Everlong

02

Lady Caladhiel was what Liruliniel would believe her father wished for her to be like. It wasn't anything personal to the elvish woman, she was polite, kind and seemed to have tolerance to put up with her. She had offered to Hérion aid, and he had taken it. He couldn't be within the dwelling the three called home to keep an eye on Liruliniel all day, every day. Nor could Thalion. It was no wonder Liruliniel was running amok really.

Leaning her chin against her palm, Liruliniel blinked her eyes totally bored and looked up at the woman in front of her. At least Caladhiel allowed them to take lessons outside. The trees shadowed them, the day was warm and the wind travelled through the leaves making them rustle. Liruliniel wanted to be up a tree running about. Not down here learning about, well, what even was she learning about? She had zoned out of Caladhiel's words a while ago. The blonde elf continued talking though as she read out of the book in her lap. She sat straight backed, her hair neatly plaited from her face, her long fingers tracing words along the cream coloured page below her. Her blue eyes were trained on the book, and not on Liruliniel sitting there pouting and pulling a very bored expression.

The previous day when Thalion and Thranduil had practically hand delivered her to her father, Liruliniel was expecting the worst. But Hérion was exasperated. Luckily for the lecture the two boys had left, Thranduil needing to find his father and Thalion just left because he didn't want to witness this. It wasn't that Hérion was a hard father, he could be stern but he could also be lighthearted. Since their mother passed, he had hardened himself to trying to do the best for them both. Which meant making sure Thalion kept training to perhaps enter the army, and Liruliniel to learning to make sure she could do something with her life. If left to her own devices, Hérion believed she'd just scamper about the woods all day, forever until she chose to cross the sea.

"Why do I need to know about those that wished to depart after the War of Wrath?"

"It isn't so much that which you are meant to be paying attention to, Liruliniel." Her voice was soft but hard as she clearly was trying to chastise her for putting thought into the wrong part of her lesson. Her blue eyes slowly looked up from the book and settled on the mahogany haired elf. Liruliniel was sure to wipe the bored look off her face, instead she awkwardly smiled. Caladhiel sighed, she snapped the book shut and kept her hands on the front cover. It was a rough account of the events that had happened, from someone who was personally there.

Liruliniel rocked to and fro slightly, "So...I'm meant to be paying attention to the ability to forge alliances with those which are different than ourselves?"

"It is important, in times of hardship, to have friends; to have allies that you can call upon, whenever you may need." Caladhiel said pointedly.

Liruliniel scratched her head, messing up her few braids which were present. Much to Caladhiel's displeasure. She had made her presentable, ordered the girl to bathe, to put on clean clothes that weren't covered in mud. Then she had combed her hair, not realising it liked to curl at the ends slightly. She had braided hair from her temple and those then led into another from the centre of her head. All then knitted and twisted together and was tied at the end with a simple ribbon.

When this battle happened, Liruliniel was young. Scarcely old enough to remember it, in fact. Yet Thalion would, Thranduil too. Neither took part, being too young. But their memories of it would be handy if she ever wanted to expand her knowledge. Liruliniel looked at her appointed tutor with a small frown. "I don't understand why it's this that you're opting to teach me."

Caladhiel rolled her eyes and looked astonished. "For someone who is clearly smart, you aren't good at seeing the obvious, are you?" Liruliniel's eyes widened, Caladhiel just remained staring at her. The skirt of her burgundy dress haloed around her as they turned silent. "Liruliniel, you wish to one day become a great warrior like your father, correct? Yes, see, for this you need to understand certain politics, or rather, how things work when and if fighting arises. You need to learn in situations who you can call a friend, and who you can call an enemy. Sometimes the line is easily blurred, sometimes not."