Between Two Worlds

30

It's mainly one gathering of hair from the top of my head down into a tiny ponytail pinned to my hair, and then two more locks are taken from either side and pinned to it in one place about four inches down, then two more the same another four inches. There are two locks in a tiny bead on either side of my head that pull the front of my hair back, under the do. The rest of it covers my back and shoulders down under the locks in a flowing white spread of wavy strands.

I smile and put down the mirror.

"You look stunning," she smiles showing her dimples.

"Thanks to you," I chuckle.

"You have a beautiful head of hair though. Mine is pretty enough but it doesn't want to stay in braids. Too shiny and stubborn."

I smile and notice the perfect fishtail braid part of her hair is back in.

I get up from the bench and walk over to the edge of the overlook, letting the wind blow back my hair off my shoulders. I look down below at the river that seems so small from here. The green valley that it cuts through looks dim.

"The mountains are quiet," Nin says as she approaches me to stand at my side.

"The clouds are weeping to south," I say look back where beams of light are misty through the dark backdrop. Rain falls heavy and I can almost hear it from miles away because the hills are so still.

"Do you think it's raining back home?" she asks.

"Perhaps. We do tend to get a lot of clouds east."

"I used to love playing out in it as a child. The other elves thought it was silly. But I believed it to be relaxing and joyous."

"I did the same actually. It seemed that it was the only clean water we could get. Some of the women in one of my neighborhoods would go out when it was pouring buckets and strip naked in an abandoned area to bathe that way. Said it saved them water."

"Interesting. I assume you would get it heavier where you lived. Here in the forest the trees take it all," she chuckles.

"Not too often did we receive rain. It a baron world..."

"The old world you told me about sounded so exciting."

"It used to be... a thousand years ago..." Memories of what I saw in the history books come back as I think, looking down at my fingers that fiddle with each other on the stone. I wish it was like it was back in the nineteenth century, inventions came forth daily and the people from my country moved to the New World west. I could have sailed there, in a silk dress over a corset, the skirt with drapes so perfect. But it is different now. And I can't change that... or at least I don't think I can.

Nin and I talk there in the balcony area until it is time for supper. We head down the stairs and to dining hall to eat. I sit with her and notice Gimli with a few other dwarves. I wonder why he is still here. Are any of his close kin injured?

He isn't the only one I recognize that day. Aragorn is here as well. With Arwen I believe. I think they are planning on marriage perhaps after he is crowned king in the white halls of Minas Tirith.

She has already given up her immortality to have a human life with him and raise a family. I am not sure how the government works here but I think she will rule at his side as queen.

The evening goes by normally. Some of the others have begun to talk again. They even laugh. I don't see Éowyn or Théoden. It would be best to let them be. At nightfall I finally see Thranduil down here. Where had he been all day?

No matter. I talk with Nin who visits with the other elves and soon people head to their chambers for sleep.

Until it is just the Mirkwood king and I here. But I am looking out over the view in thought. What thought I cannot pinpoint.