Melannen turned around, half expecting for the voice to be a creation of her imagination. Standing behind her was the tall man she had seen earlier, upon seeing him she felt bile rise up in her throat, he had the most penetrating eyes she had ever seen and suddenly Melannen felt totally helpless, like he saw right through her. She knew that if she stared into their depths much longer she would get totally lost in the chocolate abyss. He was young, but not so, and what scared Melannen even more was that she felt like she knew him. Like a memory from a dream.
"Orli has that affect on most women he meets . . ." Elijah said with a wicked grin.
Melannen was snapped out of her thoughts by his comment, for she had hardly noticed how she was gawking. "Eh . . . um, excuse me." she said, embarrassed. In in a rush, she exited the cafe and walked as quickly as she could away from the building. Her mind was spinning, it couldn't be, could it? She tried to shake the thought from her mind.
"Daro." a clear voice rang out behind her. Melannen turned to see Orlando running towards her. He stopped in front of her and looked down at her with a confused expression. "Melannen, mellon, it's me." his befuddled look soon turned to concern. "Melannen, why haven't you left these shores and sailed to Valinor?"
Suddenly her demeanor changed entirely and she embraced him tightly and clung to his sweater. It was as if she thought that if she let go he would vanish into the air. "Elladan, mellon nin, everyone thought you were dead. I . . . I-- I thought that you were gone." she said, blinking back tears. "I am foolish." she said, wiping the silver droplets stubbornly away.
Elladan smiled, "No your not."
She backed away from him, and held him at an arm's length. Melannen laughed to herself, "Where is Elrohir?"
Immediately she regretted her words, because the expression that crossed his face was so forlorn and pained that it made her heart ache. Elladan turned away from her, so that she would not see the tears that cascaded down his face. He released a shuddering breath and sniffed, trying to recompose himself. "He is gone." Elladan said quietly, sounding entirely defeated.
Even though Melannen did not want to think about it, she knew that when Elladan said 'gone' he did not mean that his brother had gone to Valinor, but instead to the great halls of Mandos. She did not know what to say, because she was well aware that any words that she could possibly say would do nothing to ease the pain of the Son of Elrond. She knew that it was like tearing his soul apart, like taking away the one thing that made him whole.
Melannen cautiously walked up to him, taking his hand in hers. "Elladan . . . it's alright." Suddenly she felt like she was back in Mirkwood, thousands of years ago, trying to calm the traumatized prince.
Elladan let out a shaky laugh, "Damned fire." he said despondently. "The Valar are so cruel, they'll . . . uh, nevermind-- you don't want to know." he sounded defeated, "I get, uh, carried away sometimes . . . sorry, it's -- nothing."
Melannen rubbed his shaking back in soothing motions. "Elladan, where are you staying? I can get a cab and take you there, or if you want to can come to my place . . . it doesn't matter."
"I don't care."
Melannen sighed, "Fine, I'll get a taxi."
Hello everyone! I know that chapter was kinda depressing, sorry bout that.
Elven Sisters In Law: personally I would like it if all the elves came to America, that would be wonderflul :), but I dont know, I always though of the Native Americans as being more like the Numenoreans. what I thought was cool, though, was how the Europeans set forth looking for a land with 'gold, jewels, the fountain of youth' remind ya kinda like Valinor? hehe. And they thought that they would fall of the edge of the earth . . . like it was 'off limits' . . . I dont know if you ever read the Silmarillion, but it talks about that. Tolkien was SUCH a genius.
If you havent figured this out already, I do enjoy torturing characters . . . no one in my stories ever get a break.
R&R!
