Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own any of the character, places, names, or anything associated with the works of J.R.R Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings (books or movie, whatever). My characters are Anita, Leila, and Arlandria and that is all.
Chapter 8: Walk
As much as Anita didn't want to admit it about Rivendell, this place had really beautiful weather. Like late February in Tucson, it was warm and sunny with the gentlest of breezes. One thing was for sure, if Anita had tried going hiking like she was currently in the middle of a May afternoon in Tucson, she would have already been dead from dehydration. As it currently was, Anita's only danger was dying from exhaustion. Legolas of course didn't seem to be suffering from the same problem.
"Not that this isn't lovely," Ani said breathlessly after at least an hour of climbing up the rocky terrain of the mountain side, " but are we coming up on our exit?"
The sound of Legolas' chuckles floated down to her from where the elf was about twenty paces ahead of her. " We are very nearly at our destination."
"Where are we headed anyway? This isn't gonna be some tomb of your past victims is it?"
"You will see, be patient." Ani wrinkled her nose at Legolas' response, less than encouraged by his answer. She had been joking about the tomb, Anita was at least past the point of thinking he was going to drag her out into the woods and off her like a scene from SAW. However, she would also be the first to admit that she wasn't the biggest fan of surprises either. The duo continued to climb in silence as the midday sun warmed them from above, until the rocky slope that was under foot drastically inclined into a small cliff. Legolas easily and gracefully pulled himself up and over the edge, leaving Ani to consider if she even had enough strength left after the climb to perform the same action.
With an unlady like grunt, Anita latched her fingers onto the cliff above her head, and pulled. Despite the fact that she was no stranger to pull-ups on a bar, a dead lift using only a cliff for leverage was beyond her upper body strength. A hand appeared in her peripheral , and Ani glanced up to see Legolas crouched on the edge of the cliff offering her his help.
"I can get it." Anita barked, more for the sake of preserving her pride than anything else. Legolas laughed at her expense but retracted his hand and stepped away from the ledge giving her space to climb up. Jumping, Ani used the little height advantage her jump had given her to swing her leg up and hook it over the ledge. Using both her upper body strength and the new counter point her leg offered, she dragged herself over the edge and flopped down onto the hard rock floor, panting.
"Graceful." Legolas teased her.
"Shut up," She countered from her prostrate position on the smooth floor, where she stayed to catch her breath. Rolling onto her side, Anita pushed up into a sitting position and looked around. It was the mouth of a cave, which had been hidden from sight at a lower viewing angle. No more than twenty square feet, the cave overlooked the valley from its vantage point midway up in the side of the mountain. Running straight through the center of the cave was a stream which was fed from a waterfall that ran over the back rocks of the cave, and fed into a waterfall that dropped off into a lake below. Ani stared in awe at the walls of the cave and stood up to go and run her fingers over them .
"It has taken thousands of years for the stream to carve this cave into the mountain side." Legolas said, coming to stand beside Anita as she ran her fingers over the smooth rock. The way the water had broken the rock down slowly over time was a story the rock walls now told, layers of different color and texture that had been deposited over hundreds of years decorated the cave walls.
"How did you find this place?"
"I have been coming here for many years, since my youth. It is a place I come to when I need solace."
"It's beautiful," Anita said quietly, even her whisper though echoed off throughout the cave. The sight of the warped walls made her wish she had thought to bring her sketching tools with her.
"Even mountains can change over time." Legolas mused from the mouth of the cave where the invading sunlight was glistening off the stream , casting little diamonds of light across the roof and Legolas' form.
"You mean even mountains eventually succumb to the forces that want to destroy it," She wasn't trying to be melancholy, honestly she wasn't, but there was something sad hidden in the beauty of the cave. It saddened Anita to think that all it took was time for something as inconsequential as a stream to rip a whole this size in a mountain. "Hey can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Anita was desperate to change the subject, and the only options for conversation were the cave, herself, or Legolas. Sooo….
"Why are you in Rivendell anyway?"
"Solace." Legolas said plainly as he took a seat at the edge of the cave, one leg perched on the ledge bent so his arm could rest on his knee, while his other leg dangled over the edge of the cliff. "My father and I were having a disagreement of sorts, I felt it best to take some time away for both our sakes."
"Disagreement about what?" Anita came to sit in front of Legolas crossing her legs like in kindergarten, her back to the stream.
Legolas looked out over the valley, thoughtful for a moment before he answered Anita's question, and for a second she thought maybe she had asked too personal of a question. "My father has very high expectations of me, being the next in line to the throne. He feels that, up until this time, I have not been meeting those expectations. He claims that I hold no responsibilities in the realm, and a lack of responsibility will make me unfit to succeed his position on the throne of my people."
"Responsibilities huh? Is that how you ended up being my babysitter?"
Legolas smirked, showing off his high cheekbones. "Not at all. Your father asked me as a personal favor to watch over you while you ventured outside the walls of Rivendell. I was glad to return the favor as this household has been kind to me over the years."
Anita didn't probe into the matter any further, from experience she knew talking about family could easily light a fuse. Instead she turned her attention back to the landscape of the valley, specifically the lake below them, which was on a small plateau that cut onto the side of the mountain. Based on the size of it, Anita could assume safely that it was being fed from another source besides the small stream that cut through the cave.
"How deep do you think that lake is?"
Glancing over the side of the cliff to the water below, the elf looked thoughtful for a moment before he answered. "More than the height of three men."
Anita did some quick math in her head. "And how far down would you say it is? Like a 100 feet?" Legolas didn't answer her question. He turned his attention from the water back to the violet haired girl. He could tell the wheels in her head were turning and an idea was starting to take form.
"Think we should jump?"
"I beg your pardon?!" The elf prince was startled by the question.
"Yeah it'll be fun." The girl was a little too enthusiastic about this idea for Legolas' taste.
"Is that how people amuse themselves in your world? Jumping to their death?"
Anita snorted and rolled her eyes. " Oh I forget…elves don't know how to have fun." Pushing herself up from the sitting position so she stood above Legolas, she dusted tiny bits of crushed rock from her pants. "Do you know what you're problem is?"
"My problem?" Legolas responded indigently to Anita's offensive question.
"Not you specifically." And she pointed in the direction of Rivendell. "I mean you as in a general you guys. Elves. You all live too long. Yeah humans don't live even one hundredth of your lifespan, but at least we enjoy the time we have. You don't worry about enjoying things now because you have tomorrow, or next year, or hell next decade to do it. You have literally forever to enjoy every single experience that life has to offer, and you just… don't. After two weeks here I can honestly say you all lead the most boring, pointless, beige lives possible."
Anita turned away from the elf and started back towards the walls to examine them closer. She didn't hear him get up, not even a pebble was shifted when he stood, but the feeling of his strong grip on her wrist was unmistakable. She turned back to Legolas, who had a playful smirk on his face.
"Come, let us leap then." He gave her arm a firm tug in the direction of the part of the cliff that overhung the lake, causing Anita to firmly dig her heels into the cave floor.
"Are you being serious?"
"Deathly." Anita couldn't tell with that shit eating grin on his face if Legolas was really being serious or if he was just teasing her. " Or are you suddenly too paralyzed by your own 'beige' fear?" Well now he was just mocking her.
"Did you just call me chicken?"
"If by 'chicken' you mean a person too afraid to follow through on their own ideas, then yes you are a chicken." They stood there for a second staring at each other in silence, Anita's mouth hung agape in shock that she had basically just been dared to jump by an elf.
"Alright…fine, let's do it." She set her jaw firmly and adjusted her hand so that instead of Legolas gripping her wrist, they now tightly held hands.
"Indeed?" The young elf cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Indeed, yeah, count of three." She set in feet in a position to run , and waited.
"One."
"Two."
In unison they shouted, "Three!" before taking a handful of running steps to the edge of the cliff and hand in hand launching themselves off the end of the landing. Her grip on Legolas tightened and she let out a shriek of delight as the ground disappeared beneath their feet and that fleeting moment of weightlessness took over. A thrill of excitement and fear rippled up her spine as they began their rapid descent towards the welcoming blue waters below. Squeezing her eyes shut tight and taking that last deep gulp of air, Anita's whole body tensed waiting to be engulfed.
The drop lasted barely a second before their bodies plunged into the cold depths of the lake. As soon as they broke the serene surface of the water, Ani released Legolas' hand. She remained underwater for a moment, enjoying the strange feeling of being suspended in a world where gravity meant almost nothing. She opened her eyes and saw the bright light from the sun dancing and refracting off the surface ripples their jump had caused. Working her arms and legs in unison, Anita pushed herself towards the surface.
"Wooo!" She cried out with her first inhale of fresh oxygen after resurfacing, "That was awesome!" Her voice echoed off the rocky ledges above them, followed by a full bodied hysterical laugh brought about by the adrenaline still pulsating through her veins.
Swimming to the edge on the lake, she pulled herself with some difficulty, seeing as how wet jeans meant really heavy jeans. Anita was thoroughly soaked through, head to toe, and she was sure her shoes were going to make that awful wet squeaking noise when she started to walk.
"Was that 'fun' enough for you Lady Anita?" Legolas easily removed himself from the water, and came to sit by the still human girl.
"Ani."
"Excuse me?"
"My friends call me Ani, no one calls me Anita except for when I'm in trouble and you are the only weirdo that calls me Lady anything."
"Well I do beg your forgiveness. Was that fun enough for Ani?"
"Yeah, it was." And Legolas received the first genuine full smile he had seen in the short time he had known Elladan's daughter.
They had been sitting for only a moment before Legolas stood up and offered Ani his hand, "It is well past midday now, I should get you back to Rivendell before your father begins to worry." Anita didn't argue, but she did accept Legolas' hand to help her up. Together the pair started making the walk back to town, and as Ani predicted her shoes squeaked the whole damn way.
The walk back was short and the gentle breeze had made it so neither Ani's jeans or shoes had enough time to dry before the pair was entering back through the gates of Rivendell. Elladan was waiting there to greet them. As soon as he saw the state his daughter was in, his face immediately fell into a deep frown.
"Anita, what happened? You are soaked to the bone."
"We went cliff jumping into a lake." By the expression on her father's face, Ani realized she probably should have downplayed the situation somehow. Elladan pursed his lips and turned a wrathful eye to Legolas.
"I asked you to keep my daughter safe, what about a suicidal plunge off a mountain seems safe to you?!"
Legolas barely had opened his mouth to defend himself before Ani leapt right in " Dude chillax, it was my idea."
"I have no interest in whose idea it was, he had no authority to allow you…"
"How exactly was he going to stop me? Cuz I'm some poor little woman I should just listen when the man tells me no? Well unless he had planned to wrestle me to the ground and tie me to a tree stump, I was jumping. And I don't need you sending one of your lackeys to try and control what I do!" Her loud and sudden outburst caught Elladan off guard, and she made a big display of stomping passed him with a sound of complete exasperation.
Legolas almost missed it, but just as he was turning his attention back to Elladan following Anita's dramatic exit, he saw the girl turn briefly when she had made it past Elladan and well out of his line of sight. Right before she took off running in her squeaking shoes, she had turned back to him and paused only for a second to flash him a playful smile and wink.
Walk- Foo Fighters