16
Name
When my family awoke that next morning, I was already gone. I had left behind most everything, taking only the clothes I wore. Riku, Cassan, and I tore into the night, back into the Pack's familiar territory that stretched from the Shire up all the way to the Lonely Mountain, and then from there to the sea and back.
I thought to the songs we had sung last night. Legolas and Everlas didn't notice it—not even Anastasia and Tatyanna noticed it. But I did.
Our songs had turned sadder in the last few millennia. They had turned from the trees and the earth to the shore of the sea. Now, the Elves sang of their homeland. But I remembered what it had been like.
When we hadn't been at war, we had sung the songs of old. Now, very few of us remembered the lyrics, or the tunes. As far as I knew, I was the only one. All the new songs were so different.
I'd never seen the homeland myself, but I had heard from Ada that it was beautiful. He was not old enough to have ever visited, but his Ada had told him of it. Grandnanneth had come over when she was barely ten years old, and Celeborn came when he was thirty.
It took Riku and me a little over a month of waiting, but eventually, our children came into the world. I was hunting when my labour hit. The bowstring I had just drawn back twanged against my forearm painfully—and for the first time in over one thousand years, I missed my shot.
Riku collapsed beside me not a moment later. Cassan arranged a bed of dead leaves, and we both set about waiting.
We both waited through the night, occasionally crying out when the pain became too much.
Riku's litter came first. First a daughter, then a son, and then another male and female. Both the males and one of the females had Cassan's dappled coat, and the second female was a miniature of Riku. As Riku was feeding them for the first time, I knew I was ready.
The pain was like nothing I have ever known. My fits had hurt worse, mostly because they had been a product of evil. These contractions hurt, but it was a good kind of pain.
It took me almost an hour to give birth to Casanovia.
She was a small thing, but healthy. Her hair was a tiny bit thicker than most babies, and dusky copper. I wracked my head for a relative that had that hair colour, and came up empty. Her eyes were mine, though they were slightly lighter. Even though she had my eyes, I saw my husband's face in hers.
I closed my eyes, and saw what she would become.
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"Nana!" She cried. She was four years old, "Look what Ada taught me!" The scene changed.
"Catch me if you can, Princeling!" The lazy figure of Legolas caught my daughter by the hand, and brought his lips to his. She was thirty-five. It changed again.
"I do," She was in a wedding dress, her copper hair piled on her head. I knew I would make her that dress. Legolas faced her. It surprised me that Eryn and I would let her marry before she was three hundred.
She would have a son, Farowen Forestspirit, and five daughters. Anastasia, Tatyanna, Matilda, Ginny, and Elevra. Two granddaughters, and one grandson within a few years of each other. Jenna Annabeth Trinity Ellanora Minerva and Sora Aryl Tabithia Megan Evenella, daughters of Matilda, and Fairfax, son of Farowen.
Matilda would betray her family with another Fairy, Harrison Cullen, son of the Fairy San who had healed me in Rohan.
Still, Casanovia would pass on happy, with Legolas by her side, just a few short years before the world ended. Matilda would die young, but be given a new chance as the daughter of Jenna Greenleaf, by me.
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As the visions came to a stop, I clutched my daughter too my chest, and cried.
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As soon as Cassan and Riku's litter could walk, we set off. We were only a couple hundred meters outside of Rivendell.
We were met at the gates by Estel, Legolas, and Everlas. I expected a lecture, but that was not what I got.
"Oh, Myraneth, she's adorable!" Everlas whispered. Cassy had fallen asleep in my arms soon after the birth, "Have you chosen a middle name, yet?"
"Yes. She is Casanovia Etalianna Lasgalen."
Riku and Cassan carried their sleeping brood in softened mouths. Legolas helped me onto his horse, and Ever took the four puppies and put them in a basket behind her saddle. Together we slowly made our way back to the Last Homely House.
I was dead on my feet when we reached it. Eryn raced out to meet us, taking both me and the baby in his arms and carrying us to our chambers. He laid us on the bed in the same way my Ada had, that day the twins were born. Then, he laid beside us, and whispered the nickname he had chosen for me.