Another chappie. Woohooooooo. Erm…I hope you read, I hope you tolerate, like, enjoy, etc. I've been reading some Mediator ff and I strongly suggest you check it out. Also, I have a new hp story I've been working on (writing style and plot is a bit more developed and mature.) and the first chapter should be up within the weekend. Please read and review both. Reviews, even if they are flames, make me happy, because I like email. And it makes me feel noticed. And ermm…I'm a bit of an attention-whore, so I like to be noticed. So, anyways, please click the little review button, even if it's only to send a happy face or a frown. Gracias.
After Legolas had resorted to giving Brittany the Heimlich maneuver to stop her from choking from one of the many fruit projectiles shot her way, the eventful breakfast ended and various species went their various ways. Virginia was summoned to Galadriel's chambers where she was given "the talk"—no, not that talk, though perhaps Brittany should have been given it, rather than skipping taking sex ed to be a band geek. Ah, well, c'est la vie and all that jazz. Virginia mused on this while Galadriel continued to "chat." That run of the mill conversation one has with, well, all saviors of the free world. After hearing the word 'powers' Nia paid rapt attention, much more so than her predecessors, and found out she had the power over the air—wind, and the occasional weather pattern. Instantly, visions of accidental thunderstorms occurring over, say, Marina's head flashed into her mind. But Galadriel could read minds.
"You cannot create a rainstorm without the help of the fourth element: water, the bearer of which has not yet been revealed."
Selene yawned and stretched a pale arm outward from her cocoon of midnight silk. The waxing moon had replaced the glare of the sun that so haunted her former life. As she dressed in a black tunic and breeches. She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror: a compact figure hidden in the billows of a cape, brown hair tied back into a simple braid, and piercing blue eyes shocking the darkness. She grinned, revealing a pair of milk white canines. Quickly, she turned on her heel and grabbed twin daggers—it was her turn to hunt tonight.
There was an echoing scream, like that of a bird of prey, which reverberated through the darkness: Raven's patrol had found the kill. Selene answered with a sound of her own and motioned to the others to follow her as they stole furtively through the night.
The travelers came upon a campsite of orcs, nearly a hundred strong, and stealthily climbed into the surrounding trees. They were joined by Raven and his followers. In a much practiced attack, the seven quickly began to destroy the creatures. The rocs were surprised by this band of whirling blacks and silvers, and quickly began to fight back in much debilitated numbers. The attackers gradually turned into defenders as they were pushed further and further onto the bank of a burbling river. Flashbacks of days past cascaded through Selene's mind as she saw the grim resolution on her comrades faces. They would die facing this enemy of the land. Their land. A voice sounded in Selene's mind, as though made of a thousand ripples on a pond. "use the river…" And as though she had done it hundreds of times before, Selene dropped her weapons and called the energy of the river into her mind. She formed it into a giant, looming wave and began to move it forward, breaking it onto their foes. She could hear cries of terror now, panicked screams that masked the unsheathing of a blade and water mingled with blood as Selene slowly slipped into unconsciousness, aware she had delivered her friends a victory.
When she woke, Selene found herself staring into a pair of predatory eyes, eyes that filled with relied when she croaked the name, "Raven?" A flask was pressed into her hand and she greedily drank the red liquid. She noticed his hand trembled slightly when she handed back the canteen as he whispered, "Selene…that power…that awesome power," and he straightened, assuming a crisp regimental leader voice, though unable to keep the awe from his eyes.
"I have seen such wielding of the elements once before, nearly four eons ago. We must travel to the elves immediately." He helped her to the coven and hastily dressed the wounds on her cheek and arm. Two horses were silently waiting as the pair galloped to Rivendell. When they arrived nearly fifteen hours later, orc poison from the gashes Selene received caused her to be hallucinating, and she needed to be carried down from the saddle. Elrond's eyes widened at the sight of the two black-robed immortals, but he stifled his questions when he saw they had need of medical attention. Raven waved off his advances, pointing to the now-unconscious woman in Elrohir's arms. Raven was handed an herb-infused tea while they poulticed, stitched, and bandaged the delirious mage who would occasionally call out names foreign to him, names such as "Virginia! Brittany! Marina!"
When Elrond and sons appeared again they had a solemn look on their faces. "She will survive," one spoke, "though she will remain weak for several days." Another spoke, "We have much to ask of you Raven, for there has been no record of your kind for several millennia." Raven spoke easily of his kinsmen's history while Elrond puzzled over the girl. She was not of the vampyre race as he first supposed, but human in appearance, "we seem to have a number of young humans falling from the sky these days," he thought wryly, certain that this was the last of Galadriel's immortal mages.
"Well, we were born, as all races, from the Valar. We were born as the elves, but into a land of darkness. Charged with protection of the forests, we were doomed to a solitary life. But individuals became pairs, and pairs became groups until all had assembled. We grew to shun the light—the unforgiving sun that controls the world's actions—and we developed the powers of the wild, the ability to transform into another species. The species chosen were predators, and the only remnant of these transformations lie in the teeth…pronounced canines though to be so often used to drain unsuspecting victims of their blood."
"So you don't yah' know, steal into people's rooms like a demented tooth fairy and drink from their necks?" Marina was the first to break the silence of Selene's hospital ward. She stole a glance at her friend, who was reclining in the healing room's bed, bandages still swathed about her arm and an angry scar upon her cheek.
"bloodlust…is complicated to explain," Selene began, though her eyelids started to droop from fatigue. Virginia saw this, and motioned to the other two that, perhaps this would be an ideal time to change out of riding clothes, untack the horses, and settle in for a few weeks stay. Brittany was the last one out the door, and Selene called out a question to her, "you seem…sad, or displaced, like you have a story to tell but none can understand the tale."
Brittany looked at her mutely and shook her head, "The wound is still too fresh."
Later the next day, Marina was hanging out with Selene while the other two learned to make lightening. Lucky girls.
"She said, and I quote 'the wound is still too fresh'," Selene informed her friend who was currently staring out the window.
"Wow. It must be bad if she's talking in clichés…that sounds so pathetic," Marina tore her gaze away from the pounding rain and continued the conversation.
"Any idea why?" Selene had begun to get exasperated at the lack of information Marina was providing.
"Oh, probably that huge blowout she had with our future kind Elessar that wasn't resolved and now he's marching to get himself blown up in Mt. Doom like a good little boy scout," she replied glibly, ignoring Selene's clenched teeth.
"Explain. NOW." Marina finally noticed her protruding canines, and not entirely sure that vampyres didn't go around making smoothies from people's blood, meekly agreed.
"Right, so you remember that story Brittany told us after she came out of the coma? And how we all thought it was fan fiction? Well, as you can see…it isn't fan fiction…and her little bit about errr… 'going out' with Estel is well, that's true too. And well, they met up here, and well, 'got jiggy wid' it' and there was Jerry Springer like fall out which was pretty dern funny…"
"That is entirely incorrect," Brittany corrected from her position in the doorway. "What happened was…" her eyes took a far-away look. "Estel befriended me when I first came to Middle Earth nearly ten years ago. Over those few months we entered into a 'relationship' one that I eagerly picked up when we miraculously met again. After two weeks of bliss, I discovered that he was promised to marry the Evenstar, and we haven't spoken since."
Selene made the required sympathetic sounds, but she was already dismissing this as a petty lovers' quarrel and planning strategy for her meeting with Raven that afternoon.