FIC: "The Elf Princess Diaries, Vol 1" (37/39)
Title: The Elf Princess Diaries, Vol 1
Author: DantanaSkywalker (aka Haldiriell if you're joining us from a LOTR site)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: action, romance, mystery, humour
Author Notes: LOTR characters and Princess Diaries characters not used with permission. Everything else is out of my imagination. Sindarin translations included at the end of the entry.
Previous chapters
--Chapter Thirty-Seven--
The present beckoned to Bree, but she didn't want to open it just yet. She didn't know when, but she figured she'd know. Maybe. She hoped, anyway.
Bree was restless, anxious for some word from her friends. Her attempts to search the internet was mostly limited to Google, since she was far from the computer whiz Scottie was.
She was sitting at the kitchen table, poking at her lunch, when the doorbell rang. Her mother had gone back to work, leaving Bree with Haldir and Gimli. She didn't mind her father's company, really, but the dwarf sometimes got to her. He was just so not who she wanted to hang out with, and sometimes she wondered how Legolas stood it.
"I'll get it!" Gimli said.
"No, you will not. You cannot see out the viewer." Haldir cut the dwarf off at the pass. "We do not answer the door if we do not know who is on the other side."
A few moments later, Scottie appeared in the doorway between foyer and dining room. She had her bookbag with her.
"What are you doing here?" Bree blurted, in surprise.
"Got news." Scottie set up her laptop on the kitchen table and booted it up. "I was browsing the police database, and they've been getting tons of reports about increased gang activity in the city's parks, and they think it's Seregweth."
Haldir, who had taken a seat at the table, was puzzled. "What do they need with the parks?"
Scottie shrugged.
Bree pushed her plate away. "Saruman corrupted Isengard for his Uruk-Hai. Morgoth created Mordor, and some other places. Daneithionâr's probably looking for natural ground he can warp."
Her father looked a little surprised, both by her astuteness and her use of "Daneithionâr" instead of "Dinosaur". "You are remarkably insightful," he said. "I imagine you are correct, and he wishes to continue Saruman's work, with the added advantage of modern technologies."
Scottie met Bree's eyes and jerked her head slightly. Brianna frowned.
"-in your room? Gotta tell-"
Bree jerked, eye twitching, at the still-alien sensation of mind-reading. She didn't know if she'd ever get used to hearing thoughts.
She jumped to her feet and said, "'Scuse us, girl stuff."
Knowing it was abrupt, she still didn't care. Brianna grabbed Scottie's arm and hauled her through the apartment, to her room, and shut the door. Then she motioned for her friend to follow her out to the fire escape.
"What?" she demanded. "By the way, it's really weird to do the telepathy thing."
"Jake dumped Shelley."
Bree's mouth dropped open. "What?!"
"They broke up in third period. And I know why, but Shell doesn't."
Brows wrinkling, the taller girl frowned. "Why?"
"Merc's got a thing for Shelley, and he, um, told Jake it'd be in his best interests if he broke up with her." Scottie looked vaguely disgusted with her cousin, but not exactly angry.
Stunned, Bree sat back on the bench. "Whoa. When did he do this?"
"Night of Prom?" Scottie shrugged. "Merc told me a couple days ago."
They sat in silence for several moments, absorbing this.
Bree shook her head. "If Shelley finds out, she'll skin him alive."
Scottie's mouth twisted wryly. "Maybe, maybe not. She spent a while talking to Merc at Prom while you were having your pictures taken. I think she might like him."
Brianna thought about that. Merc and Shelley? It was just so . . . weird. And yet, it made a scary sort of sense, and explained so much about Mercury Brandt's constant presence at high school events when he was well into college.
"Huh," she said.
After a bit, Scottie continued, "I like the idea of Shelley dating him, excuse to get her a better wardrobe. Plus, Merc wants to make mini-Mercs and mini-Shells with her. It's hilarious to tell him that, he flushes and looks like he wants to crush your skull."
Bree snickered, having seen the look a time or two over the years.
"After I said that to him the first time, he leapt for me, and broke a vase. Maman came in and yelled at us for rough housing at our ages." Scottie grinned. "I told her Merc figured out who he wanted to make babies with. And this was great: Maman turned to him and said, 'Your cousin is far too close to you for children. You cannot procreate with her. I forbid it.' And we were both grossed out. And when Maman saw that, she said that she wished 'ze poor girl luck'. And reminded Merc that hygiene is important."
Bree stared at her friend, eyes wide. ". . . Okay, then."
Scottie rolled her eyes. "You don't think it's funny? You don't have a sense of humour."
"I have one, it's just that your family scares me sometimes." She pondered for a second, then clarified, "Or, your mom does. Your dad's great."
"Well, Maman is French."
"That'll do it."
Scottie's expression turned serious. "But really. You okay? You need me to spring you from the joint?"
"I'm okay. Thanks for the offer, but Mom wants me to stick around home for a bit. And since I don't want to be grounded until after graduation, I'm gonna listen to her."
"Okey-dokey." Scottie stood. "I'd better get back to school, I lied and said I had a doctor's appointment."
A few days later, Bree was flipping through the new TV Guide when Legolas lowered himself into the seat at the other end of the sofa, by her bare feet.
"I am told," he said without preamble, "that I have been remiss in my courtship, and I should take you on a date."
She raised both eyebrows, realising that a date hadn't really occured to her, strange in itself. They'd hung out a lot, and there'd been Prom, but they hadn't been out alone together. Probably because Legolas was afraid to spend too much time alone with her, for fear Haldir would kill him. Haldir was the very epitome of "overprotective".
"Okay," she said. "Let's do that."
She figured her mother had likely given him some money and told him to take her out for the evening, but Bree didn't really mind. She'd been stuck in the apartment for days, and desperately wanted to get out and do something.
Tossing the magazine onto the coffee table, she sat up. "So, what are we gonna do?"
He hadn't considered that. "I was hoping you would have a suggestion. I am . . . I'm not familiar with courtship in this age."
Bree pondered that for a moment, then grinned. "Okay. I have an idea."
They went to grab something to eat. Legolas hadn't yet had Thai food, so they found a restaurant that served a good variety. Watching his face when he had something really spicy sent Brianna into a fit of giggles.
After dinner, they found an arcade and spent a few hours--and several dollars in quarters--playing around on the machines. Legolas was the better shot in the first-person-shooter games, but Bree trounced him at Skee Ball.
"I wish," he said, as they walked home with ice cream cones, "that our people weren't so . . . dismissive of humans. The Eldar look down on them, but I am continually amazed at the things humans accomplish."
"You know what? So am I. What good is a glowing tree, when humans have figured out how to get to the moon?"
He smiled in acnowledgement. "Yes, some things the elves have done have been . . . remarkably silly, in retrospect. But we have not had the technology. In my time . . ."
Legolas fell silent, and stayed that way so long that Bree reached over and poked him in the shoulder.
"In your time, what?" she asked.
His blue eyes were thoughtful, and a little . . . sad. "You have read, you have seen the films, such realistic portrayals. Our world would seem so primitive to you, if you returned to it."
After a moment, she shrugged. "I want to at least visit, but . . . I can't promise I'd make my home there. This is my home."
Legolas looked down at their clasped hands, the ones not holding ice cream. "The elves are leaving Middle Earth. You told me that this man wrote of my sailing to Valinor after Aragorn's death. Perhaps, in time . . . if we were to return to our time and place . . . perhaps we could return here, as well?"
"We'll see," she said quietly, knowing that their being together was pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point. "But first, I've gotta survive graduation."
Graduation Day.
All was vaguely organised chaos at the school, where the students were getting ready in classrooms for their trip to the auditorium.
Bree finished zipping up her robes as she entered one of the rooms designated for girls only. "Have you seen Shelley?" she asked Scottie.
"Yeah, she ran to the bathroom."
"Okay." Brianna finger-combed her hair. "Stupid Judith Gershner, getting valedictorian."
Scottie rolled her eyes. "C'mon, let her have this one thing. She cloned a fruit fly and got class valedictorian. She's probably going to get knocked up halfway through sophmore year in college, marry a plumber, and have six kids and live in the Bronx. You're going to live forever and probably you're going to marry an elvish prince."
"Yeah, okay. You're right."
"You're still giving your speech, though, right?" Scottie helped Bree arrange the golden-yellow cords that she'd got for making honour roll. They both had them; Shell was the one who hadn't earned them, but she didn't really care enough about it in the first place.
Bree folded them under the collar of her blue robes and picked up her mortar-board. "I can't believe we're graduating!"
"I know!" Scottie glanced at her designer watch, a graduation present from her mother. "Where is Shelley?"
The door opened and Michael Moscovitz stuck his head in. "There you are, MacArthur. Gupta's looking for you."
"Eep! Hey, you're not supposed to be in here, Moscovitz." Bree turned to Scottie. "How do I look?"
"Fine. Go!"
"And as we look to the future, and everything we can and will be, we need to remember where we've been, and those who came before, to build on their foundation. But we must remember to not live in the past so that we're not doing all we can to-"
"Elf Witch."
Bree faltered at the voice that brushed her mind, her mouth going dry. It threw her a little, to know that someone in this auditorium meant her harm. She swallowed and continued, hoping it had just looked like she'd lost her place.
"-to create a better world for-"
"I know you can hear me, Brianna."
"-ourselves and the generations to follow-"
"I have your little friend, elf witch."
Bree glanced over at Michael and Scottie, the latter of whom gave her a thumbs-up. Her gaze sought and found her parents and Legolas in the audience.
"-because the past is gone away, and the future is all we have."
"Come tonight or I'll kill her."
Then she got a glimpse, a flash of a place. She knew it vaguely, wondered why there. She closed her eyes, focused on the oily feel of that voice. "Are you Gwathrendîn?"* she thought towards it.
"That is . . . one of my names. Tonight. Eleven o'clock. Bring an army if you think it will help."
Somehow, she knew he was gone. Aware that everyone in the audience was staring at her, she stammered, "Thank you. I- I have to go."
Then she bolted from the stage. After a moment, Scottie followed her.
Outside, she yanked the mortar-board from her head and began tearing off the robes. Scottie burst through the doors with Haldir and Legolas on her heels. Melinda and Merc weren't far behind.
"Man no ten?" Haldir asked.
Bree raked her hands through her long blonde hair and didn't look at Merc. "He has Shelley," she said. "And he said to bring an army."
Translations:
Man no ten? - What is it?
Author: DantanaSkywalker (aka Haldiriell if you're joining us from a LOTR site)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: action, romance, mystery, humour
Author Notes: LOTR characters and Princess Diaries characters not used with permission. Everything else is out of my imagination. Sindarin translations included at the end of the entry.
Previous chapters
--Chapter Thirty-Seven--
The present beckoned to Bree, but she didn't want to open it just yet. She didn't know when, but she figured she'd know. Maybe. She hoped, anyway.
Bree was restless, anxious for some word from her friends. Her attempts to search the internet was mostly limited to Google, since she was far from the computer whiz Scottie was.
She was sitting at the kitchen table, poking at her lunch, when the doorbell rang. Her mother had gone back to work, leaving Bree with Haldir and Gimli. She didn't mind her father's company, really, but the dwarf sometimes got to her. He was just so not who she wanted to hang out with, and sometimes she wondered how Legolas stood it.
"I'll get it!" Gimli said.
"No, you will not. You cannot see out the viewer." Haldir cut the dwarf off at the pass. "We do not answer the door if we do not know who is on the other side."
A few moments later, Scottie appeared in the doorway between foyer and dining room. She had her bookbag with her.
"What are you doing here?" Bree blurted, in surprise.
"Got news." Scottie set up her laptop on the kitchen table and booted it up. "I was browsing the police database, and they've been getting tons of reports about increased gang activity in the city's parks, and they think it's Seregweth."
Haldir, who had taken a seat at the table, was puzzled. "What do they need with the parks?"
Scottie shrugged.
Bree pushed her plate away. "Saruman corrupted Isengard for his Uruk-Hai. Morgoth created Mordor, and some other places. Daneithionâr's probably looking for natural ground he can warp."
Her father looked a little surprised, both by her astuteness and her use of "Daneithionâr" instead of "Dinosaur". "You are remarkably insightful," he said. "I imagine you are correct, and he wishes to continue Saruman's work, with the added advantage of modern technologies."
Scottie met Bree's eyes and jerked her head slightly. Brianna frowned.
"-in your room? Gotta tell-"
Bree jerked, eye twitching, at the still-alien sensation of mind-reading. She didn't know if she'd ever get used to hearing thoughts.
She jumped to her feet and said, "'Scuse us, girl stuff."
Knowing it was abrupt, she still didn't care. Brianna grabbed Scottie's arm and hauled her through the apartment, to her room, and shut the door. Then she motioned for her friend to follow her out to the fire escape.
"What?" she demanded. "By the way, it's really weird to do the telepathy thing."
"Jake dumped Shelley."
Bree's mouth dropped open. "What?!"
"They broke up in third period. And I know why, but Shell doesn't."
Brows wrinkling, the taller girl frowned. "Why?"
"Merc's got a thing for Shelley, and he, um, told Jake it'd be in his best interests if he broke up with her." Scottie looked vaguely disgusted with her cousin, but not exactly angry.
Stunned, Bree sat back on the bench. "Whoa. When did he do this?"
"Night of Prom?" Scottie shrugged. "Merc told me a couple days ago."
They sat in silence for several moments, absorbing this.
Bree shook her head. "If Shelley finds out, she'll skin him alive."
Scottie's mouth twisted wryly. "Maybe, maybe not. She spent a while talking to Merc at Prom while you were having your pictures taken. I think she might like him."
Brianna thought about that. Merc and Shelley? It was just so . . . weird. And yet, it made a scary sort of sense, and explained so much about Mercury Brandt's constant presence at high school events when he was well into college.
"Huh," she said.
After a bit, Scottie continued, "I like the idea of Shelley dating him, excuse to get her a better wardrobe. Plus, Merc wants to make mini-Mercs and mini-Shells with her. It's hilarious to tell him that, he flushes and looks like he wants to crush your skull."
Bree snickered, having seen the look a time or two over the years.
"After I said that to him the first time, he leapt for me, and broke a vase. Maman came in and yelled at us for rough housing at our ages." Scottie grinned. "I told her Merc figured out who he wanted to make babies with. And this was great: Maman turned to him and said, 'Your cousin is far too close to you for children. You cannot procreate with her. I forbid it.' And we were both grossed out. And when Maman saw that, she said that she wished 'ze poor girl luck'. And reminded Merc that hygiene is important."
Bree stared at her friend, eyes wide. ". . . Okay, then."
Scottie rolled her eyes. "You don't think it's funny? You don't have a sense of humour."
"I have one, it's just that your family scares me sometimes." She pondered for a second, then clarified, "Or, your mom does. Your dad's great."
"Well, Maman is French."
"That'll do it."
Scottie's expression turned serious. "But really. You okay? You need me to spring you from the joint?"
"I'm okay. Thanks for the offer, but Mom wants me to stick around home for a bit. And since I don't want to be grounded until after graduation, I'm gonna listen to her."
"Okey-dokey." Scottie stood. "I'd better get back to school, I lied and said I had a doctor's appointment."
A few days later, Bree was flipping through the new TV Guide when Legolas lowered himself into the seat at the other end of the sofa, by her bare feet.
"I am told," he said without preamble, "that I have been remiss in my courtship, and I should take you on a date."
She raised both eyebrows, realising that a date hadn't really occured to her, strange in itself. They'd hung out a lot, and there'd been Prom, but they hadn't been out alone together. Probably because Legolas was afraid to spend too much time alone with her, for fear Haldir would kill him. Haldir was the very epitome of "overprotective".
"Okay," she said. "Let's do that."
She figured her mother had likely given him some money and told him to take her out for the evening, but Bree didn't really mind. She'd been stuck in the apartment for days, and desperately wanted to get out and do something.
Tossing the magazine onto the coffee table, she sat up. "So, what are we gonna do?"
He hadn't considered that. "I was hoping you would have a suggestion. I am . . . I'm not familiar with courtship in this age."
Bree pondered that for a moment, then grinned. "Okay. I have an idea."
They went to grab something to eat. Legolas hadn't yet had Thai food, so they found a restaurant that served a good variety. Watching his face when he had something really spicy sent Brianna into a fit of giggles.
After dinner, they found an arcade and spent a few hours--and several dollars in quarters--playing around on the machines. Legolas was the better shot in the first-person-shooter games, but Bree trounced him at Skee Ball.
"I wish," he said, as they walked home with ice cream cones, "that our people weren't so . . . dismissive of humans. The Eldar look down on them, but I am continually amazed at the things humans accomplish."
"You know what? So am I. What good is a glowing tree, when humans have figured out how to get to the moon?"
He smiled in acnowledgement. "Yes, some things the elves have done have been . . . remarkably silly, in retrospect. But we have not had the technology. In my time . . ."
Legolas fell silent, and stayed that way so long that Bree reached over and poked him in the shoulder.
"In your time, what?" she asked.
His blue eyes were thoughtful, and a little . . . sad. "You have read, you have seen the films, such realistic portrayals. Our world would seem so primitive to you, if you returned to it."
After a moment, she shrugged. "I want to at least visit, but . . . I can't promise I'd make my home there. This is my home."
Legolas looked down at their clasped hands, the ones not holding ice cream. "The elves are leaving Middle Earth. You told me that this man wrote of my sailing to Valinor after Aragorn's death. Perhaps, in time . . . if we were to return to our time and place . . . perhaps we could return here, as well?"
"We'll see," she said quietly, knowing that their being together was pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point. "But first, I've gotta survive graduation."
Graduation Day.
All was vaguely organised chaos at the school, where the students were getting ready in classrooms for their trip to the auditorium.
Bree finished zipping up her robes as she entered one of the rooms designated for girls only. "Have you seen Shelley?" she asked Scottie.
"Yeah, she ran to the bathroom."
"Okay." Brianna finger-combed her hair. "Stupid Judith Gershner, getting valedictorian."
Scottie rolled her eyes. "C'mon, let her have this one thing. She cloned a fruit fly and got class valedictorian. She's probably going to get knocked up halfway through sophmore year in college, marry a plumber, and have six kids and live in the Bronx. You're going to live forever and probably you're going to marry an elvish prince."
"Yeah, okay. You're right."
"You're still giving your speech, though, right?" Scottie helped Bree arrange the golden-yellow cords that she'd got for making honour roll. They both had them; Shell was the one who hadn't earned them, but she didn't really care enough about it in the first place.
Bree folded them under the collar of her blue robes and picked up her mortar-board. "I can't believe we're graduating!"
"I know!" Scottie glanced at her designer watch, a graduation present from her mother. "Where is Shelley?"
The door opened and Michael Moscovitz stuck his head in. "There you are, MacArthur. Gupta's looking for you."
"Eep! Hey, you're not supposed to be in here, Moscovitz." Bree turned to Scottie. "How do I look?"
"Fine. Go!"
"And as we look to the future, and everything we can and will be, we need to remember where we've been, and those who came before, to build on their foundation. But we must remember to not live in the past so that we're not doing all we can to-"
"Elf Witch."
Bree faltered at the voice that brushed her mind, her mouth going dry. It threw her a little, to know that someone in this auditorium meant her harm. She swallowed and continued, hoping it had just looked like she'd lost her place.
"-to create a better world for-"
"I know you can hear me, Brianna."
"-ourselves and the generations to follow-"
"I have your little friend, elf witch."
Bree glanced over at Michael and Scottie, the latter of whom gave her a thumbs-up. Her gaze sought and found her parents and Legolas in the audience.
"-because the past is gone away, and the future is all we have."
"Come tonight or I'll kill her."
Then she got a glimpse, a flash of a place. She knew it vaguely, wondered why there. She closed her eyes, focused on the oily feel of that voice. "Are you Gwathrendîn?"* she thought towards it.
"That is . . . one of my names. Tonight. Eleven o'clock. Bring an army if you think it will help."
Somehow, she knew he was gone. Aware that everyone in the audience was staring at her, she stammered, "Thank you. I- I have to go."
Then she bolted from the stage. After a moment, Scottie followed her.
Outside, she yanked the mortar-board from her head and began tearing off the robes. Scottie burst through the doors with Haldir and Legolas on her heels. Melinda and Merc weren't far behind.
"Man no ten?" Haldir asked.
Bree raked her hands through her long blonde hair and didn't look at Merc. "He has Shelley," she said. "And he said to bring an army."
Translations:
Man no ten? - What is it?