A/N: My sincere apologies for the long wait in putting up
this chapter! I have been struck with a sudden burst of inspiration,
and I will try to go on to write chapter six! Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year, and by the time I put up the next chapter it'll
probably be Valentine's Day!
Disclaimer
Selena:
Why am I doing a disclaimer? I'm one of the characters!
Raeann: (always the voice of reason) Because it makes it
more "personal" if we do it, duh.
Selena: Oh.
Well, let's see... Elven Bunny does not own Lord of the Rings.
Raeann: All she owns is us. Hmm, wonder how she did that?
Selena: -shrugs- Beats me. Anyway, you have thy
disclaimer, now go read the story.
Chapter Five
"The Cheese Four. What on earth possessed you to pick that?" asked Raeann.
"Well... it involved an elf lord, four cats, two dogs, and a LOT of cheese..." Lothíriel smiled.
"We'll tell you about it tonight," amended Lothwing, seeing Selena open her mouth. "We still have to clean up this mess."
"Oh, now that looks fun," grumbled Raeann good-naturedly. Lothwing laughed. "Actually, sometimes it is fun. Especially cleaning the Great Hall- when Lothíriel and I first arrived at Rivendell, we used to purposely get in trouble so we could clean the hall."
"You're crazy," muttered Selena.
"Actually she's not. When we scrub the halls it's just like iceskating, the floors are so smooth. Spill some soapy water, find some slippery shoes, and off you go!" said Lothíriel as she scooped up a huge bundle of flowers.
"Raeann, would you mind getting those ribbons and putting them in this bag?" Lothwing asked, holding it out. Raeann unceremonially stuffed the ribbons into it. "But that wouldn't work for us. You elves are light enough to walk on snow!"
"Oh... too true," replied Lothíriel thoughtfully. "I'm sure we could find some method of letting you do it!"
"Heh. Somehow I doubt that," said Selena as she began sorting out flowers.
"Never doubt the Tyuru Canad, my dear child!" called Elladan from the pond.
"Hey! You two need to help us clean up," protested Lothwing.
Elrohir jumped off the chandelier, shedding flowers as he fell a good ten feet.
Selena flinched visibly.
Elladan attempted to pull free from the water lilies, but fell back into the pond. "Elrohir! Help me!" Elladan looked pleadingly over to his brother. Elrohir smirked at him and began to help Lothwing wipe the tiles.
"It may help if you tried to wiggle out the top," suggested Raeann.
"I do not wiggle," said Elladan, attempting to look haughty.
"You wiggled a-plenty went we put spiders in your bed," pointed out Lothíriel.
Elladan muttered something incoherent and tried Raeann's suggestion. It worked.
The room was looking much more tidy. The tiles had been carefully wiped by Raeann, the chandelier had its chain of elanor (brought by Arwen to Mirkwood) wrapped around it, and the candles blazed merrily. The pond had new water put in it, and the flowers that were not ruined had been arranged along the three walls. Where normally would have been a fourth wall was instead an empty space looking out onto the gardens.
Selena caught a whiff of the scent coming up from the flowers, and yawned.
"Careful, Fírhiril," cautioned Lothwing. "The scent will put you to sleep."
"Fírhiril... Fírhiril... Mortal-maid?" asked Raeann.
"Indeed," said Lothíriel, slightly surprised. "You know the elven language?"
"No... not really... But it seems to come to my mind more often then not," frowned Raeann.
"You know the common tongue quite well," Elladan pointed out.
"I have absolutely no idea why," said Raeann quite frankly. "It doesn't make sense. Westron is very different from English."
"Eng-lish?" asked Elrohir.
"That's my native tongue. Maybe it has to do with Westron and English being the common tongue...who knows?" Raeann mused.
"Fírhiril! Are you awake?"
Lothíriel had noticed Selena's blank stare and had pulled her back from the garden.
"If you're calling her Fírhiril, what will you call me?" asked Raeann.
Lothwing looked at her intently for a few seconds, then said: "Emerwen."
"Emerwen... 'Something'-maiden... What does it mean?"
Elladan and Elrohir just smiled at her.
"Dratted elves," Raeann muttered darkly.
"What happened?" Selena asked.
"The scent of the flowers put you to sleep," explained Lothíriel with an un-elflike little smirk.
"Oh. Can you teach me elvish?"
"...That was out of the blue."
"It just seems like it'll be easy. I'm remembering all of the elvish that I already knew, and it seems like I might as well try to talk with you in your home tongue," Selena shrugged.
"Are we done decorating?" Elrohir asked in a plaintive voice.
"Yes."
Something streaked in front of Raeann and zipped up to Legolas, who had come in the door just in time to hear Elrohir's question.
"Really? Really?" asked Elladan. The slight breeze given off from his speedy ascent lifted Lothíriel's dark hair.
Legolas rolled his eyes. "Yes."
"I'm free! I'm free!"
Elladan capered about like a drunken hobbit.
"Ada says now you have to help cook," Legolas continued.
"...I'm not free."
"What did you want to do so much, anyway?" asked Lothíriel, slightly curious.
"Since this is your first trip here, I wanted to show you some of the better sights," explained Elladan.
"Oh," said Lothíriel.
Raenn squinted. Had she had the eyesight of an elf, she would've been able to distinguish the slight tint on Lothíriel's cheeks.
"Aren't they so cute together?" Lothwing said in a stage-whisper.
"WHAA!"
Selena smirked. "Come on, Raeann, let's go for a walk."
"They'll miss you."
"Hmm?"
"Your friends. They'll miss you," said Raeann. Selena glanced at her.
"Maybe."
"They will. Your family too."
"I suppose so," said Selena after a short pause. "Yours will too."
"My family will. My friends, well... They aren't exactly the type who will miss my presence. I was always the wallflower..."
"No offense, but isn't that better?"
Raeann looked at her shrewdly. "What do you mean?
"Well, we don't know if we can get back to our world from here," Selena reasoned. "It's better for them if they don't miss you."
"I suppose so. I wonder why Celefin let us come into Mirkwood?" Raeann switched topics.
"Beats me. You'd think they'd be more suspicious."
"Well, we are only sixteen. And, Celefin did blindfold us."
"Yes, he did."
