Chapter 2. The Evils of Ellyth, the Miracles of Mothers

"I'm Elrohir!" the elfling on the floor repeated a second time. This time, his voice rang more with hurt than with anger. Elrohir's wrist had twisted underneath him when he fell after tussling with Lenniel, and it pained him. I'm not going to cry! he vowed silently as tears stung his eyes. I'm a big elfling! And big elflings don't cry. He rubbed his wrist, hoping to dull the pain, and wished his mother were here to give him a Hurt-Go-Away kiss. In Elrohir's opinion, his mother's kisses were as good a medicine as his father's herbs for making small hurts hurt less. Unfortunately, Celebrían was somewhere else in the household, and Elrohir had to conquer the pain without her. So he concentrated on being angry with Lenniel instead.

Stupid elleth! It was an ugly dress. Your grandmother made an ugly Begetting Day dress. Nobody would ever want to kiss you wearing that dress. Nobody would ever want to kiss you ever! Elrohir knew he was mean to think such things, but he was trying not to think about his hurt wrist. And you're stupid for not knowing I'm Elrohir. "Everyone knows I'm Elrohir!" he declared, ignoring the fact that most elves couldn’t distinguish him from his twin. Silence descended in the hallway while Elrohir sulked and absentmindedly rubbed his wrist.

"Elrohir?"

Elrohir froze at the soft sound. In his anger, the elfling had spoken his last sentence out loud without realizing it. Now, the hallway had spoken back. For the first time since his fight with Lenniel, Elrohir looked up at his surroundings. During his struggle with her, Elrohir had turned around so that he now sat facing the hallway entrance he had originally come through. He didn't see anyone in the hallway or through the open side doorways who could have called out his name. "Hello?" he asked tentatively.

"Hello," the hallway replied.

The response came from behind Elrohir and sounded remarkably like his own voice. I didn't know this hall echoed! The idea delighted Elrohir. He turned on the floor back to the direction he had originally been heading. "Helloooo," he sang out.

"Helloooo," the hallway sang back.

Elrohir grinned, his aching wrist temporarily forgotten. He was about to test the echo again when he noticed that the door to the tall linen cabinet down the hall was opening by itself. Even though he didn't know too much about furniture, Elrohir was confident cabinets should not be able to come alive and move by themselves. Scrambling to his feet, Elrohir cautiously walked to the suddenly living furniture. By the time he had reached it, the door had opened wide enough that he could reach inside and grab something. Or something inside could reach out and grab him. "Hello?" he said timidly and then courageously looked inside the cabinet.

Two grey eyes inside the cabinet met two grey eyes outside the cabinet. Elrohir gasped when he saw his brother sitting on the bottom shelf of the linen cabinet. "Elladan!"

"Is Lenniel gone?" Elladan whispered.

"Yes," Elrohir whispered back. "Why are you sitting in there?" He looked closer into the cabinet. Elladan sat cross-legged on a mostly neat pile of clean linens. His brother had to dip his head slightly underneath the shelf above in order to fit but otherwise looked quite comfortable. Elladan scooted closer to one side of the cabinet and gestured for Elrohir to join him.

"Get in and close the door in case she comes back," he directed anxiously. After Elrohir had climbed in and settled on another linen pile, Elladan pulled the door closed leaving only a small crack to see through. The two sat in silence listening for footsteps. Hearing none, Elladan turned a worried face to his brother. "I'm hiding from Lenniel," he explained softly.

Lenniel! Elrohir's wrist started to hurt again at the reminder of his adversary. "Why are you hiding from Lenniel?"

"Because she wants me to kiss her," Elladan said disgustedly.

Elrohir was confused by his brother's tone. Lenniel told him that Elladan had promised to kiss her for her Begetting Day. Why would Elladan be hiding from her now? Why not kiss her and get it over with? Elrohir found himself growing angry. "If you don't want to kiss her, why did you say that you would?" he accused.

"I didn't!" Elladan protested quietly. "Lenniel used to be fun to play with. I liked her because she wasn't like the other ellyth. We would play warriors together and have adventures. Then her Nana said she had to be more like a grown-up elleth, and she stopped being fun to play with," Elladan said sadly. "Yesterday, Lenniel told me that I had to give her a kiss for her Begetting Day because she was going to be a grown-up elleth now and that's what grown-up ellyth got for their Begetting Day. Then she left." Elladan's expression turned to horror. "I never said that I would do it! She just told me I had to. So I've been hiding all day," he finished shamefully. 

Elrohir gaped at his brother's revelation. To have to hide out all day because an elleth wanted Elladan to kiss her! And to be hiding all alone! His anger melted away. Poor Elladan, he thought sympathetically. That's horrible. Elrohir reached out and patted his twin's arm in consolation. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Elladan down looked at the linens he sat on. "I was afraid you would laugh at me," he admitted. "Who wants to be kissed by an elleth?" Elladan raised his head and faced his brother. "Are you very mad at me? I'm sorry I didn't come out when Lenniel thought that you were me. I … I was afraid she would make me kiss her if I came out."

"I would have protected you!" Elrohir declared stoutly, no longer angry at his twin's refusal to speak out. "I fought her when she tried to kiss me. I would fight her for you too!"

"Nana says we're not supposed to fight with ellyth," Elladan reminded him.

"Lenniel started it! She grabbed me and wouldn't let me go," the elfling defended himself. However, the more he thought about what had happened, the less certain he was that his mother would approve of his actions regardless of why he did them. Nana doesn't like it when we fight with ellyth. "Do you think I'll get in trouble for trying to get away?" he asked worriedly. "It wasn't like a real fight, was it?" Elrohir cast a worried glance at his brother. He didn't want to get in trouble with their mother. "Do you think Nana will be mad?"

"No!" Elladan shook his head emphatically. "Nana will understand. Nana knows that you have to fight ellyth if you're trying to get away from them. She knows ellyth try to make you do stupid things. Nana knows about stupid ellyth."

"Ellyth are stupid," Elrohir agreed. "They're always thinking about dumb things like dresses and kisses." He thought for a moment about the evils of ellyth. "Ellyth are as bad as orcs," he pronounced, giving them the worst accusation he could imagine.

Elladan giggled and said, "Ellyth are orc-y."

"That's not a word."

"How do you know it's not a word?" Elladan countered. "Glorfindel says words that we don't know yet. Maybe we just haven't learned it yet."

Elrohir didn't respond. He wasn't sure he agreed with Elladan but didn't see any point in arguing if "orc-y" was a word or not. He had learned that arguing with his brother was usually pointless. Elladan generally won their arguments by sheer persistence if nothing else. Besides, he liked the sound of the new word. It perfectly described how he felt about ellyth especially Lenniel. Thinking of his recent encounter, Elrohir decided he would stay in the linen cabinet with Elladan in case the orc-y Lenniel came back. So he shifted his position to become more comfortable but succeeded in aggravating his sore wrist instead. He grimaced as his wrist protested the movement.

"Does it hurt much?" Elladan asked, pointing to Elrohir's wrist.

For a moment, Elrohir pretended that it didn't. But since Elladan had been honest with him, he would be honest with Elladan. His face crumpled, and he nodded sadly. "I wish Nana could give it a Hurt-Go-Away kiss. But if I ask her for one, she'll ask how I hurt it. Then she'll know I was fighting."

Elladan shook his head again. "You won't get into trouble for fighting. Nana will understand," he repeated. "She'll give your wrist a Hurt-Go-Away kiss, and it will feel much better. That's what mothers do," he declared. "They give Hurt-Go-Away kisses."

Elrohir sat for a moment thinking about the miracles of mothers when a strange thought crossed his mind. "Elladan," he whispered, mindful that they were in hiding, "why are kisses from Nana so much better than kisses from an elleth?"

"Because Nana isn't an elleth. She's a mother."

That didn't make sense to Elrohir, and he said so. "But mothers are grown-up ellyth," he explained in case Elladan didn't know yet. "Ellyth grow up to be mothers. Just like we grow up to be fathers."

Elladan's hair swung as he vigorously shook his head in denial. "Mothers aren't orc-y like ellyth! So they can't come from ellyth. Mothers don't think about dumb things like pretty dresses like ellyth do. Pretty dresses are for orc-y ellyth," he said disgustedly.

"But Nana has pretty dresses! Ada says so," Elrohir protested. "And I think they're pretty too." He added meekly. He didn’t want his brother to think that he didn't like their mother's dresses even if Elladan thought that pretty dresses were for orc-y ellyth.

"Me too!" Elladan exclaimed loudly. "But those are mother dresses. They're different from the dresses ellyth wear. Mother dresses are pretty but not orc-y," he explained, whispering again.

"There are different dresses for ellyth and mothers?" Most dresses looked the same to Elrohir regardless of who wore them -- an elleth or Nana. The elfling had never noticed much of a difference.

"Yes." Elladan sounded confident. "And mother kisses are different from elleth kisses as well because mothers aren't ellyth," he continued.

Elrohir thought about this new information and tried to fit it into his view of how the world worked. Elladan sounds so certain, Elrohir thought. Maybe he's right. Different dresses. Different kisses. Ellyth and mothers are different because their kisses and dresses are different. Elrohir thought and thought and thought, trying to make Elladan's information fit into what the elfling already knew about children and parents and growing up. Only it didn't seem to fit as smoothly as it ought to, he felt. Something was wrong. Questions kept arising. But how … Elrohir was confused. He looked at his brother hoping for more explanation.

"Elladan, if mothers aren't grown-up ellyth --"

"They aren't."

"Then where do mothers come from?"

Translations:
elleth / ellyth: elf-maid (singular / plural)
nana: mommy
ada: daddy