The next day little tree woke early. She had been bathed and found out what a comfortable bed was the night before. It was not long until Amdirthorn came in to get her up. Having a daughter was going to be hard work but Thranduil had cut some of her hours to let her look after the child. She saw little tree looking out of the window.
"Little Tree I need to talk to you." Little Tree turned to face her new mother.
"Why?"
"Most of the people here can't speak tree which means no one can understand your name except us. So I thought we could make up a name everyone could say."
Little Tree began to worry herself. Her name was her last connection to her home.
"No I won't do it."
"I understand you don't want to lose your tree name, you won't. We'll still call you little tree in tree language. But elves speak to each other through noise. Elves can have more than one name, just like you will. And if you want to I thought perhaps we could call you Eryniell. It means daughter of the wood, just as you are daughter of Linh Dohl."
Little Tree nodded and smiled. She tried to pronounce it but she hadn't used her voice in a long time and it cracked at first. It took a while and Amdirthorn helped her sound it out.
"Where's Gael?"
"Say Legolas. That is Gaels true name."
"What is your name?"
"Amdirthorn."
"That sounds hard."
"It is Little Tree, but if you really want to I'll teach you to say it."
Eryniell spent all morning learning names of people and objects. Please and thank you weren't quite working out as well as amdirthorn had hoped though. By lunchtime Amdirthorn had learned a little of little tree's past. Something that troubled her was that Eryniell didn't know how old she was. If she had been living with the trees a long time she could be older than she seems. The healers decided she was around ten but they too had come to the same conclusion. To be able to speak Entish or Mirkish so fluently she needed to have been among them for years.
Amdirthorn had to work in the afternoon but it wasn't long before Eryniell was sought out by Legolas. He too had been studying all morning but his mind kept slipping to little tree. It would be much better to be free. For now little tree resided in the guest quarters as Amdirthorn had no where for here to stay.
When Legolas found her he offered to show her the grounds where they could play freely. It wasn't long before they were playing some complicated game involving racing through treetops. Anyone watching would have thought it a race not a childish war. It was difficult for the trees because they were often asked to take sides. Although they had known Legolas all his life it did not take long to realise Eryniell was as fun as he was. They could not help liking her and soon they were loved equally. Which caused the trees more anguish when asked to take sides.
Eventually they tired of this game.
"Soon I must show you where I come from."
Legolas jumped away from her unsure what to do. He was never allowed to enter Mirkwood but it would be dishonourable to say no. So he said yes.