Dawnstar and Friend

Ginny’s POV
“You’re not very scientific are you?” I ask in amazement at his method of ascertaining that we are here
He looks blank and in a perfect parody of my five year old brother:
“What does that mean?”
“What’s what mean?”
“Scientific?”
I look at him trying to fathom that out, before realising that he is actually serious. I put my forehead into my hand trying to work out how to explain to a man who is obviously older than he looks what ‘scientific’ means.
“I mean your method of establishing that we are ‘here’ is to throw a twig on to the ground. I mean REALLY.”
Adinel, however, persists.
“I can see that science has not yet been invented around here, but when I see some I’ll be sure to point it out.”
At which point I flounce back to the fire finding that Sleeping Beauty is sound asleep in Pretty Boy’s arms – yuck! Suddenly, there is a sound of breaking twigs right behind me making me start. I turn around and see Adindel standing about a foot away holding a long green cloak in his arms. He smiles slightly at Legolas as though making me jump was some kind of private joke.
“Here.”
He tosses me the cloak.
“We are going to my brother’s palace and I want you to arrive looking slightly more civilised...”
His eyes travel downwards taking in my tight, violet blouse and denim hot pants. He raises an eyebrow. I resist the temptation of lashing out at the pompous git, merely contenting myself with glaring in his direction while I put on the cloak. It has, as Ellie would say, serious twirl value.
Adindel whistles; there is a sound of hooves and two horses canter gracefully into view. Adindel then turns to where Ellie and Legolas are sat. Legolas looks at Adindel and gently raises himself into a standing position with Ellie in his arms. He then manages to carry her over to one of the horses and mount, all without Ellie even stirring. What the...? That girl is lightest sleeper around – this day is really beginning to freak me out.
Adindel then calls the other horse over and waits, looking at me expectantly.
“Excuse me, I barely come up to the horse’s back – how the hell am I supposed to mount it unaided?”
Adindel rolls his eyes and lifts me up on to the horse’s back. He climbs up in front of me.
“Aren’t you supposed to have reins when riding a horse?”
“We ride horses without any tack at all. Always have. You’d best hold on.”
The horse begins to trot; then canter, and before I realise, we’re going at full gallop – the trees flashing past. I hang on for dear life.
Eventually we slow down as we reach a wide stream with a stone bridge over the centre.
“Whatever you do – don’t touch the water. Otherwise, you will lose your memory.”
I can‘t resist a sarcastic response to that.
“Awww...is the mighty Prince Adindel coming over all concerned about me?”
“No. It just wouldn’t make a very good first impression.”
“Whatever you say.”
I glance over at Ellie and Legolas. She seems to have woken up and is now clinging to his chest.
“I thought I was in Arda, not Mills and Boon.” I mutter. My captor frowns
“What was that?”
“Mills and Boon are disgustingly soppy romances and the scene over there is exactly the type of thing that happens in them.”
Adindel follows the direction of my nod to where Legolas and Ellie are. He chuckles.
We ride on until eventually the horses stop outside a cavernous hall with another blonde male standing at the entrance. As Ellie and I are helped off the horses, I suddenly notice that she seems taller, more graceful, and appears to be holding herself in a very regal fashion...
We are led over to the third male and are introduced. He is King Thanduil of Mirkwood. When Adindel introduces me, I smile, but Thanduil barely glances in my direction before giving the merest hint of a nod. Fine – it appears that all these people have their heads so far up their arses that they can see the light at the other end!
Thanduil leads us into the cave and hands us over to two maids who take us along a maze of corridors to two rooms virtually opposite each other. The maid in front of me then takes my hand and guides me to the door on the left – Ellie goes to the right.
I gasp – the room is light and airy with gothic-style columns and arches reaching all the way to the ceiling. Hangings in varying shades of green line the walls. The furniture is all made of the same light-brown wood, with intricate patterns carved all over it. The chairs and bed are covered in dark green velvet with an embroidered leaf pattern.
The maid (who is called Aeyana) then takes my cloak. She doesn’t say anything, but, judging by her shocked expression and her floor-length gown, the females in this world don’t go around quite as scantily clad as I am at present.
“Come with me, my lady, I have a nice hot bath already drawn with a plate of fruit beside it. As Prince Adindel and his nephew don’t have the best reputation around for food preparation, I thought you maybe in need of some sustenance.”
She laughed and took my hand – Okay; perhaps some people of Mirkwood aren’t quite so bad.
I lie back in the foamy, perfumed water and feel completely relaxed. I eat a juicy bunch of grapes while Aeyana kneels behind me and gently washes my hair.
Eventually, I climb, somewhat reluctantly, out of the bath and follow Aeyana back into the bedroom. She has opened the wardrobe which contains a small collection of silk and velvet gowns all in differing shades of blue and gold.
“Why do I have only blue gowns?”
“Blue and gold are the colours of the Aranel’s household. It is required everyone who is a member of her household must wear the same colours. So, my lady, which one do you want to wear?”
I shrug and comment that I don’t know
“How about this one? It will bring out the colour of your eyes.”
She takes out a gown made of pale-blue velvet with simple gold and navy embroidery around the neck and the ends of the small bell-sleeves. I nod eagerly and we smile at each other.
Once I’m dressed, Aeyana sits me down at the dressing table and proceeds to brush my hair.
“How would you like your hair?”
“Oh, nothing too fancy – just a simple plait or something.”
Aeyana nods and starts to braid the hair at the sides of my head. These she arranges into an artistic pattern before bringing the ends together with the rest of my hair, loosely plaiting it and tying the end with a navy ribbon. When Aeyana has finished, I get up and go over to the full-length mirror. There is complete silence. I can’t describe myself, so I just smile.
“You look beautiful, my lady.”
“Thank you, Aeyana. And please call me Ginny.”
“You still look beautiful.”
I turn and hug her. I must go and show Ellie so I step out into the corridor, almost knocking into Adindel as he passes. He stops and stares at me, mouth slightly open.
“Surprised I can scrub-up so well? Excuse me.”
And I sweep past him into Ellie’s room. It’s HUGE and decorated in the colours of her house. I’m not even in the bedroom, I’m in a sitting room and can see two doors leading off from it. Ellie isn’t ready yet, so I sit and wait...and wait...and wait.
Finally, a door opens and Ellie enters. I gasp; Ellie looks amazing. She’s wearing a short-sleeved navy-blue velvet gown with thick gold embroidery inlaid with tiny rubies around the neck and sleeves. Her gold silk under-dress has large bell-sleeves which sweep the ground and when she turns I notice that there is a small train at the back. Her hair is done in a complicated braided fashion and is imbedded with drops of sapphire and diamond.
As Ellie moves gracefully towards me, I suddenly notice that her ears have changed. They are now all pointy at the top; Ellie sees me staring and manages a small smile. She sits down beside me and I turn to her.
“So, what happens now?”
Eleanor’s POV
I woke up to a feeling of movement and warm arms around me. My head was buried in someone’s arms and I could feel the wind whipping around me. There was a faint feeling of an extra layer of protection from the climate around me and an extra pressure round my neck. When my brain became less sleep fuddled it translated the feelings into conclusions.
There was a cloak wrapped round me and I was on a horse that was going at full gallop and I was being held in the arms of one of the two blondes I had met at the campsite.
This meant that the whole incredible experience had actually happened and it wasn’t an extremely strange dream. Not that it would be a dream, I have never dreamed in my entire life, at least not any I can remember. I have been told that this is extremely rare and strange.
Then another shocking thing that just registered was that I had slept through not only being moved but being put on a horse and that horse getting up to a gallop. As previously stated I am a light sleeper and I never sleep that heavily.
Since it was pretty obvious that I could do nothing about whatever was presently going on, I stayed where I was. Hey, it was very comfortable curled up in his shoulder. A little part of me I refused to pay any attention to, hoped the blond holding me was Legolas, the younger elf.
As the horse galloped on, I began to pay more attention to myself. My body seemed to be slightly different. Somehow something seemed different about me, but I could not pinpoint what.
My brain was registering more things than I was used to it doing. The noise of the horse and the smell of the environment seemed more intense for a start.
No, I was imagining it, I must be. This apparent improvement of my senses was just a result of my eyes being closed and the other senses filling in for them.
Suddenly the horse jolted and I clasped onto the warm body in whose arms I was wrapped.
I felt his chest rumble with a chuckle and then he whispered in my ear.
“So, you’re awake then?”
The voice identified that it was Legolas who was holding me. In response, I nodded my head.
We rode on, during which I dozed a little and generally daydreamed, largely because there was nothing else to do. After a while he spoke again.
“We will soon be at the palace so you might wish to turn round; arriving curled to my chest would not be the most dignified or distinguished way to arrive, even if it is memorable.”
At this, I turned round carefully and neatened my hair best as possible.
While I was neatening up my hair, I was letting my eyes get used to the light, and the surroundings I found myself in. It was a tall, dark forest that definitely was not the Australian outback.
True to Legolas’ word it was not long before we arrived.
In front of me was a huge cave entrance. It was slightly open with a tall blonde male wearing a crown of foliage standing at the gap. He wore an imposing expression on his face and had a somehow predatory way of standing that still seemed to be relaxed.
When the horse stopped, another came into view from slightly behind me, holding Adindel and Ginny, the latter of who didn’t have the most content expression on her face. I don’t think she likes the older blonde very much. Or maybe she is jealous that I got the hot one. Probably not.
Both males are chivalrous and lift us off our horses, though that may have been to stop us running away now there wasn’t the threat of the strange spell or the fast speed of the horses to stop us.
We were guided to the third blonde who stood on the steps.
Adindel introduces the new, hard faced one as his older brother, King Thanduil of Mirkwood, the esteemed ruler of the realm we were now in.
The king makes a perfunctory bow in Ginny’s direction, barely more than a nod of his head followed by a rather more respectful one in my direction. He then suggests that we go inside, wash and change into something ‘more appropriate’. I can’t disagree, I must stink.
He leads us into the large cave and in seconds I know I would be lost without a guide! He soon hands us over two maids who lead us rooms, well apartments really.
My room is done in blue and gold, looking truly beautiful in the varying shades of both colours that are lining the walls. The sitting room is in an azure almost aquamarine shade of blue. The bed room is in several darker shades of blue and the huge bathroom is in pale blues with the most amazing marble bathing pool that is blissfully full of hot water.
The maid has the same dark hair that I’ve seen others sporting on our walk around the palace. Apparently the blonde of the royal family is not common in Mirkwood.
I lower myself into the huge bath. The maid, who I find out is called Aniya, washes my hair for me and gives me a bar of soap. I am glad for her doing my hair because I have no idea of what is in any bottle so would have been lost. Of course the fact that someone is playing with my hair doesn’t go amiss either.
After my bath she massages some sweet smelling oil into my body, something I discover that I enjoy a lot. She also massages some thinner oil into my hair, I suppose as replacement for conditioner. I have to admit I haven’t felt this good in a very long time.
After the pampering session, I am taken into the bedroom and dressed in a complicated medieval-style dress in gold and navy blue, for some reason they seem to associate the colours with me and I wonder if the colours are of the royal house of which I’m supposed to be a member or something.
Aniya then sits me at a dressing table with a large mirror encased in an ornate frame of some beautiful gold coloured wood.
She then spends ages fiddling with my hair until it comes out in an ornate hair style involving a lot of braiding, in which she has somehow imbedded what I suspect are sapphires and diamonds.
Round my neck she places a necklace that is surprisingly simple but extremely beautiful. I look at the ensemble and realise almost immediately what is missing.
I move to my backpack which is in the corner of the room and dig out my jewellery box, something that is carefully wrapped to protect it.
Yes, I do have a jewellery box with me. At various points on the trip we were staying with friends and there had been need of more formal things.
The box is a cut wood thing I was given for my seventeenth birthday in Granada, southern Spain. I absolutely love it.
Inside are several pieces of jewellery, including a pair of sapphire earrings that had been a Christmas present.
It is only after I finish putting the second earring in that I notice one huge change and that is my ears are pointy...
This shocks me and I immediately start looking for other changes in me. The other really obvious thing is my eyes, which seem different. I cannot explain what is different, but they definitely are different. The other changes in me are not immediately obvious, but they are there. My skin is better and many of the things I previously didn’t like about myself seem to have ironed themselves out.
After my thoroughly shocked discovery fest, I finally notice that Aniya is slightly green looking.
It takes my fuddled mind a few minutes to work out why.
I haven’t noticed until that point that the ears, particularly the top part, are rather more sensitive than before. Apparently sticking pieces of metal through my ears makes her stomach go slightly.
After more contemplation I go through to the sitting room to think, asking Aniya to leave me alone until she was needed again.
In the sitting room I am surprised to see Ginny. Looking at her I can see how she is ready before me. Her dress is simpler than mine and so is her hair. She is dressed in the similar colours as I am and she sits there watching me come in. Her eyes rove over me and then widen when she sees what took me ages to notice. We sit in silence for a few minutes before we begin to talk.
“So, what happens now?”
“I think we’ve just been dropped into a bad fanfiction, Gin. Have you noticed that at least two characters of LOTR are here?”
“Yeah I have. So these guys are actually elves?! Wow...By the way, why are you using the abbreviation?”
“Because my maid is through there and I doubt they know about Tolkien. I was thinking of keeping our knowledge of ME secret, them knowing about what we know could be problematic. Actually, I’m glad we had the opportunity to talk because I think we will soon have an interesting, informative, and very probably quite awkward meeting with mister cheerful Elf-king.”
“So we know nothing and are going to learn everything, including the language?”
“Probably. We may have to learn a fair bit, anyway because the great Tolkien did not give a full picture and I think he’s got some things wrong as well, if my memory serves me correctly.”
We talk a little more, carefully about what we are going to do now, when there is a knock at the door. A man-servant, well male elf servant, comes in and informs us that he is there to escort us to dinner. I apparently slept though lunch.
We are led through the warren of tunnels to a private dining room. In the room there are six places set. We are escorted to seats and soon after we sit down, in come Legolas and a tall blonde girl who appears to be in her late adolescence. Shortly after that King Thanduil and his lovely brother also come in and sit down.
The tall, intimidating elf-king looks at me with a small, slightly lopsided, enigmatic smile and bows his head at me before talking.
“The young lady over there is my daughter, Miriel. I am sure you will like her. I know you are both keen to have explanations, but the dinner table is not the place for them as I am certain you will not be too happy with one or two of them. So we will talk about these things after the meal, in better surroundings.”
When introduced, Miriel smiles at me cheerfully, then at Ginny; for some reason I think she is the younger sibling.
Throughout the exquisite meal, I keep a calm cool composure that I hope gives nothing away I don’t want it to. Miriel is quite excitable and does most of the talking. I never thought that there was someone who could out-talk my Aunt Marguerite, but the young elf could give her a good run for her money. I think only manners rammed into her skull allowed anyone else a word in edgeways.
After the meal, we go to another room nearby which turns out to be a sitting room of some sort where we are brought drinks of some spirit or other. Ginny particularly eyes these with suspicion.
Miriel is only allowed to stay for the conversation because she promises to keep quiet; I wonder how long that will last.
Thanduil looks at us for a while before finally speaking.
“My son has already told you that you are a princess, Eleanor, but he and my brother have yet to tell you more... You are the second daughter of King Turgon of Gondolin. You were born very shortly before the fall of the aforementioned city and because you were too young to travel something else was done to save you by your elder sister. She cast a spell that made you appear human in as many ways as possible and you were then transported to another world to be brought up. At some point you were to be brought back to this world.“
“Since there was nothing set for your bringing back to this world, I asked my brother, a talented mage in his own right, to bring you back here. Since you were with your friend we decided to bring her back as well.”
“Here, as you already know, is Mirkwood and as things stand, we are presently in the Third Age of Middle Earth or Arda as my people call it. You are the great-aunt of the ruler of Imladris or Rivendell as the humans call it, who is a Peredhil or Half-elf descended from your older sister.”
“My land is rather separated from the other realms of the elves and in this time, I need the links with those other realms, for unlike them I do not have a ring of power to protect my borders. You are valuable in the protection of my realm, my lady, because the Peredhil-lord of Imladris will not allow his aunt to come to harm and will send assistance if my realm is threatened while you are within my borders.”
“Now you are here I shall send word to Elrond and no doubt he will immediately come here to verify both that you are who I say you are and that I am treating you well, for I have enough confidence in his intelligence for the assumption that he will know why I have brought you back.”
“Your friend here will be considered a member of your house and one assumes you are aware that her main reason for being brought along is to ensure your co-operation with my plan.”
“You yourself are not very powerful, but as a symbol you are the most powerful symbol in the elfin realms. You will be well looked after as will your friend as long as you behave.”
He smiled grimly at me. I simply stared at him...