A/N: Lyrics to ponder time, YEAH! Really Love to See You Tonight- England Dan, and I Could Fall in Love- Selena. Yes, this next chapter is mushy. I HAD to incorporate romance at SOME point people! Think of it as an amusement park ride. Keep you hands and arms on the keyboard and mouse at all times. Please watch out for long, confusing words, as they tend to jump up on you a lot in this chapter (I was feeling intelligent). Thank you and enjoy the ride.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: All in the Game

"Elorelei, please wake up. You're starting to worry me."

Elorelei creaked her eyes open at the sound of Legolas's voice. His steel-blue eyes, filled with relief, welcomed her, making her smile more happily than she intended.

The way she smiled at him made his heart jump. "There. Come on, we need to get you back to the palace."

Elorelei nodded in agreement, but she was so tired. Her spirit had been sucked to another dimension, her body had been weakened considerably without it. "I… I can't… I'm too tired… too weak." She saw a gleam of mischief cross Legolas's face. "Don't you think it."

"Why bother thinking it when I can do it?" He smiled, scooping her up in his arms. "Come on, you do want to sleep in a bed, don't you?"

Elorelei had to admit the idea was extremely tempting. "Okay, but if anyone sees us, I'll kill you."

"Wow, that's nice of you."

She laughed but got stopped midway by a yawn. She rested her eyes for what she thought was a few minutes, but when she opened them Legolas was laying her down on a bed.

"I can't believe you slept the whole way. I almost dropped you."

"There's a comforting thought." She whispered, feeling sleep's grip tighten on her. She didn't want to sleep, and Legolas's provided distraction.

"Where did you go during that spell? I felt like I lost you." He touched her skin, which was uncharacteristically cold.

She leaned against him without meaning to as her eyelids got heavier and heavier. "A lot of places… I saw things… Things I never wanted to see again." Slowly, Legolas wrapped an arm around her. It was meant as a comforting gesture, but it brought not-so-comforting feelings to her stomach. He didn't say anything else, but wrapped her hair around her so she could be warm. She didn't bother to tell him she was quite warm enough. Elorelei shut her eyes, ready to sleep now. She didn't tell Legolas to go, though she knew she should've. When she said she was weak, she meant it. Besides, since Andulin's death, she hated spending her nights with only tears to keep her company.

Be with someone you love, instead of alone…

*~*~*~*

Elorelei woke up the next morning to find Legolas had already gone out. "He's always loved mornings." She thought, slipping out of bed to change. A letter was on her desk, and she recognized Legolas's handwriting.

Didn't want to wake you. The bow is in your vault again, I gave it to your grandfather and he put it there. You have to see your father this morning for Conversion instruction. Meet me outside afterwards.

Legolas

She threw the letter into a bag and changed quickly, grabbing some rolls for her breakfast then walking steadily into the throne room. King Felair had regained his self-control, but Lumaeus had never lost his. When Elorelei walked in, he was calm and collected, hugging her and greeting her like his grandchild. It was Lumaeus who did most of the instruction. Felair just tried to hold still.

"The mortality given you with form a shell around you," stated Lumaeus, watching his son out of the corner of his eye. "When you are ready to be called back, mutter the incantation and the spell will break. Your human form will shatter, leaving only you. Then make the journal back through Portalis Somnium."

Elorelei listened, appearing very calm and collected, but wishing her father would say something, anything, to reassure her that he was okay.

"I believe that's it. Preparation will take a few months, but you will be given two years for your personal affairs."

Elorelei started. "Two years, my Lord? What shall I-"

"Stop all that 'my Lord' nonsense. I'm still your grandfather, child." Lumaeus winked.

Elorelei fought her smile. "Yes, Grandfather. But what do I have to sort out that will take two years?"

Felair spoke with his voice steady as a rock. "The years will pass like seconds, even you know this, Elore-… Laika."

"It's Elorelei to family, Father." Elorelei smiled to see her father ease a little. She returned her attention to Lumaeus, who was looking at his son with something like pride. "And if all my affairs are in order?"

He turned and gave her sly smile. "Then take the time to relax. Meditate, explore your mind," She was sure his eyes sparkled. "And your heart." He was not displeased to see the look of shock in her eyes. "Is there anything else, Felair?"

He nodded. "Elihar Silvermoon will accompany you in animal form. Some bat-like creature-"

"A flying fox, they call it." Lumaeus interrupted.

"If there is an emergency, he will be able to contact us right away."

Elorelei felt a spasm of relief. She didn't know why, but she seemed to be on the knife's edge of emergency with every passing moment.

*~*~*~*

"PULL!" TWANG! THUNK! Legolas smirked at the fallen target in front of him. He couldn't remember the last time he missed.

He readied another arrow. "PULL!!"

"BRICK!!"

"What?" TWANG! A clear miss. Legolas grimaced in frustration. "Excuse me, what do you think you're-!"

"Oh, come off it, even I miss once in a while." Elorelei grinned.

Legolas smiled and put down his arrow, dismissing the target practitioner. "What was that you yelled? Brick?"

"It's supposed to mean your arrow will fall like a brick. It didn't quite do that, but the other effect was sufficient," She said, taking up her own bow. "What did you want me out here for?"

"I thought you'd like to take a walk." Just the way he said it made her suspicious. It sounded like the truth, but with an ulterior motive.

"… What did you really want me out here for?"

He sighed. How does she do that? "Minele is speaking with your father about you. Vandelar thought it best that you were out of the palace at that time."

She gave him a look that set his blood running cold. He racked his mind for some way to appease her.

"So how about that walk?" His face lit up with a smile that never failed to endear him to her. Sure enough, after only a few seconds, she acquiesced. (A/N: *running from long words* They overpowered me!! Save yourselves!! No hippopontiac-… hippomontriarch… hippophinkltwak… NO PERSON AFEARED OF LONG WORDS IS SAFE!! RUUUUUN!!… Sorry, I just had to do that.)

*~*~*~*

The walk was short and uneventful. It ended in the meadows, and they sat in the grass under a kind sun in the shade of a kinder tree.

"It's good to be home, I was gone a long time." Elorelei looked around and remembered riding Iledian over the grassy field just before she met Legolas in the forest... How had he gotten there so quickly anyway? It was a three day ride on horse back from the West, at least. She decided now was not the best time to ask. Legolas, despite himself, did not use such decisive powers.

"Elorelei..." How could he put this? "Do you think... you could tell me- I mean if you want to, that is... about..."

"Andulin?" She finished. The pain was still close to her, but this was Legolas. She still had yet to make up for the years of closing herself to him. "If you feel like hearing it, I suppose I could."

He rested a hand on her arm, but didn't know the shiver that traveled through her body the moment he did. "I'd like to, very much." The pause that followed felt unsure, but Elorelei had already chosen. The touch on the arm had melted away her resolve. Had she really been alone so long that even Legolas invoked such emotions in her? Or had he done that on his own? She inhaled deeply to clear her thoughts.

"When I met him, Andulin was... intriguing. He was powerful, but quiet about it. His men, Vandelar and the others, they followed him like a king." Legolas was listening still, having many questions, but not wanting to interrupt. She went into a world of her own, laughing at the images in her head. "They would've hacked themselves in half with a battle axe if he told them to. But they were peasants, never trained in the deadly arts, but they had the skill for it. He wanted me to teach them, to train his army. I don't even know how he got me to do it." She looked down, studying her hands to keep from looking Legolas in the eye. "Well, actually, I do know. He had these eyes. They were so unnaturally blue, I've never seen anything like it. It's as if he'd taken two tiny pieces of the most brilliant, royal blue, opalescent gems and put his emotions into it." The tenderness and longing with which she spoke the words brought a lump to each of their throats. "And his hair, it was so black..."

"Like yours?" Legolas blurted, before wincing at his own impatience. The picture she'd so carefully been painting got a smudge on it. She just as easily painted over it.

"No, not at all like mine. You can tell my hair used to be brown once, but his... It was black down to it's very core. The only thing like it was being in a thick forest at midnight. Where no stars or moonlight penetrated. Thick black that light couldn't enter, but could shine off of like a surface..." It surprised her how much she knew about his appearence. She covered it up some. "It ran down to his shoulders, I think." She knew it ran exactly one inch past his shoulders, framing the definite lines of his face and jaw with an attractive elegance. "But for all his beauty, I wouldn't have married him if-" She stopped, wondering if this was too much for Legolas, but he looked at her with a desperate want to know what drew her to elf so that she married him. "He treated me as if... I were fragile."

Legolas smiled in a teasing way. Elorelei was a lot of things but fragile wasn't one.

This loosened her a little as she went on. "I know, I know, but that's how he was. On the battlefield, of course, he had to let me fight, but he was always by my side... or I was always by his. We spent every day together and each day he made his feelings for me more and more apparent. He never hid his feelings. And the way he was around me, I've never been treated like... like I was something special. There were times when he just couldn't believe he had the right to touch me." She looked to Legolas for an understanding. "I've never been loved like that. I didn't know it was possible to love like that. And when he asked me, I knew I felt the same way... So I said yes." She finally gathered up her breath, staring into the light, steelish blue that was nothing like the dark blue of her former love's eyes.

The look of shock and something like receding hope in his eyes made her heart tighten as if someone had suddenly gripped it and wrung it like a piece of cloth. He was disappointed for some reason; she just hoped it wasn't the reason she suspected.

Legolas left Elorelei alone for a while after the conversation was over. Her grief was no longer an open wound, but an ugly scar tht hadn't fully healed. He'd give it time, elves healed quickly. Then he could... He could what?

Seconds passed while Legolas ran over in his head what'd just been thinking. He mentally kicked himself. Elorelei could never feel for him that way! Listen to her describe Andulin! She'd never talk about you like that! It made his heart contract, but he immediately denied the feeling. He continued on his way, thinking how foolish he was being. When several other signals told him otherwise.

*~*~*~*

Eli watched Legolas return from the meadow... alone. He wasn't one to play matchmaker, but this was just too easy to pass up. Though she may never admit it, Andulin had just taken the place Legolas would've if Elorelei hadn't left. She may have forgotten it, but Legolas did kiss her before she left, and she DID make the inclination that it was possible for her to love him. Eli crinkled his nose, thoughtfully. If he could do this without playing on their emotions and taking any roundabout ways... He would help, he decided, but not too much.

"LEGOLAS!"

The other elf snapped his head to look at Eli's approaching figure. "Hello, Eli." He smiled, but had to put some force into it.

The brown-haired elf smiled back, without any force at all. "Where's Elorelei?"

"Oh," He said, looking out to where he'd left her. "Out in the meadows wih the horses."

Eli looked exultant. "Good, I need to ask you something."

Automatically, Legolas assumed a more defensive stance. "Yes?" He asked warily.

"Are you falling in love with Elorelei?"

The question was so direct and open, Legolas racked his brain for a way around it. "Why? Are you thinking of-"

"No, I'm not, just answer the question."

He thought of his counter attack. Another question. "What makes you say-"

"The fact that every spare moment you have, you seem to be spending it with her. Now answer."

Legolas blinked. Tiptoeing around such a situation was obviously not an option. "Does it help if I say I'm trying not to?"

"It helps me, but I doubt that it'll do you much good."

*~*~*~*

Elorelei hummed a quiet song she made up in her head as she brushed through Ilexim's glossy coat. He'd been rolling around in the dirt and grass, which was a sign that he was active again.

"My baby boy's getting better." She smiled. She remembered the exact moment Ilexim came into the world, seconds before Rydar. Andulin had helped with birthing the foals, and even helped with doctoring Iledian when they weren't so sure she would live through her labor. He'd reminded her so much of Legolas during that time, forgetting all his inhibitions when it came to helping others. It was at those times when she missed the fair-haired elf the most. She wished he wouldn't ask her about Andulin so much, yet at the same time, she was glad. There were many things she needed to get out of her. And unfortunately, everyone else had the good sense not to ask about them.

The next few weeks were unusually tense. Elorelei got the feeling that Legolas was holding something back. In a way, it calmed her. When Legolas was open with her and totally trusting, it frightened her in a deep way. He came as close as he dared, and sometimes she slipped and came closer to him, before shoving him away. With Vandelar and the men around, they were a constant reminder that she was not ready to fall in love again. Even when it seemed so easy to just let herself be taken in, she decided to keep her emotions to herself. However, it was, at times, most difficult.

Elorelei baarely remembered that Legolas was walking beside her she was so tired. The strenuous exercises her grandfather insisted she do had finally taken their toll.

"Elorelei?" Legolas gave her a look of concern when she stopped to lean on the wall. "Are you going to be all right?"

She nodded, but faintly. "If you tried some of this stuff they put me through for a few weeks, you'd be tired, too." She joked.

He smiled at her to cover his worry. "Why don't you stay in my room? It's right here. There are two beds, one of the benefits of a royalty suite."

The offer was extremely tempting, but should she? Her feet were failing beneath her. She took the chance, knowing she might regret it in the morning. "Thanks," She replied, dropping onto the bed. "I appreciate it."

"I know you do," Legolas said softly, moving some of his things out of the way to make room for her. She closed her eyes, barely feeling legolas shift her so she could sleep beneath a warmer blanket.

"Why are you doing this for me?" She mumbled, halfway to sleep.

The prince smiled at her in his endearing way. It was almost too easy to fall in love with those eyes. "Because I want to."

Elorelei sat straight up, remembering Andulin saying the exact same words when she asked him why he continued to put up with her. Because, my warrior, my lady, my love, I want to.

"I need to go," She stammered, her voice cracking. "My room's not so far." She stood up, but was so sleepy, her brain didn't quite get it and she nearly fell again.

Calmly, Legolas looked down, his smile fading away. Eli had told him this would happen. And the only adive he gave him was to confront the situation. That's all he could do. "Stop this, Elorelei." He told her quietly, but firmly. For a moment, his royal blood and his regal voice made her freeze... but she couldn't for long. Still, Legolas held her attention. "Tell me why you keep doing this."

She didn't answer, holding her silence as if it were all she had.

"You make me believe, even with the faintest of hints, that you love me. Then you turn around and say goodbye as if it never happened. You let me close to you, then you tear away." It was plain he was angry. He felt hurt and spurned week after week, and enough was enough.

"Legolas, I can't-"

He snapped his head up. "Then is that why you break away? You only pretend you could love me when you know it's hopeless? Is that why?!"

Elorelei jumped back with just as much anger. "No, it's because I'm scared of the fact that I am falling in love with you, no matter what I tell myself or what I do about it!!" Legolas jerked backward at her retaliation. Was she shouting back at him?! What right did she have to yell at-...

"... ...What?" He leaned in, inching closer to her. She couldn't have said... But she did.

A/N: Sorry if I rushed that, I can fix it when I re-edit. Elorelei's got other stuff to do and we can't wait around for her to get her stubborn ass together.