Chapter 6: Night
A/N: Eek! I can hardly find time to write on this! I know right now the story seems kind of dull, but I promise (I hope) that I will make this better. It'll just take a few chapters before it does. In a few chapters there's gonna be a big tragedy… No I won't tell you! Hee hee…
Thanks so much to all my loveliful reviewers!
Disclaimer: Why do I have to do one of these every chapter? Is it because someone might only read this chapter? And think I'm trying to claim Tolkein's work? Oh! The horrors! Well go read the first chapter first, for pit sackery (inside joke). Okay. -clears throat-
I do not own Tolkein's works. I never have and I never will. I have never received any money from his works or this story. Obviously. I've told you several times. Savvy?
Míriel walked Elerina back to her room. Elerina was sure that she would never be able to find her way around here. Each time she walked to her room the halls seemed different. When they reached her room, Míriel bade her goodnight and shut the door. Elerina sighed and sat down on the bed. She looked around her room, and walked to the wardrobe. She found a nightdress, and slipped out of the blue gown. She was glad to be out of such elegance, for it wasn't quite her type, but even in the nightgown she felt as if it was too fancy.
"I might as well get some sleep while I can. I hope the soft bed doesn't keep me asleep all night," she thought as she crawled in bed. She felt so odd in the clean, soft, comfortable bed compared to her cot in the orphanage.
Her thoughts leaped from event to event of the past day, but they kept resting on Legolas. She wondered why her heart fluttered every time he walked up, or why she blushed every time he smiled at her. She didn't know what it meant to truly love someone, but if she did she would have quickly pushed the thought of it out of her mind. She hardly knew him. Her eyelids drooped, and she was quickly asleep, and had peaceful dreams.
A few hours later she awoke, and looked out the window. The moon was beginning to sink. She got out of bed, found her jeans and blouse washed and folded neatly in the wardrobe. She quickly changed, and went back to the window. She opened it, and welcomed the cool breeze. She began to sing softly in voice scarcely heard by even by the sharpest ears.
A pale enchanted moon is sinking low
Behind the dunes that fringe the shadowy lea,
And there is haunted starlight on the flow
Of immemorial sea.
I am alone and need no more pretend
Laughter or smile to hide a hungry heart;
I walk with solitude as with a friend
Enfolded and apart.
We tread an eerie road across the moor
Where shadows weave upon their ghostly looms,
And winds sing an old lyric that might lure
Sad queens from ancient tombs.
I am a sister to the loveliness
Of cool far hill and long-remembered shore,
Finding in it a sweet forgetfulness
Of all that hurt before.
The world of day, its bitterness and cark,
No longer have to power to make me weep;
I welcome this communion of the dark
As toilers welcome sleep.
(A/N: Night (1935) by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I like that poem a lot.)
When Elerina had finished, she felt as if that wouldn't do. The day here wasn't full of bitterness and worry. It was wonderful. She racked her mind for a song about good things, but couldn't think of any. She stared out at the dark trees, up at the sky, at the sinking moon, at the stars. She decided she would take a walk, and see more of the place she was in. She frowned, looking for a place to climb down from her two story window. The walls were smooth, so she couldn't climb. She could jump, but then she would have no way to get back up. She searched her room for a coil of rope. She was unsuccessful, so she ventured out of her room.
She opened the door and nearly tripped, for there, straight across the bottom of the door frame and a few inches off the ground, some rope was tied. She thought herself very lucky to have coincidentally came upon some rope. Little did she know that it was there as a prank to make her trip when she woke up. Elladan and Elrohir looked at her quizzically the next morning when she smiled and bade them good morning.
Elerina untied the rope and went to the window. The rope was about half as long as she needed. She took a chair from next to the table in her room, and securely tied the rope to it. She wasn't sure if the slim rope would hold her weight and the weight of the chair, but she gently lowered the chair out the window. She climbed down the rope, glad for her jeans, for she knew this would be impossible in a gown. The chair gave a little extra length, and, surprisingly, the rope held fast. She jumped the few feet left from the chair and looked up. She climbed back onto the chair and began climbing the rope again, just to make sure she could, and once she was sure she would be able to get back into her room, took off walking in the direction of the gardens.
Her bare feet made almost no noise, so the figure quietly singing in the willow tree did not hear her. Elerina slowly approached, listening attentively. She heard a few words, but of the language of them she was at a loss. It sounded lovely, though.
"A Bereth thar Ennui Aeair!
Calad ammen i reniar
Mi 'aladhremmin ennorath.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel
I chin a thûl lín míriel..."
(A/N: Translation (for those of you who don't recognize it):
O Queen beyond the Western Seas!
O light to us that wander here
Amid this world of woven trees.
Gilthoniel O Elbereth
Clear are thine eyes and bright thy breath…)
Legolas jumped at the sight of Elerina, for she had come closer, enchanted by the beauty of the song.
"Oh! Uh, h-hello. What are you doing out?" Legolas stuttered.
"I'm so sorry, did I bother you? I-I can leave," Elerina replied, her face turning red. She turned to go, but Legolas jumped down from the tree.
"No, don't go. I'm sorry, you just startled me. You may stay if you like. I often come out here at night. It's so peaceful," he said
"When I lived in the orphanage, this was the only time I had to myself. I could walk in the cool night air, get out of the city and into the hillside, and breathe the fresh air. It always calmed me." Elerina sighed. "What were you singing? It was beautiful."
"Oh, that. It's just a little song," Legolas replied, looking away for fear of blushing.
"Do you know other songs?" Elerina asked hopefully.
"Oh yes, I know lots." Legolas smiled. "Would you like to here one? I know some that aren't in Elvish, so you could understand them."
"I would like that very much!" Elerina said.
"Well, come and sit in the willow, and I will tell you the tale of Beren and Lúthien," and with that, Legolas began.
"The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinúviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.
There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled
He walked alone and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.
Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening.
He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beachen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.
He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hill-top high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.
When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.
Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinúviel! Tinúviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinúviel
That in his arms lay glistening.
As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinúviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.
Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of iron and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless."
Elerina sat entranced by his flowing voice. When he had finished, he sat gazing at her, sitting in the branches of the willow. At last she spoke. "What happened to them?" she asked quietly.
Legolas paused. "They died," was all he said.
"How sad," Elerina sighed.
"It's almost dawn. You should probably get back to you room," Legolas said, jumping down from the tree. Elerina followed him.
"Well… I suppose I will see you tomorrow, then," she said smiling.
"Yes, I suppose so." As she started to walk away, Legolas said, "Elerina?"
"Yes?" she said as she turned around.
He hesitated. "I'm glad you're here."
Elerina did not know how to reply. She looked down for an instant, and when she looked up, he was gone. She walked slowly back to the rope and chair. When she had climbed up, pulled the chair in, and put the rope on the table, she changed back into her nightdress and slid gratefully back into bed. She was almost instantly asleep, dreaming of chairs, dancing maidens, and willow trees.