In the Trees of Rivendell, high above the city

Caolia grabbed hold of the branch above her head- the next branch up of the tree she was climbing. She wasnt sure why she was up there in the first place; all she knew was that she had to keep going until she couldnt go anymore. She tried to pull herself up, but her forest- green robe got caught on something below. She lowered herself back down and balenced on the branch. She found where her clothing had caught on some vines. The 17- year old girl tried to untangle herself from the trap, but it wouldnt let go. She gave a great tug, and her robes ripped, the tangled material still stuck in the vines, and the left side of her clothing a mess. 'Great,' she thought, 'Just great.' She examined the tear in her robes, annoyed. They were her favorite robes, a beautiful forest- green material. The left side of her robes wrapped around to her right side and was tied there with a brown leather strand. She was quite upset that they were torn. But she knew she couldnt turn back, now that she was halfway to the top. She had to keep going, for some reason she didnt know. 'Oh, well, at least I'm free!' Caolia thought. And with that, she continued her climb to the top.

An hour later, she was perched on the highest branch of the great tree, overlooking the Elf haven Rivendell. She was amazed at how wonderful Rivendell was, and how lucky she was to have lived there as a guest for the past two years, especcially since she was human. She closed her eyes and tilted her head upward in the cool breeze, her long, curly brown hair floating on the air.

Night crept in upon Rivendell, but the young girl stayed in her tree. She couldnt get down, though she tried. She would have been able to, normally, but something refused to let her leave. She knew she had to stay up there, though it was getting late and Caolia was tired. She leaned against the trunk of the tree and closed her eyes, wrapped in the warm night sky. She drifted off into a deep sleep.

It was still night when she awoke, sore from sleeping in a tree. She decided to get down and go back home, where her nice, warm, comfortable bed awaited her. She started to climb down, but found herself going back up. 'Oh, not again!' she thought. 'I have to get down, yet I must stay up. This is really terrible.' Caolia sat aganst the trunk once more, and fell asleep.

The rest of the night was pretty much like that. When morning finally came, she was too tired to get down even if whatever was keeping her up in that tree would let her. Her stomach growled with incredible force. She watched the Elves passing below her, and she yelled at them to bring her something to eat. But all that happened was they looked around bewildered. 'Is this my fate? To be yelling at Elves to bring me food for ever? And watching as they fail to notice me? And being unable to leave this tree until death takes me?' Caolia thought, as she continued to try and make the Elves notice her.

Nellas had been watching the human maiden in a tree near to the one she lived in. She lived on a talan, or flet, in the branches of a very large oak tree, even though that kind of home was only common in Lothlorien. But she preferred the trees to houses of stone, so it suited her fine. She had been trying to muster up the courage to speak to the girl for quite a while; perhaps she was stuck and needed help. She finally decided to call out to the girl when she started yelling for food at the Elves below. "Hello! Do you need some help?" Nellas called out, in a somewhat timid voice, moving swiftly and gracefully upward so that she could be on more of the same level as the human.

Startled, Caolia stopped calling to the elves below. She stood up quickly and turned around. Before her stood an Elf, the first one to notice her. "Oh, hello." she said, awkwardly. "I- I've been trying to get down for I dont know how long, but every time I begin to go down, something keeps me up here. This feeling that I have to stay up here, because something big is coming. I wish I could get down." Sighing, she sat back down. "Its no use. Im never gonna get out of here." She sat in silence for a while, thinking. "Hey, wait a minute." Caolia stood up quickly, smiling for the first time since the evening before. "Maybe its you that I was waiting for! Maybe its you that- no. It couldnt be. Could it?" she was talking to herself more than the elf. "Oh, by the way, my names Caolia. And thank you, thank you, for finally noticing me- I mean, because no one else does." she said. "Do you, by any chance, have any food? I havent eaten for a while." She reached over and pulled a nut out of the tree. "These dont make very good food." She grinned at the elf, hoping that she had food and that their meeting wold allow her to get down.

Nellas smiled timidly. "I do have some food; I live in the trees, so when I come down I bring back a lot." She climbed back down to her talan, got some fruit and bread and climbed back up. "I'll come over to your tree, I guess," she said. She jumped nimbly to the other tree and sat on a branch next to Caolia. "My name is Nellas, by the way," she said as she gave the food to Caolia.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Caolia responded. She was smiling so wide that she feared her face would break. She bit into a piece of bread. "Oh, this is wonderful." Grinning, she quickly finished the bread and fruit. "Thank you, Nellas." she said. She jumped down to the next branch of the tree, then the next. "Wow, this is great! I guess I was waiting for you after all!" she called up. Caolia then began to climb back up to the branch Nellas was on. "So, how long have you lived here? I've lived here for two years now. I came when I was fifteen, and I'm seventeen now. I havent been anywhere except for my village in Rohan, where I lived before I came here, and then, of course, here. Have you traveled a lot?" Caolia tried to make conversation with Nellas.

Nellas was slightly overwhelmed but the stream of information and questions from Caolia, but she had always been quiet. That was one of the reasons she had liked Turin so much; he was never very loud, except in his anger. But she decided to start with the first question and said, "I have been living in Rivendell for a long time now, ever since the shadow came to Mirkwood, though I lived in Lothlorien at the time. Before coming to Lothlorien, I lived in Ossiriand, and prior to that in Doriath. I do not do much travelling, only the travel between homes." She looked up at the sky; the sun was climbing higher every minute. "It gets quite warm in the tops of the trees during the day; would you like to come down to my talan? It's lower and stays cool during the day," she asked.

"Oh, yes, thank you." Caolia repiled. She tilted her head up towards the sun. "It does get pretty warm up here." She looked around. "So, where is your talan? I'm quite sure its not in this tree; I would have seen it on the way up." She then motioned towards the tear in her robe. "Do you have anything to fix this with? I tore it on some vines while I was climbing up."

Nellas nodded. "My talan is in the next tree, and I should still have some thread and a needle... Would you be more comfortable jumping or climbing lower down and getting onto one of my tree's branches where they are closer?" She realized this might be a stupid question; she had never really met anyone else comfortable jumping from the top of one tree to another... the only reason she was was because she'd lived in the trees for over 6,000 years.

"Oh, um, climb, I guess." Caolia replied. She spoke as though she didnt really care. In reality, however, she was afraid of jumping between the tops of trees. She just didnt want Nellas to think she was a coward. She lowered herself down and looked up. "Well? What are you waiting for? Lets go!"