A/N: Cool, I never thought this story would get any review…thank you, mates, I'm really appreciative! I'm sorry this update took so long, but I was busy with school *History sucks* and things. I hope my English is no torture for you *lol*…you know, I always give the best of me. Please enjoy the second chapter :)
Disclaimer: Doodle di doo, laaa, laaa, laaa…bom be boo, diddle di doo…alright, I suck at singing, but I even suck more at disclaimers…hey, everybody knows that Legolas isn't mine…but if he was…hehehe *sadistic grin*…ok…enough…just enjoy and leave a review, please! *g*
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Chapter Two: Weird beings with weird ears
Legolas didn't know how much time had passed already when he was still sitting in front of the tree trunk, waiting for the girl's reaction. It was almost midday and Assaron was nearly impatient. For hours ago they should have been gone back to the palace but the prince was kind of stubborn. "We cannot leave her alone in the wilderness, Assaron, she is a small girl of men, a living being. As long as we do not know who she is and where her parents are, we will not move away from her.", Legolas said after a long moment of silence. Assaron glanced shortly at his master, lowering his head afterwards. "Mylord, I am afraid she is too timid to get out of her hiding place. It could take hours, even days until she will be less frightened. We cannot wait any longer.", he murmured but Legolas ignored his objection. "Your father will be mad with you, Legolas. Why do you always rebel? Why can you not obey to your father's wishes at least one time?", Assaron continued. "That's nothing to do with it. She will die in the cold if we do not save her soon. I do not care for my father's opinion, he will have to accept my decision. Forget about lost time for politics if we can save a life.", Legolas said with an angry voice so the girl only hid even deeper in the trunk, frightened of the loud and angry voices of these weird beings.
"And I am not rebelling", Legolas added quietly, leaning back against another trunk. "Well, I guess I better do not utter that you are rebelling precisely at this moment.", Assaron shook his head, sighing in silence. "Thranduil's business is not mine", Legolas said after a while, trying to solve the tension between the friends. His eyes would never leave the human girl who was watching him with widened, deep brown eyes, still her fingers were clenched into the cloth, covering the rest of her face.
"But one day it will", his companion remarked. "Why do you annoy me with my father's reign? Lately you talk very often about me as the heir to the throne. Is there anything I should know? My father is the king and I, as his son, do not have to represent his view in politics and his ignorance towards almost all living beings. If he really wants me to become a king one day, he will have to tolerate my opinion, even if it is the whole opposite to his one. Otherwise I will pass"
Legolas smiled at the girl warmly, the fingers of his right hand gently stroke along the cold wood, snow melted on his fingertips and the icy water flowed down his pale skin, meeting again on the ground, creating a tiny puddle. The girl watched every single movement, but still she showed no reaction. "Do not pass, Legolas, you will be a great king…"
"Assaron, please stop talking about the reign, my father and my arguing with him. We are too different, he does not understand me as I do not understand him…everything was much easier when my mother was alive.", he said quietly but ere Assaron could answer anything, Legolas took his bag and opened it. "What are you doing?"
"As you might forgot – here is a small girl that needs our help. I try to get her out soon.", Legolas said roughly, not turning his face toward his friend. "Alas, Legolas, I hope one day you will meet someone who is as crabby as you are."
"Did you finish your talk? So you might could help me", the prince responded, putting several things out of his bag. "Of course, Mylord…what are you planning to do?", Assaron sighed bored, kneeling down beside his master, watching him pouring out the bag. "First, we should take the weapons out of her sight, after that we try to talk to her" Assaron nodded and hid his bow and his knives quickly. "What if she cannot understand us?"
"Well, you should not talk to her in Sindarin, my friend", Legolas said. Assaron pursed his lips. "Ha-ha, Legolas, your humour is unsurpassable today", he mumbled, kneeling down again to better reach the small opening of the trunk. The tall Elf had a look into the hollow tree and watched the tiny, pale girl still trembling, not ceasing to crawl even deeper into her hiding place. "How do you want to get her out? Spin a web like a spider? Or would you prefer climbing into the trunk and catch her then?", Assaron asked with an ironical tone. "Hush, Assaron, or would you prefer to spend the rest of the day here?", Legolas whispered, pulled a smaller bag out of the carrier and laid it into his hand. "What…"
"Assaron, could you be silent, please?", Legolas cut him short, "I guess she is very hungry"
Assaron watched his master opening the bag and small pieces of Lembas appeared in his palm. "She is a human being, Legolas, not a bird or a duck or anything like that…", Assaron commented on. "Imagine, I know…", Legolas said quietly and put a piece of this special Elven bread between his index and his middle finger, slowly moving his hand into the trunk, offering the meal to her. "Are you not hungry then, Short-Elf?", he said slowly, smiling softly at her to reassure her he was no danger for her. "Do you have to call her like that?", Assaron murmured, but said nothing when Legolas gave an angry look to him.
The girl was watching the man with her big brown eyes and Legolas thought at first he would see tears in her eyes. But it was only an illusion created by sunlight and the melting snow. She did not move at all, just looking at him, fixing and recognizing every single movement he made. "You do not have to be afraid, little girl. I will not hurt you…look…don't you want to have a small meal? You're hungry, aren't you?", Legolas streched his arm, almost he could touch her bleeding knee which was drawn up. She only shook her head, ignoring the numb feeling within her stomach her starving caused. Until she didn't know who or what these beings were, she would not take anything from them. She could remember her father telling of strangers and poisoned food they offered children like her. At first sight, they looked like human beings, but she soon noticed their strange clothing and, of course, these weird pointy ears. Then she believed them to be goblins, but goblins weren't as tall and as beautiful as they were. At the end she supposed they were fairies with their fair faces, but they had no soft wings like elder people told her of. Maybe those creatures were a kind of mixture of a human, a goblin and a fairy. Anyway, she was scared and did not comply to Legolas' wish.
He was still smiling at her, but he felt like despairing of her distrust. She looked at his blonde hair of which strands lightly covered his face. The girl was wondering how it would feel under her fingertips. Looking like pure gold, it might would feel like velvet, soft like silken filaments.
But she forced herself not to move towards him, no matter how strong the urge was to touch the weird tip of his ears for she had never seen any beautiful and amazing being like him before. Maybe it was only kind of mask.
Legolas withdrew his hand slowly when he realized she would not take the piece of Lembas. Instead of withdrawing completely and letting her all alone, like Assaron hoped at first, Legolas took a small bite of the bread, chewing it voluptuously, watching her from the corner of his eye. Her eyes slightly widened and Legolas almost couldn't keep a straight face when he heard her stomach rumbling loudly. "Mmh", he sighed, "delicious"
Assaron rolled his eyes, could not believe that he was sitting with his friend in front of a trunk to get a small, starving girl out of it. Legolas took a second bite, still smirking amused at the girl who was slowly leaning closer to the opening. "If you will eat all the Lembas, you won't be able to feed her.", Assaron sighed.
"Come on, Short-Elf…", Legolas spoke in a whisper, dropping another piece of bread. She followed his hand with her eyes, assuring he removed it again, quickly. Perhaps she could get the bread that was laying on the snowy ground. She had to be fast. And skillful.
Legolas leaned back a little, allowing her to take the bread swiftly. Without her eyes leaving his she nibbled at the welcome meal.
Legolas laughed softly, his blue eyes glittered in the midday-sun like pearls in the silver moonlight. "Alas, Mylord, if you want I pet, I can find one for you…but this is a human girl, stop playing your game with her."
"Assaron, I never experienced you being that impatient. Wait, I will get her out…"
"You said the same half an hour ago"
"I didn't"
"Yes, you did"
"Assaron?"
"Legolas?"
"Shut up"
"Shut up?"
"Yes, be silent", Legolas grinned broadly, pointing at the opening. The small girl had climbed out a little, after she had eaten the bread she might was looking for more. "Tasty, hm?", Legolas whispered at her and she stiffened at the sound of his gentle voice. "Would you like me to give you another piece?", he continued, moving slowly not to startle her. She liked the warm voice of this weird being and he really seemed to be friendly. But she still remembered her father's words. He was a stranger and she had seen his bow, he hid it from her, though. May he would shoot her and cook her afterwards with his ugly and nasty companions. Or he would break every single bone to make a nice chain. Alas, what was she thinking of? She was too nervous to think a coherent thought.
Slowly, she nodded, climbing out of the tree and sitting down on the thin layer of snow. Legolas and Assaron saw her ripped clothes with sorrow in their eyes. Still smiling, Legolas put another piece of Lembas out of the bag, one of the last he had carried with him. "Here you are", he said, offering the bread to her, but this time, he kept it in his hand so she had to come closer if she really wanted to get it. Hesitantly, she took a step towards him. Although he was kneeling, she was barely taller than him while standing on her feet. "Don't be afraid, Short-Elf…there is no reason to be frightened.", he whispered and her eyes showed her inner uneasiness. When she finally laid her hand in his just to pick up the bread, he quickly, but also gently, held onto her tiny wrist. In panic she tried to get away from him, but he held her too tight. No way out. She took the bait. "Hush, I won't hurt you…no one will…I promise…I will protect you…and my companion will, too"
"Of course he will", Assaron mumbled, at the end of his tether. The girl stared at Legolas, a shiver ran down her spine when she noticed his force. "Come with us…you soon will get much more to eat and a fine bath", Legolas said, stroking over her wounded skin at her wrist with his other hand.
She had no choice. Whatever they wanted to do to her, she could not defend. Too weak she was, too small, she would get nowhere. Her father would be mad with her if he knew of her foolishness. Legolas slowly let go of her, putting his cloak around her small shoulders. He laid his hand slightly on her forehead, feeling her temperature. "You've been too long out here in the cold…come on, you are safe now"
Assaron looked at the girl and smiled slightly. "You can believe His Highness' words", he teased Legolas who slowly took the girl's hand. But at the first steps of the Elf she stumbled and almost hit the ground if Legolas hadn't caught her recently. "I'll better carry you, Short-Elf…you look so weary", he pulled her gently in his arms and whispered softly in her ear and hesitantly she snuggled closer to his shoulder, breathing in the fine scent of his hair.
Really, she was weary…so weary… .
When Legolas and Assaron went back to the palace, she had fallen asleep in the Elf's arms. But he knew she still was afraid of him. And his heart told him she would be for a long time… .
TBC
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Thanks for your support, you make my day ^.^v
