I don't own LOTR!
Secret Hurts
Chapter6
"Arwen doesn't like me, does she Estel," Aldalóme sighed as they walked in the gardens, her sentence more of a statement that a question in the dark cover of nightfall.
"I don't think she does, but she usually likes everyone," Estel shrugged.
"Especially you, right?" Aldalóme smiled at her young friend.
"Well, I guess," Estel frowned. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."
"Easy, she thinks you're not spending enough time around her and she's getting jealous," Aldalóme shook her head at the thought of an elf being a cradle-robber.
"You think so? How can you tell?" Estel asked curiously.
"Estel, I am a girl, and sometimes it takes a girl to understand another," Aldalóme chuckled at Estel's ignorance.
"How true that is, isn't it Elrohir?" Elladan sprang out of nowhere.
"Yes, very true. No male will ever be able to unravel the mysteries that are women," Elrohir nodded in agreement with his brother. Thus, both brothers earned a whack on the head from Aldalóme.
"Boys can be such dunderheads," Aldalóme snorted and continued walking with Estel, away from the twins that were both chuckling.
"What's a dunderhead, Aldalóme?" Estel frowned.
"How far away can elves hear?" Aldalóme replied.
"Um…" Estel frowned. "Probably a few leagues, but they won't go near Lord Glorfindel's study!"
"Okay, let's go there and then I'll tell both you and Lord Glorfindel," Aldalóme whispered into Estel's ear.
"Okay, let's go to the library! I can start teaching you elvish!" Estel began to drag the girl towards the library, but as soon as they were out of the sights of the twins, he dragged her to Lord Glorfindel's study.
Estel knocked lightly on the door, "Come in," a slightly bored voice sighed.
"Greetings, Lord Glorfindel," Estel grinned as he pulled Aldalóme with him.
"Greetings! What brings you two to my study, Estel?"
"Aldalóme called the twins something and she told me she'd tell only you and me what she called them," Estel sounded extremely proud.
"Well, they were insulting women in general, so I slapped the backs of their heads. Then I called them dunderheads."
"And what does 'dunderheads' mean?" Lord Glorfindel chuckled.
"Idiots, stupid, morons… Basically anything along those lines," Aldalóme bit her lip in embarrassment.
Lord Glorfindel burst into loud boisterous laughter, "I would have very much liked to see that, Lady Aldalóme. Thank you for telling me this tale; it has lightened my day considerably!"
"You are quite welcome Lord Glorfindel, but I ask you to call me Aldalóme, I was never one for fancy titles," Aldalóme blushed slightly.
"Aldalóme, then I request that you call me Glorfindel."
"Okay! Later Glorfindel!" Aldalóme smiled and waved as Estel pulled her from the room.
"Why did you call my brothers dunderheads?" Estel tugged on her arm.
"They were acting the part," Aldalóme shrugged. To reassure Estel, she gave him a small hug, "I'm sure that they aren't like that all the time."
"Well… I wouldn't go as far as to say that…" Estel rolled his eyes, and then burst out into infectious laughter.
Aldalóme laughed, "You know, Estel, I haven't laughed this much since my sister…"
Estel looked up at Aldalóme worriedly, "You don't have to…"
"No, Estel, I need to say it. I haven't laughed this much since my sister died," Aldalóme smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, little king."
"You know?" Estel's eyes widened in shock and he ran from the human girl, leaving her standing in an empty hallway.
"Estel…" Aldalóme whispered sadly as she watched him disappear.
"What did you do?" a female voice hissed in her ear.
"Arwen," Aldalóme frowned her mood darkening with each passing moment.
"What did you do?" Arwen hissed at Aldalóme again.
"Arwen, I have done nothing that will keep him from you. I am not a cradle-robber," Aldalóme let her icy shields of the past fall back into place.
"You will leave Estel alone," Arwen continued to hiss.
"He is my friend, and you have no say in whom or what I am friends with, Undomiel," Aldalóme caught the elleth's hand that was about to slap her. "Neither you, nor any other holds the right to injure me, elf," Aldalóme gritted her teeth to keep her anger inside. She threw the elleth's arm away from her and walked past the enraged elleth.
"Get back here Dark Shadow!" Arwen growled angrily at the back of the human.
Refusing to respond to the angry elleth behind her, Aldalóme continued to walk, leaving the elleth seething in rage, "Why does she really hate me?"
"Who hates you, child?" a wizened voice filled her hearing.
"Gandalf?" Aldalóme looked up at the wizard, and hugged the wizard tightly.
"What is the matter, Aldalóme?" Gandalf soothed.
"Arwen hates me," was her soft reply.
"I'm sure that she does not hate you," Gandalf hugged the girl back. "I bet that she's just a bit jealous of the attention that you are receiving."
"But I'm gonna be gone from Rivendale in a few days…" Aldalóme blinked up at the wizard.
"Yes, I know, but she is used to all the attention," Gandalf chuckled.
"She's gonna be nicer as she grows, isn't she?" Aldalóme questioned the wizard.
"It is very likely," the wizard cast a grin her way.
"Gandalf, how many more days till we leave?" Aldalóme asked hopefully.
"So eager to leave, youngling?" Gandalf questioned.
"My sister once told me of Middle Earth. She spoke a bit of you, and the Shire. That is the one place I know that she would want me to visit, she had a fascination with hobbits," Aldalóme smiled sadly at the memory.
"Your sister must have been a lovely girl," Gandalf watched the girl as they began to head back to her room.
"She was my best friend, my sister, and she was my reason for living," Aldalóme sighed as she watched the ground, knowing Gandalf did not yet understand. "She was my responsibility, I was her guardian. She was in my charge… I should have done something, ANYTHING, to keep her alive…"
"It is quite all right little one," Gandalf initiated this hug. "We shall leave the day after tomorrow."
"Thank you Gandalf, you remind me of both my father and grandfathers," Aldalóme was crying silently, but she managed to lean up enough to give the wizard a friendly kiss on the cheek.