Ellethana had been in Rivendell for about three years, and she still had only a few friends. Celebrían, Elrond, and Glorfindel were her friends, all of whom were older. She had no one her own age to play with, and the only other elf in Rivendell who was her age was Arwen, daughter of Elrond. And there was no way that the two of them would ever be friends. From the day she had arrived, she and Arwen had NOT gotten along. No matter how long the two girls spent together, they would never be friends. Elrond and Celebrían had tried to help Ellethana become friends with Arwen, but it didn’t work. The twins, Elladan and Elrohir, and Glorfindel, with Erestor’s help, tried to lend a hand. NOTHING at all had worked. The elflings had decided to be enemies forever.

Ellie, as many called her, had come to Rivendell from Lothlórien when her mother had died. Her father had been killed by orcs on his way back from Rivendell when she was seven, and her mother, Galadriel’s niece, died of grief in less than two months. Ellie had waited in Lothlórien for a while, and then left for Rivendell with some Elven rangers.

She knew she would never fit in properly, and it was kind of Lord Elrond to accept her, but she just didn’t fit with these elves. She missed her friends from Lothlórien. After they got over the fact that her hair was dark, they became great friends. One of Ellie’s closest friends was Finna. She and Finna had so much fun when they were younger. They played in the forest, never going too far, of course. But they had had so much fun. Finna was one of Ellie’s best friends.

“Ellethana, there you are!” Celebrían came down the hall where the young girl was walking. “It’s almost time for dinner, darling.”

“Alright.” Ellie wasn’t really hungry, but she knew she had to attend; otherwise, Master Elrond would be upset. She was lonely, to tell the truth, but not that she would ever admit that to anyone else.

~~~~~~~~~

After dinner, Ellethana went to her room to draw. It was one of her favorite things to do. She drew elves, humans, hobbits, anything! She especially enjoyed drawing pictures of her mother and father. She also liked to write. She opened up one of her journals to the time when she watched her mother slowly fade away into another world with her father.

Ammë is fading away. I do not know what is happening. Galadriel says that she will soon join Ada. It has only been one and a half months since Ada went away and never came back. I am afraid that Ammë is going to die soon too. She won’t eat or do anything. All that she has done for the past two days is lie on the blanket. I am scared about her. I do not want her to die. Where will I live if she does? Who will take care of me?

Three days later…

Ammë died last night. She left in the middle of the night without a cry or anything. The last words she spoke to me were four days ago, and she said she loved me. At least I think that is what she had said. It was very difficult to understand her when her lips were dry like they were. I cannot believe that she is gone! Ammë! Gone forever! I will never see her or Ada again! I am scared. Galadriel says that I should stay here for a while until someone can come and get me to take me to Rivendell. I think she said something about a ranger or something. I do not know what will happen. In some ways, I do not want to go to Valinor because I want to see Ada and Ammë, but I do want to go so I can be with all my friends.

In Rivendell, a few years later…

I am in my new home now. I have been here for two days, and I have no friends. Arwen and I have met before in Lothlórien, but she was mean to me and said that I am no true elf of Rivendell. Just because my Ada was not from Lord Elrond’s line, does not mean he is not a true elf of Rivendell!
I am unhappy here, maybe because I do not have anyone to play with, or it may be something else. I do not know. I have no clue why I am here, or why my parents died. I thought that elves could not die. After Ammë died, Galadriel told me that elves could be killed in battle, die from fire, or from grief. I miss Ada and Ammë. I am confused. I did not expect them to ever leave me.

Ellethana finished reading her diary. Those had been sad times for her. She especially missed her parents at night.

~~~~~~~~~

Lord Elrond was trying to think of a way to make the new elf feel welcome in Rivendell. He thought about having she and Arwen spend some time together, but he knew in his heart that that wouldn’t help.

~~~~~~~~~

‘Humph,’ thought the young elven princess. ‘Why do I have to spend time with her? She is like totally so annoying! Why doesn’t Ada understand? I do not want to waste my time trying to help a hopeless elf!’

Arwen was annoyed that her mother and father would put her in charge of helping Ellethana feel welcome. She knew that they wanted her to spend time with the new one, but the princess just didn’t want to. Arwen also knew it was hopeless to try and argue her way out. Even pretending to be sick wouldn’t work.

‘That’s not a bad idea, even if it won’t work.’ Arwen was in the middle of a scheme, and no one could make her stop.

~~~~~~~~~

The twins wanted their sister to be nicer to Ellie. They thought that since she and Ellie were about the same age, the two girls should be friends. Ada had told them why Ellie was in Rivendell in the first place: her parents had died. Her father was killed, and then her mother died.
They decided to talk to their little sister. After knocking and hearing the word “yes,” they went in to Arwen’s room.

“Arwen, why won’t you and Ellethana be friends?” Elrohir asked.

“Because!” she replied. “Now GO AWAY!!!”

“O.K., O.K. But do not do anything you might regret later, Arwen,” Elladan returned.

Once they left, Arwen went back to her scheme. She had decided to “be” sick and see if her father would “heal” her. She was mad at Elrond, her mother, the twins, and almost everyone else in Rivendell. She decided to do it the very next day.

~~~~~~~~

The next morning…

Arwen was nowhere to be seen at breakfast. Ellie, who usually talked at least a little bit, was completely silent. She was thinking about her parents, and she had a headache. She was also very tired, for she had barely slept at all.

“Elrond, do you know where Arwen is?” Celebrían asked her husband.

“No, I do not. I wonder what could be keeping her. It is not like her to miss breakfast, especially when it is Erestor’s famous waffles. I will go and see if she is in her room,” Elrond answered.

~~~~~~~~~

From Elrond’s point of view…

When her father came into her room, he found her lying on her bed, asleep.

“Arwen, wake up, honey,” the older elf said. “It’s breakfast time.”

Arwen coughed a few times. Then she opened her eyes very slowly.

“What is wrong, darling?”

“I don’t feel well, Ada,” she said sleepily.

Elrond thought for a moment. “Arwen, I will take you to the Healing Rooms.”
There was no reply. Arwen had fallen back asleep. Elrond picked her up and carried her to the Healing Rooms.

~~~~~~~~~

From Arwen’s point of view…

Arwen was faking it and was not actually sick. When she heard her father come into her room, she pretended to be asleep. After their little conversation, Arwen didn’t want to reply, so she just pretended to fall back asleep. She knew that Elrond was carrying her, but she continued to fake sleep.

~~~~~~~~~

Once Elrond reached the Healing Rooms, he set his daughter down on one of the beds near an open window. Then he hurried back out to the breakfast table.

“Elrond, there you are!” Glorfindel said. “Where have you been? And where is Arwen?”

Elrond was breathless from running. “Arwen is sick. I took her to the Healing Rooms, and I need to get back there soon.”

“Elrond, would you like me to bring her some breakfast?” Erestor asked.

“Sure.” Master Elrond was already running back towards the Rooms.

‘He sure is protective of her,’ Ellie thought. ‘It must get annoying for her sometimes. Ada and Ammë were never like that with me. They let me wander around as long as I stayed in the main area. I miss them a lot. I would like to be friends; it is not I, it is her who will not be my friend. I have tried.’

~~~~~~~~~

Arwen was “asleep.” When her father came back, with Erestor and breakfast following, she let Elrond help her sit up. Then she ate breakfast very slowly because Lord Elrond and Master Erestor were asking her questions like, “What hurts?” and other things like that.
When she finished, Erestor left, and Celebrían came in. She looked very worried about her daughter. Elrond finally decided to see what was going on.

~~~~~~~~~

Elrond examined his daughter thoroughly. There was nothing wrong with Arwen; she was fine.

‘Hum,’ thought the Lord of Rivendell. ‘There’s something going on that she isn’t telling us.’

~~~~~~~~~

Arwen woke up and found her father sitting at her bedside. He looked tired. She didn’t know why, but… Could he have discovered what she was doing?

“Arwen, there is nothing wrong with you. Now,” said Lord Elrond, “I want you to tell me exactly what is going on.”

Arwen coughed a few times before answering. “Ada,” she said, “my throat hurts.”

Her father sighed. He rechecked her throat. It was red all right. But how could he have overlooked it? He called his wife. She came running in and asked if Arwen was o.k.

“Arwen has a sore throat,” Elrond told his wife. “Honey, will you get me a cup of warm tea?” Celebrían went out of the room and came back in a few minutes. Elrond sat down next to Arwen’s bed again and helped her drink the tea her mother had brought.
Arwen swallowed the tea with great difficulty. Her throat was really hurting. She wished she hadn’t pretended to be sick. She knew she would be in trouble if Elrond found out what had really happened earlier. The young elfling also knew that he would want an explanation, and then he would make her spend the whole day with Ellethana.

~~~~~~~~~

Ellethana didn’t want to tell anyone about her headache. So she didn’t. She went about her normal things as if she was just fine. But the truth was that it was getting worse every hour. She decided to write about it in her diary.

Dearest Butterfly,

My head really hurts. I do not want to tell Ada Elrond; he is sure to want to look at it, and he is to busy tending to Arwen. And I do not want to tell Glorfindel, or Celebrían, or anyone else! But it hurts a whole lot now! I do not know what to do. Should I tell someone or not?

The headache might have something to do with the orc’s knife, which she had met on a journey she had recently taken with some rangers to Lothlórien. The orc had cut her left arm first and then scratched her forehead with the blunt side of the knife. Her arm had healed and so had her head, but the headache had just arrived last night.

~~~~~~~~~

During school, Ellethana’s headache just got worse. But anyone’s headache would get worse if they had to listen to the twins argue for an hour and a half. Ellie just wanted to rest. She was sure it would go away if she had some time to sleep.

After school, Ellie decided to sleep instead of join the others for afternoon of swordplay, even though she loved playing with swords. She went to her room and fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~

When she woke, she felt hungry. She went to the kitchen and found Lord Elrond talking to Erestor about something. She grabbed onto the counter for support then fell into a dark hole.

~~~~~~~~~

When Ellie woke up from that, she found that she was in a large bed in the Healing Rooms. Her headache was gone. She had no clue as to what had happened. When she looked around, she saw Master Elrond checking his daughter, with his back towards her.

“Well, how do you feel?” Elrond asked as he turned towards Ellie.

“Just fine, thank you,” she said. “What happened to me? All I remember is that I went to get some food, then everything went black.”

“Ellethana, darling,” Lord Elrond answered, “you were poisoned.”

“What! How?” she asked, trying to sit up. Elrond pushed her gently back down onto the pillows.

“The orc’s blade had poison on it. When it touched you,” responded he, his voice trailing off. “Just the tiny scratch was plenty for it to work. Now, is anything else hurting or bothering you?”

“My arm does hurt,” Ellie said in a small voice.

Elrond came and looked at her arm very closely. There was nothing wrong with its appearance, but that did not mean that everything was fine inside. When he looked even more closely, he found that it was broken. Elrond decided let her fall asleep then take care of it.

~~~~~~~~~

When Ellie woke up, Elrond had put her arm in a cast and sling. She was very glad the hurt arm was her left arm, not her right one because she was right handed. She saw Elrond across the room and asked if she could have something to eat. When he brought her a tray of food, she devoured it quickly.

~~~~~~~~~

Lord Elrond was exhausted. He had not been able to finish his breakfast, and now it was almost lunch time. He called for his wife.

“Ellie’s arm is broken, and she was poisoned. Arwen is getting better,” Elrond said. “Would you mind bringing me two cups of tea, one for Arwen and one for me?”

“Alright, honey,” Celebrían replied. “I will be back in a few minutes.”

When Celebrían returned, she handed her husband a cup of Erestor’s honey tea then went and sat down on the edge of her daughter’s bed. She helped Arwen sit up and drink some tea.

“Ammë, where is Ada?” Arwen asked, looking around.

“He was here just a minute ago,” her mother answered. “I don’t know where he went.”

~~~~~~~~~

Elrond went to see if he could get something to eat. He was very hungry now, for he had not had anything to eat since breakfast. He walked into the kitchen, grabbed a small something, and tried to slip out before anyone else saw him.

“Elrond! What have you been doing?”

It was too late. The Elven Lord spun around, almost knocking his friend off his feet.

“What is wrong, mellon-nin? And do not tell me ‘nothing,’ for your face tells me that that is not true.”

“Sorry, Glorfindel. I have to get back to the Healing Rooms,” Elrond said, trying to get away.

“Elrond, I am not going let you go until you have had something better to eat than what you have there,” Glorfindel replied.

“Glorfindel, I must get back to the Healing Rooms, and soon! Arwen and Ellethana are waiting for me.”

Glorfindel let his friend go. He knew better than to keep the Healer away from his patients. But he wanted him to eat something. “Elrond, I will bring you something better to eat,” the blonde elf said. “You must keep up you strength, mellon-nin. Please?”

“Alright,” Elrond responded as he rushed out.

~~~~~~~~~

“Elrond, darling, where did you go?” Celebrían asked, her voice full of concern for her husband. “Arwen asked where you went.”

“I went to get a small snack.”

“What was it?” she wanted to know.

“I had a sandwich. Alright?”

“Elrond, you must eat to continue to do what you are doing. You would not want to get sick, now would you? And you haven’t slept in who knows how long. And yes, I do know you barely sleep at all.”

His wife had a point. He did not want to get sick. He had to take care of his girls, but he also needed to take care of himself. He needed to catch up on his sleep.

“Cele, would you mind taking care of the girls?” Elrond asked. “I’m going to rest for a while. I do need some rest.”

“Of course, darling,” Cele, also known as Celebrían, replied.

~~~~~~~~~

Ellethana woke up to find her mother’s cousin looking down at her. “Celebrían, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“There is someone here to see you, darling,” Celebrían replied. Then she left.

“Ellie, I’m sorry.” Ellie looked over to where the voice was coming from.

“Arwen?” she asked, not sure if it really was the other girl.

“Yes, Ellie. It’s me. I’m really sorry for everything. I didn’t mean to make you miserable. May I call you ‘mellon-nin’?” Arwen asked. Ellethana smiled. She had a new friend.

“Yes, Arwen. You can.”

“Good. Ammë already knows, so let’s go find Ada.”

~~~~~~~~~

Lord Elrond was delighted to find out that Arwen and Ellie were friends. That night, while he was in his room with his wife, he told her that he was glad to find his girls were friends.

~~~~~~~~~

A few days later, Arwen went to her father, saying she had something to tell him.

“Ada? You remember a few days ago? I… I need to tell you something.”

“What is it, Arwen?”

“I was only pretending to be sick.” She paused to look at his face.

“But what about your throat?”

“I didn’t know about that. Honest, I didn’t.”

Elrond raised one eyebrow, a look he was known for throughout Middle Earth. “Are you sure, Arwen?”

“Well… maybe… You see, the twins, they pushed me outside in the rain the day before, and I didn’t even know about my throat till I woke up in the Healing Rooms,” she replied.

“Alright. If you’re sure, Arwen,” her father said.

~~~~~~~~~

Epilogue:

Ellethana picked up her pencil and wrote about what had happened since her headache.

My Dear Butterfly,

Arwen and I are friends now! After I awoke, I saw her standing above me. It is amazing! For the first time since I came to Rivendell, I am not alone. I am happy again, something I have not really been for a long time, since Ada was killed. I still miss them, but I have other things to keep me busy now. I know Ada and Ammë would be happy too. They used to like it when I was happy. It made them happy too.
I do wish I could see them again, but I want to go and be with my friends.