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Pixie Dust, Chapter 2

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"Gimli, MUST we bring her along?" Legolas grumbled, arms crossed over his chest in a definite defiant pout. They'd already been waiting an hour for the pixie girl Gliowien to show up with the supplies she swore she couldn't travel without.

                "You agreed. And before you say anything, we're not leaving before she gets back."
                "I had no such thing planned," the elf shot back, avoiding eye contact with the dwarf. Gimli chuckled.

                "You know you were thinking of it. Don't go off and pout before the little one gets back."

                "I do not pout!!" Legolas returned the third time of the hour.

                "Oh sure. Then all the times when you mysteriously vanish when ya don't get your way you're off petting your kitten."
                Legolas blinked.

                "I have no kitten nor have I seen one in many days."

                "Never helped yourself before?"

                "Not that I'm aware of."
                "Do you have any idea of what I'm talkin about?"

                Legolas shook his head, his blonde hair miraculously staying in perfect place. Gimli sighed.

                "Elf, you need to get yourself a woman."

                "What's that about a woman?" Gliowien flew out from the trees to land on Legolas's head. In her arms she carried a long wrapped cloth.

                "We were just speaking on the-"

                "Nothing of your business. Did you take so long just to get that one object?" Legolas raised an eyebrow as he removed her from his head. Gliowien nodded.

                "My brother hid it from me, and I wasn't leaving without it. Gotta have my baby."

                "What is it, may I ask?" Gimli inquired, intrigued. The wrapped object was about half the length of Gliowien's height, and very thin. Gliowien grinned mischievously.

                "You'll see eventually. For now, I didn't want to leave it there with my family. My brother would hurt it."

                "So it's something that can feel pain?" Legolas asked.

                "Is this that game where you ask twenty questions to find out something? I'm not telling."  

                Legolas sighed as the small girl resumed hovering in the air. Under the cloth, in the sunlight, he caught a glimpse of something gleaming. However, before he could inquire about it, Gliowien held in out in front of her. Light blue bubbles began to swirl around the object, slowly at first, and then faster, until it seemed as it the entire cloth was surrounded by the bubbles. And then, it was gone. Gimli and Legolas watched in awe as she lowered herself to their levels again, the looks on their faces not unnoticed by her.

                "What?" she asked, confused at fading amazement. "You mean you've never seen pixie magic before?"

                "We've never seen a pixie before. We can let you answer that for yourself," Legolas responded idly. Gimli simply shook his head.

                "What did you do with it? Things don't just…vanish like that, as far as I am aware," Gimli commented. Gliowien beamed with pride.

                "Pixie magic allows us to store things in an alternate plain of existence. When we need it again, we can just summon it back with a word only we know. We also have the ability to change our size if we wish. That's how we walk among humans when we want to get out, but not many of us ever bother." As to demonstrate, the pixie held one hand in front of her. From it swarmed the same bubbles from before, this time swirling around her. When Gliowien was completely hidden by the bubbles, they flashed a brilliant bright light, momentarily blinding the elf and dwarf. As their eyesight cleared, they spied Gliowien. Now she stood taller than Gimli, and only a few inches shorter than Legolas. Her wings were visibly like those of a dragonfly, clear and slender. These she folded against her back.

                "See?"

                "I do see. This will certainly make traveling easier. We won't have to worry about you getting lost or falling behind," Gimli nodded approvingly. Gliowien blinked innocently.

                "I...wasn't planning on staying like this-"

                "He's right. And if we run into any threats you'll be able to defend yourself better," Legolas agreed.

                "But I-"

                "End of discussion, you'll stay like this."

                Gliowien clenched her fists, glaring at the blond elf prince.

                "And what makes you think you can order me around, Blondie?"

                Legolas was taken aback.

                "Blondie?! My hair is not blond, it's-"

                "Blond. Quite blond, Legolas," Gimli grinned widely through his beard.

                "Golden white!"

                "Blond!" the two chimed in together, laughing as the elf began to take deep breaths to calm himself. Gliowien's laugh converted to a giggle.

                "Aww, calm down Legsie. I'm just joking with you. But your hair is blond." The Pixie girl held out her hand again, the blue bubbles quickly swirling around her. Another flash later, and she was fluttering in the air, once again palm-sized. Gimli sighed at her return to her normal state.

                "Little one, we're going to be having some traveling difficulties with you so small."

                "I'll be fine!" Gliowien chanted with an air of childish knowledge. Then she grinned. "I'll be just fine as long as I can hold onto Legolas' hair during the trip."

                Legolas groaned softly.

                "WHY must it be MY hair?" he inquired, not willing to give up yet. Gliowien flitted around them, grinning mischievously.

                "Because Gimli's hair smells like coal. Yours smells like strawberries and it's easier to hold onto. Gimli's is scratchy."

                Gimli blinked in confusion.

                "How do you know that?"

                "I accidentally ran into it when I was-"

                Gliowien paused here, a frightened look overcoming her face. Legolas raised an eyebrow.

                "Yes, when you were…?" he added, waiting for her to finish. Gliowien laughed nervously.

                "Nothing! It's nothing! I think we should get moving, get on the road and all that stuff! There are a lot of things around here that don't like pixies too much."

                "I concur," Legolas muttered under his breath. Neither Gliowien nor Gimli seemed to hear him.

                "Getting a move on sounds right fine for me! Let's go, Legolas."

                Gimli turned and began to head across the plain parallel to Gliowien's forest home. With no choice, Legolas followed, feeling Gliowien latch herself onto his shoulder.

                "So where're we going?" she asked with all the innocence of a youth. Legolas didn't look at her when he replied, "The caves of Helm's Deep. They're supposed to be beautiful when you get to the depths of them."

                "I see…" Thoughtful for a moment, she hopped off his shoulder and fluttered alongside him.  Within moment she was falling behind. The pixie squeaked, and with a burst of energy flew forwards enough to grab onto the end of Legolas' hair. The elf cringed as his hair was pulled by the tiny girl as she climbed up to his shoulder again.

                "Sorry, guess I can't keep up just by flying."

                "Why can't you be normal sized?" he asked her harrowingly.

                "Why can't you be civil to someone smaller than you?" she shot back. "You haven't had anything nice to say to me since I met you." Without waiting for reply, noticing that Gimli was falling behind him as she had, Gliowien hopped off his shoulder and came to fluttering beside the dwarf.

                "Can I ask ya something, Gimli?"

                "I believe you just did, Gliowien," he chuckled. "Feel free to ask whatever you want."

                Gliowien smiled at the dwarf's kind voice.

                "All right. What happened to the others from the Fellowship?"

                There was a moment of silence from all until Legolas spoke up, his voice soft now.

                "Gandalf and Boromir both were killed during our quest, although Gandalf returned to us. Frodo, Sam, Pippen, Merry, and Aragorn…well the last time we saw them-" Here, he chuckled. "You tell her Gimli."

                Gimli smiled widely with the memory.

                "We were heading to the Shire where the Hobbits lived, just to see how they were all faring, and found them being chased, as well as Aragorn-"

                "It was one year after we defeated Sauron and we were going to spend the day together reminiscing. We had all agreed to meet at the Shire seeing four of the Fellowship already lived there," Legolas added.

                "Yes…we found all of them being chased by females in strangest clothing calling incantations I've never heard, like 'Marry me, Viggo!' and 'Don't run, Billy!' No idea who or what the spells were directed at, but needless to say Legolas and myself didn't stay very long after that sight."

                Gliowien paused, taking in their words. Within moments, though, she was in a fit of laughter.

                "I wish I could have seen that!" she exclaimed through tears running down her cheeks.

                "Gliowien!"

                The call echoed through the woods, a quiet call, but it had been there. Quickly, Gliowien's laughter stopped. A second time, her name was called from the forest. Gliowien squeaked softly and bolted to hide in Legolas' hair. Moments later, from the forest came another pixie, younger than Gliowien, his clothing torn and something silver trickling from his shoulder. He hovered in front of the travelers for only a moment before his wings gave way sending him plummeting to the ground. A gasp emitted from the elf's hair, and Gliowien shot out towards the fallen comrade.

                "Lanoleth," she whispered and she knelt next to the small boy. Legolas and Gimli stood, unsure of what to do in the odd situation.  Gliowien then took over.

                "Will one of you two get off your lazy behinds and come help my brother?! He's hurt!"

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FINALLY, here's chapter two!