Title & Chapter Number: Border Crosser 7/?
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! :-) * Authors note for this chapter: Yes, this chapter contains an instruction. If you would like to try this, use thin, natural fabrics, preferrably silk; anything else won't work.
* 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 7 - Dinner preparation, or, how to make quick evening gowns
The announcement of dinner reminded me of the fact that I was hungry; nevertheless, I decided not to eat anything before the dinner.
Uruviel and I left the bath just a short time later; still I made her giggle by imitating Haldir. "Do not do this, do not do that. I am March Warden, my word is command.", I spoke with a deep voice, then got back to my normal way of speaking, "Is he always like that? I wonder that nobody has pushed him off a tree or something within the last centuries."
She finally broached an important subject. "We will have to dress you up nicely", she said, "if you have dinner with the Lord and the Lady, you will have to look nice."
"But what can I wear? The pink dress?"
"No", she replied, "this is not formal enough... I think that we will have to look for something better."
I suddenly had an idea. "Uruviel, let's go back to the dressmakers... I have a quick idea for a gorgeous gown."
We left the dressmakers a short time later with some yards of a wide, beautiful, light blue fabric, which was embroidered with small veins and silver leaves, furthermore two yards of a shimmering, delicate, silver fabric; and I also took some thread in blue and a stronger thread in silver color as well as some needles with me.
Uruviel was quiet on our way back to my room, but then she busted out. "You have just about two of your human hours to get dressed; what do you want with that fabric? You cannot finish a dress in time!"
I grinned. Long enough had I practiced the art of draping fabrics. "Uruviel, I need your help on this... trust me, it will look great; I will show you something that was once quite popular in human fashion."
She smiled at me, with a smile that showed me that she did not yet believe my words.
As soon as I arrived in my room, I sat down on my bed, carefully ruffling the selvage - the edge - of one side of the fabric into tiny pleats in my hand, as I had done a million times before. "Would you do that on the other side as well? Make it look like this..", and showed her how it was done.
She arched her brows and said nothing... and ruffled the edge.
Soon we both had the complete selvage of the fabric ruffled into a bunch. "Hold that, hold your end tight - and turn it to that direction", and pointed to the right. She started twisting; and I started to bend the strand to the other direction. Quite soon, we had a strongly wringed strand of fabric between us, and when I came closer to her, the middle came down and the strand of embroidered fabric curled up.
She smiled, surprised.
"Now, how can I get some very hot water here?"; I asked.
She went to one of the boards, took a metal bowl out, caught some of the water from a place in the wall, placed it on a little table in the edge that I did not notice before, and spoke to the water. Seconds later, the water was boiling. I was really surprised. That was Elven magic!
But as I knew I did not have any time to be surprised, I lifted up the bended fabric that I had bound on the ends with some of the thread, so that the twisting could not come loose, and slowly and carefully drenched it into the hot water.
We both quickly ruffled and turned the silver fabric as well, and when it was finished, I used a stick to fish the first fabric from the boiling water, and placed the second fabric in it. I hung up the first strand in the edge, with the warm air stream; and not much later, the other strand of fabric followed.
"Is there any way to get some hotter air here?", I asked to her. Again, she spoke some words, and I felt that the air stream in the edge became quite hot. "OK, let's just leave that there... let it dry."
She shook her head. "And this should be a dress you would want to wear for dinner? Is all of the humans clothing that strange?"
I grinned. "No, just for the ones who have a little experience in twisting and draping fabrics."
She went on in brushing my hair; showing me some Elvish skin care. Now *that* was truly incredible; never thought I could look that good without makeup. From time to time, I went over to the twisted fabrics and loosened the twist; making sure that the insides would also be able to dry.
And then, I released the fabrics completely. Both of them showed a wonderful crinkle in length. Uruviel came over to examine what I had done; with a wondering face. "Now that looks beautiful! And was so simple to do!"
"Yes", I nodded, "once, there was a designer in my world, Mariano Fortuny, who made all of his dresses with such crinkled fabrics." I picked up a needle and the thicker, silver thread, doubled it, and started to weave through the fabric in short distances along one selvage line.
When I was finished, I secured both ends of the thread with a knot, laid the fabric, whose crinkling was secured on the topside by my thread, around my back; pulled the two corners I had in my hands to the front, crossed them over my chest, and pulled the ends behind my neck to secure them with a knot. The cutting borders on front laid over another, closing the gap, and the crinkled fabric draped around my body.
Uruviel was excited. "Wow - now - that was perfect!" She clapped her hands, laughing, like a little child told about a surprise. I smiled, grinned, took the silvery fabric and formed a sash around my waist, letting the ends hang down on the backside.
Surprisingly, I had chosen the exact width of fabric without noticing it - the 'dress' had almost floor length in front, and went out in a little train in the back, as it was lower on my back.
"You see... little exercise in quickly making evening wear is finished now. Just an old technique that the women of a foreign country in my world use, shaping their sarong skirts into shorter dresses."
She shook her head, smiling, not believing. "Dana, I thought the humans were without inspiration, without ideas for beauty. I was so wrong, I am sorry."
I smiled, too. "And I thought all Elves were without humor and arrogant, without ability for compliments; I was wrong too, and I am also sorry."
The knot in my neck, however, was not too comfortable, and just at the moment that I untied it and wanted to ask Uruviel for a clasp or brooch, we heard the knock on the door.
Uruviel smiled, opened the door, and before I could protest, she pushed the waiting March Warden in and disappeared herself.
"Well", I shouted after her, "as you said... there are differences between the Elves", to hear her laughter from the distance.
Haldir stared at me, in my draped, shimmering, crinkled, blue and silver evening gown. I, still about to look in the room for something to secure the edges of the fabric in my neck with, smiled and nodded at him, and my eyes got caught by his mantle clasp, which was a silver leaf. Perfect.
I walked over to him, just asked "May I borrow this" without waiting for an answer, picked the clasp out with one hand while holding the fabric edges in my neck with the other, and secured the edges with the clasp.
He still did not say a word, still staring at me. Oh boy, I thought, you are even forgetting to drop your jaw.
"Now, Haldir", I said, stemming my hands into my waist, "is that acceptable and nice enough for you?"
"Yes", I heard him squeaking, coughing afterwards, and having gained his firm, dark voice back, he repeated "Yes, that indeed is acceptable and nice." I smiled to the ground. "Well", he added, "at least for an average human woman."
I raised my brows, giving him a fiery glare. He laughed.
Haldir laughed? In public, while someone looked at him? Wow.
Unfortunately, he soon gained his serious face back.
"Now, you average human woman with the strange, yet fine and acceptable gown, let me guide you and *my* clasp to dinner."
As if I could forget his clasp in my neck.
He took my hand, and pulled me out of the room. Somehow I liked him holding my hand; but the way he dragged me more than leading me made me feel like a cat that had been grabbed in her neck to be dragged to the vetenarian, for its yearly vaccination.
"Haldir", I said quietly, standing still for a moment, which forced him to stand still as well, "could you please try to be nice and acceptable as well and not drag me like a wet cloth to the laundry?"
He turned around and stared at me. "What?"
"Well", I added, "I would prefer to be guided to the dinner, not to be dragged to the dinner." He glared at me, not quiet understanding, I guess. I pulled my hand from his, taking his arm, positioning it to the right angle, put my arm upon it, and smiled satisfied. "Now, my dearest Haldir - now you can *guide* me to dinner."
Haldir stared front, smiling for a moment, shaking his head - and guided me in direction of the rooms of his Lord and Lady.
On our way, we met some Elves, raising the brows and staring at my gown, which was for sure unusual for their eyes, but yet familiar by the usage of the fabric.
"They stare at you", Haldir murmured. "They envy you."
I looked to the floor, walking, and repeating quietly "Why should they envy me?"
"Well", his dark voice came to my ear, "you are holding my arm and having dinner with me. Is that no reason to envy you?"
Bastard.
"Well, my dearest", I replied with the sweetest voice that I could possibly bring up with the anger which slowly crawled up my throat, "I think that they far more pity me and envy you when they look at you, guiding a pretty and friendly human to a dinner, because they know of your arrogant behavior and know that I would have deserved something better."
He lowered his voice, just a little, for he obviously did not want the fine ears of the other Elves catch his words.
"How could you find something better, except of being guided to dinner by Lord Celeborn himself?"
Celeborn. I was very curious about Galadriel's husband.
"Oh, I can always find something better," I replied, letting go of his arm, and picked up a mallorn leaf. "For example, I could just go to dinner with this mallorn leaf, for it would surely be a better, warmer, friendlier and more lively companion than you are."
He stood still, and I continued to walk, smelling the mallorn leaf, giggling, caressing the velvet surface of the leaf.
Must have taken him some time to pick up my speed again.
I saw his hand picking the leaf from my hands quickly, dropping it to the floor, and he took my hand again, dragging me, but also guiding me this time. "If you should ever prefer a dying leaf to me, I... I..."
A loss of words? The proud March Warden had a loss of words?
"You what?"
His angry face turned towards me when he stopped. "You silly human woman! Why can you not just obey me and be quiet like all of my other Elves?"
"Ah, Haldir, but you forget, I *am* none of `your Elves'. And if you are rude to me, I will be rude as well. You just get what you deserve, Warden." I put up a fiery smile. "Besides that, I have spent all of my life making decisions for my own, and fought for them; and found out that this is better than to be shy and obeying. You are definitely not the center of the world, Haldir, and for sure, you are not the center of MY world. If you want me to be shy and obeying, you will have to wait until I am reborn as the leaf of a mallorn tree."
This time I had reached my goal. His jaw dropped, barely visible to me and for sure not visible for the other Elves in a distance.
Two blue eyes formed in my mind. "If you have something to discuss or argue... do that later... come for dinner now." My eyes widened in surprise. The Lady had spoken to me, obviously exactly knowing what we were doing. Haldir's eyes widened also, so I guessed he had heard and seen the same.
"Well", we both picked up the word at the same time, and laughed on that. I grabbed his hand, firmly, softly. "My dearest Warden, would you guide me to dinner now?"
"Always a pleasure, my lady", he hissed, and we entered the private rooms of the Lord and the Lady.
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