Hiril nín – My lady.
Maer – Yes.
Cyll – Bearer.
Sigil – Necklace.
Hannon le, hiril – Thank you, Lady.
Flet – you should DEFINITELY know this by now…no hints.
Hithlain – strong elven rope.
Mela – love
Hîr nin, hiril nín… – My lord, my lady…
Naneth – mother

Nine
Lesson the First

Taryn awoke to the sound of songbirds and a bright light shining in her eyes. Taryn could only assume that it was the sun. She grunted in exasperation and tried to roll over, but found herself held down by several piles of garments on her bed.

"What is this!" She shrieked, something very much human in a world full of elves. An Elvish tongue met her confused cry.

"Hiril nín," Taryn looked up to see Uruviel bow before her timidly. "I have been sent to awaken you. The Lady Galadriel requests your presence this morning at the meeting with the Fellowship. There is a…competition that you are requested to attend, and compete in, should you feel you would like to."

Taryn propped herself up on her elbows. "A competition?"

"Maer," Uruviel answered. "Archery, hiril nín. It is your favorite, is it not?"

Taryn simply shrugged and spoke with a laugh. "Whichever answer will prompt you to help me get these garments off of me is the one I will give, Uruviel."

Taryn watched as Uruviel's eyes widened and she rushed to Taryn's bedside. Taryn grabbed her hand before she could move anything. Uruviel looked into Taryn's eyes as if she were something to be feared, and Taryn gave her hand a small pat. "Do not fear me, Uruviel. I will do you no harm, I promise."

"Hannon le, hiril. That means very much to me," Uruviel spoke quietly as if she was unsure whether or not she should be speaking such things. "Your…abilities have some of the elf-kind wondering, Lady Taryn. We wonder if…if you are the Lady of prophecy spoken of long ago. But then we know that if you are the girl of the prophecy that the Lady Galadriel would have taken you under her wing – which she seems to have done already – and teach you all of the controls of your gifts."

Uruviel went about her tasks, sorting the clothes into various places while Taryn remained sitting on her elbows watching her with serious interest.

"The Lady told me of a prophecy just yesterday," Taryn replied, equally as quietly. "What do you know about it, Uruviel?"

"It is not my place to know, Lady Taryn. Nor is it my place to tell you."

"Uruviel!" Taryn cried as she jolted upright. "You have already said too much. Please tell me what it is you know! I will wear a gown to the competition and compete in it if you will tell me everything!"

Taryn's eyes flitted over Uruviel's face as the elf-woman contemplated her response.

"You are correct, Lady Taryn. I have spoken too much; therefore I must speak no more," came her reply as she set about choosing thinner, less ornate dresses for Taryn to wear to the competition.

"Oh, Uruviel! Please speak! You know how I hate games like this!" Taryn pleaded and Uruviel could not hold in her laughter.

Indeed, Uruviel did know how Taryn hated guessing games. She had seen it time and again when Haldir would play like this with the Lady Taryn far out into the woods when he would give her Elvish lessons. The lessons perplexed Uruviel even further, but she daren't tell any of the Lorien elves of the occurrence. Surely this had to be the Lady of the prophecy, for her to be an elf and not know her own language!

"All right, Lady Taryn. I shall tell you what I know, though it is not much," she relinquished, "if you will wear this dress to the competition."

The dress that Uruviel held out was, of course, a grey gown that Taryn was sure would leave a trail of cloth behind her, yet not snag on any of the branches, sticks, or leaves on the forest floor. The sleeves were solid up until the elbows where they became slit all the way to the floor. Uruviel turned the dress around so that Taryn could see the back, and the girl gasped. The back was very much non-existent, but in its place was an intricate criss-cross of tiny jewels that looked and shined like diamonds that would come down to nearly the tailbone of its wearer. Taryn's hand covered her mouth as she looked at the gown. She shoved the rest of the garments off onto the floor and reached out to touch the beautiful dress Uruviel held out to her.

"Was this in my wardrobe?" Taryn inquired out of awe.

"The Lady placed it there early this morning, along with a belt of diamonds to hang about your waist."

"She wanted me to wear this?" Taryn asked, still fingering what she found to be almost silk-like fabric, though looking at it made her think that it was nearly as course as burlap. Uruviel nodded. Taryn's lips curved into a wide grin. "For Haldir?"

Uruviel grinned and nodded again as she draped the garment over the girl's shoulder. "I believe so."

Taryn's grin curved up even farther into an ear-to-ear smile that danced in her eyes. "Then go! I've got to get dressed!" Taryn shooed Uruviel out of the door of the flet and grabbed her hand before the woman could descend the hithlain ladder. "But don't go far. You have to help me fix my hair."

Taryn gave the elf woman a wink and retreated back into her flet to dress. She slipped her nightgown off with ease and pulled the grey garment over her head. The gown fell over her body with ease and fit her to perfection. The bodice was tight, but not excruciatingly so, and the diamond criss-crosses hung somewhat loosely in back, exactly the way they were supposed to. The train of the dress pooled around Taryn's bare feet and she swished it back and forth with her hands to get a feel for the movement of the material. She then opened the wardrobe fashioned of what had once been a Mellyrn tree long, long ago and on the door's hook laid a diamond belt. Taryn pulled it off the hook and took a long look at the ornament.

The diamonds were chained together with what could have been a wire of mithril, and on one end was a diamond that was about the size of a quarter. There was a silver ring on the other end, and Taryn looped the belt around her waist, sliding the large diamond through the silver ring. The large diamond acted as a weight and held the belt perfectly in place so that it veered down over her hips in a "V" shape. Taryn bounded over to the vanity mirror in the corner and peered at herself, turning circles before it and laughing giddily. In the mirror, she saw the door open and Uruviel poke her head into the room.

"Uruviel! Come and look!" Taryn called out, still swishing the gown about her ankles and turning circles to better see herself in the mirror. Uruviel stepped up behind her and pinched a piece of the garment between her thumb and index fingers. She pulled her pinch of fabric from Taryn as the girl grew still but never lost her ear-to-ear smile. In fact, she gained a pleased look in her eyes. "What do you think, Uruviel? Will it do?"

Uruviel nodded. "I think that this shall do very well. Come," she beckoned for Taryn to take a seat in front of the vanity. "We must finish your dressing."

Taryn took her seat and fidgeted in the seat for a moment before growing still. As soon as she quieted down, Uruviel set to work on her hair. In a short time, Taryn was a glowing beauty. She was offered makeup, which she barely applied: the slightest hint of black pencil-ish eyeliner, a bluish-grey eye shadow only along the lip of her eyelids, and a light hint of a pink cheek tint. Taryn glowed with eagerness and happiness when she finally added a bit of her own lip gloss to the makeup, which had been returned to her by Galadriel sometime during the night. The girl-elf's hair was piled in curls atop of her head and one fell down softly on either side of her face while two, maybe three, curls fell down the back of her head to rest on her shoulders. Taryn, if possible, smiled wider.

She was ready for this…oh, so ready…

The arrows whizzed by, one after another, as they struck their intended targets. Legolas and Haldir were neck and neck with each other and Aragorn followed their lead very closely in their trial runs. The Lord and Lady of the Wood grinned proudly at their kinsfolk. Galadriel looked up as she saw a young elf maiden with golden hair walking eagerly toward the competing male elves. The Lady of the Wood smiled proudly as she stood.

"Might I interrupt your festivities for one moment?" She projected her voice into the hustle and bustle, and the entire population of the wooded area directly surrounding her turned their eyes to her. Taryn paused and glanced at the Lady, bowing her head in respect. Galadriel acknowledged her with a nod of her own, and turned to look at all of the elves, hobbits, and men with a wide, proud smile on her face. "May I present to all here in this Wood, the Lady Taryn Moynihan."

Galadriel made a gracious sweeping motion with her arm and all eyes turned to Taryn. The girl blushed slightly as all attention moved to her, but her eyes landed on Haldir, and once again, she was sure of herself. She started toward him without another pause, and he took up her hand and brought it to his lips, both of them oblivious to the looks and whispers around them.

"Hiril nín, you look…beautiful," Haldir spoke as he raised her hand higher into the air to spin her around. He gave her a once-over as he spun her around and when Taryn met his eyes once again, he was beaming. "This dress looks perfect on you, mela. Where did you find it?"

"It was a gift," Taryn said softly as she cast a quick glance to Galadriel who looked nearly as intrigued as Haldir. "Tell me you weren't about to start without me!" She grinned as she laid a kiss on Haldir's cheek. He smiled down at the girl, and she returned the smile with another kiss.

Galadriel looked up from the two as another female elf joined her. "Once again," The Lady of the Golden Wood spoke loudly. "I interrupt to present to you my final guests of honor, the Lady Taraedhel of the Grey Havens, and her husband, Adam Moynihan."

Taryn stood too shocked to move. The smile on her face was gone, and without moving, she knew that the bounce in her step would be gone as well. She didn't dare turn around before she gained her composure, and Haldir caught the panicked look on her face as her eyes danced wildly taking in everything but seeing nothing behind him.

"Taryn? Taryn? Mela, speak to me. What is wrong? What can I do?" Haldir dipped himself down to her height to try to look into her green eyes.

"You can do nothing, my dear Haldir, unless you can convince the Lady to see Him out," Taryn replied coldly. She raised her eyes to meet his and Haldir took a step back at the look in them.

"Why, Taryn? Who is he to you?" Haldir was clueless. She still hadn't told him everything about herself. He still had barely a glimpse of who she was or how she had come to be here, or what his role in her unfolding story would come to be, but he somehow didn't care. He wanted to know her, but more than that, Haldir just wanted to love Taryn and have her love him in return.

Was she a lover scorned by this man in the past? She was, after all, a 3,000-year-old elf, and elves were known to take Men for lovers in attempt to conceive a child. None had succeeded yet, but it had been known to happen in the North. If this girl was one of his Northern kindred, then that would explain many things, and it would make plenty of sense, with the story that she had told him the first day that they had met, about losing her sense of language if she had spent many years amongst the Men of Middle-earth.

Taryn fumbled for words, and she could feel eyes burning into her back. "He…Haldir...," she looked up with unshed tears bristling in her eyes. "He's my father."

"Taryn, come here a moment, please, child." The voice of the Lady Galadriel at that moment was not something that Taryn welcomed. In fact, it was nearly the last thing that she wanted to hear. She didn't want to go.

'Taryn,' The Lady's voice echoed inside her head, 'this is to be your first lesson as Bearer of the Necklace. The things that you will most desire not to do are the ones that matter the most. Come to us, Taryn. You will not fail here.'

Taryn looked up at Haldir and blinked away her tears. She would not let the past eat at her. She would be strong. She would be one to help restore Middle-earth to its former glory, and she would not let something like a grudge hold her back. "I have to go to them," She spoke quietly and Haldir nodded. "I have to make things right."

"Then go, mela, I will be here. After you have finished, we shall begin our competition," Haldir replied with a smile. "We wouldn't dream of beginning without you."

Taryn stood on tiptoe, the toes of her grey elven boots sticking out just barely from underneath the dress, and gave Haldir a soft kiss. "I will be back soon," she whispered against his lips before turning and clearing her throat. Taryn kept her eyes on Galadriel as she walked over to the Lady of the Wood, Celeborn, and their companions. Taryn had dreamt of this day for many a year, but all of the words that she had planned to come from her mouth had been insults, and this was hardly the place for such conversation. So, what to say?

'You know yourself, Taryn. Nevertheless, do keep in mind that you are noble. Speak as nobility would, and you will not fail this first test,' Galadriel's voice echoed through her head once more and the Lady of the Wood gave Taryn a bow of her head. Taryn averted her eyes for the moment, and when she came to the first of the three steps leading up to the Lord and Lady's seats, she curtsied, and raised her eyes to each of them first.

"Hîr nin, hiril nín," she greeted them in Sindarin before turning her eyes to the woman she had met in the dreamscape of the previous night. To Taryn, she did not glow as she had the night before. In the light of morning, she looked almost plain, if an elf could be plain. Her hair glittered, as did her eyes, but her skin was pale and smooth. She was dressed in a gown covered in sequins that sparkled when she moved, and her smile was only half in place as Taryn looked at her. Taryn took a breath and greeted her as well with a bow of her head. "Naneth," she spoke, and whispers ran around the clearing. She then turned reluctant eyes to Taraedhel's left, where her father sat. His hair was grey in patches just behind his ears, just as she remembered him. It seemed to Taryn that he hadn't aged at all. He gave her a nervous smile, but didn't try to sit up straight in his chair. She remembered that his custom was to slouch in chairs, no matter the occasion, and it had always made her angry that he didn't try to appear sophisticated. Evidently time had not changed his manners, or lack thereof. The most important thing that had caught Taryn's eyes was his ears.

They were normal.

She looked at him and held her head high. She would be strong, no matter what is cost her or her pride.

"Hello, Father."