DISCLAIMER:
I do not own, or have anything to do with Lord of the Rings and the story's related characters. The characters Taryn, Nefiáthiel, and Nefára belong to me, everyone else is property of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Taryn Moynihan loved antique shops, she just couldn't get enough of old things, and each time she entered one of those stores, she knew she would find something Celtic in background.
Being Irish, she loved anything that had to do with her heritage and the Old Ways of life, as she tended to call them. She was eighteen, and as she picked her way through the piles of cracked vases, broken mirrors, and yellowed quilts, the old women perusing the store for anything that happened to strike their fancy shot the young girl arrogant glares.
'Let them glare,' Taryn thought, a smug grin settling on her face.
"Taryn!" A middle-aged woman, probably in her mid-fifties, called out, a broad grin making its way across her face.
"Eileen!" Taryn called back, a grin matching the storekeeper's crossing her features.
"There you are! I've been wondering when you'd come back."
"Why is that?" Taryn replied, taking the woman up into a friendly embrace before speaking any more.
The woman simply held a pleased grin on her face as she took Taryn's hand in hers before leading her off towards the back of the store. Taryn was apprehensive. Not that she hadn't been in the back of the Barrow-Downs before, Eileen was like an aunt to the eighteen year old. No, it was just that Taryn had never seen Eileen act the way she was acting now.
"I have something for you, Taryn." She said finally and released Taryn's hand before a large vanity mirror that had a large star in the center of it, and tiny vein-like cracks extending from it in all directions. Taryn observed her appearance and took in her golden hair, the way it shined as the sunlight poured through the tiny window above her head. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders in straight lengths, and made Taryn wonder how she had been blessed with such a beautiful trait. She had received the hair from her mother who had passed away at her birth, or so she had heard. Her hazel eyes had come from her father, and as she gazed at the reflection of them, she became entranced by the vision of them. They were mostly green, but held splotches of blue and brown, and appeared to even have a ring of gray-blue around the outer part of her irises. Despite the beauty of her eyes, and the elegance of her hair, Taryn had always felt unwanted...ugly, if you even wanted to go so far. She did. She had never found herself attractive, and had never had a date in her life. Of course, Kindergarten never counted for anything but learning your A-B-C's, so Taryn never even thought about her past. It was too painful.
Taryn's father had left her with her grandparents - her mother's parents - when she was only five, claiming he had not the know-how to raise a child properly. She spat on his memory. Suddenly, Eileen's voice brought the girl back to reality.
"Taryn? Are you all right, Love?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine..." Taryn waved Eileen's worry away and the graying woman turned her gray eyes upon the table beside her once more.
"Ah! Here it is! Taryn, come here!" Taryn pulled her gaze from the ruined mirror, and took in what it was Eileen held in her hands.
"Eileen! It's...BEAUTIFUL!"
In her hands, Eileen held a necklace, very ancient, and round in shape. In the center of the amulet was a blood red stone, that held flecks of some kind of stone akin to silver and for a moment, Taryn swore that she could see a tiny world nestled inside the jewel. The jewel was mounted on a fine piece of gold with intricate Celtic knots all the way around it. Where the amulet joined the chain was a very intricate design that looked to Taryn to have rubbed off for the most part. She couldn't quite make out what it had been, but she knew that it must have been beautiful.
"Do you like it, Taryn? I thought you might...that's why I saved it for you. I got it in about two days ago, and it just screamed 'Taryn' at me. I had to keep it off the shelves."
Taryn was speechless. "I...I love it, Eileen. It's beautiful!" Suddenly, Taryn remembered herself, and pulled her birthday money from her pocket. Eileen batted the hand holding the money away.
"None of that. Put it away!" Taryn frowned at the woman. "Child, I said no! Consider it your birthday present. Happy Eighteenth, Love."
"Oh, Eileen, thank you so much! You're an angel!" Taryn wrapped the woman up in an embrace once more before taking the gem in one hand. Taryn's gaze shifted back over to the mirror. "But about the mirror..."
Eileen followed her gaze over to the mirror and frowned. "That old thing? Hell, you can have it too! I'll put a new glass in it for you if you like..."
"No. I want it just the way it is." Taryn walked over to the mirror and ran her fingers over the Celtic carvings of the cherry wood. Taryn knew it would match her bedroom perfectly, being a red-stained wood,and she thought that the designs on the mirror matched those on the necklace perfectly. Suddenly, a shrill bell rang out front, and Eileen cringed.
"I'll be right back, Love. You can stay back here if you want. Let me go take care of this..." With that, Eileen walked out of the room, and Taryn took the necklace in both hands, slipped it over her head, and watched in amazed silence as the jewel swirled to life around her neck, and the mirror came to life.
In a matter of moments, the back room was empty, save for the odds and ends kept off of the shelves, and all of the dust that had collected upon them over the years.
Taryn; however, was nowhere to be found...
Go to story...
Prologue - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
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