Learning to Laugh

The Wedding Feast

c.1065 TA- Greenwood

The day of the wedding came with a clear morning and the songs of the forest singing quite joyfully. The birds were flitting from tree to tree chirping and singing. The other beasts of the forest had roamed close to the palace, wondering what made such a joyous occasion. The trees were swaying happily. Deep in the darkness of the south, the shadow stirred angrily, wondering why it was ignored. For today, the wood-elves threw caution to the wind, and rejoiced in a royal wedding.

Lalaith was beaming as Alassiel and her maidservants readied her. They giggled and laughed as the only male currently in their presence tried to get their attention but failed quite epically to do so. Only if he was hungry would one of them pick him up, feed him, and then he would be left to roam again. Poor Elenion did not know what to think of it, and the youngest prince was currently trying to work it out in his mind.

"You are going to make him see stars." Gwirithiel said fervently.

"Hush, child, she does not even have her dress ready yet."

"Ai, if you do that to her hair it will not flow."

"She must have a spot for her crown."

"Will you all stop arguing?" Lalaith said. "I will never be ready in time."

"That is the beauty of not marrying like the rest of us, dear." Alassiel said and Lalaith crinkled her nose at her mother.

"No, you just had two weddings. The informal one and the feast." She said.

"I wouldn't quite call it informal." Alassiel said to the amusement of the handmaidens.

"Apparently if we had, I would never have been let inside Imladris, which would have been unfortunate."

"Quite. Now be still." She said.

A half hour later the dress was brought out, and Gwirithiel gasped. "That is beautiful." She said. "How did you make such a thing?"

"I, nana, and the weaver spent a lot of time together." Lalaith said as her fingers traced the dress. Then they spent a few minutes getting into the dress before Alassiel began tying it up.

"He's not going to like that part." Gwirithiel whispered and Lalaith blushed while the other handmaidens giggled again. Alassiel smiled at her daughter's expression.

"Valar, do you always have to be the one to say it?"

"If no one else does, yes."

As Gwirithiel and another of her handmaidens began arguing Lalaith shifted slightly and the dress was on and ready. Alassiel turned her around then and wove the back of the veil into her crown. The front lay ready to be pulled over her face. "I think she was right, about the seeing stars anyway." Alassiel said. "Le bain."

Lalaith smiled. "Hannon le, nana."

In another section of the palace, Glorfindel, Elrond, and Legolas all stood waiting. Glorfindel had been readied just a few minutes earlier. His long golden hair fell freely, shimmering on the mix of golden and white robes he wore. Legolas, who had not seen him as often in more extravagant clothing as the others, thought he looked more like the legend he was and of now had no problem imagining he had power akin to a Maia.

Elrond was waiting more for emotional support than for anything.

Unlike the room where the bride was readying, this room was quiet. Legolas did not know what to say, he did not know his almost brother deeply enough to offer him any compliment or comfort, and he figured that as long as Elrond stayed quiet he would too. Elrond stayed quiet because he knew Glorfindel would be comforted today only by one person. Or rather the appearance of one person. He personally thought Glorfindel was still wondering if all of this was real.

Glorfindel was quiet, partially out of nerves, but more out of having nothing to say. He also kept quiet because he had waited a long time for this day, longer than most even of those who lived as long as he. And now that it was here he had no words, nothing to say to fill the time, because he could only marvel that the day had even come. A trickle of anticipation was slowly dripping down his spine, and all he could want was to take her by the hand at last as his own.

Legolas then shifted and looked at the door. All three of them looked, and Thranduil was in the doorway, himself looking like a legend of his own. He wore silver robes and had a more formal crown adorning his head than his normal leaves and berries. Legolas suddenly felt severely underdressed. (Although he later felt better when he saw Gandalf at the celebration, dressed in little more than gray robes.)

Thranduil's eyes inspected the three of them, and then he smiled. "All is ready."

The wedding was outside in the forest, a place the wood-elves loved more than any fortress, and Glorfindel found it fitting for his wife's character as well. They were taking advantage of the already formed path from the bridge to a clearing at the end of it as an aisle, but there was no chairs. Most of the elves crouched in the trees or stood along the path or in the clearing. For them it did not matter, the formal part of the wedding would be over in minutes and they would then burst into the woods and carry the table that laid prepared to bring to this clearing and the real part of the wedding would begin.

It had turned out that Glorfindel had ended up being most grateful for Legolas' presence in Imladris, as he had studiously taught Glorfindel the dances performed at such events so that he could decently lead his own wife without looking foolish. But first they awaited the bride. "Stay here." Thranduil told them and then he disappeared into the woods. Glorfindel found it a little harder to breathe then, but then a song broke out among the wood-elves, and for whatever reason it calmed his spirit.

Slowly the song changed, and Legolas moved, touching Glorfindel's arm and turning him around. Once he did, he lost his breath.

Lalaith emerged from the woods, and her appearance and dress made it seem as though she was perhaps a goddess of the woods herself. The silvery veil kept her face from view, but he recognized the golden hair pouring out from it like a waterfall as hers. Her dress was not quite like the style most High-Elves wore, with thick material and a long train. Instead it hugged her upper body closely, but the bottom of the dress only just barely kissed the ground in one spot in the back, and the rest of the skirt was layered to twirl much better while dancing.

The coloring was white as most preferred, but gold and silver threads had been etched into it skillfully, so that one could hardly tell where one began and the other ended. As he looked closer, however, Glorfindel realized that the gold stitching had been made quite closely to the pattern of the flower on the ring he had given her, and it made his throat swell slightly. The silver had traced these lines carefully and blended them into the surrounding white fabric before disappearing altogether.

Greenwood, however, had not been forgotten in the process. The lace that trailed loosely down her arm was patterned after the leaves of the trees, as was the bottom of her dress. He was not sure, but he thought a white glow surrounded her as well. Though that might have been bias on his part.

She finally reached him, and through the veil he could see her smile at him. He barely noticed as Thranduil passed her off, and quite honestly he was not sure what happened soon after either. His eyes were transfixed on where he knew hers would be, silently communicating his love for her. He felt Thranduil place their hands together, felt him tie them together. Part of him remembered slipping the ring off of his finger and onto hers, and another remembered her doing the same to his. Though much of what he remembered of that was the touch of her hand on his own, and the warm feeling that spread from seeing it.

Their vows echoed in his ears, but what prompted him to say it he could never remember afterwords. All he heard was her voice, light and gentle, promising that she would be his before Eru. For that he was glad, and had never felt more grateful to the stars and fates for drawing them together.

He did remember lifting her veil, and her blushed cheeks and wide eyes caught his breath, and he barely heard Thranduil prompt them to kiss. She heard it though, and he did not care that she reached him first. He was still too stunned that this had actually happened, that it was not a distant memory or half-remembered dream. After that he remembered wild laughter and songs filling the air around them. He remembered being guided to a table where they sat at the head. He remembered drinking wine and Lalaith's shining eyes, but what he ate he did not know, or even if he did eat.

He did remember the first dance, because it was the only time they were separated that night. The wood-elves held a custom that it was always the father who led the first dance. They believed it was a rightful glimpse into a larger passage of time. It was the father that had cared for the ellith until this moment, so he danced with her first to represent all the time he had held her under his wing. Legolas had explained this to him, mainly so that he did not accidentally take Thranduil's spot, which would have been a nightmare of its own.

Lalaith had been beaming at her father, and though the dance was by no means slow, he could see Thranduil speaking softly to his daughter, telling her what she needed to know. Then the song changed and Legolas nudged him, just in case he forgot to move. The last thing he remembered before the music and his wife swept him off was Thranduil putting her hand in his once more, and the ever so subtle glance he and Thranduil exchanged that had said all it needed too between them.

The wood-elf dances were quick and fierce and part of him wondered how reveling, mostly drunk elves stayed so graceful. There was a strong sense of passion and emotion in the air, and the one time he looked he saw that even the Noldo had not gone unaffected. Celebrían looked far less uptight than she ever had at a formal event before, and Elrond was staring into her eyes with as much passion as Glorfindel had into Lalaith's. Even Gandalf seemed to be enjoying himself, laughing and speaking with those around him; he even saw him dance once or twice with an elf maiden.

He saw that Thranduil was quite the graceful dancer himself, and Alassiel's eyes were just as wild as the rest of her kin. Legolas had drawn Arwen into a dance, and Elladan was being led around by Gwirithiel who quickly procured another ellith for Elrohir to dance with. Other than that, all he had from that dance were vague pictures, sounds, all passed in blurs around him, except for one. And that was Lalaith.

Her eyes were no less wild than anyone else's and truthfully he thought them even more wild, burning even. The small amount of blue in her eyes was more pronounced now than he had ever seen it before, even in her rage. He thought in that moment that her eyes looked like the sky as the rain clouds faded away.

As the feasts progressed into the twilight hours, however, it was drawn out of the clearings and into the woods, where strange and mysterious things happened, especially in the land of the wood-elves. Laughter and songs filled the air, and impassioned words, words only said on special occasions or in the heat of the night. Soon enough all of Greenwood was together but separated, each alone but all unified in their songs and many danced still.

Then Lalaith had pulled her hand from his and with a mischievous grin had taken off running. He watched for a second, only a second, before his instinct took over and he felt himself mindlessly chasing her, following her by the feel of her spirit, not the unseen prints she left behind. But he knew where she would go, and he slowed as he reached the place that had been her sacred retreat, and now their sacred hideaway. He had asked her to marry him here, and perhaps it was only fitting.

Now walking he drew aside the vines, and as she had said the tree let him pass. There she waited, standing as her dress glittered in the moonlight that now shined full upon them. He slowly walked up to her and her eyes followed his. He traced her lips with his thumb and then reached up, slowly removing the crown from her head. It was golden, and was weaved intricately with leaves and flowers. He wondered vaguely why she did not wear it more often.

He was not sure who put the crown down, himself or her, but they would become one soon enough. In either case, he had then drawn her closer, pulling her close and kissing her more passionately then he ever had. She seemed surprised at first, but that too was eventually forgotten.

She reached out with her fëa first. He accepted it eagerly, having longed to feel it fully since he first got a glimpse of it. It was bright, pulsing with energy from the forest around them. Tragedy had shaped part of it, but it was formed more with laughter and joy than anything else. He found something different in her fëa, something he had never encountered, not even when he had gone into Thranduil's to pull him out. Perhaps he had been too focused on ridding him of darkness. But there was a part of it, part of her fëa and yet it's own distinct flame, that when he hesitatingly touched it, filled- no overwhelmed him with the song of the lifeforms around him. He quickly drew back from it and she laughed. She brought it close to him, and this time when he touched it, it did not overwhelm him. She was focusing on one song, and he heard the voice of one of the trees around them clearly.

And then he understood, at least for that moment. Because she understood.

She smiled up at him, glad that he understood. She saw, however, that he was still hesitant, even now, to show her his fëa, no matter how much she had told him it did not matter to him. So she tugged at it with her own, prodding him to reach out and let her have it. He let go, and she invaded his spirit. He gasped and almost shrank back but she was hard to hide from, especially now, and he could do little to stop her. He winced as she found the parts of him he had been concerned for her to find. He never said his past was pretty, but parts of it were uglier than others.

To his surprise, she inspected them carefully and took them in just like any other part of him without flinching or hissing in disgust. Maybe she had not inspected them closely enough. Fool, she chided, I told you I could handle your past.

He looked into her eyes, and what he saw then was the one thing he would treasure for the rest of eternity. Her eyes glittered as they looked into his with an unrelenting love that was far too willing to take all of him. Something broke inside of him, he would never be sure what, as he realised she really did want everything he had just as he wanted everything she had.

"Why?" he asked quietly, marvelling at her.

She cocked her head and grinned. "Because you're not just a hero, and you're not just an elf either. Because you've seen me at my worse already and didn't mind. Because you could've dismissed as a child and didn't. Because you told me everything I wanted to know. Because you might have lied to me and told me anything, but you haven't." She paused and put her hand on his heart. "Because you love me and I love you." She paused again. He watched her closely even as he felt their fëa start to join together. "And because, well, you're my hero."

It was at that moment that two separate fëa melded to each other and became one.

The End

A/N: A happy chapter for an unhappy day. Praying for anyone connected to the situation in Paris. For everyone reading this, thank you for sticking with me. The first chapter of the sequel will be released next week. It will be called Tempting our Fate. Thanks for sticking with me so far, and I hope you join me again next week! If you haven't read anything else of mine, I have another storyline in the Lord of the Rings category that I have called my "Weaving a Song Universe". It also includes a lot of the Greenwood elves. See you soon!