Chapter 17

Warnings: Some disturbing scenes, description of a massacre

Authors note: OMG IT'S ALIVE! Yes that's right I am back. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

(Elenna)

"And Oh! Do you remember the time when I refused to get fitted for a new dress and ran out of the room dragging you with me? Ooo adar got so mad. I can still see him running after us, robes askew, all the way across the fields!" Arwen laughed, reminiscing fondly of our childhood days. I laughed with her, memories of so long ago flooding back into my mind.

"Oh Ellie, how I have missed you." Arwen said wistfully, after our laughter died down. "You cannot imagine how I felt the day the search party returned after months in the wilds, carrying back few bodies of those who were lucky enough to be left intact after death. The horror on naneth's face and adar's fearful silence. It was terrible."

I said nothing, but could only look sadly down at my hands folded neatly in my lap. That was one memory I still did not have, yet after all the things I've heard from the Lady and now Lady Arwen, I do not ever want to recall such an event.

Arwen noted my silence and took my hands in hers, causing me to look up at her once again.

"I'm sorry Elenna, I did not mean to bring up painful memories for you as well." She said sincerely, looking searchingly at me. "This is supposed to be a happy night."

At her kind words, I smiled again, looking lovingly at this long-lost sister that I had gained in her tonight. "It is of no matter. I have no memories of that day long ago, and I do not wish to ever remember it, but it is good to know of it at last. And if such a forgotten event brings pain to me, than I can all the more imagine how you would have felt. You will always find a ready listener in me, milady." I replied.

Arwen beamed at me, and then shook her finger reproachfully at me. "None of this 'milady' business. Arwen will do fine, though I don't really like "Ari" anymore. I hate when Elladan and Elrohir call me that." She made a face, "They make sound as childish as possible. It does not help with adar being overprotective at all."

I smiled, imagining the twins at their mischief again. In the past hour in which we have been talking, Arwen has told me much of the twin's escapades, some which I recall, and others which I have no memory of at all. Arwen smiled back at me.

At that moment, Haldir and the aforementioned twins wandered back into the room once again.

"Still talking?" asked the dark haired twin on the right. Somehow, I knew instantly that it was Elladan. His manner was gentler and his voice was musical and lilting.

"They are ellith, muindor nin." Retorted the dark twin on the left, "That is what they do." Of course, Elrohir had always been the more spirited one of the two. His voice had a brighter timbre to it, and he laughed more easily.

"But is this Elenna we are talking about, Elrohir?" Haldir interjected, "If I remember correctly, she has not spoken a word in nigh on a month till this afternoon."

At Haldir's words, Arwen looked somewhat alarmed and concerned. However, Elrohir broke in again before she had time to speak.

"Elenna is an elleth, Haldir, it is inevitable." He reasoned, in his own Elrohir-ish way. "All elleth chatter."

At his words, both Haldir and Arwen looked outraged. I only chuckled quietly at the looks they gave him simultaneously. Elladan caught my eye as I laughed to myself silently and winked. Arwen looked hugely indignant while Haldir was practically fuming. Just as they both opened their mouths at the same time to chastise Elrohir, Elladan suddenly spoke quietly on the side to me.

"Shall I escort you to your chambers Elenna?" He whispered into my ear as Arwen and Haldir both started put Elrohir firmly in his place. "This may take all night." I glanced at the three of them now locked heatedly in argument and nodded, smiling wearily at Elladan.

"Please Dan, I'm tired, take me to bed."

Suddenly, I felt like I was 20 years old again, and my older brother was leading me sleepily by the hand through the winding halls of the Last Homely House. Finally, Elladan led me through the door into a wide chamber hung with white draperies, occasionally ruffled by the cool late summer breeze. I looked drowsily around the room, eyeing the soft feather bed at the far end of the room. I felt a pair of gentle hands tenderly lifting the worn grey cloak from my tired shoulders and then Elladan was lifting me up and carrying me towards the soft looking bed. I buried nose in his blue tunic, closing my eyes and sighing wearily. He smelled of sandalwood and berries. He had always loved berry picking in the summer with Elrohir, I recalled. Elladan set me down gently onto the bed and tucked the covers in around me. I stretched contentedly and then opened my eyes, turning my head to see him smiling dotingly down at me, seated in a chair by my bedside.

"Sleep little sister." He said softly, "You have traveled far today."

I yawned in replied, burying my nose into the soft downy pillows. I heard muffled chuckling coming from the chair by my bed. I took my head out of the pillows and eyed Elladan sleepily.

"Oh Ellie, you're still so much like that little elleth I used to tuck into bed all those nights when your adar and naneth were away on some important business or the other with my adar and naneth." He smiled, grinning at me in that special way of his that used to make me feel like I was the only one in the entire world that mattered to him.

"Though I doubt you remember me now, it was so many years ago." He continued sadly, "And you were so little then."

"I remember you Elladan." I mumbled, my eyelids were getting too heavy to keep open. "You were my favorite brother. Elrohir always teased me about not running fast enough to keep up with him. You always hung back a little, just to make sure I kept up with you fine."

At this point, I really could not string two more words together properly, and resigned gladly to the welcome arms of sleep. As I drifted off to pleasant dreams of happier days, I heard his gentle voice one last time.

"Oh little sister how I missed you."

(Elladan)

I looked affectionately down at the sleeping elleth curled up on the white bed before me. Little Elenna, how much you have grown. I could hardly recognize the lovely and beautiful elleth before my eyes. It is no wonder at all how even an ellon like Haldir would have fallen in love with you. You capture the love of all those who know you.

A little content sigh came from the peaceful figure beside me and I smiled. Making sure the covers were tucked securely around her one last time, I rose to leave.

Making my way once again back to the chamber where I had last left the angry trio, I thought much of bygone days when the four of us – my brother, my sister, Elenna and I – played happily together in the beautiful valley of Imladris. I remembered clearly the day she had come to me tearfully, telling me between anguished sobs that her adar and naneth were taking far away from Imladris, and she didn't know if she was going to return or not. The memory of that day was fresh in my mind, as if it had only happened yesterday.

/flash/

"Dan I don't wanna go!"

Little Elenna had ran sobbing to find me, out in the little creek in the forest where we had always met, the moment she heard from her naneth that they were to be going to Lothlorien in a fortnight.

"I don't wanna go to Lothlorien. I wanna stay here with you."

She buried her tear stained cheek into my tunic, hugging me tightly to her. I patted her comfortingly on the head and gently pried her off me.

"Ellie, don't cry. I'm sure you'll be back before you know it." I said, producing a handkerchief from my pocket and kneeling down to wipe the tears off her little face.

"But you said you would take me berry picking with you and Elrohir this summer! You promised!" she protested, sniffling, "You said I could go with you as soon as I turned thirty and my begetting day is next month!"

Sighing, I pulled her to sit on my lap, handkerchief at the ready in case she starts crying again.

"I know I promised Ellie, but you must go with your adar and naneth to Lothlorien to see daernaneth and daeradar in Lothlorien." I told her. "And daernaneth will have lots of kinds of tasty berries for you to eat in her garden and daeradar will give you lots of pretty dresses to wear, and you will forget all about missing berry picking with me here in boring old Imladris."

Elenna looked up at me with her shining silver eyes on hearing my enticing promises and proceeded to bombard me with questions about Lothlorien.

"What kind of berries do daernaneth have in her garden? Does she have blueberries? Is her garden very big? Do you think she'll let me to pick some of them on my own? Is daernaneth very nice?"

"Easy there, Ellie." I laughed, holding up my hands. "I cannot possibly remember all those questions if you ask me them all at once."

So, Elenna remained obediently silent and looked up attentively at me for my answers. I took a deep breath and attempted to satisfy little Elenna's curiousity.

"Lets see…daernaneth has all sorts of berries imaginable in her garden, yes she does happen to have blueberries (very big ones too if I recall correctly), yes her garden is very big it is larger than all the gardens here in Imladris put together, yes I do imagine she would let you pick some of them on your own and yes daernaneth is best daernaneth you could ever have. Does that answer your question Ellie?"

"Yes." She replied. She pondered over the new information for a moment, while I looked amusedly at her little frowning face screwed up in deepest concentration.

"But Elladan, I still want to stay here with you and Ari." She said after a while of quiet contemplation. "Even if daernaneth has a lot of berries for picking in her garden, it wouldn't be as much fun if you weren't there to pick berries with me."

I sighed, taking her little white hands, delicate as a bloom of niphredil into my own. "Elenna, you know I cannot go with you." I said, with not a little regret. I was going to miss her greatly as well. "I must stay here with my adar and naneth. There are many duties I have here to do, or I would have surely accompanied you to Lothlorien."

Elenna sniffed again at my words. I smiled down at this melancholy little figure seated primly on my knee and took her small face in my hands.

"Do not be sorrowful little Elenna," I said, smiling again at the look of her radiant silver eyes now swimming in tears threatening to burst forth again. "It is a wonderful thing that you are going to Lothlorien. You will love it there; it is the most beautiful place in all of Middle Earth. I wish I could go to Lothlorien myself, but since I cannot, you must go on my behalf, alright?"

I handed her the sodden handkerchief and she wiped her eyes again, bravely putting on a smile for me.

"Alright." She said. I smiled at her again as she handed me back the handkerchief with the air of a martyr. "I suppose I'll do it then. But only for you Dan, not because naneth says I must."

I laughed at her words, tucking the handkerchief into my belt. "That's the Ellie I know: always a fighter. I'm starting to think that Elrohir and I are a bad influence on you."

She raised her little chin proudly and then laughed when I rolled my eyes at her. I laughed too and took her in my arms, swinging her around me while she squealed with delight. When we both got too dizzy to stay upright, we collapsed on the soft grass near the trickling brook, both looking up at the emerald canopy of the trees spinning high above us.

"Elladan." She asked suddenly, when we had both recovered somewhat. "Will I ever see you again?"

Her strange question struck an inexplicable chill in my heart, but I pushed it quickly aside and answered her. "Of course you will Elenna! What a question to ask!" I exclaimed, "You will see me again very soon and then you shall have to put up with me everyday. Then you'll wish that you never came home from Lothlorien."

I turned my head to smile at her, but Elenna did not smile back.

As I led her by the hand back to the Last Homely House at twilight, she did not speak another word again. Nor did she speak anymore save for a few words after that day. The morning that the traveling party assembled to depart in the courtyard, I took little Elenna aside again to bid her farewell.

"Well this is it, Ellie. You have a great adventure before you, you know that?" I told her, trying to coax her frowning face into a smile.

Elenna remained silent and I frowned.

"Well Ellie, aren't you going to say good-bye to your favorite brother?" I said a little hurt. Elenna gave me a weak little smile and whispered, "Namárië, Elladan."

I was surprised at the sound of her voice, which sounded so much older than a girl of thirty, which by elven standards was barely older than birth. But I pushed that thought away as well, putting all my thought into making her smile again.

"You must pick lots and lots of berries for me, alright?" I said, "You know how Elrohir always shoves them all in his face before they even hit the basket, so you must save some for me to eat from daernaneth's wonderful garden. Will you do that for me Ellie?"

At my words, she really did laugh again and nodded. Much appeased, I smiled contentedly at her. Then taking an intricate mithril necklace from my pockets I placed it around her little neck, smoothing down the little white jewel pendant to hang straight.

"This is an early begetting day present for you, Elenna, since I will not be with you when you turn thirty." I told her, while she inspected the pendant closely. "Keep it well and think of me often while you are away, alright?"

She nodded, looking happily at the beautiful pendant that I had especially made for her a fortnight ago, when she had told me of her impending departure.

Standing on the steps of the Last Homely House, I stood waving with the rest of the household as the party rode out the gates of Imladris. Little Elenna riding with her naneth on a grey mare, turned back to wave once last time, smiling at me and me only, until she disappeared around the bend, the jewel on her pendant flashing one last time in the sunlight.

"Namárië, Elenna." I whispered.

I never saw her again.

/flash/

The sound of argument woke me from my ponderings as I entered once again into the small chamber where Elrohir, Haldir and Arwen were still locked into debate on what elleth were and were not. I sighed wearily and slammed the door loudly close behind me, making all three of them jump at once.

"That's better." I said, walking towards the three of them, gathered near the fire. "And now I think that everyone should go to bed. Haldir must be weary from his journey and you two should not be keeping him from his rest."

Elrohir and Arwen looked a little shame-faced and quickly took their leave of the marchwarden, bidding him a good-night. As they slipped past me out the doorway to their respective rooms, I approached the marchwarden.

"I have shown Elenna to her chambers in the east wing." I said to him, "I will have someone show you the way momentarily. But for now, I bid you goodnight my friend."

He nodded gratefully, eyeing me while I summoned a maid and gave her instructions to take the saddlebags and show the marchwarden to the east wing chambers.

After the marchwarden had left the room, I was left alone once again to my troubled thoughts, staring pensively into the dying fire. The images of long ago swimming around and around in my mind, until I thought I could no longer bear it. That terrible day over a millienia ago was forever branded into my memory.

/flash/

"What do you mean they never arrived in Lorien?" I demanded, one fateful night when adar had gathered me, Elrohir and Arwen into his study. Naneth stood to one side, shaking visibly, clutching the corner of the desk so tightly that her knuckles were turning frighteningly white.

"Perhaps they were delayed by bad weather?" Elrohir ventured cautiously, "Those kinds of things do tend to happen on the road."

But adar shook his head hesitantly, lips pressed into a thin line.

"Your daeradar has sent out a party to meet them, a few days from Lothlorien, but they never appeared." He said quietly, "They searched long for them, but they never found them. Your daernaneth is sending out a search party."

At his words, naneth collapsed with a little gasp into a chair behind her, looking up with despair in her eyes at my adar.

"Adar, let me go help them." I said, my heart dropping into my stomach at these ill-omened revelations. "Let me help daeradar with the search party. Perhaps I can be of great help if I start out from Imladris and follow the route they would have taken."

I looked hopefully at my adar, trying to convince myself that there may still be a sliver of a chance that this was all some great mistake and they had only lost their way because of bad weather or whatnot. At my side, Elrohir nodded fervently. Even though he was not as close to Elenna as I was, he still cared for her a great deal, contrary to what he may say. We also held our aunt and uncle in the highest respects and wished them to be in no harm either.

Adar sighed, gathering up the thin sheet of parchment that had brought us such unsettling news.

"That is what I had been planning on doing." He said, rolling that small rectangular sheet up and placing it lightly down into a drawer. "I am sending a search party from Imladris on the morrow, and you and Elrohir may go if you wish."

Naneth, however, looked visibly paler if that was possible, seated in the chair beside adar, wringing her hands anxiously.

"Elrond, how can you send our own sons out into unknown dangers?" She said, looking quite alarmed, "For all you know they could go missing as well! And we'll not hear sight or sound of them again!"

Adar placed a comforting arm around naneth and tried to placate her in his own calm manner.

"Meleth, our sons are grown ellyn, they are skilled in warfare and woodcraft, they will be able to take care of themselves." He said soothingly, rubbing his hands gently around naneth's shoulders. "They will be of great help in searching for the lost party and bringing them back to safety."

Naneth did not look entirely convinced, but adar's soothing words had helped a little to ease her fears. She nodded her consent reluctantly and slumped down into her chair.

"Please Elrond," she said to adar in a little voice, "find my sister."

And then she could take no more and collapsed into tears, sobbing into her hands while adar tried vainly to appease her. Elrohir, Arwen and I slipped quietly out of the room, greatly disturbed by this news that bodes no good for my aunt and her family.

Morning found a large party from Imladris riding with great haste out from the nestled valley towards Lorien. As we rode urgently onwards, we scanned the road regularly at intervals for any signs of the missing party. We rode south west of the Hithaeglir passing by Eregion, riding on swiftly to Lothlorien. We were nearing the Glanduin when we caught sight of the first traces of the missing party. There must have been rain that day when they passed there because in the dried mud of the road, we found many hoof prints of elven horses, pressed into the earth. There had been no rain since then, for it was a dry summer, so the impressions were nicely preserved in the ground.

En-heartened by our success, we followed the tracks which led curiously off the road, and our hearts sank because we realized that clearly the party had been forced to flee from something far off the main road. Anyone who traveled in these parts knew that to step off the road was a very risky business indeed.

And then suddenly, we rode into a clearing where our eyes met with a horrendous sight. Some of the younger ellon who had not seen much of war were forced to empty the contents of their stomach on the nearby shrubbery, and even some of the seasoned warriors looked like they wanted to be sick. I heard Elrohir beside me gasp in dismay and revulsion. And as for me, no words could ever describe what I felt at the moment, looking on the gruesome scene before me.

Bodies were scattered everywhere on the ground, if bodies are what you call them. There was barely a body on the ground that was whole; mostly it was just pieces of bodies all over the place. And the blood. The ground beneath us was covered in a lake of dark crimson, and the ground called up to us in anguish, lamenting with all the souls of the slain. The carcasses of several of the horses had large chunks torn off them, like they had been the feast of some fell beast. The banners bearing the emblem of Imladris lay tattered on the ground, trampled crimson underfoot. After we got past the horrifying sight of the carnage, we began to realize that this was not a natural clearing in the forest. Many of the trees had been uprooted, and thrown to one side, crushing many of the surrounding trees. We stared in shock as to wonder at what kind of creature could have possibly wreaked that kind of damage. All of us stood rooted to the ground in utmost horror and alarm.

It was Elrohir who first recovered from our trance, and he dismounted cautiously, walking out among the scene of what most clearly had been a massacre. Crouching tentatively on the ground, he carefully examined the tracks, while I dismounted also and walked to his side.

"Wargs from Dol Goldur and many Yrch." He said, after a moment of comptemplation. "And something else, very large. It was that which caused the damage to the trees." He looked up at me with despair in his eyes. "Elladan, none of them could have possibly survived."

At my brother's words, I closed my eyes in anguish. He was right, judging by the carnage and blood at the scene, there was no possible chance they could have escaped at all. They had been surrounded and picked off one by one. I choked back a sob and tried to gather my emotions.

I rose from crouching beside Elrohir, steadying myself on the torn stump of all that remained of a nearby tree. As I touched it, it cried up to me in sorrow. The black shadow has passed by here It said, The black shadow has killed them all. The black shadow has silenced all those who speak.

At the words of the tree, I cried in dismay. The origins of the large prints had been accounted for.

"Nazgûl!" I gasped. "Nazgûl passed by here. A Nazgûl on wings!"

There was a collective gasp from the party. Elrohir looked up at me with horror, searching my face with his sorrowful eyes.

"Are you sure, muindor?" He asked quietly, his voice no more than a whisper. I swallowed and nodded, closing my eyes once again.

"The forest has spoken of the black shadow." I said.

At my words, there was a large uproar in the party, speculating how we had failed to detect the presence of the Nazgûl at Dol Goldur. It was Elrohir again who first regained his head and silenced everyone.

"We must gather all those we can to bring home to Imladris." He said, his voice on the verge of breaking, "It is the least we can do."

Everyone nodded and bowed our heads, whispering a prayer to all the slain souls of the departed. Then we set ourselves to our gruesome task, each and every one of us stained crimson by the blood on the ground.

It was near the roots of a tree at the edge of the clearing when I found it.

The white jewel pendant of mithril lay broken on the ground, stained with dark crimson as was everything else was. I picked up the broken pendant and held it carefully in the palm of my hand, staring despairingly at the last remnants of the little sister I had loved so much. So much. I closed my hand tightly around the necklace and fell to my knees, looking up into the sky, crying out in grief. Then I could hold in my tears no longer and collapsed into a pathetic form on the ground sobbing uncontrollably. After a while, when my tears had somewhat subsided, I felt my brother's hand on my shoulder, comforting me.

"Elladan, they are gone." He said, not a little tearfully himself. "You cannot bring them back with tears."

"Elrohir," I said, rising to look at the blurry figure of my brother through my tears. "I gave her this necklace for her begetting day." I opened my hand to show him the bloodstained necklace. "She turned thirty two weeks ago. By Eru she is only a child!"

I broke into fresh tears again.

"Why!" I asked the blue skies above us in the clearing. "Why Elenna!"

But no one answered.

"Why Elenna..."

/flash/

After that day, nothing was the same again. We brought all that we could back to Imladris with us, sending messengers to Lothlorien of our distressing tidings. And then, we broke the news to adar and naneth.

Naneth cried until she had no more tears to cry. Then she collected herself and spoke no more, plunging into a terrible bout of silence, that not even adar could break. When we spoke to her of Aunt Nimbrethil, she would look at us with a freezing look that froze us to the very core of our being.

"Sister?" she would reply in a deadly cold voice. "I have no sister. We shall never speak of this again."

And we did not.

A cloud of gloom descended over Imladris, mourning the deaths of all those lost on that fateful day. But none mourned more bitterly than me. At every turn and every doorway, I fancied I could see the smiling small figure of Elenna, beckoning me over to play with her, laughing in that beautiful way of her own. I thought I was going mad with grief.

Elenna smiling in the fields, Elenna running after me and Elrohir, Elenna standing with her little arms crossed indignantly in front of her when Elrohir teased her about one thing or another.

The jewelled pendant, I kept with me always. Repairing the broken clasp, I wore the pendant near my heart beneath my tunic, carrying the memory of her with me forever. The blood I never did wash away, reluctant to wipe away the last remnants of the little sister whom I had loved with all of my being.

Ever after that, I hid my pain with laughter and jokes, so that none would know the depth of my pain, save my brother who I could never hide anything from.

The painful memories brought tears to my eyes, and I stared unseeingly into the last dying embers of the fire as a single tear ran down my cheek.

Oh but she was alive! Dear Elenna, alive and whole!

I was delirious with joy. The feeling that had been building within me the moment that adar declared that my Elenna was alive and well in Lothlorien with daernaneth had been escalading higher and higher in the past month, in fearful anticipation of her coming.

It has been a thousand years, but I was finally going to see her again! My beloved sister, you are alive!

The sound of her laughter earlier this night, chuckling mirthfully at our pestering of Haldir, filled my heart with inexplicable joy.

I laughed out loud to no one in particular, breaking into tears of joy.

Then I heard a soft pattering of feet from the doorway behind me and I turned to see Elenna, dressed in a white nightgown, standing barefoot in the room behind me.

"You are crying Elladan." She stated matter-of-factly.

I laughed again, wiping away the tears from my face, and rising to meet her.

"You should be resting Elenna, go back to bed or else Haldir will have my head." I said, smiling.

"I am not tired anymore Elladan, I have slept for four hours already. It is near dawn." She said, settling herself down on a couch by the fire. I walked to the fireplace and piled more logs onto the fire, stoking it back to life.

"Why are you crying Elladan?" she asked softly, as I settled myself into the chair opposite her. "Are you not happy to see me?"

I looked at her tenderly, the tears threatening once again to overflow.

"Of course I am glad to see you Elenna!" I exclaimed quietly, "I have waited for this moment for a thousand years, to see you alive and whole and well."

"Elenna you have no idea how much I have missed you." I added softly, seeing the appeased look on her face.

"Come now, brother." She said smiling, reaching across to take my hands in her own. "Do no look so sorrowful. I am here, and that is all that matters."

For a moment we just sat smiling at each other, the fire in the fireplace crackling pleasantly, casting our long shadows across the room. For a moment, I believed that I was the happiest ellon in the world – my little sister was alive! And here she was sitting across from me, the picture of beauty, holding my hand comfortingly in her own.

"Elenna, you have grown so much." I said, almost tempted to pinch myself to see if this was only a dream, or in fact reality. "Grown so much more wiser and more beautiful than ever."

Elenna laughed, in that delightful way of hers that I had always remembered in my mind.

"Well of course, Elladan." She replied, laughing, "Did you expect me to remain forever that little girl I was a thousand years ago?"

I laughed. Her laugher was infectious, and filled my heart with happiness, wiping away all the years of sorrow and grief, which had lain heavily upon my shoulders.

We talked long into the early hours of the morning, until the sun shone brightly through the open window and cast its light in a pool on the woven carpet. And finally, exhausted at last of our long winding talks, we fell asleep together on the couches by the fire; Elenna curled up tightly in a ball in my arms, the jewelled pendant resting snugly upon her breast.

Notes:

Daernaneth – grandmother
Daeradar – grandfather
Namárië – farewell
Muindor – brother

After more than year of being in limbo, this story has FINALLY taken off again. I hope you guys are still sticking around to read it. And if you could review, it may just convince me to write faster... cheerios!