By Elerrina
Legolas stood planted, unable to move. Rachel, taking his unresponsiveness to mean that he no longer loved her, ran blindly back to her room.
A liar? Seventeen? How can this be? She acts and looks at least two thousand four hundred. In mortal years she would be about seventeen, but she is an elf, he pondered.
Why? Why did this happen to me? I should have listened to Linwë and told him right away.
When Legolas finally realized what had happened, he immediately felt horrible. The truth was, he wasn't mad at her, he was only shocked and a little hurt that she hadn't told him right away.
The next day Linwë learned from Faerlain that Rachel had locked herself in her room and refused to come out.
She went to her friend's room and knocked on the door.
"Please, Rachel, come out," she begged.
Rachel didn't answer. Faerlain had forgotten to tell her that Rachel wasn't talking either.
Linwë went in search of Amras after trying for several minutes to get Rachel to speak without success, knowing that Legolas would tell him what had happened.
"What's wrong, Linwë?" Amras asked, noticing the worried look on her fair elven face.
"I am not sure what has happened. Rachel is in her room. She will not talk and she will not come out."
"Do you think that it has something to do with Legolas?" he asked.
"Yes. I have not seen him yet and he is usually the first one out to greet us."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Talk to him. Find out what happened. Get a key to Rachel's room from Thranduil," she suggested.
"I will try, but I cannot promise you anything, if Rachel does not want to talk about it, what are the chances that Legolas does?"
"I believe that he may wish to speak. Just try. If it does not work… well, then we will have to think of something else." Please let it work, she prayed to the Valar. I do not know what else we can do.
Amras took leave of his friend to find Legolas. He asked around the palace, but no one had seen him since the morning of the day before.
He searched rooms, courtyards, everywhere he could think of. Just when he was turning back, about to give up, a voice from above him called, "What are you looking for, my friend?"
Legolas jumped gracefully down from the tree that he had been sitting in.
"You. Linwë sent me to find you."
"Why is that?" Legolas asked.
"She wishes to know if something happened between you and Rachel."
"Why does she not just ask Rachel then? It would have been much easier for you."
"Because Rachel refuses to talk or come out of her rooms. Why is that, my friend?" Amras interrogated.
"Yes, something happened between the two of us," Legolas answered sullenly. "But I will say no more than that."
"Do you not care about Rachel? She has eaten no food, save what she might have in her room since yesterday morning. She could starve herself to death."
"Of course I care about her, Amras! I care for her so much that I asked for her hand in marriage."
"You… proposed?" Amras said slowly.
"Yes, and she… and she…"
"She what? She turned you down? Maybe she needs more time."
"She did not answer me, that is the problem! If she would have said anything other than what she said, I would be happy!"
"What did she say, Legolas?" Amras pried.
"She said that she was a liar and that she is only seventeen years of age. What do you say to that, Amras? What?"
"I think that I had better go talk to Linwë. She knows Rachel better than I. Maybe she will know what Rachel was talking about."
"Please tell me anything you learn. I cannot think of it anymore. Shall I see if Rachel will talk to me?"
"It is worth a try. You could get the key from your father."
"Of course. I shall go there now. Thank you, Amras. I did not know of what she was doing."
"Rachel, it is me, Legolas. Let me in!"
Nothing.
"I command you, let me in!"
Not a word.
"Then you leave me no choice," Legolas fitted the key that he had gotten from his father into the lock, and turned it. The lock clicked and he pushed the door open.
"Rachel, where are you?"
There was silence.
He made his way to her bedroom and found her lying on her bed, eyes open.
"Rachel, what is wrong?" Legolas asked. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"
She turned her head and glared at him. It conveyed the same message as if she had shouted, "What do you think?!"
"Please speak. Tell me why you are mad at me. Explain why you are a liar and how you are only seventeen," he begged.
"I never said that I was a liar!" she exclaimed. "Get out of my room!"
"Not until you explain."
She got off of her bed and pushed him out of the door. "Figure it out for yourself!" she yelled, and slammed the door in his face.
She locked the door, but knew that he could get in anyway so she sat down and leaned her back against it.
Legolas slumped down against Rachel's door.
This doesn't make sense. She said yesterday that she lied, but today she said she never said that… he wondered
"What if I was only seventeen years old and as good as a liar?" her words echoed in his head. She is as good as a liar? What did she mean by that?
Slowly he got up and walked to Linwë's room.
"How did it go?" Amras asked, opening the door after Legolas had knocked.
"Not well. She talked to me, but she did not explain anything. She only confused me even more."
"What did she say?" Linwë asked, coming into the room carrying three drinks.
"She said that she never told me that she was a liar and she told me to get out of her room," he told them.
"Has she ever lied to you? Has she ever told you how old she is, where she is from, or who her parents are?" Linwë questioned, knowing exactly what her friend was talking about.
"Now that I think of it, no, she has not. I guess I do not know her as well as I thought that I did."
"Do not worry, as far as I know, I am the only one who knows those things. Give me the key," she instructed. "I will talk to her."
Legolas did as he was told and handed over the key.
Linwë took her leave of the men, knowing that they would talk, and went to comfort her friend.
Knock, knock.
"You have the key, who not use it?" Rachel called from inside.
"It is good that you are talking now, but I think you need a little work on guessing who is at the door."
"I am sorry, Linwë. I thought that it was Legolas and I don't really want to talk to him right now."
"Do you mind letting me in so I do not have to stand out here and talk to your door? I think that the people passing by are starting to think that I have gone crazy."
"Oh, sorry, but, if I am not mistaken, you do have the key. You would have had just enough time for Legolas to have talked to you, telling you what happened and get down here to talk to me."
"You are right. I do have the key, but I would rather you open the door and let me in yourself so I am not invading your privacy."
"Fine." Rachel stood up and opened the door admitting Linwë.
"Thank you. Would you mind telling me what has happened, since I left the last time? Legolas told Amras, but Amras has not told me much, only that something had happened between you two."
"Yes, something happened. He proposed."
"And you turned him down?" she assumed.
"Kind of, but not really," she told her friend.
"What did you tell him?"
"That I was as good as a liar and seventeen years old. That he knew almost nothing of my past."
"Why did you not tell him at once, like I advised you a year ago? Things would have gone much better."
"I know now that I should have, but I cannot change the past now. Seriously, I don't know what to do, Linwë. He probably hates me now," she said dejectedly.
"I doubt that he hates you. If he proposed, then he obviously loves you, and elves do not lightly throw love aside."
"I asked him if he would still love me if I was as good as a liar and seventeen, and he didn't say anything." Rachel started to cry. "I wanted to say yes, just forget about my past and live with him forever, but I knew that it wouldn't be fair to him to do that."
"You must speak to him. Tell him your past; explain everything to him. He will at the least, forgive you."
"No, he won't. I know it. He hates me now!"
"If you do not tell him, then I will. He is my friend too and he deserves to know."
"No! You promised me a year ago that you wouldn't tell anyone, even Amras. Please, you can tell Amras, but don't tell Legolas," she pleaded.
"Alright, you have my word, I will not tell Legolas."
"Thank you."
"Come on, let us get you something to eat. You must be starved."
"I'm not hungry."
"If you do not eat, I am not above getting someone to force feed you. I will not have you dying while I am here."
"I am not eating. I don't want to live here anymore. I want to home Linwë."
"I will be right back," Linwë said, opening the door. "Maybe Mithrandir will be able to help you, I am sorry, but I cannot. I will try to get a hold of him." With that she stepped out into the hall and closed the door.
A/n: I know… I know… It took me forever to update I haven't been on for a long time either. I've been trying to revise this and am doing fairly well on it. Just small changes but they do make it sound better. Well… on with the review responses.
Rayame: Hey! Yeah… I just talked to you. Haven't heard any more news. The next news I get I hope is very good! I'm so tired of worrying! You forgot the 'h' in Schroeder's name. Thanks for the review!
Heather Martin: Um… I think if you go to www (dot) hobbitslive (dot) com you can get a lot of elvish phrases. At least… I think that that's where I got them. It's a really good site. So… did she answer wisely? I'm not sure myself. You have to keep the title in mind though. And she still has her boyfriend… or does she…?
Faerlain: So sorry but I've got to say this: laws are made to be broken. This reminds me of a week ago. My dad and I had "The Night of the Endless Clichés. It was fun! OH! I watched Ned Kelly last night! Sooo sad! Thanks for the review!
Ilenya the Fair: So, did she make the right decision? I wanna learn archery! I wanna go to Thailand! I wanna I wanna I wanna!!!! Sorry… weird mood. Thanx for reviewing!
Emiliana: I finally updated… Even though you've already read this. You didn't have time to tell me your opinion. I want it now! Alright… you were good! You guessed it, but I think that I might have told you that already… I could be wrong. Talk to you later. Grandpa's not doing good…
If I don't update soon again, happy holidays!