AN: Another Monday! Another update! I'm sorry I didn't get the last update on-line on Monday. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get it to upload. Hopefully, this one will work properly. I went to that Lord of the Rings exhibit in Boston last week. It was a good time. Well, I had a good time and I think my mom did too. My sister and my father would have rather gone to see the Red Sox play instead, I think. They had a lot of really nice costumes to look at and all kinds of other really cool things (like swords, and jewelry and things like that). The only downside was that they didn't let you take pictures! One of the funniest things they had was this wall that you stood against and got told what Middle Earth race you were based on your height. My sister, who was "forced" to participate, was either a short dwarf or a tall hobbit (which was kind of ironic because she can look and act like Pippin sometimes) and my dad, also "forced" to participate, was a tall orc. Me? Well, I was a short elf. By the way, it is very east to get lost in Boston! My dad, who did the driving, spent a good hour trying to find the museum once we were in Boston. Anywho, Thanks as always for your reviews! You all rock like a box of socks and I always appreciate your comments.
Elleiadrieal: I'm glad you liked the post and I appreciate your review! Here's the next part!
Ljp: Ah...don't envy me. I had to nearly sign away my entire summer to get to go since my sister's not a fan. Now, I'm not allowed to pick movies, trips, or anything else like that until she feels like letting me. That'll probably be sometime next summer. Anywho, I'm glad you liked the chapter and the slightly less grumpy than usual Elrond. He's not going to go totally human so don't worry.
PixiePea000: HEY YOU! I'm glad you liked the way the troop was done. Those kids are a constant source of headaches for everyone around them (some more than others) and you're very welcome! See, I can write without using a cliffhanger, though I still love them very much. No fishnet wearing agents please otherwise I'll be forced to unleash the Dynamic Duo on them. Well all know how vicious they are. Anywho, GOLLUM and watch out for Agent Elrond Smith and the upgrades (since the Dynamic Duo might be too busy to look for them).
sunni07: Ah, a fellow student of Italian. I took three years in high school and, for whatever odd reason, remember some of it. I'll give all the translations at the end of the story, like I did with my first one. Most people always say I act like my mother but never know who I look like. They do agree, however, that my sister and I could be twins. That's not true though because my sister and I look NOTHING alike. We don't even act alike! My dance classes don't start until September, much to my sadness. I hope your classes went well!
Tracey: First off, I'm sorry if I came off a bit harsh last time. I didn't mean to come off like that. I am trying to improve my writing since I'm taking Creative Writing in school in the fall and I don't want a poor showing in the class to mess up my grade point average. That and I really like to write and I'd like to be able to write well. Your points are well taken and I understand where they are coming from. I really didn't mean for it to be so in your face and I thank you for your honesty.
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.
"You knew my father for quite sometime?" she questioned, turning the conversation again, trying to gain a measure of control in order to earn just a bit more information, "How? He's not an elf."
It was a valid question, to the elven lord's ears and in his mind. Humans were humans and lived among themselves. Elves were elves and they did likewise. At least, that was how he assumed Niphredil was seeing things. There was a nearly crystal clear divined between the two races obscured only by the fact there were half-elven folk, herself included.
"I raised your father after the untimely death of his father. His mother brought him to Rivendell for safekeeping for there were some would not want to see the line of kings restored," Elrond answered.
For some odd reason, Niphredil had a very hard time reconciling the image of the elven lord in front of her with the image of a father. Or the image of what a father she is like as she envisioned the role. There was just something about Elrond that did not strike her as fatherly. Unless there was something she had yet to see that would change her mind.
Giving her actual family a chance, no matter what her initial impression were, was something she was just going to have to learn to do. Not judging a book by its cover and everything else that fell along those lines.
"My mother said you forbade my parents from seeing each other until my father gained his throne. Why? That doesn't seem like a very fair thing to do," Niphredil, broached, carefully, gently.
She decided it was in both her own best interest and the best interest of her mother not to mention the reason her mother gave in reference to her grandfather's actions. The fact he set the boundary just because he felt her father would never take the throne.
"That is a question I would rather not answer for you. For now anyway. There are other things, other parts of the past that must be understood before I can explain that to you. I am sorry," Elrond answered, watching Niphredil's face fall.
She'd been subjected to far too many secrets in her life and had questions that deserved answers. Some answers, however, would have to wait until she knew more of her history. A history that would take quite sometime to learn and absorb as it covered an enormous length of history and encompassed both mortal and immoral kind.
Though disappointed by the lack of information, Niphredil filed the question away for later asking or, perhaps, for asking someone else who might have known the answer. The answer was out there, she knew that to be true, she just had to find it...or it had to find her. Whatever came first.
"Can I ask you another question?" Niphredil started, going to the next question she had on her mental list.
"You have already but you may ask another," Elrond countered, watching a strangely puzzled expression cross Niphredil's face.
She paused, replaying the past few moments in her mind before smiling. That counter was a painfully familiar one, oddly familiar in fact. She had a teacher, back in the Muggle World, who was famous- rather, infamous- for responding to questions like "Can I go to the bathroom" with "I'm sure you can." He wanted the "May I" version of the question to be asked, not the "Can I" version common among students.
Something that frighteningly familiar sent a chill up Niphredil's spine but placed said smile on her face. At least, there were some things that didn't change.
"May I ask you another question then, sir?" Niphredil tried again despite the fact she had been given permission to ask what she wanted.
It had been customary in the class, if the questioning error had been made to ask again using the proper form. Of course, the teacher was also infamous for saying "no" every time the properly spoken question was asked.
The half-elven maiden sincerely wished that not to be the case this time.
"That you may, my lady," Elrond responded, a slightly amused look on his face.
"My mother is your daughter," Niphredil started, unsure of how to politely ask the question she wanted, "and, I guess by my even being here as I am now, she and my father didn't do as they had been ordered. Do you harbor any ill feelings against them or against me?"
She was pretty sure the question was highly inappropriate and was somewhat personal but she had to know what feelings she evoked. Ill feelings she was use to and unsurprised by- she had dealt with them in the Muggle World- but she had to know if they were there. All other feelings, especially ones that were good and positive, always came as a surprise. The only people who ever showed positive feelings toward her even being around were Hope's family.
The question, apparently, did not come as a shock to the elven lord. Of course, she had asked somewhat similar questions to both her parents and they may have told him to be on the lookout for a question of similar nature.
"Allow me to answer the second part of your question first. You I harbor no ill feelings against. Unless there is something about you I do not know, you did not ask to be born into this situation. You are just an innocent player in all of this," Elrond stated taking care of her last concern first.
She gave him a simple nod, at a loss for worse at the moment. She had been told, by her mother, that she had been sent off because her grandfather's actions towards her were unpredictable at best. The answer he gave was not the one she had been expecting.
"And my parents?" she asked, finding her voice again.
"I can not say I was not angered with them for they both knew what they were and were not allowed to do. Your father, though, was a young moral and his actions were rash at best and impetuous at the worst. I have gotten past that fact, though, seen his side of the story and, as such, I do not feel I can be angry towards him. He was not the only person at fault," the older elf continued.
He would have gone on, said something more, if not for Niphredil interrupting him with, "So this boils down to my mother?"
He blinked, not understanding the very human, very Muggle World, statement she had used. The confusion was quick, passing over him like a breeze moving through the garden in which they sat. One minute it was there, the next it was gone.
The pause was enough to convince Niphredil that she had touched a nerve, had said something to offend the elven lord.
She opened her mouth to babble out a hastily put together apology when Elrond lifted a hand to silence her.
He wanted to answer her question; it had just taken him time to formulate that answer.
"She told me that you had started to call them mother and father," he commented, "though that has nothing to do with my answer to your question. I would be doing you a disservice by lying to you about my feelings and I am right to assume you have had quite enough lies in your life. I was angry with her for behind dishonest with me and for hiding you from me. I use to think she could tell me anything, as any parent would. Then I realized that I could not hold a grudge forever for she will not be around forever. Anger, itself, is not something I make policy of holding on to."
"You don't know what kind of relief it is for me to hear you say something like that," Niphredil stated, speaking slowly, "the last think I was to do is cause a rift to develop between anyone."
"No, I do not think you have caused a rift to develop between your parents, though I am sure you mother feared such a thing happening. The only rift I could foresee you causing is between the members of your father's council," Elrond added.
From the scant few whispers she had heard through out the citadel, Elrond's assumption was correct. Some members of the city's council were not all that thrilled with her being there. Then again, there was nothing they could do but sow seeds of discontent and see if they took root. If that plan worked, only time would tell.