Anneth has long clung to her dreams, though sorrow has threatened to murder them again and again. There was a time when sorrow made her hopes only sweeter, but as Sauron grows yet stronger in the East, she feels everything she has ever held dear fal...
With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.
- Job 12:12
Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.
- Rudyard Kipling
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Anneth lay sprawled on her bed, intently watching a small insect that flew about the rafters of her room.
Yet this insect was the least of her concerns, for her mind was elsewhere, dwelling on him.
On most occasions, he was but a figment of her imagination, a shadow, a dream. She was content to keep it so, yet this day he had a face.
She was young, foolish, and a bit silly, given to dreams and many fancies. Today one of her brother's friends had made an unforgettable (or so she thought) impression on her. He was the first friend of Voronen's to treat her as an equal and not a small child. Wonderfully handsome was he and had clearly charmed her off her feet. Anneth supposed she fancied him.
And so she dreamed of her future, as she often did, she found that her husband had a face now. Not that she planned to marry Orthorin, this musing, 'twas merely due to her infatuation.
For a short time she fancied Orthorin, finding herself rather flustered and shy around him, something she was unaccustomed to, for most ellyn she treated much like her brother. It was mostly his 'glorious' appearance that drew her to him. Anneth quite believed she liked the strange bubbly feeling in her chest that presented itself when she was around him, and though she chastised herself for acting out of her character so around Orthorin, she liked him. She liked the feeling.
However, it was terribly fleeting and soon departed, as the young elleth discovered that she liked not the personality of this handsome ellon. He was taken to swearing by the Valar and presenting remarks so crude Anneth knew her ears surely would bleed from the sheer disgust and horror she faced.
The above description omits the fact that Voronen soon uncovered the object of his sister's silent affections and promptly severed their friendship. Being older, he knew Orthorin was not a good ellon that he should be comforted if his little sister should be in Orthorin's company.
Anneth faced no heartbreak over this, though she was a slight disappointed. Orthorin was soon forgotten, as she had forgotten all her mild fancies before. Some left more soreness of heart than others, and soon they disappeared completely, for now she had passed the age of traditional marrying. All the ellyn she had known were married or meant to live alone. She supposed she was among the latter, destined to live in solitude.
Then she was young.
And now at least a century has passed her by since she last interested herself in the affairs of another ellon, for she can find no more hope. Inside Anneth deeply knows there is none for her in Imladris, and therefore no one in the whole of Middle-earth.
