The Dame of Dúnedain

Elven Culture

Nuntari had only been in Mirkwood for a week, and she had spent most of her time laying in bed or pacing around her room. The experience she had haunted her dreams and turned them into nightmares most nights. She would wake up in a pool of sweat and begin to cry almost every time and she began to miss her mother and father being right next door to her. Her grandfather was all the way down the hall instead, and only came to her aid on her worst nights when she was louder.

But the whole kingdom soon knew her situation, and that made it harder for her to get to know people. But ultimately, Nuntari knew that Thranduil would start pushing her to recover soon, the first week was an exception. And the day after she agreed to start fight training was the start of it.

Nuntari finished getting ready for the day just as a knock on her door rung throughout her head. She blinked a couple of times and then took a deep breath before she grabbed the sword her mother had given her before they went to Moria many years ago. She opened the door expecting to see her grandfather but instead saw a male Elf who she had never met before. She froze, "Uh.."

"Greetings," he said kindly, with a large smile on his face, "I'm Calanon, but my friends call me Cal," he spoke calmly. He held out his hand to her as she examined him. He was wearing leather with bits of chainmail that had sharp designs, he definitely looked like a warrior, but he wasn't big, he was thin and almost a foot taller than her with long dark brown hair with the top half tied up.

Nuntari shook his hand, "Right, yeah, I'm Nuntari." She then realized how much more casual her tone and speaking was compared to his.

"I know," he smiled graciously, "I'm to be your new trainer," he looked down at the sword in her hand, "May I?"

Nuntari reluctantly handed the sword over to him, it was her mother's and she treasured it greatly. He unsheathed a bit of it to get a look at the shiny silver blade, "It's your mother's, right?"

Nuntari nodded as he gently handed it back, "Well, you won't be needing it for our training. You'll be picking a new type of weapon, one that suits you better." He began to walk down the hall, and she was quick to react, putting the sword down on a table next to her door before shutting her room's door and walking fast to catch up with him. He looked at her again, "And I suspect you're more of a dual-wield sais and bow and arrow type fighter, but I'd have to actually train with you to get a better feel for it."

As they walked through the kingdom of Mirkwood, Nuntari realized how much of the place she had yet to see. He let her to an area in the mountain which had an overhead glass ceiling over an area of grass and plants where some of the warriors were training. "I don't get it, I've always used throwing knives and a sword. I'm okay with a bow and arrow but I'm not the best."

"That's probably from the influence of your mother, right?" Calanon went on, "in Mirkwood we begin training with hand to hand combat and free running to see how agile you are and what your reflexes are like. We then go on to pair your skills with a weapon that fits them, I can already tell by the way you walk that a sword doesn't fit your fighting style."

Nuntari realized then that as great of fighters her parents were, they weren't as good of teachers. So her and Calanon found a place in the grass area and he took off his leather armor and so he was left in his cloth under shirt. "How good are you at hand to hand combat?"

Nuntari stood in front of him and chuckled lightly, "Not great, if I'm honest—" She was interrupted by a fist hitting her square in the jaw, knocking her to the floor. It seemed as though nobody in the vicinity really cared, although some turned their heads. "What the hell was that for?!" Nuntari said, holding her face as she got back up.

But it only took a second for Calanon to throw another punch, but Nuntari learned from her mistake and was ready for it, moving her head to the left to dodge it and throwing a punch back. He caught her fist and twisted it, once again making her fall to her knees wincing with pain, he let go once she was on the ground.

"Seems you have a lot of work to do," a female elf came up and stood above Nuntari, she was talking to Calanon, as if Nuntari wasn't even there.

"Nuntari, this is my sister Calathiel, she's also a trainer here in Mirkwood," Calanon went on. 

Nuntari stood up, trying to hide her pain, she simply nodded to Calathiel. "Your names mean the same thing, don't they?"

"At least she is familiar with our culture," Calathiel joked, in Quenya, which made Nuntari feel like she was back home when her mother and father would speak Quenya just because Nuntari didn't know it.

"She is the daughter of the prince," Calanon responded, "I should probably be nicer."

"If you are nicer, she will never improve, brother," Calathiel said back, patting her brother on his shoulder before doing the same to Nuntari, "It was a pleasure to meet you," she bowed her head lightly before walking away back to her own recruits.

Nuntari was amazed at the little amount of disrespect she was receiving, she felt like even worse of a failure here. Calanon saw it on her face, "I just want you to know I'm not trying to be rude, I am simply trying to help you improve. If I'm too soft, you will never get better."

Nuntari furrowed in her eyebrows, "I suppose.."

"Good, now let's start with the basics. First we are going to focus on your reflexes, and then go on to using your elven vision to see things your enemies can't and how that can help your reflexes, then we will go into strategy, since you're smaller than most and will most likely always be fighting someone who is bigger, but you are strong, so that's a good thing," He went on, explaining their training schedule.

~~~

"So how was your first day of training?" Thranduil asked, looking at a small bruise that had formed and began to heal already that was on her temple.

"Oh, fantastic, I loved getting punched in the face," Nuntari said, sitting down at the table next to Thranduil as their plates of food were brought to them. "More than once," she added.

Thranduil only laughed, "Cal is going easy on you, dear," he explained.

"That's going easy?" Nuntari asked with disbelief in her voice.

Thranduil nodded, "As you become more skilled, he will get harder to fight, trust me, he levels with your skillset. It's why he's the best trainer I have."

"He's a jerk, and so is his sister," Nuntari went on, "talked to each other as if I wasn't even there."

"This isn't Arnor, Nuntari, you aren't their future queen here. You are just the daughter of the future king. And since you were trained by your parents, foolishly, and not by those who are actually good at training, they underestimate you. But I know better, you are a skilled fighter and have the potential to be the best. You just have to let your past go, and focus on resetting your skills and getting new ones. Understand?" Thranduil said, beginning to eat his food right after.

Nuntari nodded, her grandfather was hard to argue with, everything he said always made a lot of sense. "Yes, I understand."

"Good," Thranduil said with a smile, "You will also be training with an herbs and healing master, one who helped me learn healing and how to connect with nature as well. You're half wood-elven, Nuntari, use that to your advantage. You will always fight better in nature due to this," he told her.

Nature. She hadn't really thought about it before, but she did often feel a lot more comfortable surrounded by nature.