A/N: Well here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: We only own the Ocs
Chapter Twenty-Four – Poor Tortured Glorfindel
Seph's POV
It had been a couple of days since we had first arrived and Frodo still hadn't awoken. I had visited him at least twice a day; sometimes with old Bilbo whose stories I loved to listen to. Sam had hardly left his side and I only really saw Pippin and Merry at meal times, they spent the rest of their time running around the place. Gandalf had arrived shortly afterwards, rather tired, and had only spent two seconds congratulating us on our new status as ladies of Rivendell before hurrying off to his room and falling asleep. Dwarves, men and elves were all beginning to arrive which made it very awkward for me, nice friendly hobbits are easy to deal with in large numbers, they have a nature about them that makes you want to trust them immediately, but these larger, harsher and stronger people were intimidating to say the least. Not physically, but I'm no social butterfly so I tried to avoid speaking, pretending I only spoke elvish when I met men or dwarves, and pretending to only speak Westron when I met elves.
Our lessons had continued and it had become obvious that our weapons provided us with a strength that was slightly more than that of your average elf, which was useful since my skill was still slightly lacking. The twins and I had caused much chaos, I found them easy to relate to and we had hit it off immediately. I would often see Aragorn around but the tension between him and Kels was so thick and awkward that I stayed out of his way when she was around. Erestor had polished our elvish and given us a little more depth into elvish culture so that we would be able to fit in more easily but most elves weren't as open as them and walked around like emotionless statues, radiating grace and beauty. That afternoon was going to turn out to be one of the most eventful in quite a while. I was walking with Kelly, Diana and the twins on the way to the private training ring (the other was being used by visitors) when we turned a corner and saw something I deemed as strange. Fin stood there, wrapped in Glorfindel's embrace in the middle of the corridor, they were oblivious to our presence so I looked to the twins for answers. Dan just made a heart symbol with his fingers.
They were in love? He was her boyfriend?
'He is like a million times her age!' I thought.
'Oh well...' I replied to myself mentally. 'We are elves so when we live thousands of years the age gap doesn't really matter.'
'But!' I argued.
'Hush, just get their attention so we can give him the talk.'
'Di and the twins have probably given him the talk already.'
'Oh well, no one gives 'The Talk' like you do.'
"Excuse me lovebirds!" I called and their heads snapped up, Fin went beet red and Glorfindel just stared. "Could we borrow your man for a second?" I asked, Kelly coming up beside me, immediately catching on. Glorfindel suddenly paled and I had the feeling that Fin had warned him what might possibly happen. Fin stepped aside with a slight smirk and a half worried glance in his direction. Kelly and I strode forward, grabbing the tall man by the arms and dragged him to the wall where we slammed him up against it.
"Now, from your reaction I presume you have been forewarned." He gave a slight nod. "Well I'll cut to the chase then, you hurt her in any way and I will castrate you with a rusty fork and cut your heart out with a spoon. I will gut you from throat to abdomen and hang your innards up around the halls for all to see before I feed them to the crows. I will feed your heart to the nazgul on a silver platter and put your head up on a spike as a warning to others. The rest of you will be sent to the Balrogs. Clear?"
"Crystal," choked the shocked man as we released him. I did the watching you gesture before walking up beside the others who were none too subtly hiding their snickers as Fin helped Glorfindel up.
"I'm hungry, let's go and find something to eat."
We sat in the empty library with sandwiches on a plate in front of us as Fin slowly recounted their story.
"Glorfindel's was the one who found us when we were wandering in the forest. We became friends quickly and it progressed from there I guess. I had always had a crush on him but thought it was unrequited till I came of age (Elrond worked out that we are actually aging faster than normal elves but we stopped aging at eighteen in human years). It was my party and I went outside to get some fresh air as I was growing weary of the constant invites to come and dance. Glorfindel followed me and, when we were alone, he professed his love for me under the starlight. It was the most romantic thing ever." I opened my mouth wide, pointed to it and pretended to be sick. They all laughed at my antics. As you may have guessed, I am a feminist and completely against anything that involves relying on boys unless they are my brothers or it is the only option.
"Still so against the idea of love sister?" Diana asked with a half-smile.
"If I fall in love then it either means that I have gone mad or the apocalypse has begun." They all began to laugh again and I leant back against the bookshelf, taking a large bite of my cucumber sandwich (yummy! I was pretty disappointed about the general lack of meat but there are some things you just have to live with).
"You will fall in love one day," winked Dan.
"Says 'Mr I-hit-on-anything-that-breathes," I retorted, receiving a light punch in the arm. The twins did consider themselves to be the Valar's gift to women everywhere. I never really understood the point in needlessly flirting with people but then again, whatever floats your boat and as long as it doesn't sink mine. Kelly giggled at us as she continued to munch on her food, gazing wistfully into the distance.
"Well someone seems a little ditzy today," I said, poking her in the head. "Busy thinking about a certain ranger I know of, are we?" Kelly blushed and hit my arm, hard might I add.
"Am not!"
"That hurt, not just my arm, but my feelings," I said pouting slightly, though a smile slowly slipped its way through my already cracking facade.
I looked across at those around me. Fin's hand was clasped firmly in the slightly larger one of the golden haired elf next to her. They stared into each other's eyes in a slightly sweet, slightly weird way. When it comes to romantic love I have often been told by them that I am emotionally inept, the concept just doesn't get through to me. In my opinion, love is just heartbreak waiting to happen, and I have already experienced more of the latter in my short life than most of these elves have in their centuries. Elladan and Elrohir were quietly discussing pretty girls they had seen recently and Kels was staring at the wall with the same, far off, expression. Turning to the only person I could relate to on the subject of love, I said,
"Well Di, as we are the only sane, bachelorettes here, I think we should go and find something non lovey dovey to do." She began to chuckle and stood up, pulling me up with one hand. As we left the convention of the love seekers, I turned to look at her.
"If I ever fall in love, I will eat my map." She laughed and shook her head lightly. She always tells me that love is just the release of hormones which gives a person a euphoric feeling of flying, not that she would know - that is just what her father told her - which, in our opinion, means it is fact. As we made our way to Elrond's study, I reflected on my relationships. I had never had a boyfriend, I saw them as pointless. On Earth I had my three friends, but apart from that I was pretty much a loner. My parents were killed in a car crash that still sometimes gives me nightmares. My aunt is in a different universe and all my other family members are either self-appointed or adopted. My only other friends are one adopted sister's boyfriend, another one's crush, a crazy wizard whom I see as my grandpa and my teacher who I don't really get along with. What a crazy family I have. I shook my head slightly and ran a hand through my hair. Because of the trauma I experienced when I was younger, my emotions tended to be erratic - most of the time I would be wild and loud while sometimes I could be emotionally flat. It was for that reason that I often had trouble empathising with others around me on an emotional level. I still suffered panic attacks, though very rare, and they happened most often around the anniversary of the accident. I shivered involuntarily as we stopped outside the large oak doors that lead to the study.
Not bothering to knock, we pushed the door open and strode in. Elrond was absent so the two of us made ourselves comfortable in the thick, cushioned chairs and set up the chess board. I sucked at chess and most games like it, I was good at logic but rubbish at logic games, but I still had fun playing. We played several times, I lost every single game. After a while I took out a book on the shelf and the two of us sat there, reading it as Di corrected my mispronunciations and helped me with the few words I had trouble with. We left about half an hour later and met up with the others again in the room where they were keeping Frodo until he woke from his coma. Gandalf was sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed, puffing merrily on his pipe while Sam just sat there, hand tight around Frodo's and stated at him. Pippin and Merry sat in the corner exchanging stories and I smiled at them all, taking in the sight before moving to sit beside Mithrandir.
"Hello Seph, how do you fare?"
"I fare well," I replied, humouring him. "And how do you fare?
"As well as one can expect to in current times." He turned to look at me misty grey eyes burning into me. "Remember what I told you; tell no one of what is to come. Fate has already been woven, do not meddle with it." I opened my mouth to reply but closed it again, my silvertongue lost for words. He smiled at me and shook his head, laughing slightly in amusement. When he did, Pippin and Merry noticed me and ran over, clambering up onto my lap and smiling up at me.
"How is the fair lady?" asked Merry with a wink.
"I am well oh brave knight, have you come back from slaying dragons or merely from the banquet hall?" I replied causing them to laugh. Frodo groaned slightly and tossed, causing our eyes to snap to him. The two hobbits leapt from my lap and I leant forwards slightly, willing him to wake... but he slept on. I shifted back to my original position and smiled as Bilbo wandered in, his book of stories under his arm; per request of Gandalf he had given me a copy of Beorn's story. I found it fascinating but I really didn't see why I might need it.
Kelly ran up next to me and sat on my lap.
"Let's go to the training ring Seph! We didn't go this morning." I raised a thin eyebrow; she had been perfectly comfortable before. I could hardly stop my snort of laughter when I noticed the, previously dirty, now clean ranger at the door. I turned my gaze back to Kelly and she blushed when she realised that I had caught her red handed.
"You can't avoid him forever," I whispered in her ear. "If we do go on this journey then you will be around him all the time so it would be best if you got used to him now." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, standing and allowing me to get up. We walked to the door where Aragorn stood and the tension became almost unbearable.
"Hello," Kelly said and the atmosphere calmed.
"I'm pleased to see that you are talking to me again," he said with a smirk. "What caused you to change your mind?"
"Watch the attitude mister or I'll do more than just ignore you." He laughed loudly and I slipped back into the room to stand beside the twins.
As we were perfecting the plans for our next prank, our adoptive father Elrond suddenly appeared in the doorway and gestured to us with one hand. Kels and I followed quickly; the others close behind us, and soon found ourselves at our previous destination, the training ring. In the centre stood a tall, platinum blonde, elf. His smooth plaited hair and hunting gear were pristine and you could tell that he was of high status. I immediately disliked him.
"Persephone, Kelly, meet your new archery teacher." I grimaced slightly; this guy's ego looked bigger than Mt. Fuji...
"I can't wait to see how this turns out," I heard Elladan say. He knew of my aversion to shooting lessons, I was perfectly capable and had been given a special 'shoot straight' bow by Tom Bombadil. I was like a female, but slightly more reckless, version of Hawkeye. I smirked to myself as we headed down to where the targets were set out. He was going to have his work cut out with me.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, hope it might give a little insight. Would anyone like to take a guess as to who their archery teacher is? I personally think that it is really obvious but ya never know.
Stay tuned for the next chapter which will contain some Glorfin, Seph up to her old tricks and perhaps a little game of matchmaker.
Can we please get the review number up to 80 or more? It would mean the world :D