Disclaimer: Legolas, not mine. Everyone else... sort of mine.
Legolas looked at Falinor. He studied the young elf, for he did look young, trying to see what he was thinking. "So, now what happens?" he asked.
"I do what you wish me to do, except leave." There was something about the way he said that, that led Legolas to believe that he would do anything he wanted him to do, even if it was harmful to himself. A great power to hold over someone. And one he didn't want to have. No one should have that power over another.
Falinor seemed all too accepting of it, if not happy.
"If I told you to stay here, while I left?"
"I'd have to follow you."
"My keeper, I see."
He shrugged, "I obey my Lord's wishes."
"Yes, you do." Legolas frowned as he said that and started to prowl around the room. There was a fine bed, big enough for three people. A wardrobe of some sort, vanity with mirror. It looked more like a human dwelling than a place for an elf. "What happens now?"
"We wait."
"And if I don't wish to wait?"
"We wait anyway."
There weren't any windows in the room. The people who put him in here were very clever. But he still had his weapons with him. So, either they didn't think that far in advance, or they weren't worried about his weapons. He wished it was the former, but something told him it was the later.
Falinor had sat down against the wall, arms around his knees, watching Legolas.
"How long do we wait?"
Falinor shrugged. "Until they're ready for you."
Legolas nodded. It was as he expected. He sat on the bed, giving a short start at the unexpected softness. He noticed Falinor watching him with intense and slightly fearful eyes. He couldn't understand why though. "Where do you sleep?" He asked, as he realized there was only one bed. He also wanted to keep Falinor talking, if only to give him time to think and plan.
"In the bed… if you want me to."
And that explained the fear in the eyes. He was afraid of being used. Perhaps he had been, before, with other guests. He had heard, from those of his father's guard who had gone into Dale that sometimes women were used like that. But he had never heard of it being down with a male. He wouldn't even know what to do, if he had been interested, which he wasn't.
"I don't," he said. "I have no need to sleep. You can have the bed if you wish, however."
Falinor just stared at him and didn't move from his spot on the floor.
"Who am I waiting to see?"
"The King and Queen. You shall be presented in court."
"Dressed like this?" he gestured to his clothes, which were hardly the finest clothes he owned. An idea was starting to form in his head. He stalked around the room and looked for something else to wear. He found nothing. "I don't think that would be a good idea. I wish for something else to wear." He glared at Falinor.
"I- I…" Falinor stammered.
"You are here to do what I wish, are you not?"
"Yes."
"Then get me something to wear!"
This stirred Falinor into action and he scrambled up to his feet. Much to Legolas' delight the door wasn't, as he thought, locked. Falinor slipped through it easily enough. But when he tried the door, it refused to open. He snarled, frustrated, and decided to take plan b. He stood by the door and waited. Waiting didn't bother him. He spent hours waiting while on watch back home, or hunting. He waited for about half an hour, which was really no time at all.
The door pushed open and Legolas clobbered Falinor over the head with the hilt of his knife. The elf crumpled with a startled cry. Fortunately it wasn't that loud as to worry Legolas. It was more of a gasp of surprise. He pulled the elf into the room and tied him to the bed. Once Falinor was secured, Legolas slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
He glanced to the left, the way he had come and then to the right. Neither option seemed promising, so he took the corridor untraveled. It was much of the same, corridors and tapestries and artwork. There were no windows, but there were doors. Legolas was tempted to try them, but decided against it. Who knew what lay behind the doors, and he was looking for a way out, not a place to hide.
It was odd. No one else was encountered as he walked. It was as if the entire castle was empty, but he knew that couldn't be true. The people had to be somewhere.
Didn't they?
Eventually he found a stair. It was a grand stair, made of marble creeping up to the next level with a chandelier hanging above lit with hundreds of candles. Or at least, Legolas thought they were candles. He couldn't tell from where he stood. The banister was scrolled and made of a fine dark wood. The pillars supporting it were carved to resemble oliphants descending down a stairwell. A plush purple carpet led up to a pair of grand doors eloquently carved with two elves standing proud and at attention.
Legolas knew that he shouldn't go up to those doors and open them. That was not the way to freedom. But an unseen force seemed to tug at him, pulling him gently but firmly by the hand up the staircase. He felt almost in a dream as he struggled against the compulsion. His legs didn't listen to him; nor did his hands which pushed at the doors that opened with a near silent whisper.
Before him was a great hall like he had never seen, but reminded him of the stories his father had told him about Doriath. Tall pillars made to look like tree trunks reached up to the ceiling that looked like it was hidden in foliage of a forest. Beams of light shone through stained glass windows speckling the floor like sunlight. He felt like he was out in the forests, except he could feel the stone walls around him. Directly across from him was a raised dais with a throne on it.
Sitting on the throne, a woman looked down at him. Though sitting isn't exactly the word he would use for what the woman was doing. It looked like sitting, but it also looked like how a cat would sit. Completely relaxed and at ease, noble and alert, with a satisfied smile on her face. Her skin was the color of new born leaves and her hair was the color of rust. She wore clothes that covered all the right places to be decent but somehow she made it seem like they were completely scandalous. But anything else wouldn't seem to fit.
She was the woman from his dreams.
She smiled at him and with a purring pleased voice, she said, "Welcome Prince Legolas to the land of the Fey. And I can tell you now,we're going to be wonderful friends."
Next: Who is the woman and what does she want?
Please, of course, R&R