Your Hands Are Cold

Questions

“Maeneth,” a soft voice rang in my ear. “It’s time to wake up,”

I jumped out of the bed looking startled, and saw two very young looking servants standing in front of me. They both looked very similar, with long locks of flaxen hair flowing down their backs and their annoyingly cheery smiles on their faces. The two reminded much of Ballindes with their youthful vigor, and before I knew it I was beginning to miss my home.

“We’re very sorry to wake you up at such an early hour,” said the young elf on the right. “But King Thranduil ordered us to give you a bath before dawn,”

“No need to worry,” said the one on the right. “We’re here to help you look your best for the King. I am Maerwen, and this is Faelwen, 

“And.. you are sisters, I presume?” I said with a lazy-like, sleepy voice.

“No,” replied the two of them in unison. “We’re just very good friends,”

“Now we must get you a bath and get you dressed,” Faelwen said, and helped me get out of bed. The two led me two a traditional Elven bathroom and stripped me off my clothes, leaving my skin shiver against the cold air of the morning. They placed in a bathtub and poured various types of herbal soaps and shampoos over my hair and my skin and scrubbed repeatedly and roughly. All this for an appearance at king’s chambers?

Once I had finished bathing, I stepped out of the bath and they wrapped several cloths around me and let me dry off. Before she had gone, Maerwen laid out an azure-coloured dress made of thin silks. The dress had no elaborate decorations on it, but something about the dress enchanted me. It was the way that the soft fabric of the dress felt against my fingertips when I held it in my hands. The sleeves were the kind that draped from your shoulders but did not reach the ground. I thought that the sleeves were a bit too lavish for a simple seamstress, but then again I no longer live outside of the palace.

 I dressed myself and glanced at the mirror, before Maerwen and Faelwen entered the room once more.

“We shall start braiding you hair,” spoke Faelwen with a gleeful smile on her lips.

Then, as usual, Maerwen spoke next, “Sit down on the desk chair there, and make yourself comfortable,”

Despite trying to calm myself from the anxiety of facing the king in a matter of minutes, my hands were shaking again. Though the feeling of other people braiding my hair seemed to calm the nerves a little bit, it did not help my nerves much. Maerwen and Faelwen gave my simple yet intricate braids, a hairstyle that is not too extravagant for a seamstress. They took two locks from the right and left side of my head, braided it, then bound them together to make one full braid that flowed down my back, but still leaving unbraided long locks of hair. Then securing it with a gossamer hair tie, they finished styling my hair.

“It’s better that you keep braiding you hair like this now that you work in the palace,” said Maerwen. “You’ll want to make a good impression for the king every day,”

“As we always say, simplicity is not tolerated but so is excessiveness,” Faelwen spoke next 

I thanked the two young elves, and they left the room together, possibly to continue doing their other chores that they were assigned with. I rose from my chair and had a guard lead me to the king’s chambers. Again, my hands were shaking and the anxiety returned as soon as I entered the king’s chambers. Thranduil was in his workplace, sitting on his wooden desk chair and appeared as if he was spending his morning absorbed in his thoughts.

“Hîr vuin,”  I said, as my eyes were fixed on the ground. “You wanted to see me?”

Thranduil’s gaze averted from his desk to me. “Yes I did,” he said, the bitterness still remains in his tone. “I ordered your appearance with the reason of an.. interrogation, one might say,”