Title & Chapter Number: Border Crosser 6/?
Author(s): - Author's Index
Website: Moviecostumes.com
Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of J R R Tolkien, the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien Enterprises. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warnings: Graphic het sex, violence, angst, character death. I am not responsible for any injuries that might occur while jumping from various old trees.
Betas: Zee, Lenara, SoErl.
Cast: OCF, Haldir, Galadriel, Celeborn... well, and almost anyone else you could imagine when thinking about `Lord of the Rings'.
Timeline: AU
Spoilers: None
Summary: If there was a passage to Middle Earth from our world, what would you expect to find? or: Tolkien invented Middle Earth - didn't he?
Notes: My OFC(s) are mine; the Elves that Tolkien invented (he did, didn't he?) are not mine (what a pity!). A special "thank you" to the Kronos Quartet / Clint Mansell / Fatboy Robert s for the "Requiem Overture", giving me (and brought me through) several dar k nights when writing this. Thanks to Xavier Naidoo and Rufus Wainwright for their music that inspired me. Thanks to the Goddess for letting me find peace and inspiration. And thanks to my ever-curious and inspiring beta readers, pushing me forward on each chapter.
Dedication: This one is for the two only real Elves on earth; To the Silver One: You will always have a special place in my heart and memories; to the Golden One: You are a legend, a saint and the only true heir of Gil-Galad I know. Let's burn them down! :-)
* SPECIAL WARNING: There are real people avatars innocently depicted in this fic. They belong solely to themselves, no harm became of them and no offence is intended. It is just my way to pay the tribute to these real people, for without them, we would not have words and images of the wonderful Elves in our heads. This is posted with the List Mum's approval.
Chapter 6 - A Elven Bath
I woke up by the knock on my door. My first thought was on murmuring "Haldir?", but Uruviel was there, with a new dress for me over her arm; in pale pink color.
"The Lady thought you might want a new dress... I guess this will fit you." She smiled, when she looked out of the window. "You have a wonderful sight from here..."
"Yes, I have", I replied; smiling and thinking about the wonderful view I had the night before.
A smary grin spread over her face. "Does this `view' have anything to do with what you called me when I entered?"
I blushed. "Maybe...", and tried to be busy with something, anything.
And thought I asked her about what I asked myself.
"Uruviel, do you consider yourselves beautiful?"
"Please?"
"I mean, to my eyes, the Elves - all Elves - are of unbearable beauty and grace; and I just asked myself if you feel the same way about yourselves?"
She thought for a moment, then replied "Yes, I think we are beautiful and graceful; some of us more or less than others; but all together, I guess we make a fine sight to someone like you."
Which lead me to the next question.
"So then you consider the humans ugly?"
"No, not all of you, even if you are not like us. You are very different. Your race does not look the same every time. This differs you from us; I have known some humans who could not say which Elf was which; but the humans have very different faces, bodies, shapes and smells... You are all different; which makes you interesting to study."
Interesting to study. Am I a rat or something?
"Is this why you have no curtains or glass in your windows? Because you are used to seeing and hearing each other in whatever situation for thousands of years?"
"Well, she reflected, "Yes, maybe. Maybe it is exciting to see something for twenty times; but if you have seen it two thousand times it is rather normal."
She sat down by my bedside.
"I heard the Wardens talk this morning; seems as if one of them also had a rather new interesting view last night."
I pressed my lips together, blushing.
She smiled. "Do not worry about them; they seem to be so strong but are weak as small plants in hard rain."
This was an argument that I did not quite believe, remembering the strong back muscles of a certain male Elf that I had seen not too long ago.
She got up again, over, to the chair, examining my corset. "Now what is this for? And why do you wear it?"
"I wear it because I feel better with it. It helps me walk and sit straight and I suffer back pain when I did not wear it; now, the pain is gone. On the other hand, it defines a very nice shape to the body."
"Yes", she replied, "I have seen that."
"Would you help me lacing the corset?" Honestly, I did not need help in doing this; but I thought that it was nice to have a common topic to talk on.
"Sure, she said, and carried the corset over, while I got up.
After dressing and having a little breakfast, we went down to the ground again.
I showed much interest in how the Elves made their clothing; and Uruviel showed me. I saw the workshops, and the beauty took my breath away.
There was fabric that filled the room; and looms on which the fabric was produced. Three or four she-Elves were working on the looms; others sat in front of large frames and embroidered fabric. Two of them were in a corner, carefully hand stitching the fabrics to what would once turn out to these beautiful gowns and cloaks that I had seen. They worked slow, singing together.
"Do you think... that we could wear your corsets as well?"; Uruviel asked.
"Do you think you would like to?
"Yes, I would love to try."
This lead me into a two hours lecture to the seamstresses and fabric makers, concerning anything about corsets, boning, layers in corsets, waistbands, lacing, grommets, busks and measures.
Concerning busks and boning, I had to repeat my speech to the blacksmith; as the seamstresses had no idea what I was talking about; but sadly, he had no idea what I could mean when saying "spring steel" or "wire steel", or even just "busk", and I gave up after my third attempt to draw a busk for him.
I thought for a while, how I could show them best how something like that had to be built, but decided to go back to the seamstresses first, explaining how a corset pattern should be made and which fabrics should be chosen so that they could start with that, and decided that I would tear one of my other corsets open to show steel boning and busk to the blacksmith when I made the passage to Chris to get her and my backpack to Middle Earth.
By that time, it was almost afternoon; and the warm sun made me sweat and carefully thinking about when I had my last bath. Honestly, I could not remember; and decided to ask Uruviel.
"Uruviel - do you here take baths?"
"Yes, sure", she wondered, looking at me in a strange way as if I had asked her to paint her face green.
"Where?"
"Come, I will show you..."
She lead me to a stone wall with a door; laughing and sounds of water moving came from behind it.
"This is our bath, the pool".
"Why is there a stone wall?"
"Because if visitors should come around, they should not see a group of Elves bathing naked as their first sight. We found out that this sometimes was disturbing for them."
I analyzed the sounds I heard quickly. Naked?
"I can hear men and women in there, I mean Elves and she-Elves. Are they all in one pool?"
"Yes, but of course", she wondered, "Would it not be a waste of precious space and water to separate them?"
I did no know what to answer to her. Sure, she was right in some way.
"Can I take a bath, too?" I dared to ask. I was not sure what the answer would be.
"Sure you may take a bath, if you wish... just go on."
She opened the door for me, letting me pass, and followed me with her soundless footsteps.
"We need to undress here, first", she said and pointed me to a bench in the corner, where various bunches of Elven clothing were lying.
I undressed, slowly, trying to take a look around. I was inside the stone walls, but the pool was still hidden from my view; instead, I looked upon a massive rock formation. On top, I saw one of the Elves, just about to jump down. His wet body glistened in the afternoon sun; for just a flash of a second I could see him, then he had jumped off.
I wiped my eyes; hoping that this would not end up with me standing in a pool and staring at some Elves in a really, really disgusting manner, being so awe-struck that they would have to carry me out of the pool.
Uruviel was already undressed when I was still busy in lacing up my corset. I could not help looking at her from below my hair that fell into my face when I held my head down; busy with the lacing on the backside of my body.
I was cheered to look at her; and also sad.
Sad because I knew that I - no matter what I would ever do, even if I would have started doing *whatever* already at the time I was born -would never look like one of them, in their beauty and perfection; cheered, because I was glad and thankful that this gift was given to me - to rest my eyes just once on these beautiful, perfect beings.
By the time I had finished my thoughts, I had also unlaced my corset completely and stood there, naked as she was.
I do not think that she knew I remarked her looking at me the same way I did just moments ago.
I tried to help her find some words.
"So, this is what female humans look like-" I turned around once slowly, showing my naked body to her "-and this is what female Elves look like" - I swirled my finger in the air, she understood and turned around once as well - "after having clarified now that we both look almost the same, except of you being immortal and beautiful and me, well, mortal and average, but both with no extra body parts that we might have hidden under our clothing, which would be able to hurt each other, I would be grateful for taking a bath now."
And I ended my words, which I found not unwise, with a smile.
She stared at me, then broke out in a laughter.
"You are right", she nodded, let's take a bath, you do not look too dangerous, you mortal average human woman."
"After you, you immortal elven beauty", I stretched out my hand to make way for her.
And followed her through a small, stone framed passage below the rocks.
We came to stand under a waterfall. One Elf was sitting on the rocks, paddling his feet in the water, and gasped when he saw the two of us coming in. I smiled at him, not trying to show the trained shame that humans of our world usually have when actually being naked in front of other people, and jumped into the warm, soft water.
I dived up behind the waterfall, striking my wet hair back from my face, and took a look around.
The place was beautiful; in the water, flowers of all kinds floated around; and I could see the Elves; having fun by chasing each other through the water.
The sunlight shone on the water, making it sparkle; and the sparkle reflected from their bodies. The birds were singing in the trees around us and outside the stone walls, which looked as if they had naturally grown from the ground.
What a peaceful, beautiful place, I thought. If I should have been a good girl and come to heaven - if it looks less than this here, I would not be surprised.
The Elves stopped giggling and chasing, looking at me. I felt that I had to speak a word.
"No need to panic... just an average human woman taking a bath; nothing to be afraid of. Before anyone has to stare", I added, and decided that the little "introduction" I gave to Uruviel would have a good effect if repeated, "here, that's me", I turned around in the water which had about hip height, "and as you can see, I am absolutely normal, just as you. Just go on doing what you did one minute ago - and if you have any questions - ask me."
I slipped down into the water, swimming some strokes. They kept quiet for a second; then I could hear laughter from some of them, and they continued whatever they did before.
I liked the warm water surrounding me; giving my skin gentle caresses when the waves swept over my shoulders. I tried not to stare at the naked Elves - beautiful sight; but I felt that at that moment it would be wrong to study signs of differences between Elvish and Human anatomy.
I snickered to myself that I did not have a hint of these thoughts when I watched Haldir the night before. Well, I thought, it was with permission... at least for the second time I did it; and last not least, he got something for his eyes as well.
I paddled over to the stones, where various beautifully crafted glass bowls, bottles and phials stood, which the other Elves used in the water to care for their bodies. I looked at Uruviel with an asking expression, pointing to the bottles. She swam over to me, and tried to explain what would be a good use for what; but I had my head still filled up with corset making and naked Elves; and so I said "Just tell me what to use... I am tired today, and I would not want to forget what you would tell me about them."
She took a phial, gave some of the pink, creamy liquid that was inside into the palm of her hand, turned me around and surprisingly started streaking this to my shoulders and back.
"What is this for?" I asked, still surprised, and excited, because her small, soft hands started to massage my shoulders intensively.
"This will take any cramps you might have in your muscles, and also clean your skin", she replied. I took a closer look at all the bottles, and tried to make a joke.
"Bet you have something for or against anything here, right? What about a cream that will take away body fat?", looking down at my hips and belly sadly, remembering when this had been firmer and thinner when I was younger.
"Sure", she replied, mindless, it seems; "well, not completely... but that blue bottle there... our warriors use it to tighten their muscles; and the she-Elves use it if they ever have given birth to a child to be able to firm the skin on their bellies again."
I stared at the bottle, not believing her easily spoken words. I took the bottle in my hand, giving some of the blueish cream into my hand, I examined it; smelled it. It smelled like some kind of flower. "You are making fun of me, right?" I looked over my shoulder, receiving a deep look into her blue eyes, staring at me.
"No, I am not. Try it; it will do you good."
I carefully stroked the blue fluid on my belly. As soon as the cream entered the wet skin, I could feel some kind of pulling inside of me. It was just as if I had a wound that had been stitched, and the threads were pulled out after the healing. Not painful, more a strange and tickling feeling. I wrinkled my forehead, still rubbing the cream into my skin.
When it had completely disappeared, I was surprised how firm my belly looked.
Oh my, I thought, gimme a ton of that; the market for that is big in my world; remembering the time consuming tries of myself to achieve exactly the same what I had just achieved in seconds in weeks with the so-called "skin firming" products of our world.
I tried the stuff on my hips and breasts; and they became firmer the same moment, with the same kind of feeling. I decided that I would not use more of that, for the moment, thinking about giving a greedy sight to the other Elves.
Suddenly, I felt someone tickling my calf under water; and left out a small cry of fear about what stroked my leg there. I could see a shadow in the water, swimming away fast; and then, the shadow dived up at the other end of the pool; showing the backside that I knew so well, looking over his shoulder with arrogantly raised brows, as if he wondered why I looked at him.
I smirked, looking down. Uruviel obviously did not remark what happened; she was still about to massage my shoulders which felt enormously better. I tried not to look at him when he came over to us; this time officially and swimming on the surface of the water. "Good afternoon, my lady; as I see, you have already discovered the joys of an Elvish bath?"
I tried to focus on absolutely nothing but his face; as I feared that this would just cause my jaw dropping and staring at him.
"Yes, sir", I replied, as calm as I could (all those little sparkling drops on his shoulders... in his face... don't even THINK about looking down any further, Dana; don't look down, Dana, don't - don't disturb this conversation by staring at him), "I have had a strange experience last night, and thought that a bath would do me well."
I felt that Uruviels hand shivered on my back for a second; I know she was giggling on the inside. For just the hint of a moment, he seemed to smile, then the eyebrows arched up again. "The Lady Galadriel would like to invite our two Border Crossers for tonight's dinner, and asked me to fetch you up by dusk. So be ready when I knock on your door; and try to look acceptable and nice."
He turned around, and with some wide strokes of his arms in the water, he disappeared under the waterfall.
With wide eyes and half opened mouth I looked at Uruviel; surprisingly finding out that she had the same kind of disbelieving look on her face. We both broke out in laughter at the same time.
"Try to look acceptable and nice", I imitated him with the lowest voice that I could possibly speak with, "acceptable and nice. Well, I guess it would be a major improvement to *all* of us if *he* would try to *be* acceptable and nice, just once in his lifetime..."
We started to laugh again.
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