To Be Literate

Nightly noises drifted into Elrond's study from his open window. Crickets and the wind were intertwined with the scratch of his pen upon paper. The night was wearing on and supper had been a few hours ago, but some were still up. Elrond sat peacfully at his desk working on some random papers that needed to be finished as usual, when there was a knock at the door. Elrond invited them to enter in a solemn tone without looking up from his work. The door opened and creeked closed, when Elrond heard no footsteps, he looked up. There stood Elenwe with an unusal expression and a book in both hands behind her. "I'm very sorry to disturb you while you're busy Elrond..." she said shyly. ((What, shyly? It's not the real Elenwe! Run for your lives!!)) Elrond set down his pen. Shy? Elenwe wasn't shy...

"Not at all... Please come." He motioned and Elenwe came to stand in front of his desk. "What can I do for you?" Elenwe seemed to be caught of guard by the regular question.

"Well, uhh...." Elenwe avoided Elrond's eyes unnoticably, but Elrond already knew something was up.

"What is it, Penneth? I'm sure I can be of some assistance." Elenwe fummbled the book in her hands behind herself and looked at the floor while stummbling over another sentence. "Perhaps..." said Elrond, "It has something to do with that book you're trying to conseal?" Elrond raised an eyebrow at the young Elf. After a moment of hesitation and a small gulp, Elenwe opened the book before him and pointed to a single rune.

"Umm... Could you tell me... what this symbol is?" Elrond merely had to glance at the symbol to recognize it.

"That is 'Silme', s." he said. Elrond looked at her with an inquizative look, any Elf should have known that symbol. Elenwe thanked him and tried to leave, but he stopped her. "Elenwe... I don't understand... You know Quenya, you should have been able to read that symbol with out my help." Elenwe looked at the ground, embrassed and begining to turn red.

"Well, you see... The Drow speak elvish, but, um... very few of us... know how to read or write it..." Elrond lowered his eyebrows.

"You mean you don't know how to...." he trailed off in thought. "But then how did you organize all those books for me before?" Elenwe shifted her feet.

"I just copied the first symbol order of the other shelves." Elrond sat for a moment, trying to fathum the idea.

"Well... this is a surprise. I'd love to help you myself, Penneth, but I'm afraid I'm to busy to consistently teach... but..." Elrond stood and walked over to a book shelf. After trailing his fingers over a few he picked one out. "Ah, here it is." He handed the heavy book to Elenwe. "This should teach you everything you need to know about Quenya." Elenwe's eyes lit up.

"Thank you, Elrond!" She smiled and ran out as Elrond sat with a grin on his face as he shook his head.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day Elenwe sat herself on a bench by the river with the book upon her lap. She breathed in the smell of the grass and the wind. "Ahh... Not a bad day at all.... Maybe I can actually get knowledge stuffed into my brain." She opened the book, ready and rearing to begin, but she stopped and set the book upon her lap once again. "Arrghhh!!!!!!! How am I supposed to learn to read Quenya when the book is in Sindarin!! Elrond, if I don't know one, do you really expect me to know the other??!!!" Elenwe pulled her hair on the sides of her head in frustration and whined, "Man! What am I gonna do?! Did he really expect me to know this??!!!" A bird landed on the bench beside her and she turned to him, as if he would know the answer. The bird chirped and Elenwe blew up, "But I don't know that either!!!!" she scretched at the bird, which flew away in fright.

"Know what?" said a voice from behind, suddenly. Elenwe jumped up with a start.

"Ahhhhhh!!!" The book when flying and landed on the grass by Legolas's feet, he bent over and picked it up. "What do you think you're doing, sneaking up on me like that?! ...And why are you here anyway?!" Legolas scoffed.

"Well, if you hadn't been so busy yelling at nothing, you'd have heard me. And Rivendell is my second home, I came back by myself today... Anyway, what's the deal with this?" he said opening the book to read it. Elenwe snatched it from his hands in a heart beat.

"Give me that, it's none of your business! And I wasn't yelling at nothing!!"

"Oh, really? Then what's with the book?" Legolas folded his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Like I already said, it's none of your business." Elenwe put the book under her arm and turned around, but Legolas slipped it back into his grasp. "Hey! You--!!" Elenwe started, but Legolas had already opened the book.

"...This is a book teaching Quenya, written in Sindarin... "don't know either"..." The thought finally lept into his mind and he stared at Elenwe, "You don't know how to read Quenya or Sindarin?!" he shouted, a laugh of surprise hanging on the end of his question. Elenwe eyes widened and a blush covered her face. After a moment she once again retook the book, "Sh-shut up!!!" She walked away and faced the river with the book in held up to her chest by both arms.

"But... you speak elvish..." said Legolas, restating the obvious.

"Yeah! So what?!" Elenwe didn't turn back.

"Nothing... I just assumed since you knew--"

"Well, you assumed wrong!! ...And I'd appreciate it if you didn't go announcing it!!" She turned to face him and he saw that the blush was still in her complection. "It's not my fault the Drow don't use Sindarin or Quenya runes!!!" she shouted. Legolas lifted up his hands,

"Ye! Ne uruth!* I am sorry. I did not mean any insult by what I said.... But, jeez... Usually you do not care what others think of you." Elenwe stared at the ground,

"Well, how would you feel if you were the only one within 50 leagues who could not read the most common language? ...I mean... I do not care if I am not as wise as someone else like Linwe or Elrond, but... It's makes me feel like I am completely incompetent." Elenwe sighed and tossed the book upon the bench, "But how shall I learn when I can't read the book?!" She blopped down upon the bench, rested her chin on her hands and sighed. Legolas looked at the book for a moment. (*Be unangered!)

"Well... I suppose I could teach you." Elenwe looked up in surprise, the blush finally gone.

"What? Why would you do that?"

"Well... It is a skill you obviously need and I suppose it is my duty in a way as a Prince to teach a foriegner... and it's not really out of my way or anything." Elenwe lowered her eyebrows.

"Do you realize how hard and how long it will take you to teach me? Language is, by no case, my strong suit, like music and things like that."

"No problem. I like a challenge."

"And what do you want in return?" Elenwe raised her eyebrow suspishiously.

"That again? Uhh... How about we settle that after I can get you to read?" Elenwe sighed and stood,

"Alright.... Teach me, Oh Gologhash."

"What?"

"Nevermind." She waved her hand.

"Okay.... So tell me what lanuages you do know." Legolas picked up the book.

"Well... I can speak Common Speech, Black Speech, Sindarin, Quenya, Rohirrim and Drowish, but I can only read in Common Speech, Black Speech and Drowish."

".....'Drowish'? As in... a lanuage for the Drow?"

"Do you remember how I started to speak in a different language when I first met Luna? Well, that is the lanuage of my people. And that word I just said 'Gologhash' means 'wise one' in Drowish." Legolas tried to absorb all he had just heard.

"Uh-huh.... Well, let's start with the basics... since you can speak both this shouldn't be too difficult..." They sat on the bench and opened the book.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later the wind had disappeared completely and still sat trying to make some progress. Legolas pointed to a single symbol on a page. "Does this belong to Quenya or Sindarin?" Elenwe stared at it for a moment.

"Quenya?"

"Quenya....?"

"Quenya only?"

"Yes." He nodded in approval, "Now what is it's name and what symbol is it?" Elenwe sat dumb struck, she had barly answered the first question right (and that was a guess). Her confusion was obvious and Legolas sighed. He had hoped she could memorize each symbol by this time, but since they were tackling both Quenya and Sindarin, she had been getting turned around. Elenwe would read a word in Quenya when it was Sindarin or vice versa as well as forget which symbols were vowels. "Think about it... what are the names of the 'Quenya only' symbols?" Elenwe counted on her fingers as she named them.

"Anto, Umbar, Hook, Vala...Arda, Anga, Anca...Unqwe and Unque."

"Alright... now which is it?" Elenwe stared at the paper, not a step closer to the answer.

"...Umbar?" Legolas shook his head.

"No, Arda! ...But at least we've made some progress." Elenwe sighed.

"...Linguistics suck..." Legolas and Elenwe would repeatedly meet and study for hours, day in and day out. This day they were in the library. Elenwe sat at a table and Legolas stood over her on the opposite side.

"Now.... read this to me." Legolas handed her an open book. Elenwe starred at it for a moment,

"In the days of old.... there was no... warrior as strong... or as... fearless as Earendil..." She continued slowly down the page, stopping now and then to think. She finally finished the page and looked up at Legolas. "Well... how was my Sindarin....?" Legolas nodded,

"Not bad, not bad at all.... But now for Quenya..." He handed her another open book, but this time it took her longer to finish the page. Legolas assessed her readings,

"You've definetly made inprovement... you can read a decent amount of Sindarin and Quenya... so now..." Legolas turned to pick somthing up. Elenwe watched as he set two large stacks of books upon the table.

"What? Am I supposed to build a fort or something?" Legolas scoffed,

"You're going to read these."

"ALL of those?!" she shouted slightly. Legolas smiled cruelly and nodded.

"And when you're done with these... you get to read those." He pointed over to two more stacks, even larger than the others. Elenwe starred in horror, she stood up.

"Are you insane?! Do you know how long it's gonna take me to read all those??!!!!" Legolas held up his finger.

"Ah-ah-ah... And you have to finish these first few in three days."

"THREE DAYS??!!!! It takes me ten minutes to read even a page--How do you expect me to read these in three days???!!! Even Luna couldn't do that!!!!"

"Well, you're going to, like it or not. You wanted to learn how to read Elvish..." He walked to the door and hug in the doorway for a moment. "Oh and... after you're done with each book, rewrite it. That'll build your writing abilities..."

"WHA---????!!!!!!!!"

"Bye now!" he said as he shut the door.

"LEGOLAS!!!!!!!!!!!!" Elenwe reluctantly set in and started her insane project assigned by her cruel teacher. She never knew Legolas could be so evil. She read and wrote and read and wrote from dawn til after dusk and could never seem to meet Legolas's deadline. Then he would just pile on more work. More books, more writing, more misery. Kerowyn, Luna and the others thought that Elenwe had run away or died, for they never saw her save for the fleeting moments when she'd run to the kitchen. Once she stepped outside to chat with Kerowyn for a few moments,

"It that all?! I can't believe he gets so manic about that stuff!"

"I know." Kerowyn shrugged. Suddenly Elenwe felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a dreadful "You!" She slowly turned to see Legolas glarring at her.

"Did you finish those Nimrodel sets I gave you? Don't think I didn't notice that you skipped out at breakfast. This is for your sake so don't even think of slacking!"

"Cut me some slack, will you?! Do I look like a person made for quiet desk work or reading for pleasure????!!!!! I need some air, Man!!!!"

"Oh, is that all?" asked Legolas, a little surprised.

"Yes! That's it, I swear!" Kerowyn watched the two like a ping-pong match.

"Hmmn... Fine. Ten minute break... then you're hitting those books!!"

"Wha-??!!! You--!!"

"Oh, and by the way, those last three books you rewrote... you rewrote them in Quenya instead of Sindarin. You'll have to do them again." Elenwe became frazzled as he walked away.

"Bu... wh...ner... NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Elenwe slumped on the floor in distress and Kerowyn leaned over her wondering.

"What were you two talking about.....?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elenwe sat at a table stacked high with books of all kinds in the library. The lit lantern was flickering and her eyesight was failing. She been starring at books for what seemed like an eternity since she had started this "learning experience". Elenwe rubbed her eyes, but her vision didn't better. Had she strained her eyes or was her exhaustion catching up to her.

"Hmmmn. Either way it dosen't matter... I'm doomed to die in books." she mummbled. Damn. She knew she had to learn this stuff and that Legolas was doing all of this for her sake, so she couldn't just quit. "How did he get this wierd, learning power over me anyway...?" Elenwe attempted to continue her work, but soon slipped off into a peacful book free world of slumber. She slept for hours and the sun finally set. Legolas walked in, expecting to see her cramming, not napping. He stood for a moment and starred at her. She was pale from misery and had small bags under her eyes, not to mention she looked exstatic to be asleep.

"Alright.... maybe I went over board...." he muttered. "She's so unhappy... I wonder what she'd do if I...." Legolas tossed the book he held on the table with a tud and Elenwe sprang up to sitting position, startled.

"What?!--Who?!--Where?! Oh..." she said, seeing Legolas "It's The Harbringer of Evil, come to wreck my oh-so-peacful torment.... What now?"

"Do this book too."

"Another book? ....Does it look like I can handle one more book, let alone this entire pile???!!" she shouted, hitting the table and standing up. "I don't care if this is a skill I need! Enough of this "my benefit" crap, cause how's me dying of suffocation to my benefit???!!! I've had it!!!! You can take your Valar damned books and you can shove--"

"Elenwe!"

"WHAT?!" Legolas let a small smile ripple across his face.

"That's just what I wanted to hear." Elenwe starred at him, confused,

"It...is?"

"Hmn. You can read a lot more easily now, can't you?"

"Well... yeah... So?"

"Truthfully you were done days ago, but I had to repay you for 2 months of pink hair...."

"What...whaddaya mean?"

"It was a prank."

"P...prank?"

"Yup. But listen, I realize I went a little to far. I'm actually surprised you didn't blow up earlier." Legolas looked to see Elenwe's face wasn't visable.

"'A little to far'...? DO you have any idea how much this was killing me?! I hated every single second of this and you drag it out because of some stupid payback that you deserved???!!!! The only reason I didn't kill you earlier was because I thought that you were actually trying to help me, You Bastard!!!"

"Alright... Elenwe, I--"

"So, tell me..." A strange gleam came from her eye as she eyed him like her prey. She started to throw the books at him with swift force.

"Hey--Wait! Elenwe!" he ran out and she chased him.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT CARVED ON YOUR TOMB STONE???!!!!!"