Disclaimer: None of Tolkiens work belongs to me and bla bla bla etc….you know the drill.
Chapter 9: Payback time!
I let out a frustrated groan. The vindictive males were about to get their revenge and there was nothing I could do about it. I then turned my head from left to right, trying to figure out where we were headed. Dread filled me as I realized what our punishment was going to be…
Henwen had obviously just realized it too, because when I managed to turn my head and my eyes found hers, the expression on her face was one of utter disbelief. It wasn't that our punishment was going to be extremely cruel, but it was certainly going to be ironic. In a moment of carelessness, on Glorfindel's behalf, one of my feet got loose from his iron grip. I immediately seized the opportunity and sent a rather fierce kick right to his shin leg. He let out a loud yelp of pain, but quickly grabbed my leg again before my brain even got the opportunity to think of thinking of an escape route. My brief moment of glee flew out the window.
Only a few moments later, two girlish squeals in the high pitched end of the scale, could be heard throughout Rivendell.
Cool water hit me, just as I gasped in surprise of course, filling my lungs with water. My head started spinning as thoughts started to run wildly in my mind. I was shocked, angry and extremely afraid. Things were happening so fast that I felt totally out of control. My arms and legs were flailing around in a mad frenzy as I desperately tired to resurface. In my mind I was completely blocking out the fact that I seemed to be stuck on something, because I was so focused on getting to the light I could glimpse behind the surface. By now I was gulping down large amounts of water in my desperation to once again have the privilege of breathing sweet air.
In a moment of surprisingly clear thinking, a thought struck me; 'I can't even swim!' I don't know how and I don't know why this obviously essential fact had managed to escape me. But when it finally hit me like a slap to my face, I went completely limp. In hindsight my actions don't make any sense at all, but with everything going so fast, you don't get to stop up and linger at thoughts passing though your brain. Logic didn't exist at that moment. I didn't even remotely connect the dots. The thought, that the reason why I didn't reach the surface was that I was stuck on something and not my lack of swimming skill, was lost on me. I thought my time had come.
Henwen, on the other hand, was already being helped out of the water by some of the elves. For some reason, Eru knows why, they hadn't thought it strange that I was nowhere to be seen. They probably thought that I was pulling another prank on them. Not until Henwen came over her shock of getting an unwelcome "flying lesson", resulting in being completely soaked, did she realize I was missing. As I was told later on, she had panicked and went on rambling like a crazy person. She even grabbed a hold of a flabbergasted Glorfindel and started to shake him violently, screaming at him. Things like:
"Where is she? Have you seen her? Is she still in there? Maybe she's drowning?" flew from her mouth at a dangerously rapid speed. The last statement had thankfully reached through Glorfindel's thick skull, and he started to scan the water surface. He spotted something and didn't hesitate to jump in.
I was still struggling, but this time it was just to stay alive. Every convulsion of my oxygen deprived body made me swallow even more water. My lungs felt like they were on fire, a fire that ironically only died down when I consumed more death bringing liquid. Soon my vision started to close in on me, only to narrow down to a single, tiny spot of light swimming before my eyes. With a final attempt to stay alive, I blinked my eyes rapidly to gain one of the five senses back, sight. If I had not passed out I would have noticed the string of small bubbles making their way to where water met the air I had been so desperate to get to.
That's probably what saved me…
Next thing I remember is spluttering water and gasping for air. I wasn't taking it for granted as I inhaled deeply, like a hungry animal that had finally found and killed it's pray after weeks of hunger. The world was mostly a blur to me, but I couldn't care less. A thought strafed me, 'Am I dead?', but I quickly pushed it away. 'Of course I'm not' I added, my aching body and see-through dress a living proof that I had not wandered to the Halls of Mandos yet. At least it was not how I pictured being dead. There would be no pain and I would certainly not be walking around in a cold, wet see-through dress. Wait! 'See-through dress!' the thought hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes wandered downwards and were met by a horrible sight indeed. There wasn't much left for imagination to say the least, and my cheeks burned with embarrassment before you could say 'eeep'.
The world around me instantly came back to life. It didn't help when I found that everyone was standing around me with looks of concern gracing their faces. Because to me it didn't matter that it was concerned looks, only that they were all looking at me.
A hand was pushed in my face and I took it rather indignantly. My eyes met with Glorfindel's worried ones, I wanted to die of shame. In my desperation I tried to cover myself with my hands, but I was shaking really bad so it didn't help that much. I thanked Eru when somebody put a cloak over my shoulders; the warmth spreading through me was indeed very welcomed.
"Are you alright? I was so worried about you!" I stumbled backwards when Henwen threw her arms around me in a bear crushing hug.
"Y-yes, I-I think so." Was all I could muster through clattering teeth.
"Glorfindel saved you!" My eyes shot to where Glorfindel was standing in front of me. 'He…saved me?'
"He pulled you out of the water and preformed some sort of fascinating 'mouth to mouth' thing on you to make you breathe again. You really scared us you know. I thought you were dead when you weren't breathing, but he brought you back." Henwen looked at Glorfindel in pure amazement. I noticed that if my cheeks could possibly burn a darker shade of red, they would probably explode.
There was a loud thump of my heart, and I quickly diverted my gaze from Glorfindel. Of course I had seen that he was very beautiful, all elves are, but this was something different. This magnificent being had put his lips on mine. Just the thought made my whole body tingle for some reason. 'Pull yourself together, Amani! He did it to save your life, remember?' I mentally berated myself for thinking about him in that way.
"I…Eh…Ummm…thank you for saving my life, Glorfindel." I said the last part rather fast, before I started to move away from everyone. I muttered an excuse about having to get back to my room to get changed, and left them all to stare at my retreating back.
I longed after clean, dry clothes and, ironically, a hot bath. All I wanted to do was to sink into a bubbly heaven and sort the previous events and my feelings for a certain gorgeous elf out. 'Oh, stop it!' my voice rang throughout my head. 'Repeat to self: I do not feel anything for that…that…argh!' I couldn't even bring myself to say anything bad about him in my thoughts.
I pulled the cloak closer around me as a gust of cold wind swept passed me. The door was only a few feet away now. I couldn't wait to get inside and do some soul-searching. 'Now that's a lie' I told myself. 'I'll probably pick out and burn every potential see-through dress that resides in my closet.' A wicked smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. 'Yes, that sounds like a good idea.'