Hello readers, hope you like this chapter. I'm trying to pick up the momentum of the story but it's hard because some of these parts in the books and movies are very drawn-out and long-winded. Most of this is following book timeline.
Rivendell the Beautiful
During that first day Lilly spent in Rivendell it seemed as if the world was moving three times its normal speed. After her conversation with Elrond and Gandalf had ended with the latter deciding to leave as soon as he could, Lilly was certain this world was going to be filled with much more excitement than her own.
Gandalf and Aragorn departed from Rivendell the moment they had ample supplies for their journey to the Shire. It was after the two had said their farewells and left through the gates of Rivendell that Lilly met Arwen Evenstar for the first time.
It had been said that Arwen daughter of Elrond was the extraordinarily beautiful; Luthien come again. Lilly had not thought it was physically possible for a woman to be the living incarnation of perfection, but Arwen was proof of its possibility. Just looking at the elven lady was enough to ruin the small part of Lilly's self-esteem that was left.
Lilly was thankful that the daughter of Elrond was kind as she was beautiful. After the departure of Gandalf and Aragorn, she had been called upon by Arwen to take a walk around the gardens of Rivendell. It had been a nerve wracking experience; for all she knew, Lilly had been the cause of Arwen's fiancé having to almost as soon as he had arrived.
Arwen had not seemed bitter about that fact, however. To Lilly she merely seemed like someone who yearned for better company. The elves, though wise and fair, had a knack for being very boring conversationalists when one has to listen to them speak about the same topics for centuries. Or so Arwen said; Lilly thought the other elves were fine company.
The human girl from another world with knowledge of the future was of every interest to Arwen and Lilly soon found herself good friend with the elven lady. Every day Lilly spent at Rivendell was filled with horseback riding, archery, reading, feasting, and a hundred other things the elves found amusing.
Life in Rivendell was very different from her life back home; the food, the people, even the animals felt so foreign to her. She found herself missing her family and friends more often than she would care to admit.
Even with her days filled to the brim with activity, just after a month of being in Rivendell Lilly's days began feeling repetitive. Whenever the boredom would creep up on her, a feeling of overwhelming guilt followed; had Lord Elrond and his daughter not done everything they could to make her feel welcome in their home? Every lesson her mother had taught her about being thankful for what she was given would make her ashamed and make her desperately miss her parents.
The repetition of her schedule could not, however, take away from the beauty of Rivendell nor for the remarkable increase in her archery skills.
Arwen was apparently set on turning Lilly into an Elven lady, not that Lilly really minded seeing as there truly was very little else to do in Rivendell aside from eating, reading, or resting. Though it sometimes worried Lilly that Arwen may have seen her as more of a project than a person, Arwen's kindness would reassure her that that was not the case.
One thing that interested Arwen the most about Lilly was her confession about being lonely - having three older brothers, twenty or so first and second cousins, and more aunties and uncles than normal had never left much time for being alone. Elves did not have such large and overflowing families, so this very human practice entranced Arwen. It surprised Lilly when Arwen had so many questions about her abundant family. Missing her family, Lilly was only too happy to oblige.
Though her days were mostly filled from dusk to dawn, when she was not in Arwen's company, Lilly found herself in the company of the only other non-elf inhabitant in Rivendell - Bilbo Baggins.
She had first come across the elderly hobbit in the largest of Rivendell's gardens, sitting on a hobbit-sized bench looking as if he had always belonged there. Her overwhelming excitement was incredibly hard to keep down at the sight of the Hobbit who was undoubtedly her favourite book character.
He reminded her of her great uncles, slightly hunched over with age but filled to the brim with stories. Lilly enjoyed hearing the firsthand accounts of Bilbo's adventures almost as much as the old Hobbit enjoyed talking about them.
A great fan of all sorts of stories, Bilbo enjoyed hearing legends Lilly remembered her grandmother telling her. He had loved hearing about the turtle crawling out of the sea with the Earth on its back and had loved even more Lilly's stories about cannibalistic windigos – he had likened the creatures to orcs.
At night there was always some form of singing, dancing, and poetry recitations to entertain the elves and their guests. The loneliness that found Lilly was always worst at night when she was alone in her bed. The time from when she lay down in her bed to when she actually fell asleep left her missing home, her family, friends, showers, real toilets, fried food, the internet, sanitary pads, blue jeans, and a hundred other things. There was an ever-present hope when she went to sleep that she would wake up back in her dorm room.
It had not taken long for Lilly to realise she had arrived in Middle Earth much earlier than she had needed to if she was to be a part of the action. The Council of Elrond would take place in October while she had arrived in the few days of March.
This long space of time left her able to familiarise herself with the new world and to become used to the everyday life in Rivendell. Lilly would even swear that her Canadian accent was starting to sound like an English one. The constant activity and good food made Lilly feel healthier than she ever had before; she'd dropped some weight and deepened her tan.
Before she realised, the spring had turned to a summer that was quickly drawing to an end. As summer changed to fall Lilly grimly acknowledged the change that it would bring to her care-free time spent at Rivendell. On the eve after Arwen and Glorfindel's departure from Rivendell, Lilly had spoken with Elrond about the oncoming storm of war that would soon be upon them.
"The fate of Middle Earth shall soon come into question," Lilly's statement had surprised Elrond as she had not spoken of the future at Gandalf's behest. He had been in the library translating a decaying tome when the human girl had sought him out.
"I know I'm not supposed to talk about it…" Lilly had dropped her cryptic tone when Elrond had turned his full attention to her; something about the elf made her feel like a four year old little girl. "But being here makes it a little more…scary to think of." She sat on one of the chairs by the table Elrond was working at. "I feel as if I'm supposed to join into the bigger story, but I'd much rather remain here." Lilly felt like a child.
Elrond stood and smiled kindly at her, "Whether or not you shall be a part of any action, as you so call it, is yet to be seen." He inspected a shelf and selected a thin blue bound novel. "I believe when Gandalf returns he will have just as many opinions to express as before." He returned to his seat. "Do not burden yourself with such worries."
Lilly took Elrond's second smile as a sign to leave, so she excused herself to roam around the gardens. With Arwen gone, Lilly had very little to do besides walk about the gardens. Her boredom was coupled with guilt as she knew when Arwen returned from the forests surrounding Rivendell it would be with a near-death Frodo. Even Bilbo's adventure stories could not keep her mind from this fact.
It haunted her until those who would be a part of the Council of Elrond began arriving. Lilly had seethed with rage upon realising Elrond had not mention to her that he had already sent out invitations for the meeting. Even Rirosseth had had trouble soothing Lilly's frayed nerves.
Her frustration was stopped short upon the arrival of Gandalf, bloody and battle weary from his fight with the Nazgul. When his wounds had been tended to and Elrond had finished speaking with him, Lilly had to restrain herself from asking him a thousand questions and instead asked him just one, "When it is decided the Ring shall be borne away, and I know that you know it shall come to this, am I expected to take part in that venture?"
Sitting at the head of a table, Gandalf paused in his eating and looked at Lilly. "You are right in the fact that nothing has been decided. However," He gave her a pointed look. "We are all expected to do things we would rather not do." Lilly took that answer as a drawn out yes.
In the days before Arwen returned with Frodo, Lilly spent most of her time in her room avoiding Elrond and most of the other elves. Her solitary state was brought on by the thought of the journey she would soon have to prepare for. Even upon Arwen's arrival back to Rivendell with Frodo, she set herself apart, worrying over what the future would bring.
Lilly had spent the time in her room sitting on a chair staring at the white walls all but panicking at what was to come next. She had even begun to worry Rirosseth; the lady's maid had never seen such action in an elf before and was unsure of how to deal with the human woman. It ended up being Arwen who had all but dragged Lilly from her room to walk around her favourite garden.
The autumn flowers were in full bloom despite the chill in the air and recent lack of strong sunlight. Arwen and Lilly walked arm and arm through the garden admiring flowers and statues that dotted about the green foliage. The trees were denser in that garden than any of the others and reminded Lilly of her home.
"I cannot pretend to know the gravity of the task you must face," Arwen said passively admiring a grouping of white roses. "But you will not be alone in facing it, I can assure of that mellon nin." Lilly smiled at her friend and threw her arms around her in a hug. Arwen laughed and returned the embrace, "It is good to see you smile again."
"I guess I can't start being so sad yet, the adventure hasn't even begun."
Arwen laughed and gestured to the barely visible scratch on her cheek, "Has not begun? Look at this, the true mark of an adventurer!"
Lilly scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Oh, yes my lady. My apologies, you'll have more battle scars than your husband-to-be if you keep on like this." The mention of Aragorn caused Arwen's face to flush and Lilly giggled like a little girl.
Lilly turned toward Arwen and clasped her hands excitedly. "Speaking of Aragorn, have you spoken with him for longer than five minutes yet? Has he fallen to his knees to beg forgiveness for leaving so abruptly last time and not returning for months?" Arwen laughed, a sound like the tinkling of bells. Lilly giggled and continued, "If he's any man worth having, he'll come and apologise on his own. That's what my mother used to tell me."
Arwen laughed as she shook her head. "You say the oddest of things, mellon nin. Sometimes I cannot recall how I ever got on without your strange sense of humour." Lilly shrugged wholeheartedly and the two continued their stroll, laughing and teasing as they had not done in days.
When Lilly saw the image of someone tall, dark, and altogether displeased with her, she nudged Arwen. "I think you had better get ready to receive that apology, my friend." She jutted her chin in Aragorn's direction.
Arwen wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I truly wish you would stop pointing out things like that." Lilly rolled her eyes.
"Oh, never mind me! Go spend some time with the man who loves you and dislikes me" Lilly nearly pushed her to head in the direction Aragorn was standing.
As Arwen started to walk, she turned to look Lilly. "It is not that he dislikes you, he merely mistrusts your role in this venture…" Lilly shrugged and waved her off.
"Go have some fun, I'll be in the library. Reading books, the only true love in my life." As Lilly turned away she could hear Arwen still laughing.
The library at Rivendell was a book lovers dream filled to the brim with hand written books bound in the finest material. The only fault Lilly could find in it was that it was built for Elves that were significantly taller than she. This had never been a problem before seeing as the library was usually filled with scholarly (and tall) Elves always willing to hand her a book out of her reach.
On that particular day, this was not the case. Lilly thought it had something to do with the impending council meeting that had sent the Elves of Rivendell into full host mode, never taking a moment's rest until all the guests were sleeping.
As she strained to reach for a red bound book of poems that detailed the first encounter between Beren and Luthien, Lilly pondered whether climbing the shelf or pulling of the heavy chairs over to stand upon would be less embarrassing if she was discovered. Her blue sleeves fluttered in the wind, brushing against her face as her fingers nearly grazed the spine of the book.
Standing on the tips of her toes she made one last attempt to reach the book and nearly jumped out of her skin when an arm came from behind her to grab the book she was straining for.
Trying out a minor cliffhanger though I really intended for the identity of the person to be overly obvious.