Disclaimer: Cheese is good. ß Do I sound like a person who's intelligent enough to accept the credit for Legolas?

Chapter Six: Jayik's New Job

"Rain," said Elorelei dully. "Rain. They dress me up so that I look like a froompy-"

"Froompy is not a word." Legolas immediately corrected her.

"It is now. They dress me up like I'm some sort of FROOMPY prissy primpy princess, and it rains."

The moment that Elorelei had put on the favored dress for the occasion, rain began flooding down in torrents. Better still, Legolas questioned her endlessly about the battle, but she had been so reluctant to speak at first. Now she was merely irritated.

"Did you kill any?" Legolas asked, straightening his dress tunic.

Elorelei finished tying a belt around her middle and glared up at Legolas. "For the eighth time, YES." She didn't really feel like talking about it, what it was like to take something's life. It made her feel so powerful, but so weak. So evil. She shuddered. If she was to be a warrior (and that was her intent) she would have to overcome that. "Does your father mean for you to train as a fighter?" She asked Legolas a question for the first time.

He looked at the floor, thinking deeply. "Yes." He gave a simple one word answer and said nothing else.

Elorelei, not having the patience to pry answers from him, went out onto a small, over-shadowed balcony. They were resting in another inn not far from the Castle. Rain struck the windows and rattled the walls and the wind bellowed like some great beast. She saw the Castle, grey and ominous, staring through the bleakness with its blank windows serving for eyes. She gazed back at it, knowing that if you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you. Not that she minded. The wind howled and the rain thundered some more, hoping to sway her thoughts that she was now lost in.

All her life, Elorelei knew only one home. "The Castle will not be my home. I have a home." She thought to herself. The storm screamed outside, and she finally turned to go in. Jayik was waiting.

"Come, there is a sheltered path to the Castle. Hopefully, you will make it there dry enough for the ball."

Elorelei froze, and she knew Legolas had, too. "Ball?"

Jayik nodded. "Yes, you know, ball? Dancing? Why do you think you were instructed to wear such a lavish dress?"

Legolas gulped.

*~*~*~*

"Jayik, PLEASE. Just let me leave."

"You're to stay through the whole thing, whether you dance-"

"I will not."

"Very well, but you're still staying." Jayik said firmly.

Elorelei had been pleading with him for the past hour. Legolas at least made an attempt and practically trampled Celidia's feet. He looked hopelessly at Elorelei and she looked hopelessly back. She knew how to dance, of course, Minele had seen to that. Yet, as the expression goes, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.' As long as she drew breath, Elorelei made a point of it not to dance in front of anyone, or let anyone know she could dance. Even now, with so many people, she wouldn't budge from a corner she had parked herself in.

Jayik had tried to talk her into it. "Oh, just go out there for a little bit. Legolas could use a partner while Celidia is healing her toes. Since you two are such good friends now- OW!" At that point, Elorelei's fist had connected with his kidney, and he since then suggested no more.

It seemed the dancing would never end and Jayik's stomach rumbled like the storm outside. He hoped the time to eat was not far off. Elorelei had fallen asleep in a corner and only awoke when Legolas came to talk to her about the Castle. She was surprised that he knew so much when her family had hardly bothered to tell her anything.

"What classes are you going to take?" asked Legolas, his stomach aching when the orchestra struck up another waltz.

Elorelei looked like she wanted desperately to eat the thing nearest her. "Cuisine," She replied, her attention steadied on the door to the kitchens. "So next time I want a meal, I can make my own." The chef kept popping in and out of the room, counting things, then leaving in the most irritating manner.

"I was being serious." The prince huffed.

Elorelei sighed. "Fine, if you must know, archery, weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, survival skills, and the, ugh, usual courses."

Legolas knew exactly what she meant by 'usual courses'. If you were a male coming to the Castle, you had free choice for all of your classes except for Elven History. On the other hand, females were required to take certain things. Usually they took History, they had a choice of three out of five classes, cloth-making, cooking, social skills, ceramics, and gardening. "A woman's pride is her garden." Minele used to say. Elorelei felt sorry for Minele's pride, because Minele hardly did anything in her garden at all. The chef came out, counted more things, then went back in.

Legolas moved over to give Elorelei some space while she ground her teeth and hissed, "If that overweight idiot cooking fool doesn't get out here and announce dinner this very second, I will curse him into the next age."

Legolas wasn't entirely sure if she was joking. He glanced worriedly at Jayik, but Jayik's attention was elsewhere. A female elf was talking with him and Jayik appeared very engaged in the conversation. Actually, he looked like he'd been struck over the head with a happy stick. The other elf was merely talking, oblivious to the fact that he was gazing longingly at her. She was very fair, with long reddish blonde locks, let down over her shoulders and over her great green eyes. Legolas was enraptured. She talked happily with Jayik, as if she were speaking to an old friend. Her voice was melodious and her entire aura was well-meaning, womanly, and good.

Elorelei was immediately repelled from her. "I hope she's not a teacher of any of my classes, or we will NOT get along."

Legolas furtively agreed. Elorelei didn't look like the elven woman's exact opposite at first, but after a closer look, she did. Elorelei was boyish and sarcastic and, on occasion, downright mean. The elven woman hardly looked any of those things. After watching the conversation for twenty minutes and ignoring his stomach, Legolas turned back to face Elorelei but she had leapt up and was walking steadily toward the kitchens, the head chef within her eagle-eye stare. Seconds later the feast was announced.

*~*~*~*

Legolas wanted to eat. He was psychotically hungry. His stomach was in a rage and his mouth watered relentlessly, but he couldn't eat. Not with the eating machine that was to the right of him. He's never seen a princess inhale food like that. Elorelei downed everything that was within her reach. Asking her "are you done with that?" was out of the question. The food would be gone before you could finish the statement.

She looked up at Legolas. Despite how she ate, there wasn't a crumb or smudge on her face. Legolas looked dumbstruck. "Eat," she said simply. "or I will eat for you." And she went back to vacuuming in her food.

Legolas looked around the table, eating as fast as he could without looking like an animal, or worse, like Elorelei. Jayik was sitting next to the pretty elf, still talking with her, but this time not with goggling eyes. She seemed to be asking him something, but Legolas could not make out her words. Instead, he turned his attention back to his food. Celidia was across from him, staring with anger at Elorelei, who was ignoring her totally.

*~*~*~*

"Hey, guess what?" Jayik ran up to Elorelei, beaming about something.

She responded with the usual scathing remark. "Who put the springs under your shoes?"

"I'm teaching here now," said Jayik proudly. "I talked to-"

"You mean drooled over." Elorelei interjected.

He ignored her and went on. "An elf that works here and she said they were looking for an assistant in the archery department. She got me the job!"

"Oh, joy." Was the reply. Though she truly was happy for him, Elorelei felt she needed to find somewhere to sit down and rest. Eating was very tiring, but she caught the hurt look on his face. "I'm happy for you, Jay, but I've eaten so much food, I'm about to explode on the spot." Stomach aching, she crawled to the hall, looking for the way to her room. Passing through a series of corridors, and not really going anywhere, Elorelei found her room by accident. She was looking for the bathroom, opened a door, and saw a small room with a series of doorways, names above each one. She read each one carefully until she found hers. 'Niqueran, Junita, Elorelei, and Fawneya' The door read. "At least they sound interesting." was Elorelei's last thought before she stepped through the door, found a bed, and slept.