Everlong

01

Amon Lanc, the castle fort on the tall hill with its long stretching grey stoned corridors which were vast and wide; even from standing in one of the corridors, the end disappeared off into the distance. The halls and rooms which were situated within the fort like castle were as large as everything else within its walls. All the elves could fit within them for important meetings, shared meals and celebrations and still have room for more.

The one thing which captured, and would always stay with a young mahogany haired elf was the acoustics, Liruliniel could stand in one room whistling away and her echo would bounce around her. A wide smile would appear on her face as she looked around trying to find which wall it had bounced off of. Of course, it was something which she couldn't place. That's just how echoes worked. Much like most of her kin, she enjoyed things of a musical nature and when festivals happened within these halls, the music was great, and beautiful and she had enjoyed the echoes bouncing around just as much as she did with her own whistle.

She had remembered the move here. The trek from the Blue Mountains, Ered Luin, to here. She had liked dwelling within those cavernous spaces. All manner of folk came and went, traded and lived. There was an old blacksmith, well, he maybe wasn't that old but to the young elf, the dwarf was ancient; but she had enjoyed many an afternoon watching him work away. So adapted and exceptional at his work, Liruliniel couldn't help but aspire. One day she wanted to find something she was good at, something she excelled in like the dwarf and his smith work.

She had been saddened to leave. It wasn't like she had any friends outside her own kin, but she had liked the space. The move over the Mountains and to this woodland space was long, arduous and hard. There hadn't been any casualties, thank Valar, but it had been tricky. Yet, as all who followed their leader, they entrusted Oropher. They entrusted that he knew where he was leading them, that they would find a home; somewhere they could fully call their own, to dwell in for many years to come and be at peace.

That place, Greenwood the Great, stood up to its name because it was great. Truly, Liruliniel had never seen such lush forestry in her whole life before. The trees were as tall as they were large, she couldn't wrap her arms around the trunks. Not that she made a habit of going around cuddling the trees, but she did make a habit of climbing them. And to do that, she needed to cling on and haul herself up. She could climb and jump from branch to branch for hours. The woodland stretched on for as far as she could see, the leaves a vibrant green, rich and gleaming in the sunlight and at night, the cool air was refreshing amongst the humidity of the foliage.

She liked this home more. She liked being able to have numerous places to hide even more. Amon Lanc was generous like that, so vast and stretching on its hilltop vantage point, that sometimes it took someone ages to pin someone else down. It wasn't that Liruliniel was avoiding anyone, but there was a long standing thing going on, that thing being how long could she hide from her older brother until he found her. She had managed to survive for two days in Ered Luin before Thalion admitted defeat.

If she remembered rightly, he got their father involved, and he hadn't been too pleased when she reappeared dirty, scruffy and her clothes torn and tattered because she had climbed into a small crevasse on the mountainside. Her argument was: if the dwarves could do it, why couldn't she? And if she remembered rightly, her father's response had been blunt: "You are not a dwarf, and you need not act like one." Hérion wasn't pleased, and Liruliniel had been punished by having to clean out stalls for a week. After that week, she had grown quite fond of horses. So it wasn't all that bad.

"You keep whistling, and he will find you."

Liruliniel turned on her heels, her hair whipping about her as she did so. She didn't struggle to make friends, and there were many other young elves around. But the perk of her father being one of Oropher's personal guards, was that she and her brother too got to know the newly appointed royal family. Even if that was just Oropher and his son, Thranduil. Thranduil was more near Thalion's age than herself, but it didn't seem to deter the two from being civil. Honestly, pestering the older boys was entertaining to her. They got so stressed and grumpy, it made her laugh.