Livewire[LOTR]

Chapter one- Ireth

Live Wire

Clans, of my kind often can be found threw out the lands. We travel in packs, like humans would. Togetherness is important to me and my family. I love each and every one of my /clan/... Well. Clan is a stretch. We don't really refer to each other as such. The elves of this land typically remain in large groups. We have, the elves of Sindar. Strong.... But vile and sly. There brethren rest in Rivendale. Powerful and wise, typically born with dark brown hair. Lothlorien, the settlement to the west of us. Containing fair lady Galadriel. I had heard only stories of her, by my mother. The lady was beautiful, her hair long and blonde. Eyes as blue as the ice on the lonely mountain. I knew only of these people by the stories told by my mother and father. My brothers, Irivan and Sivmit where powerful warriors. There eagle companions where the strongest.

I would often watch them train there birds of prey, together. Now, when most think bird of prey they think small birds with large wingspans. While its true, our eagles are much of the same. They are about, the size of a large horse. Massive and powerful foes. Intelligent to, our clan came across them while we wandered. Homeless and hungry threw the forests, the major majority of us where outcasts from the three major clans. We had quite the mixture. My mother, had been banished from them for falling inlove with a human man. Producing us, me and my firey haired brothers. We did not fit in with either kind, I- like my siblings. Born with, short auburn hair. My eyes pools of brown and the spirit of a burning fire. I would not cry when my brothers would pick on me, instead I would fight back. They quickly learned I was not to be messed with.

I sat outside our little hut, we lived in the foothills of the misty mountains. Safely nestled away from the threats of the world. Battles raged between ork and elf, our kind was once again new to this world. This time was strange to all... my mothers kind had vanished for almost thousands of years. Apparently. No one was sure why, it just... happened. But that, was a while ago. Fights still continued to rage on, I was around the age of twenty two- in human years- now. My father had passed last year, a human by the name of Eein. A powerful man, I'd grown up looking up to him. We had gotten our red hair from him, he was a large man. With a beard and blue eyes, my mother had blonde hair. Like most Sindar elves had.

I folded my legs against the wooden bench and poked the fire that crackled before me with a stick I picked up when I wandered around. I poked the embers as the fire sizzled and hissed at me, angerly like a enraged snake. I'd lived most of my life in the cold mountains. I was used to it now, I pulled my wolfskin coat closer to my body. My village had learned to work with the eagles- I watched them soar above us- we offered them family, love, protection and food. In return they offered us there loyalty. We were care takers in a sense.

When a child in the village reached a certain age they would be matched with an eagle. Or an eagle would be paired with them... really it depended. I still hadn't gotten my match. My brothers had gotten them when they were sixteen... twins. By the way. I was the odd third sister. Three years younger. I wandered towards the edge of where our hut sat. Our hut was slightly above the rest of the village which was nestled nicely into a series of caves in the mountainside. Homes and houses built to withstand the winds and snows. I eyed my brothers, who flew above me. There shouts easily heard down here.

I scowled, up at them. I was supposed to have a companion by now, but none of the eagles had taken a liking to me. I sat down on the edge of the overhang on which our hut perched upon. My eyes skewering into the two boys above me. I grumbled as I watched them, my eyes flickered down to the village again. We did not just have elves living here, we had dwarves... humans to. Sometimes a hobbit, they were rare though. The hobbits stuck to warmer climates. Since I was a half-breed most of the elves and humans my age wouldn't want to speak with me. We had ears like elves, but everything else was human. We were slower and less nimble then an elf would be. Far from graceful. When my mothers parents or friends would visit we would be stuffing our faces and they would mutter things in elven to eachother. No doubt about how terrible we were, and wondering why my mother married a human to produce snot nosed brats.

As a child, I was the artist of our family. As well as the angry red-haired little girl who refused to wear dresses like her mother wanted. I commanded my parents to let me go outside and play in the mud with my brothers instead of learning to be a lady. They let me, and I guess this was the end result. I glanced down at my clothing and touched the tips of my ears. Yep. Still sharp. I sighed inwardly, when I was a child I had often wanted my ears to be ground down and made human like. I asked my mother if she would do it for me and she pointed to hers and told me they were a sign of beauty. I thought it was bullshit then, and its bullshit now.

The elven lords... do not sound that beautiful. According to her stories anyway, Oropher. The king of the Silvan elves seemed like a giant asshole to me. He banished her because she failed her duties as guardsmen and archer when she refused to kill an innocent man- our father- who had been convicted of absolutely nothing. I think the king had just been having a bad day. There was a crunch behind me and I glanced behind, I had been so lost in thought I'd failed to notice my mother walk up behind me. "Ireth, love..." she began. "Come in out of the cold, there is a storm on the horizon." She was holding a basket of food on her hip. She dressed like a human would, a ratty patched dress her hair pinned up. Falling in cold ringlets around her almost perfect face. That was another thing, my brothers and I were covered in freckles. My nose, my face... my arms even.

I cast a glance at the two boys upon the birds in the sky one last time before jumping up and trailing after my mother into the hut. She shut the door behind me. "I know you are upset about not getting paired yet." She said. I sighed quietly. "Yeah... you read me like an open book." I sat next to the small window on the right of the one roomed hut. We had the smallest hut in the village. One room, a kitchen... bathroom and bedroom. We only really used the hut for those things in the first place so it didn't bother me anyway.

Drawings of my father littered the room, paintings of elves and men I could not name matched them. A fireplace crackled as food cooked above it. My life was farthest from amazing, I was but a simple archer woman. Nothing special. I swear it.