She reached a hand to shield her eyes, wincing at the bright sunlight that met them, making her blink uncontrollably for a second. Behind her, she could hear the cracking and croaking of the branches stretching unnaturally, intertwining with one another, the opening through which they had emerged disappearing. Next to her, Lossenel climbed over the closest robust branch with impressive ability, one of her own pale delicate hands shielding her own eyes at the brightness.
It was day outside. For a moment she realized that she had not even remembered or wondered as to whether or not the sun would be out, having gotten used to the steady darkness of the cave. And yet, even in the golden sunlight, the large leaves all around her shimmered in sparkles of silver, glowing in the same way in which the tree roots had done down in the cavern. She could hear it once more, the whispers. Like a soft whispered tune that caressed her skin and brushed her long golden hair, singing and muttering in an unintelligible language. And power. She could feel the power. As overwhelming as it had felt the night she had followed her father through this very same branches and towards the safety of the caves. It sent shivers down her spine, feeling both so fascinating and alluring and at the same eerily terrifying.
"What now?" Lossenel's soft voice made her return from her wondering thoughts, her head turning around to face her older sister. The Princess' platinum hair and extremely fair skin seemed to glow as silver as the leaves around them, making her have a strange aura as if she belonged there among the shimmering branches, a heavenly vision instead of an actual living being.
She opened her mouth to speak, finding out that she did not know what to answer. What now? She did not have a plan. She had not had a plan. She had just been so eager to leave the suffocating cave, to be able to do something instead of waiting, that now that she was here, outside in the sunlit forest, she did not know what to do next. Their father would be furious. She nearly winced in sympathy as she imagined the ire that Galion would be about to face. And yet, another wave of worry and fear engulfed her as her thoughts drifted to her father and brothers. Had they been able to find Arahaelon yet? Or at least any trace of where the cloaked figures had disappeared to? It was unlikely.
And then another thought crossed her mind. The trees and branches around them were eerily calm, whispering and muttering and swirling with power, yet seeming at peace. Her father yet ignored she and Lossenel had left the cave. She was sure he would try to reach them through the trees, would try to coax them back to safety.
"Let us get away from here" She whispered, as if fearing that the trees could read through her thoughts and would try to stop them. And yet, though part of her knew that these trees meant their father could easily reach them, they also meant safety. Why was she so intent in abandoning safety?
"I think that would be wise." Her sister smiled at her, a faint smile that merely reached her eyes, seeming to be having the same thought as her.
"Lossie?" She could not hold back her question as she followed the Princess, who had decided to lead the way, leaping from branch to branch with graceful ease, one of her hands still securely holding to the Crown Prince's bow. "Have you been here before?"
"No." Her sister's ice blue-green eyes turned to glance in her direction, managing another graceful leap and waiting for her to catch up. "Arahaelon is the only one of us who has ever been here before."
She could not tell how high up in the branches they were, only knowing that no matter how much she tried, she could not see the ground below, the foliage too thick. And still she could not fight the frustration and despair that was slowly taking hold of her. She could still not feel Elladan through their bond, could not reach him. They needed to get farther from the protected trees, out into the forest. She needed to find him, needed to reach him. Needed to know he was all right.
"When did he come here?" She continued to ask, her voice barely a whisper, and yet intent on asking as much as possible while Lossenel was willing to give her answers. There were so many things she wanted to ask her sister.
"Just…before." Her sister's voice dropped darkly, eyes looking down at her feet uncharacteristically, and she could tell her sister did not wish to finish her sentence, not offering a full answer. But she did not need a full answer, knowing exactly what it was Lossenel had attempted to say.
"Before…..me, is it not?" She reached her sister's side, those gorgeous aquamarine irises turning slowly in her direction, silent yet saying so much, as quiet and still as iced welcoming ponds. "Before I happened?"
She did not need her sister to say it out loud to know it was true, and yet, against all odds, Lossenel nodded her head, the move almost imperceptible, her large stunning eyes smiling at her apologetically.
"Rëa…"Her sister sighed, one delicate hand expending in her direction to rest over her shoulder. "It was not your-
"It was not my fault." She interrupted Lossenel mid-sentence, somehow managing to smile at her older sister, even though deep inside her, she did not feel like it. "I know it was not my fault. Everybody keeps telling me that. I know it."
It was frustrating. Everybody kept trying to remind her that, using that phrase as a means to end her questioning, trying to comfort her by telling her not to blame herself instead of fully answering her questions, instead trying to shield her. And yet, the more everybody stressed that it had not been her fault, the more she started to believe that perhaps it had been. She did not believe it was, but then why did everyone kept trying to shield her? Still, Lossenel just nodded her head, those endless eyes that she had always found so comforting, so welcoming looking at her softly, for a moment making her feel like a child next to her older sister, reminded of the age difference there was between the two.
"Ada brought Ar here once." Lossenel continued her tale, and she could not express how glad she felt with her sister for dropping the comforting comments, simply answering her questions as they continued to carefully leap from branch to branch. She had no idea where they were going, but trusted that Lossenel could find a way out of the shimmering silver branches. "Things did not go too well. I was young, so I was not told much about it. All I know is that Ada never brought Ar back here, not even when he was teaching him. And he did not bring any of the rest of us either."
"What happened?" She could not contain her question, not having expected that tale, but again Lossenel's eyes turned to look at her apologetically.
"I do not know. I was never told." It was the truth. She could see the honesty in her sister's stunningly beautiful face, suddenly feeling more connected to her sister, as if sympathizing with her, knowing how it felt to never get answers.
Even though part of her still found it hard to believe that this Lady made of snow and starlight walking next to her could ever be related to her. More than ever she wished she had been able to grow in the Palace with her family, wished to know what it would have felt like to have her own father teaching her about her powers, about how to use them, how to control them.
"Do you know where we are headed?" She questioned Lossenel as she followed her sister through another branch. At least the silvery glow seemed to be diminishing slightly. Her sister turned to look at her once more, ice colored eyes gleaming momentarily with a sparkle that reminded her of Tadion, strangely carefree and open.
"No." She admitted whit a shrug, turning around and leaping onto another thick branch, once again waiting for her to follow. "But I believed you had a plan when I followed you, which I now realize you do not."
She could not contain a light laugh from leaving her lips, momentarily stunned by her sister's words. She was mocking her. Her sister was mocking her.
"Are you having second thoughts?" She called in return, not believing the teasing sparkle she could see in her sister's shimmering eyes.
"No." Once again an honest answer, a bright smile turning in her direction warmly before Lossenel spoke again, her voice suddenly sounding serious once more. "It is a circle."
"What?"
"It is a circle." Her sister repeated, saying the words as if she had known them all along. "It is called the heart of the forest. Also called the core of the forest. Where is a heart placed?"
"In the middle." The words left her mouth in a stunned whisper, looking at her sister with a faint smile. She had figured it out. Lossenel had figured it out. And it seemed so obvious now that she was hearing it.
"In the middle." Losenel repeated, her eyes scanning carefully all around her. "Which makes this" -Her sister's arms indicated to the labyrinth silvery shimmering branches extending all around her -" a circle. The entrance to the cave is right in the middle of it, the trees losing power as you reach the periphery. To get out, you just need to be able to walk in a straight line away from the center."
"And are we walking in a straight line?" She asked, her own green eyes eyeing the maze of branches around them. All of them looked almost exactly the same, making it impossible for her to know in which direction they had even come.
"No." Lossenel replied, not sounding as preoccupied by her answer as she herself felt. "The forest does not want us to walk in a straight line. See? The branches keep curving, the nearest one is always bending in a different direction forcing you to either zigzag if you really know where you are headed, or making you lose your path and walk in circles. We are no longer with Ada to guide the way, and the forest knows that. Only the King will be allowed clear passage."
"Then how do we walk in a straight line?" She was starting to get more and more frustrated, feeling as if she would never get out of this labyrinth of silver leaves. "Any straight line! If we only walk straight, we would eventually reach one end of the circle."
"That would be too simple." Her sister answered without turning to look at her, still eyeing the trees all around them as if she was slowly starting to be able to read them, to be able to pick something from what she was seeing that Almarëa was definitely missing. "There is only one way out once you reach the perimeter. I have heard Ada say so before. That is why it is the safest place in Mirkwood, the place that protects the King. The forest protects its King. Only one way in and one way out. Only the King knows the way in and only the King knows the way out. It has to be the same way we came from a couple of days ago."
"Can you remember where that was?" She would be entirely too surprised if her sister did manage to remember that, finding that the trees looked too similar, encroaching them from all directions. She would never be able to remember that no matter how hard she tried.
"No." Her stomach sank at her sister's words, for a moment fearing that they would remain stuck in this labyrinth, walking from branch to branch for the rest of eternity. "The trees change."
"They what?" It had to be joke. It had to be the cruelest joke anyone had ever played on her, for a second making her wish she had remained in the cave with their mother. No. Who was she kidding. Anything was better than sitting down and wait, not when half of her family seemed to be in danger and she could not even tell if Elladan and Elrohir were even all right and uninjured.
"They change, Rëa. They move." Of course they did. "The paths are never the same. You can never see the way out."
"Can we head back to the center then? To where the entrance to the cave is supposed to be?" She suggested, not seeing any other way out at the moment. "If we already are walking in the wrong direction, it would be easier to start from the middle again."
She did not wish to find herself wondering in circles through the maze of branches, not knowing if they would ever find a way out. If they needed to figure out a way to walk in a perfectly straight line and in only one direction, it would easiest to do so directly from the center than trying to find a path from wherever they were now.
"Perhaps that is the best thing to do." And with that Lossenel turned around, leaping once again from branch to branch nearly the same way they had come.
"Will we be able to find the center again?"
"Yes." Lossenel added as she continued to move quickly. "The center will be no problem, although the entrance to the cave will not open again unless Ada has returned and he makes it so. The problem will be finding the way out."
She was starting to doubt the trees would let them go anywhere, feeling the swirls of overwhelming power caressing her skin like haunting spectral claws, whispering in her ears and muttering inside her head. Every now and then the soft muttering breeze would carry whispers of a thousand voices with it, growing stronger and stronger, making her skin grow cold, crawling at her arms and down her back.
"Almarëa….." she could hear the hissing ringing in her ears again, Lossenel's wide eyes turning to glance at her with a combination of fear and warning. "We want to meet you…" The whispers dragged, seeming to be tugging at her, pushing at her mind the same way they had done a few days ago, and yet the forest still refused to let them know the way out.
"Almarëa…..Come join usssss….give usss energy….."
But she pushed them back, their power frightening her. She would never be able to control it, even if she tried to call on the trees using her own powers, Arahelon's words of warning from a few days ago still ringing inside her head: "Do not answer."
Arahaleon. If there was any of her siblings who would know the way out, any of them who would be able to figure it out, it would be Arahaelon. She could feel her heart sinking as her stomach turned to stone, shivers travelling down her body as she feared just where could the Crown Prince possibly be at this moment. Was he even all right? Lossenel had said….No she did not want to think about that. Arahaelon would be fine. He would not be killed. He would not be harmed. Arahaelon would be all right.
And yet, more than ever she wished she could think like him, if only just now. If only for a second she would be allowed to know how his mind worked, to be able to know how his trail of thought went, then she would be able to figure a way out of this labyrinth. She knew she and Lossenel must be missing something, but Ar never missed anything.
"Here we are." Lossenel spoke, looking slightly hopelessly around her, and she noticed they had reached the set of very tightly intertwined branches that previously opened to reveal the cave below. They did not seem about to move this time. And the trees around them were still eerily peaceful, a thing that she did not know whether it comforted her or frightened her. So their father did not yet know she and Lossenel were out here. So he had not yet returned to the cave where their mother and Galion remained waiting.
"What now?" She asked, looking hopefully at her older sister, trying to trick herself into believing that Lossenel magically knew the way, but that was not the case.
Her sister shrugged, and she felt her last remains of hope vanishing. She let out a frustrated sigh, watching as the snowy Princess lowered herself to sit on the overly wide branch, looking almost defeated. No. This was not how it was supposed to go. This was not what she had had in mind when she had left the cave. She was supposed to have been helping, she was supposed to have been doing something, anything, not sitting here lost in the maze of tress that would not let them out! But where were they to go? They could only walk in circles, the trees not intent in ever letting them out.
"Ar would know the way out." She found herself whispering as she dropped herself next to her sister, Lossenel's hand coming to rest over hers comfortingly.
And yet she did not miss the way in which her sister winced slightly at the mention of the Crown Prince a momentary flash of fear and anxiety crossed over her face before it disappeared. She was worried for their eldest brother. Of course she was. She knew of all the siblings, she was the closest to Arahaelon, perhaps at a tie with Legolas.
"He would." She agreed, nodding her head once before her eyes continued to search around her snowy stunning figure, as if trying to figure out which way to go next, yet not standing up.
"What would Ar do now?" She asked, trying to find a way to go next, to figure out what they were missing.
"That is impossible to know." Against anything she had expected, Lossenel laughed, shaking her platinum head slightly, strands moving about messily in tangles. "He thinks too quickly, does not miss a thing, and his memory is impressive. I bet he would remember the way back to perfection, even if the trees have changed. You can never know what he would or would not do."
She let out another frustrated sigh. That was not helpful at all. How were they supposed to figure out what they were missing if they had no clue on when to start? And moving around in circles once more was not helpful.
"But Ar is not here." Lossenel whispered again, somehow smiling at her even through the fear and pain that crossed her eyes, and never before had any other smile seemed more encouraging. "Do not ask yourself what he would do, because you will never know that. Ask yourself what you would do, Rëa."
"Hm." She snorted, somehow feeling more defeated than before, more useless than she had at the cave where she had been waiting with her mother. "Perhaps we should not have left."
"Perhaps." Lossenel shrugged, not seeming to worried about it, her gorgeous aquamarine eyes, the color of an iced coated pond staring at her warmly, concealed thoughts swirling in their endless depths, right underneath that beautiful crystal surface, welcoming her. "But I did not follow you out that cave for you to give up as you are doing now, when we have not even found a way out of here."
"Then why did you follow me?" She snapped in return, tired of feeling useless, tired of not knowing what to do next. "I cannot fight, I do not know how to wield any arms in defense, nor do I carry any. I have no plan, nor any ide or where to go or what to do if we ever manage to get out this labyrinth! I am not as strong as Tadion, or as quick as Legolas, or as clever as Ar!"
"If I had wanted to be next to someone 'as strong as Tadion or as quick as Legolas', I would have just followed them through the caves with, Ada, would I not?" Her sister shrugged again, not seeming at all bothered by the sharpness with which she was addressed, instead sounding calm and gentle.
"Ada would never have allowed you to." She muttered in return, her sister letting out a small chuckle to her utter frustration.
"True." Lossenel agreed, tipping her head to the side as she spoke. "But nevertheless, I followed you. And not because I expect you to attempt to think like anybody else would. I expect you to think like you would. Why do you keep thinking that someone else would always give you the answers? Why do you think that you cannot figure out how to get out of here just by thinking like yourself?"
"I do not even have a plan." She whispered, feeling more lost than she had ever before. But perhaps Lossenel was right, perhaps that was why she felt lost. There was one here to guide her, to tell where to go or what to do. There had always been someone. Either one of the twins, of siblings or her father.
"Neither do I." Lossenel smiled at her in return, and strangely enough it did feel comforting to know that she was not the only one completely clueless as to how to proceed. But then again, neither of them having a plan did not help at all!
"When did you learn to be so wise?" She narrowed her eyes at her sister, not able to fight back the faint smile that appeared on her face. Slowly above their heads, the golden rays of sunlight were turning orange and red, the sun dying somewhere far in the horizon. And she cursed inwardly, knowing that it would be dark soon.
"Arahaelon used nearly the same words on me many long years ago, when I was still an elfling." Lossenel smiled at the memory, as if remembering something she had long ago forgotten. "I was sad and angry because no matter how much I tried I was not able to read a poem only once and then able to recite it exactly word by word. Nor could I play entire melodies in the harp or flute only from watching someone play them before, without needing to know and have studied the notes."
"Can he do that?" She asked, her eyes widening slightly at the possibility, and yet the image of the elfling Crown Prince sitting on his mother's lap, little fingers playing the harp suddenly and without instruction flashed inside her mind, remembering having seen it when she had accidentally entered her eldest brother's mind.
"Yes, he can. That and many other things." Lossenel laughed at the surprised expression that was surely appearing on her face. "You should ask him to show you sometime. It is slightly unsettling, so I guess that is why he does not do things like that very often. He did when we were elflings though, before he realized not everyone had a memory like his or thought as fast as him, before he knew it sometimes troubled other older elves who could not tell how he was doing it."
"That must have been funny to see." She laughed, momentarily forgetting that they were lost, with apparently no way out, in this forsaken labyrinth of branches and leaves, wishing to hear of anything her sister would tell her, wanting to know more about the childhood Lossenel had lived.
"It was." Her sister laughed along, aquamarine eyes reflecting beautifully the silvery glow of the leaves around them. "I was still a very young elfling, but you should have seen Lord Gaerlan's face when he tried to entertain us with what he called 'magic' during a Spring Feast. He showed a stone in his hands and then made it disappear, showing us his now empty hands. I was in awe, I had no idea where the stone had gone to, but Ar was looking at me and at Lord Gaerlan confused, as if he had not understood what it was I was so impressed with. And then he told Lord Gaerlan with a perfectly straight face 'It is in your pocket. I heard it when you dropped it there'. I was so angry at Ar for ruining the 'magic' for me, and for the fact that never again Lord Gaerlan ever showed us any more tricks. But Ar had assumed that I too had heard the stone fall into the pocket. That I too had known all along where it was. He had no idea I had not noticed."
She let out a laugh, trying very hard to picture in her mind a tiny version of Lossenel being angry with her eldest brother, somehow suddenly getting the impression that an angry Lossenel, not matter the age, would be very scary and very hard to control. Her sister still sounded resentful that she never got to see any more tricks again.
"And what about Tadion? And Legolas?" The questions left her mouth before she could stop them, somehow suddenly too eager to hear more, to paint memories inside her head and try to make them her own, wanting to know more about all of her siblings.
"They are different." Her sister nodded her head, seeming willing to answer any of her questions at the moment. "They are both different. Tadion was a terror of an elfling. He would never listen to any warning, and never ran out of energy. He was always in trouble and never seemed to care about it. He was the one to make Nana become stern. I had never seen Nana giving commands so strongly or sounding scarier than she did whenever having to deal with Tadion, who still did not listen. And Legolas….welll, Legolas was sweet, and adorable, and he knew it. He had every single maid and servant in the Palace in the palm of his little hand. He could get in trouble and manage an adorable face that would make it impossible for anyone to reprimand him, although Ada did, when he deserved it. And, most annoyingly, Legolas knew exactly how to make Tadion angry, how to frustrate him and end his very short patience. I have never seen two brothers fighting so much, even though they love each other. And what use to drive Tadion insane, was that Legolas also knew exactly how to get Ar to side with him. You should have seen how hilarious it was to look at Tadion's face whenever Legolas ran to hide behind Ar's legs."
She laughed more loudly now, wishing that she could remember all of these things, wishing that she had seen them. Would she too have run to hind behind Ar's legs after having teased her older brothers? Perhaps not, Arahaelon was always so distant from her. Would she had hidden behind Tadion then? After having fought with Legolas? Would Tadion have defended her if only to get revenge from all the years in which Legolas had been defended from him? She did not know. She would never know.
"And what about me?" She asked, hoping that her sister would tell her another story, one about herself this time, but her sister only shrugged again, the twilight violet light making the silvery glow dance enchantingly over her long locks of platinum hair.
"That is something you will have to tell me." Her sister said in return, that perfect pearly smile still adorning her face. "I only knew you as a baby. You know that. It is time you told me something about you. How were you as an elfling?"
That made her smile, trying to think of what to say, for a second not thinking that Lossenel would find her own memories of living in that tiny village of men very entertaining. Oh, she had been trouble. Her adoptive mother had told her so many times, even though she always finished it with a kiss on her cheek.
"I was quiet." She said, her memory going down a path that she not travelled in a long time. "Not too quiet, but I knew how to be silent enough to sneak in and out of places, or how to sneak away from the crowd of children and run into the forest or into places I had been forbidden to go. It always made me win in games like Hide and Seek. And I was curious too, I would ask too many question and wanted to know everything, and it drove Naeraviel crazy."
"That has not changed." Lossenel whispered as she raised one of her delicate eyebrows, seeming to be listening to her tale with utmost interest.
"I guess it has not." She agreed, finding herself enjoying her sister's presence too much, wishing that they could have spent more time together before.
It had already turned pitch black around them, only the silvery glow of the leaves illuminating their surroundings like natural lanterns. How would they get out now? It had been hard enough to think of a way with the light of day let alone now, in the dark, where she could not see anything…
That was it. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, so insane and ridiculous she could barely even believe she was considering it, that she was going to say it out loud. But it had to be. It had to. She could not tell what she was feeling, but it was as if she knew she had to be right. You can never see the way out. Lossenel had said it herself. How had they overlooked that? When she thought back on it, it was almost obvious, although terrifying. The could not see the way out. Galion had even hinted at it too, after he had inspected the poisoned cut on her father's hand. Can you see me clearly, my Lord? The butler had asked, and she now understood his words had been carefully thought out. He had not asked if the King felt dizzy, or if he was disoriented or any other things. He had asked if he could see. But of course the butler had known things nobody else did, her father himself had said so when he had tried to convince Galion of leaving the palace. She had to be right. She knew it.
"I think I know the way." She suddenly whispered, sounding as baffled as she felt as the words left her mouth. Her sister's eyes turned to look at her immediately, face looking slightly stunned yet expectant, slowly rising to her feet.
"I think I know the way out." She repeated, nearly jumping to her feet as her eyes started to carefully scan the area around them. "You cannot see the way out. You said it. It is not meant to be seen. No one will ever see it. Only Ada can. It is an illusion."
Why had she not thought about that earlier. Strangely and absurdly, it made complete sense. Her father had been nearly out of energy by the time they reached the entrance of the cave, and she had attributed it to the poison entirely and the trees calling to him. But he had been trying to see, he had been putting all of his energy focusing his foggy gaze through the illusions placed by the forest, illusions that only he could lift, the forest only willingly revealing the correct path to him. The entire forest was treacherous, she had known that already, had heard many times that there were powerful enchantments and illusions throughout it, that it was so incredibly easy for one to get lost. How had she not thought that she herself was now in the middle of one of the most powerful illusions. Not that the trees around her were not real. They were all too real. She could feel it in the power that emanated from them, in the haunting whispers that called her name, in the eerie silver glow of the millions of wide leaves around.
"How can it be an illusion?" Her sister asked, confused, even though she could tell she believed her, her eyes also scanning the forest around them carefully. "Every branch we moved through was real. We would have fallen had they been an illusion. An Illusion tricks the senses, mostly they eyes, but it cannot hold your weight."
But it was once again right there, so obvious, that if only if she had thought about it sooner they would have been out of this labyrinth a long time ago.
"Because they are real." She clarified. "The trees and the branches and everything you see is real. Do you not see? That is what makes it so hard to understand, so hard to decipher. It is not what you can see that is the illusion. Is what you cannot see. The trees change. You said so too. They change and the branches lead you in circles, because the illusion changes, they disappear and appear to confuse us, to confuse anyone, and you can only see the branches that lead you to where the trees wish you to go, showing you no more possibility."
"That is powerful magic." Lossenel whispered in a sound that she could barely hear, wide eyes still looking around her, seeming to have believed and understood every single word she had said. "Strong magic. It would take an enormous unthinkable amount of both power and energy to maintain this illusion up, this kind of defense, from both the forest and from Ada. Neither the trees nor Ada could produce this illusion separately, it would have to be joined power."
"But it is joined power." She concluded again, seeing exactly what it was that Lossenel was saying, easily following her sister's trail of thought. "That is what the trees keep asking for. For more energy, for more power."
And still the level of control and sheer magnitude of power her father must be able to wield was beyond her understanding, too overwhelming. She had not imagined it could be this much. And yet it was. And suddenly Arahaelon's warning to not answer the trees made so much more sense now, as if he had known the amount of magic and power concealed and concentrated in this area. A connection like that would be near impossible to control.
"If you have figured it out, I do not think Ada will be happy to know that anyone was able to solve any of his puzzles." Lossenel's voice carried softly in the night breeze, her face looking momentarily amused, as if smirking. "Which way then?"
"That is what I do not know."
Here came the harder part, the part that she had not been looking forward to, especially since the idea she had in mind had to be positively insane. No elf in his or her right mind would ever try that.
"And now what?"
"We find out in which direction we need to go." She let out a shaky breath as she spoke, slowly moving to the edge of the wide branch upon which they stood. "Hold my hand? Do not let me fall."
Lossenel complied immediately, her delicate fingers tying securely around hers, wide eyes looking at her in momentary panic, watching her very move with worry, as if trying to decipher what she was about to do next. She walked all the way to the edge of the branch, standing scarily close to the abyss she could see down below, among lower branches way down. It could not be through the branches she could see. Jumping onto any of them would not help them, it would lead them somewhere else, wherever the trees wished to take them. It had to be through something she could not see.
"What are you doing?!" Lossenel exclaimed almost immediately the second she let one of her feet dangle over the abyss, going onto her knee and then lowering her now hovering foot lower and lower through the gap in between branches. Her sister's grasp tightened on her hand, holding onto her as she went as low as to carefully hang from the branch with both of her hands. Nothing. So this was not the correct way.
She climbed up again, with Lossenel's help, and tried the same thing over another end of the branch, going in a perfect circle right on the spot. If she could just find the concealed branches showing the correct path, if she could just find where to start…..
Aha! There it was, almost making her heart flip in both fright and relief as on the fifth attempt her feet suddenly landed on something solid where there should have been nothing but a black drop towards the ground far, far, below. For a split second a thick silvery glowing branch right under her feet came into view, as if an unexpected flicker through a bad mirror, before it disappeared again, making it seem as though she was floating in mid-air. And yet, a victorious smile crept on her face.
"It is this way." She announced proudly, helping Lossenel down on the same branch at her, finding it so strange how it looked as if they were floating. That was it, they had the start of the path.
"And now?" Lossenel questioned, not looking too happy about floating in mid-air, even though her gorgeous eyes sparkled excitedly, as if not believing what she was seeing.
"Now we walk in a straight line." She smiled too, trying to calm her racing heart and wild fear at the absurdity of what she was about to do. "Close your eyes."
"What?!" her sister's voice sounded as if she had just asked her to jump from a cliff, looking at her as if she had now definitely gone insane. But she was not insane,
"Close your eyes." She repeated, knowing how absurd and delirious the instructions sounded, especially when having to walk through branches you could not even see. "The trees will try to confuse us, that is what the illusion is there for. And I do not believe that all of the branches will be invisible. I believe some branches in the path might not be hidden at all, and then we would be lost again, no longer knowing if there will be another hidden branch or if we need to trust our eyes. That is why I suggest we do not trust them at all. This is the start of the path, from here we walk straight ahead. Slowly, and without seeing, just put one foot in front of the other. Hold onto my shoulders so that we walk in the same direction."
Once again Lossenel did as instructed, and she felt the Princess' delicate hands falling over her shoulders exactly from behind. "I must be insane to be doing this."
"Me too." She whispered, and with that she closed her eyes tightly shut, as if feeling that the more tightly she closed them, the harder it would be to open them, and then, tentatively, having a second of momentary doubt, she took a step forward.
She made it. Once again her feet landed on something solid, even though she stumbled a little at the unevenness of the branch. Better to go slowly then. And going slowly proved to be the correct way. Some of the branches were not at the same level as others, making her stumble as they walked and were forced to either drop al little or climb a little, never once opening their eyes to look at the path they were walking. She focused instead on putting one foot in front of the other, focusing on her sense of balance, not opening her eyes even once.
They walked- stumbled really- for what felt like hours, Lossenel's hands never loosening the grip over her shoulders, neither of them speaking, as if the fear at walking through branches blindly was too much for them to even concentrate on anything else. They had to be out by now, they had to be. She could even feel the bright light meeting her tightly closed eyelids, indicating her that the sun was out again. Even the overwhelming power around her had disappeared, the whispers and calls of the trees gone. But she did not want to open her eyes yet. What if it was all a trick? What if they had been walking in circles again without knowing it?
And then, a voice echoed inside her mind, making her heart soar instantly as she let out the longest sigh of purest relief she had ever felt.
"Rina? Rina? Where are you? Where have you been? Are you all right? I could not reach you? Rina? Are you hurt?" Elladan's voice whispered frantically in her head nearing panic, and still all she could focus on was the melodic sound of that voice. That voice she had longed to hear for days now, that voice that she would never tire of hearing. That voice that could manage to make even her most frightening nightmare disappear.
"Dan…." She whispered in her mind in return, for the first time allowing herself to open her eyes.
The vast night-lit forest extended seemingly infinitely to all sides, not a glimpse of the silvery glowing leaves and branches. They were out.
"Dan, where are you?"
Here is chapter 51! Wow I did not think this story would have so many chapters! Anyway I hope you enjoy reading this little piece, and I hope the wait wasn't too long! I'll try to update soon again!
Once more thank you so so so much to those of you who left comments on the past chapter, really thank you so much for letting me know what you thought about it! All of your comments are deeply welcome: The Lead Mare, Amsim, Teddy2104, AndurilofTolkien, Flower-Uchiha, lovingyoueternally, brandibuckeye, StarFilledSkies, and the two chest reviewers!
Love,
Elena