A/N: Hey! Thanks again to anybody who's reviewed this story! Please keep at it- getting reviews really makes my day. Here's chapter 4 for you... Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Getting to Know You

Once Theodred viewed it through the eyes of a free man, Lothlorien was a beautiful place. He stood still for a moment, lingering in the warm sun of the afternoon, taking in the beauty around him. Then his guide entered his sight.

"My name is Mithra," she said. "Kindly don't walk too slowly, or I shall be forced to leave you behind and you will have to find yourself another guide."

Picking up his pace, Theodred grinned. She led him across a narrow wooden bridge, but he tried to keep a small distance behind her to enable himself to watch her.

She was beautiful. Her slender, shapely figure was clothed in dark green satin that perfectly suited her dark hair. He let his eyes linger onthe dark brown coloured, thick, shining tresses, reaching to a few inches above her elbows: perfect hair, he thought. She glanced over her shoulder at him and tutted in frustration.

"Keep up, will you!" she said, stopping to wait for him.

Walking beside her, Theodred took the opportunity to study her face carefully, and he took in everything about her, from the delicate features to the deep green eyes to the full red lips she was now pressing tightly together.

"Why do you insist on staring at me?" she asked upon catching him looking.

"I think you are lovely," he told her, much to her amusement.

"Lovely? You took little time in coming to that conclusion, did you?"

"Well, it hardly takes more than a few seconds to determine whether or not a woman is lovely, and if she is I see no point in hiding that fact from her."

Mithra smiled at him. "You are an interesting young man," she told him. "Few men I have had the pleasure of meeting possess such simple logic, and when they do, they seldom put it into practice."

Theodred grinned. "I guess that's just one of my many qualities."

"Many qualities, eh? What are some of your others then?"

"Show you my qualities?" he asked. She nodded, smiling with the air of one who knew something he didn't and was deliberately hiding it from him.

"Well," he began, "I'm a good public speaker, I'm a strong soldier and military leader, and the ladies say I'm a charmer."

"Oh really?" Mithra glanced at him.

"Yes, really. But the best thing about me is that I'm a man of Rohan."

Mithra eyed him disbelievingly. "You're serious. That's the best thing about you."

"Of course." He was smiling proudly. "Rohan is the best place in Middle Earth."

"I beg to differ!" she exclaimed. "Poor, disillusioned fellow! What you have seen so far is only a taste of the beauty of Lorien!"

"But Edoras is such a majestic city," he said.

"And are not Imladris and Caras Gladhorn said to be the fairest places in all the West?"

"Wide, rolling grasslands as far as the eye can see!"

"Tall, fair trees and narrow woodland streams."

"The Golden Hall of Meduseld!"

"The sweet Nimrodel!"

"Out of my land came Éorl the Young besides many more mighty heroes."

"You forget Gil Galad, the mightiest Elven King to live, but slain, alas, in the great battle against the dark lord's growing power."

"But what of Theoden, my father?Was he not a wise and mighty King in his prime?"

"But what of the Lady Galadriel? Is she not fair yet powerful and wise? And you forget Lord Elrond. Even the most learned go to him seeking counsel."

Theodred glanced at her in annoyance and paused, as if thinking up another way in which Rohan could better all things Elvish.

"Ah! You have never seen Rohan! It is the most romantic landscape imaginable!"

She scoffed at this. "What? Grassy plains and mountains? They are nothing compared to the woods of Lothlorien! Uncountable couples have fallen in love amidst the fountains and flowers of Caras Gladhorn."

"But Rohan is more dramatic!" Theodred insisted.

"Lorien is undeniably more romantic," Mithra asserted firmly.

Theodred didn't say anything for a moment, but looked around him at the trees, as if coming to a decision. He looked back at her, smiling seductively.

"Let's see." He said simply.

Mithra glanced at him in surprise, before her expression morphed into one of haughty disdain. "Don't be a fool," she muttered.

They said no more, but as Theodred walked, Mithra saw that he flinched with every other step he took, only when he thought she wasn't looking.

"What's the matter?" she asked him, attempting not to put the slightest element of concern into her voice.

"Nothing!" he insisted.

"No, seriously," she stopped and stood in front of him, forcing him to look into her eyes. "I'm intelligent enough to recognise a lie when I see one. What's wrong with you?"

He gestured vaguely towards his left shoulder. "Just a little something I picked up during my last battle," he mumbled.

Her brow furrowing in concern, Mithra took a step closer to Theodred and lifted his left shoulder guard, noticing a large dent in it. She drew in breath sharply, seeing instantly a poorly attempted bandage, and, through that, the unmistakable sight of blood.

"Change of direction," she announced suddenly, leading him back the way they had come. "I'm not showing you your room until you've seen a healer."

Theodred couldn't help but notice the slight emphasis on the word 'your', but he endeavored to ignore it and groaned. "I'll be fine, honestly," he insisted. "It's just a cut."

"Cuts don't bleed that much," she said simply. "When did you get it?"

"Just over a week ago," he muttered. Her green eyes widened in shock.

"And it's been exposed for your whole journey through the wild? Who knows what's gotten into it!" Much to his annoyance, she quickened her pace.

Theodred groaned and quickly stepped into her path. She stopped suddenly. A look of alarm passed through her eyes at seeing his face so close to hers, but she didn't move.

"Mithra," the prince said calmly. "I do not need a healer. I beseech you, simply lead me to my… to the room I am to stay in."

"You do realise," Mithra began, "That a bad infection could mean the loss of your arm, or at least use of it?" He looked at her in mild surprise. "That would be the end of your fighting days."

"Oh, fine then!" he exclaimed almost before she had finished.

With a smug expression of triumph on her face, Mithra resumed her swift pace and led him on. "I could tell you it's for you own good, but I doubt whether it would do me any good in the long term."

"You bet it wouldn't," Theodred muttered. "Women in Rohan aren't like you; they know how to treat men with respect."

"Who said anything about me not showing you respect?" Mithra asked. "Besides, One, I'm not a woman, I'm an Elf, and two, remember you are still here and in relatively good health out of the kindness of the Lord and Lady. It's not too late for them to change their minds."

The prince didn't say anything as they descended a steep spiral staircase, but eyed her angrily.

"Your beauty is deceptive," he said finally as they laid foot once more on the soft grass of the forest floor. Mithra simply smiled, but didn't reply. "How old are you, by the way?" he asked.

Grinning, the Elf glanced over her shoulder at him. "With memories of living Gondorian Kings still fresh in my memory you can hardly expect me to own to that," she told him. "What about you?"

"With my father currently looking like he's seen five hundred winters, you can hardly expect me to own to that. And what are Elves like when it comes to romance?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Elves do have romance, don't they?" he asked. "New Elves have to come from somewhere, after all."

Mithra couldn't help laughing at him. "It's been many years since an Elf child played among the trees of Lorien," she told him with a sad edge to her voice.

"But what about romance, then?"

"Elves are great lovers," she said, smiling secretively. "Have not you heard the tale of Beren and Lúthien? The story of a mortal man for whom an Elf maid gave up her immortality? It is the greatest love story ever told!"

"I didn't know Elves were allowed to marry Men," he said.

"It's clear you don't know many things," was the instant reply.

Theodred scowled. Lore and history had never been ofmuch interest to him. "How far are these healers, anyway?" he asked in a wish to switch the topic of conversation from his common ignorance.

"Only up these stairs," Mithra said, pausing at the foot of another staircase to which the end could not be seen. Theodred groaned. "Fear not," she told him, smiling sweetly. "If the worst comes to the worst, I'm sure I could drag you up the last few."


A/N: Thanks for reading, and remember how much I like to get reviews!

lama x