AN: Hi all! Sorry about being a day late. I couldn't up load this chapter for some odd reason and I hope it works well! My computer's being odd again...or something. It's been behaving oddly all week! Anywho, sadly summer's winding down and school's coming up soon. Before that, though, I'm going up to Boston to see the Lord of the Rings exhibit! I was able to talk my parents into taking me and my sister, though I believe my sister would rather stay home. She's so NOT a fan of anything Tolkien related and she's already whining about going. Anywho, I'd just like to make one request of you, my wonderful and most excellent reviewers. If you're going to call my character a Mary-Sue, can you please explain to me why or how. I'd be most appreciative if you do for I would like to change it, if possible. Plus, it'll do me some good when school rolls around. Please don't think me rude, though, and please, keep up the reviews. I really appreciate them!

et-spiritus-sancti: It is quite a decision, on par with lots of other famous movie decisions. She's got a lot to consider before she can decide, though. That includes her experiences in the Muggle world. Everything's sort of banking on this decision...which will be revealed later!

Tracey: I'm very sorry you didn't like this chapter. There's a reason for why Elrond is asking her to make this decision, despite her age. Said reason will be revealed shortly. I know it's something that doesn't make logical sense but it is feasible for someone, despite their age, to make such a decision. If one thinks about it with and objective, rather than a subjective, mind.

sunni07: You! You're right with the translation! They're always annoying. It seems like it's part of their personalities. Oh well, I just try to ignore them and dance. Though they do and say things that are very funny at times (like asking if ear aches can walk across your nose to get into the other ear or if a barracuda lived in the water) and are worth a good laugh. I'm sorry the people you dance with are annoying but it sure fun to make them crazy!

Elainor: I'm glad you liked the chapter. There's a reason why leaving with Legolas isn't exactly an option for Niphredil. One that will be revealed in a bit...

LadyJadePerendhil: What and how she decides will be revealed soon. It's going to take a very huge jolt to get her to make the decision and a blast from her past may show up to help the process out. As for leaving with Legolas and Gimli, there's a reason why she can't go with them....well, she's part of the reason. The other part has something to do with Elrond and Galadriel.

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.

Something furrowed through Niphredil's thoughts, sending up ridges through the causeways of her mind. Elrond had said something about most of his kind wanting to leave Middle Earth. He was an elf, an immortal by his own admission. She knew of other elves in this world, not many but she knew they were there.

"But all of you aren't leaving at once," she ventured, "I mean, Emma and Legolas- They're elves, aren't they?- don't seem like they are going to leave."

Elrond looked at Niphredil, trying his best to read deeper into her question, to see if there was something behind it. Something that wasn't plainly obvious to his eyes and ears. Other than strong confusion warring with curiosity, there was nothing else.

For a split second the elven lord was worried she was showing a preference for them over her. Perhaps an outcropping of her original conceptions was coming to the fore. It relieved him to see that fact wasn't the case.

"They are elves, indeed, from Mirkwood. They are young, though. Emma is just slightly younger than you, if I am not mistaken. They have yet to grow weary of this world as many my age have," Elrond answered slowly.

It was a strange concept, to say the least. That some grew tired of the world and opted to leave while others, of the same type and living in the same span of time, were choosing to stay. There was far more to the decision than Niphredil- with her limited time in Middle Earth- had seen. That would come later, when she started to learn the history of her new home.

Now, though, she just had to see the basics, the supports onto which the building had been built. Everything else would come later.

"How come?" she, simply, asked, her voice curious.

It was not an unexpected question, in Elrond's opinion. Logical, even, if one followed the usual train of thought. If someone didn't want to leave, in progression, the next question should be their reason behind not wanting to leave.

"I can not speak for them; give you their most personal reasons as to why they want to say. I can only speak for myself, Niphredil, and I can tell you I have lost much of my passion for living in this world," Elrond explained.

His slightly vague answer frustrated Niphredil for a few heartbeats. That wasn't much of an answer, something she assumed he was going to provide for her.

"Since, you're weary of this world and Legolas and Emma are not, why is it I can't go with them when they leave?" she countered, working with an idea that was forming in her head, "It isn't in my nature to be an issue or a bother to anyone."

That had been Elrond's initial plan, while traveling to the White City. He was to answer his daughter's summons and, then, head West with the others. This detour, the change in the plans he had set, was unexpected, though not unfortunate.

"I feel that it is partly my fault you were sent to live in that other world, with a family I have heard is most unlike your genuine one. In order to make up for that, I have decided to stay my sailing until you are ready. I would much prefer you to sail with family than without," the elven lord answered.

Niphredil furrowed her forehead, trying to make sense of Elrond's words. Perhaps he, too, was feeling badly about his actions and this was the only way he could make himself feel better. It was an all too human, too mortal, assumption for her liking but she was new to this world and things seemed to be different here.

After all, if elves and mortals could have children, they could act alike.

The mood had turned somber in the past few moments, taking a downturn that produced just a painfully heavy, uncomfortable silence. A silence that was threatening to smother the young half-elven maiden and the older elven lord sitting next to her.

Niphredil decided something was needed to lighten the mood. There was a question, a rather foolish and immature one given what she had just been asked to decided, that she had been dying to ask. One she had always wanted to know the answer to ever since she was a young child living in the Muggle World.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, she broached, "Elrond, who do I look like?"

Though she was, physically, sitting in Middle Earth her mind and ventured back into the past where that question had sparked up an interesting debate.

FLASHBACK

Around a wide lunch table sat a group of Brownie Girl Scouts. In their famous Brownie brown jumpers with an assortment of sashes or vests- depending on what each girl's parents had bought them- they worked on their "Listening to the Past" Try-It.

Niphredil was what the troop creatively called a 'Senior Brownie." That is, a third grader getting ready to bridge to Junior Scouts the following year. At her elbow was her "Brownie Bite."

Each older Brownie in the troop was assigned a younger counterpart to help out in their first few months as a Brownie. They were first graders, recently bridged from Daisy Girl Scouts.

Of course, Niphredil's "Brownie Bite" was not her foster sister Jane. Instead, her spot was filled by Hope.

"My mommy said, I look like her," Jane bragged, "which, of course means I'm just the prettiest girl ever. That's what everyone says."

"You're mommy's a liar. I'm the prettiest looking girl here," countered a second grader by the name of Cheyenne, "She's going to make me be a model."

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and batted her eyes so everyone could see just what her mother was talking about.

A few assorted groans and giggles moved through the table as everyone appraised her looks and compared them to their own.

Niphredil, sitting at the far end of the table with her "Brownie Bite," just heaved an enormous sigh. This hadn't been what Miss Aicha had in mind, not at all. They were supposed to be talking about stories their parents had told them from when they- that is, the parents- were younger. It had somehow degenerated into a conversation about who looked like whom and who was prettier.

"How are you holding up?" she asked Hope, watching the troop leader snag a young Brownie named Julissia who had been busily making a "Brownie Bite" named Jocelyn cry.

So far, the conversation had managed to miss the two of them entirely. Whether that was by chance, skill, or choice Niphredil couldn't say. She was just thankful to stay out of the whole mess.

"I'm alright," Hope said, around a hard cough, "This is just kind of funny to watch."

Niphredil had to admit the younger Brownie was right. Watching the others argue was a good time, indeed.

"How about you two? You've awfully quiet down there," commented a rather annoying precocious girl named Amy.

"That's true," Jane concurred, rounding on her foster sister and least favorite Girl Scout, "We all know Freddy's got no real parents because she's such a freak and they didn't want her anymore so she doesn't count. What about you, Hope? Who do you look like?"

"A mouse, right?" joked girl named Olivia, whose mother was the leader for the Cadettes and Seniors.

"Or like something just as weird," added another girl they called Kayla F., only because there was another Kayla in another troop.

Hope, for her part, didn't look amused by their joking. The only thing mousy about her was her hair, which was a mousy brown in color. Sure she didn't look like a pillar of heath being shorter and thinner than the other Brownies. That coupled with the fact she was almost always sick gave her a strange physical appearance.

"My dad use to joke that I looked like the milkman until I told him there was no milkman. I guess I look like both my parents since we all have hazel eyes. My hair seems to be closer to my dad's shade than my mom's since he has lighter hair than she does," Hope answered, trying not to cough as she spoke.

Her deceptive appearance served to also hide the fact Hope appeared to be smarter than the other Brownies but that was just Niphredil's opinion. She made a mental note to ask Hope's mother about that fact someday.

Feeling bold because her friend's little speech, Niphredil stated, "And how come I can't answer the question too? Maybe I remember something about my parents."

Laughter, cold and cruel, broke out around the table. Everyone was doubling over, breaking into hysterics.

"Just the idea of a bunch of freaks like you is funny," wheezed Amy.

"Because, Freddy," Jane stammered, trying to work through her fit of giggles, "there's no one out there that looks like you. You're just a freaky mistake."

Unable to really say anything, Niphredil contented herself with looking up the next part of the badge, hopefully something to be done alone.

END FLASHBACK

The elven lord appeared to be confused by the question, making Niphredil inwardly laugh. Apparently that question only existed in the Muggle World or maybe among the mortals in this world. It seemed to be new to the elf lord's ears.

Biting her lip as she tried to find the words, Niphredil explained, "Where I use to live, the children use to ask family members that question. They just want to know if they look like their parents or grandparents, or third aunt twice removed on their father's side."

That seemed to register something to the elven lord for his expression changed. He began to study Niphredil as if she was a diagram in a science book. She tried to sit perfectly still as his eyes roved over her face and, oddly enough, her ears. They seemed to linger there for far longer than Niphredil would have expected.

"You look like our kind, that is to say a child of the Eldar. If that is the case, you most resemble my daughter's kin. As for your spirit, though, that is wholly of your father's side. I can see it in your eyes and Gandalf has told me you are quite the warrior already though you do not fight like we do," Elrond, finally, replied.

A baffled expression crossed Niphredil's face. She wasn't quite sure what to make of her grandfather's words, especially the parts relating to her father.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice mirroring her confusion.

"I have known your father for a very long time," Elrond answered, taking a guess at what had baffled the young half elven maiden, "Like him you do not want anything to do with this royal life. Rather, you might prefer something with a little less attention attached to it. A warrior in an army, perhaps? You will learn as he did that this cannot be set aside so easily and that both lives can be reconciled somehow."

Niphredil was still slightly confused, the words ringing true to her but, at the same time, giving her something new to think about.

It was true- a certain fact- that she was not all that keen on a life of large gowns and princely rescues. She had been trained to take care of herself, after all. She didn't really need a prince to rescue her, in her own mind anyway. How she was going to reconcile that with the fact she was a princess, she had no idea.

It could be done though, if her grandfather's words were to be believed.

"Guess it's up to me to figure out how," she mused, ruefully.