A/N and a VERY Important Notice: ACK! I HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR OVER LIKE THREE MONTHS!

I AM SO SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! YOU HAVE ALL BEEN LOYAL READERS AND I AM SO SORRY TO HAVE LET YOU DOWN.

SHAME ON ME SHAME SHAME SHAME ON ME.

*continues ranting for ten more minutes then clears throat*

I somehow got writer's block, and it was really bad. I knew what was going to happen next in the story, but I just couldn't find the right words to put it in. Oh well.

I am also really sorry to announce that I may be putting this story on hiatus until my brain has started functioning normally again. I've been occupied with something else and I'm really sorry to say, I am starting to lose interest in writing this. Since I have already made pretty big plans before I got writer's block, I'm not going to cancel it. I am merely putting this on hold until my mind has cleared. Please don't kill me. *hides*

I don't think it was worth the long wait, but here you go. A little gift before I put this on hold.

Chapter 14: This Day Couldn't Get Any Crazier

Kelsie's feet slammed into the table, upturning several plates of food. The contents splashed all over her new boots, creating some terribly disordered stains. The clanking of the plates echoed throughout the room as they fell to the ground, cracks forming on some. Even the shadow seemed paralyzed, not by its own nature, but by the one it wanted to paralyze.

If Kelsie could evaporate on the spot, she would have done that immediately. But unfortunately, even an elf's - not to mention an elfling's - power had its own limitations. She could feel all the eyes on her, flaring with disappointment. She could almost even hear their thoughts echoing in her mind. You ruined everything! You are a disappointment! A disgrace to all elves! She imagined the last one said in Legolas' voice, and tears welled up in her eyes. She wanted to break, to run away forever and live the rest of her life in a puddle of tears.

No. I will not break. I will not give in.

I have changed. I am not the person I once was. I am a warrior now, and I will not run away like a coward.

Kelsie slowly lifted her head. The shadow had disappeared from her view, but she didn't care. She knew exactly where it was - dancing behind her back, taunting her.

Why don't they just kill it already? Why is everyone standing around, doing nothing? She felt the urge to turn around and blindly unleash her anger on the shadow, as well as everyone in the room. But she couldn't. They were testing her, observing her skills to see if she really was a hero.

Suddenly, another thought hit her like a bullet. This was a perfect chance to prove herself worthy of the quest. If she fought with enough skill, then maybe she would be permitted to join the quest!

For a few more seconds, Kelsie was as quiet as death. Calm on the outside but burning on the inside. She let her anger boil up like a bottle of dragonfire, ready to explode. Knowing that it was now or never, she took a deep breath and sprang into action.

In one swift action that made everyone cry out in surprise, Kelsie leapt, twisted in midair, and swiped her knife at the shadow, only missing it by millimeters. The shadow started to make its way to the other side of the room. Oh you're not getting away this time, Kelsie growled in her mind. She ran after the shadow at a surprising speed, carefully placing her feet on the places unoccupied by plates of food. As the shadow reached the end of the table, Kelsie got prepared to jump. But she was, again, met with another nasty surprise.

As she prepared to jump, the shadow suddenly stopped and shot right back like a bullet. Stifling a gasp of alarm, Kelsie only had a second to jump out of the way. Her feet met with something wobbly and unstable, and she realized that she was balancing on a large plate that was on the verge of sliding off the table. Leaning towards the more stable side, she once again attempted to catch the shadow on the tip of her knife, but failed.

The shadow let out an amused laugh at her sad, pathetic attempts. "Seems like you're running out of skill, elfling. Trying to appear tough in front of the audience, are you?"

Kelsie let out a growl of frustration. Why was this shadow so hard to kill? She wanted to shout back at the shadow, but then thought better of it. Admitting her frustration would only make the shadow happier. No, she had to fight. And even more, she had to win.

She leapt at the shadow again, hoping to end it once and for all. Not surprisingly, her knife swiped through thin air. The elfling glared at the shadow, directing her hatred through her eyes. The shadow just "chuckled" and hovered high out of reach.

Then, without warning, the shadow plunged down towards the soldiers, who cried out in alarm. They tried to dodge, but instead, they were left paralyzed, as still as statues with their eyes glazed like glue. Shocked by this encounter, the remaining guests clutched there own weapons and moved back so they could assess the fight and keep safe at the same time, which Kelsie would have called selfish if she weren't the subject of the fight. The shadow rose to the height of the room, victorious, but not satisfied.

"Now what do you say, elfling? You claim that you have the power to fight me, yet you can do nothing to stop your fellow comrades from falling under my spell."

Kelsie was almost sweating as she tried to keep her anger from exploding. It was humiliating enough to fail in front of the king and those who thought of her as a hero (probably not anymore, though), but having the shadow state the truth - yes, the truth - in front of everyone felt like thousands of knives piercing her. Her ears burned in agony as the shadow continued to mock her.

"Come, try to get me. I doubt you will ever succeed...coward."

Okay. That was it. The shadow had crossed the line. Precisely, the line of anger. Now all it had to do was wait and experience the rage of the elfling it thought it could beat.

Kelsie rose from her fighting stance and stood to face her opponent. "You know what, shadow?" she challenged calmly, showing absolutely no sign of fear.

"I'm ending this."

And with that said, she threw her knife at the shadow, who let out a surprised hiss as it barely managed to dodge the sharp point. Then, she moved forward, catching the knife as it plummeted down.

The next series of events happened at quite a fast pace. After all, the intensity of the fight had just been increased by a lot. The shadow, of course, was aiming to show the elfling, and the rest of the world, who was in charge. Kelsie, on the other hand, wanted to defend the world from the shadow and also prove her skill and strength along the way.

The shadow swerved around her, trying to reach her without getting stabbed. The elfling followed every one of its movements, never taking her eyes or knife off her target. She suddenly lunged forward. At the same time, the shadow dived down towards her feet.

Kelsie managed to cartwheel over the shadow, just as it barely grazed her feet. She took no time in catching the knife again - she had tossed it before she cartwheeled - and re-arming herself. A cold blast of air shot at her from behind, causing her to turn around just before the shadow skidded to a halt right in front of the tip of her knife. They remained like that for three seconds, each surveying their opponent just like real enemies, trying to figure out each others' weaknesses.

Slowly, Kelsie lowered the knife, purposely leaving herself unprotected.

A few gasps of shock rang out throughout the room. Scuffles could be heard as more soldiers reached for their weapons, throwing the test act out the window as they prepared to rush to her aid. But not the King, nor Legolas and Gimli. They understood her intentions well.

The shadow took its chance to shoot at the elfling at its fastest, since the knife was no longer blocking its way. However, Kelsie sidestepped the attack at the last second and thrust her knife out, completely cutting off the shadow's attack...

...as well as cutting through the shadow.

And time seemed to freeze down to the very last second.

Every eye in the room widened as the watched the scene unfold. Kelsie was standing in the middle of the table, her arm thrust out to support a knife that was poking straight through the shadow. Then, slowly the shadow started to fade into many smaller particles.

Each particle seemed to become a small shadow as they all dispersed, floating in different directions. One by one, they left the room through small cracks in the doorways.

Kelsie blinked twice, completely lost on in a maze of confusion. Shouldn't the shadow have exploded instead of becoming...more shadows? If that question alone was enough to make her mind go buzz, nobody would have guessed how confused she was.

So...what now? As much as she wanted to, Kelsie didn't dare say anything out loud. It was bad enough to be standing in the middle of a table holding a knife with all eyes glued to you, while trying your best not to have a nervous breakdown. Especially after you share the blame for the reason behind the mess and the upturned plates of food. Not to mention that the stains on these new boots aren't going to disappear anytime soon, she thought gloomily to herself.

She waited for somebody, anybody, to speak. But all that followed was silence. Plain, awkward silence.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. Dropping the knife, which hit the table with a loud clatter that resonated throughout the room, she turned to King Eomer. His face was near expressionless, only his eyes showed a twinge of concern and thought. And that wasn't helping with Kelsie's nervousness either.

"I'm sorry...," she croaked. Then, wishing to leave all the humiliation behind, she leapt off the table, dodged the guards, and pelted out the door.

Kelsie sat in her room that night, the events of the day swirling in her head. First Rohan, then the paralyzed village, then the book, then the shadow, then the vision, then the quest, then the feast, then the shadow again -

"UGH!" Kelsie cried out abruptly, unleashing her frustration in that one word. "COULD THIS DAY GET ANY CRAZIER!?"

She tore off her stained boots and threw them across the room in a fit of rage. Then, she snatched the book off the table, raised it high above her head and brought it down hard, breaking the table to splinters. With her strength boosted by her anger, she chucked the book across the room where it smacked into the wall, leaving a deep dent, before hitting the ground with a deep thud.

Kelsie stood there panting as her anger slowly diminished. Never in her life had she ever experienced so much...drama in just one day. So many events had taken place from dawn to nightfall. So many events that led to only one thing.

Failure.

Failure for failing to catch the shadow.

Failure for failing to go on the quest.

Failure for failing to figure out problems before they turned wild.

Failure for failing.

She was a failure for everything she did.

Kelsie walked along the length of her room, failing to blink back tears. Her hair hung over her face, messy and unkempt. Even her usual elvish glow was dull like a flame put out and turned to smoke. Nobody could hear, feel, or see her misery, as it was hidden deep, the guilt only lying on her shoulders. And her shoulders alone. She gave a shuddering gasp as she relayed her thoughts out loud.

"I've fought spiders and shadows more than once. I've stood up to the dark and conquered my fears. I've even unlocked the answer to defeating the shadows. What more can I ask of myself?"

She stopped and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, they shone with tears of fury. Her ranting then turned to a river of frustration as she let her mind carry the flow of her words.

"Has all my effort gone for nothing? Did everything to do vanish to thin air at the very end? Was this all worth it all along?" She shook her head and sighed. "I don't understand. I did everything I could to help. What exactly went wrong? After all my hard work, why did I fail in the end?!"

She sighed. "If I wasn't afraid to act before, then why did I fail?"

Then it struck her like lightning.

"I not afraid of anything...

...but failure."

Then, without further notice, Kelsie slumped down on the ground, her back against the wall, and buried her face in her arms. The frustration that ignited for several seconds was now replaced with defeat. She couldn't hold it anymore. Not a second longer. Hoping nobody else was watching, she let out a shaky sigh and let her tears flow free.

By that time her eyelids were getting heavy. Her breathing evened out and the crying resided. She didn't even try to fight as the sleepiness overtook her and left her in a world of dreams and darkness.

However, before she fell asleep, she heard the same mystical voice call out to her as a bright light engulfed her vision.

"Failure is falling down and refusing to get back up. While there is still hope, you have not truly failed."

A/N: So how was that for a temporary ending? Do you think the quote makes sense? I kind of got the idea from the hiatus thing.

Review anything you want, whether it's about the story itself, or yelling at me for doing something so terrible to you all (not that I'll enjoy it but hey, I do owe everyone an apology).

I will still be around the site, only not as often as before.

Now that I've gotten all of that done...

SEE YOU ALL AFTER VACATION *runs away*