Another Life

Chapter 3 - Questions, no answers, and pots.

Peeing was forgotten as I was caught in an Elf Lord's eyes. He stared at me and I suddenly had the urge to duck for his couch, hide under it, and plea for sanctuary. Or something. I didn't even know my name and I was already in trouble?

“You're awake.” He said, eyes fixed on me, but no warmth. “Have you regained memories?”

“No.” Except, I realised, except about him. Memories about this elf person. Were they real or had my mind just made a whole bunch of stuff up? That was possible. “I don't really remember anything.”

He moved to touch the table, barely leaning against it, and I caught a glimpse of a ring on his finger. Again, memories flooded my head, awareness of what that ring meant. Elvish Ring of Power. Water.

Lord Elrond's head turned sharply in my direction and I glanced away towards a pile of books, trying to look as if I hadn't been caught staring at his pretty ring.

“You know things you shouldn't.” He stated, softly, stepping towards me. I wanted to step backwards but I felt rooted to the spot. Lord Elrond moved very close, his long robes shuffling gently in his movement, till he was just inches away.

“I don't know what I know.” His height made it easy to avoid his eyes at this close range but it didn't help. I felt kind of nervous and the urge to pee came back again. “It just comes into my head. I don't even know my name and I don't know if things that come in are real or fake.”

“You had foresight during the Council meeting.” Elrond gestured behind me, and I turned, to see a mirror in the trees.

A mirror? It was held up by a female statue, who bent over beside it, her arm around it. I hadn't seen it while I was gawking at the meeting. I hadn't really thought about the pretty surroundings. But it was more or less half directed towards the stone area we'd been hiding in. Had he seen my reflection in that mirror?

Lord Elrond was quick to continue and answer my unspoken queory. “I watched you.”

Ah. Bugger. I turned back to him and somehow brought myself to meet his eyes, half cringing before I met them, half expecting to be cut down or something. He just stared passively down at me. “I don't know what it is.”

“No, and yet...” He reached up to touch my ears. My ears? Again? I reached up to touch it too, not entirally sure what he was so interested about. It wasn't an Elven ear. That wasn't what I found.

What I did find, to my horror, was that one of my ears was gone.

Gone.

I had no fucking ear.

I grabbed for the other one and found it there, more or less, but the top of it was weird. Catching another mirror in my sight, I headed for it, not caring how rude it was. What had happened to me? One ear was more or less gone. The other was there but the top of it looked like it had literally been cut off somehow. And I had a scar across the side of my face from that cut ear to my cheekbone.

“What happened to me?” I stared, heart pounding, trying to breathe. I felt kind of weird, faint, my head spun. Oh god. I was a freak.

“You were unconscious on the banks of our river, one day north. Lord Legolas found you and a child there, grievously injured, half-dead. My healers could not repair the damage to your ears but the scarring will fade.”

How much was there? I hadn't really looked at myself before. Pippin, Merry and the council thing were completely out of my head now, I stared down at my arms. There were faint scars and stuff. “I don't remember how it happened.”

“No.” He said softly. I'd said this before. Of course he knew that. “Your kin is, therefore, unknown.”

“Why, because you can't tell if I have pointy or round ears?” I caught Lord Elrond's face in the mirror's reflection. It was suddenly guarded and he turned to walk away towards a balcony, quiet. I felt like he hadn't dismissed me. Did he need to think? The news about my ears and body kind of flustered me. “I don't think I'm like you.”