The Unexpected | LotR Fanfiction

Chapter 46

         

"Have..." I gulped in a big breath as I skidded to a stop. "Have you seen—" breath "—Melnare?"

"The elf-maiden?" Gimli inquired. As usual, he leaned on his walking ax. Did he ever part with it? I nodded in answer.

"She's been at the top of the eastern tower since we've arrived. The strange lass hasn't come down to eat, not even when Aragorn and the elf-lad argued with her."

"Okay, Gim. Thank you." I turned to set off jogging but—

"I don't trust her. Fire-elves are unnatural."

I swung around. "Well I'm unnatural, yet you appear to trust me."

The poor stubborn dwarf shuffled his feet all flustered like, his ruddy cheeks reddening. "Ah, well... well... you see..."

"Try getting to know her a bit... well," I muttered, "I don't even know her that well..."

Scrapping that idea, I turned around and continued over my shoulder, "just spend time with... around her and you'll see she isn't as bad as you think." With that, I set off jogging to find the east tower.

*********

There she was, doing the most stupidest and dangerous thing ever: sitting on the protective railing thousands of feet above the bone-crushing ground.

Deciding it was best not to spook her, I slowly sidled up next to her—firmly planted on the safe side of the railing.

I let a small smile come to my lips as I remembered how we often passed time in the cells of Orthanc. "What clothes do clouds we—?"

"Thunderwear." Her voice was different, lighter and heavier than it had been, all at the same time.

"How—what—you're supposed to not know the answer!"

She bit her cheek, probably reigning in a smirk. "I can't help it if you give me all the worst jokes."

"But—but—"

"Stop rambling. I see my son did not raise you to speak like a Lady." Her soil eyes drifted to me, then away to the horizon, letting her hair blow and dance in the wind. She looked so... Free.

Oh. Yeah. I nearly forgot about that... still strange to think that—that she's my grandma.

"I wasn't raised by him. I grew up in Mirkwood, remember?" Did I tell her about all that...? I mentally shrugged.

Her brows twitched in a furrow she tried to hide, the sun gleaming on her now tan skin. "Why?"

My fingers pushed my hair behind my ear. "I... I don't know." That question, among many others, still kept me awake at night. "To keep me safe, I think. Galadriel doesn't know why I was born mortal." Although I suspect she has some ideas.

The wind was ever strong up here, filling in the silence. Melnare's brown hair whipped around her in a whirl wind of soil, the coffee strands obscuring her vision. However, it didn't seem to bother her. But it bothered me. I reached behind me and twisted my hair up into a tight bun. Then let my fingers rub at my temple.

"Headaches?"

I groaned in answer, this headache had been plaguing me since last night, getting worse as the hours had gone by. Like mold or a weed. Let it alone too long and it becomes a problem. Dropping my fingers, I gazed at the elleth.

"Why haven't you come down?"

Her eyes became golden discs as she stared directly at the sun. The last few rays disappeared under the gray horizon. No answer.