"Haldir, that was the BEST day I had ever since I departed on this quest!" Irulan laughed merrily. They were almost at the campsite now, walking amongst the trees. She had woken up to a better -scratch that out- MUCH better day! The bitter taste of the day before still lingered, true, but being among the elves had soon lightened up her heart. 'This is becoming an awful weakness,' she thought, but was in no dark mood to deem that a bad thing at the moment. They would be leaving first thing in the morning, before dawn. The last preparations for their journey that would continue the River Anduin were being made.

"It was a very pleasant day for me as well, Irulan. Nobody asked me for...what was it...a 'tour of the city', before," Haldir replied with a beautiful smile on his face.

"You mean you never got the chance to reveal this extraordinary talent of yours?" she said, mocking disbelief. "Never say that you won't discover something new about yourself even after thousands of years!"

Haldir laughed softly. "Indeed!" They arrived at the campsite. The hobbits were obviously off doing their own exploration and both Legolas and Boromir were missing as well. Gimli and Aragorn, though, were sitting by their weapons, sharpening and cleaning their equipment, and barely looked up when the couple arrived.

"Well, thank you for escorting me back, Haldir. Once again thank you for today - it was a wonderful tour!"

"Once again, Irulan, it was only wonderful because you were with me," he said and slightly bowing first to her, then the others, left.

Irulan stared after him with amazement. 'What a wonderful creature,' she thought, still smiling when Gimli's voice startled her out of her thoughts. "I see that you can be very nice to elves when you wish to."

"Huh?" was the only thing she managed to come up with as she turned to face him. He was still polishing his axe and did not look up at her.

"What is going on between you and Legolas again?" cut in Aragorn from her right this time, and she turned around to look at him. "Nothing" she said a moment later. "Nothing that is not usual," she added after a short silence when Aragorn stared back blankly. Obviously she was supposed to come up with yet another answer, because Aragorn was STILL looking at her with a very bad expression on his face.

She turned back to the dwarf on her left, but he was just polishing that darn axe with no indication that he was there with them, witness to the conversation.

"Is that why he is so upset?" was Aragorn's second annoying question.

"Upset?" she repeated, and suddenly felt stupid. "What the heck are you two talking about?!" was her frustrated yelp.

"Irulan," said Aragorn and stopped cleaning the sheath of his sword. "I do not want any more fighting in this fellowship. We have a job to do and I doubt that we can do that when we can barely keep a friendly relationship. Do you disagree?"

Irulan felt truly dumbfounded. She looked from one to the other and then back for a minute. "Aragorn," she said finally, coming to the conclusion that he was the one she should talk to, "I don't know what you mean. Yes, we had some difficulties with Legolas in the past. But we have resolved those," was her final and serious reply. "Or so I thought," she mumbled a moment later.


"Irulan stop acting like an innocent princess!" broke in Gimli with his thunderous voice. For a moment she thought about screaming 'But that's exactly what I am!', then decided against it. "The face of that elf since this morning speaks louder than your words!"

She threw her arms up in frustration. "Okay, fine! He kept following me around like a mother hen and I told him not to. That's all!"

Both Aragorn and Gimli kept looking at her without blinking. It went on for so long that she gave in first: "Why do I get the blame for everything? How do you even know that he did not offend ME?"

"Because Irulan," began Aragorn and put his sheath aside, slowly walking up to her, "In all the years I have known Legolas -and that is far longer than I have known you- I have NEVER heard him making ANY kind of comment that could break anybody's heart."

"And I make those comments on a daily basis - is that what you think?"

"Make a guess," he said with unbelievable coolness to his voice. Men! She pursed her lips and decided to walk away, but no such luck of course.

"It is time you go and apologize," inserted Gimli before she found the chance to stride away.

Her mouth dropped open. "What?! What the heck for?"

"For whatever you said or did," the dwarf shot back.

There was a long silence and Irulan decided to concentrate on her boots rather than on any of these impossibly ruthless and heartless men before her. She was desperately thinking of something to say in return, but to her utter horror, the longer she stood there, the longer they seemed to make sense. 'Damn, how can that be?' she thought bitterly.

"What is going on between you two..." said Aragorn, softer this time, but still with steel determination in his voice.

"Nothing is going on between us!" she cut int.

"...is none of my business," he finished as if she had never spoken. "But this quest and this fellowship is. And I will not let you endanger it for whatever reason." Irulan met his eyes and found only the repetition of his words in there. "You would do the same if you were in my place."

Irulan swallowed, knowing that his words were true. No matter what, nothing was more important than the quest. A shame came down on her with that thought that disturbed the peace of the group for her own small, stupid reasons. They had made sense yesterday. But today, standing in front of Aragorn, they sure looked frivolous. She sighed softly, a tone of regret in it. "Fine. I still don't know what bothered that touchy elf so much, but fine! You are right. I will apologize." Let nobody say that women were not mature!

She turned around to walk towards her tent but stopped in mid-track when Gimli cleared his throat. Irulan looked up, surprised, and realized that both men were still gazing at her with that awful expression. She stood staring back a moment. "What?" she said finally with astonishment, "Now?"

"You don't seem to have anything better to do than strolling around anyway," was the dwarf's stinging comment.

"Now really..." she began, but a moment later paused and silently shook her head. "Alright! So where is he?"

"He went off in that direction," said Aragorn and pointed towards the south-east.

Irulan kept looking at him and when she realized that he would say nothing further, her irritation rose incredibly: "Aw come on, Aragorn! What do you mean 'that direction'? A lot of things are in that direction. Hell, I could keep walking in 'that direction', and walk right into Barad-dûr!"

"Well, in that case, I hope you'll find him before you end up there," was his slow but menacing reply as his eyes never left hers.

"Fine!" groaned Irulan and stomped off. "Stupid men!" she mumbled under her breath.

"Try the shooting grounds!" yelled Gimli behind her back a short while later.

When she was a good distance away the dwarf and the ranger glanced at each other. Aragorn softly scratched his chin, turning back to cast a glance in the direction the woman had disappeared. "You think she fell for that threat?"

"I have no idea, Master Aragorn!" sighed Gimli. "I have come to the conclusion that women are even more difficult to understand than elves - who are impossible to understand in the first place!"

"I sure hope she won't kill him or anything."

"I think that's by far not the worst she can do," mumbled Gimli after a moment. Then he added "That lad should just stop being a gentleman and treat a woman like one should! Pick her up and shake her until she comes to her senses, that is! I tell you again, everything would be just fine if he did!"

Aragorn chuckled softly. "As outrageous as this might sound, I'm beginning to agree with you there, Master Gimli."

***

"This time I'll sure end up with an arrow sticking out of my butt!" she mumbled to herself and walked even faster. "Fine. The sooner I do this, the sooner I'm off the hook!" She had been walking for twenty minutes now with still no shooting grounds or anything like it in sight. Worse, she saw no elves close enough to ask direction, either. 'Maybe I won't find him and then...well...I can hardly apologize if I can't find him now, can I?' she thought amused. But that evil thing called conscience itched terribly at that thought. Irulan sighed again. 'HE keeps bugging me and I have to walk around like a fool looking for HIM so that I can apologize' she thought bitterly.

And just at that moment she looked up to see an elf passing by. She hastily stopped him and asked for the shooting grounds which seemed to be along the same direction, a little further ahead. After another ten minutes she arrived to a large clearing. Nothing denoted that these were the shooting grounds, for she saw no targets or anything that resembled them, but she saw Legolas standing at the corner of this clearing, looking into the distance, his back turned to her. She slowly walked up to him, hoping that he would hear her approach and turn around, but he seemed lost in thought.

"Have you grown up yet?" she said finally, leaning on a nearby tree, crossing her arms on her chest. Legolas instantly froze, but did not turn around immediately. Irulan did not know what to expect. 'Probably another three weeks of pouting!' she thought and could not help shuddering at the thought. She really wished they wouldn't have to go through that again, but she doubted that Legolas would forgive so easily. Especially now that this was the second time she had 'mad him upset', as Aragorn had put it!

When he finally turned around, Irulan was surprised to find nothing but pleasure and warmth on his face. 'Now this is new!' she thought, baffled.

"You did not hear me?" she said, hoping that he would read the expression of surprise on her face, but think it was because she expected him to hear her approach.

"I heard your coming, but I did not think it would be you," he replied, still smiling.

Irulan could not help but smile back. 'Legolas, Legolas, Legolas!' she thought with mild admiration, 'You never cease to amaze me.' And just when she thought that that was final, he threw in another surprise:

"I want to apologize."

Once again, "Huh?" was the only reply Irulan could come up with. 'Looks like this is the statement of the day today!' she thought ruefully.

Legolas walked towards her, but stopped at a comfortable distance. "For my behavior yesterday. You were right. I was not aware how disturbing it must have felt."

"Now wait a minute!" said Irulan, unable to help herself from doing so. The elf's expression ever so slightly blurred into confusion. "*I* am going to apologize to YOU!" She watched his beautiful features twist with mild puzzlement. "So be nice and bear with me, alright?" Legolas looked uneasy about what to do and therefore remained silent. Irulan could not keep a grin off her face. "After all, as the stronger and more mature one, it is my duty."

Then he began to grin as well. "I see, princess. As you wish," was his reply, accompanied with a slight bow.

"Well now that we are finished with that..." she said and moved towards him, looking around the shooting grounds.

"But I heard no apology!"

"...where are the targets, Legolas?" continued Irulan, pretending he had never spoken. She narrowed her eyes but was still unable to detect anything at the end of the field. The man grinned again and walked up closer to stand beside her.

"The branches of the trees over there, at the end," he said.

Irulan looked up at him in astonishment. "Those are not giant trees!"

"Yes, I know. They are much smaller compared to the ones in the heart of the city," he said, sounding confused again.

"You bet! Those are...well, ordinary trees. And from this distance, I see no branch. Frankly, I just see a brown stick and a blur of leaves."

Legolas laughed one of his beautiful laughs. "Well...as you have said it so well before...after MILLENIA of training, those trees do not seem that far anymore."

Irulan slightly nudged him in the ribs. "I resent your memory Legolas. You refuse to forget anything."

"Would you like a demonstration?" he said suddenly.

"Sure!" she said with excitement. Legolas moved back a few steps, placed a new arrow to his bow and after a few moments, shot it towards the trees at the end of the field. Irulan watched it fly away. "Well?"

"Well what?" said Legolas.

"Did you hit it?"

Legolas looked at her with disbelief. "Stop looking at me like that!" she snorted, "I told you I can't see a thing. As far as I'm concerned, you might have missed completely and killed an innocent elf walking in the woods."

"Very well," he said, and took out another arrow, along with one of his knives, holding them out to her. "Mark it." She took the knife and scratched a crescent on the arrow, all the time smiling at their childish behavior, and returned both back to him. Legolas gracefully placed the arrow once again and shot. "Well my lady, would you accompany me across the garden?" he asked with amusement, holding out his arm to her.

"Why, Prince Legolas, only if you promise to keep me away from the mud pools," she replied smoothly and softly took his arm. They began to walk with a slow pace towards the trees in the distance, not feeling the need for any haste. "Legolas," Irulan said after a moment of silence and felt him looking down at her. "No more arguments. No more fighting. Let us be friends." She stopped to offer her hand. The elf looked down at her, then at her hand and oddly enough, he looked sad. 'I'll never understand men!' she thought again with amazement. He looked up into her eyes and smiled a faint smile. "You seem to leave me no other choice, Irulan. I shall accept...for now," he replied and reluctantly took her hand. "Melloni," he whispered softly, his blue eyes never leaving hers.

"I hope that was a good thing you just said," she stated a while later, once again taking his arm.

A memory floated back to her as they strolled on the impossibly green grass towards the distant trees. "If I am going to share a lifetime with a man, I shall certainly pick another!" Irulan had said to Ingmar when the old woman had pressed on regarding the matter of Hasmir. "Like who?" had been the reply as the Druid crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well...like...like..." she had stammered, unable to find a fitting response. 'Like Legolas,' whispered the voice in her head now, and although Irulan tried very hard to pretend not to hear it, she knew this sound only too well: It was the undeniable creaking of old, rusted wheels set into motion.