It was probably the best bath Kail had ever had in her entire life. She had never felt so relaxed and that was saying a lot considering all the difficult obstacles she's been through in the past few months. After sitting there in complete bliss for about a quarter of an hour Kail finally grabbed the few scented oils next to the spring and after giving them a little sniff she began to scrub the dirt, grime and blood off her milky skin. She could almost feel her pores opening to let in the much needed oxygen and sighed in delight as it was joined by a flowery scent. When it neared the end of the hour Kail squeezed out her now clean long black silky hair and stepped out of the spring and to her clothes wear she snatched her underwear and hastily put it on then went over to the dress by the side of the spring.
Lifting the gown she looked it over one more time before pulling it over her head and down to fit her body. After the dress was lifted she noticed a pair of what looked something similar to underwear. Blinking Kail lifted it to examine it and found that it was just like a regular pair, but only that it had a little thicker sides, almost like boxer shorts. She grinned and then switched them with her panties. It was great to not have to wear those old things; it is not fun wearing underwear for 2 months straight.
After changing her skivvies she attempted to try and tie up the lacing on the back of her dress which proved to be quite difficult. Kail ended up spinning around in circles trying to see what she was doing like a dog chasing its tail. She only stopped when she heard quiet laughter near the edge of the clearing and when she looked she found Galadriel standing there with a small smile. Kail blushed in embarrassment and clasped her hands like a small child as Galadriel walked up to her.
"Here, allow me to help you with that," she said softly and turned Kail by her shoulders and lifted her hair over her right shoulder before tying up the white lace at the back. After she was done she turned Kail back around and smiled at the red on the younger Elleth's cheeks. Bowing her head Kail thanked her. "You're quite welcome, child. Now, you have many questions that need answering. Take a walk with me and I will oblige you."
With that the two Elves moved out of the clearing with Galadriel assuring Kail that a palace maid would gather and clean her clothing and that she'd have them back in no time. For a while Kail didn't voice any questions, but thought of a way to ask her most important one. Finally she gathered enough courage to ask.
"My Lady?" she asked sounding quite awkward by the formalities. Galadriel made no movement of acknowledgement, but she figured she had her attention so continued. "Can I get back home?"
Galadriel stopped and turned to the raven haired Elf calmly and Kail stopped as well. "First, you must ask yourself: do you truly wish to go back?" she said all knowingly. Kail was silent and looked away to the grass at her bare feet before shrugging. She honestly didn't know, but she felt that most of her was leaning more on the side of wanting to stay here. Galadriel reached out and gently took Kail's chin in her hand and lifted her face to look her in the eye. When she spoke to her it wasn't aloud.
No, you cannot go back. There is only a path that leads from there to here; not here to there. You were chosen to come to Middle Earth because you were meant to be here. There is nothing left for you there; no purpose.
At the end of her speech Galadriel let her chin go as Kail stared at her. "I have a purpose? What is it?" she asked eagerly to which Galadriel only smiled fondly.
That, child, is something you have to discover on your own. Think of it as returning a favor.
Kail blinked and stared at the Elven Queen for a moment before voicing another question. "Will the Hobbits ever be happy again? I mean, from what Gandalf told me they're not used to this sort of thing. Battles; fighting; danger. Especially Frodo. He already seems so torn," she softly mumbled knowing that Galadriel could hear her. The older Elleth's smile fell slightly.
"Frodo carries a burden of dire consequences in the wrong hands. I do not know if the Hobbits will ever be the same after this adventure, but who in this world won't be?" Galadriel then turned and Kail followed her. Those poor Hobbits.
"That reminds me. What is this quest that their on about? You mentioned something Frodo carrying a burden. Is that what it is?" she asked quickly getting excited causing Galadriel's smile to return to her pale glowing features.
"Do you not think it best to ask such questions to your companions?" She stopped and nodded to the opposite side of Kail and when she looked she noticed that they were on the edge of the trees where there was a clearing with two large twisted Malyrn trees to form a sort of shelter. Under that shelter was the Fellowship already with their blankets unrolled and Sam cooking at the fire. She noticed that all were clean and that the one Elf of the group was in new clothing. Instead of the green and brown tunic and breaches he wore before he was now in an outfit of pale blue with shimmering silver patterns stitched in. Kail smiled and turned to thank Galadriel for walking her here and for answering her questions but found the Elven Lady gone. Shrugging, she stepped out of the trees to the where the Fellowship rested.
Hearing her Legolas turned with a small smile at seeing her in something more appropriate. She now looked truly like a lovely young Elf maiden gliding out from the trees. The Mirkwood Prince was surprised that she didn't trip over any offending root or twig on the way. At his movement, that didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group, the remaining Fellowship all looked to find him staring at a beautiful Elf walking towards them in a flowing blue and with gown.
"Who is that, Merry?" Pippin whispered to his best friend to smacked him in the back of his head with an incredulous look.
"Are you blind, Pip? That's Kail!" he exclaimed as his friend rubbed the back of his head. He looked at the female again and this time noticed that it was indeed their favorite girl from another world only she was wearing a dress and her hair was slightly damp.
Kail blushed as all eyes of the Fellowship stared at her in silence. She stopped just at the edge of their camp and fiddled nervously with the sleeves of her new dress. Finally she smiled tentatively and opened her arms widely. "Well are you just going to stare at me all day or is someone going to get off their ass and give me a hug?"
Legolas grinned to himself at that. Leave it to her to say something like that.
Instantly Merry and Pippin were off the forest floor followed slowly by Sam and Frodo. The troublemaking Hobbits crashed into her at an alarming speed almost causing Kail to topple over. Their arms were wrapped around her waist with surprising strength that she didn't know they had and it took a laughing Aragorn and Legolas to pry them off of her. After she was free of the Shire folk she hugged Legolas while laughing slightly then Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli. The Dwarf refused to be hugged at first, but Kail chased him until she caught him, to his embarrassment, and gave him a hug and a quick kiss on the top of his head making the Dwarf grumble more in irritation. The rest of the Fellowship laughed as Kail let him go and he trudged back over to his bedroll with red on his cheeks. Giggling Kail let her eyes shift to Legolas who was next to her.
His head was bowed slightly as if he was trying to burn a hole in the ground with his eyes and his jaw was slightly clenched. Kail furrowed her brow in confusion and rested her hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?" she asked concerned.
Startled, Legolas' head snapped up and he gave her a quick smile. "Y-yes, I'm fine," he stuttered slightly causing Kail's brow to rise. Legolas never stumbled over his words; he was always the epitome of eloquence. Noticing her scrutiny he forced a smile and held out his arm to her. "Care to take a walk with me?"
Still skeptical she took his arm and he led them away from the group and into the trees again. She eyed him carefully, but all traces of unhappy expressions had left his features and he was now smiling brightly at the trees about them. Kail mentally shrugged it off and decided to question him about it later, but for now she wanted to enjoy the warmth and comfort his arm gave her. She found herself having to force herself not to lean into him and instead ended up leaning far enough away for him to notice.
Legolas felt a little sad that Kail was trying to stay away from him, but couldn't understand why. It wasn't like he was starting to think of her as more than a friend; that was outrageous! But he couldn't help feeling jealous at the kiss she gave Gimli, no matter how friendly it was meant to be. Just the thought of her lips touching any other male made him furious.
She's my friend; my companion and a female. I'm supposed to be protective of her, he reasoned with himself, but no matter how he tried to make up excuses he knew in the back of his mind that it was jealousy.
Kail herself was in a bit of a jam. She couldn't stop the thoughts of wanting to be closer to the Elven Prince next her and to smell the sweet scent he always seemed to give off. To her he smelled like freshly mown grass with a hint of mint and it intoxicated her. She even tried holding her breath from time to time to stop the flow of the heavenly scent from flowing into her nostrils. She couldn't take this much longer. She knew she was attracted to Legolas, there was go question there, but she couldn't let him know that. He would think she was another one of those bumbling maidens that wanted to marry him for his title that followed him around back in Mirkwood. She couldn't let that happen; she couldn't just throw away their friendship like that. Out of all the Fellowship members Legolas was probably her best friend and she wasn't about to tear the apart.
In all this thinking neither of them had spoken a word to each other since they left the camp and they only now noticed how awkward the walk was and both agreed silently that a walk probably wasn't the best idea. Kail looked around the area desperately seeking any inspiration for a conversation and all was in vein until she spotted a cluster of wild flowers at the side of the path. Using them as the perfect excuse to detach herself from Legolas' arm she walked over to them.
Legolas blinked when he noticed Kail pull away from him and turned his head to see her kneeling by the bundle of flowers. He smiled softly when he noticed her bent over sniffing the flowers with a gentle smile of her own. He slowly approached her from behind, but didn't touch her or say anything, just simply enjoyed watching her smile.
"They're gorgeous," she whispered while running her the tip of her finger over a blue pedal of one of the flowers. The shade of blue on the pedals of the flowers was nothing Kail had ever seen on any flower before. It was a silvery blue that reminded her of the moon and suited the scenery of Lothlórien perfectly; they even seemed to glow like the Malyrn trees did. She was so entranced with the beauty of the flowers she didn't notice Legolas come up and kneel next to her.
"Yes, they are. They're called Moon lilies and they only grow here in Lórien; even then they are rare," he explained also reaching forward to stoke the flower then he turned his face to smile at her. "They match your dress. I'm sure they'd look beautiful in your hair." He lifted his hand and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear slowly while his clear ocean blue eyes stared into her emerald green ones. Kail blushed a deep red and looked away from him.
"Uh, thanks," she muttered embarrassedly and when she had her blush under control she smiled at him covering up her shyness with passiveness. "But I wouldn't want to pluck out a flower that's so rare for my own use. No, I'd rather leave it here to gaze upon and let it grow." She smiled again and turned her eyes back to the flowers.
Finally she stood, followed by Legolas, and she grinned brightly, forgetting about her embarrassment earlier. "Come on. We should probably head back. The rest of the boys probably think we got lost or something," she giggled then turned back to the way they came from and began to skip down the path. Legolas chuckled quietly to himself before following her at a quick walk so as to keep up with her. She was humming something he didn't recognize which didn't surprise him considering where she came from. A happy smile was plastered on her pink lips causing Legolas to grin. For some reason her happiness was always contagious and no matter how hard the times were she was always there to make them all smile.
The walk back was a little less awkward than the way there though they still didn't talk much. Back at the camp the Hobbits were already fast asleep on their bedrolls as was Gimli and the Men were sitting of opposite sides of a large root from the tree sticking up from the ground. As the two Elves approached Aragorn looked up from smoking his pipe and smiled at them.
"Servants from the Palace brought you back your clothes, Kail, and a bedroll," he said motioning to a bundle of fabric near the now dead fire. Kail let out a squeal of delight knowing that the Hobbits and Dwarf wouldn't wake up from their heavy sleep.
"Finally!" she exclaimed while racing to them and tossing her clothes to the side she rolled out her bedroll then piled her clothes at the head of it for a pillow. Instantly she dropped down onto it and curled up in a ball with a yawn. "'Night, boys."
The remaining awake males laughed quietly. "Goodnight, Kail," they said in unison and she was asleep instantly.
Aragorn turned to the Elven Prince with a knowing smirk that was rarely seen upon his features. "Enjoy your walk, my friend?" he taunted to which the Elf threw him a humored glare with a slight blush.
"As Kail would say: shut up, Aragorn," Legolas replied before walking off to his own bedroll leaving the two noble men to laugh silently behind him.
