Many years later...

The sounds of gleeful laughter and ringing steel melted together on the crisp morning air, forming a sharp and poignant song.
Clash after clash, strike after strike, stab after stab of youthful mirth...the happy laughter rang out loudest.

"Ah Fenrael, you disappoint me! Has the early morning fogged your mind, or are you always this slow?"

"You would know about being slow young Allyria! It is almost as if you're trying not to parry my blows!"

Playful voices full of life floated through the air, and to Elrond's ears. It appeared his goddaughter's training was going well.

It had been a wise decision on his part to place Allyria's training under the care of Fenrael. Fenrael had been a friend to Allyria long before he was her Trainer-At-Arms.
When she was just a freshly orphaned babe, he was the guard who took up her post of protection, and had acted like an uncle to her ever since; the girl adored her father figure.

"Watch your stance there Ria, your feet are too wide apart; one good kick from an opponent and you're in the dirt." Words of advice came from Fenrael.

Allyria made no effort to respond, instead settling on a nod and fixing her stance.

"Good, good. That's perfect. Now raise." Fenrael ordered, and Allyria complied, raising her dual blades before the curt command came from Fenrael to begin duelling, "Begin."

Lord Elrond looked on in pride at his goddaughters ability and eagerness to learn. Other elves her young age may have been arrogant and unwilling to listen to the wisdom of an elder, or be tempted to offer sarcastic rebuttals to an order or critique; but not Allyria.
She would rather furrow her eyebrows in silent concentration, and apply any advice given.
Whilst the light jibes they swapped may not have been seen as traditionally respectful by some Elves, Elrond understood that this was the way for both Fenrael and Allyria to keep their training sessions from becoming too formal.

However, Allyria did seem to understand that her situation was different to everyone else's; learning control of her body and abilities wasn't just something useful to know: it was a lesson of life or death. That lesson was almost one to be learnt the hard way; an unfortunate incident in the kitchens scaring the girl out of an early childhood and into somewhat of a skittish adolescence.

~...

The kitchen maids loved when young Allyria was allowed to play in their kitchen, she brought a youthful sense of joy and was loved by every Elleth present.

As one of her chubby arms was hooked around Nyanna's neck, the head cook struggled to contain a fit of laughter as the young rascal reached out a fistful of flour into Nyanna's hair and let it sit there.

"Nya-Nya have new haircut!! Nya-Nya is Sin'drin now?" Questioned the innocent looking toddler.

Indeed to the other maids, the flour comically added to Nyanna's hair did almost make her look like the white-haired Sindarin Elves of Mirkwood. But all present knew it would be unkind to lead a youth so innocent into a lie, and so Nyanna responded in a kind tone:
"No, sweetheart, I'm not a Sindarin elf. Neither are you my dear, but that's more than alright. We don't need to be Sindarin, we simply need to be ourselves don't we?"

After some cute nodding accompanied with wide and staring eyes, Nyanna set Allyria down on to the floor to continue baking.

"Now, honey, Nyanna has to finish making her bread quickly- her oven fire is hot enough to cook her dough! Do you remember what I said goes into Lembas dough?"

With the difficult question Nyanna had asked of Allyria, she was sure the little one would be entertained long enough for her to finish baking.
But it appeared that she was wrong. Allyria's memory had improved greatly from the last time that Nyanna had been with her, and hence Allyria could recall all the ingredients with exceptional accuracy and much quicker than usual.

Unfortunately, Nyanna did not notice Allyria's boredom and annoyance at her lack of attention after calling out to her 'Nya-Nya' five times already.

She did notice the increased heat of the room.
She did notice the increased amount of sweat gathering on her face from the hard work of kneading the dough.
She did notice the increased intensity and ferocity of the oven fire.

And it panicked her.
Finally noticing Allyria's temper tantrum, Nyanna was consumed by fear of the roaring flames dancing from the oven- the fiery danger that seemed to be caused by this innocent girl.
A look of terror crossed Nyanna's face, before a look of pity befell it; Allyria had mistaken Nyanna's terror for anger and had begun to cry.

Nyanna soon scooped the toddler into her arms and rushed her out of the scorching room. She loved the girl, truly she did, but Nyanna was certain that a girl of such power could no longer enter her kitchen.
Lord Elrond would be told of this accident, and surely would agree that a kitchen with ovens would be no place for Allyria now.

Nyanna left Allyria with her personal maid that afternoon, as was her custom. But this time, she no longer came the next morning to say hello.
Without Allyria in the kitchen it lessened from its previous vibrant state, and Nyanna lost her connection to the child, much to her regret.

Sadly it was out of her control; Nyanna worked hard and during her work was the only time she would see Allyria.
Now that they didn't have that connection anymore, Allyria had lost her 'Nya-Nya'...

...~

The dance of steel occurring below the balcony Lord Elrond stood on was captivating.
The amber leaves of weeping trees fell to the floor, only to be promptly whipped back up into the air by the swiftness of the fighters.
The early morning sun glinted off each blade, almost as if to blind their opponent- attesting to the care that was taken over each perfectly polished blade.
Hair and silk drifted in the air, slowly flowing one direction only to be suddenly yanked another by the warrior whom they belonged to.

If a stranger were to look upon the two Elves fighting, they would have mistaken their immediate reflexes and agile movements for a deadly form of choreographed dance.
The air surrounding the pair rippled with heat; something Elrond noted to be affecting Fenrael more than Ria- the master guardsman was working up a keen sweat whilst Ria's youthful skin remained untouched.

Like two snakes facing one another, when one moved to strike a blow, the other moved in sync to parry and push back with a counter blow. This structure of give and take was abruptly ended with a well-timed manoeuvre from the older Elf.

Whilst Allyria was a quick learner, and naturally gifted fighter, Fenrael's experience made him the better warrior in this duel; with one swift movement of both wrist and foot, Fenrael had dumped Allyria in the dirt, disarmed, like a sack of potatoes.

"Well fought Allyria. Your coordination is coming along extremely well, keep practicing the exercises we talked about and moving with both blades will become like second nature." Fenrael praised and reminded, the perfect essence of a good tutor, before offering her a hand up, "But for now I'm afraid, you will feel rather clumsy with both for a while."

"Thankyou. Another round?" Allyria responded, eager as ever to continue with her youthful energy.

"I'm afraid not right now Ria; Lord Elrond is having a meeting and requests my presence. It would appear that the Elves of Rivendell are to meet with the Elves of Mirkwood for a celebration soon." Sensing her incoming and excited interruption, Fenrael continued, "And yes Little One, I will update you further when I learn more. I know how much you love parties." A smirk made its way across his lined face.
"Now, if you wish to practice further, go over the swings and wrist movements we looked at this morning. I will talk with you later, goodbye."

"Goodbye, Fenrael." Allyria said as she gathered her blades once more, beginning to twirl them in preconceived patterns and rhythms.
Her face furrowed in concentration, a haze falling over her eyes signalling to Elrond that she would not notice him any time soon.

Elrond spared her one last glance before leaving the balcony to go to the aforementioned meeting that Fenrael had spoken of to Allyria.

Truly Allyria was a gifted young Elleth and was certain to have a bright future... in more ways than one.