Chapter 29- The Thorn on the Rose
'War is a terrible thing to behold, though sometimes tis necessary. Still dreadful, but necessary.' Legolas thought as he hopped down a flight of stairs to bring medical supplies to the healers, he was still shocked at some of the ghastly wounds even after three thousand years of military service. He would do anything for this war to finally end, he had seen too many friends die from it.
"Diolla lle, tarenamin." {Thank you, my prince.} One of the healers said and as he turned to go help somewhere else the she-elf took his chin gently in her hand and looked into his eyes, "You are overly tired, even for one of our people. Sleep would do you well, majesty."
He nodded, "Diolla lle." {thank you.}
She turned to go heal a wounded warrior and Legolas shuddered at the thought of her suggestion. He hadn't slept in over two weeks, not even glimpsed a waking dream and it was wearing on him. His fatigue was great and that is why he had ceased active duty today, his shots were beginning to slip in their accuracy and he knew that he was getting to the point where his body was meeting its limits. Nonetheless, he had kept himself running errands for the healers and getting arrows to the archery regiments and moving nonstop for fear that he would sleep when he did. Gimli, who had arrived to help the cause three weeks ago, had noticed and had not commented, thinking that it was simply one of many strange ways of the elves.
But as Legolas retreated to his rooms, deciding that sitting down might at least do something to sate his tiredness, a small figure followed him. When Legolas was about to shut the door he saw the dwarf and Gimli began, "Would you lock me out, elf? So much for the legendary courtesy of the elves."
Legolas smiled weakly, "Come in, friend Gimli."
Gimli staggered into the rooms of Ithilien's makeshift palace. The elves insisted that this was all they could do amidst war and in the quick time they had but the palace was elaborately designed and the Lord of Ithilien's chambers were very impressive. They were dripping with the velvet greens and golds and browns of Mirkwood and the carvings of leaves were enough for one to see Legolas' homesickness. Once again Gimli sighed when he entered the chambers, he always did. 'Elves,' He thought, 'So ridiculously good at everything and they can't even admit it.'
Legolas flung himself onto a soft couch, cushioned with pillows and blankets befitting the son of a king. Gimli saw the sheer exhaustion in the elf and asked, "What are you doing to yourself, elf?! Sleep! Rest!"
"I can't." Legolas' voice was muffled by a pillow that was seducing his mind to wonder but he quickly snapped himself out of that and slouched his back against the couch.
"Why not? I think your plenty capable. Maybe its that nonsense about not closing your eyes, dim witted elves." Gimli suggested.
"It's not that, Gimli."
"Well, lad, what is it?"
Legolas shook his head and was about to give the dwarf an answer but suddenly his heart constricted in his chest and a moment later the door flew open but the messenger needn't say the news aloud, Legolas' heart had felt it, "Sire, the princess is injured!"
Legolas was already running to the healers, "Is it bad?"
"Not a large wound, sir, but twas taken in the head."
'Dangerous are those injuries even if they are small.' Legolas thought to himself as he turned a corner harshly and came face to face with the healers fretting over Leyadriel. She was laying on a cot with a bloodied temple, she was awake thankfully and pushed the healers away when she saw Legolas. She pushed her arms away from her body and kept them outstretched until he filled them, giving her a swift embrace and a tender kiss on her cheek.
"Mani marte?" {What happened?} He was already feeling the guilt of not having been out there to protect her
"I was fighting orcs when all of a sudden these other hideous," She paused and flinched as the healers began to disinfect the laceration, "hideous creatures that I thought were orcs...but they couldn't be."
"Uruk- Hai." Legolas spat out the name as though it were a curse and he took Leyadriel's hand in his, "They are orcs that have been cross bred with Gondorian Men, they're almost completely gone but the few that are left are just as violent and vicious as before."
"And Men??" Leyadriel tried but failed to suppress a shiver from going up her back. Then she saw another figure watching the scene with a look of horror and worry on his face, "Gimli! My little protector, why are you here?"
"For you, my little wanderer." The pet names the flung at each other was a practice that they had adopted many years ago but it still instilled a wave of jealousy and laughter in the elf prince.
Leyadriel smiled but then waved off the healers and sat up from her cot, "Im tereva! Saes, Im tereva." {I'm fine. Please, I'm fine.}
Legolas nodded to the healers to go tend other soldiers and Leyadriel stood up and required Legolas' arm around her hips to guide her in a straight line. After a few steps she gently pushed his hand off of her and said, "Sleep is something I would not do now even if it was the wise choice. I am going to go back out there."
"No!" He commanded sharply, "You are still wounded and I will not risk you becoming more seriously hurt."
"At least let me go to the archers then! They will be far enough from harm." Leyadriel pleaded, the archers were kept on a high wall hidden by bushes and trees where they could shoot and not be shot at. The orc were not intelligent enough to fire arrows up into the trees. Legolas frowned deeply but he knew Leyadriel well enough to know that she would go there with or without his permission.
"Fine then, but the second you feel ill or take another wound I will personally see you under house arrest until you are recovered." The look of protection in Legolas' eyes was feral and it did not go unnoticed by either the elf princess nor the dwarf who had been walking alongside of the pair.
Leyadriel toned down her demands, "I realize that you promised my father to keep me safe, I am sorry I make your promise difficult to keep but I won't be detained."
Legolas heaved a frustrated sigh, "Your father is not the only one worried for your safety. I want to see you safe as well, miramin, I do not wish you to rush into a battle injured because you do not like to be kept inside." {my jewel}
Leyadriel nodded solemnly and kissed Gimli's forehead before sweeping a kiss over Legolas' cheek and turning to leave. Legolas' eyes followed her until she was out of his range of site. The two friends walked back to Legolas' chambers as he felt his tiredness weigh heavily on him.
Gimli closed the door behind the two and immediately asked, "Why can't you sleep, Legolas?"
Legolas groaned at the inquiry, he was hoping that the dwarf would drop the subject but he knew Gimli better then that. The truth was that Legolas' overly vivid dreams of Leyadriel were becoming more and more erotic and he could not allow those dreams to push him over his boundaries. Besides Aragorn's promise, Legolas had come to realize that Leyadriel was still too young and naïve, she was not an innocent but there was still a good many things for her to experience and he was not the one to induct her into those.
"Why not, lad?" Gimli persisted.
"I do not like what I dream about." Legolas blatantly lied, he *greatly* enjoyed what he dreamed of but he knew that they would only complicate matters.
"Judging by that smirk on your face I'd say your attempting to lie to me, Greenleaf. Tell me the truth." True enough that the dwarf had found out the smirk on Legolas' face, the elf had been remembering a dream that had been so life like that he could smell her hair and he woke with a throbbing erection that had taken an hour to be rid of.
Legolas did not want to tell Gimli the truth, he feared the dwarf's reaction but after having his friend stare at him for a quarter of an hour Legolas finally said it, "I dream about someone I shouldn't be dreaming of. I didn't want the dreams to distract me so I stopped sleeping."
Gimli's eyes opened, "Who?"
It took another hour of Gimli pestering him before the prince gave in, "She is someone I have known for a time and yet only recently have I felt such an intense love for her. I have tried to ask for her father's approval but he has denied it...he is a dear friend of mine and I won't go against his wishes but I want her so direly that it is painful to look upon her and not feel that longing."
"Who?" Gimli's voice was solemn, he heard the tone that Legolas used and knew that his friend was in love. Elves only loved once in their lives and his friend had found his beloved, his soul mate and Gimli could not help feeling a little like he was loosing a part of Legolas forever.
Legolas' heavy eyes looked into his lap and he let her name slide off his tongue like a guilty pleasure, "Leyadriel."
Gimli jumped up, "Leyadriel! Aragorn! Legolas! Are you sure? How long have you known? Leyadriel!"
Gimli seemed to be hyperventilating and Legolas threw his head into his lap dejectedly, "I knew it! It shall never be accepted!"
Gimli's mouth was still agape but he realized the pain his reaction had caused Legolas so he settled himself and patted Legolas sympathetically on the back as the elf told Gimli everything he dared tell him, "For a little over a year I have felt the attraction in a way I have never felt desire stir in me before. I'm addicted to her, I need her but I don't have Aragorn's approval and I doubt she even knows. We never speak of it, any encounter we have is always forgotten and left as a memory of the past."
"Encounters?"
"Don't think of either of us as innocents Gimli." Legolas chastised, "Tis been long since I knew that bliss and it has not been her's for years."
"I know but you.you haven't slept with her have you?"
"No but should our encounters become any more frequent or any more heated I will not be able to stop. I promised Aragorn to leave off of her but I can't....I lo-"
"Don't say it! Once you say it you are bound to it, Legolas! Don't break your heart and her's!"
"Why not say it? I have known it in my heart, Gimli and I long to voice the words! I love her! I cannot deny it much as I would like to in order to spar she and I both but I can't! Tis as plain to me as the thorn on the rose...and that is perhaps what this love will be to us, the thorn on the rose."
There was an uncomfortable pregnant silence as Gimli digested Legolas' words, then he spoke, "I can see it. Now that I truly look at you two, it makes sense to me but I can't but think of her as that little child ambushing me in the gardens and having memories of you giving her rides on your shoulders when she was my height. Its just odd to remember you as this uncle figure to her and then to hear you profess such love for her. But she would make you a happy elf, there is no doubt of that in my mind...however I would not say more until I knew of Leyadriel's feelings."
"It's a sensitive subject, Gimli, I cannot simply ask her if she loves me. Too many barbs would fall upon us both should she answer one way or the other." Legolas reasoned before stroking his eyelids and saying, "I am beyond tired, I feel all the years of my life upon my body. Please, my friend, I wish to have some rest."
"And you should have it." Gimli bowed out of the room and Legolas moved over to his bed, removing his tunic and boots before sliding between the covers. He kept his pants on as an optimistic sign that they would not grow painfully uncomfortable before he woke.
He felt the world slip away from his perception for a minute before another dream began, so unlike the ones of previous weeks:
She was wearing a circlet on her head that was identical to the one Legolas wore that bore Mirkwood's leaves etched on the silver in gold. Leyadriel's attire was a rich gown that was a deep forest green that was embroidered with gold stitching and leaves. She looked beautiful, she looked like Luthien the fair maiden of lore, she looked like Arwen her mother the Evenstar of the Elves...and yet she looked like neither, she looked like his Leyadriel, his little elven maid that everyday grew more beautiful. But this day she looked more beautiful then ever.
Twas her wedding day, she insisted on being wed like a human would be wed but with an elvish gown, a confusing woman until the end. He took her hand in his and stared at the elaborate ring upon it, it bore Mirkwood's leaves as well but this had his initials on it. She was his bride, he realized, and he saw threw the window that it was nighttime. He drew her closer and felt that she was nervous, anxious even of the consummation of their marriage. He gently kissed her, reassuring her that everything he lived for was her and that he would not hurt her nor rush her and that she was in control. She wrapped her arms around him and took her lips from his and moved them to his ear and he let out a moan of "Melethnin."
And that is when a slight cry woke him from his slumber. He saw Leyadriel sitting on his couch, looking at him as if he were a monster. Her eyes showed her feelings of betrayal as she got up from her seat.
"Leyadriel? What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you but you were asleep."
"You could've woken me." He said as he crossed over to her.
"Why? You have been miserably sleepless for weeks. Sleep was exactly what you needed. That's one reason I came here, to talk to you about your recent fatigue. I was worried for your health elf, but it appears that your fine."
She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him, "What is it your angry at? What have I done?"
Her eyes softened for a moment at his bewilderment, "You did nothing, truly Legolas nothing at all consciously. It was one of the other reasons I came to talk to you, something that had been eating away at me...."
"Mani?" {what?} He encouraged her, his voice soft ignoring her outburst from a moment before.
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is she?} Leyadriel asked timidly.
"Mani?" {What?} Legolas was confused again.
"The woman in your dream, who is your love?" Her voice was quieter then the coo of a dove and it was sad, broken. Since the first time they had ever kissed, something had stayed with her. Then that one he had first touched her in anything but a fatherly manner, he made her feel beautiful and wanted and loved. Loved. A feeling that she was not used to and one she craved and yearned. She gradually began to accept that it not just being desired, but being desired by him that she so craved. He was constantly in her thoughts, constantly haunting her every waking moment and she well knew that if she could dream as normal people do, he would have long since graced them. She felt something for him she had never felt before, something deep in her heart that was so powerful that it frightened her. Frightened her because she knew she could not refuse it, frightened her more because she knew that he could refuse it. Legolas had been something of an uncle to her, and she knew it would not be easy for him to accept that his "niece" loved him as more then just her guardian and friend. She had come to him after fatigue from her head injury had prevented her from being an errand runner any longer. She had finally decided that she had to tell him how she felt before she dropped dead from keeping it within her. Then she had found him asleep and took great joy in watching such a beautiful thing until he had moaned, "Melethnin." Then her world had crashed down and she knew that he was in love and her own love would not be returned to her and she had snapped at him. But she knew that he deserved the truth from her on this matter, for elves it was nothing to be trifled with.
"My love?" Legolas repeated and he felt his throat dry nervously.
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is she?} It pained Leyadriel to even speak the words but she needed to know.
Legolas sighed deeply, he was suddenly aware that he tunic was still strewn over a chair next to his bed and he decided to leave it there. He took her hand and sat her on one of the couches in the room, "She is someone I have known for many years, someone I hope to know for many more. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes upon and I have laid my eyes upon many beautiful maidens. Her spirit is unmatched, she is vibrant and lively and yet her bravery has not killed the part of her that needs someone to protect her. I wish to protect her for I would die should any ill come to her. I love her greatly but our love is a beautiful thing with many painful consequences. Her father does not approve of me and she is young, young and free willed and I should not be the one to initiate her into her adulthood. I won't see strife come to her, even if that means keeping my love secret from her as I have done."
"The thorns on a rose can hurt any one who wishes to keep the treasure but they can be overcome! Why would not pursue her, Legolas?" Leyadriel was stunned by his confession and felt her heart break at the tenderness of his words.
"I will not hurt her, not even to love her." He said sadly as he got up but she pulled him back down by his arm, a tear in her eye threatening to fall but she would not allow it to.
"You are no thorn, Legolas. You could not hurt her if you tried to, does she know of your love for her?"
"I do not know." Legolas whispered.
Leyadriel shook her head, "She would be a fool not to love you."
She was about to walk away but when she stood up he followed her and put his arms around her, drawing her closely to him. He leaned his forehead against hers and felt all his loyalty to Aragorn break on a whim, "Are you fool, then, Leyadriel?"
He asked and she gasped, not knowing how to answer him so he leaned in and gave her lips a feather-light kiss before whispering to her, "Im meleth lle." {I love you.}
"Im meleth lle." {I love you.} She cooed before capturing his lips and pressing against his body, wanting to be near him, needing to be close to him.
He wrapped hungry arms around her and clasped her against his figure. Legolas pressed his tongue against her lips, pleading for an entrance that she eagerly allowed. She put her hands against his naked chest and felt all the well toned muscles from three thousand years of fighting and training. Her fingers traveled from his chest to his shoulders, which were tight with archery muscles, and reached his ears. As their tongues warred she smiled evilly against his mouth, she began to massage the tips of his sensitive ears, a motion he had dreamt about many a time that now that it was actually happening made his knees weak. He groaned against her and his grip fell from her back to her hips, which he ground against his own so that they both felt how dangerously close he was to loosing control of himself. But she wanted him to, she almost needed him to just to assure herself that this was real.
Legolas, on the other hand, knew well how real this was. His heart was signing a song of rapture but his mind was reeling. He felt a hundred loyalties and friendships, Aragorn's not the least of them, shatter. He knew that this thorn would bleed more then he would've wished for but now that he had her he knew it would be near impossible to leave her, or to have her taken. He needed her, he wanted her and he was pleased at her reaction to him. Leyadriel's arms were currently tightly around his waist but they were more often than not wandering over his skin, at one point her fingers trailed down to the waist line of his pants and when they whispered over the head of his member he was completely lost in his lust for her.
He pushed her backwards and she fell onto a table, she pulled him down on top of her and quickly wrapped her legs around his hips, causing her night dress to slip up high, revealing parts of her body that he had seen before but had forgotten. Parts he wished to properly acquaint himself with. An animal growl emitted from the prince and he flung her dress over her head where it fell to a crumpled pile on the floor. Their bodies were near molded and he felt her breasts against his bare chest and his hands quickly attended to them so that they would not feel lonely and exposed. Leyadriel was restless of the fabric barring her from her love and so she used her legs to push Legolas' britches to the ground. His erection was throbbing alongside her skin and she wanted him in her desperately.
"Melethnin." She moaned, "Saes." {My love. Please.}
He pulled away from their kiss and smiled menacingly at her before dipping his head down. His lips met her neck and he tenderly kissed her scars before suckling on her breasts then he traveled to her soft stomach were he nestled himself into her flesh, almost to the point where his release would reach him but he restrained it, he needed to wait so that it would be all the sweeter. His mouth finally met her center and his tongue laved at her throbbing core. She moaned loudly as he teased her and she was trying to restrain her own release so that she would know his body in her own before that ecstasy befell her.
From just outside the door a low ticking of the tongue could be heard. The dwarf's ragged and loud breathing then faded as he walked away. The disapproval in his tone, the clucking of his tongue like that of a shamed mother to a disobedient child stung at Legolas' heart. Leyadriel, he knew, was going to bring him many troubles but he had thought Gimli would not be one of them. The dwarf had, so the elf thought, given his blessing earlier. But it appeared that Master Gimli did not approve of the night life Legolas had in mind. The elf froze for a moment and saw the circumstance for what it was. He saw a flushed and willing Leyadriel, her raven hair was a mess and her breathing was rushed and ragged. She was on a table, her back pressed against hard unforgiving oak and her hands gripping the edge of a velvet couch, this was not how he wanted their first time to be. She looked at him questioningly, worriedly, "Mani naa ta, Legolas?" {What is it, Legolas?}
He sighed and shook his head, his throbbing erection was paining him and he knew that the tension in his groin would have to be relieved soon just to end the pain but Legolas bit through it and tried to calm his breathing, "Not like this, miramin. Not like this." {my jewel}
"Mani??" {What??} Leyadriel sat up quickly, fearing she had done something wrong. Legolas came up and put his hands on her shoulders, seeking in his lust clouded eyes for the sensible maiden he knew was there, "What do you mean 'not like this'? I do not understand Legolas!"
"Listen to me, miramin." His voice cooed, he was trying to soothe the part of her that was offended by his refusal, "Tis not you, it truly is not you. I want you so desperately, I have dreamed of this for so long and I need you more then you could possibly know. But not like this."
He nodded toward their odd position, she was half sitting on a cold wooden table and he was standing before her, still physically quite prepared to bring her the pleasure she wished to have.
"Not like this? As in not now and not ever? Or as in you are not enough so not like this? I don't understand what is amiss!" She cried in dismay and he swiftly took her face in his hands to soothe her fears.
"I nearly took you on a table, Leyadriel. That is not what you deserve." His hardened length nearly brought tears to his eyes he needed her so badly but he kept that need from his tone and all she heard was a lovingly concerned tone.
"Far worse has been done to me, a table is nothing." She replied, his body's warmth was seeping into her and driving her mad, playing with her senses seductively.
"Precisely, melethnin, a table is nothing and you are the brightest gem in all of this earth. You deserve far more then nothing." He scooped her into his arms and laid her on his bed so gently that she did not know what to expect, lovemaking had never been slow and sensitive to her.
He hovered over her and stroked her face, "Im meleth lle, Leyadriel. Ner lle oio sinta." {I love you, Leyadriel. More then you could ever know.}
She traced from his temple to his lips with her fingers and realized that she had been looking at that face since she had been a child with no idea that one night she would be laying naked underneath him wanting to make love to him. Then she realized that he had known her parents far longer then he had known her and that in taking her, he might very well loose them. Her breathing had calmed somewhat and she put a light kiss on his lips before whispering to him, "Do you truly love me?"
"Uma, Im meleth lle Leyadriel. Im lava coralle, miramin." {Yes, I love you Leyadriel. I yield to your heart, my jewel.} His lips barely whisped over her own.
"You could loose many things dear to your heart if you choose me: my mother, my father, possibly my grandfather, my great grandparents, my siblings and then there's your family. Wedding a half elven child and so late in your life is not exactly smiled upon by many elves..." She trailed off her voice a ghost of its normal vibrancy but her fingers were still traveling over Legolas' fair face.
"I would loose the sun, the stars, the woods and the sea for you, miramin. I am well aware of what stands between us and true happiness, but now that I have you I will not loose you. I keep what is mine, Leyadriel, and though I may let people stare at it and admire it, it is mine and not theirs' and I will not allow it to leave me. Do you understand? Nothing will keep me from you now, nothing. I could not bare it and I won't allow it."
A smile spread across her face and she wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded before kissing him softly on his mouth. He parted her legs with his hands and then he entered her slowly. The feeling was so intense, unlike anything he had ever known. Her warmth surrounded him so tightly that he feared her was hurting her but her face showed no pain, her eyes were half closed in pleasure and her lips were slightly parted as a moan escaped. He kissed those lips as he slowly rocked in and out of her. Even he could not hold a groan of bliss as every sensation of the motion took him full force. He cupped her cheek in his hand as he thrust into her and knew his end was near but he didn't want to be there alone.
Leyadriel opened her eyes and saw his silent question and she gave a shallow nod and he smiled at her before letting his thumb trace her scar, staring into her blue eyes was enough to make him pull sharply out of her in anticipation of the glorious end. Then he put a feather light kiss on her lips within the span of a second he had thrust as deeply into as he could and spilled his seed deeply in her body, spasms overtook her under him as she came to her own peak of ecstasy. Unconsciously their bodies molded, as his seed seeped into her crevices he gently thrust into her again, to ensure that his essence remained inside her. She own body sucked up the liquid as if it were a precious lifesaving substance that she would perish without. But something almost more brilliant had happened when they had found their release; a light had exploded in each of their hearts. Their love was pure and it was deep and they could only find true delight in each other now that they had found each other.
Leyadriel's half lidded eyes showed her satiation. Legolas smiled and pressed a kiss against her forehead before rolling to her left side and settling down, pulling the covers up over them. She cuddled her head over his heart and put an arm around him. She well knew that she had never know such utter rapture in her life. Legolas completely encased her in his arms protectively, not wanting to share her with even the light of the moon.
She pressed a kiss over his heart, "That was truly the most amazing experience of my life, tis unfortunate that it must be stained."
He understood what she meant, she was tired and would sleep, would therefore dream and be tortured and hurt even after such an experience as this. This was the first time she had ever made love and come away from it without scars or bruises or a painful stab-like feeling between her legs. For the first time since she knew love making to be a beautiful art and not a cruel torture. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her arm sympathetically, "I would bear that weight for you if I could, melethnin."
"I know you would, and that only makes me love you more." Her eyes unfocused as she fell into a dream state.
Within an hour she was gripping her lover's body so tightly that she nearly drew blood, the sound of a slap sounded even though there was no one else in the room to hit her besides Legolas who would never do such a thing. Her head snapped to one side and a handprint appeared. Then where he had placed love bites on her neck scratches suddenly appeared. He hopped out of bed to go get bandages from the drawer of his nightstand and he quickly pressed them against her throat. An angry hit met her stomach time and time again until blood dripped from her mouth from the punishment and at least two of her ribs were broken or bruised badly.
She woke with a cough of that blood but quickly put a hand around her ribs, even breathing hurt her severely. Tears flowed down her face as she whimpered in pain, pressing harder against her rib cage to see if any were broken.
"Don't push them." Legolas scolded her.
"They're not broken." She announced.
"Nay, but if you hit them a few more times they will be." The anger in his voice was palpable in the air, he would kill those bastards again for doing this to her.
The bleeding from her throat was stopping and the blood she had coughed up was the first and last. She tried to sit up but grimaced as she did so. He gently pushed her back against the silk pillows, "Rest, miramin." {my jewel.}
"N'uma." She said as she sat up, barely withholding a cry.
"U-mankoi?" {Why not?}
"There is a war to fight, melethnin."
"You have severely bruised ribs, Leyadriel, you are not going anywhere except back under the covers."
"Mankoi? So I might fall asleep again so they can inflict *more* damage? My body heals fast, Legolas, I will recover." She assured him. {Why}
He could not stop her from getting up and putting on her nightdress, which she had to search for for a minute before remembering where it had been tossed hours before. He pulled on a pair of pants and loosely tied the strings before following her to her own room, just down the hall from his. When they reached there he could not stand her wincing at every step any longer.
"Sit down, Leyadriel. If you must insist upon going out then I will at least make you wrap those ribs before my bruise in sympathy." He skillfully wrapped bandages and gauze around ribs that were a yellow-black- purple bruise that was so ugly and painful looking that his stomach turned. He knew his face was scrunched up in pain just looking at it. She caressed his hair as he tended to her and said, "One grows used to the pain."
"Just because you are does not mean I shall ever be." He kissed her lips lovingly before she gently pushed him away and stood up with noticeably less pain. Then she went to her closet and pulled out a dark green riding skirt and suede knees lace up boots that matched.
He helped her lace up the back of the dress before wrapping his arms carefully around her waist and kissing the side of her neck, "Be careful melethnin, please be careful."
She nodded and laid out her hands against his bare chest, "I will, I promise." She looked at his half naked body and licked her bottom lip as last night seeped into her memory, "Now please get some clothes on before I loose my self-control Legolas."
He smiled wickedly at her before kissing her one last time and whispering in her ear "Im meleth lle." {I love you.}
With that he turned to get the rest of his clothes on.
*** At the same time in Gondor***
Arwen kissed Aragorn's brow and pressed a moist cloth against it, she held back the tears that wished to flow from her eyes. Eldarion came in to check on them but his mother shook her head gravely. Eldarion turned to his sisters and told them, "He is unchanged. I fear that these next days may be our last with our ada." {daddy}
Galaniel burst out into tears at that, she had always been very close to her father and Eldarion wrapped her in his arms and patted her back. As he comforted his sister he summoned a messenger and told him, "Ride hard and fast to Ithilien and find my sister Princess Leyadriel and bring her this news; her father is dying and she is needed here urgently. Now GO!"
The messenger flew out of the palace and onto his horse and was making his way there before Galaniel's tears had dried.
Arwen saw the messenger leave and a tear fell down her cheek, "Adar, I know you can hear me. Please, please adar, please. If you have any mercy, any heart, any pity at all for mortality's bitterness you will help Leyadriel's feet to fly here...else her father part forever from her with so much guilt on his heart." {Father}
But the Evenstar's prayer went unheard except by the white rose bush in the garden.
A/N- This Chappy takes the Cake for Chappy from Hell..By the way, its not a true elvish wedding or whatever because there is controversy over it and I am just deciding on what I interpret to be elvish marriage so here it is: Sex does not equal marriage, with my story there has to be concession from both parties publicly and then they sleep together and be married. In other words: Lego and Le are NOT married even though they slept together. HOW ARE THE FLUFF MONSTERS? Well fed I hope. They won't be seeing their time for a while now.. Review please???
'War is a terrible thing to behold, though sometimes tis necessary. Still dreadful, but necessary.' Legolas thought as he hopped down a flight of stairs to bring medical supplies to the healers, he was still shocked at some of the ghastly wounds even after three thousand years of military service. He would do anything for this war to finally end, he had seen too many friends die from it.
"Diolla lle, tarenamin." {Thank you, my prince.} One of the healers said and as he turned to go help somewhere else the she-elf took his chin gently in her hand and looked into his eyes, "You are overly tired, even for one of our people. Sleep would do you well, majesty."
He nodded, "Diolla lle." {thank you.}
She turned to go heal a wounded warrior and Legolas shuddered at the thought of her suggestion. He hadn't slept in over two weeks, not even glimpsed a waking dream and it was wearing on him. His fatigue was great and that is why he had ceased active duty today, his shots were beginning to slip in their accuracy and he knew that he was getting to the point where his body was meeting its limits. Nonetheless, he had kept himself running errands for the healers and getting arrows to the archery regiments and moving nonstop for fear that he would sleep when he did. Gimli, who had arrived to help the cause three weeks ago, had noticed and had not commented, thinking that it was simply one of many strange ways of the elves.
But as Legolas retreated to his rooms, deciding that sitting down might at least do something to sate his tiredness, a small figure followed him. When Legolas was about to shut the door he saw the dwarf and Gimli began, "Would you lock me out, elf? So much for the legendary courtesy of the elves."
Legolas smiled weakly, "Come in, friend Gimli."
Gimli staggered into the rooms of Ithilien's makeshift palace. The elves insisted that this was all they could do amidst war and in the quick time they had but the palace was elaborately designed and the Lord of Ithilien's chambers were very impressive. They were dripping with the velvet greens and golds and browns of Mirkwood and the carvings of leaves were enough for one to see Legolas' homesickness. Once again Gimli sighed when he entered the chambers, he always did. 'Elves,' He thought, 'So ridiculously good at everything and they can't even admit it.'
Legolas flung himself onto a soft couch, cushioned with pillows and blankets befitting the son of a king. Gimli saw the sheer exhaustion in the elf and asked, "What are you doing to yourself, elf?! Sleep! Rest!"
"I can't." Legolas' voice was muffled by a pillow that was seducing his mind to wonder but he quickly snapped himself out of that and slouched his back against the couch.
"Why not? I think your plenty capable. Maybe its that nonsense about not closing your eyes, dim witted elves." Gimli suggested.
"It's not that, Gimli."
"Well, lad, what is it?"
Legolas shook his head and was about to give the dwarf an answer but suddenly his heart constricted in his chest and a moment later the door flew open but the messenger needn't say the news aloud, Legolas' heart had felt it, "Sire, the princess is injured!"
Legolas was already running to the healers, "Is it bad?"
"Not a large wound, sir, but twas taken in the head."
'Dangerous are those injuries even if they are small.' Legolas thought to himself as he turned a corner harshly and came face to face with the healers fretting over Leyadriel. She was laying on a cot with a bloodied temple, she was awake thankfully and pushed the healers away when she saw Legolas. She pushed her arms away from her body and kept them outstretched until he filled them, giving her a swift embrace and a tender kiss on her cheek.
"Mani marte?" {What happened?} He was already feeling the guilt of not having been out there to protect her
"I was fighting orcs when all of a sudden these other hideous," She paused and flinched as the healers began to disinfect the laceration, "hideous creatures that I thought were orcs...but they couldn't be."
"Uruk- Hai." Legolas spat out the name as though it were a curse and he took Leyadriel's hand in his, "They are orcs that have been cross bred with Gondorian Men, they're almost completely gone but the few that are left are just as violent and vicious as before."
"And Men??" Leyadriel tried but failed to suppress a shiver from going up her back. Then she saw another figure watching the scene with a look of horror and worry on his face, "Gimli! My little protector, why are you here?"
"For you, my little wanderer." The pet names the flung at each other was a practice that they had adopted many years ago but it still instilled a wave of jealousy and laughter in the elf prince.
Leyadriel smiled but then waved off the healers and sat up from her cot, "Im tereva! Saes, Im tereva." {I'm fine. Please, I'm fine.}
Legolas nodded to the healers to go tend other soldiers and Leyadriel stood up and required Legolas' arm around her hips to guide her in a straight line. After a few steps she gently pushed his hand off of her and said, "Sleep is something I would not do now even if it was the wise choice. I am going to go back out there."
"No!" He commanded sharply, "You are still wounded and I will not risk you becoming more seriously hurt."
"At least let me go to the archers then! They will be far enough from harm." Leyadriel pleaded, the archers were kept on a high wall hidden by bushes and trees where they could shoot and not be shot at. The orc were not intelligent enough to fire arrows up into the trees. Legolas frowned deeply but he knew Leyadriel well enough to know that she would go there with or without his permission.
"Fine then, but the second you feel ill or take another wound I will personally see you under house arrest until you are recovered." The look of protection in Legolas' eyes was feral and it did not go unnoticed by either the elf princess nor the dwarf who had been walking alongside of the pair.
Leyadriel toned down her demands, "I realize that you promised my father to keep me safe, I am sorry I make your promise difficult to keep but I won't be detained."
Legolas heaved a frustrated sigh, "Your father is not the only one worried for your safety. I want to see you safe as well, miramin, I do not wish you to rush into a battle injured because you do not like to be kept inside." {my jewel}
Leyadriel nodded solemnly and kissed Gimli's forehead before sweeping a kiss over Legolas' cheek and turning to leave. Legolas' eyes followed her until she was out of his range of site. The two friends walked back to Legolas' chambers as he felt his tiredness weigh heavily on him.
Gimli closed the door behind the two and immediately asked, "Why can't you sleep, Legolas?"
Legolas groaned at the inquiry, he was hoping that the dwarf would drop the subject but he knew Gimli better then that. The truth was that Legolas' overly vivid dreams of Leyadriel were becoming more and more erotic and he could not allow those dreams to push him over his boundaries. Besides Aragorn's promise, Legolas had come to realize that Leyadriel was still too young and naïve, she was not an innocent but there was still a good many things for her to experience and he was not the one to induct her into those.
"Why not, lad?" Gimli persisted.
"I do not like what I dream about." Legolas blatantly lied, he *greatly* enjoyed what he dreamed of but he knew that they would only complicate matters.
"Judging by that smirk on your face I'd say your attempting to lie to me, Greenleaf. Tell me the truth." True enough that the dwarf had found out the smirk on Legolas' face, the elf had been remembering a dream that had been so life like that he could smell her hair and he woke with a throbbing erection that had taken an hour to be rid of.
Legolas did not want to tell Gimli the truth, he feared the dwarf's reaction but after having his friend stare at him for a quarter of an hour Legolas finally said it, "I dream about someone I shouldn't be dreaming of. I didn't want the dreams to distract me so I stopped sleeping."
Gimli's eyes opened, "Who?"
It took another hour of Gimli pestering him before the prince gave in, "She is someone I have known for a time and yet only recently have I felt such an intense love for her. I have tried to ask for her father's approval but he has denied it...he is a dear friend of mine and I won't go against his wishes but I want her so direly that it is painful to look upon her and not feel that longing."
"Who?" Gimli's voice was solemn, he heard the tone that Legolas used and knew that his friend was in love. Elves only loved once in their lives and his friend had found his beloved, his soul mate and Gimli could not help feeling a little like he was loosing a part of Legolas forever.
Legolas' heavy eyes looked into his lap and he let her name slide off his tongue like a guilty pleasure, "Leyadriel."
Gimli jumped up, "Leyadriel! Aragorn! Legolas! Are you sure? How long have you known? Leyadriel!"
Gimli seemed to be hyperventilating and Legolas threw his head into his lap dejectedly, "I knew it! It shall never be accepted!"
Gimli's mouth was still agape but he realized the pain his reaction had caused Legolas so he settled himself and patted Legolas sympathetically on the back as the elf told Gimli everything he dared tell him, "For a little over a year I have felt the attraction in a way I have never felt desire stir in me before. I'm addicted to her, I need her but I don't have Aragorn's approval and I doubt she even knows. We never speak of it, any encounter we have is always forgotten and left as a memory of the past."
"Encounters?"
"Don't think of either of us as innocents Gimli." Legolas chastised, "Tis been long since I knew that bliss and it has not been her's for years."
"I know but you.you haven't slept with her have you?"
"No but should our encounters become any more frequent or any more heated I will not be able to stop. I promised Aragorn to leave off of her but I can't....I lo-"
"Don't say it! Once you say it you are bound to it, Legolas! Don't break your heart and her's!"
"Why not say it? I have known it in my heart, Gimli and I long to voice the words! I love her! I cannot deny it much as I would like to in order to spar she and I both but I can't! Tis as plain to me as the thorn on the rose...and that is perhaps what this love will be to us, the thorn on the rose."
There was an uncomfortable pregnant silence as Gimli digested Legolas' words, then he spoke, "I can see it. Now that I truly look at you two, it makes sense to me but I can't but think of her as that little child ambushing me in the gardens and having memories of you giving her rides on your shoulders when she was my height. Its just odd to remember you as this uncle figure to her and then to hear you profess such love for her. But she would make you a happy elf, there is no doubt of that in my mind...however I would not say more until I knew of Leyadriel's feelings."
"It's a sensitive subject, Gimli, I cannot simply ask her if she loves me. Too many barbs would fall upon us both should she answer one way or the other." Legolas reasoned before stroking his eyelids and saying, "I am beyond tired, I feel all the years of my life upon my body. Please, my friend, I wish to have some rest."
"And you should have it." Gimli bowed out of the room and Legolas moved over to his bed, removing his tunic and boots before sliding between the covers. He kept his pants on as an optimistic sign that they would not grow painfully uncomfortable before he woke.
He felt the world slip away from his perception for a minute before another dream began, so unlike the ones of previous weeks:
She was wearing a circlet on her head that was identical to the one Legolas wore that bore Mirkwood's leaves etched on the silver in gold. Leyadriel's attire was a rich gown that was a deep forest green that was embroidered with gold stitching and leaves. She looked beautiful, she looked like Luthien the fair maiden of lore, she looked like Arwen her mother the Evenstar of the Elves...and yet she looked like neither, she looked like his Leyadriel, his little elven maid that everyday grew more beautiful. But this day she looked more beautiful then ever.
Twas her wedding day, she insisted on being wed like a human would be wed but with an elvish gown, a confusing woman until the end. He took her hand in his and stared at the elaborate ring upon it, it bore Mirkwood's leaves as well but this had his initials on it. She was his bride, he realized, and he saw threw the window that it was nighttime. He drew her closer and felt that she was nervous, anxious even of the consummation of their marriage. He gently kissed her, reassuring her that everything he lived for was her and that he would not hurt her nor rush her and that she was in control. She wrapped her arms around him and took her lips from his and moved them to his ear and he let out a moan of "Melethnin."
And that is when a slight cry woke him from his slumber. He saw Leyadriel sitting on his couch, looking at him as if he were a monster. Her eyes showed her feelings of betrayal as she got up from her seat.
"Leyadriel? What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you but you were asleep."
"You could've woken me." He said as he crossed over to her.
"Why? You have been miserably sleepless for weeks. Sleep was exactly what you needed. That's one reason I came here, to talk to you about your recent fatigue. I was worried for your health elf, but it appears that your fine."
She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him, "What is it your angry at? What have I done?"
Her eyes softened for a moment at his bewilderment, "You did nothing, truly Legolas nothing at all consciously. It was one of the other reasons I came to talk to you, something that had been eating away at me...."
"Mani?" {what?} He encouraged her, his voice soft ignoring her outburst from a moment before.
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is she?} Leyadriel asked timidly.
"Mani?" {What?} Legolas was confused again.
"The woman in your dream, who is your love?" Her voice was quieter then the coo of a dove and it was sad, broken. Since the first time they had ever kissed, something had stayed with her. Then that one he had first touched her in anything but a fatherly manner, he made her feel beautiful and wanted and loved. Loved. A feeling that she was not used to and one she craved and yearned. She gradually began to accept that it not just being desired, but being desired by him that she so craved. He was constantly in her thoughts, constantly haunting her every waking moment and she well knew that if she could dream as normal people do, he would have long since graced them. She felt something for him she had never felt before, something deep in her heart that was so powerful that it frightened her. Frightened her because she knew she could not refuse it, frightened her more because she knew that he could refuse it. Legolas had been something of an uncle to her, and she knew it would not be easy for him to accept that his "niece" loved him as more then just her guardian and friend. She had come to him after fatigue from her head injury had prevented her from being an errand runner any longer. She had finally decided that she had to tell him how she felt before she dropped dead from keeping it within her. Then she had found him asleep and took great joy in watching such a beautiful thing until he had moaned, "Melethnin." Then her world had crashed down and she knew that he was in love and her own love would not be returned to her and she had snapped at him. But she knew that he deserved the truth from her on this matter, for elves it was nothing to be trifled with.
"My love?" Legolas repeated and he felt his throat dry nervously.
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is she?} It pained Leyadriel to even speak the words but she needed to know.
Legolas sighed deeply, he was suddenly aware that he tunic was still strewn over a chair next to his bed and he decided to leave it there. He took her hand and sat her on one of the couches in the room, "She is someone I have known for many years, someone I hope to know for many more. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes upon and I have laid my eyes upon many beautiful maidens. Her spirit is unmatched, she is vibrant and lively and yet her bravery has not killed the part of her that needs someone to protect her. I wish to protect her for I would die should any ill come to her. I love her greatly but our love is a beautiful thing with many painful consequences. Her father does not approve of me and she is young, young and free willed and I should not be the one to initiate her into her adulthood. I won't see strife come to her, even if that means keeping my love secret from her as I have done."
"The thorns on a rose can hurt any one who wishes to keep the treasure but they can be overcome! Why would not pursue her, Legolas?" Leyadriel was stunned by his confession and felt her heart break at the tenderness of his words.
"I will not hurt her, not even to love her." He said sadly as he got up but she pulled him back down by his arm, a tear in her eye threatening to fall but she would not allow it to.
"You are no thorn, Legolas. You could not hurt her if you tried to, does she know of your love for her?"
"I do not know." Legolas whispered.
Leyadriel shook her head, "She would be a fool not to love you."
She was about to walk away but when she stood up he followed her and put his arms around her, drawing her closely to him. He leaned his forehead against hers and felt all his loyalty to Aragorn break on a whim, "Are you fool, then, Leyadriel?"
He asked and she gasped, not knowing how to answer him so he leaned in and gave her lips a feather-light kiss before whispering to her, "Im meleth lle." {I love you.}
"Im meleth lle." {I love you.} She cooed before capturing his lips and pressing against his body, wanting to be near him, needing to be close to him.
He wrapped hungry arms around her and clasped her against his figure. Legolas pressed his tongue against her lips, pleading for an entrance that she eagerly allowed. She put her hands against his naked chest and felt all the well toned muscles from three thousand years of fighting and training. Her fingers traveled from his chest to his shoulders, which were tight with archery muscles, and reached his ears. As their tongues warred she smiled evilly against his mouth, she began to massage the tips of his sensitive ears, a motion he had dreamt about many a time that now that it was actually happening made his knees weak. He groaned against her and his grip fell from her back to her hips, which he ground against his own so that they both felt how dangerously close he was to loosing control of himself. But she wanted him to, she almost needed him to just to assure herself that this was real.
Legolas, on the other hand, knew well how real this was. His heart was signing a song of rapture but his mind was reeling. He felt a hundred loyalties and friendships, Aragorn's not the least of them, shatter. He knew that this thorn would bleed more then he would've wished for but now that he had her he knew it would be near impossible to leave her, or to have her taken. He needed her, he wanted her and he was pleased at her reaction to him. Leyadriel's arms were currently tightly around his waist but they were more often than not wandering over his skin, at one point her fingers trailed down to the waist line of his pants and when they whispered over the head of his member he was completely lost in his lust for her.
He pushed her backwards and she fell onto a table, she pulled him down on top of her and quickly wrapped her legs around his hips, causing her night dress to slip up high, revealing parts of her body that he had seen before but had forgotten. Parts he wished to properly acquaint himself with. An animal growl emitted from the prince and he flung her dress over her head where it fell to a crumpled pile on the floor. Their bodies were near molded and he felt her breasts against his bare chest and his hands quickly attended to them so that they would not feel lonely and exposed. Leyadriel was restless of the fabric barring her from her love and so she used her legs to push Legolas' britches to the ground. His erection was throbbing alongside her skin and she wanted him in her desperately.
"Melethnin." She moaned, "Saes." {My love. Please.}
He pulled away from their kiss and smiled menacingly at her before dipping his head down. His lips met her neck and he tenderly kissed her scars before suckling on her breasts then he traveled to her soft stomach were he nestled himself into her flesh, almost to the point where his release would reach him but he restrained it, he needed to wait so that it would be all the sweeter. His mouth finally met her center and his tongue laved at her throbbing core. She moaned loudly as he teased her and she was trying to restrain her own release so that she would know his body in her own before that ecstasy befell her.
From just outside the door a low ticking of the tongue could be heard. The dwarf's ragged and loud breathing then faded as he walked away. The disapproval in his tone, the clucking of his tongue like that of a shamed mother to a disobedient child stung at Legolas' heart. Leyadriel, he knew, was going to bring him many troubles but he had thought Gimli would not be one of them. The dwarf had, so the elf thought, given his blessing earlier. But it appeared that Master Gimli did not approve of the night life Legolas had in mind. The elf froze for a moment and saw the circumstance for what it was. He saw a flushed and willing Leyadriel, her raven hair was a mess and her breathing was rushed and ragged. She was on a table, her back pressed against hard unforgiving oak and her hands gripping the edge of a velvet couch, this was not how he wanted their first time to be. She looked at him questioningly, worriedly, "Mani naa ta, Legolas?" {What is it, Legolas?}
He sighed and shook his head, his throbbing erection was paining him and he knew that the tension in his groin would have to be relieved soon just to end the pain but Legolas bit through it and tried to calm his breathing, "Not like this, miramin. Not like this." {my jewel}
"Mani??" {What??} Leyadriel sat up quickly, fearing she had done something wrong. Legolas came up and put his hands on her shoulders, seeking in his lust clouded eyes for the sensible maiden he knew was there, "What do you mean 'not like this'? I do not understand Legolas!"
"Listen to me, miramin." His voice cooed, he was trying to soothe the part of her that was offended by his refusal, "Tis not you, it truly is not you. I want you so desperately, I have dreamed of this for so long and I need you more then you could possibly know. But not like this."
He nodded toward their odd position, she was half sitting on a cold wooden table and he was standing before her, still physically quite prepared to bring her the pleasure she wished to have.
"Not like this? As in not now and not ever? Or as in you are not enough so not like this? I don't understand what is amiss!" She cried in dismay and he swiftly took her face in his hands to soothe her fears.
"I nearly took you on a table, Leyadriel. That is not what you deserve." His hardened length nearly brought tears to his eyes he needed her so badly but he kept that need from his tone and all she heard was a lovingly concerned tone.
"Far worse has been done to me, a table is nothing." She replied, his body's warmth was seeping into her and driving her mad, playing with her senses seductively.
"Precisely, melethnin, a table is nothing and you are the brightest gem in all of this earth. You deserve far more then nothing." He scooped her into his arms and laid her on his bed so gently that she did not know what to expect, lovemaking had never been slow and sensitive to her.
He hovered over her and stroked her face, "Im meleth lle, Leyadriel. Ner lle oio sinta." {I love you, Leyadriel. More then you could ever know.}
She traced from his temple to his lips with her fingers and realized that she had been looking at that face since she had been a child with no idea that one night she would be laying naked underneath him wanting to make love to him. Then she realized that he had known her parents far longer then he had known her and that in taking her, he might very well loose them. Her breathing had calmed somewhat and she put a light kiss on his lips before whispering to him, "Do you truly love me?"
"Uma, Im meleth lle Leyadriel. Im lava coralle, miramin." {Yes, I love you Leyadriel. I yield to your heart, my jewel.} His lips barely whisped over her own.
"You could loose many things dear to your heart if you choose me: my mother, my father, possibly my grandfather, my great grandparents, my siblings and then there's your family. Wedding a half elven child and so late in your life is not exactly smiled upon by many elves..." She trailed off her voice a ghost of its normal vibrancy but her fingers were still traveling over Legolas' fair face.
"I would loose the sun, the stars, the woods and the sea for you, miramin. I am well aware of what stands between us and true happiness, but now that I have you I will not loose you. I keep what is mine, Leyadriel, and though I may let people stare at it and admire it, it is mine and not theirs' and I will not allow it to leave me. Do you understand? Nothing will keep me from you now, nothing. I could not bare it and I won't allow it."
A smile spread across her face and she wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded before kissing him softly on his mouth. He parted her legs with his hands and then he entered her slowly. The feeling was so intense, unlike anything he had ever known. Her warmth surrounded him so tightly that he feared her was hurting her but her face showed no pain, her eyes were half closed in pleasure and her lips were slightly parted as a moan escaped. He kissed those lips as he slowly rocked in and out of her. Even he could not hold a groan of bliss as every sensation of the motion took him full force. He cupped her cheek in his hand as he thrust into her and knew his end was near but he didn't want to be there alone.
Leyadriel opened her eyes and saw his silent question and she gave a shallow nod and he smiled at her before letting his thumb trace her scar, staring into her blue eyes was enough to make him pull sharply out of her in anticipation of the glorious end. Then he put a feather light kiss on her lips within the span of a second he had thrust as deeply into as he could and spilled his seed deeply in her body, spasms overtook her under him as she came to her own peak of ecstasy. Unconsciously their bodies molded, as his seed seeped into her crevices he gently thrust into her again, to ensure that his essence remained inside her. She own body sucked up the liquid as if it were a precious lifesaving substance that she would perish without. But something almost more brilliant had happened when they had found their release; a light had exploded in each of their hearts. Their love was pure and it was deep and they could only find true delight in each other now that they had found each other.
Leyadriel's half lidded eyes showed her satiation. Legolas smiled and pressed a kiss against her forehead before rolling to her left side and settling down, pulling the covers up over them. She cuddled her head over his heart and put an arm around him. She well knew that she had never know such utter rapture in her life. Legolas completely encased her in his arms protectively, not wanting to share her with even the light of the moon.
She pressed a kiss over his heart, "That was truly the most amazing experience of my life, tis unfortunate that it must be stained."
He understood what she meant, she was tired and would sleep, would therefore dream and be tortured and hurt even after such an experience as this. This was the first time she had ever made love and come away from it without scars or bruises or a painful stab-like feeling between her legs. For the first time since she knew love making to be a beautiful art and not a cruel torture. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her arm sympathetically, "I would bear that weight for you if I could, melethnin."
"I know you would, and that only makes me love you more." Her eyes unfocused as she fell into a dream state.
Within an hour she was gripping her lover's body so tightly that she nearly drew blood, the sound of a slap sounded even though there was no one else in the room to hit her besides Legolas who would never do such a thing. Her head snapped to one side and a handprint appeared. Then where he had placed love bites on her neck scratches suddenly appeared. He hopped out of bed to go get bandages from the drawer of his nightstand and he quickly pressed them against her throat. An angry hit met her stomach time and time again until blood dripped from her mouth from the punishment and at least two of her ribs were broken or bruised badly.
She woke with a cough of that blood but quickly put a hand around her ribs, even breathing hurt her severely. Tears flowed down her face as she whimpered in pain, pressing harder against her rib cage to see if any were broken.
"Don't push them." Legolas scolded her.
"They're not broken." She announced.
"Nay, but if you hit them a few more times they will be." The anger in his voice was palpable in the air, he would kill those bastards again for doing this to her.
The bleeding from her throat was stopping and the blood she had coughed up was the first and last. She tried to sit up but grimaced as she did so. He gently pushed her back against the silk pillows, "Rest, miramin." {my jewel.}
"N'uma." She said as she sat up, barely withholding a cry.
"U-mankoi?" {Why not?}
"There is a war to fight, melethnin."
"You have severely bruised ribs, Leyadriel, you are not going anywhere except back under the covers."
"Mankoi? So I might fall asleep again so they can inflict *more* damage? My body heals fast, Legolas, I will recover." She assured him. {Why}
He could not stop her from getting up and putting on her nightdress, which she had to search for for a minute before remembering where it had been tossed hours before. He pulled on a pair of pants and loosely tied the strings before following her to her own room, just down the hall from his. When they reached there he could not stand her wincing at every step any longer.
"Sit down, Leyadriel. If you must insist upon going out then I will at least make you wrap those ribs before my bruise in sympathy." He skillfully wrapped bandages and gauze around ribs that were a yellow-black- purple bruise that was so ugly and painful looking that his stomach turned. He knew his face was scrunched up in pain just looking at it. She caressed his hair as he tended to her and said, "One grows used to the pain."
"Just because you are does not mean I shall ever be." He kissed her lips lovingly before she gently pushed him away and stood up with noticeably less pain. Then she went to her closet and pulled out a dark green riding skirt and suede knees lace up boots that matched.
He helped her lace up the back of the dress before wrapping his arms carefully around her waist and kissing the side of her neck, "Be careful melethnin, please be careful."
She nodded and laid out her hands against his bare chest, "I will, I promise." She looked at his half naked body and licked her bottom lip as last night seeped into her memory, "Now please get some clothes on before I loose my self-control Legolas."
He smiled wickedly at her before kissing her one last time and whispering in her ear "Im meleth lle." {I love you.}
With that he turned to get the rest of his clothes on.
*** At the same time in Gondor***
Arwen kissed Aragorn's brow and pressed a moist cloth against it, she held back the tears that wished to flow from her eyes. Eldarion came in to check on them but his mother shook her head gravely. Eldarion turned to his sisters and told them, "He is unchanged. I fear that these next days may be our last with our ada." {daddy}
Galaniel burst out into tears at that, she had always been very close to her father and Eldarion wrapped her in his arms and patted her back. As he comforted his sister he summoned a messenger and told him, "Ride hard and fast to Ithilien and find my sister Princess Leyadriel and bring her this news; her father is dying and she is needed here urgently. Now GO!"
The messenger flew out of the palace and onto his horse and was making his way there before Galaniel's tears had dried.
Arwen saw the messenger leave and a tear fell down her cheek, "Adar, I know you can hear me. Please, please adar, please. If you have any mercy, any heart, any pity at all for mortality's bitterness you will help Leyadriel's feet to fly here...else her father part forever from her with so much guilt on his heart." {Father}
But the Evenstar's prayer went unheard except by the white rose bush in the garden.
A/N- This Chappy takes the Cake for Chappy from Hell..By the way, its not a true elvish wedding or whatever because there is controversy over it and I am just deciding on what I interpret to be elvish marriage so here it is: Sex does not equal marriage, with my story there has to be concession from both parties publicly and then they sleep together and be married. In other words: Lego and Le are NOT married even though they slept together. HOW ARE THE FLUFF MONSTERS? Well fed I hope. They won't be seeing their time for a while now.. Review please???
