Time Transcended

Here Comes the Next Bride

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't be posting here.

Authors note: FYI, using the italics for different languages again.

Rebecca and Elrohir were taking a stroll across his property one particularly lovely afternoon, and were talking merrily to each other.

It was now but five days before Liz's wedding. Liz decided she did not want a large wedding at all. In fact, the only guests would be her parents, Glorfindel, Rebecca, and Elrohir. According to the elven traditions they were ceremonially married, that having taken place three days before, and now they had only to be married in the sight of the state. Liz wanted minimal fuss over the wedding and decided to postpone their honeymoon until they got to Valinor.

As Rebecca and Elrohir walked about, they would laugh and randomly burst into song. The air that day was almost tingling with spring. Though the tree branches remained bare and buds were not yet on the trees, spring was alive and well. The grass was turning green again, the birds were singing with all heraldry and joy, and the trees were chatting amongst themselves how each would gain his leafy robe first. Elrohir understood the speech of the trees, but Rebecca did not even though she could hear it. Therefore, he would sometimes tell her what they were saying.

Each day that they drew closer to leaving for Valinor, the more elven the three elves acted. It had taken them centuries to perfect blending in with humans, but it was only taking days to revert back to their old selves.

The temperature that day was unseasonably warm, causing Elrohir and Rebecca to shed their jackets and push up their long sleeves.

"It is too lovely a day to walk," he said in his native tongue. "Let us lie upon the grass and watch the clouds sail by through the bare branches!"

"Let us!"

They cast themselves upon the ground right there and gazed up at the sky. It was one of the purest blue skies Rebecca had ever seen, and it was comfortably full of white clouds in all sorts of whimsical shapes.

"I am telling you Jewel! It is shaped like Elladan's foot!" Elrohir insisted.

"It does not look like a foot! It looks like a ship," Rebecca argued.

"Then you would think that one below it looks like a tent?"

"Certainly not Elrohir! It looks like…" a devilish grin graced her face "your lips!" She leaned over and kissed him, then returned to her spot.

"I would disagree, but you are very persuasive," he grinned as he leaned over her. It was his turn to initiate the kiss, and he gladly accepted the responsibility.

They were lying next to each other, enjoying the sun's warmth, when suddenly Rebecca sat upright.

"What is wrong?" Elrohir asked.

"I heard someone call my name. I do not see anyone though," she answered.

"Did the voice say 'Rebecca' or 'Jewel'?"

"Jewel."

"Then you heard and understood the tree a little. The oak over there has been speaking of you for a while now. Mostly commenting on how strange it is to see a human that understands he is speaking."

Rebecca nodded and smiled, then laid back down. "Will you teach me how to understand them once we reach Valinor?"

"Certainly. I shall teach you all that I know," he promised. "I am growing impatient for the return. I marvel that Glorfindel has been able to be this patient thus long."

"I know he wants home, but why should he want home that much more than you?"

"He has a wife waiting there for him. They have been parted for two ages now. When he left, he left by petition of the Valar. He went, with her blessing, and then stayed. Several times he has contemplated sailing, but each time he claims to get a dream and in it she tells him he must stay a while longer, so he stays. Finally, while we were gone he said he received a dream in which she told him he may come home."

"He must be very happy then! But why so long the wait I wonder?"

"I could not begin to guess outside of perhaps to be helpful to us. He has been an amazing help to my brother and me."

Rebecca said that made sense enough to her, and they let the subject drop. Suddenly, the wind picked up, causing Rebecca and Elrohir to get chilled. They quickly unrolled their sleeves and ran after their jackets, which had been blown a few yards away from them by the sudden wind. Rebecca dove after his and fell onto her face.

"Are you all right my love?" Elrohir asked as he knelt down beside her. He saw her body shaking, with what he thought were sobs. He worried for a split second that she was injured until she rolled over laughing heartily at herself. He felt a little silly for getting worried, and laughed a bit himself. Still laughing, she pulled his jacket out from under her and held it up for him. He grabbed it, and then with his free hand pulled her to her feet.

"So much for that elven balance," she laughed. They took no more then ten steps, armed linked, when she tripped and would have smacked her face on the earth again if he hadn't pulled her up. She dangled and twirled off his arm for a moment until she could regain her balance.

"Did you raid the wine cellar?" he asked in jest.

"Maaayyybeee!" she laughed.

After ten yards of repeated falls, he finally picked her up and carried her inside. Once in, he carried her up to their room, sat her down on the bed, and proceeded to take her shoes off for her.

"What are you doing? I am perfectly capable of taking off my own shoes," she asked, half annoyed, half amused.

He smiled at her as he slipped off her left shoe then her right. He then pulled off her socks and checked her feet.

"Don't tie your shoes so tight next time. It threw off your balance."

"But I always tie those shoes that tight."

"Yes, but you haven't worn these since we were engaged. If shoes are too tight on elven feet, it will throw you off balance."

"Temperamental creatures you elves are," she teased.

"Inflexible creatures you humans are," he replied.

"Well then!" she huffed in feigned umbrage. "You elves are stiff necked!"

"And you, oh mortal woman, are ridiculously fickle!"

"You are a lousy kisser!"

"Hey! No need to be nasty!" he exclaimed, feigning hurt feelings. "And if you think my kisses are so terrible, I shan't give them to you any more."

"Good!" she retorted.

"Come to me!" he whispered as his lips speedily found their way to hers. He was met by welcome arms and returned kisses.

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The days that preceded the wedding flew by in a flurry of activity. Even though her ceremony was to be small, there were many things to do. The guests were mostly her close relatives: favorite aunts and uncles, close cousins, her mother and step-father, and her surviving grandmother and grandfather from the opposite sides of the family, and her friends. After counting in Elladan's friends, the guests totaled fifty-three in all.

"Reb! I'm so nervous!" Liz called out to her friend from her dressing room.

"About the ceremony?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes, and…"

"And what?" her friend asked, worrying about what else she was worried about.

"And telling my mother. I still haven't told them I was going to leave," Liz confessed.

"Oh. Why not?"

"I'm not sure how well she'd take it. I mean, if it wasn't for Richard, she probably wouldn't have let me marry Elladan. I mean, I would hate to disappear, but…"

"I understand. I was there, remember? If you want, I'll go get her," Rebecca offered.

"How about you tell her?" Liz asked hopefully.

"No, you have to."

Liz sighed. "Go get her."

Rebecca ran out of the room and retrieved Liz's mother.

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"Is something wrong?" Sue asked.

"Well, no. But, it is urgent."

Sue followed Rebecca to Liz's dressing room, and went in.

"You have something we need to talk about?" her mother asked.

"Yeah mom… you see… well… You know Elladan is an elf, and he really doesn't belong here. Well, if I marry him, I won't either. See, he has to leave and go home to Valinor, and I have to go with him. We'll leave and never come back."

Sue collapsed into a chair. "So, you're going to marry Elladan, go away, and never come back. Just like that."

"Well not right away! It'll be a month or two."

"Liz! I-I don't know what to say. I don't want to lose you Liz. You are all I have left of your dear father. And what would he have said of all this? Would he want you to just run off and leave me forever?"

"Yes."

"Yes what!"

"Yes, he would want me to go with Elladan."

"And you know this how?" Sue snapped.

"Because he told me so."

"How in the world…"

Liz quickly explained the meeting she had with her father, and in the end, though it was very hard, she let Liz marry Elladan with her blessing.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The piano played softly as Liz walked up the aisle, escorted by her step-father Richard. Elladan stood at the end in a tuxedo, looking overjoyed and eager to get to be finally be done getting married to Liz, and actually be married to her. Without hitch the ceremony went, and the preacher told her he may kiss his bride.

Author's note: I apologize for being so incredibly slow in getting this chapter out. I am graduating tomorrow, and I just haven't had a moment to write! Next chapter shall come as fast as I can get it. Thank you for being so patient. Review!