Melannen sighed as she parked her car in the narrow space. It seemed like forever since the last time she had been here, even though it had been only two weeks earlier with Elladan. The beach was unusually calm, but there were very few people there, causing Melannen to wonder why. Probably work, she thought to herself after realizing that not everyone went to the beach on Tuesdays. She laughed, remembering her last visit, when Elladan had buried her completely with sand, and then left for about half an hour while she vainly tried to free herself. Those were the good days, excluding the days before she had first been separated from Legolas.
She wondered where he was, she had not seen him since the day before when Elladan had been killed. Melannen wondered why she was not surprised that he had not come back afterwards. Taking her thoughts back from the past, Melannen walked along the shore and realized that it was this same shore that she would one day set sail from, never to return. Leaving, though, was the easy way out of the prickly situation she had gotten herself into in the first place, and she had long since decided to get herself out.
The sun set crimson in the west, and the sky began to darken. Melannen knew that she should head back to her car and go home, but somehow the Sea calmed her, as it did all Elves. Slowly she began to sing to herself, in a tongue long since forgotten by mortal man. The Song of the Sea.
Though she was cut short when she felt a presence behind her. Melannen turned in fear, only to see a pair of azul eyes staring intently at her. No words were spoken, but so much was said when Legolas came and stood beside her. They walked along the beach for an immeasurable amount of time, neither of them speaking or making and sound as they walked. Finally, after seemingly forever, Legolas broke the silence.
"I'm sorry about what happed to Glorfindel." his voice was deep and still retained his strong Silvan accent.
She halted abruptly, "How do you know about Glorfindel?"
He smiled, the stars dancing the depths of his eyes, "I came with the reinforcements, too late though it had been. When I learned that he had a wife and child, I felt compelled to write them a letter with my sincere regret."
"Itit was you who wrote to me?" she said, surprised.
He nodded, "Yes, it was."
Now it was her turn to smile, "I had thought I recognized that horrid penmanship."
"How is Elros?" he asked, though when he saw the shadow cross her face, he needed no confirmation on what he already figured to be true. The news, though, still burned his heart. "Forgive me . . . ."
She whirled on him, "Stop asking for forgiveness!" she said angrily, though sadness was in her voice too. "You have done nothing wrong." she kicked the sand in frustration, and she silently battled against the tears which were at the point of pouring from her eyes. "Legolas, I'm so I didn't mean for for it to sound that. I'm not angryI just . . ."
Legolas took her hand and squeezed it gently, "Let me take you home, it's late." he said, leading her back towards where she had parked.
When they reached her house, Legolas seemed to have no problem finding the spare house key underneath the garden frog. At her puzzled look, he held it up and shook it, causing the key to jingle softly.
"Melannen, you are far too predictable." not knowing what he meant by that statement, she followed him inside.
After she was in bed, Melannen silently wondered if he would leave again after she had fallen asleep, and if he did, would she ever see him again?
When Melannen awoke she did not get up, but just lay there, staring at the ceiling remembering the times past. She could not help but smile inwardly when she remembered a particular incident with Elladan three weeks earlier. They had been stopped at a gas station to fuel up her car, it had been about eight at night. They had gone inside to pay, but the person who had been at the register had disappeared into the back room. Since there was nothing else to do, they wandered around looking for any type of snack that might be good, and Elladan had thought that they were alone. So he had proceeded in meowing, calling her name, and making other obscene noises from the other side of the building. Melannen had ignored him. Though, as she could still picture so clearly, a short, bony, old man with large glasses and white hair had been in one of the aisles between them, and had gone unnoticed by both. Elladan had gone as red as a beet when he stood up, asking, 'Who the hell's Melannen?' and the young Peredhil had scurried out of there so quickly that she had hardly believed her eyes. Of course, there had been nothing between them, other than Elladan's pathological flirting.
"""""""""
Elladan was bored, not a very good thing considering that there was absolutely nothing to do in the halls of Mandos. It reminded him of when old people got together to play bingo, no one did anything, but everyone thought that everything was going on. It drove him crazy. So, Mandos was not surprised when Elladan came up with a rather ingenius plan. An extremely scary, dangerous, and freakish plan, But at least it gets him away so that I can have peace . . . the Vala thought to himself, and so he agreed.
""""""""
Melannen awoke and went out into the living room, and was surprised to find an Elvish prince sleeping on the couch. She studied him as he slept, and realized that she had forgotten how handsome he was. He still had his straight, light blonde hair, which had been trimmed neatly just a couple inches up from shoulder length. He was stretched out, his long legs sticking past the edge of the piece of furniture. His face was peaceful in sleep and she could not help but notice that a few of the scars from his battle with the wargs still remained. A small mark traced the upper edge of his left eye before cutting downward, though it was probably not visible when he had his eyes open, but now it seemed as if it was there only to blazon his days in battle. There was also matching scars from wolf fangs, two below his jaw and the matching pair just into his hairline on the opposite side. She remembered still the way he had looked when they had first been together, so young and wild, but that was only a shadow of the Legolas she saw now. Instead of a young Elf just come to his full title as Prince of Mirkwood, there was a wisened Lord who had seen the years pass by on the winds of time. Despite being thousands of years old, he looked only to be about thirty eight.
Legolas opened his eyes slowly, having been aware of her staring for quite a while. She blushed crimson when she realized that he had been awake the entire time.
"Good morning, Melannen." he said, seeing her red face.
"Good morning."
They ate breakfast, neither talking much and neither particularly enjoying the other's company. After eating, Melannen and Legolas went out onto the front porch. Though to their surprise they found they had a visitor.
A small, grey puppy of mixed breed was snuffling through the garden. It had one pricked ear that stood up and the other was lopped over sideways. It jumped back when it realized that the two Elves were watching it. It had large silver eyes, a bright red, lolling tongue, and appeared most ridiculous with its oversized puppy-paws and thickly furred tail curled over its back. It barked shrilly at them, even though its tail was wagging back and forth, giving away its friendly nature.
Legolas knelt down and clicked his tongue. The pup immediately reacted to his kindness by walking up to him and licking his face. Legolas laughed and pushed it away, wiping the drool from his face and brushing the dirt from his pants. The Elf started talking nonsense to the dog in a strange voice reserved only for those of that species.
"Oh, look at you, you're so cute! I know you are, I know! Isn't it funny! You're so funny, look at you!" he said, sounding immensly stupid. Though it got the desired effect, and the pup wiggled and squirmed in delight at the sound of his voice. Then he looked up at Melannen, who was laughing at the stern warrior who was talking gibberish with a dog on the ground.
"I see you have quite an admirer." she said, catching the dog's attention for the first time. It whined and trotted up to her, standing on its hind legs and stratching at her knees so that she would pick it up. Melannen did as it asked and ended up getting a faceful of wet, slobbery kisses. "Eewww! Your tongue just went up my nose!" she scolded playfully as it continued to bathe her face.
She found that he did not have a collar, and decided that he needed a home. "You're so bad! Now I feel responsible and like I have to keep you!" she laughed, looking over the dog's head at Legolas, who shrugged.
"I'm not going to potty train him, though." the Prince said, making two statements at once. First, that Melannen got the duty of teaching her new dog to do his business outside, and second, and most importantly, that Legolas was planning to stay.
Melannen pulled into the driveway, it was late at night and she had just gotten back from a tip to the store. She noticed that there was a strange car in the garage, it certainly was not Legolas'. Grabbing her few bags of merchandise, she went into the house. Elladan (the dog who she had adopted) sat at the door, waiting for her. He whined nervously when she walked in. Melannen set down her bags and rubbed the now very large dog's ears.
"What's the matter, boy?" she asked, looking around, knowing that the dog's senses were much more alert to danger than her own. He whined again and rubbed up against her leg before dashing down the hall towards Legolas' bedroom.
She followed slowly, and found the grey dog sitting mournfully beside the door into the Prince's room. He pawed at it and then looked at her again with almost human eyes. She opened the door, hesitantly.
When she looked inside, she did not really know how to react. Legolas lay there, with nothing covering him but a thin sheet, and a woman with dark curls beside him. Melannen took a step backwards, and the pain in her heart was so great that she felt like she could not stand. She stumbled backwards out into the hall and made her way into her own room, with tears flowing down her face. She heard Elladan growl menacingly at the intruder. The sounds of a heated arguement floated down from the other room, and then the slamming of a door and the start of a car engine. Elladan chased the car until it was well off the property.
Melannen wondered as she sat there, if this was how Legolas felt upon finding her with Glorfindel. Without much thought, she knew that it was probably just the same. New tears welled up in her eyes, now realizing for herself how much pain she had caused him, and how much pain he was causing her.
Author's note: that chapter was slightly longer than the previous ones. I just want to clear it up that there was no romantic relationship between Melannen and Elladan, they were just best friends. Also, if you haven't already guessed, Elladan was reincarnated as the dog.
