Kana was the perfect pillow to lay her head on, Eiko thinks, sleepy from yet another of the endless meetings that Kaa-chan and her mission companions have. Seriously, Eiko doesn't know how their heads didn't hurt from so talk – and that annoying buzzing sound coming from Frodo made her feel nauseous, but she had to stay close to Kaa-chan...
"Did she sleep again?" – Lele's pleasant voice sounds at the bottom of her conscience.
"Not yet..." - Kana murmurs, stroking her hair. The older Uchiha sees the kind look on the elf's face and tilts her head with a soft smile.
"Do you want to hold her, prince?"
The blonde is surprised; Kana usually never left Eiko with anyone other than Erestor and Glorfindel, especially when she was carrying the child. He nods, holding out his arms with an anxious and, in Kana's opinion, adorable expression.
"Mnmmnnn..." - Eiko mumbles in her almost asleep state, being quickly soothed by the elven words that come out of Legolas rhythmically and musically.
"A tolerable replacement for my perfect pillow." – Eiko thinks about Legolas, forgiving him for taking her from her Kaa-chan's lap and entering the world of dreams, in a place even more beautiful than Rivendell and with adults who looked like elves but were even more beautiful.
Time passed very quickly for the little Uchiha. Soon, Kaa-chan would be gone and the only things left from her now were the two scrolls that Kaa-chan left "in case of emergency" and a weapon called a "kunai" that Kana had ordered when they were in Esgaroth. Even Eri couldn't separate her from the weapon, much to Eiko's secret amusement, who found the oldest's grimaces the funniest thing. At least Glorius understood her and even promised that he would help her when Kaa-chan left.
"And she is leaving today." - She thinks, sad, and is surprised by the voice of Halleth talking to her.
"Looks like my little friend has a lot of thoughts today." – The elf says, looking curiously at the lying child.
"Hally looks so pretty in the crown of flowers." – Eiko thinks distractedly, seeing the elf leaning against the tree.
"It's just... Kaa-chan is leaving today." – Eiko says softly. – "I know she needs to go, but I don't want her to go. What if she never comes back to me? What if she finds Kaka-nii and Riki-nii and then they decide they don't need me? Because I'm not a ninja like them. I am not strong and I can't help with anything. What if they die? What if I die before they arrive? What if they forget about me?"
"Oh, Eiko." – Halleth sighs gently, bringing her to her lap and hugging her (because humans have this disconcerting habit, and, in particular, Eiko seemed a very physical human).
"Your family won't forget you and they'll certainly come back to you, darling. It doesn't matter to them if you're not "strong" like them - they love you just the same. I am sure you are not dying anytime soon and the four of you will be reunited. Furthermore, each of us is special and has a unique talent; doesn't make you smaller just because you don't have the same skills as others."
"Mnnn..." Eiko murmured, feeling the elf's heart beat slowly, comforted by her friend's words.
When night comes and Kaa-chan leaves, Eiko is ready to say goodbye.
She doesn't cry. Because she's a big girl now… Ok, she just doesn't want to cry in front of Kana. She doesn't want to see Kaa-chan sad and if she were to cry, that's what Kaa-chan would look like. Then she gets completely serious and determined as she hugs Kana for the last time in a while.
"Kaa-chan." – Eiko calls, staring at her mother with all the solemnity she can muster. – "You go, find Riki-nii and Kaka-nii, teach the evil old man a lesson and come back to me, got it?"
"Yes, Captain." – Kana answers seriously and Eiko smiles, cheeks heating up with pride when Kaa-chan calls her captain. It was an important thing.
"What about me, uh? No goodbye hugs for me?" – Lele jokes and Eiko smiles brightly, launching herself hard at the elf, laughing when he tickles her ribs.
"Kaa-chan knows how to take care of herself...but keep an eye on her for me anyway, please?" – She asked the prince in secret. Legolas smiled and replied:
"I will. You can count on me."
The child soon finished saying goodbye to all her new friends, the hobbits. She didn't know the dwarf and the two men very well, and she was also slightly upset that the old wizard was taking Kana away from her, but she decided to give them a hug too.
"Only because it would be so mean to leave them out. And I'm not mean." – She nods to herself. She stared for a long time at where Kaa-chan and her teammates had left and it wasn't until Glorius touched her shoulder and told her it was bedtime that she realized she was sleepy.
The room seemed too big for her. Eiko looked around sadly after Glorius left. She tossed and turned in bed several times, for, despite how sleepy she was, it just seemed like she couldn't sleep.
It took some time for her to fall asleep.
Eiko's screams in her sleep alarmed the elves who heard, and the guard who was at the door of the child's room entered and looked at her worried. Eiko was still sleeping, but she was screaming and she had an anguished expression on her face. Even when he sang for the girl to sleep quietly, that did not change. She woke up, but she might as well still be sleeping, the sobs and fear still oozing from her in waves.
Eiko doesn't really know what happened, except that she only calmed down when Eri entered the room and spoke to her, comforting her and gently assuring her that everything was fine, that it was just nightmares.
"No."- She finally answers, shaking. – "It happened. It was real. The bad man who tried to kill us, the orcs that hurt me, and Kaka-nii, the old bad wizard that took my family from me. Everything was real. They were memories." – She says and misses the worried look that Erestor exchanges with the guards.
Time was strange in Rivendell. It had been a long time since Kaa-chan had left on a mission, and Eiko still missed her, but life was good in Rivendell. She had Eri and Hally and Glorius and lots of elf friends now. The healer who was also a king was really nice. He coaxed her into talking about her bad dreams, which were memories, and though it had hurt at first – and it still does, sometimes – each night she got better. Mainly because Hally now slept in the same room as her.
Elves were very different from Kaa-chan. They kept an eye on her all the time and scolded her for many things that Kaa-chan never scolded – like the time she was on the edge of the roof (and it was awfully difficult to climb!), or how when she took some cookies from the kitchen when she shouldn't and hadn't even left evidence, but Eri said she should listen to what they said because it was for her own good – and no, it wasn't a matter of not getting caught . She also found that they got very upset when she lied. Oh, and they had never played safe-house before! It was the weirdest thing when she had to explain why there were weapons (kitchen knives, but, hey, she managed as best she could!) and supplies hidden in random locations throughout Rivendell.
"Well. Whenever we're in a new place, we have to play safe-house." – She says to Glorius, who had discovered one of her hiding places.
"It's like this: you leave everything you need to survive in strategic places in case an enemy discovers your location. Of course, this is just the basic part. Want to play the full game? Then you pretend you're my enemy and the game ends when I'm captured or when I manage to kill you. Of course, I will not kill kill you, but you get it, don't you?"
He accepted, so she was quite surprised when Glorius told her that she shouldn't have set the traps she did at the hour advantage she had before the game actually started. That one of the elves had been hurt.
"But... he should have dodged the throwing rocks! Kaa-chan and Riki-nii and Kaka-nii always dodge in time..."- She says, tearing up. – "I didn't want him to get hurt, it was supposed to be a game and no one would get really hurt!"
That night Glorius and Eri had a very serious talk, asking exactly everything she had learned from Kaa-chan. In the end, Eiko could no longer lie, steal, playfully set traps, or play in "dangerous" places - which included roofs and trees. She could not even do surprise attacks on the elves.
"Why are you being like this? I don't know what you want from me! Kaa-chan said that I should listen to you, that you were better than her, but then everything I do makes you mad at me and that's not fair !" - She blurts out, crying and rubbing her eyes in frustration.
Eri cupped the child's face in his hands, his expression understanding and gentle.
"We are not mad at you, Eiko. Just worried. When Lady Kana left, she told me that your way of life was different, but we never imagined ..." - He stopped and then kissed the child's forehead.
"It does not matter. We'll explain further why we're asking you to change some of the things you've learned from Lady Kana."
"But won't she be upset if I change? If I don't do what she taught me anymore?" – Eiko asks, taking a deep breath with a hesitant expression.
"No, little one." – Glorius said, gently stroking the child's hair. He was beside Eri, both of them kneeling down to be closer to her height. Glorius' golden hair immediately distracted her and she found herself instinctively reaching for the blond hair, playing with it.
"Before she left, Kana and I talked about your upbringing here in Rivendell. She is a woman of few words, but she told me clearly that she expected us to treat you as we would any other little elf. She told me, 'Eiko doesn't have to live the life I did. She doesn't have to live by the same rules I do. Please give her a happy childhood while I'm away.' That's exactly what we want for you Eiko."
The Little Uchiha soon got used to the care and lifestyle of the elves, and everything was perfectly fine and pleasant.
Until she heard that Halleth was fading. Literally disappearing more every day and no one would let her visit her friend so she didn't listen to the elves this time and snuck into Hally's room.
"No. Not you either, you hear me?" – Eiko yells at Halleth, shaking her by the shoulders. She barely notices when the healer enters, too busy berating Hally. – "You won't leave me either!" I'm tired of being left behind, you won't walk away from my life, I won't let you! '
Eiko feels the tears on her face blurring her vision and a slight burning in her eyes before she feels something running through her veins, a warm and cozy feeling, that runs through her entire body and envelops her. She doesn't know if she's dreaming, or if there really is a green aura covering her, but she knows that, whatever it was, she was passing it on to Halleth.
Eiko faints.
And Lord Elrond is astonished at the child's deed – Eiko healed the fëa of Halleth.
It was impossible. No one in Middle-earth could heal an Elf's fëa, only in the Halls of Mandos could one be healed, and even then... The proof lay before him.
The ancient and wise elf held Eiko's fainting and feverish body, with many questions and, mainly, concern.
That moment, Eiko would learn many years later, was the moment when she irrevocably made her decision to take the fate of the elves, taking on her new nature with that heartfelt, desperate decision to heal Halleth.
Author's Note:
I hope this short chapter (well, short for me lol) has satisfied you, readers, for now. Writing Eiko's POV is refreshing, she is a girl full of emotions and, like a child, she is not shy about speaking her mind. Oh, and yes, I have plans for her with that fëa Healing factor. If you were confused as to how she did that, it's a mix of her choice (to be like a 'half-elf') but also the issue of her having chakra (which she hadn't been able to use before but her emotions knowing that Halleth could 'disappear' make her chakra unintentionally).
The next chapter will be longer and focus on the POV of Kana, her interactions with Legolas and the /
Oh, and if you're a fan of Teen Wolf, I published a story about this fandom called "Ouroboros", feel free to read it too, ok? Just click on my profile and you can see the story.
Happy New Year guys!