NECKLACE

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: JRR Tolkein wrote the books: New Line Cinema made the movies. All characters, save Lupa, are their property. Lupa is one of my creations…and she gets about a bit…

*hands out more vouchers for Legolas-hugs…Legolas looks worried* This is just a short bit I got to writing when bored. I'm bored a lot, by the way! Thank you so much for all your reviews. I'll try and reply to some of them in the next (and final) chapter…

"I saw you," said Lupa, quietly, her voice deadened by the vastness of the keep. Legolas stood silent before her, his head slightly bowed. "I saw you, and I thought, oh, how unfair…you haven't aged a day…"

Legolas allowed himself a quick smile. Lupa herself had also changed remarkably little, save the slight dulling of her hair (and who knew if the silver strands were due to age or her bestial alter-ego?) and still appeared reasonably young by mortal standards. They were now alone together in Helm's Deep, Gandalf having tactfully shepherded Aragorn and the others from the room some moments previously.

"And then I thought," Lupa continued, starting to pace around him with soft footsteps, "I wonder if he remembers me? After all, I am no elf-maiden, sworn to capture an elf-prince's heart for my own…"

"I am hurt," said Legolas, his minor amusement fading, "that you would think I could forget. I took a good life that day. One who should have lived more joyfully, even in these darker days."

Lupa gave him a look that threatened knives.

"Thank you for reminding me," she said, icily. "I ran from Mirkwood when Beorn wished to stay and fight. I could not. And so I came to Lothlorien, where Galadriel's archers nearly skewered me before I could get a word out."

"You have been to the Golden Wood?"

"I have, and stayed with the consent of its lady. Lothlorien is still safe haven against the enemy, and will remain so until Celeborn takes his people and departs this world forever. And it was there that Haldir of Lorien found me."

To his surprise, she chuckled. "I felt so important!" she said. "Me, Lupa of Mirkwood, whose life has not yet been of any real consequence to anyone, and an elf-lord riding one of the horse-legends of old comes galloping into the wood searching for me! I thought I was becoming part of a legend myself…"

"Perhaps you are," said Legolas, thinking of all the adventures he had been subjected to since his fate had become entwined with that of the One Ring. Have I brought her into this dreadful task as well? Am I going to be responsible for another innocent life lost…?

Lupa was looking at him oddly, as if she had momentarily forgotten who he was: still pacing, her eyes flicked to his bandaged wounds.

" I was almost crazy when I left you in that glade," she said. "I rode so far and so fast that my pony nearly collapsed under me. So I left him wandering in the Wild, and took my other shape so I could still run away from you."

"I do not blame you for hating me that much," said the elf, sadly.

"I ran to the borders of the Shire, and there I turned back. The little folk," Lupa interrupted her own narrative with amusement, "they do not care much for big people, and still less for wolves. So I turned and went back to my forest, and to Beorn, who was sorely grieved at the thought that I had run away. And there I stayed, until a scant few weeks ago."

Legolas thought briefly of Haldir's hard, unforgiving expression, imagining the tall elf confronting the skin-changer in the haven of Lorien.

"Haldir went all that way to find you? Why?"

Again that odd look of dislocation in Lupa's eyes. "He told me what happened to you," she said, changing the subject. "Actually, he said he thought you had turned mad."

"Did he," said Legolas, flatly, making a mental note to have a word with Haldir later. "In that case I am sorry to disappoint you. You must have relished the idea that I had become a witless fool."

Lupa reached out with one long hand and jabbed him hard in the middle of one of the bandages. Legolas managed not to yelp.

"That's for being a fool," she said as he stared at her with huge, accusatory eyes, "but not for being a witless one. What Haldir told me ensured that I would come to you. Do you really think that I am so hardened against you that I would be happy knowing you had lost yourself in rage?"

Legolas had nothing to say to that - the memory of his rage-blindness was very strong. He shuddered, and looked away from her.

"I do not know you anymore," he said, eventually.

"Evidently," said Lupa, with a degree of satisfaction, "or you would not make such an assumption."

She stopped pacing and took his forearms in her large, callused hands.

"Oh, Legolas," she said, sadly. "I think we've both been too angry for too long…and you - you weren't meant to be like that. At least I am mortal…I have an excuse…"

That made him smile at least. Lupa rested her forehead against his and said: "And I, with my mortal mind, am empowered to forget where I cannot perhaps ever completely forgive."

Her hand moved down to clasp his - then she pulled away, eyes shining with mischief. In his hand lay a wolf-claw necklace. Legolas glanced to Lupa's neck, but her own necklace still hung over her collar. She winked at him, teasing.

"Why - why are you giving me this?" he asked. "This is Yara's, is it not?"

"It is," Lupa agreed. "But I know that she would have wanted you to have it. She loved you. Did you even know?"

His expression was eloquent. "Didn't think so," Lupa said. She took the necklace from his unresisting hand and tied it swiftly about his throat. "Keep it. And when you fight, remember her life, and not the way she died. That way, I suspect you will fight with more fervour and less anger."

She pulled her short sword from its sheath and took up a crouch before him. "Now, son of Thranduil," she taunted, "show me this orc-rage. I have a mind to let you see how much I have learnt since we last went sparring together!"

Thanks for reading! Last chapter up as soon as I can manage. ^_^