"Miss Elena... Daughter of..."

"No one," I smiled as I completed his words for him. The elf looked at me questioningly.

"You don't know your father's name?"

"I simply forgot. Had an accident a long time ago," I explained.

"What kind of accident?"

"The kind that leaves my head a little weird. Like, sometimes I come up with these totally outlandish terms like..." I paused for a moment and came up with a few of random words that popped up in my head, "...I don't know. Oprah, Osama Bin Laden and... Keanu Reeves," I shrugged.

"You are outlandish," the dark haired elf confirmed with a frown on his forehead. His light brown eyes looking at me with such bafflement, as if I had just grown an extra nostril under my nose. "So. Regarding your letter of complaints. We decided to hear your case. That's why we also summoned the Defendant, Tholin, son of Thodion–"

I glanced down next to me at the super undergrown motherforker dwarf and gave him my best condescending glare.

"–And now, before we record this hearing, now I ask you, as the Complainer–"

"–Hang on a second. Complainer?" I looked at him confused at the term he used.

The elf gave me a look. "Are you not the one complaining against him and wrote a deliberate complaint regarding your case?"

"Yes–"

"–Then you are a Complainer."

I frowned in disbelief when I saw his dead serious expression. "Really? That's a legal term? That sounds wrong. And negative," I mumbled.

"I would say that most people that file a case are quite negative," deadpanned the elf.

Wow. Rude.

He resumed his speech. "May I have your word that from this moment forward, you are going to tell nothing but the truth, or else bear the penalty of at least 300 coins of gold, or at worst, accept being exiled forever from the realm of Rivendell, should you are proven in the future to be giving false statement?"

Again, I was flabbergasted. "Exiled? That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" I commented.

"Stop being negative and complain about everything, will you? There's a line behind you two," the elf now also complained, looking at me with frustration in his eyes as he pointed at the queue that indeed was piling up today behind me and the dwarf.

"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Yes, I swear. You have my word. I just want justice to be served," I said immediately.

The elf turned to Tholin, repeating word by word the same question he asked me earlier as if he had repeated the same question for the past millennia. Judging from an elf's lifespan, he probably had. Tholin gave his word and I scoffed.

"Without further ado, Miss Elena, let's hear what you have to say."

I pointed my index finger so close to the dwarf's face, and the silly dwarf just instinctively and aggressively blew his breath at my finger, but I stood my ground. "This gentleman over here bought the pencil I invented at a ridiculously low price, and resale it at a crazy amount of coins to every one in the House of Elrond who can read and write, and then claimed that he invented and single handedly produced then marketed MY invention, without MY consent–"

The elf raised his hand, halting my righteous and wholehearted speech, "What is a pencil?"

"That wooden quill. The one your scribe friend is using right now to record this hearing? I call it a Pencil," I gestured at the elf next to him who was busy writing on his book.

"Ridiculous name," Tholin commented.

The elf turned to Tholin and reprimanded him. "You will have your opportunity to defend yourself, master dwarf. I will not hear another remarks from you, unless you are being spoken to by me. Do you understand?"

Tholin grunted his affirmation. The elf turned his eyes at me again. "Do you have any prove that can support your claim, Miss Elena?"

I pulled out a leather book out of my bag and gave it to him. "The record of sales of my product, complete with buyer's name, date of purchase, amount of purchase and the signature of the buyer," I leaned down and opened a few pages to show him the ones in which the dwarf signed his name on the book. "See this? He's been making big purchases over the few months back."

"Is this your signature, master dwarf?"

Tholin peeked at the book and his face turned red. "I've never seen that before. She could have just made up that record to set me up."

"Hell no," I spat, and turned to the elf, "You can see the record back to last year when I first started to market. Last year you haven't even heard about a wooden quill until 6 months ago, when Tholin here started buying pencils from me."

The elf studied the ledger and turned to the dwarf.

"You may defend yourself."

"She's a greedy copycat who wants to rip me off of my profits despite the fact that I am her supplier–"

"–Excuse me?!"

"–And obviously she forged this ledger and back date it six months just so it can look authentic, that way she reaps profit from winning this unjust case against me."

I am fire. I am death.

I was going to make him feel sorry that he was even breathing the same air as me. "–You mother–"

"–Language, miss!" barked the elf sternly,startling me.

"Sorry, sir. My bad. I-I was overwhelmed. I lost control," I blurted quickly, lowering my tone and took a deep breath.

The dwarf gave me a cosmically ugly mocking face and I responded just as a woman of culture should have. I stuck out my tongue at him.

"Keep it civil, both of you!" commanded the elf before us with a loud voice, effectively making us both flinch and quitting our battle on which person can conjure the ugliest annoying face. The elf continued.

"Now I want to hear what the Complainer demands should she wins the case. I will not accept an unrealistic demand."

"In the past six months I have sold him 153 pencils at a price of a silver coin each, and he had sold it at a golden coin each, which means..." I used my fingers and counted quickly under my breath, "...He has profited 1,404 silver coins, or 140 gold coins and 4 silver coins, and I want that much to be compensated to me, PLUS," I glared at the greedy dwarf, "...ten times the amount of my financial losses due to this case, which makes it 640 silver coins."

While the dwarf was busy throwing me dirty looks, the elf glanced at the scribe who was writing calculations on my demand, comparing it to my ledger, then looked at me. "I understand the calculation for the basic compensation. But do explain more about your extra compensation request."

"Per day, I can produce 2 pencils. Now ever since I found out that this dwarf had swindled me–that is on Summer Festival celebration night, which was exactly 32 days ago from today–I have ceased all production in order to prevent him from profiting over my product. I usually sell a pencil at one silver coin, so that means up to today, I have suffered financial losses in amount of 64 silver coins due to this incident, and that number will continue to increase until I win this case. You may check on the ledger. There is nosale recorded since the day after the Summer Festival."

"I see. Why do you multiply that 64 silver coins to 10 times its original amount?"

"Emotional damage fee," I shrugged.

The elf turned to the scribe again, who seemingly also used his notes not only to record statement, but also to count damages.

Just like a third grader.

The elf turned to the dwarf. "And you, master dwarf?"

"100 times for my emotional damage!" he boomed.

I snickered. "100 times of what, gold coins? In your dead weight?"

"Miss Elena!" the elf none so gently bumped his fist twice on the table, startling both of us again. He didn't speak now; only giving me and the dwarf his threatening, dead shark look.

Not wanting to lose the case, I looked down apologetically.

"Master dwarf, you need to give me a real calculation of your demands should you win this case."

Tholin opened his mouth, then closed it, only to opened his mouth and closed it again, rinse and repeat, like a very sad koi fish in a very small fish tank. I rolled my eyes.

"100 silver coins, then, for your emotional damage," decided the elf. He raised his hand at the dwarf before he could even complain, "As the officer who handle this case, my decision is final."

He waited for his scribe to record the damage fee requested from each of us then resumed. "From the way I see it, there is no way to confirm which of your statement is true. So unless any one of you can provide more evidence to me then I will adjourn this case until next month. If by next month no more evidence is provided, then your case will be dismissed, and I will ask both of you to pay administration fee of 3 gold coins each."

"Deal," the dwarf smirked confidently.

"No," I interjected, "I want to propose a way to prove that the dwarf is not the inventor of the pencils. I will stop producing the pencils, for as long as the case is still active. In one month, if the dwarf cannot come up with solid evidence that he himself produced and market more pencils with the same quality as what you have there, and no more of my products circulating around, that means he's lying. By then I will show up with 60 pencils for you as an evidence that I, myself, is the one and only who invented this product."

The elf took the pencil that his scribe used and held it between his index fingers, studying it. "I'm afraid this can be replicated. Just a carved wood and..." The elf looked at the lead that was placed in the middle of the wood, "What's this pigment made of?"

I smiled smugly. "That's my secret, sir. One that the impostor standing next to me doesn't know. Tholin can put anything dark colored inside the wood, but the consistency and the pigmentation it generates when being used on paper won't be the same as mine. You see how buttery it glides on the paper? My recipe. It's all in here," I tapped my head.

"Fair enough. You both may go home as we study your case, and I'll keep this ledger of yours for the time being."

I nodded. "Please don't lose it. It's my only evidence against this..." I gestured aggressively at the dwarf' face with my hand, "...Miscarry of justice!"

The elf looked positively exhausted now. "I will guard your evidence with my life. See you both next month. Next case!"

As we walked away, the dwarf on purposely bumped his dense shoulder against my hip whilst giving me his absolute dirty look. He might not going to win this case, but he did win the battle on who makes the ugliest annoying face.

"You're on, master dwarf!" I called out and scoffed, "Your move!!" Again, he showed me a face only a mother can love.

As I adjusted my bag on my arm and was making my way out of the public court at the House of Elrond, a voice called out to me.

"Miss Elena?"

I turned and find the scary yet handsome, yet scary elf walking towards me. I bowed my head in respect and peeked up to see his face. "My lord?"

"Follow me," was his only explanation and I had no choice but to do so.

"Am I in any trouble?" I asked.

"Should you?"

"No. Not at all. I'm a very compliant citizen," I stated in hope to convince him, but upon receiving no response from the Captain of the Guards, I added for good measure, "I paid my taxes regularly. If there is somehow any miscalculation on my part, I am happy to review my tax report and pay the rest of the amount that I owe–"

"–Do I look like a tax collector?" he asked, his expression genuinely curious as he looked at me.

I gave him a once over, and when I realized that he realized that I was checking him out, I suddenly had no idea what to do with my eyes, with my hands, and with my everything. "No... Sir. You look like you just want to righteously murder any monster that wanted to cross the border with your very big sword–" I blurted as I eyed his sword that was attached to his hip, and by the time I realized what I was blabbering about, it was too late. In a very poor attempt to salvage the situation, I lamely added, "Which I'm not one, obviously."

He only looked at me with a raised eyebrow and continued walking one step ahead of me. "Your speech is not very convincing, Miss Elena. But rest assured, I know a monster when I see one."

I let out a breath of relief at that.

He led me to a deserted library and gestured for me to sit down at one of the table.

"I happen to be nearby during your case hearing," the blue eyed elf told me.

"I'm not lying," I insisted.

"I never said that," he replied stoically, "But then again, you being too defensive about everything won't make you any more believable on most cases."

I pressed my lips together and went quiet. He offered me somewhat a stiff smile, one that lacked warmth and was forced out of politeness. "From the hearing I gather that you are very good at calculating numbers and that you might be somewhat unemployed for the rest of the month because of your case. We happen to have an opening for a job–"

"–I still need to make 60 pencils in a month–"

"–Just one. Make one of your wooden quill in front of me and I will speak to the officer who handle your case and testify. That is enough prove for your case, should you accept my offer. Now, as I mentioned earlier about your calculation skill, you have just come across a chance to work for someone important in the House of Elrond–"

"–I can't tell you what's inside the wooden quill that makes it–" I quickly stopped mid speech upon seeing the frown on his forehead. I realized I was interrupting him a lot. I felt uncomfortable under his piercing gaze and nervously folded my hands together on the table. "Sorry. You were saying?"

"You don't have to tell me what's your secret recipe is. I just need you to make the quill in front of me and prove to me it works just as well as what we already have in Rivendell."

I nodded. "I can do that."

"Now, are you interested in trying for the job?"

"Depends. How much my wage will be, what kind of job it is and whether I can handle it."

"I think you can handle it. You don't need to worry about the wage. Your employer will be happy to negotiate your wage, and I assure you that it will be above average offer out there."

Ding ding ding! Bingo!

"I'm happy to. Honored," I smiled.

He returned my smile with his souless smile and stood up from his seat to retrieve a parchment, a quill and an ink.

"Show me what you can do."

I looked at the blank parchment and then back to him. "There is no calculations to solve here."

"Make several yourself and solve them accurately. Your potential employer will judge your skill based on the complexity of the calculations you can solve. You have 30 minutes before he gets here."

"Okay. Hey, can I use my pencil?"

He smiled again, amused this time. "Be my guest."

Just like that and he left me alone at the library. So with gusto, I cracked my fingers and loosened up before making up one paragraph containing a problem which will require me to calculate big numbers that involves multiplications, divisions, average, square roots, and a demand to present the numbers in some sort of a chart to make it look presentable and professional.

Going fifteen minutes into it, I noticed a handsome ellon with dark hair passed by and gave me a small, kind smile. I smiled back at him as he went towards the back of the library.

Not ten seconds later, someone else entered from the front door, and when I gave a quick glance, it looked like it was just another ellon that passed by.

After that, there were three or four more ellyn each entered the library separately and went inside, and upon finally noticing that, I looked towards the back of the library, wondering what all of them were doing being cramped together like that in there. Maybe they were starting a book club.

So I turned my focus back at impressing my potential employer.

Another ellon passed by me, and now that I paid attention, I noticed that it was the first guy who entered since Lord Glorfindel left, and he was giving me the same smile as he did before.

The fork?

I looked back towards the direction where he was headed, away from my view. He had never come out of the library. How did he entered from the outside again?

Someone came in again, and this time, to my utter horror, the same image of the previous ellon, giving the same smile to me, passed by me and disappeared behind the many bookshelves again.

Warmth suddenly left me and ice, ice was in my blood. I was still frozen in shock, blinking rapidly and aggressively massaging my forehead when another one ellon entered again. The same image of the same person, giving me the exact smile, only to walked past me again and disappeared behind the same bookshelves.

With trembling shoulders and hands, I bolted out of the library, realizing that I had just experienced my first paranormal activity.

Holy forking sheet!

I fled so fast, blindly, feeling cold air on my breaths as I looked back with dread, needing to make sure that the spirits of ancient elves would leave me forking alo–

"AHHHH!!!! GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!!!" I screamed bloody murder when a being in front of me tried to touch me.

"Miss Elena!" His stern voice startled me and immediately sobered me up, enough for me to think past my panic. It was Lord Glorfindel who was looking at me as if I was nothing but a maniac who deserves to be locked up in a padded room without windows.

"Ahhh!! Sorry!!! Ah! T-that–" I pointed back at the library, finding it hard to form words.

The elf warrior seemed to notice my panic. He darted his intense gaze towards the library where I pointed at, as if scanning for threats–he might as well be, because next thing I noted I saw his right hand already landed on the hilt of his sword as he spoke.

"Calm down. You're hyperventilating," he said in his calm deep voice, looking me straight in the eye, "What is it?"

I took a deep breath and exhaled. "The library is haunted. There's a ghost!"

He raised one of his neat brows, which funnily enough, had so far shown more variety of expressions than his whole face combined.

Whatever. I didn't want to be here any longer, so I shoved the parchment with its unfinished calculation written on it into his hand.

"Take this. I change my mind. I can't work here. I don't do ghosts!"

I sprinted past him but before I even got two steps out of me, his hand caught my wrist. "There is no ghost in Rivendell."

"I can't prove what I saw. But I saw it, I don't like it. Thank you, I'm sorry, good day, sir."

He caught my hand again and sighed. "There is however, a couple grown elves who sometimes went too far with their silly pranks," he told me before turning his eyes away from me. "Dan! Ro! Enough games."

Melodious ellyn laughter who sounded similar to each other rang from behind and in front of me. Puzzled, I noticed my ghost, the two of them stood before me, laughing in high amusement at me while Lord Glorfindel stood somehow looking displeased, probably slightly embarrassed too, as he handed my parchment to one of the twins.

Identical twins.

The other one who was not looking at my paper while wiping his tear of joy, took my hand and kissed it, smiling boyishly at me. "Thank you, sweet pea. We've never laughed that hard for probably a hundred years."

Prick.

I rudely pulled my hand away from his grasp. I turned to Lord Glorfindel.

"One of them is supposed to be my employer?" I demanded, feeling hot on my face–both out of embarrassment at my earlier meltdown and out of rage.

At least Lord Glorfindel had the decency to look really uncomfortable by now, while the twins only laugh again, as if I was a stand up comedian whose videos has gained 2 billions views worldwide on YouTube. This did nothing but angered me further.

"I don't find it funny. At all," I told both the twins with trembling voice, "I don't care if you are someone important. But I know you won't treat any other important person, especially one who is a stranger to you, like you did me just now–" I held my tongue from spitting out all the bad words I know in once complete sentence, remembering the fact that any important people in Rivendell might have a power to probably send me into exile, and I didn't want to be exiled, so I chose my next words carefully while still letting them know how forking upset I was, "–I am deeply uncomfortable, and upset, and I disliked both of you," I spat the words. I spared Lord Glorfindel only a slight look of regret and shook my head. "Good bye."

I walked away in quick strides now, not looking back, not wanting anything to do with the elves in there again, until one of the twins who held my paper blocked my way.

"I'm–we are sorry. Very sorry. We apologize. I apologize. It was out of line," he said, now having the nerve to look like he was worried that he had actually almost giving me a heart attack.

"Accepted. Move," I told him.

"Wait. You're hired!" He announced.

"No."

I walked past him and was in a hurry to leave.

"200 coins of gold monthly wage," he called out. That was enough to halt me, and I turned to look back at him, and the two other elves behind him.

"300," he bargained after taking my silence as a no. Noticing this, I kept my silence and kept my face straight.

"350, and 10 monthly days off of your choosing."

I folded my hands to my chest.

The ghost elf in front of me frowned as he thought deep while studying me. "And... accommodation provided within the building, so you don't have to travel back and forth everyday to the town. Yes? You'll never find other employer as generous as I am. Deal?"

"No," I replied curtly. Then, I gave him a saccharine smile, "Not until the deal is written on paper and signed by both of us."

The elf gave me what I would describe as troublemaker-smile. "Of course. Anything else?"

"Two signed copies," I emphasized, showing him two fingers, in which I thankfully not under-calculated how many fingers I should stick out for him, or which one, "One for you, one for me. And I'd like to read the draft as well before the signing."

[Author's Note: Meanie, evil twinsies!!! Comment and review! Thanks for reading! ]