A/N: This is the new, revised version; so do enjoy: I believe it's of a much better quality than the first.

A Well of My Desires:

Legolas Fanfiction

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own any of the Lord of the Rings characters or places; they are all works of the genius Tolkien. This work is based more on the movies than the books. The rest of the characters belong to me. Enjoy this, and please R&R! Also, this work was very much inspired by the poem and artwork The Well of My Desires by Cris Ortega. Enjoy!

Chapter One: The Decision

Every night she dreamed, every night she wished for an escape, an adventure. Every night came as both a blessing and a curse, as she knew she would get her wish, but she also knew her wish was broken by dawn's cruel hard light.

Her name was Aceline. She supposed, when she thought her life over, that it was good: both parents were kind, and they had wealth to rival the kings of old, able to give and take pleasures that only money could buy. Granted, it was a much better life than what she might have had, considering that many others might have taken her from the orphanage instead, but they were work-obsessed, and she rarely felt warmth and love from these people, felt no comfort from the seemingly endless riches they showered her with whenever something happened and she was let down. Aceline couldn't quite pinpoint it, but something was missing in her life, and what exactly that something was, she didn't know – just that she needed, even craved, for it. She had few friends, seeing the world through her eyes was something that the others at her private school couldn't quite understand. She was seventeen, and already she knew there was more to life than this meaningless collection of treasures. There simply had to be more, but she wasn't sure how to say it without sounding ungrateful.

Aceline sighed, running her fingers through her almost raven hair as she stared into her hazel-eyed reflection in the bathroom mirror of her favorite coffee shop, just a few minutes' walk from her school. She came here often, reading magazines, newspapers and sometimes, she watched the people. She had set aside days for this, and carried a notebook with her which she filled in with details about what she inferred about them from how they looked, talked, acted. If she wasn't here, then she was at the stables a few blocks away, helping out when she could, riding at other times. Today, though, was neither of those days: today Aceline was having lunch at the coffee shop with the one person she felt most comfortable with, and a small grin creep up the one side of her face as she thought of Roslyn. She quickly smoothed her skirt, and glancing in the mirror once more, turned and sat down at a table quietly tucked away in a corner, but with a nice view of the shop. She ordered a hot cocoa, and watched the people, her eyes flitting to the door every now and again. Aceline couldn't stop the smile when she saw a plump, pompous woman march in, demanding the best coffee the shop had as she quickly spied the place for Aceline, and planted herself across from the girl. Roslyn was one woman that Aceline would never be able to guess, regardless of the many times she had probed and quizzed during their initial conversations, and still she never quite knew what the woman would do: she was just too opposite her appearance, and too much like it. Always unpredictable, Aceline thought.
"Aceline! My darling! How are you this morning?" she exclaimed cheerfully.
Aceline smiled. "Alright. Though I have had better before, Roslyn."
Roslyn gave her a sympathetic look, barely heeding a timid waiter as he carefully placed Roslyn's coffee down in front of her, and quickly scurried away. She sipped her coffee thoughtfully after a moment, then scowled suddenly. "You indecent scoundrels!" she exclaimed.

Everyone who frequented the coffee shop flinched and cringed visibly, they knew what was coming. The rest stared, with mixed expressions of shock and outrage. "Always, always the coffee is too cold! Make a new pot, heat it properly this time and so help me if it scalds my tongue!" Roslyn shouted at no-one in particular, but at least four waiters came scurrying for the extended hand precariously holding the cup. "It only takes one to make a new cup of coffee," she said coldly. Aceline hid a smile and chuckle in her own warm cup as she sipped it. The next time Roslyn would walk in, her coffee would – naturally – be too hot. "Tell me, Aceline, what happened last night? How did they take it?"

Aceline placed her cup on the table slowly. This was her age-old struggle, and one she felt she was losing more desperately than any other.

"Well," she began, fiddling with the handle of her cup. "I tried to talk to them, you know, tell them I wanted to spend more time with them – even if we only spoke for a few minutes – and all my father could say was 'Not now, I'm busy', the best my mother did was: 'Sweetie, we'll talk later'," she sighed angrily, quickly swiping a hand over her face, and deliberately stared down at the table in front of her so Roslyn wouldn't see the tears threatening to build. Aceline hated crying. "I was thinking maybe I should try that… thing, you know, that we talked about last time, and maybe stay there for a while and come back, then take you up on your offer," Aceline concluded, feeling like she'd just shared her entire world of misery with the woman she called friend. Again. Roslyn touched Aceline's hand, waiting for the girl to look up before she smiled softly at her, taking in the familiar deep, soulful hazel eyes and almost raven hair tumbling around her shoulders. "We can start preparing tomorrow for the next full moon," Roslyn said softly. "Ah, at last," she chided, withdrawing as a young man placed her now-warm coffee in front of her. "I expect both of ours to be free," Roslyn stated. The waiter blanched, murmuring that it would be, and something about a slice of the cake of the day, then hurried away. Aceline smiled incredulously at her friend, feeling her mood lift a little again. She never understood how Roslyn got away with it; once Aceline had tried it at a different restaurant, but to no avail. If anything, she ended up paying more. They discussed a few other things, lighter than the start of their lunch, such as Aceline's school subjects, projects and the interesting twists myths tended to take from the truth, when Roslyn finally put her cup down for the last time. "You are welcome over for dinner tonight, Aceline," Roslyn said warmly as they stepped outside.
"Thank you, Roslyn. I might just see you," Aceline replied. They parted, and Aceline took the longest, most roundabout route home she knew and settled in for a few hours of Saturday college homework before heading out to dinner at Roslyn's mansion. If there was one place she could spend forever, it was there.

_oOo_