TinNim: Ok, well this one does have a flashback, but then flashbacks are the parts that have a time and location as a heading. But it partly due to transferring the chapter to here that makes it confusing. Would it be better if I wrote ‘flashback’ at these points and say how many years before?

Chapter 3 – Never Judging Books By Their Covers.

“Looks like Mr Caution man, but the noise he makes is funny.”
-Xander, ‘Surprise’, Season 2

Galenorn crept into the library and looked round: the library looked so big. Her mother had told her that, if Galenorn found a book in the library, she would read it to her once work was finished for the day. Her mother had also said that, if she needed any help, she should not to be afraid to ask any of the librarians.

She ran down the row in front of her: the sooner she found a book, the sooner her mother could read to her. Happy with her childÂ’s logic she looked round at the surrounding books. No, none of these would do, they were all boring books. She wanted to find fun stories, with lots of pictures and-

Her line of thought quickly halted as she froze. There, down the next aisle of books was the scariest elf in Imladris, the one that always made her hide behind her motherÂ’s legs: Erestor.

She quickly dashed behind the shelves and then she carefully crawled back to peek round the shelf. His back was toward her and he was putting books back onto their shelves. She didnÂ’t think he had seen her, but one could never be too careful (thatÂ’s what her father liked to say), and Elladan and Elrohir had said that he had eyes in the back of his head. Now that she was looking at the back of his head, she couldnÂ’t see any eyes, but maybe they were under his hairÂ… but then surely he wouldnÂ’t be able to see anything. She decided to test this by placing all her hair (or as much as she could) in front of her eyes. No, he wouldnÂ’t be able to see anything out of those eyes.

Releasing her hair, she scuttled quickly back round the corner as Erestor walked past. She tried to move to the stories, but knew Erestor would see her; she would have to hide. This soon developed into a game, her quest for a book forgotten. She was like her father, tracking an orc… well, not an orc, they were too scary but a, a, erm, well, sheÂ’d decide later what she was tracking, but it was something horrible. The important bit was that she had to track it without it seeing her, or something really bad would happen.

As Galenorn tracked this vicious monster, she didnÂ’t notice the amused looks she received from passing librarians, or at least not until two she-elves began giggling at her. Silly elves, you had to be as quiet as possible when tracking very dangerous monsters, and now heÂ’d surely know where they were.

“Whoever has been following me for the past 15 minutes can come out now.” Galenorn froze again when she heard the voice. She was wondering if she should indeed step out, as Erestor turned round to look down the aisle. What she wanted to do was run, but then Erestor would shout at her if she did that.

“Well, I am waiting for you to come out. I have other things that I must see to today.”

Galenorn crept round the corner, trying to be as small as possible. She kept her eyes on the floor as they began to fill with tears.

“Galenorn. Are you here with your mother?”

She kept her eyes to the ground as she shook her head.

“So why are you here?”
She whispered her answer under her breath.

“Pardon?”

Galenorn repeated herself a little louder.

“Galenorn, look at me.”

Not really wanting to, she slowly lifted her head. He didnÂ’t look angry, but you could not always tell with adults.

“I am neither planning to eat you nor shout at you, so kindly look at me and speak clearly so I can understand you.” He sounded a lot nicer this time, so she finally managed to speak loud enough for Erestor to hear her.

“Mother asked me to find a book for her to read to me.”

“I see. Do you have a book in mind?”

She shook her head.

“Then follow me. I have noticed that you find no difficulty in doing that much.”

Galenorn felt herself blush and her eyes go damp with embarrassment. She followed Erestor through the library. Well, at least he hadnÂ’t shouted at her and he didnÂ’t seem angry that she had been following him. Maybe everything would be fine.

Erestor came to a halt at a row of books of many different colours. Grinning, Galenorn began looking through them for pictures.

“You should not pick a book just because it has pictures,” Erestor commented. Then he did something that almost made her burst out crying: he picked her up. She was very puzzled as he carried her along the row. She looked around with large eyes and a couple of passing elves grinned at the sight. She didn’t know why, she didn’t find this the least bit funny.

He stopped, pulled out a thin book and handed it to her. “I am sure you will enjoy this book much more than the other book you are holding.”

She scrunched up her nose as she looked through the book and found no pictures. This book looked far more boring then her other one.

“Not all books without pictures are boring. You need to read the book to see if it is interesting, not just by looking at it. In that way, they are much like people.”

Galenorn nodded; it seemed the easiest and simplest way to respond. Adults really did say some silly things sometimes; how could books be like people?

Erestor looked at Galenorn and he could tell that she wasnÂ’t convinced. In fact, he wasnÂ’t even sure if she had understood a word he had said. He placed her on the floor again.

“If you read the book again and still find it boring, I’ll bring you a cake from the kitchens.”

GalenornÂ’s eyes immediately brightened, but it took her a moment to nod. He had the feeling that she had only really agreed because she didnÂ’t want to disagree. However, at least she didnÂ’t look like a frightened rabbit any more, and that could only be construed positively.

“Come, I will take you to the library entrance.”

He began walking, a lot slower then he normally would have done. Why did elflings have to be so slow when they walked with him? They seemed to have no trouble going quickly when they misbehaved, and he could almost swear that they did it on purpose.

When they reached the aisle with the entrance at the end, Galenorn thanked Erestor and ran off. By the time Erestor called out to her, telling her not to run, she was already half-way down the row. Erestor watched her disappear round the door, where she would undoubtedly start running again.

He returned to his previous task of putting returned books in their correct places. While sorting though the books, one in particular caught his eye. His memory was cast back to when he had given this book to his sister.

End of Chapter 3

Well there you go. Please review and tell me what you think, on the chapter and the structure. Thank you for reading.