The Singer's Girl by Lady MSM

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Chapter 1

The Singer’s Girl

You’re a male prima donna, but I can’t help but want you…

—from The Office

Chapter 1

They say that love is like riding a horse that wants to kill you: It’s risky, it can be unpleasant, and there’s a good chance that you’ll break a few bones in the process.

Fine, so that isn’t actually a saying. I made it up. But this story actually begins with an evil horse, so it’s appropriate, I think.

I suppose you’d prefer a little background information to stupid jokes. My name is Andril, and I used to live in the north of Valinor near a small village called Elk Woods. I didn’t live in the town—I lived a ways outside of it, in the actual woods. Mostly I only interacted with other people when they needed my doctoring skills, or, more frequently, when someone had a good, juicy piece of gossip to share. People in Elk Woods liked to gossip, and I’m not going to deny that I liked hearing it.

Although I’d lived in Elk Woods for a long time, I hadn’t been born there. To tell the truth, I wasn’t really born anywhere. I just sort of…woke up. See, I’m one of the original Elves, the ones from Cuivienen. No parents, no siblings, just the permanent knowledge that I’m—well, old. Such fun.

I traveled around for some years after I woke up, living for a while in that one big forest in the south (I think they call it Taur-im-Duinath now). Frankly, it was a pretty dull place, and I’m glad I left when I did. The only thing I accomplished there was learning how to communicate with animals.

Don’t look so shocked. Plenty of people in history have been able to communicate with animals. Elwing did it. Maglor’s brother Celegorm kind of did it. That one other guy did it. I’m just better at it then most people.

I lived in the city for a while when I moved to Valinor, but it didn’t really appeal to me. Everyone there was in a hurry all the time, which made me nervous. So when my friend Vanafinde said she was moving to a small settlement in the north called Elk Woods, I came along. It was a nice, quiet town, with only the occasional broken arm or broken engagement to liven things up.

Of course it couldn’t stay like that. Not with all the political trouble in the city we were hearing about and that Melkor fellow being on the loose again. Honestly, it was only a matter of time before things changed, and changed in a big way.

Vanafinde was the first to tell me about it. She was usually the first one to tell me about anything, since she and I went way back—we’d come on the ship to Valinor together and held each other’s hair back when we got seasick. Not only that, but I’d delivered all three of her babies, so we knew we could trust each other. So one day in late spring, she bounded through my door with her youngest son Earya in tow and some big news. Earya had a nasty cut on his arm, but that could wait.

“Andril, Andril, have you heard about Prince Feanor?” she said breathlessly.

“I’ve heard of him,” I said. Prince Feanor and his family owned some land near Elk Woods and visited there occasionally, but he didn’t come often and of course I’d never met him. I picked up Earya and set him on my table. “Had a bit of a fall, did you, love?”

“Oh, just listen to me, Andril,” Vanafinde cried. “Prince Feanor’s been exiled from Tirion. For seven years.”

“Lords, that’s some time,” I said, pulling out some herbs from my cabinet. “What’d he do?”

“Apparently he pulled a knife on his half-brother. I haven’t heard why yet, but it must have been pretty bad. Oh, oh, but you haven’t heard the most exciting part yet! Apparently he and his father and sons are coming here. You know, to Formenos?”

“What’s his wife going to do?” I asked.

“I heard she’s so mad she won’t even speak to him. Says she’s put up with his nonsense long enough and if he wants to go and get himself exiled that’s fine, but she’s not going to come with him.”

“Now that’s a sensible woman,” I said. I rubbed a few of the herbs on Earya’s arm and wrapped a bandage around it. “There we are, all set. You watch out when you’re playing in the woods, hear me? You never know what you’re going to run into.”

“Don’t you care about this at all, Andril?” Vanafinde said with a frustrated shake of her head. “This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to Elk Woods.”

“Of course I care, but it’s not like I’m going to get all excited. I don’t know Prince Feanor, so why should I bother myself about what he and his family get up to?”

“I suppose you’ve got a point,” Vanafinde admitted, picking her son up off my table. “Well, so long, Andril. I’ll see you again soon, I expect.”

“Of course you will, with this one always running around having his adventures,” I said. “Let me know if you hear any new developments.”

Vanafinde kissed me on both cheeks and left, and I sat down in my chair and thanked Eru I’d been born a peasant. Pulling a knife on your half-brother, for Varda’s sake! Who did things like that?

Prince Feanor and his family moved to Formenos (that was their lodge two miles to the west of Elk Woods) about a month later. Everyone in town was hoping to catch a glimpse of them, but they kept to themselves mostly. I approved of that. If I’d been kicked out of my city for pulling a knife on my brother, I wouldn’t want to go out in public much either.

I was honestly too busy to care about any of it. Spring and summer were good seasons for me, as I generally got plenty of business due to clumsy farmers hurting themselves while planting and young lads buying hangover cures (summer was a big season for parties). Naturally, I thought it was one of those when someone knocked hard on my door one warm evening.

“Come in,” I called.

The door opened with a bang, and a young man I’d never seen before strutted in (as well as he could strut, since he walked with a bit of a limp). He was quite good-looking—thin and fairly tall, with pale skin, amber eyes, and wildly curly hair that might have been red or brown or maybe black. But I’d seen plenty of handsome boys before and I certainly didn’t like that It’s-an-honor-for-you-to-meet-me look on his face.

“Can I help you?” I asked briskly.

“I certainly hope so,” he said in what was possibly the most dazzling voice I’d ever heard. “You see, I was riding my incredibly despicable horse Delroch—yes, I’m talking about you! You know what you did!” he yelled out the door. There was a faint whinny in reply, which I understood to mean I could not care less. “Anyway, I was out riding, and suddenly Delroch decides to take a sudden left turn and get me smacked in the head with a tree branch, effectively knocking me off and causing me to injure my leg on a rock. So now I can barely walk and I’ve got a headache even worse than the kind you get after playing a gig in an Alqualonde tavern. Which is saying something.”

“I…see,” I said. To tell you the truth, I’d really been listening more to his voice than what he was saying, but I’d gotten the gist. “Would you sit down on the table, please? I don’t think your leg is broken, but I’d like to make sure.”

“Whatever you say, darling,” he said, sitting down gracefully. “Nice place you’ve got here.”

“Thank you, and don’t call me darling. My name is Andril. Hold still.” I rolled up the leg of his trousers and inspected the injury. “No, it’s not broken. It looks like you’ve sprained it.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” he said with a dazzling smile. “My name is Maglor, by the way.”

“Well, Maglor, I’m sorry to say that you’re not going to be doing much walking for a while. You’re going to need to rest this for the next week or so, at least. And I would advise apologizing to your horse for whatever you did to offend him, seeing as you’ll be depending on him to get you home.”

“Apologize to Delroch?” said Maglor. “Good Lords, I don’t have the slightest idea what I did to offend him. And besides, I doubt he’d understand a word I’m saying.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Horses are pretty sharp, you know. Would you like me to ask him what you did?”

“You can do that?” asked Maglor, surprised. “So are you one of those people who can talk to animals?”

“In a way, I suppose. At least, we can sort of understand one another. A lot of it’s body language, really. Excuse me a moment.” I left Maglor looking over his injured leg and stepped outside to meet this despicable horse.

Delroch was a beautiful chestnut with a look in his eyes that reminded me a lot of his owner. He didn’t look the least bit sorry to have grievously injured said owner, however; on the contrary, he looked quite proud of himself.

Hello, I said. You’re quite the handsome horse, aren’t you? It’s Delroch, yes?

Delroch snorted. That’s what arrogant two-legs calls me. Two-legs couldn’t pronounce my real name.

I’m Andril, I said. Can I ask you something? Maglor feels bad he offended you but he doesn’t know what he did. What was it?

Wasn’t just one thing, Delroch replied. Treats me like a plow horse. I’ve got breeding. My father…

Thank you, I interrupted. I’ll go tell Maglor.

“He says you act like you’re better than him,” I explained once I was back inside the house. “He says you treat him like a common plow horse when he’s actually got breeding, and something about his father.”

Maglor sighed. “His father was some famous racehorse. Delroch’s right, he is a pretty well-bred animal, though I don’t know why I got him when he would have been much happier with my brother Celegorm. I guess it’s too late to do anything about that now.”

“You’re right, it is too late, and so you should apologize. Come on, put your arm around my shoulders. I’ll help you walk outside.”

“Wait!” Maglor protested, putting his arm around my shoulder (he sure didn’t have trouble with that suggestion). “What about my leg?”

“Your leg’s not going anywhere. We’ll deal with it once this is done.”

He sighed, and gingerly stepped down from the table onto his uninjured foot. “Fine, but if I’m forever crippled because of this…”

“You won’t be, trust me. You think this is the first horse-related injury I’ve treated? And remember, your apology has to sound sincere. Horses can detect phony apologies and if he thinks you don’t mean what you’re saying, he’ll probably throw you even harder next time.”

“Oh, I can do sincere,” Maglor assured me. We’d managed to walk/hop out the door by the point, and he carefully put down his right foot and took his arm off my shoulders.

“Delroch,” he said, taking a few careful steps towards his horse. “Listen…”

Now, I’ve never been quite sure if he actually meant what he said next (it’s always a little hard to tell with Maglor). But I swear, his apology in that molten-gold voice of his was possibly the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. And Delroch looked pretty mollified, too.

Did you get all that? I asked him once Maglor had finished.

Most, replied Delroch. Tell him it’s fine.

“He says he understood what you said and it’s fine,” I told Maglor. “But you had better remember this incident next time you’re out riding.”

“I will, I will,” said Maglor nonchalantly. “Are you going to do anything about my leg now, or are we just going to keep apologizing to animals? I think I might have knocked a squirrel out of his nest when my head hit that branch—should we try to find him?”

I had a hard time not laughing at that one, I’ll admit. “No, a squirrel wouldn’t know an eloquent apology if it hit him in the face. Let’s go back inside and I’ll whip up a poultice for you to put on your leg.”

“Now that’s what I like to hear!” said Maglor, slinging his arm around my shoulders (in more of a friendly way than an I-can’t-walk way). “And take your time, I like to keep away from Formenos for as long as possible. The less time I spend around my father, the better.”

“Ah! So that’s why I’ve never met you before,” I said. “You’re one of the infamous exiled royals.”

He cringed. “Yes, but I’d like to point out that I personally wasn’t exiled for anything. I just came along because all my brothers did and frankly, my life is incredibly boring when they’re not around.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It’s not your fault what your parents do.”

“Damn right it’s not!” Maglor said angrily. He shook his head and smiled. “Sorry, it’s just that I run into a lot of people who think the exact opposite.”

“Ah, don’t let them get to you,” I advised. “There are a lot of idiots in the world, and the best thing to do is just ignore them.”

“Now that,” said Maglor, “is the best advice I’ve heard in a long time.”

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The Singer's Girl by Lady MSM

Chapter 1