Disclaimer: chapters one, two or three.. take your pick
Chapter Thirteen^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
This is no nightmare.
The next thing she knew, Fiothiel found herself sprawled haphazardly on the crunchy frost covered ground, tears frozen on her cheeks. Disoriented and unfeeling, she walked in bare feet through the dry, icy woods.
It was no nightmare, she told herself, I felt it all, feel it all…the dead, the dying- Corintur.
She knew he was dead, but no tears came. She knew that her lips were stained dark with the cold, but she did not feel a chill. All feeling was gone, gone to someone who had less of a need. She danced a minuet for herself, ironically happy. Inwardly she screamed, begged for something, anything, but outwardly she wore a stolid clay mask.
Her legs danced her forwards, and she bounced and shook in the frigid shell of her body that went off by itself. No one knew where she was going, least of all herself.
In the distance a well-fed cloud stalked, full of frost-bearing flakes to dust the rolling hills flowing in the near distance. Hazel eyes gazed out a four-paned window, counting the funeral bells that reverberated from the bell tower.
Turning away from the view, a smile grew, satisfied with they resounding bells banging accompaniments in their eardrums.
Satisfied, but hunger pangs still shot through, compellingly painful.
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Legolas watched his boots slip in and out of vision before him, leaving barely a trace on the ground he left behind. He had found Fiothiel kneeling over Isorfir, her knee pinning him down. Her dagger had nicked his throat, but right now that was the least of his problems. Thrown carelessly in jail, no trial needed. Just that scene was good enough.
He stood unmoving before the woods, gazing up at the stately trees, so regal, so calm. All his life he had attempted to emulate qualities of the forest; dignified, tall, brave. He felt something crumbling beneath him, but he held on as tight as he could. But Fiothiel… younger, still so daring…
A snatch of song caught by a gust of wind reached his ears. He recognized the voice at once, and slipped between two tall oaks towards the sound.
In twelve clangs of the funeral bells, he was there.
Fiothiel faced him, smiling an ironically mischievous smile. She stood waist-deep in the calm pond, still unfrozen due to the hot springs that bubbled up beneath. She continued to sing, her husky, lilting soprano enrapturing his ears. Not a mourning song, but a romantic street ballad often sung among men. The multifaceted moment was tucked away in his mind, and with that he stepped forwards.
"What on earth do you think you are doing? You will surely freeze if you stay in much longer…"
She turned away, singing bits of song back over her shoulder. Her once elaborately pinned waves fell in knots down her back, the gold turned dark chestnut brown by the looming storm clouds. The silky cream dress clung to her unabashedly, adhering like a second skin.
Exasperated, he threw off his heavy cloak and waded in after her, the chill nipping reclusively at his toes. He touched her shoulder and the melody stopped abruptly as she turned her lovely moon of a face to view him clearer.
"Please milady, get out of the chill! To have you fall ill is the last thing we need in times like this. I-"
The icy bone of her finger on his lips caved in his throat, and he felt his heart dip achingly to his chest.
"You are all I have left," she whispered, her voice uncommonly deep and grating. "Understand me when I say Isorfir was the only relation I had. I am by myself, left standing alone and solitary all my days."
He gripped her frozen fingers in his larger hand, closing what distance was left between them.
"And understand me when I say that as long as I am here, alone you will not be."
She drew a shuddering breath, and he absorbed the image of her surrendered, full lips tinged a soft blue, cheekbones flushed rosy.
For a moment, they stood impossibly close, their bodies memorizing the curve and fold of the way they fit together. Green met blue, and she reveled in the feeling of breathing the same air he did.
He studied her gaze intensely, and when her dark eyelashes brushed down gently to touch his cheeks, he smiled softly and bent down to place his lips against hers; her bottom lip nestled perfectly between his. His heart beat calmed, and his eyes too peacefully closed.
She felt him smile against her lips, and surrendered to feelings that she had so long forgotten.
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