Remember
Valinor
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings, but I do own a pretty little white house on the shores of Valinor. Lovely little place it is, unhindered view of the Sundering Seas, the wailing of the gulls on it's shores, all the handsome elves you can handle and right next to my study where I write these stories is Legolas' study too...
Authors note: This chapter is dedicated to a certain BabyCharmander that likes olde news. HINT HINT! Tis also MUCH longer than the last chapter, in compensation for the brevity of the last. Enjoy!
February the twenty-fourth dawned bright and a bit warmer than usual. Some of the snow was melting, and nearly all the trees had lost their wintery robes of white. Rebecca woke up to a soft knock on her door and a soft voice begging for admittance.
"Come in!" she said as she flung on a dress. The hem had just touched the floor when the door opened and Elrohir came in.
"Good morning Mirë! Today is the day you go to Valinor," Elrohir greeted.
"Good morning Elro! I think I am in the mood to go to Valinor today. I just hope they take me soon so I can get it over with. The wait is beginning to drive me mad!"
"But you just woke up!"
"Even so," she replied with a grin.
They went to breakfast and after it, as Elrohir and Rebecca were walking away, Arwen came up.
"Rebecca, if you see my mother, would you please tell her that I love her?" Arwen asked, her eyes pleading with the human girl.
Remembering the story Rebecca looked her in the eyes and said, "Of course I shall."
After breakfast, Elrohir and Rebecca had just reached her room when suddenly, with a flash, Rebecca was gone and Elrohir was left standing and looking at nothing. "They must have called her," he said to himself.
Rebecca was one moment looking at dearest Elrohir, and the next moment gazing at Mandos, Manwë, and Elbereth.
"AAACK!" she screamed. It had startled her.
They looked welcoming, but unmoved by her cry.
"Greetings Rebecca," Elbereth said. "We have called you here to discuss your life and what happens to you after it."
"I beg your pardon, but I do not understand," Rebecca said, feeling terribly small and insignificant.
"You Rebecca, have not had a normal life. You have moved and traveled much, and never made many friends, and you did not complain as you could have. Your life up to this moment has been a test. You have passed this test Rebecca, and because of that, you shall be rewarded," Elbereth said.
"How so? And why was I given such a test?" Rebecca asked, now very confused and curious.
"As you know, mortals and elves are sundered after death, never again to meet. Since you are in love with Elrohir, we shall let you have the fate of the elves. None of us know why you have been tested in this way, we are only the givers of the test. Illuvatar does not always enlighten us as to his purposes."
"Are you saying I shall get immortality?" Rebecca asked wide eyed.
"No. We are not permitted to give it to you. We can, however, permit you to come here, to Valinor after you die, instead of the Halls of Mandos then to Illuvatar's thought. Then in the eternal bliss of this place you and Elrohir can be together. We shall give you time to chose what you wish to do. To chose this gift is to forsake your family for eternity. To chose to keep the gift of men is to forsake Elrohir for eternity. Be wise and careful in your choosing," Elbereth said.
"Thank you!" Rebecca said with a bow. She was permitted to walk around Valinor until she came to a choice. She wandered out of Manwë's halls and to a wide green valley filled with beautiful trees that were laden with sweet fruit of gold.
She picked one and found it very good indeed, but ate only one, and then sat under the tree and thought. Both choices had their pro's and con's, but which one had the lesser of the evils? For nearly an hour she thought, and being as she was, she did not take long to make up her mind. Deciding she wanted to explore the place a bit before she went to announce her choice, she wandered out of the valley and into a white town, full of trees, flowers, and all manner of things that grow and are good. Remembering her promise to give a message, she asked the first elfwoman she saw, "Do you know where Lady Celebrian, wife of Elrond Halfelven is?"
"I am she," the elfwoman replied.
Rebecca was surprised, but bowed to her and said, "I have a message from your daughter Arwen."
"Speak on," Celebrian said.
"She said to tell you that she loves you," Rebecca said.
Celebrian looked slightly downcast, but happy at the same time. "Then she has chosen the same path, the same bitter cup as Luthien," she said to herself.
"Yes milady," Rebecca said. She suddenly found herself sympathizing with all that have ever had to tell someone's parents that their child is dead.
Celebrian gave a smile and said, "Please tell her that I love her as well, and give her this for me." Celebrian hugged Rebecca and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"I shall," Rebecca replied.
"And tell her please, that I understand and I am glad she made the decision," Celebrian added. Rebecca marveled to hear this. Surely she realizes what is going on and what she is saying! Celebrian saw the amazement and said, "Someday you may understand. You may someday understand that a mother would rather see her daughter happy for the rest of her life than miserable for eternity. And one thing more, if you do not mind."
"What Lady Celebrian? You have only to ask."
"Tell Elrond to go easy on Arwen, tell him and Elladan, and Elrohir that I love them and I hope they all come here soon," Celebrian asked.
"Certainly," Rebecca smiled.
"Good maiden, what is your name?" Celebrian asked.
"My parents named me Rebecca, but your son has taken to calling me Mirë," Rebecca smilingly replied.
"Which son?"
"Oh, pardon me, Elrohir."
Celebrian smiled. "Ah, so I should have guessed. He always was the poet. Any particular reason for the name?" a knowing and suspicious smile was in her voice.
"Well, milady, he said he gave it me because I am such a rare find, or so he claims," she smiled and blushed in return.
"Then there is nothing else?" she asked in a mother's knowing way. What a shrewd woman. Yes, this was definitely Elrohir's mother.
"Well, I admit, we are in love. We both admitted as much to each other a few days ago," Rebecca confessed.
"I almost pity you both, considering you are mortal and he is an elf," she said compassionately.
"Actually, funny thing about that, you see, the Valars have summoned me here, and given me the choice of coming here when I die so I can be with your son," Rebecca said.
"So I had heard. Have you decided yet?" Celebrian asked.
"I have. I have decided to come here."
"Elrohir shall be ecstatic to learn that. I am certain. Rebecca, I must ask, is he the only reason you have chosen to come here?"
"Well, yes," Rebecca admitted. This was not boding well.
"Then it must be true love indeed, or else the Valars would not have given you this option. In that event, I welcome you early into the family!" she smiled. "And tell Elrohir I approve of you exceedingly."
Rebecca smiled. "Oh Lady Celebrian, I see where Elrohir gets some of his best traits. I sincerely wish I could get to know you better, but I am afraid the Valars are awaiting my answer and Elrohir is waiting for my return."
"In that event, namarië Mirë! I look forward to your return here and our future meetings!"
"Namarië Lady Celebrian! I do as well, and I will remember to send your messages!"
They curtsied to each other and then Rebecca went off to announce her decision. She returned to the Valars presence and said, "I have made my decision."
After announcing what it was, she was sent back in the same manner she had come and found herself standing in the very same place she had stood when she left. It was now night time, and it would have been quite dark in her room, and cold, if a fire had not been lit in it. She looked over at the fire and did not see anyone lying on the couch in front of it. She leaned over it's back and saw Elrohir lying down and asleep. A devious thought came to her mind and she smiled as she crept around the couch and grabbed the pillow he was using to cover his feet. Apparently his feet had worked their way under the pillow while he slept.
She raised the pillow over her head and brought it down on his. He was startled awake, and out of reflex grabbed her. Quickly realizing it was not Elladan or an orc, he gently grabbed her forearm and drew her to himself and gave her a kiss.
"How was Valinor?" he asked while sitting up.
"It was beautiful."
"Why were you called there?" he asked, full of curiosity.
"Apparently my life has been a test to see if I could be.. Well, I do not understand it, but in the end, by consent of Mandos, I was given a choice to die and go to the Halls of Mandos like the rest of my kin, or to die and go to Valinor like the elves and be ever with you," Rebecca answered.
"And what did you chose?" Elrohir asked, anticipation growing each moment.
"I chose," suddenly she yawned and pretended to be quite tired. "I'm tired, I'll tell you in the morning!"
Elrohir gently grabbed her arm and said, "Please tell me!"
"To die and go to Valinor," she answered with a smile.
Elrohir smiled wide, bolted to a standing position and spun Rebecca around and kissed her. "Blessed be you! Oh dearest Rebecca! We shall be together!"
She nodded and smiled. This was wonderful! It would ease the parting of March first, of that she was certain.
"Oh, and I have a message for you from your mother. She says she loves you," Rebecca said.
"Thank you Mirë," Elrohir said.
"Do you think your father and siblings are yet awake?"
"There is a chance. Why? Did she send word to them also?"
"Yes. Of course. No, you are the favorite and she sent word only to you!" Rebecca teased.
"Come, I'll go with you as you deliver messages," Elrohir said.
They went to Elladan first, who was grateful, then to Arwen who thanked Rebecca many times over and hugged her and wept a little, and then Elrond who was exceedingly grateful for the message. He did not weep, but grew silent and thoughtful.
After the messages were delivered, he accompanied her back to her room.
"You must be exhausted Mirë, I shall leave you now and let you sleep," Elrohir said.
"Actually, I'm not tired at all! I only spent an hour or two in Valinor. Time here and time there doesn't run quite the same. I could stay awake for hours yet!"
Elrohir slowly smiled. "Then I know just what we should do. Come with me."
He took her hand and they walked off towards a place that Rebecca had not been to before. They walked past the library, past the dining hall, and then into a large room that had no apparent purpose to sit there and look stunning. It was too large to be a random room, and too small to be a proper ballroom, but it was empty save a few couches along the walls, and a couple of paintings.
"Wait here," Elrohir whispered. He left her in the center of the room and walked to the other end of it and pulled open the large curtains. As he pulled the curtains by the french doors open with a cord, a window in the ceiling was revealed, causing the moon to shine full on Rebecca. "Shining in the moonlight, how beautiful you are Mirë nin!"
Rebecca blushed and knew not what to say. She looked out the windows and saw the frozen, silvery, wintery landscape of Rivendell open before her, the river rushing on, only vaguely heard, in a silvery white flash and fury.
He walked up to her and they began to dance, but this time there was music. Over in the Hall of Fire, Glorfindel was having a birthday party and the elves were playing and singing rather loudly, then of course, those who were not there began singing, and so all of Rivendell was ringing with the sound of singing elves and elven instruments.
As they danced, Elrohir stole kisses.
"Oh really Elro! I can only do one thing at a time. Either we dance or we kiss!" Rebecca joked, trying to sound annoyed and failing miserably.
"Then let us stop dancing," he grinned just ere he stole a kiss from her. He kissed her three more times before she said anything.
"Elrohir! My goodness, what would your mother say if she knew you were behaving so?" Rebecca jocularly chided.
"She would tell me to kiss you," he grinned before he sealed her lips in another kiss.
She gave up, she gave into his kisses and the feel of his strong arms about her. He only kissed her a few times more, then she stopped him. "I am tired."
"Very well. By your leave I shall carry you off to bed and weave sweet dreams for you," he quietly whispered.
She consented and he swept her up and carried her off to bed. Her head rested upon his shoulder as he carried her, and began to sing sweet songs and weave dreams for her. Before they reached the door to her room she was fast asleep. He opened the door, carefully, and then laid her in her bed and tucked her in. He kissed her on the forehead, bade her sweat dreams, and left.
The next morning she awoke and part way through the morning Elrond met up with her.
"Good morning Rebecca," Elrond greeted with a smile.
"Good morning Lord Elrond," Rebecca returned. She guessed what he was going to ask about. "Do you want to know what I did in Valinor?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," he admitted.
Rebecca told him all about it, from the Valar themselves to the tree under which she sat. Elrond seemed delighted at the news. Once finished, she figured Elrond would excuse himself and go off, but he did not. Instead, much to her surprise, he stayed and talked with her, rather casually.
She found out where Elrohir received his excellent conversation skills and wit. He was very much like his father. Elrond told her all about his parents, which Rebecca found simply fascinating, and then he told her about the dwarves and all he knew about Bilbo's adventures, and there was a bit more to the dwarves than what there are in any of the books. He told her of some of Gandalf's adventures, and he found that she was an excellent listener and eager learner. In exchange for the massive amounts of information she was being given, she told him about some things out of our world's history. Elrond kept asking hard questions about guns and tanks and airplanes, and Rebecca kept having to fall back on her mediocre drawing skills to show him what they looked like. She had the most elementary knowledge of how a gun worked, and explained the musket, but the modern gun was beyond her knowledge. Suddenly she wished she hadn't dozed off when her dad was telling her about all of it. She could not explain airplanes or tanks so she just drew them and said that was all the better she could do.
When she had read that elves loved learning she hadn't paid much attention to it, but now she was seeing just how much elves loved to learn.
There was one thing that she knew the in's and out's of, and that was the Roman Empire. All the inventions she knew, how they worked, and how they were made. She loved that period in history had spent many hours of reading on the subject. She discovered the elves had figured out the Roman bath and suddenly it made sense why her feet didn't freeze when they touched the marble floors in the morning. Henceforth she always called it the Elven Bath, not Roman.
They would have spent the day talking and comparing histories and hero's but a servant came up and informed Lord Elrond that a messenger had come from Galadriel and Gildor Inglorien had come for a visit.
Since talking is such tiring work, Rebecca wandered her way to the kitchen and asked if she could have some bread and cheese.
"Lady Rebecca, would you be willing to try something I made today?" the cook asked.
"Certainly," she replied.
He disappeared for a moment and returned with a steaming slice of bread with cheese swirled in it. Rebecca tried it and liked it.
"Have you ever considered putting other things in your bread?" she asked.
"Yes. I have put in all sorts of things, but I have never swirled cheese in before," the cook replied.
"Ivanneth, have you ever made...well, there just isn't a word for it in elvish. You take bread dough, roll it out flat, and put in meat, vegetables, potatoes and so forth, all chopped up in tiny pieces of course, then fold it over so it looks like the sun when she is half sunk on the horizon and bake it?"
"No, but that would be something worth trying. Where did you come up with such an idea?" he asked.
"My grandmother makes them all the time. She calls them pasties. There is a specific recipe, but I suppose you could put in whatever you wanted," Rebecca answered.
"Your grandmother is a brilliant woman! Tell her I said so when you go home," Ivanneth said, a wide smile on his face. He loved a culinary challenge, and this pastie would be just the thing! "Is there any other strange things from your world I could try?"
"Well, there is one that comes to mind, but I'd need to know if you had a few things first."
"Come, come into my pantry and see if you see the things you need," Ivanneth said gesturing towards his large pantry door.
Rebecca walked inside and the place smelled wonderful. "Do you know what a tomato is?"
Ivanneth said, "Yes, but I am afraid I have none."
"Well, there goes that thought," she said. She was thinking of pizza, but if there were no tomatoes, then there was no point in suggesting it. She thought of something else. "Have you ever put sea salt on bread?"
"No," Ivanneth replied.
"Come with me Ivanneth, I shall introduce you to the pretzels."
Rebecca went out of the pantry and walked up to a lump of dough sitting around waiting to be baked into bread.
"Do you have any plans for this hunk of dough besides bread?" she asked.
"No," he replied.
She tore a chunk of dough out of the lump and began to roll it around until it was long and thin, then she twisted it into a pretzel.
"What are you doing with my dough?" he asked.
"Making a pretzel!" she grinned.
"By tying my dough into strange knots?"
"Exactly! Now, do what I did and we'll make a dozen of these things," she said.
Ivanneth was beginning to wonder, but went along with it. In no time they had thirteen pretzels, a baker's dozen, sitting around, just waiting to be baked. They put them in the oven and waited around. Rebecca pulled them out and let them cool a little before getting the sea salt and sprinkling some on the tops of the pretzels. Once finished she tore off a chunk and handed it to Ivanneth.
He cautiously took a bite, proclaimed it good, and congratulated her.
Just then Elladan walked in.
"Greetings Ivanneth and Rebecca. What do you have there?"
"Pretzels," Ivanneth said as he handed him a chunk.
Elladan took it, a bite and said, "This is good! You should show these to father. He always likes something new. Can I take one and another one for Elrohir?"
"Certainly," Rebecca said. "But if he doesn't get his, I'll get you Elladan!" she threatened with a smile.
Elladan put on a look of fear, took two pretzels, and would have walked off but Rebecca spoke.
"Where is Elro today? I haven't seen him since yesterday."
"He is busy organizing things for the Grey Company. Many started to arrive today," Elladan replied.
Rebecca grabbed a pretzel and began telling Ivanneth of other things he could try to make.
Authors note: I sincerely apologize for the bizarre ending to this chapter. Wow, then there were pretzels. I was not expecting that. I seem to have a thing for pretzels. Wouldn't you agree BC? LOL! George the Baker and George the Hungry! Remember that? Issue 2. Well anyway, despite this cryptic Authors note, I hope you all REVIEW! anyway. Twas a bizarre chapter, but I hope you all liked it.