King Kanduin and Prince Legolas were walking side by side in one of the
many gardens. It was the morning of the 5th day of Legolas' stay. He would
be departing soon. The only thing that had kept him from doing so yet was
the news that Gandalf the Grey would be joining them any time now.........
and Princess Irulan of course. She was such an interesting phenomenon for
him, and he already regretted the idea of having to part from her. The more
time he spent with her, the more he found her fascinating and only wished
to spend longer time in her company. It was strange and a bit unsettling
for him to feel this way about a mortal woman. Yes, he had some long and
good friendships with mortal men - Aragorn, son of Arathorn was certainly
such a friend. Gandalf, who was no mortal, but no elf either, was another
one. But a mortal woman! Now that was something to think about. Or rather
not...........a part of him feared that in analyzing it too much he would
somehow hurt the beautiful feelings that were growing between them. Or
rather, that were growing inside him.
"Is it a grave matter, my friend?" asked Kanduin and thereby interrupted Legolas' thoughts.
"Oh no, not at all. Just a minor wish of mine. It concerns your daughter, Lady Irulan."
Kanduin was surprised. He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the elven prince, whose face would not give away what he was thinking. He sighed, "What did she do this time? Did she insult you in any way, dear prince? Please spare me no details!"
Legolas smiled. "Nothing of the sort, I assure you, King Kanduin. On the contrary, Princess Irulan was very kind to me throughout my stay. I felt very gracious to have her company."
"Oh," said Kanduin. Now that was even more surprising. Irulan was very good company when she meant to be, true, but yet she ended up rubbing people the wrong way most of the time. "Well............. what is the matter then?"
"I do not know your customs well enough to judge the effect of my question. Yet I hope that you will understand that I ask it only for reasons of kindness and assistance. I know that Princess Irulan has problems with archery, is that not so?"
Kanduin was confused now. He was expecting some complaint, yes, but archery? "Yes, her lack of skill in that area is infamous," he chuckled lightly. "It infuriates her but she tries not to show it."
"I was thinking that I might be able to help," Legolas said.
"How so, my friend?"
"If the princess were interested and if you thought it proper, I would love to be her host in my home in Mirkwood for a time, where I and others would be honored to teach her that skill," Legolas said slowly and cast a sidelong glance at the king. "I would offer to stay here and teach her, yet I must be present in Mirkwood for certain matters that need my attention. Besides, I thought it would be interesting for a princess, your daughter, to be the first to see the ways of your neighbors."
"Indeed!" said the king. He seemed more than pleased at the thought of one of his family being invited to the kingdom of Mirkwood. The elves were very reserved. They had begun attending the annual parties and festivities his kingdom offered only very recently and never before made such an invitation no any other kingdom or house that he knew about. And for the prince himself to teach her archery! He tried to curb his excitement. Irulan! Interesting, but why was it always this or that way about Irulan? "But my friend, I could not let such a frivolous matter to take up the precious time of a prince!"
Legolas chuckled slightly, "Dear King, often it is my belief that I have more time than I need."
"Oh, of course," laughed Kanduin. "I understand. Well, I am a bit surprised about this offer. It is a great honor, no doubt. My only fear would be Irulan causing you trouble. She has quite a talent in THAT area, I can tell you," he added somewhat bitterly.
"I am sure that it would be no trouble for us. We would be glad to see her in Mirkwood and proud if we can be of assistance in this matter to her."
"Well..... in that case, dear Legolas. I see absolutely no reason why not! When will you be available for such a task?"
Legolas smiled again, "As I have said before, your highness, I am available any time you ask of me."
***
"All right now Saime. I want you to attack me with that broom."
Saime, the head of servants, looked very unhappy. She was standing in the kitchen, servants swirling around her, carrying all sorts of mugs and cups and buckets in haste. It was no easy task to run a castle, but she had been doing that for all her life now and was proud in having served the royal family through many generations. She looked at the broom in her hand. "Princess Irulan............ your highness..... I beg you..... this is really not the time............. and I am certainly not the right person..."
Irulan rolled her eyes. "Of course you are! All you have to do is try to hit me with the broom. I will not hit you back, promise," she said. Saime obviously had not considered that possibility before and her eyes widened with fear. "Princess," she gulped, "I am an old and weak woman!"
"Yes, yes," said Irulan hastily, "but that is your weapon of expertise, is it not?"
"Weapon? Your highness it is but only..........."
"A broom, I KNOW Saime! I meant you have been using it all your life............. for decades now! So it has kind of become one with you."
Saime looked at the broom in her shaking hand with an expression of pure horror on her face, as if the thing could sprout roots any time and truly attach itself on her hand.
"Aw come on, how hard can that be? Pretend I'm a rat. Ahem............. a mouse."
"Princess, I can not!"
Irulan sighed in despair. "Do you want me to take the broom and make a demonstration on you?"
"So it has come to this! The future rulers of Middle Earth are torturing old women, I see!" a voice boomed behind her.
Irulan screamed in delight and turned around. "Gandalf!" she screamed and jumped up to hug him. "You stealthy wizard!" Gandalf chuckled in delight. "Irulan! You are getting more wicked with the hour!"
Irulan stepped back all grins, "How dare you! I am preparing myself for the orcs!" She moved closer and whispered "And who would be a better model of them than Saime?"
Gandalf's laughter echoed through the halls. "Now that, I certainly can not deny!" Saime, taking advantage of the appearance of the wizard had disappeared into thin air. "I certainly missed you Irulan. You always have a special place in my heart."
"Yeah, yeah" said Irulan. They started to walk down the corridor towards the main halls of the castle, "you probably say that to every pretty girl you meet in Middle Earth."
"I do not!" replied Gandalf with all innocence. "What a heart breaking accusation!"
Irulan grinned up to him, "I am wise to the ways of men, my dear Gandalf! Everyone knows you are the biggest Casanova ever!" she teased him, knowing fully that Gandalf was nothing of that sort but that this kind of speech always made him uneasy, for he felt that it might end up as a gossip and ruin his reputation as a wizard.
"Now now............ I would never...."
Irulan quickly held up her hand, "Spare me the details, Gandalf! I certainly am yet too young to hear them."
"You are one impossible girl!"
"One that you can not wield with all your charm, that's for sure. I heard that you were coming. It has been very long indeed. Too long," Irulan said.
"Yes, I was traveling about." Irulan's eyes glittered with excitement, "You will tell me about that, yes?"
"Hmmm..............." Gandalf creased his brows and looked very serious for a moment, "I don't know really. Let us say that we may exchange information. I have not heard anything about you during my travels for some time now. You have been suspiciously quiet since that dragon incident."
Irulan rolled her eyes, "Well my father does not send me away since that anymore, that's why! It is making me crazy! I did not know the dragon would actually chase the darn thing!"
"What a misfortune that a whole town stood in its way!" sighed Gandalf.
"Well, it was more like a little village actually.... And it was not a big dragon..... compared to others anyway."
"I heard otherwise."
"That's because they never saw the other ones!"
"Let's just hope that you won't pay another visit any time soon, then."
"What dragon incident?" said another voice behind her. Gandalf smiled brightly and walked up to greet Legolas. "My dear friend! How wonderful to find you here as well."
'That elf always creeps about in that sinister fashion,' Irulan thought bitterly. 'Someone should tell him that it is rude to walk on people like that without them knowing it.'
Legolas and Gandalf were heartily exchanging greetings. Legolas had told her that they had been friends for many years now, but seeing them together like that was indeed a heart-warming experience. True friendship was such a rare thing! She envied their freedom to walk around in Middle Earth undisguised. She envied them coming together even after many years and talking about the most wondrous things they had seen or done. And here she was, sitting in a stone castle with people like accursed Endor around her, unable to do anything with her skill, unable to make any difference in the world. All she could do was go out training in the forest and run off into the city to attend some games. Ah yes, let's not forget visiting her friends living there! It was growing thin and repetitive. She felt no satisfaction in her life. And it was only getting worse. Yes, the talking was nice and the people were nice, but she was through with talking. She wanted to DO something, damn it!
"Are you all right Irulan? You look like you ate something that refuses to go down our throat," she heard Gandalf say.
Irulan smiled. "It is but only kind words. I thought about uttering them for a minute there, but not wishing to ruin my repetition, changed my mind and decided to swallow."
Legolas smiled brightly. "What is this incidence about a dragon?"
"Oh," Irulan stammered, "well.... what dragon? You must have misheard us."
"Irulan," said Gandalf softly, "he is an elf. That does not happen to them."
"I am beginning to have second thoughts about elves," she said bitterly.
Legolas was grinning now. "I would not want to keep you, princess. Your father is calling for you. Do not worry, I am sure Gandalf can tell me the story himself."
Irulan's eyes widened. She glanced at Gandalf who was filling his infamous pipe with a very amused look on his face. "I am sure that a wizard and an elven prince who just met after many years have much more important things to discuss," she said slowly, "things that concern the future of Middle Earth, for instance."
"Do we, my friend?" asked Legolas in all innocence.
"I have nothing to say on those matters, Legolas. How about you?"
Legolas shrugged. (Even a shrug looked graceful when he did it!) "Not really."
They both turned to her. "You see princess," said Gandalf with a widening smile, "that is the general misconception about the likes of us............. in fact, we prefer just cheap and dirty gossip."
Irulan threw up her hands, "I warned you Gandalf. That is called betraying the trust of a very dangerous girl in my book!"
"Speaking of books!" said Gandalf and slowly opened his tattered bag. He took a dusty and very thick book out which looked like half of its pages were torn and stuffed back in randomly. "I believe you asked for this?"
Irulan's eyes widened with joy. She slowly approached the outstretched book and took it from the old man. "You DID find it!" she whispered in amazement.
"It was not easy, Irulan. And I did it at the expense of a library, for your information. As a matter of fact, I stole it from the library and that was a dangerous task! I, Gandalf the wizard! The library keeper was not too far from an orc and she gave me this look when she suspected............." But his words were cut off when she jumped up to hug him. Even Legolas was taken aback and stepped back a few steps, chuckling. "Gandalf the Grey! I love you!" she screamed. "Alright Irulan, you are breaking my bones!" he stuttered.
"Oh," she said and quickly stepped back. 'She looks like a little child', thought Legolas, 'with stars in her eyes'. "Have to go to my father now. I'll see you later!" She started to walk away, obviously resisting the urge to run when she stopped all of a sudden and turned to Legolas "Where are my manners! Please forgive me Pr- Legolas. Good day!" And this time she was running.
Legolas and Gandalf stared after her. "Children!" mumbled Gandalf.
"How well do you know her, Gandalf?" asked Legolas still looking in the direction Irulan had disappeared. Gandalf smiled deftly "Well enough to say that she is quite something," he said, "like I know you well enough to say that the look in your face is not one I have come across before, my friend."
Legolas snapped out of his trance. "I find her.............. interesting," he said shyly.
"Indeed," said Gandalf, "and so she is, my friend. So she is."
"Is it a grave matter, my friend?" asked Kanduin and thereby interrupted Legolas' thoughts.
"Oh no, not at all. Just a minor wish of mine. It concerns your daughter, Lady Irulan."
Kanduin was surprised. He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the elven prince, whose face would not give away what he was thinking. He sighed, "What did she do this time? Did she insult you in any way, dear prince? Please spare me no details!"
Legolas smiled. "Nothing of the sort, I assure you, King Kanduin. On the contrary, Princess Irulan was very kind to me throughout my stay. I felt very gracious to have her company."
"Oh," said Kanduin. Now that was even more surprising. Irulan was very good company when she meant to be, true, but yet she ended up rubbing people the wrong way most of the time. "Well............. what is the matter then?"
"I do not know your customs well enough to judge the effect of my question. Yet I hope that you will understand that I ask it only for reasons of kindness and assistance. I know that Princess Irulan has problems with archery, is that not so?"
Kanduin was confused now. He was expecting some complaint, yes, but archery? "Yes, her lack of skill in that area is infamous," he chuckled lightly. "It infuriates her but she tries not to show it."
"I was thinking that I might be able to help," Legolas said.
"How so, my friend?"
"If the princess were interested and if you thought it proper, I would love to be her host in my home in Mirkwood for a time, where I and others would be honored to teach her that skill," Legolas said slowly and cast a sidelong glance at the king. "I would offer to stay here and teach her, yet I must be present in Mirkwood for certain matters that need my attention. Besides, I thought it would be interesting for a princess, your daughter, to be the first to see the ways of your neighbors."
"Indeed!" said the king. He seemed more than pleased at the thought of one of his family being invited to the kingdom of Mirkwood. The elves were very reserved. They had begun attending the annual parties and festivities his kingdom offered only very recently and never before made such an invitation no any other kingdom or house that he knew about. And for the prince himself to teach her archery! He tried to curb his excitement. Irulan! Interesting, but why was it always this or that way about Irulan? "But my friend, I could not let such a frivolous matter to take up the precious time of a prince!"
Legolas chuckled slightly, "Dear King, often it is my belief that I have more time than I need."
"Oh, of course," laughed Kanduin. "I understand. Well, I am a bit surprised about this offer. It is a great honor, no doubt. My only fear would be Irulan causing you trouble. She has quite a talent in THAT area, I can tell you," he added somewhat bitterly.
"I am sure that it would be no trouble for us. We would be glad to see her in Mirkwood and proud if we can be of assistance in this matter to her."
"Well..... in that case, dear Legolas. I see absolutely no reason why not! When will you be available for such a task?"
Legolas smiled again, "As I have said before, your highness, I am available any time you ask of me."
***
"All right now Saime. I want you to attack me with that broom."
Saime, the head of servants, looked very unhappy. She was standing in the kitchen, servants swirling around her, carrying all sorts of mugs and cups and buckets in haste. It was no easy task to run a castle, but she had been doing that for all her life now and was proud in having served the royal family through many generations. She looked at the broom in her hand. "Princess Irulan............ your highness..... I beg you..... this is really not the time............. and I am certainly not the right person..."
Irulan rolled her eyes. "Of course you are! All you have to do is try to hit me with the broom. I will not hit you back, promise," she said. Saime obviously had not considered that possibility before and her eyes widened with fear. "Princess," she gulped, "I am an old and weak woman!"
"Yes, yes," said Irulan hastily, "but that is your weapon of expertise, is it not?"
"Weapon? Your highness it is but only..........."
"A broom, I KNOW Saime! I meant you have been using it all your life............. for decades now! So it has kind of become one with you."
Saime looked at the broom in her shaking hand with an expression of pure horror on her face, as if the thing could sprout roots any time and truly attach itself on her hand.
"Aw come on, how hard can that be? Pretend I'm a rat. Ahem............. a mouse."
"Princess, I can not!"
Irulan sighed in despair. "Do you want me to take the broom and make a demonstration on you?"
"So it has come to this! The future rulers of Middle Earth are torturing old women, I see!" a voice boomed behind her.
Irulan screamed in delight and turned around. "Gandalf!" she screamed and jumped up to hug him. "You stealthy wizard!" Gandalf chuckled in delight. "Irulan! You are getting more wicked with the hour!"
Irulan stepped back all grins, "How dare you! I am preparing myself for the orcs!" She moved closer and whispered "And who would be a better model of them than Saime?"
Gandalf's laughter echoed through the halls. "Now that, I certainly can not deny!" Saime, taking advantage of the appearance of the wizard had disappeared into thin air. "I certainly missed you Irulan. You always have a special place in my heart."
"Yeah, yeah" said Irulan. They started to walk down the corridor towards the main halls of the castle, "you probably say that to every pretty girl you meet in Middle Earth."
"I do not!" replied Gandalf with all innocence. "What a heart breaking accusation!"
Irulan grinned up to him, "I am wise to the ways of men, my dear Gandalf! Everyone knows you are the biggest Casanova ever!" she teased him, knowing fully that Gandalf was nothing of that sort but that this kind of speech always made him uneasy, for he felt that it might end up as a gossip and ruin his reputation as a wizard.
"Now now............ I would never...."
Irulan quickly held up her hand, "Spare me the details, Gandalf! I certainly am yet too young to hear them."
"You are one impossible girl!"
"One that you can not wield with all your charm, that's for sure. I heard that you were coming. It has been very long indeed. Too long," Irulan said.
"Yes, I was traveling about." Irulan's eyes glittered with excitement, "You will tell me about that, yes?"
"Hmmm..............." Gandalf creased his brows and looked very serious for a moment, "I don't know really. Let us say that we may exchange information. I have not heard anything about you during my travels for some time now. You have been suspiciously quiet since that dragon incident."
Irulan rolled her eyes, "Well my father does not send me away since that anymore, that's why! It is making me crazy! I did not know the dragon would actually chase the darn thing!"
"What a misfortune that a whole town stood in its way!" sighed Gandalf.
"Well, it was more like a little village actually.... And it was not a big dragon..... compared to others anyway."
"I heard otherwise."
"That's because they never saw the other ones!"
"Let's just hope that you won't pay another visit any time soon, then."
"What dragon incident?" said another voice behind her. Gandalf smiled brightly and walked up to greet Legolas. "My dear friend! How wonderful to find you here as well."
'That elf always creeps about in that sinister fashion,' Irulan thought bitterly. 'Someone should tell him that it is rude to walk on people like that without them knowing it.'
Legolas and Gandalf were heartily exchanging greetings. Legolas had told her that they had been friends for many years now, but seeing them together like that was indeed a heart-warming experience. True friendship was such a rare thing! She envied their freedom to walk around in Middle Earth undisguised. She envied them coming together even after many years and talking about the most wondrous things they had seen or done. And here she was, sitting in a stone castle with people like accursed Endor around her, unable to do anything with her skill, unable to make any difference in the world. All she could do was go out training in the forest and run off into the city to attend some games. Ah yes, let's not forget visiting her friends living there! It was growing thin and repetitive. She felt no satisfaction in her life. And it was only getting worse. Yes, the talking was nice and the people were nice, but she was through with talking. She wanted to DO something, damn it!
"Are you all right Irulan? You look like you ate something that refuses to go down our throat," she heard Gandalf say.
Irulan smiled. "It is but only kind words. I thought about uttering them for a minute there, but not wishing to ruin my repetition, changed my mind and decided to swallow."
Legolas smiled brightly. "What is this incidence about a dragon?"
"Oh," Irulan stammered, "well.... what dragon? You must have misheard us."
"Irulan," said Gandalf softly, "he is an elf. That does not happen to them."
"I am beginning to have second thoughts about elves," she said bitterly.
Legolas was grinning now. "I would not want to keep you, princess. Your father is calling for you. Do not worry, I am sure Gandalf can tell me the story himself."
Irulan's eyes widened. She glanced at Gandalf who was filling his infamous pipe with a very amused look on his face. "I am sure that a wizard and an elven prince who just met after many years have much more important things to discuss," she said slowly, "things that concern the future of Middle Earth, for instance."
"Do we, my friend?" asked Legolas in all innocence.
"I have nothing to say on those matters, Legolas. How about you?"
Legolas shrugged. (Even a shrug looked graceful when he did it!) "Not really."
They both turned to her. "You see princess," said Gandalf with a widening smile, "that is the general misconception about the likes of us............. in fact, we prefer just cheap and dirty gossip."
Irulan threw up her hands, "I warned you Gandalf. That is called betraying the trust of a very dangerous girl in my book!"
"Speaking of books!" said Gandalf and slowly opened his tattered bag. He took a dusty and very thick book out which looked like half of its pages were torn and stuffed back in randomly. "I believe you asked for this?"
Irulan's eyes widened with joy. She slowly approached the outstretched book and took it from the old man. "You DID find it!" she whispered in amazement.
"It was not easy, Irulan. And I did it at the expense of a library, for your information. As a matter of fact, I stole it from the library and that was a dangerous task! I, Gandalf the wizard! The library keeper was not too far from an orc and she gave me this look when she suspected............." But his words were cut off when she jumped up to hug him. Even Legolas was taken aback and stepped back a few steps, chuckling. "Gandalf the Grey! I love you!" she screamed. "Alright Irulan, you are breaking my bones!" he stuttered.
"Oh," she said and quickly stepped back. 'She looks like a little child', thought Legolas, 'with stars in her eyes'. "Have to go to my father now. I'll see you later!" She started to walk away, obviously resisting the urge to run when she stopped all of a sudden and turned to Legolas "Where are my manners! Please forgive me Pr- Legolas. Good day!" And this time she was running.
Legolas and Gandalf stared after her. "Children!" mumbled Gandalf.
"How well do you know her, Gandalf?" asked Legolas still looking in the direction Irulan had disappeared. Gandalf smiled deftly "Well enough to say that she is quite something," he said, "like I know you well enough to say that the look in your face is not one I have come across before, my friend."
Legolas snapped out of his trance. "I find her.............. interesting," he said shyly.
"Indeed," said Gandalf, "and so she is, my friend. So she is."