use a sword from a teacher she called Doc. One of the constants in her stories was a friend she called Hope, an ironic name considering he had once been named "Hope."
During their little walk through the gardens, Arwen's way to keep Niphredil away from the guests she was most obviously interested in, she had started telling him about her friend and her friend's family.
A family that seemed most odd to the high king.
"Well," Niphredil started, her voice sounding very far away, "There was this one time when I met Hope's Godfather. That was quite an experience. One I'm pretty sure I'll never forget."
Flashback
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, I don't want to bother him if he's busy," Niphredil, dressed in Junior Girl Scout Green, broached.
Next to her, dressed in the same green uniform, Hope gave a short laugh. She adjusted her vest- it was too big, hanging almost to her knee- and stared at her friend.
"He's not going to mind in the least. As a matter of fact, he's going to be tickled pink by this. Just promise you're not going to freak out when you meet him," Hope retorted.
The pair were on their way to Hope's home, the esteemed boarding school known as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, to interview someone for their "Science Sleuth" merit badge. Most other kids in the troop, her foster sister Jane among them, were interviewing science teachers at the local grade school.
They could have done the same for Niphredil also attended the school but Hope insisted otherwise.
At first, Niphredil though Hope was hinting at them interviewing her mother who was a science teacher at the school. She kept saying that the person they were going to interview wouldn't mind and that this was no trouble for them. She claimed a family connection would ensure an interview.
Then, Hope dropped the bombshell. Instead of interviewing her mother, they were going to interview another teacher at the school. A teacher Niphredil had always been curious about because he was a rather well known scientist.
They were going to interview Dr. Hank McCoy.
"I promise I'm not going to freak out when I meet him. It's just that...how did you manage to get this interview together? Isn't he busy with research or teaching or something?" Niphredil babbled.
For some odd reason, she was very nervous. More nervous than she should have been. She kept trying to tell herself that he was just another, normal person...even if he was an all together famous scientist. Of course, normal could be a very subjective word considering what Hope and her family were.
"I told you, it's going to be alright. He'll be very cool about it," Hope assured her friend, finality in her voice.
They walked up the long path leading to the front door of the school, talking about Scouts and activities the troop was planning for the coming month. The school seemed oddly quiet to Niphredil, who was use to the hustle and bustle of an average grade school. There seemed to be no one around, every opulent hallway empty, every nicely decorated corridor deserted.
She followed silently, though, following Hope through the building. She took Niphredil through an endless series of twists and turns ending with a long elevator ride.
As they stepped off the elevator, Niphredil's breath caught in her throat. Gone was the wood and carpet of the school. It had been replaced by something very, very different.
The hallway was white, endlessly white, broken up with clean metal lines. There were no visible doors. Even the elevator shaft seemed to have hidden itself back in the wall.
"Where in the world are we?" Niphredil breathed her voice low.
"Still in the school," Hope answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "We're in one of the subbasements. Follow me."
"I guess she's in her element," Niphredil decided, with a small smile.
Hope wasn't much of a talker in Girl Scouts. She, generally, kept to herself in order to avoid an "unfriendly" confrontation with the other girls. Though, she didn't need to talk in order for that to happen. All she had to do was show up. Here, however, she was comfortable.
"This is her home, after all," Niphredil mused, "Be weird if she was uncomfortable here."
Hope walked along the halls, casting eyes here and there. She seemed to be looking for something among the blank walls. Every so often, she stopped and appeared to concentrate on something.
"Come on," Hope called, "he's in here."
"In where, Hope? There's no door," Niphredil commented.
"In there," Hope retorted, pointing to the space that seemed to open up next to her.
The small mutant lead the way, taking Niphredil through the spot that opened up next to her. It seemed that hidden behind the blank walls was a well equipped lab of some kind. Everything in the room seemed to be begging Niphredil to investigate it. It took a huge mental effort to prevent herself from doing just that.
Sitting at one of the tables, wearing a white lab coat and hood of some kind, was a lone figure. He was hunched over, doing something with thick gloved hands.
For a handful of minutes, no one moved or spoke lest they disturb the working figure. Neither of them wanted to be the cause of a horrible lab accident.
Hope seemed to know the exact moment the experiment had finished for, as soon as the figure lifted his head up, she bounded over to the table. Niphredil tried her best to follow suit but she found that, despite the fact she had always been swifter then most, she could not keep up.
"Dr. McCoy," Hope stated, stopping in front of the table, "I brought a friend over to talk to you. Remember I told you about it before?"
"Of course I remember. How could I forget? You must have mentioned it a few hundred times," a good natured voice joked.
Hope waved Niphredil over, looking far more excited than she had ever seen her before. There was something about this meeting that Hope found exceedingly happy.
Niphredil came around the lab bench and nearly fainted when figure pulled his hood off. It wasn't a human face that was staring at her. No, no, no...nothing like it. She could barley find words to describe the blue furred visage before her. He looked like an animal something out a fairy tale like Beauty and the
"Beast, Niphredil. Niphredil, this is Dr. Hank McCoy better know around here as Beast," Hope stated, obviously proud of the introduction she was making.
"I do believe, my young Girl Scout, that I have stunned your friend into silence," Beast joked, smiling slightly.
"Give her a second. She'll be alright," Hope assured Beast.
"You're...you're..." Niphredil stammered, "a mutant."
Beast pretended to be stunned at her pronouncement, glancing as his furred and taloned hands, running them over his furry face.
"It seems I am, my pointy eared friend. You look like something out of Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings.' Now, I hear that you two fine Girl Scouts are here to interview me about being a scientist," Beast said, almost casually.
It took Niphredil a few questions and responses but she found the look of the blue-furred man to be nothing more than an odd looking human. Like Hope, a mutant without the physical changes, he was nothing but a human with differences. Differences unlike the ones he pointed out on herself.
End Flashback
Aragorn looked as stunned as Niphredil figured she looked when she had first met the blue furred scientist.
"He was covered in blue fur? That is incredible," he stammered, "Did he ever try to harm you or your friend?"
Niphredil shook her head, hair whipping around her face.
"He did nothing of the sort. He was one of the nicest people you could ever want to meet Unless you got him mad. When he was mad, Hope told me, he was downright frightening," Niphredil responded.
"Now, since I have asked you a question," Aragorn brought up, "you can ask me the question that I know you have wanted to ask me since I came in here."
"I watched that group come into the city today. Who were they?" she asked, quickly.
Aragorn gave a knowing laugh. He had suspected that was the question plaguing his daughter since earlier in the day. It was just too tempting a subject for the young half-elven maiden not to ask about.
"I knew, full well, you would ask me about them. They came from Rivendell to visit," Aragorn, vaguely, answered.
"Visit who? Where's Rivendell? Are they dangerous? Is that why you kept Emma and I locked away?" Niphredil asked, in rapid fire succession.
"Rivendell is an elven strong hold quite a distance from here. They are the reason I kept both you and Emma out of harm's way but these visitors are by no means dangerous. They are here to visit your mother and I. Though, by now, they must have a keen interest in visiting you as well," Aragorn replied, in an even voice.
"This is going to sound incredibly silly but why me?" Niphredil broached.
"That, my inquisitive daughter is for you to discover another day," Aragorn stated, earning himself a reproachful stare from Niphredil.
He was afraid her bad mood would force him to leave but it quickly faded. They bantered back and forth, talking about anything and everything.
"Get to bed, Niphredil. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for you," he told her.
Niphredil looked crestfallen. They had been discussing battle skills and sword play, a subject she seemed inordinately keen on.
"I promise we will finish this tomorrow,' he assured his daughter.
With a resigned sigh, she crawled into bed and pulled the covers up around her chin. It had started to get cold, ushering in a change of season.
Aragorn tucked her in, kissed her on the forehead, and whispered, "Sleep well, daughter" to her.
He turned from the bed and made his way to the door, expecting the same response he got every night.
In the darkness of her room, Niphredil smiled and replied, "Good night, father."
Midnight-Insomniac1532: Sorry about the cliffhangers. I'm just a little fond of them. I'll try to get some closure to for that cliffhanger very soon!
KapOfDaPipers: Thanks very much! Here's my latest update! Hope you like it!
PixiePea000: Let's leave elves and agents out of fishnets. (You know how annoying they are...SERIOUSLY!) They dynamic duo are separated, for now, but both are very busy at the moment. They'd like to know if you'd rather a dress wearing dude pay you a visit. Best get out before they unplug your head (Though I rather think Sparks wouldn't). By the by, GOLLUM and watch out for Agent Elrond Smith...he can multiply!
LalaithoftheBruinen: I'm very glad you liked the chapter a lot! The twins will pop up sometime and find out about Niphredil. They all will, eventually. Of course, some may find out from Aragorn or Arwen. Others, from Niphredil, herself. I hope you like this chapter just as much as the last.
LadyJadePerendhil: Updating now! I'm glad you liked how Elrond came out and I'm glad you liked his reaction. There is really nothing he can do about Niphredil but accept her. Well, he could behave like Emma's biological father but that wouldn't be nice.
sunni07: I've been doing ballet the longest (17 years) but I also do two kinds of tap and jazz. I use to be an acrobat but I had to stop when my sister blew her knee out. That kind of made the class less fun so I stopped too. I'm happy you liked the chapter and the little bit of elvish thrown in there.
Elainor: I'm glad you liked his reaction. I figured he wouldn't go either way with it. Just play the middle until he could get all the information.
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.
Night had, finally, fallen over the White City. The sky grew velvety dark and, like little lights, the stars winked on. Watching the stars wink on, with a rapt interest borne of someone who was use to watching things, was Niphredil. She sat on her bed in the room she had been given, dressed in what amounted to night clothing.
At the moment, she was thinking about families. Her family, Emma's family, and the families of the people she had known back in the other world.
She was still thinking about families when a familiar sound entered the room. Every evening, at the same time, someone knocked at her door. A certain someone Niphredil was starting to enjoy spending lots of time with. Even if they were just learning bits and pieces about each other.
It was a start...wasn't it?
Pulling open the door, the wood creaking on its hinges, Niphredil smiled.
"Good evening, Aragorn," she announced with a warm smile.
Aragorn returned the smile, entering his daughter's room and taking his usual seat. That seat being at the vanity table in her room. Niphredil, generally, preferred to sit on the bed or on the floor if the mood struck her.
The bed was her choice of seating at the moment.
"I'd like to hear more about this friend of yours," Aragorn broached, wanting to pick up the conversation the pair had been having that afternoon, "she sounds...most interesting."
Niphredil gave a laugh, trying to recall the last story she had told her father.
He had asked about her family and she had declined to answer; always stating that bringing them up would spoil the mood. His experience with politics, such as it was in Middle Earth, had given him the knowledge not to press her until she was ready.
So, he had asked about what she liked to do and her friends. Those subjects she freely spoke about, telling him stories about earning merit badges as some kind of scout and learning how to use a sword from a teacher she called Doc. One of the constants in her stories was a friend she called Hope, an ironic name considering he had once been named "Hope."
During their little walk through the gardens, Arwen's way to keep Niphredil away from the guests she was most obviously interested in, she had started telling him about her friend and her friend's family.
A family that seemed most odd to the high king.
"Well," Niphredil started, her voice sounding very far away, "There was this one time when I met Hope's Godfather. That was quite an experience. One I'm pretty sure I'll never forget."
Flashback
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, I don't want to bother him if he's busy," Niphredil, dressed in Junior Girl Scout Green, broached.
Next to her, dressed in the same green uniform, Hope gave a short laugh. She adjusted her vest- it was too big, hanging almost to her knee- and stared at her friend.
"He's not going to mind in the least. As a matter of fact, he's going to be tickled pink by this. Just promise you're not going to freak out when you meet him," Hope retorted.
The pair were on their way to Hope's home, the esteemed boarding school known as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, to interview someone for their "Science Sleuth" merit badge. Most other kids in the troop, her foster sister Jane among them, were interviewing science teachers at the local grade school.
They could have done the same for Niphredil also attended the school but Hope insisted otherwise.
At first, Niphredil though Hope was hinting at them interviewing her mother who was a science teacher at the school. She kept saying that the person they were going to interview wouldn't mind and that this was no trouble for them. She claimed a family connection would ensure an interview.
Then, Hope dropped the bombshell. Instead of interviewing her mother, they were going to interview another teacher at the school. A teacher Niphredil had always been curious about because he was a rather well known scientist.
They were going to interview Dr. Hank McCoy.
"I promise I'm not going to freak out when I meet him. It's just that...how did you manage to get this interview together? Isn't he busy with research or teaching or something?" Niphredil babbled.
For some odd reason, she was very nervous. More nervous than she should have been. She kept trying to tell herself that he was just another, normal person...even if he was an all together famous scientist. Of course, normal could be a very subjective word considering what Hope and her family were.
"I told you, it's going to be alright. He'll be very cool about it," Hope assured her friend, finality in her voice.
They walked up the long path leading to the front door of the school, talking about Scouts and activities the troop was planning for the coming month. The school seemed oddly quiet to Niphredil, who was use to the hustle and bustle of an average grade school. There seemed to be no one around, every opulent hallway empty, every nicely decorated corridor deserted.
She followed silently, though, following Hope through the building. She took Niphredil through an endless series of twists and turns ending with a long elevator ride.
As they stepped off the elevator, Niphredil's breath caught in her throat. Gone was the wood and carpet of the school. It had been replaced by something very, very different.
The hallway was white, endlessly white, broken up with clean metal lines. There were no visible doors. Even the elevator shaft seemed to have hidden itself back in the wall.
"Where in the world are we?" Niphredil breathed her voice low.
"Still in the school," Hope answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "We're in one of the subbasements. Follow me."
"I guess she's in her element," Niphredil decided, with a small smile.
Hope wasn't much of a talker in Girl Scouts. She, generally, kept to herself in order to avoid an "unfriendly" confrontation with the other girls. Though, she didn't need to talk in order for that to happen. All she had to do was show up. Here, however, she was comfortable.
"This is her home, after all," Niphredil mused, "Be weird if she was uncomfortable here."
Hope walked along the halls, casting eyes here and there. She seemed to be looking for something among the blank walls. Every so often, she stopped and appeared to concentrate on something.
"Come on," Hope called, "he's in here."
"In where, Hope? There's no door," Niphredil commented.
"In there," Hope retorted, pointing to the space that seemed to open up next to her.
The small mutant lead the way, taking Niphredil through the spot that opened up next to her. It seemed that hidden behind the blank walls was a well equipped lab of some kind. Everything in the room seemed to be begging Niphredil to investigate it. It took a huge mental effort to prevent herself from doing just that.
Sitting at one of the tables, wearing a white lab coat and hood of some kind, was a lone figure. He was hunched over, doing something with thick gloved hands.
For a handful of minutes, no one moved or spoke lest they disturb the working figure. Neither of them wanted to be the cause of a horrible lab accident.
Hope seemed to know the exact moment the experiment had finished for, as soon as the figure lifted his head up, she bounded over to the table. Niphredil tried her best to follow suit but she found that, despite the fact she had always been swifter then most, she could not keep up.
"Dr. McCoy," Hope stated, stopping in front of the table, "I brought a friend over to talk to you. Remember I told you about it before?"
"Of course I remember. How could I forget? You must have mentioned it a few hundred times," a good natured voice joked.
Hope waved Niphredil over, looking far more excited than she had ever seen her before. There was something about this meeting that Hope found exceedingly happy.
Niphredil came around the lab bench and nearly fainted when figure pulled his hood off. It wasn't a human face that was staring at her. No, no, no...nothing like it. She could barley find words to describe the blue furred visage before her. He looked like an animal something out a fairy tale like Beauty and the
"Beast, Niphredil. Niphredil, this is Dr. Hank McCoy better know around here as Beast," Hope stated, obviously proud of the introduction she was making.
"I do believe, my young Girl Scout, that I have stunned your friend into silence," Beast joked, smiling slightly.
"Give her a second. She'll be alright," Hope assured Beast.
"You're...you're..." Niphredil stammered, "a mutant."
Beast pretended to be stunned at her pronouncement, glancing as his furred and taloned hands, running them over his furry face.
"It seems I am, my pointy eared friend. You look like something out of Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings.' Now, I hear that you two fine Girl Scouts are here to interview me about being a scientist," Beast said, almost casually.
It took Niphredil a few questions and responses but she found the look of the blue-furred man to be nothing more than an odd looking human. Like Hope, a mutant without the physical changes, he was nothing but a human with differences. Differences unlike the ones he pointed out on herself.
End Flashback
Aragorn looked as stunned as Niphredil figured she looked when she had first met the blue furred scientist.
"He was covered in blue fur? That is incredible," he stammered, "Did he ever try to harm you or your friend?"
Niphredil shook her head, hair whipping around her face.
"He did nothing of the sort. He was one of the nicest people you could ever want to meet Unless you got him mad. When he was mad, Hope told me, he was downright frightening," Niphredil responded.
"Now, since I have asked you a question," Aragorn brought up, "you can ask me the question that I know you have wanted to ask me since I came in here."
"I watched that group come into the city today. Who were they?" she asked, quickly.
Aragorn gave a knowing laugh. He had suspected that was the question plaguing his daughter since earlier in the day. It was just too tempting a subject for the young half-elven maiden not to ask about.
"I knew, full well, you would ask me about them. They came from Rivendell to visit," Aragorn, vaguely, answered.
"Visit who? Where's Rivendell? Are they dangerous? Is that why you kept Emma and I locked away?" Niphredil asked, in rapid fire succession.
"Rivendell is an elven strong hold quite a distance from here. They are the reason I kept both you and Emma out of harm's way but these visitors are by no means dangerous. They are here to visit your mother and I. Though, by now, they must have a keen interest in visiting you as well," Aragorn replied, in an even voice.
"This is going to sound incredibly silly but why me?" Niphredil broached.
"That, my inquisitive daughter is for you to discover another day," Aragorn stated, earning himself a reproachful stare from Niphredil.
He was afraid her bad mood would force him to leave but it quickly faded. They bantered back and forth, talking about anything and everything.
"Get to bed, Niphredil. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for you," he told her.
Niphredil looked crestfallen. They had been discussing battle skills and sword play, a subject she seemed inordinately keen on.
"I promise we will finish this tomorrow,' he assured his daughter.
With a resigned sigh, she crawled into bed and pulled the covers up around her chin. It had started to get cold, ushering in a change of season.
Aragorn tucked her in, kissed her on the forehead, and whispered, "Sleep well, daughter" to her.
He turned from the bed and made his way to the door, expecting the same response he got every night.
In the darkness of her room, Niphredil smiled and replied, "Good night, father."