Author's note: thank you for reading this far, and would absolutely love it if you were to review and critique my writing. however, if you critique, please tell me how to fix what is wrong because simply saying "you're a terrible writer" doesn't help me very much. Thank you! i would also like to apolagize for any cliche themes or MarySue-ish story lines. i try not to make it so, but... any how, thanks for reading. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Jacen is of my own devise, and no, Tolkien did not come up with him.
Leah faced Strider and handed him back his sword, where upon he strapped it to his belt again and looked around the room to an old grandfather clock in the corner. "It is far past midnight. I shall arrange with Mr. Butterbur to find us rooms to stay in if he is still awake." He turned to Leah, "I assume you would prefer a room of your own?" she confirmed this and he left the room, returning moments later with news of where they were to sleep.
Strider led the troop to the second floor and escorted a now drowsy and dazed Leah to her room. It wasn't until she was sitting on her bed with the door closed that everything hit her. She was not in her own home. She would not sleep in her own bed today. She was in a strange place, with no idea of how to get back home, and her family….Would she ever see them again? More and more thoughts bombarded her mind, making her restless for a long time to pass. Finally, she was able to drop into a fitful sleep, barely beyond the realm of consciousness.
It wasn't until eight in the morning that she woke with a heavy feeling of being lost weighing on her mind. She looked over to the far end of the room opposite of where she had slept and found a small mirror hanging on the wall. She walked over to it and found that water for washing her face and a brush had been provided for her, and so began to scrub off the dirt that she had collected through her trip around the forest. Next she let down her hair, realizing that she had left in the hair tie over night and began to brush out her tangled hair.
After a few minutes of this she thought herself to be presentable and smoothed out the worst of the wrinkles in her coat and walked across the hall. Seeing that the others had already left for breakfast (Gimli's bed the only one left unmade and scrambled) she trudged down the stairs herself. She was surprised to see that very few people were up, only one or two workers who sat chattering with mugs of ale in their hands and the three others. Upon her arrival, Strider and Legolas turned and greeted her with variations of 'good morning' and Mr. Butterbur poked his head out of the kitchen.
"Oh, good! You're up! Might I interest you with some eggs or maybe some toast? I got some strawberry jam if you would like," he pointed to the dish in front of Gimli which sported many large slices of bread with a red jam and bacon. "Or would you like some salad? I picked some fresh tomatoes this morning!" he spoke with a slight guilt, which led her to believe that he had listened in on part of the conversation last night.
"Oh…no thank you…" she had all but lost her appetite since last night, and she was still dazed with all that had happened to her. She sat a few seats down from Gimli, feeling awkward sitting so close to something se had always thought to be fictional. "Erm, hello?" she said lamely, blushing deeply as she looked down into the cracks of the old wooden table. It just felt so odd. "How are you this morning?" she directed the last statements to the table, hoping it would be discarded as the distant murmur of the folk outside.
"Just fine, thank you. What took you so long to get up this morning lassie? We've been down here for most of the hour." Gimli, who had apparently thought that she had spoken to him, turned and smiled under his bushy beard, small bits of egg rolling down it. He looked down upon her as a child, even though she was a good foot taller than him. "Hum? Why don't you have food before you? Do people of your place know of breakfast?" He gestured to his now half empty plate.
"I'm not very hungry," she whispered, looking up to the others who look back with their ever shining eyes of understanding. She blushed a darker shade but tried to sustain her glance, reverting back to staring at the table after only a few moments.
"We will be leaving soon. Is there anything that you have to bring other than the clothes on your back? It will be a long journey, for we can't go by our normal rout as it is guarded often by the enemy. Are you sure you want no food?" Legolas spoke to her with kindness beyond what someone of the age he looked would have with a fearful girl. Had she been in school, she would have been surrounded by laughing and giggling at her crimson coloring. She was silent. "Very well. We leave in half an hour."
In that time the others packed up what they had brought, and took them out to the stables where they burdened one horse with food, supplies, and other goods, and pulled out four other horses, each with beautiful colors and powerful muscles. One for each of them. It was when they began to lead the horses out into the square that Leah noticed that the people were all silent, but it was not Leah's presence that caused it.
Legolas, Strider, and Gimli were all on alert, walking carefully through town with the horses loud hooves the only real sound they heard. Before long, Legolas had them all stop and he closed his eyes, listening. "Something approaches from the East of town with running feat." He turned to his right and looked all around, scanning the silent crowds with keen eyes. Not five seconds passed before a figure rounded the corner, running with great speed in their direction.
Legolas drew his bow and trained it on the figure, and the other two drew their weapons in turn. But something was out of place. He was wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, his brown tousled hair cropped just before his eyes which glinted with a vague green from afar. He looked familiar but…
"Jacen? Jacen!" Leah jumped slightly as she recognized the face of her neighbor and quickly turned to Legolas who had already fitted an arrow to his bow, waiting for an attack. "Wait, wait! Don't shoot! He's my friend!"