Do Not Go Gentle

I Obviously Need Sleep

I must've been gone for hours.

It only felt like one.

I swam out to the riverbank and sludged out while letting the water droplets fall off my dry skin. I shook my hair out and felt it dry instantly. Being the daughter of a sea god was nice, sometimes.

Letting out a sigh, I turned back to the river with a small smile. The river nymph I had spoken to poked her head out of the water with a mischievous grin and waved. Everything about her told me that she knew something I did not, but that was nothing new.

I waved back at the nymph and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when she sank back underneath the small flickering waves. A part of me wanted to join her, but that was not where I needed to be.

It was time to step back into reality.

Before I turned to leave, I lingered by the river shore a little longer, taking in the dewy air from the waterfall, feeling the breeze of water molecules hitting my face with a smile. I noticed then that a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

The water will always feel like home.

I wrapped my hands together and left, fingering the delicate ring that remained on my finger, the only connection I had to the previous world that remained. Well, that and the tennis shoes Gerda and Arwen would never let me wear.

My walk back to Imladris abruptly ended as soon as a frantic elf rode toward me along the forest trail on a dark warhorse. For a moment I thought they were going to barrel me over until the elf halted the horse to a stop right in front of me.

"Thank the Valar! Persephone!"

I jolted out of the whimsical fog I had been living in, and nearly punched the elf that hopped off the horse and wrapped me in a tight squeeze. I opened my mouth to say something but was quickly cut off by dark hair falling into my mouth.

I spat it out indignantly. "What did I do, now?"

The elf, Elrohir, pulled back from the embrace and held me at arms-length. "What do you mean, what did you do? You were gone for days! We all thought something horrible had befallen you!"

I blinked.

"Uh... what?"

I like to think that I'm often a person who knows how to use words, but apparently I'm just fooling myself completely.

"Ada had sent out everyone to try and look for you, and that is all you can say? What?"

My arms crossed instinctively. "Hey, it's not my fault, I didn't exactly plan on being gone for that long-"

Elrohir let out a groan. "What, so you planned on being gone for only a day? Maybe two? You must stop running away, Persie. Running away will never get you anywhere. Especially with elves."

He was going to be lucky if I didn't punch him, but this time it was for a different reason.

"I didn't run away-"

"Yes, you did-"

"I was carted away by Lord Ulmo, I'll have you know-"

"Do not think you can just spout out names of the Valar-"

"I am not just spouting out names-"

"It does nothing to change the fact you ran away-"

"Oh, I so did not run away-"

"Really? It looked a lot like running away to me-"

"Maybe you're just-"

"Blind? I am a master archer I do not think-"