"Have you seen the guest list yet?" asked Celebrian. She was sitting opposite from
Haldir at the kitchen table, with Rumil to her left and Orophin to her right. Tallasinde
was next to her eldest brother, who was shaking his head as he buttered toast for the
elfling beside him.
"Anyone we should hope gets eaten by a balrog before the party?" asked Orophin, who was
slapped on the shoulder by Rumil with considerable force.
"Not in front of you-know-who!" hissed Rumil.
Tallasinde shrugged. "I am not scared of balrogs 'cause I know they do not live here.
An' Glorfindel would take care of `em if they did."
The elfling's words were convincing enough, but the way she delivered them was not.
Haldir gave her a reassuring kiss atop her head as he set her toast onto her plate,
shooting Orophin a contemptuous look. "Who is on the list, Clebri?"
Celebrian unfolded a paper she had kept tucked away under her plate and read off the
names one by one, receiving commentary from her brothers as she did. "Glorfindel."
"Would not be a party without him!" smiled Orophin.
"Erestor."
"And, there goes the party," he added.
"Some of us happen to like Erestor," scolded Haldir, and Tallasinde nodded.
"Thranduil."
"Will he be bringing any wine with him?" wondered Rumil.
"Thaladir."
"Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes," Orophin gleefully said to himself, sprinkling brown sugar into
his bowl of oatmeal.
Rumil raised a brow. "I can not believe you are more excited about Thaladir than you are
about Erestor."
"I will have to prepare something special for `round two'…" mused Orophin, confusing his
siblings with his mumbling.
"Ilmendin."
No one said anything about the elder of Thranduil's sons, so Tallasinde spoke up on his
behalf. "I like Ilmendin. He gave me the dolly with the pretty green dress."
"So he did." Celebrian looked up from her list with a grin. "And do you remember what
you first called your dolly when you got her?"
"I named her Ilmendin, but Nana made me change her name," recalled Tallasinde.
"And what do you call her now?" asked Orophin.
"Ilmendiel," replied the elfling.
"Well, I suppose if Thranduil is coming, and Ilmendin is coming…" Haldir trailed off,
glancing to Celebrian for confirmation of his assumption.
"Next name on the list. Legolas."
"And if Thranduil, Ilmendin, and Legolas are coming, I imagine the next name after that
would be…" Again, Haldir did not finish his sentence.
"Yes, your dwarf friend is coming, too," smirked Celebrian, and Haldir snorted.
"The dwarf and I are not friends," corrected Haldir with a half-hearted sneer. He swore
the last thing he was going to admit to any of them was that he and Gim—the dwarf – had
developed a solid friendship over the past few years.
Tallasinde looked up in alarm. "But when you and Gimli were hunting on—ah!" Tallasinde's
eyes lit up as Haldir held out a piece of colorful taffy, wrapped in waxed paper, that
he had had in the pocket of his tunic. One small hand reached out to take the piece and
she immediately began to unwrap it.
"You learned that from Valarda," accused Orophin with a mischievous smile.
"Yes, I did," said Haldir. "It is a very effective means of muting an elfling. Do you
agree, Celebrian?"
Celebrian nodded. "It worked on me even after I reached my majority. For a while, at
least," she added.
Orophin shrugged. "Still works on me." Orophin eyed up Haldir's pocket, which he could
tell held more of the taffy. "I think I could be bribed not to press Tally for
information if you – there we are!" Orophin snatched the taffy that was dangled before
him, while Rumil and Celebrian held out their hands as well. Once everyone, except
Haldir, was eating the taffy, he took the list from Celebrian and read through the rest
of the names.
"Glorcheniel. She is nice, I like her."
"Nah asth mucth asth the twinth do," said Orophin wickedly.
Haldir glared at Orophin for the comment, but smiled as well. He looked back to the
paper with slight confusion. "Galadhon. Lhunerin. Finarfin. Eärwen."
Rumil, who had decided to suck on his taffy instead of chew it, pushed it into his cheek
to speak. "Our grandparents will be here?" He looked to Celebrian, who nodded her head.
"That is wonderful news!" Celebrian shook her head now, and Rumil looked confused. "That
is not wonderful news?" Again, Celebrian shook her head, and Rumil frowned. "Why is it
not wonderful news?" The three brothers had never met their grandparents, and looked to
Celebrian for answers to her odd behavior.
Celebrian swallowed the last of her taffy and began to count off the reasons for her
brothers. "To begin with, Eärwen and Galadhon still blame one another for Nana and Ada's
marriage, and will cite the unseemliness of the situation at least ten times if they are
in the room together. Galadhon, the last time I spoke with him, still believes that
Nana was controlling Ada with some sort of evil spell, and that his son would have `done
better than he did in Lorien' without Nana."
"That is not fair. I came up with the evil spell theory first," argued Orophin. "And the
Elf-Witch of the Forest thing, that was me, too," he informed them.
"Why does this not surprise me?" groaned Haldir, rubbing his temples.
"And then also, the – oh, wait, you are here. Nevermind," Orophin looked off into space
after regarding Haldir for a moment.
" `Then also the' what?" demanded Haldir.
Rumil disregarded his brothers and nudged Celebrian. "What else will we be subjected to
while they are here?"
"Eärwen is very picky about the spouses of her children and grandchildren. You can
expect that she will scrutinize every detail of your wives," warned Celebrian.
"I suppose I should thank Elrond for making me wait to be married, then," said Haldir
happily.
Celebrian gave Haldir a look of pity. "You are worse off than the rest of us. Expect her
to nag you throughout her visit as to why you have not yet married and why it has taken
you so long. It will be better for you if you and Elodien say nothing during their
visit. You will save yourselves a lot of trouble in the long run."
"Well, it is not my fault! I shall have no qualms about pointing her in the direction of
your husband when she gets here." Haldir pouted and glanced at Rumil and Orophin, who
both seemed to think this would be great fun, but Celebrian pointed a finger at Orophin.
"Just you wait. You might be married, but you will be asked constantly why you have no
children," Celebrian said.
Orophin shrugged. "And this differs from what I listen to from Nana in what way?"
"Looks as if I am the perfect son for once," smiled Rumil.
Celebrian let her gaze fall to the youngest brother, and her look made Rumil
uncomfortable. "Rumil, oh pretty one, I fear you shall have your own problems. For
Lhunerin's great flaw is that she can not resist pinching cheeks and patting faces, and
I think you most definitely have pinchable cheeks." She reached a hand up and pulled at
the flesh on the side of Rumil's face, and he swatted her away.
"As if it can get no worse," sighed Rumil, "What pleasantries do we have to look forward
to from Finarfin?"
"Ever since coming back to Valinor, he has had an obsession with defending his
decisions. It is more a minor annoyance than anything else. But he also likes to come up
with odd pet names for people, and I fear he will invent some very interesting ones for
us. Though, he has a few for me already, and I am sure he will be delighted to have so
many new elves to play with," said Celebrian dryly.
"Oh, what does he call you?" Orophin's eyes lit up, and Celebrian shook her head.
"Never you mind. I hope he will be too distracted with the rest of you to remember about
me," she admitted, and her cheeks were burning a little.
"Well, indeed, tomorrow night shall be an interesting one," Haldir said, handing the
list back to Celebrian as Elrond came into the room.
Elrond was holding a list as well, though his was much longer, and he was trailed by
Erestor, which was most unusual to see nowadays and reminded those at the table who had
been to Imladris of the past. If only Glorfindel would have been sauntering behind them
somewhere, doing a bad job of hiding the fact he was staring at Erestor's backside, the
picture would have been complete.
"Excellent. I was hoping to find many of you here." Elrond looked down his list as he
spoke. "Considering how long the party tomorrow is to last, I wish to be sure we can
accommodate everyone if they are to stay tomorrow evening into the morning. I am
assigning our guests to rooms to simplify this later. Do not attempt to tell me there is
no room, for I am well aware that each of your suites has enough couches or extra beds
to accommodate another elf. Or a dwarf, as the case may be." He let his eyes fall to
Haldir, who looked around the table before responding.
"Why must I share a room with the dwarf?!"
"Because he is a better friend to you than to anyone else in this house," Elrond said
simply, seeing nothing odd about the situation.
"But we are not- oh, bother." Haldir rested his face in his hand and Tallasinde propped
herself up onto her chair with her knees and gave him a pat on the head, thinking it the
right thing to do.
"Gimli can sleep in my room," she offered, and Haldir smiled, turning to kiss her
forehead.
"Thank you, Silanor, but that is not necessary." Haldir told her.
"But you do not seem to want him in your room, and I do not mind," she said honestly.
"He tells good bedtime stories and I like his songs."
Elrond made a note on his list, not looking up from it as he addressed the elfling.
"Haldir is doing what we call `lying through his teeth', little one. In all reality, he
is just too stubborn to admit that indeed he does like the dwarf. He is merely in a
state of denial."
Tallasinde looked up at Erestor expectantly, who said softly to her, "In the morrow, we
will discuss all of the unfamiliar words and phrases Lord Elrond has just said to you
during our weekly language lesson, and how it is that he has become such an expert on
the topic of denial." Tallasinde nodded appreciatively, and Elrond would have shot his
ex-advisor a murderous glance if he had didn't need him to help with the planning for
the rest of the day.
"Rumil, you will be sharing your rooms with Ilmendin," Elrond said, and Rumil gave a
nod. So far, the worst he would be dealing with would be sore cheeks at the end of the
party. It seemed to him that staying silent would do him good.
"Orophin…." Elrond ran a finger down the list. "Ah, you will have the pleasure of
entertaining Thaladir in your rooms."
"What?!" Orophin panicked at the name. "No, not Thaladir. I will take Legolas instead."
"You were excited about him coming before," said Rumil, a little confused.
"Legolas has already been assigned to a room," Elrond said.
"Where? To who? I shall speak with them and switch." Orophin was half out of his seat
already.
"He is going to be in the suite with Celebdreth and the twins. So your bribery will need
to be threefold to convince them to trade with you," Elrond explained, and some caught
the slightly evil glint in his eye.
"Oh, no," groaned Orophin, sitting back down. "Valarda is going to be most unhappy."
"I am sure Thaladir will do his best to avoid you both like a plague," remarked Haldir.
Orophin shook his head. "That is not it. There is no path to the couch – in fact, I am
not entirely sure that the dust bunnies living in the room have not devoured the couch.
I can not really remember seeing it in three years."
Celebrian laughed. "So, you are not upset because of Thaladir, but because you have to
clean the room."
"Well, I have to clean the room because of Thaladir, so he is not completely going to be
forgiven for this," grumbled Orophin. "He had better laugh, that is all I can say."
Once again, Orophin's odd words puzzled them, and Elrond cleared his throat. "If anyone
were to see Elodien," he said, looking directly at Haldir, "would they please tell her
she will be sharing her room with Glorcheniel."
"Here is a thought," Haldir said as he began to put strawberry jam on a roll for his
little sister. "What if Legolas and Gimli, good friends that they are, took my room for
the duration of their stay."
"And you would be in the room as well?" questioned Elrond.
"No, no. That would make it too crowded. But there would be room in the suite down the
hall from mine."
"So you will sleep in Elodien's room," Elrond said in none too pleased a voice.
"There you are, problem solved. Thank you for agreeing with me." Haldir handed the roll
to Tallasinde as Elrond shook his head.
"I have agreed with nothing," warned Elrond.
"Dearest, I think you may have," smirked Celebrian, and her husband did something rare.
He raised his brow and peered over his paper at her, only to be stared back at with
narrowed eyes. Elrond broke the gaze first, looking darkly at Haldir.
"That is not possible, for as I have already told you, Glorcheniel will be in the room
as well."
Haldir objected quickly. "I am having another thought."
"Do tell," said Elrond icily.
"If Legolas is not in the room with the twins, Glorcheniel could take his place in the
room with the twins and Celebdreth." Haldir looked up and gave Elrond a smile, knowing
full well he was losing. "That is where she would want to be anyway. But I suppose if
you doubt the…'structural integrity' of the house…that wouldn't be such a good idea."
"You continue to test me, Haldir, but you tend to forget that I have dealt with three
grown elflings already and whatever you say, they have bested you in the past, ten times
over."
"Wow." Orophin mused. "I should talk to the twins about that. Get a few pointers,
perhaps."
Elrond scratched a few notes and ignored Orophin. "The list stands as it is. If need be,
I shall have it posted and Erestor shall do room checks at the end of the evening." To
this, Erestor gave a small and crafty smile, and without having to look behind his back
Elrond changed his decision, remembering that Erestor was Haldir and Elodien's biggest
proponent. "I will be checking rooms tomorrow night, and everyone will adhere to this
list." Elrond swept out of the room around Erestor, who remained behind for a moment and
leaned toward the group at the table.
"Perhaps if he is very drunk tomorrow night, he will not be up for making a check of the
rooms." Erestor gave a wink to Celebrian and let his comment hang in the air as he left
the room.
Haldir crossed his arms contemptuously. "I am most definitely pushing Elrond between
Eärwen and myself tomorrow. Let him give her the explanation as to why I'm sharing a
room with a dwarf and we shall see what happens then."
Orophin stood, sighing deeply. "Well, I am off to tell my wife the terrible news. If I
do not return, make sure there is lots of pie at my funeral." Orophin stepped toward the
door, stopping to look at something on the floor. "What is this?" he asked, tapping it
with his foot.
Rumil peered over the table. "Looks like a book with pink fur."
Haldir looked as well. "Someone must have dropped it."
"Well, it is not Elrond's," confirmed Celebrian. "At least…I do not think it is his. One
never knows about anything around here," she admitted.
"I think it belongs to Master Erestor," said Tallasinde. "I have seen him write in
something like that when he is in the gardens."
All four adult siblings looked at one another before diving for the book.
