The last days had been very happy ones. They had invited hiril Mallenhadh to their home for the first time and talked to her a lot. Plinnlim's mother had told her about the prophetic dreams she had had about thirty years ago and hiril Mallenhadh was able to explain some parts of them that had remained a mystery to Plinnlim's parents.
Then again, they had visited Mallenhadh at her home, who gave account of the training Plinnlim had completed so far, and the lessons she would have for the next decade. And then suddenly her parents became interested in what exactly it was that was happening in Greenwood. Plinnlim could not believe her ears. Before, they had simply ignored everything that was not directly connected with gardening. But suddenly, their interest was awoken. While she was training behind Mallenhadh's house with her bow and a wooden target, she heard words like "Dol Guldur" and "Taur-en-Ndaedelos" floating out of the windows. She smiled and watched a little fox who had decided to join her for her practice, obviously not fearing her arrows the slightest bit.
It was this time with happy anticipation that she dressed for her third visit at the Hall of Fire. Very much to her own surprise, she had found a liking in music and dancing. A few years ago she had tortured the ears of her parents and their neighbours by trying to learn playing the lute or the harp. It had turned out that the only string she was good with was a bow string. But dancing was something else. It was like running through the woods on soft moss and fallen leaves, it was like riding a soaring horse and shooting arrows at the same time, it was like fighting hand-to-hand with an orc. It was movement - and that was something Plinnlim was really good with. And when the music began, her feet had their way almost before she even decided to start dancing.
This time, more elves had gathered than during the two times before, but among them was hiril Duissane, who had been so friendly to her last time already. She introduced Plinnlim to the others and Plinnlim felt a profound gratitude towards her for her friendliness and care.
She also liked hîr Earinlin a lot, who impressed her by his explanation that he would only dance with the hiril of his heart and no other. Was it just teasing or disrespect by the other elves, when they tried to urge him to dance despite his words? Later, when dancing with hiril Amorith, their dancing was admired by everyone. Plinnlim watched them, humming along to the melodies and musing about their gracefulness.
Only after a while she noticed that the hall had grown louder and turned around. She saw that a group of similar dressed warriors had arrived, among them hiril Aewiel, hîr Khalis, hîr Osilivren and hîr Tahjun, so she went over to greet them. But they seemed to be having a celebration of their own, hardly noticed her and did not introduce her to their friends either. When Plinnlim introduced herself, just one of the hiril greeted her back. Plinnlim stood there, pondering if introducing herself had been appropriate and seemly at all - and then went back to listen to the music again. A little later, hîr Tahjun came to the dance floor with a hiril Plinnlim did not know, but then they all left again quite soon. Maybe they had just come back from a fight; they had been talking about a rescue mission of some kind.
At the end, there were only a few elves left, and while hîr Aereborn played some enchanting songs, Plinnlim watched the line of dancers for a while. When she was sure she could do the steps, too, she joined them and was enjoying herself a lot matching their steps. She could have danced the whole night through, but she knew that Mallenhadh would not allow excuses if she was not fit as a feredir tomorrow morning. So she left, crossed the bridge and practiced the new dancing moves on her path up to her home.
