Legolas made his way silently to the window, a dagger in his hand.

            Savina, not knowing what else to do, stood there, staring at the window. It was completely dark outside; she couldn't see anything beyond the windowsill.

            Silently as a cloud floating across the sky, Legolas stood next to the window, threw it open with a loud bang, and pulled a small, struggling figure into the room by his ponytail.

            "Tasselhoff?" Savina stared at the small Kender, who was only a little over four feet tall.

            Tas glared at Legolas, who was still hanging onto the long brown ponytail at the top of his head, "you're…pulling…my…hair…out!" he gasped as he tried to squirm out of Legolas' grasp.

            Legolas frowned down at the Kender, "what were you doing outside of Savina's window?"

            "Nothing-Ow!" he squealed as Legolas yanked his hair warningly.

            "Legolas, stop pulling his hair," Savina felt bad for the little Kender.

            Legolas let go of the ponytail and caught hold of his thin shoulders, "what were you doing?"

            Tasselhoff will still trying to worm his way away from Legolas, "let me go! Usually elves are way nicer than this, you're rotten!" His teeth chattered as Legolas shook him slightly.

            Savina stepped between Legolas and Tasselhoff, "please, Legolas, I will deal with him."

            Legolas gave her a dark look and mumbled something, then slipped back against the wall and crossed his arms, staring at the Kender darkly.

            Giving Legolas an angry scowl, Tas tried to straighten his hair and green tunic.

            "Tas," Savina bent and looked the Kender in the eye, "what were you doing?"

            "I just wanted to talk to you, I tired to go up the stairs but Otik saw me and got mad and threw me out, he hates Kender, don't know why," he paused thoughtfully, "I was thinking I would have to wait around until tomorrow, then I saw ivy growing up the side of the tavern, so I climbed it-"

            "You climbed ivy?" Legolas snorted from his place against the wall.

            "Yes," Tas scowled at him, then turned back to Savina, "so I climbed the ivy and was about to knock on your window when suddenly it came open and he," he glared at Legolas, "was yanking me around by my hair."

            Legolas gave a grunt of disbelief.

            Savina shot him a dirty look, "Tas, why did you need to talk to me?"

            "Because," he rummaged into one of his pouches, then pulled out a piece of paper, "I found this."

            Savina took it and unfolded it, then gasped and almost dropped it.

            It was a sketch of her.

            In the sketch, she was wearing a dark gown and standing near a table with a both arms raised and a dagger clasped between her hands. On the table lay Legolas, looking peaceful as if he were sleeping.

            Tas was speaking again, "one of the Goblins had a pouch hanging at his side, I think he was their leader, he was the one giving all the commands. Anyway, he brushed up against me in the tavern and dropped his whole pouch, can you believe it, it just came off of his belt. I was going to return it to him, but they left before I could. So I thought I would look inside and I found that."

            Legolas strode foreword, "what is it?"

            Wordlessly, Savina handed him the paper.

            He looked at it, his face emotionless, then crumpled it in his fist, "it means nothing…" he stared at Savina as if she had drawn it, hurt and pain and anger in his eyes. Then his eyes clouded over and turned cold, "perhaps we shouldn't…I will go tell Aragorn about both the drawing and the necklace."

            "Necklace?" Tas brightened, "what necklace?"

            Savina glanced at the necklace, which was lying on the bed where Legolas had dropped it.

            Before anyone could stop him, Tas snatched it up and examined it, dancing away from Legolas the whole time, "oh, I've seen this before, I took it from a tall man dressed in a black cloak, actually, I don't know if it was really a man, he had a horrible hissing voice. I was in Dubin and he ran into me on the street, this necklace sort of fell off of him, so I kept it in case I ever saw him again."

            Legolas stared at the Kender, then looked at Savina, who was staring at the Kender in disbelief as well.

            Tas hesitated, noting their grave faces, then continued, "he grabbed me by my neck and took it back, hissing at me the whole time, I think he said something about needed it for his master's doing or something. I saw him once more, on the way here to Stonewain Valley, but I kept my distance. I didn't like him much." Tas wrinkled his nose at the thought.

            Savina pointed at the necklace, "do you know anything else about the necklace Tas?"

            Tas looked down at it thoughtfully for a moment, "it's made by Orcs. It's not very old. And…hold on," he plunged his hand into one of his pouches, "Raistlin taught me this," he tossed a fistful of sand onto the necklace and said, "ribisi lashalisi!"

            The necklace glowed blue.

            "It's magical, it has some sort of spell or magic connected to it," Tas finished triumphantly.

            Legolas stared at him, surprised and impressed, "how do you know all of this?"

            Tas shrugged, "I've picked up on things over the years. I remember almost everything I hear or see."

            Savina stared at him, "over the years? How old are you?"

            "Well, let's see…" he trailed off for a moment, "four hundred and nineteen next month."

            Savina's jaw dropped, "how…"

            "Kender live quite a long time," Legolas said quietly. Then he held out his hand for the necklace, "I have to show these to Aragorn."

            Tas handed him the necklace and Legolas disappeared, shutting the door quietly behind him.

            Savina sank down on the bed, what exactly was going on here? She glanced up, remembering Tas was still in the room.

            Tas was looking at her thoughtfully, "are you and Legolas in love?"

            "What?"

            Tas shrugged, "I've seen you look at each other."

            "Well aren't you observant?" Savina mumbled, "no, we aren't, nor do I think we ever will be."

            "Why not?"

            Savina stared at him, then shrugged, "it's just not going to happen, and it shouldn't, he's the prince of Mirkwood-"

            "A prince? Wow."

            "And I'm nothing."

            Tas shook his head, "I'm just a Kender, so you don't have to listen, but I think you're too nice to be nothing."

            Savina lifted her head and smiled at him, "thank you, Tas." Then she continued, without losing her smile, "please put my dagger back in my boot."

            "I was just looking at it," he said apologetically as he slipped it back into her boot.

            "I know," she yawned.

            Tas noticed her yawn, "I'll see you tomorrow," he said as he slipped one foot out the window and was gone.

            Savina stood up and leaned out the window, but she couldn't see Tas at all, so she sighed, shut the window, and climbed into bed. She lay staring at the ceiling for a moment, then was fast asleep.

            She didn't hear Tasselhoff yelp in pain on the ground below her window, or hear her window creak open.