^^btw I absolutely love the character introduced in this chapter^^. ^^that pic is of her, but with brown eyes. And she doesn't nearly put that much work into her hair (only on occasion)^^

But...how?

I stared wide-eyed at those pointed ears of mine in the mirror. And at the way my fea shimmered softly through my skin, as if lace come to life.

How can my reflection be elven? I'm a human!

My parents are elves...

Still outrageously confused, I let my hand drift up to touch the pointed ear—

And it's met with the smooth roundness of a mortal ear.

I cast the mirror aside and stumble—which an elf does not do—to the ordinary mirror (which does not shimmer strangely). I appear purely human in it. My ears are round, my skin blemished with a few occasional pimples, my eyes do not shine with that immortal beauty. Just... normal. Human. Mortal.

"By the Valar, I'm so confused."

I run my hand through my hair, but end up shaking it free from wet tangles. I turn to the shimmery mirror on my bed and gaze upon the mysterious thing. I stood there for a time.

"I'll just... I'll deal with you later." I stride past it to the door, fully intending on leaving it alone, but end up hiding the strange mirror in the depths of a feather pillow, hoping I won't cut my face open later.

I push the... weird event out of my mind, locking it tightly away to deal with later, and bring forth Sunnwyn's directions. Soon I'm standing in front of a wooden door, a wreath of black feathers decorating the rather bland exterior. The silky Raven and thrush feathers signified the sorrow of mourning.

To knock or not to knock...

"I hear you out there, my lady. Feel free to come on in!" I recognize Sunnwyn's muffled voice.

I open the door—

Silver sharpness flies for me—

"Woah!" I duck, my palm resting on Gorthaden's pommel, ready to defend me. I glance up to find a throwing knife embedded in the door frame.

"See, I told you she'd have good reflexes."

"I never said she didn't, Sunngifu. And that doesn't give you reason to scare the poor girl."

A young woman with vibrant gold hair sat at a table, an array of knives spread out in front of her swollen belly. She lowers her head in greeting. "A pleasure to meet you, Prophecy-Written. I am Sunngifu."

My eyes would not return to their normal size, pommel still in my palm. I don't look away from the knives in front of her, my heart will not slow its thunderous beat.

"I gathered," I reply slowly.

"Daughter," Sunnwyn hisses, "she is a Lady."

"She is not and never will be 'my lady,' so I will not call her one." Her brown eyes lift to me, "I mean no offense."

"o-of course," I stammer. She follows my gaze.

"Have a problem with knives?"

"Just a... bad history." I checked to see if my sleeves were in place.

"Ah," is all she says. She pats at the space next to her on the table, a simple ring glittering in the lamplight. "Come sit."

She didn't move the knives.

"The blades will not hurt you, they have no mind of their own. It is only the person behind them you should fear. And I have no intention of hurting you—" the knife glimmered faintly in the door—"despite my recent action."

I edged towards the seat, trying and mostly failing at blocking out images.

"They will not hurt you, they have no mind of their own," she repeated, jumping me out my head. In truth, I know she's right. They aren't alive. It's not like they're going to jump up and stab me. The thought was quite chilling.

And yet, something deep within me recoiled at the thought of the flesh-slicing knives. Their smooth surfaces disturbed me and on their edges I couldn't help but see crimson blood.

I relieve my sword of my hand and sit, keeping my hands in my lap. I didn't know what to say to this lady, who threatened to change the thoughts in my head.

Sunnwyn glided forward, a teakettle in hand. "Tea?"

The sides of my throat chaffed from sudden dryness. "Yes, please. Ma'am."

I watched amused over the rim of my engraved cup as Sunngifu practically hugged her tea, an expression of pure delight as she inhaled the herby steam. She took a sip and put a hand on her swollen belly.

She caught me looking. "He won't stop kicking until he gets some tea. He'll certainly be a strange child."

"Nothing wrong with being strange," I comment, almost defensively. I, for one, am certainly strange.

I eye her belly, she doesn't have long before she's holding her child in her arms. "How do you know the baby will be a boy?"

She opens her mouth to answer—

"She doesn't," Sunnwyn butted in. "I am certain my grandbaby will be a girl, sweeter than honey."

"You just want a girl to spoil," Sunngifu rolled her eyes.

"The child will be spoiled no matter the gender." She poured her daughter more tea. "Elbows off the table, daughter."

Ever so slowly, my own elbows slipped off the wooden surface.

Sunngifu shook her head and sighed, "why should I? My elbows may be where they like."

Sunnwyn, in a smooth calm voice that almost had me trembling, replied, "You will do as I say because I am your mother. I made those elbows of yours, therefore I tell them to get off my Valar forsaken table."

Silence. Then—Sunngifu slowly drug her arms off the wood. She sipped her tea loudly.

"So, Lumornel, tell me about your little adventure last night."

"How do you—"

"Everyone knows about it. What happened?" She's really persistent, isn't she?

She wants answers? Well, let's see if she can give me some of my own.

"Do you know of a cliff face west of here? A stream flows by it." I swirl the tea around in the ceramic teacup, green and pink herbs swirling at the bottom, around the sunken image of a running horse.

Sunngifu set her cup down, her hand going to play with a petite knife. "Is that where you were? Dead Mans Cliff?"

I eye her hands warily. "If that's the place I was describing, then yes."

The young woman sighed and turned fully to me. She pointed the knife's tip carelessly at me. "Look." I stiffened.

"You need to stop being afraid of this," she waved the knife around. "I heard what happened the other night, at dinner."

Oh no.

"You're an idol for the people, just like the King of Gondor—" he's not king yet "—children, mothers, brothers, everyone is looking to you for hope. If they see you lose your nerve because of a simple butter knife they're going to start to doubt you."

Another sip of her tea. "We can't let that happen."

Can we stop talking about me?

"What do you know about that cliff?" I bit down on my tongue, waiting for an answer and hoping she wouldn't notice the subject change.

"Knives are nothing to fear unless your enemy holds it. Then what? You take the enemy down and don't look back." She flipped the knife in the air, catching it by the hilt. She then held the iron hilt out to me.

I flinched.

She jerked her head towards the door frame where tiny little chunks of wood are missing. "Throw it."

"So, the cliff fac—"

"You can touch a sword and long-dagger just fine. What's the difference between a couple inches of steel? Tell me."

"Sun—"

"No, mother. She needs this." Sunngifu never took her eyes from mine. I refused to look away. She has already called me out for being weak, I don't need to give her another flaw to torment me with.

But her eyes were stubborn tree stumps, no matter how hard you pushed, they wouldn't fall over. She emitted that grim determination throughout her; in the way she sat firmly, the way she confidently handled her tea and knives, even in the careful—yet simple—plait in her hair.

"Perhaps not now—"

"Why not now, mother? She's off to war within a fortnight. Being able to wield a simple knife might be the difference between life and death." Her voice was a steel blade, but also it was sunflower petals and a cool summer breeze running across your skin. "Either hers, or someone else's."

Valar, her eyes.

Sunngifu shook the blade, "take it."

"N-no," I trembled, starting to rise from the chair—

She sighed and promptly set the blade down. "There is not much known about the cliff; only legends and rumors."

I plopped back in the chair, taking a sip of the tea out of nervous habit, the liquid rippling softly from the soft tremor of my fingers. "What do they say?"

Did Helm's Deep have a library? Maybe I could find what I needed there. I wanted to sit in a chair an engulf myself in a Rohan tale or graze my fingers over leather spines. Do all libraries have that same old musty scent to them? Did they all feel like another world where time doesn't exist? Honestly, though, do they? Are all libraries giant, like Mirkwoods'?

"I've heard tales of battle-scarred warriors taking their life from jumping Dead Man's Cliff, their souls forever wandering the bottom. I've also heard rumors of Morgoth's demons hoarding treasure and magic from long ago that stained the soil."

Sunnwyn snorted from where she took up a spot on a very comfy looking couch, leather and beads in hand. I think she sank halfway into it. "And I've heard tale of tiny fairies that tend to the land."

Her daughter scowled, "I am only giving her the answers she is looking for."

Sunnwyn ignored her daughter, speaking to me now. "I do not believe in all that horse dung, but there is something otherworldly about that place. I could feel it in my bones." She grasped her tanned crepe skin and shivered.

"You've been there?" I couldn't imagine her in that dark shadow of a place.

"I was once an adventurous child, my lady." And I could see it. She would've been stick-thin, freckles dotting her tan skin as her once golden hair cascaded down her shoulders in two long braids, dirt staining the flesh of her fingers.

"So, I've played your game," Sunngifu set down her tea, having drained it. "Now answer my question."

"Umm..." I thought back to a minute ago. "What... did you ask?"

A smile touched her lips, "I had asked you to tell me abou—"

"By the Valar!" I stood up so fast my chair flung back in surprise.

"What?" Sunngifu's brown eyes widened. "What has happened?" She touched her growing baby for comfort, the other going for that knife.

I gripped my hair, "I've nearly forgotten about Melnare!" Not nearly, completely.

"Whose—"

I strode to the door in haste, throwing up a hand in a swift farewell. "Forgive me, Gifu!"

I slammed the door shut and began my hunt for Melnare, but not before three words were yelled back to me.

"Most certainly, Nelly!"

My lips curled up in an unexpected smile.

*********

"It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit"
        —J.R.R. Tolkien

Thoughts?

Question #1:  Do you think I should move the quotes to the beginning of chapters or leave them where they are, at the end?

Question #2:   WHAT'D YA THINK OF SUNNGIFU?

Novaer, mellyn!
~awatin~