A/N: Wheehee! I got FOUR reviews! *dances* Well... as I promised:... E-
COOKIES FOR EVERYBODY! *passes out Legolas E-Cookies* Enjoy the snack while
reading the next chappy!
And before any of you get confuzzled, the little sister's name isn't Laurelin, like my beta changed it to, it's LaurAlin... (it's okay, Shivvers, I still luv you!) so if you see any changes in her name every once and a while, I'M SORRY I MISSED IT!
Disclaimer: Me: I own EVERYTHING. It's all MINE. AMIN. AMIN!!!!! ~wakes up from dream~ Me: Oh, damnit! I was SO CLOSE! I only own Alíana, Liliana, Lauralin, and (guess what) the playground swing and ~sigh~ a couple bugs and bushes. Tolkien gets His Royal Hotness and everything else...
Chapter Two:
Ten years later, Alíana and Legolas were sitting in a tree near the house, talking.
"What can you remember about where you were before?" Alí asked curiously, sweeping a wisp of hair from her eyes, and watching Legolas, who thought for a minute before answering.
"Well, it was green. I can easily recall that. I was too young, I couldn't remember, although I do remember my father's name, Thranduil. And my mother, although I just called her 'Ata'." Legolas answered.
Both of the children looked no more than 15. Alí was still the bouncy girl that she had always been, although her figure had changed to match one of a young woman. Her legs were long, and her hips were curved, her breasts full, and her face mature.
Legolas was taller, much taller. His voice deeper than the child's voice he used to have. He was muscular and strong, his face was chiseled and his hair was still long and pin straight.
As soon as Legolas had shown up, Lily had taken Alí out of school, preferring to home school both her child, and her adoptive child. About two months after Legolas had come, she had given birth to another child, her real name being Lauralin.
Lily knew it would happen soon. She did not know when, but she knew that they would be called back... when it was safe.
"That sounds cool... oh, I wish I could go there..." Alí said wistfully to Legolas, leaning back on the trunk and relaxing. "That would be cool; to live with more elves than you, Ata, and Lauralin."
"It would be awesome to go back..." agreed Legolas. "You know, your mother told me something that I only just recalled right now..." he said, suddenly thoughtful.
"Mani? What did she say?"
"She said 'Quel, san' ta naa sha'coiasira'," Legolas repeated.
"Good, then it is almost time to go home?" Alí translated. "What does that mean?"
"Well, I guess it would probably mean that we were going to go back... although it has been ten years since she said that," Legolas said.
"Ten years, wow..." Alí said. "You know, I'm sure it hasn't been that long,"
"Yes, it has," Legolas argued.
"I guess it could have been, but you'll always be my little Leggy!" Alí said cutely. Legolas threw a thin branch of leaves that he had been fiddling with at her.
"What did I tell you? DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He yelled, annoyed. Alí just giggled.
"What do you expect? I'm like your sister, I have to torture you!"
"That torture thing is *so* overrated, Alí!" Legolas said, picking up another twig and bending it around his finger. He laid back on the thick branch with amazing balance, staring up through the canopy of trees to where there were little patches of blue showing. "I am beginning to think that we will never go back... No sign, no nothing. Just a normal everyday world..." Legolas said mournfully.
"We'll go back. I wasn't born there, all I know is that mother was born there. I also know that my father lives there, but I do not know his name or what he looks like. But I know that we'll go back. We have to... and we have all of eternity to do it."
"Good point, Alí," Legolas agreed.
"Are you two sitting in trees, again?" came the annoyed voice of Lauralin from below them.
"Yes, oh sister-of-mine," Alí called down, not bothering to look at her sister, who had taken advantage of most of the human resources. Lauralin was very much an Americanized elf. She loved to listen to the radio, watch TV, go to the mall, (even though she was only 10), and was quite a brat. Legolas and Alí on the other hand, would rather sit in trees than watch movies, most of the time. They kept their connection with nature intact, rather than rot it on a computer. 'oh, Lauralin is not going to be happy when we go back,' Alí thought, 'no computers, no TV, no electricity no nothing,' she giggled to herself.
"Lauralin, are you going to stand underneath us, come up into the tree, or leave us be?" Legolas asked her, also not bothering to look at her... he seemed quite interested in the patches of sky through the leaves.
"Fine! FINE! I'll leave you two alone, to do whatever you do up there!" Lauralin called, putting her headphones back over her ears and walking back.
"...Sometimes I just want to whomp her over the head..." Alí complained, once she knew that Lauralin wasn't within hearing distance.
"I agree completely..." Legolas said. "She is going to be tortured when we go back..."
Alí grinned, having just thought that herself. "Yep, ooh! That'll be so much fun!" she plotted. "No computers, no movies, no TV, no electronics, no Game-boys, no Nintendos, no X-Boxes, no GameCubes, no..."
"No GameCubes?" Legolas whined. Alí just rolled her eyes. It was the one thing that Legolas really loved... his Nintendo GameCube...
"Yes, Legolas, No... Game....Cubes..." she stated slowly. Legolas huffed. "That was a rather stupid thing to say, knowing that there's no electrical plugs or TVs or anything,"
"I know... but honestly. That didn't really occur to me..." Legolas said sheepishly. He sat up on the branch, and took Alí's hand. "Come, it is getting late. We have to get back to the house before Ata worries... and anyways, I'm hungry, and I can smell dinner from here,"
Alí giggled and climbed down the tree. Legolas waited until she was all the way down before jumping right in front of her. "Ahhhh!" She squealed, jumping backwards into the tree. "Honestly, you're going to kill me in the end by doing that! And if you don't scare me to death, then you'll brake your leg and won't be able to walk for weeks." She scolded.
"Days, mellon. Not weeks. We elves heal faster, remember?" Legolas taunted. Alí swept past him, beckoning for him to follow.
"Fine. *Days* you'll be in bed not walking. But still, wouldn't you rather be practicing archery or something?" She said, leading the way back through the forest.
"Yes, well. I could play more Game Cube in my bed, although, I guess it would be better to not jump fifteen feet to the ground... but c'mon! It's so much fun!" he whined.
"Fine, break your leg. See if I care!" Alí said. After another 10 minutes of arguing like siblings, they reached the little playground area. "Oh, I wish that mother didn't dissemble the play set," Alí said wistfully. "We used to have so much fun on that thing,"
"Yeah... good times," Legolas agreed. "You know, I think we should hang up a swing from a tree..." He proposed.
"Sounds good to me... how about we work on it tomorrow?" She suggested, opening up the kitchen door.
"Work on what, Alíana?" Her mother asked from where she was stirring noodles at the stove.
"We wanted to hang up a swing on a tree or something," Alí shrugged.
"Why would you do that?" Lauralin asked, rather loudly (she still had her headphones on).
"Because," Alí stated simply. "And you're going to ruin those ears of yours if you play that music any louder.
"What? I can't hear you?" Lauralin answered, loudly again. Alí rolled her eyes.
Alí smelled the air... she loved her mother's cooking, no matter what it was. "Dinner smells good, Ata. What is it?"
"Spaghetti Bolognaise," her mother answered from the stove. "I knew you would like it."
"Mmmhmm..." Alí agreed, opening the fridge and searching for a soda. "Cokey...cokey... where arrrrrre yoooooou?" she said, searching for her diet coke. "Ah ha!" she said triumphantly, holding the can of diet coke in front of her face. "Knew I would get you in the end... you couldn't hide forever!" she popped the top with a little noise from the compressed air in the can, and took a sip.
"I can't believe you like, *diet coke*. What about Dr Pepper? *That's* much better than stupid diet coke!" Legolas argued.
"Well, you can say that to the fridge... we're all out of Dr Peppers!" Alí laughed. Legolas immediately dived into the fridge searching franticly for the soda, when he emerged his face was sulky.
"I guess you're right..." He sighed, staring at the floor. "Ah, well. No problem. I'll drink Lauralin's sodas. She won't mind if she's missing one Mountain Dew... not that she could hear me." He looked over at Lauralin, who was sitting on the sofa, listening to her head-banging music and reading a book.
"Nope. She doesn't give a shit." Alí agreed.
"Dinner!" Lily called, mostly for Lauralin's sake. (Legolas and Alí could hear her just fine,). She brought four plates heaped of spaghetti and delicious meat sauce to their small round kitchen table, and put them in their respectable places.
Legolas and Alí said nothing, but dived into their own food, eating it with amazing speed. Lauralin stared disgustedly at the food. "Ata, what is *this*?" she said, forking a mushroom and examining it.
"It's a mushroom, Lauralin, now eat up!" Lily ordered.
"Fine," Lauralin said, sulkily poking her food.
"Ata, can we have seconds?" chirped Legolas and Alí at the same time. "Jinx!" yelled Legolas triumphantly. Alí glared.
"Yes, of course you can have more," Lily chuckled. Both of them stood up at the same time and raced to the stove to try to get it first.
"I was here!"
"It was me!"
"You got seconds first last time!"
"No I didn't!"
"Children!" called their mother. "Calm down, I made enough for both of your appetites."
"Ooh, really!" Alí cried.
"You two eat like Hobbits..." Lily muttered under her breath.
"We heard that!" Both Legolas and Alí called back to their mother. Lily sighed, and placed her napkin on the plate, having finished the meal herself. Alí and Legolas returned to the table with heaped plates and immediately dug in, forking one mouthful after another into their mouths.
Lauralin was still just poking her food around. "Eat, you dimwit," Alí said, through a rather large mouthful. Lauralin made a face at her, as much of a sneer as elvenly possible.
Five minutes later, Legolas and Alí put down their forks, leaning back in their chairs, and placing their hands over their stomachs. "Boy that was good..." Legolas said, taking a sip of Mountain Dew.
"Hey, that's mine!" Lauralin exclaimed.
"Ah, well. Nothing you can do about it now!" Legolas said, standing up and taking his plate with him to the sink. He drained the soda can, placed it on the floor and smashed it with his foot, before picking it up and throwing it away.
"It was very good, as usual, thank you Ata." Alí said, picking up her plate and kissing her mother's cheek. She rinsed her plate and stuck it in the dishwasher, repeating what Legolas did to smash her can, and bounded silently upstairs.
She reached the top of the stairs and turned right down the hallway to her and Legolas' rooms. (Lauralin's room was left). She walked into her room, not bothering to turn on the light, and walked straight across the room and opened the door to the balcony that she and Legolas shared.
"Hello again, Legolas. I knew that you would be out here," she said. Legolas was sitting on a bench, which normally resided against the wall, but which they pulled out every night. The roof did not hang over much, she and Legolas had sawed it off a few years ago, so that they would have protection from rain, but be able to star gaze without hanging over the railing.
"Like every night, sister," he commented, gazing upward to the stars above. Alí turned off the porch light and sat next to him on the stone bench, staring upward.
"Its strange, I just can't get enough of being outside... I can stay out all day, and yet I still want to remain there." Alí said, mystified, gazing up at the stars.
Legolas shrugged. "I guess it's an elf thing... except for our darling sister, who would rather scope out men than sit in a tree."
"Well, she's an exception." Alí said. Her eyes followed the constellations that her mother had taught her long ago. "There's the big dipper..." she said, pointing like she did every night. "And Sirius, the dog star..." she pointed again.
Legolas pointed to the brightest star, which she knew as the North Star. "See that? That's Earendil... the beloved star of the heavens," Then Legolas shook his head, and brought his head down to stare at his feet. "I don't know where that came from... I've never registered that before," he muttered.
"You must have heard it before... maybe your mother taught you," Alí helped.
"Maybe... but, I can't remember..." Legolas said, confused.
Alí put an arm around Legolas' shoulders and gave him a little shake. "You'll remember soon enough. Just give it time," she comforted.
Legolas nodded. He let his head rest on her shoulder, and stared back across the valley of trees that was the forest that they were in earlier today. "I may never know... but... little trickles of the past seem to come back to me, like my mother's face, father's laugh, the tree that I used to climb when I was big enough, my annoying nanny," he chuckled. "I never listened to her."
A voice behind them spoke from Alí's open doorway. "Why you two are so into nature is beyond me." Both of them jumped. "And what's with the little cuddle session, anyways?" she accused. "Getting close are you? Closer than brother and sister relations, I mean," she laughed.
"Go away, Lauralin," Alí whispered, trying not to disturb the peace of the night.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," Lauralin said sarcastically, cupping a hand to her pointed ear.
"You heard her, leave." Legolas said in a tone that Alí had never heard before. It was commanding, almost kingly...
Laurelin snorted and shut the door to Alíana's room with a crash. A panel of glass shattered and fell to the floor, but Alí paid no attention to it, instead resuming her position with her arm around Legolas. "I will never understand her..." she said, sadly. "I thought it would be the coolest thing. I mean, to have a little sister, whom I could pamper and treat like a queen. But she already acts like a queen, and any more pampering would destroy her respect for everybody." Alí hung her head.
"Do not worry, she is only 10. She will come to," Legolas soothed. Alí's head now rested on his shoulder, and she breathed in his scent. He smelled like the forest, with a hint of ginger. She liked it here: just her, her brother, and the stars.
Alí felt tired, yet she did not want to leave Legolas to be alone. So, she and Legolas spent the entire night, stargazing and talking.
Around 6:30 in the morning, the sky started to fade from its blackness, and it changed to a purple, pink, orange, and red collage. The sun peeked its head over the horizon, and the two of them were flooded in the light of the sunrise.
"It's beautiful, don't you think?" she said, her head still on Legolas' comfortable shoulder.
"Yes, it is... I wonder if sunrises are like this in the other world..." Legolas commented. He had been hinting and hinting about the other world all week, and it was starting to grow on Alíana. The fact that there was another exciting world other than this, with more people, elves, and (according to one of Legolas' memories) a whole lot of tall, green, perfect- for-climbing trees.
After the sun had risen completely, they stood up and stretched, having not really stood up throughout the entire night.
"I'm going to get some breakfast. How about you?" Alíana asked Legolas, mid- stretch.
"Oh, yeah. Bring on the waffles," he said, returning to his boyish self. "I'm going to break my record of waffles today," he declared... like he did every day.
"Not if I beat it." Alíana shot back. "47 waffles is easy, Legolas."
"Sure, Alí, like you could eat that much in one sitting," Legolas countered, following Alí through her room and into the hallway.
"Easily, my brother. I haven't been eating much lately because I have been busy, but now that I have all the time in the world, I'm going to beat your record." She proclaimed, walking into the kitchen.
"Alí, you and Legolas aren't going to clear out 4 boxes of Eggo waffles again, are you?" Lily said, bustling around the kitchen, like she did every day. "Because you know that if you do, you'll have to go buy more!"
"No, prob, Ata! Bring on the waffles!" Alí said, cracking her knuckles. Legolas flinched beside her, and Alí giggled and did it again.
"That... is... so... gross..." Legolas said, in between flinches. Alí grinned, before getting the big waffle boxes (24 waffles per box), and ripping them open.
"Okay, you get two boxes, I get two. First one to finish all 48 wins!"
"But I thought we were competing for the most waffles?" Legolas said.
"Yes, but it would cost more, because I would eat twice as many as you, so we'll just race." She grinned. She stuck 8 waffles into the microwave, and stuck 4 into the toaster, and 4 more into the toaster oven. "Hmm... how are we going to do this... Ata? You're my faaaaaavorite person in the entire world. Have I told you that yet today?" she sweet-talked.
"Fine, I'll cook the waffles," Lily consented.
"Love ya!" She hugged her mother and turned on everything, while getting the syrup out of the pantry.
"One for you, and one for me," she said, producing two full bottles of syrup.
"No butter?" Legolas asked sadly.
"Nah, takes too long." Alí said.
"Well, you could just cut a square and stick it in the middle of the folded waffle," Legolas supplied.
"Nah, takes too long." Alí repeated. "But if you want to slow yourself down..."
"No butter." Legolas said immediately. He sat down at the table, Alí directly on the other side. The toaster dinged, and the toaster oven clicked, then the microwave beeped. Alí picked up the syrup bottle, and Legolas did the same. Lily came over to the table bearing sixteen hot waffles.
"No cheating, you have to eat the whole waffle, you have to put syrup on the waffle, and whoever wins gets to stay home while the other goes shopping for more waffles." Lily stated the rules.
"Okay, bring it on," Legolas challenged.
"No, I will have heaped the competition on you so that you won't be able to win," Alí countered.
Lily stacked 8 waffles on each of their plates. "Ready, Set.... GO!"
Alí squirted syrup on her first waffle before folding it and cramming it into her mouth. One after another after another after another... Several more dings were heard, and Lily came back with 8 more waffles for each of them.
Legolas, however, had been sneaky, and made waffle sandwiches, with his huge mouth, he crammed two waffles into his mouth at once.
"Nffft ffaaaaiir!" Alí cried, when she saw what Legolas was doing.
"Not fair? No. It wasn't stated in the rules that I couldn't eat two at a time," Legolas sneered playfully at her, and she repeated the gesture.
Alí crammed three waffles into her mouth... another three... another three... on the other side of the table, Legolas was inhaling his waffles.
Soon, they were up to their last eight waffles each. Alí took a deep breath, covered the waffles with syrup and crammed four into her mouth, not bothering to keep her mouth shut while chewing...
Legolas was down to two...
Alí had one left...
"I WIN!" Both of them cried, stuffing their last waffle into their mouth and standing up.
Lily was staring at both of them in awe. "Like I said... you eat like Hobbits." She said, gaping.
"And I could fit in a couple more, if needed," Alí said, stretching as if she had just run a race.
Lily gaped again, surprised at how much her daughter and adoptive son ate. "Well, it was a tie... both of you go to the store." She said, producing a few $20's out of her pocket and handing it to both of them. "Take your time, but remember; next time, *you're* paying." She warned. Alí and Legolas ran upstairs to change.
"Should we walk?" Alí asked, as she got to her door, which had a decorate 'Alíana' written across it in block letters.
"Sure. Make sure you wear tennis shoes!" he called through her shut door.
"Okay!" she yelled. She stripped off her dress that she had been wearing, and selected a blue halter-top, which read 'Old Navy' across the front on a surf board with flowers around it. She took off her strapped bra, and fastened a strapless one around her chest, then slipped the shirt over it, making sure that no white showed. She dug through her jeans drawer and produced some faded hip-hugger blue jeans, and slipped them on. She brushed her semi-tangled hair, and left it down to cover her ears (as she always did in public).
She emerged from her room, and Legolas did at the same time, his hair tied up in a green bandana (which also covered his ear tips). He was wearing baggy blue jeans, and had a simple forest green t-shirt on.
"Come on, we can't drive, so we might as well get a move on," she said, taking his hand and bounding down the stairs. She and Legolas yelled to their mother that they were leaving, and she yelled back 'Take your time! Don't waste the money!'. They shut the front door, and walked onto the street.
It was a beautiful summer day, only a few wispy clouds in the sky and the sun shining merrily above them.
She and Legolas walked down the road, out of the neighborhood, and down the highway, keeping clear of the traffic. Several people stared at them, as they made their way on the side of the road chatting merrily. (Normally cars would only see bikers on the sides of the highway).
"I won,"
"No, I won,"
"I won,"
"No, I won,"
Their conversation went on and on. They knew that they were arguing pointlessly, but it was still fun. They reached the intersection where they had to cross the road to go to the local H-E-B store, and waited for the red light, before dashing across the road. Legolas touched the light post first.
"I win," he said wickedly.
"I didn't know we were racing!" she said, feeling cheated. Legolas winked, and they waited for the other light to turn red... As soon as the light turned red, they both sprinted across. Alí touched the light post on the other side. "I win." She said, mimicking Legolas. She took his hand, and they walked across the parking lot (again debating who won the waffle contest.) They entered the H-E-B store, and Legolas grabbed a basket that proclaimed, "GO HOME A HERO!" and both of them proceeded to the frozen food isle.
"Hmm... do you think they'll have enough?" he said, staring at the measly 2 boxes of plain waffles.
"Ooh! Look over here! they have blueberry, and chocolate chip, and cinnamon, and... woooooow.... Scooby Doo!" she said excitedly.
"I'm liking the sound of the Chocolate Chip ones." Legolas said, walking over to where she stood. "And Scooby Doo is so overrated, Alí," Legolas buried himself in the refrigerator and produced 8 boxes of chocolate chip waffles.
Alí took one of them and put it back, taking a Scooby Doo box and putting it on top. "At least one, pleeeease!" she whined.
"Fine! One Scooby Doo waffle box... but you'll have to share!" he grinned. Suddenly, a one of the TVs placed on the top of the aisles blared a theme song.
"Ooh, this one looks good," she motioned for her and Legolas to watch the preview.
"The world is changing...I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air..." came the mystical voice of a woman.
The preview went on to say that something called the One Ring was found in Middle Earth. Then it showed a company of nine people. The announcer stated, "Frodo Baggins," a short blue-eyed person, "Along with his 3 Hobbit friends, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrine Took, and Samwise Gamgee,"
"Hobbits..." Alí muttered, "Wait a second..." she started, thinking to herself. She knew she had heard of that word somewhere.
"Is going to destroy the one ring, also with help from the dwarf, Gimli, son of Glóin, Boromir, son of Denethor, Aragorn son of Arathorn, Gandalf the Grey, and Legolas Greenleaf of the Woodland Realm..."
Legolas froze, staring up at the tape, which had frozen on his face. "Oh, Eru..." he whispered.
"Oh my gosh..." Alí said, her heart stopping. "We have to leave, Legolas, right now." She said. "Let's just pay, and go. We have to tell Ata,"
She and Legolas zipped into a line with the sign "Ten Items Or Fewer!" over it, and dumped the waffle boxes onto the counter for the old lady to ring up.
"Yeh know... You look a lot like that Orlando Bloom," she commented to Legolas, who merely glanced around uncomfortably. "Yeh look a mighty lot like that Lego-whoever from that new movie, too..." she said, jerking her dirty finger nailed thumb towards the nearest television. No answer.
"Thanks, he gets that comment a lot these days," Alí saved him. "Um, how much will that be, ma'am?"
"$50.47" The lady wheezed. Alí handed over sixty dollars, and grabbed the bags.
"Uh, keep the change, and we don't care for the receipt," she said, before pushing Legolas out of the store.
"We need to get home," she said. "Ata has to know about this immediately."
Legolas nodded. He was dumbfounded. He had seen himself... like, he was in a movie. He knew now that he would not be able to show himself in public as often as he used to... as infrequently as that had been.
Yes, he and Alí had spent countless hours shopping in the mall, and at the movies, but most of his life was spent with nature and with the only entertainment of the sun, stars, and crickets.
He wanted to go home so badly, that it almost tore him in half. Now that he thought about it, his father had told him bedtime stories of his heroic father when he was in the war of the Ring... where the evil dark lord Sauron had the One Ring, and wanted to rule Middle Earth with it.
...And according to that movie, which was due out in December of that year, he was going to be part of a company of nine, to destroy the very same ring...
"Legolas? Legolas?" Alí said. Legolas had been lost in his thoughts up until they had entered their neighborhood.
"Well, there goes the secrecy of elves..." she muttered, finally. "Now everybody is going to remember me, with my ears, and they'll connect two and two and boom. They'll think, "hey, what about that Alíana person who we used to make fun of, remember her? Yeah, she's got the ears, she's probably an elf or something," and everybody will laugh, and our cover is so damn busted..." she groaned, leaning against their mailbox, and putting her forehead in her hands.
"You never know that. You were very young when you last saw most of your old schoolmates. They may have well forgotten."
"Yeah, the freak with the ears who disappeared halfway into the year; yeah. They'll have forgotten all about me by now." She said sarcastically. Legolas took her hand away from her forehead and kissed it, then lowering it down to her side.
"Come. Think not about what has happened in the past. Right now, we have to tell Ata."
A/N: Like it? That's my version of an EVIL CLIFFHANGER!!!
...because I don't like to leave you all disappointed!
Now, I require um... five reviews for the next chapter, and then you'll get Figwit E-Cookies!
THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO REVIEWED, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!
~Ivy
And before any of you get confuzzled, the little sister's name isn't Laurelin, like my beta changed it to, it's LaurAlin... (it's okay, Shivvers, I still luv you!) so if you see any changes in her name every once and a while, I'M SORRY I MISSED IT!
Disclaimer: Me: I own EVERYTHING. It's all MINE. AMIN. AMIN!!!!! ~wakes up from dream~ Me: Oh, damnit! I was SO CLOSE! I only own Alíana, Liliana, Lauralin, and (guess what) the playground swing and ~sigh~ a couple bugs and bushes. Tolkien gets His Royal Hotness and everything else...
Chapter Two:
Ten years later, Alíana and Legolas were sitting in a tree near the house, talking.
"What can you remember about where you were before?" Alí asked curiously, sweeping a wisp of hair from her eyes, and watching Legolas, who thought for a minute before answering.
"Well, it was green. I can easily recall that. I was too young, I couldn't remember, although I do remember my father's name, Thranduil. And my mother, although I just called her 'Ata'." Legolas answered.
Both of the children looked no more than 15. Alí was still the bouncy girl that she had always been, although her figure had changed to match one of a young woman. Her legs were long, and her hips were curved, her breasts full, and her face mature.
Legolas was taller, much taller. His voice deeper than the child's voice he used to have. He was muscular and strong, his face was chiseled and his hair was still long and pin straight.
As soon as Legolas had shown up, Lily had taken Alí out of school, preferring to home school both her child, and her adoptive child. About two months after Legolas had come, she had given birth to another child, her real name being Lauralin.
Lily knew it would happen soon. She did not know when, but she knew that they would be called back... when it was safe.
"That sounds cool... oh, I wish I could go there..." Alí said wistfully to Legolas, leaning back on the trunk and relaxing. "That would be cool; to live with more elves than you, Ata, and Lauralin."
"It would be awesome to go back..." agreed Legolas. "You know, your mother told me something that I only just recalled right now..." he said, suddenly thoughtful.
"Mani? What did she say?"
"She said 'Quel, san' ta naa sha'coiasira'," Legolas repeated.
"Good, then it is almost time to go home?" Alí translated. "What does that mean?"
"Well, I guess it would probably mean that we were going to go back... although it has been ten years since she said that," Legolas said.
"Ten years, wow..." Alí said. "You know, I'm sure it hasn't been that long,"
"Yes, it has," Legolas argued.
"I guess it could have been, but you'll always be my little Leggy!" Alí said cutely. Legolas threw a thin branch of leaves that he had been fiddling with at her.
"What did I tell you? DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He yelled, annoyed. Alí just giggled.
"What do you expect? I'm like your sister, I have to torture you!"
"That torture thing is *so* overrated, Alí!" Legolas said, picking up another twig and bending it around his finger. He laid back on the thick branch with amazing balance, staring up through the canopy of trees to where there were little patches of blue showing. "I am beginning to think that we will never go back... No sign, no nothing. Just a normal everyday world..." Legolas said mournfully.
"We'll go back. I wasn't born there, all I know is that mother was born there. I also know that my father lives there, but I do not know his name or what he looks like. But I know that we'll go back. We have to... and we have all of eternity to do it."
"Good point, Alí," Legolas agreed.
"Are you two sitting in trees, again?" came the annoyed voice of Lauralin from below them.
"Yes, oh sister-of-mine," Alí called down, not bothering to look at her sister, who had taken advantage of most of the human resources. Lauralin was very much an Americanized elf. She loved to listen to the radio, watch TV, go to the mall, (even though she was only 10), and was quite a brat. Legolas and Alí on the other hand, would rather sit in trees than watch movies, most of the time. They kept their connection with nature intact, rather than rot it on a computer. 'oh, Lauralin is not going to be happy when we go back,' Alí thought, 'no computers, no TV, no electricity no nothing,' she giggled to herself.
"Lauralin, are you going to stand underneath us, come up into the tree, or leave us be?" Legolas asked her, also not bothering to look at her... he seemed quite interested in the patches of sky through the leaves.
"Fine! FINE! I'll leave you two alone, to do whatever you do up there!" Lauralin called, putting her headphones back over her ears and walking back.
"...Sometimes I just want to whomp her over the head..." Alí complained, once she knew that Lauralin wasn't within hearing distance.
"I agree completely..." Legolas said. "She is going to be tortured when we go back..."
Alí grinned, having just thought that herself. "Yep, ooh! That'll be so much fun!" she plotted. "No computers, no movies, no TV, no electronics, no Game-boys, no Nintendos, no X-Boxes, no GameCubes, no..."
"No GameCubes?" Legolas whined. Alí just rolled her eyes. It was the one thing that Legolas really loved... his Nintendo GameCube...
"Yes, Legolas, No... Game....Cubes..." she stated slowly. Legolas huffed. "That was a rather stupid thing to say, knowing that there's no electrical plugs or TVs or anything,"
"I know... but honestly. That didn't really occur to me..." Legolas said sheepishly. He sat up on the branch, and took Alí's hand. "Come, it is getting late. We have to get back to the house before Ata worries... and anyways, I'm hungry, and I can smell dinner from here,"
Alí giggled and climbed down the tree. Legolas waited until she was all the way down before jumping right in front of her. "Ahhhh!" She squealed, jumping backwards into the tree. "Honestly, you're going to kill me in the end by doing that! And if you don't scare me to death, then you'll brake your leg and won't be able to walk for weeks." She scolded.
"Days, mellon. Not weeks. We elves heal faster, remember?" Legolas taunted. Alí swept past him, beckoning for him to follow.
"Fine. *Days* you'll be in bed not walking. But still, wouldn't you rather be practicing archery or something?" She said, leading the way back through the forest.
"Yes, well. I could play more Game Cube in my bed, although, I guess it would be better to not jump fifteen feet to the ground... but c'mon! It's so much fun!" he whined.
"Fine, break your leg. See if I care!" Alí said. After another 10 minutes of arguing like siblings, they reached the little playground area. "Oh, I wish that mother didn't dissemble the play set," Alí said wistfully. "We used to have so much fun on that thing,"
"Yeah... good times," Legolas agreed. "You know, I think we should hang up a swing from a tree..." He proposed.
"Sounds good to me... how about we work on it tomorrow?" She suggested, opening up the kitchen door.
"Work on what, Alíana?" Her mother asked from where she was stirring noodles at the stove.
"We wanted to hang up a swing on a tree or something," Alí shrugged.
"Why would you do that?" Lauralin asked, rather loudly (she still had her headphones on).
"Because," Alí stated simply. "And you're going to ruin those ears of yours if you play that music any louder.
"What? I can't hear you?" Lauralin answered, loudly again. Alí rolled her eyes.
Alí smelled the air... she loved her mother's cooking, no matter what it was. "Dinner smells good, Ata. What is it?"
"Spaghetti Bolognaise," her mother answered from the stove. "I knew you would like it."
"Mmmhmm..." Alí agreed, opening the fridge and searching for a soda. "Cokey...cokey... where arrrrrre yoooooou?" she said, searching for her diet coke. "Ah ha!" she said triumphantly, holding the can of diet coke in front of her face. "Knew I would get you in the end... you couldn't hide forever!" she popped the top with a little noise from the compressed air in the can, and took a sip.
"I can't believe you like, *diet coke*. What about Dr Pepper? *That's* much better than stupid diet coke!" Legolas argued.
"Well, you can say that to the fridge... we're all out of Dr Peppers!" Alí laughed. Legolas immediately dived into the fridge searching franticly for the soda, when he emerged his face was sulky.
"I guess you're right..." He sighed, staring at the floor. "Ah, well. No problem. I'll drink Lauralin's sodas. She won't mind if she's missing one Mountain Dew... not that she could hear me." He looked over at Lauralin, who was sitting on the sofa, listening to her head-banging music and reading a book.
"Nope. She doesn't give a shit." Alí agreed.
"Dinner!" Lily called, mostly for Lauralin's sake. (Legolas and Alí could hear her just fine,). She brought four plates heaped of spaghetti and delicious meat sauce to their small round kitchen table, and put them in their respectable places.
Legolas and Alí said nothing, but dived into their own food, eating it with amazing speed. Lauralin stared disgustedly at the food. "Ata, what is *this*?" she said, forking a mushroom and examining it.
"It's a mushroom, Lauralin, now eat up!" Lily ordered.
"Fine," Lauralin said, sulkily poking her food.
"Ata, can we have seconds?" chirped Legolas and Alí at the same time. "Jinx!" yelled Legolas triumphantly. Alí glared.
"Yes, of course you can have more," Lily chuckled. Both of them stood up at the same time and raced to the stove to try to get it first.
"I was here!"
"It was me!"
"You got seconds first last time!"
"No I didn't!"
"Children!" called their mother. "Calm down, I made enough for both of your appetites."
"Ooh, really!" Alí cried.
"You two eat like Hobbits..." Lily muttered under her breath.
"We heard that!" Both Legolas and Alí called back to their mother. Lily sighed, and placed her napkin on the plate, having finished the meal herself. Alí and Legolas returned to the table with heaped plates and immediately dug in, forking one mouthful after another into their mouths.
Lauralin was still just poking her food around. "Eat, you dimwit," Alí said, through a rather large mouthful. Lauralin made a face at her, as much of a sneer as elvenly possible.
Five minutes later, Legolas and Alí put down their forks, leaning back in their chairs, and placing their hands over their stomachs. "Boy that was good..." Legolas said, taking a sip of Mountain Dew.
"Hey, that's mine!" Lauralin exclaimed.
"Ah, well. Nothing you can do about it now!" Legolas said, standing up and taking his plate with him to the sink. He drained the soda can, placed it on the floor and smashed it with his foot, before picking it up and throwing it away.
"It was very good, as usual, thank you Ata." Alí said, picking up her plate and kissing her mother's cheek. She rinsed her plate and stuck it in the dishwasher, repeating what Legolas did to smash her can, and bounded silently upstairs.
She reached the top of the stairs and turned right down the hallway to her and Legolas' rooms. (Lauralin's room was left). She walked into her room, not bothering to turn on the light, and walked straight across the room and opened the door to the balcony that she and Legolas shared.
"Hello again, Legolas. I knew that you would be out here," she said. Legolas was sitting on a bench, which normally resided against the wall, but which they pulled out every night. The roof did not hang over much, she and Legolas had sawed it off a few years ago, so that they would have protection from rain, but be able to star gaze without hanging over the railing.
"Like every night, sister," he commented, gazing upward to the stars above. Alí turned off the porch light and sat next to him on the stone bench, staring upward.
"Its strange, I just can't get enough of being outside... I can stay out all day, and yet I still want to remain there." Alí said, mystified, gazing up at the stars.
Legolas shrugged. "I guess it's an elf thing... except for our darling sister, who would rather scope out men than sit in a tree."
"Well, she's an exception." Alí said. Her eyes followed the constellations that her mother had taught her long ago. "There's the big dipper..." she said, pointing like she did every night. "And Sirius, the dog star..." she pointed again.
Legolas pointed to the brightest star, which she knew as the North Star. "See that? That's Earendil... the beloved star of the heavens," Then Legolas shook his head, and brought his head down to stare at his feet. "I don't know where that came from... I've never registered that before," he muttered.
"You must have heard it before... maybe your mother taught you," Alí helped.
"Maybe... but, I can't remember..." Legolas said, confused.
Alí put an arm around Legolas' shoulders and gave him a little shake. "You'll remember soon enough. Just give it time," she comforted.
Legolas nodded. He let his head rest on her shoulder, and stared back across the valley of trees that was the forest that they were in earlier today. "I may never know... but... little trickles of the past seem to come back to me, like my mother's face, father's laugh, the tree that I used to climb when I was big enough, my annoying nanny," he chuckled. "I never listened to her."
A voice behind them spoke from Alí's open doorway. "Why you two are so into nature is beyond me." Both of them jumped. "And what's with the little cuddle session, anyways?" she accused. "Getting close are you? Closer than brother and sister relations, I mean," she laughed.
"Go away, Lauralin," Alí whispered, trying not to disturb the peace of the night.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," Lauralin said sarcastically, cupping a hand to her pointed ear.
"You heard her, leave." Legolas said in a tone that Alí had never heard before. It was commanding, almost kingly...
Laurelin snorted and shut the door to Alíana's room with a crash. A panel of glass shattered and fell to the floor, but Alí paid no attention to it, instead resuming her position with her arm around Legolas. "I will never understand her..." she said, sadly. "I thought it would be the coolest thing. I mean, to have a little sister, whom I could pamper and treat like a queen. But she already acts like a queen, and any more pampering would destroy her respect for everybody." Alí hung her head.
"Do not worry, she is only 10. She will come to," Legolas soothed. Alí's head now rested on his shoulder, and she breathed in his scent. He smelled like the forest, with a hint of ginger. She liked it here: just her, her brother, and the stars.
Alí felt tired, yet she did not want to leave Legolas to be alone. So, she and Legolas spent the entire night, stargazing and talking.
Around 6:30 in the morning, the sky started to fade from its blackness, and it changed to a purple, pink, orange, and red collage. The sun peeked its head over the horizon, and the two of them were flooded in the light of the sunrise.
"It's beautiful, don't you think?" she said, her head still on Legolas' comfortable shoulder.
"Yes, it is... I wonder if sunrises are like this in the other world..." Legolas commented. He had been hinting and hinting about the other world all week, and it was starting to grow on Alíana. The fact that there was another exciting world other than this, with more people, elves, and (according to one of Legolas' memories) a whole lot of tall, green, perfect- for-climbing trees.
After the sun had risen completely, they stood up and stretched, having not really stood up throughout the entire night.
"I'm going to get some breakfast. How about you?" Alíana asked Legolas, mid- stretch.
"Oh, yeah. Bring on the waffles," he said, returning to his boyish self. "I'm going to break my record of waffles today," he declared... like he did every day.
"Not if I beat it." Alíana shot back. "47 waffles is easy, Legolas."
"Sure, Alí, like you could eat that much in one sitting," Legolas countered, following Alí through her room and into the hallway.
"Easily, my brother. I haven't been eating much lately because I have been busy, but now that I have all the time in the world, I'm going to beat your record." She proclaimed, walking into the kitchen.
"Alí, you and Legolas aren't going to clear out 4 boxes of Eggo waffles again, are you?" Lily said, bustling around the kitchen, like she did every day. "Because you know that if you do, you'll have to go buy more!"
"No, prob, Ata! Bring on the waffles!" Alí said, cracking her knuckles. Legolas flinched beside her, and Alí giggled and did it again.
"That... is... so... gross..." Legolas said, in between flinches. Alí grinned, before getting the big waffle boxes (24 waffles per box), and ripping them open.
"Okay, you get two boxes, I get two. First one to finish all 48 wins!"
"But I thought we were competing for the most waffles?" Legolas said.
"Yes, but it would cost more, because I would eat twice as many as you, so we'll just race." She grinned. She stuck 8 waffles into the microwave, and stuck 4 into the toaster, and 4 more into the toaster oven. "Hmm... how are we going to do this... Ata? You're my faaaaaavorite person in the entire world. Have I told you that yet today?" she sweet-talked.
"Fine, I'll cook the waffles," Lily consented.
"Love ya!" She hugged her mother and turned on everything, while getting the syrup out of the pantry.
"One for you, and one for me," she said, producing two full bottles of syrup.
"No butter?" Legolas asked sadly.
"Nah, takes too long." Alí said.
"Well, you could just cut a square and stick it in the middle of the folded waffle," Legolas supplied.
"Nah, takes too long." Alí repeated. "But if you want to slow yourself down..."
"No butter." Legolas said immediately. He sat down at the table, Alí directly on the other side. The toaster dinged, and the toaster oven clicked, then the microwave beeped. Alí picked up the syrup bottle, and Legolas did the same. Lily came over to the table bearing sixteen hot waffles.
"No cheating, you have to eat the whole waffle, you have to put syrup on the waffle, and whoever wins gets to stay home while the other goes shopping for more waffles." Lily stated the rules.
"Okay, bring it on," Legolas challenged.
"No, I will have heaped the competition on you so that you won't be able to win," Alí countered.
Lily stacked 8 waffles on each of their plates. "Ready, Set.... GO!"
Alí squirted syrup on her first waffle before folding it and cramming it into her mouth. One after another after another after another... Several more dings were heard, and Lily came back with 8 more waffles for each of them.
Legolas, however, had been sneaky, and made waffle sandwiches, with his huge mouth, he crammed two waffles into his mouth at once.
"Nffft ffaaaaiir!" Alí cried, when she saw what Legolas was doing.
"Not fair? No. It wasn't stated in the rules that I couldn't eat two at a time," Legolas sneered playfully at her, and she repeated the gesture.
Alí crammed three waffles into her mouth... another three... another three... on the other side of the table, Legolas was inhaling his waffles.
Soon, they were up to their last eight waffles each. Alí took a deep breath, covered the waffles with syrup and crammed four into her mouth, not bothering to keep her mouth shut while chewing...
Legolas was down to two...
Alí had one left...
"I WIN!" Both of them cried, stuffing their last waffle into their mouth and standing up.
Lily was staring at both of them in awe. "Like I said... you eat like Hobbits." She said, gaping.
"And I could fit in a couple more, if needed," Alí said, stretching as if she had just run a race.
Lily gaped again, surprised at how much her daughter and adoptive son ate. "Well, it was a tie... both of you go to the store." She said, producing a few $20's out of her pocket and handing it to both of them. "Take your time, but remember; next time, *you're* paying." She warned. Alí and Legolas ran upstairs to change.
"Should we walk?" Alí asked, as she got to her door, which had a decorate 'Alíana' written across it in block letters.
"Sure. Make sure you wear tennis shoes!" he called through her shut door.
"Okay!" she yelled. She stripped off her dress that she had been wearing, and selected a blue halter-top, which read 'Old Navy' across the front on a surf board with flowers around it. She took off her strapped bra, and fastened a strapless one around her chest, then slipped the shirt over it, making sure that no white showed. She dug through her jeans drawer and produced some faded hip-hugger blue jeans, and slipped them on. She brushed her semi-tangled hair, and left it down to cover her ears (as she always did in public).
She emerged from her room, and Legolas did at the same time, his hair tied up in a green bandana (which also covered his ear tips). He was wearing baggy blue jeans, and had a simple forest green t-shirt on.
"Come on, we can't drive, so we might as well get a move on," she said, taking his hand and bounding down the stairs. She and Legolas yelled to their mother that they were leaving, and she yelled back 'Take your time! Don't waste the money!'. They shut the front door, and walked onto the street.
It was a beautiful summer day, only a few wispy clouds in the sky and the sun shining merrily above them.
She and Legolas walked down the road, out of the neighborhood, and down the highway, keeping clear of the traffic. Several people stared at them, as they made their way on the side of the road chatting merrily. (Normally cars would only see bikers on the sides of the highway).
"I won,"
"No, I won,"
"I won,"
"No, I won,"
Their conversation went on and on. They knew that they were arguing pointlessly, but it was still fun. They reached the intersection where they had to cross the road to go to the local H-E-B store, and waited for the red light, before dashing across the road. Legolas touched the light post first.
"I win," he said wickedly.
"I didn't know we were racing!" she said, feeling cheated. Legolas winked, and they waited for the other light to turn red... As soon as the light turned red, they both sprinted across. Alí touched the light post on the other side. "I win." She said, mimicking Legolas. She took his hand, and they walked across the parking lot (again debating who won the waffle contest.) They entered the H-E-B store, and Legolas grabbed a basket that proclaimed, "GO HOME A HERO!" and both of them proceeded to the frozen food isle.
"Hmm... do you think they'll have enough?" he said, staring at the measly 2 boxes of plain waffles.
"Ooh! Look over here! they have blueberry, and chocolate chip, and cinnamon, and... woooooow.... Scooby Doo!" she said excitedly.
"I'm liking the sound of the Chocolate Chip ones." Legolas said, walking over to where she stood. "And Scooby Doo is so overrated, Alí," Legolas buried himself in the refrigerator and produced 8 boxes of chocolate chip waffles.
Alí took one of them and put it back, taking a Scooby Doo box and putting it on top. "At least one, pleeeease!" she whined.
"Fine! One Scooby Doo waffle box... but you'll have to share!" he grinned. Suddenly, a one of the TVs placed on the top of the aisles blared a theme song.
"Ooh, this one looks good," she motioned for her and Legolas to watch the preview.
"The world is changing...I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air..." came the mystical voice of a woman.
The preview went on to say that something called the One Ring was found in Middle Earth. Then it showed a company of nine people. The announcer stated, "Frodo Baggins," a short blue-eyed person, "Along with his 3 Hobbit friends, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrine Took, and Samwise Gamgee,"
"Hobbits..." Alí muttered, "Wait a second..." she started, thinking to herself. She knew she had heard of that word somewhere.
"Is going to destroy the one ring, also with help from the dwarf, Gimli, son of Glóin, Boromir, son of Denethor, Aragorn son of Arathorn, Gandalf the Grey, and Legolas Greenleaf of the Woodland Realm..."
Legolas froze, staring up at the tape, which had frozen on his face. "Oh, Eru..." he whispered.
"Oh my gosh..." Alí said, her heart stopping. "We have to leave, Legolas, right now." She said. "Let's just pay, and go. We have to tell Ata,"
She and Legolas zipped into a line with the sign "Ten Items Or Fewer!" over it, and dumped the waffle boxes onto the counter for the old lady to ring up.
"Yeh know... You look a lot like that Orlando Bloom," she commented to Legolas, who merely glanced around uncomfortably. "Yeh look a mighty lot like that Lego-whoever from that new movie, too..." she said, jerking her dirty finger nailed thumb towards the nearest television. No answer.
"Thanks, he gets that comment a lot these days," Alí saved him. "Um, how much will that be, ma'am?"
"$50.47" The lady wheezed. Alí handed over sixty dollars, and grabbed the bags.
"Uh, keep the change, and we don't care for the receipt," she said, before pushing Legolas out of the store.
"We need to get home," she said. "Ata has to know about this immediately."
Legolas nodded. He was dumbfounded. He had seen himself... like, he was in a movie. He knew now that he would not be able to show himself in public as often as he used to... as infrequently as that had been.
Yes, he and Alí had spent countless hours shopping in the mall, and at the movies, but most of his life was spent with nature and with the only entertainment of the sun, stars, and crickets.
He wanted to go home so badly, that it almost tore him in half. Now that he thought about it, his father had told him bedtime stories of his heroic father when he was in the war of the Ring... where the evil dark lord Sauron had the One Ring, and wanted to rule Middle Earth with it.
...And according to that movie, which was due out in December of that year, he was going to be part of a company of nine, to destroy the very same ring...
"Legolas? Legolas?" Alí said. Legolas had been lost in his thoughts up until they had entered their neighborhood.
"Well, there goes the secrecy of elves..." she muttered, finally. "Now everybody is going to remember me, with my ears, and they'll connect two and two and boom. They'll think, "hey, what about that Alíana person who we used to make fun of, remember her? Yeah, she's got the ears, she's probably an elf or something," and everybody will laugh, and our cover is so damn busted..." she groaned, leaning against their mailbox, and putting her forehead in her hands.
"You never know that. You were very young when you last saw most of your old schoolmates. They may have well forgotten."
"Yeah, the freak with the ears who disappeared halfway into the year; yeah. They'll have forgotten all about me by now." She said sarcastically. Legolas took her hand away from her forehead and kissed it, then lowering it down to her side.
"Come. Think not about what has happened in the past. Right now, we have to tell Ata."
A/N: Like it? That's my version of an EVIL CLIFFHANGER!!!
...because I don't like to leave you all disappointed!
Now, I require um... five reviews for the next chapter, and then you'll get Figwit E-Cookies!
THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO REVIEWED, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!
~Ivy