Chapter 8 - I like vibin' in the library

"Thank you so much for today."

Glorfindel offered Mila a charming smile as he walked her towards the house of Rivendell. "I'm sorry we cannot stay long today at the river. Next time I can take you back there again, preferably when it is warmer."

"It's alright," Mila beamed, "You have a job to do, captain."

Glorfindel took Mila's small hand in his and brought it to his lips. His bright, azure blue eyes fleeted to her face, secretly studying her every reaction. When he saw her blush, his heart seemed to beat faster in his chest.

"Don't worry too much about the rings, alright?" he said with his calm, angelic voice, "Like I said, the worst is still long ahead of us."

Mila nodded. How could she worry about the ring when an extremely handsome, charismatic, manly–elfly elf stood before her kissing her hand like a true gentleelf???

How was she not pregnant by now?

Mila shook herself inwardly of her stray thoughts about her friend.

"See you at dinner."

Mila watched the elf warrior that had comforted her today mounted his white horse and gave her one last smile before riding away on his trusted stead; his armor glinted in the sun and his golden hair were tresses of gold, flowing gently like the Bruinnen River bathed in sunlight.

Man, he's glorious.

Mila still couldn't wipe the smile and the blush on her face as she made her way to her chamber. As soon as she was inside, she flopped on her bed and smiled to the ceiling like a fool.

She realized that all this time it was Glorfindel who protected her and cared for her. It made her feel so special despite knowing that he was so out of her league.

She remembered his trapping yet gentle eyes as he looked at her today by the river. She could drown in the depth of those blue forever...

"Mila!"

"AHHHHHH!!!!"

Mila yelled in fright at the two twin figure who suddenly stood in her bedroom.

"WHAT THE HELL!!!"

Elrohir pointed at Elladan as if throwing the blame. "It was his idea!"

"It was not! It was a mutual agreement!" Elladan defended himself, throwing his twin a look of betrayal.

"Get out, tresspassers!" barked Mila, shooting the twins with her best or-else look that she thought would be enough to frighten the elves.

To the twins, the mortal human looked more like an angry puppy. Elrohir knew that they came to apologize, but even before they could do that, he couldn't seem to stop himself from teasing her.

Ro touched his chin, feigning deep thoughts, "Technically we own the house so..."

Mila pressed her lips in annoyance. "Then I'll get out."

"Wait, wait. Mila, please. We're here to apologize," Elladan said, blocking her way to the door.

Mila huffed and crossed her arms, hiding the fact that she couldn't actually be angry for long at her two friends. Especially, not with them looking so worriedly at her with their identical steel grey eyes.

"Explain yourselves."

Both young lords of Rivendell had had time to rehearse and go over their plan as to not mess up this conversation or hurt Mila's feelings again. They explained in turns.

"First of all, we are very sorry that we hurt your feelings."

"It was never what we intended."

"We know what we might sound like to you earlier today, but we're here to assure you that it was just our plan wasn't communicated the way we intended to be–"

"–It was not a prank–"

"–We're obviously not that daft–"

"–We just had a very bad way communicating it–"

"–So we originally wanted to promote you as Glorfindel's assistant because we had plan–"

"–To help our uncle–"

"–A plan that he doesn't know, obviously–"

"–We didn't take into account that Glorfindel didn't need an assistant–"

"–We shot him the idea right then and there to him because you looked upset and seem to misunderstood us, and we panicked–"

"–My brain hurt," Mila grumbled. "You're talking in circles and obviously Glorfindel doesn't need my help."

"It's not the kind of help we're talking about."

"Mila, do you care about Glorfindel?"

Elladan's question made Mila frown. "Of course I do."

Elrohir continued, slowly this time, making sure to watch Mila's reaction. "Glorfindel is in love."

Mila felt as if someone just burst the bubble of happiness she had with Glorfindel earlier.

"We don't think he even knows it. Or if he does, he's afraid of making his feelings known."

Mila sighed. "Well, yeah. He fancies someone," she mumbled, her voice small. "He told me."

"He did?" Both twins' eyes glinted with mischief, and an identical smirk etched across their faces. "So... What did you say?"

Mila shrugged, as if it didn't bother her. "I don't know. He won't tell me her name."

Both exact copy of the brothers rolled their eyes, their shoulders sagged upon realizing that Glorfindel didn't reveal his feelings for Mila.

"Back to plan B then," murmured Elrohir.

"We're thinking that if you spend more time with him you can help us identify who he is in love with–"

"–And once we know who it is, we can help him tell her how he actually feel–"

"–And that was the original plan–"

"–The plan which we proposed to you badly–"

"–We know you only know him for a short time, but we know him since we were but elflings. Despite his courage and his rather intimidating reputation, Glorfindel is lonely."

"–To be stripped away from his time and from his kin–" sighed Elladan with drama.

Elrohir nodded as if truly concerned, "–To die and back again to live in the world that had moved on from him–"

Mila couldn't take it anymore. As annoying they were, what Dan and Ro said was truth. She knew, because she had seen the loneliness and the ancient sadness in his eyes whenever he thought no one was looking.

"I forgive you," Mila sighed, then began to smile at the twins. Then her expression suddenly turned to annoyance again just when Dan and Ro smiled at her in return. "You know you could've just told me the first time: 'Hey Mila, we have a plan to help Glorfindel get a girlfriend. Help us'. Why didn't you just say it like that?"

Elladan and Elorhir looked at each other, shrugging.

"Yeah, that is efficient."

"Damn right. But now I can't be his assistant and spy on him, because he doesn't need one. So..." Mila drawled out her words, before she suddenly clapped her hands together and gave the twins a hopeful look, "...Can you take me back?"

"You are reinstated as our servant," Elladan grinned.

"But," Elrohir raised his index finger, "...with a slight change in your job description."

Mila too, raised her hand, "Say no more, my lords," she cleared her throat, a big smile etched across her face, "I shall serve you when he's away at the border or when he is working somewhere else, but when he's around, I shall be your eyes and ears," Mila said with a devious smile.

"So smart, our little Mila," praised Elrohir.

"Your primary target is to spend as much time as you can with Glorfindel."

"And find out about the love he harbors."

"Leave it to me," Mila said with a smirk.

Elladan and Elrohir, though a bit worried that Mila didn't seem too troubled with the idea that Glorfindel harbored a feeling for someone, were happy enough to know that their plan was working–and that Mila played straight into their hands.

First phase begins.

Time to coordinate for Phase 2.

Both twins gave each other secretive nod.

Elladan began. "Now that we are back to your good graces..."

"We have something that would just make your day," Elrohir finished with a smile as both elves each offered their arms to Mila.

Mila took them, and the three walked hand in hand, chatting, teasing, and arguing like they used to be as they made their way to the kitchen.

Turned out both elves, who never once touched cooking utensils in their lives, had spent their mornings preparing a meal for her.

The stew was a bit too salty.

The potato was still hard to bite, and the carrots were still raw.

Their plagiarized honey cake, though, was a complete disaster.

***

Mila thought that Glorfindel was sweet and extremely perfect that if she could, she would definitely date him. But his happiness meant more than anything in the world for her, so much that there were only two things she focused her energy on for the past month:

One, get close to Glorfindel and find out about the mystery elleth.

Two, do research about the three rings of power, find ways to preserve the age of the elves in Middle Earth.

During the past month, Mila also had befriended an elleth named Variel and they quickly became fast friends. Variel was the opposite of Mila. The red haired elf was tall, slim, athletic and graceful, but in a warrior way. She was a badass. Meanwhile, Mila was short, plump, unfit and all around clumsy. But what brought them together was the sense of humor they shared, and the playfulness that the elf hid remarkably behind her dutiful guard mask.

Mila spent more and more time with her, especially when Glorfindel was now often patrolling the borders, or on journeys back and forth between Imladris and Lothlorien.

She wondered if he was okay.

Mila also spend a lot of her times in the library, burning the midnight oil as she went through documents and books containing the information about the rings.

Unfortunately, Mila realized too late that the existence of the rings were a well guarded secret, hence there was not much written about them in history books, except that the three rings of power was forged by an elf named Celebrimbor in the Second Age.

Having no luck there, Mila tried to look elsewhere. She studied the history of the creation of Middle Earth, the Awakening of Elves, The Two Trees, The Two Great Lamps of Middle Earth, and even about Melkor, the corrupted vala who later turned into the first dark lord.

Despite how much ungodly hours she spent researching everywhere, there was still not much details could be found about the rings.

The last thing Mila remembered was how awfully boring it was to read about the many wars that were waged ever since the beginning of Arda.

"This speech is my recital–"

She was slowly roused from her slumber upon hearing a voice.

"–I think it's very vital, to rock a rhyme, that's right on time, it's tricky is the title–"

Upon hearing Variel's voice and seeing her playful grin, Mila woke up and suddenly broke into a sing along with her.

"It's tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time, it's tricky... it's tricky."

"Tricky," chirped Variel.

"Tricky," butted Mila.

"Tricky," sang Variel with a shake of her shoulders that matched Mila's.

"It's tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time, it's tricky..."

"Tr-tr-tr-tricky–"

"Tricky–"

"Trrrrrrrr–!"

While Mila and Vari were having their moment vibin', a deep melodious male voice sounded at the empty library, making both ladies jumped.

"What's going on here?"

Mila clamped her mouth with both hands. She struggled to stop herself from laughing with both stupefaction and embarrassment; her face felt hot. Meanwhile Vari, being a soldier, was at once standing straight in attention, as if she was not the one doing the last flourish of the song which ended quite violently with the Lord of Rivendell's sudden appearance.

"My lord," Variel greeted dutifully, her expression straight and her stature professional.

Lord Elrond stared at both females with a deep frown of confusion. "This is a library," deadpanned the Lord of Rivendell with his ancient eyes before pulling a scroll from one of the nearby shelves.

Unlike a few seconds ago, now Mila and Vari were perfectly silenced.

His eyes caught the books scattered at the table in front of Mila. "Battles of Beleriand," he read, "I didn't know you were interested in history."

Mila pressed her lips to keep her laughter at bay. She took a shaky deep breath to maintain a somewhat normal expression. "I love history," she lied, "The bloodier the better."

Lord Elrond almost cringed when he uttered his next sentence, "There was many blood of elves and men spilled in that battle."

"I meant the blood of the forces of Morgoth," Mila smoothly added, "Gives me joy."

Lord Elrond chuckled at the one of a kind woman. "My sons would agree." He looked at both Mila and Variel with a smile before bidding the two friends good day and left.

The moment he exited, Variel's shoulders sagged, and Mila's belly laughter broke inside the library.

"Milaaaaa," whined Variel as she sat on one of the chair, blushing in embarrassment and bumped her head on the table several times, mourning her existence, "Why did I ever let you teach me that song?"

Mila laughed so hard that she fell out of her chair, in turn, making Variel laughed out loud.

It took a good ten minutes for them to stop laughing from what Variel called 'the most embarrassing moment of her existence', Mila decided to call it a day at the library and Variel waited as she tidied up the books and returning them each to their assigned shelves.

"I can't believe you fall asleep at the library," muttered Variel, her long, slim fingers grazed the back of random books at one of the shelves. "You're quite studious."

"Yeah," Mila shrugged, unable to tell the red haired elf about her research. "I think I'm just gonna lay low from the library a bit. It's becoming really boring now."

"I'm not much a reader myself, but if you do like to read, I know a really good book," the elf said, pulling a book with a leather binding from the shelves and gave it to Mila.

"The history of Beren and Luthien," read Mila, studying the book. "Who are they?"

"They were lovers," Variel said with a dreamy sigh, remembering one of the greatest love story of Arda, "A history filled with romance."

"Hmm..." Mila nodded. "Okay. I supposed this is much better than the Battles of Beleriand."

Mila walked side by side towards the dining hall for their breakfast, unaware that the answer of her questions lay in the book she held in her hand.

***

​​​