The Singer's Girl by Lady MSM

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Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“So, I met one of them,” I told Vanafinde when she was over three days later. Trust her to be barely paying attention.

“One of who?” she asked absently, stirring her tea.

“One of Feanor’s sons.”

That got her. She sat bolt upright, almost spilling her tea all over my table. “You did? Which one? What did he look like? When did you meet him? What did he say?”

“Yes, I did. He said his name was Maglor. He wasn’t bad-looking…pale, curly hair, smiled a lot. Nice voice, too. I met him three days ago when he had an accident while riding—well, it wasn’t so much of an accident as a deliberate act of revenge by his horse. He said a hell of a lot, and I don’t remember all of it, but he kept calling me ‘darling’ until I told him to stop, and we talked about how people shouldn’t blame other people for what their relatives do.”

Vanafinde squealed. “You met Maglor? Oh, don’t tell me you haven’t heard of Maglor, Andril. He’s the most famous singer in all of Arda!”

“Is he now?” I said. “That would explain a lot.”

“Oh, Andril. Sometimes I think I could cut off your foot and you’d just sit there and say, “Interesting,’” Vanafinde sniffed.

“That’s an odd analogy.”

“Shut up! So, did you like him?”

I shrugged. “He was all right. Seemed to think quite a lot of himself, but that’s to be expected, him being a prince and all. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’m probably not going to see him around very much.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know about that,” said Vanafinde, taking a sip of her tea. “I’ve heard he and his father don’t get along very well, and visiting a pretty girl like you might be a nice escape for him.”

“First of all, I’m not that pretty. Second of all, he’s a child compared to me. And third, I’m a healer who lives in the woods, which is a pretty inconvenient location to visit. He’s only going to stop by here again if his horse doesn’t accept his apology.”

“Wait. If his what doesn’t accept his what?”

“Never mind. My point is, you’re getting too excited about this. As always, I might add.”

“Don’t be so sure,” said Vanafinde, getting up to go. “You’ve got some things going for you, and men like a girl with a healing touch.”

“Of course,” I said sarcastically. “And that’s why all the lads in Elk Woods are lined up outside my door waiting to ask me out to dance. Get out, I have to clean.”

“Fine, I will,” said Vanafinde. “But I’d just like to point out that you never listen to me, Andril.”

“Say something smart and maybe I will!” I retorted. “Oh, you know I’m just joking, dear. See you next week?”

“Of course.” A quick kiss on both cheeks and then I was alone again. I glanced around at my house, spotting a dried blob of some greenish paste on the table. That’d have to be taken care of. I grabbed my bucket and headed to the pool out back of my house to get some water.

I wonder if I am pretty, I thought, glancing at my reflection in the pool. To be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought before. After all, I was healthy and I wasn’t ugly, and that had been good enough. But I kind of wanted to see for myself if Vanafinde was right or not.

So, I looked at my reflection and I inspected myself.

My hair—that was all right, wavy and coppery-blond. I usually kept it in two braids because it was fine and it got tangled when it was loose. My eyes were greenish-blue, with pale eyelashes, so no real problems there. I didn’t much care for my nose—it was sharp and pointy, like a beak, but it wasn’t overwhelming. My mouth was small, but my lips weren’t too thin at least. I was short, and my figure wasn’t much to speak of—small chest, small waist, wide hips—but all in all, it could have been worse.

I shook my head and went back to filling up my bucket. Any more of this silly obsessing over my looks and I’d turn into Vanafinde. And Eru knew, Elk Woods only needed one of her.

“So you fell off your roof?” I asked the boy.

He nodded ashamedly. “I was trying to impress a girl.”

“Well, if she was impressed by that, I don’t think that’s the kind of girl you want to marry. A sensible girl would have been more impressed if you’d stayed on the ground.”

The boy looked glum for a moment, then brightened. “Well, at least it was just a broken nose! Besides, everyone will think I’m tough now.”

I sighed. Trying to drum some sense into these boys was like trying to convince a deer to stand still, and honestly, I was pretty sick of acting like everyone’s mother. What were their real mothers doing that I had to stand in for them?

Summer and autumn had passed uneventfully, and it was getting to be the middle of winter. There was snow a foot deep on the ground and I had to shovel the pathway to my house every other morning. Elk Woods wasn’t much of a town for moderate weather—every summer it got so hot you’d feel like you were going to drown in your own sweat, and then in the winter your toes would freeze if you spent more than an hour outside. I’d had to treat plenty of cases of frostbite already, though thankfully no one had lost a toe yet (that’d happened to one poor girl a few years back and she still limped a bit).

“Well,” I said, “it looks like that’ll set properly. If the swelling comes back put some snow on it. And stay off roofs!”

He nodded again, handed me my payment (I only charged one silver coin with small injuries like this) and went on his way.

Almost as soon as he had left, my door swung open again with a bang, causing a pile of snow to fall onto my rug.

“Lords, I’m sorry,” said Maglor, shaking some more snow off of his hair. “Do you need any help cleaning that up?”

I sighed (I was doing that a lot today). “Don’t worry about it. So what brings you here again? Don’t tell me your leg hasn’t healed properly.”

“Actually, it’s healed perfectly. See?” He hopped up and down on his right foot to demonstrate its healed-ness. I snorted a laugh—he looked just like a schoolboy, hopping on one foot. “And in fact, I wanted to pay you back a bit for doing such an excellent job.”

“Er…Maglor, you already did pay me.” He’d more than paid me, in fact. When I’d finished up with his leg he threw a bag of coins on the table, said, “Will this about cover it?” and dashed off before I’d had time to say a word. There was enough money in there to buy me a new cloak and a pair of boots, although I hadn’t actually gotten around to spending it yet.

He snorted. “That? Please. That barely counted. No, this is much better. You see, I convinced Dad to have a celebration up at Formenos for Yule, and we’re inviting some people from the village, and I’d like you to come as our honored guest.”

“Sorry, but I can’t,” I declined. “What if someone gets hurt that night? They won’t have a healer around and it could get nasty.”

“So, they could come to Formenos. It’s no farther away from Elk Woods than your house is.”

I frowned. It sounded like he’d thought this through quite a bit. “Why are you so insistent on inviting me? Do you even remember my name?”

“Yes, your name’s Andril, and I want to invite you because you fixed my leg and smoothed out my relationship with my horse and you seem like a good egg, and quite frankly I could use some good friends in this town.”

“Did you just call me a good egg?” I asked, trying to repress a smile.

“Yes, I guess I did. It’s something my mom says,” Maglor explained. “So, are you in?”

What could I do? I gave in. “I suppose so,” I said. “But you have to invite my friend Vanafinde and her husband, too. And if anyone needs healing while this is going on, it’s coming out of your pocket, understand?” If he was going to throw around money like it grew on trees, I intended to get some good for the people of Elk Woods out of it.

“Deal!” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “I can’t wait. It’s in two weeks…try to get there around dusk, all right? Do you need directions?”

“No, I’ll be able to get there fine. I have a good sense of direction.”

“Excellent. I’ve told my grandpa and dad and brothers all about you, and they can’t wait to meet you. See you then!” He practically bounded out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

“It’s a miracle he hasn’t broken all his bones, running around like that,” I muttered, beginning to clean up the snow. “And I don’t know why he’s so set on having me come and meet his father and brothers…”

It hit me like a ton of rocks. If I went to this thing, I would have to meet Maglor’s family. I could probably handle the granddad and the brothers, but the father? I didn’t know what I’d say to someone who’d been kicked out of Tirion for threatening his brother. If his second son was any indication, Prince Feanor would probably be charming, pushy, careless, and kind of annoying, but I knew that people were rarely just like their parents. And who knew? Maybe if I said something that offended him, he’d pull a knife on me.

I shrugged and went back to cleaning. As nervous as I might have been, I’d already accepted the invitation, and in Elk Woods if you accepted an invitation you were pretty much bound to show up. Snubbing someone’s gathering was just about the rudest thing you could do.

Besides, wouldn’t Vanafinde be excited when I told her the news?

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The Singer's Girl by Lady MSM

Chapter 2