AN: I'm apologizing profusely for not updating this on time! I had every intention of doing so until the annoying little witches in my Microbiology class opened their mouths. They convinced my professor to change our exam from Monday to Wednesday. Since I have dancing Tuesday, I would up doing all my studying after 9:30 PM. I was so brain fried that I went to bed early. Come to think of it, I'm still brain fried from the test but that's neither here nor there. I promise that'll (most likely) never happen again. Again, I apologize a million times! Anyway, I hope everyone's having a good time with school and everything related to that. Aside from me not enjoying the people I have Microbiology with, it's all cool! Please, please, please keep those reviews coming. They're the best remedy for a bad day at school. All of you are the best ever!
Mystic-realm: Many thanks for the compliment and I'm very glad you like the story. Let's just say the twins are going to try and add someone into their little trouble making schemes.
et-spiritus-sancti: Yeah, Fire's a bit of a ...moody...one. She's got a tendency to see many things as a personal issue and, since she has very little regard for people in authority (including her sister); she feels she has the express right to do and say as she pleases. She'll get put in her place eventually since, someone has to teach her a lesson or two or ten. I'm happy you're enjoying the fact the twins are in the story!
Ms. Unknown: They're formal....for now! They're still trying to figure out what makes Niphredil tick. Once they get the measure of her, all bets are off. Here's the next update!
sunni07: oh my! That's an awful lot of studying to do in one night! Even though I'm in college, the most studying I've ever had to do is like two tests in one night. Lots of stuff to study for both of them but that still seems like a small amount compared with what you had to do. I hope you did well on all of them. Anywho, I'm glad you liked the chapter and I'm sorry about the confusion thing. I'll try to clear it up.
elentir girl: I'm sorry about the chapter length but it's an evil I can't avoid sometimes. My mother really doesn't like me telling her I'm going to bed after 4AM. She gets a little cranky about it sometimes. I'll try to remedy that though!
LJP: Ah the rabbit hole! Strange place to fall down sometimes! She's going spend some "quality" time with her uncles and find out there's a little more to being "royal" then she now knows. They may finish each other's sentences...that would be funny!
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.
Niphredil, as she sat partaking in the strange make-shift picnic on the floor of the kitchen, came to a strange and startling realization. She'd done something like this- well, in a way like this but not really- and had heard about these two before today. For whatever reason it had slipped her mind.
Maybe it was everything that had happened that had caused the mental slippage. It was barely noon but the day seemed incredibly long already.
"Just another one of those days," she supposed, nibbling on something very much like Muggle World cake.
Whatever it really was, it tasted good. Considering she hadn't eaten breakfast, this was the first meal she had eaten. It wasn't until she saw the food did she realize that fact. Well that and just how hungry she was.
"You know, I think my nana mentioned you teaching her how to sneak food out of kitchens," she mentioned, trying to sound like she was speaking in an off hand manner.
In actuality, she was very curious to check the validity of her mother's statement. Not that she thought she was lying. Not by any means. More like she wanted to know just how crafty these two were.
"So she does remember," Elladan commented, after pausing to swallow whatever he was eating at the moment.
A slight smile- just the startings of one really- spread across the alike faces of the twins. To Niphredil, it looked as if they were sharing a communal good memory. She didn't know if people here had that ability, like a certain few people in the Muggle World she knew.
"It is good that she does," Elrohir added, "How did you come to find out about this ability?"
"She told here, Elrohir," his twin corrected, "did you not just hear, Niphredil tell us that."
"Actually, not only did she tell me but she took me with her. We went riding one day, just the two of us, and she took me through here, taking food from behind the backs of the people who work in here," Niphredil, hastily, commented.
She wasn't keen on being responsible for the two sitting with here having some kind of fight. Unless, of course, they always acted like that. She couldn't say because she didn't know.
"Even better," Elladan stated, sounding quite pleased at that fact, "Some one needs to keep that tradition going. We would not want things here to get quiet, now would we?"
"It wouldn't be fair to, Estel. Things here need to be just as exciting as they were in Rivendell all those years ago," Elrohir added, his voice slightly wistful.
"What do you mean?" Niphredil asked, most obviously confused.
"We have a certain reputation- unfairly given, though- for being trouble makers when we are not riding with any guards. That is why we were with Ice and Fire today. Our ada thought that would keep us out of trouble," Elrohir answered, wicked smile gracing his features.
"Those councilmen your father seems to be having a problem with will soon learn that they are bothering the wrong Lord. Under the Stewards- especially the weaker ones- they may have been able to influence decisions but not anymore," his twin added similar smile on his face.
Niphredil wasn't sure if she should be flattered or not by their actions. There were certain older members of the council who weren't keen on having her around. Something about being a stain on the king's reputation.
She'd spent enough of her life being a stain on someone's family. Now, things were different as far as she was concerned. What the council said didn't matter; her family- the one related to her by blood- was the most important thing.
These two were part of her blood related gamily too. No matter how odd it was to process that she had an extended family.
"I have to ask you two, because I guess you know her better than me, but is Fire always like that? Even Emma said she has a major attitude issue when it comes to people," Niphredil asked.
Both twins laughed loudly, a knowing sound that echoed in the vast kitchen. Apparently there was something about Fire Niphredil wasn't understanding or didn't know. Perhaps a something that gave her such a "winning" personality.
"Ice and Fire have been through a lot in their short lives. They've lost a great deal and have only now begun to gain it back," one twin started.
The other cut in, asking, "Short lives? They are younger than Arwen but that, by no means, makes their lives short. They are ancient compared to Niphredil and Emma."
Elladan, the twin who had started the discourse, gave his brother a sharp look. I appeared he didn't want his story interrupted.
"It would help to understand them if you knew their father. Ice is very much like him, although she is female," he continued, but was cut off again.
It was not his brother but Niphredil that did the interjecting.
"Does that mean Fire is like their mother? Are their names really Ice and Fire? It would be really odd if they were," she asked, looking sheepish that she had spoken as quickly and as impetuously as she had done.
Normally, she could control that reaction.
"I would not know. I do not recall ever meeting here. She was killed many years ago, most likely even before you were born," Elrohir answered, picking up for his brother who was drinking deeply from a cup, "Ice and Fire are not their given names but it is not my place to tell you those names. They are kept private for whatever reason they have for doing so."
Niphredil looked hurt for a moment. It would have been nice to put an actual name- instead of a moniker- to a face but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
"Is there anyway," she started, quite unsure of how to pose her question properly, "to get Fire to stop driving everyone here crazy with that attitude of hers?"
She was greeted with two very blank stares. Her Muggle World phrases seemed to have gone over the head of the two elven males.
Running a free hand through her hair, Niphredil tried, "If I wanted to get Fire to be a little nicer to me, what would I have to do?"
She didn't want to be Fire's friend; she just wanted not to feel the angry wrath of the elven warrior female. She didn't want to wind up doing something she would later regret.
The twin conferred with each other for a few moments, speaking in their melodic language. This time, though, Niphredil didn't bother trying to understand what they were saying. The food before her, again reminding her that she hadn't had anything to eat, was far more interesting.
Atypical teenage behavior, she assumed, for a normal human teen. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
"Not normal," she remained herself," and not human either. Well, not entirely human, anyway."
Niphredil didn't have very much time to dwell on her thoughts, though. She found herself, when she looked up from her nibbling on this and that, looking up at the faces of her twin uncles.
"There is one way, though we are sure you will not find it pleasant," Elladan started, sounding as grim as he could without being overly serious.
"Try me," Niphredil challenged, "you never know how I'm going to answer."
He looked to his brother, as if to ask him to broach the idea for him. That spoke volumes to Niphredil about what she might be asked to do.
"If you were to...challenge her...in some way, show her that you are not afraid," Elrohir answered, "she might gain some respect for you. Though we are not promising anything."
Niphredil looked confused for a moment, as if she wasn't sure what they were talking about. She knew though, all to well, what they were asking her to do. Most wanted to have a swing at the person who took Tae Kwan Do. Fulfill some half-crazy karate movie fantasy they had. Fire wanted to take her swings, verbal or otherwise, against the new person in her world. The one who was proving to be difficult to exert her personality over.
Probably the one person who posed the oddest threat to her.
She didn't want to fight Fire, not with physical fire, but it seemed she had no choice. Not if she wanted the elven female-warrior to treat her on a better level. Certainly not as an equal, for Fire felt she had no equal, but as someone worthy of her strange sort of respect.
Niphredil just wanted to show Fire she wasn't afraid of her. To show her she could rise up to the unspoken challenge she had heard in the elven warrior's voice.
"Though I'm not dressed for the task," Niphredil said pulling at her dressed with a half resigned tone in her voice, "let's do this. It'll be interesting."