Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Authors Note: Hm, it occurred to me during the typing of this chapter that, since Wood Elves are sometimes called Sindarin Elves, and Legolas is a Wood Elf, he should be speaking Sindarin, not Quenya...oops. I shall be setting out soon to find myself a Sindarin dictionary. Until then, The little Elvish words sprinkled throughout the fic are Quenya...my apologies to all those that care.
And because it was so popular last chapter, cybercookies go to: silver swan, MaverickGirl, bratprincess, Duke Storm, Girl X, and Aislin for reviewing. SplendiferGoddess gets a two cybercookies for beta-reading.
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-No Eyes Needed-
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-Chapter XI-
-Discussions-
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Legolas woke the next morning happily aware that whatever Ranora's tea had had in it, it had eliminated whatever hangover he normally would have had. He was the first to rise in the house, needing less sleep then the humans, and went out to the small garden behind the house to look around. It was a small flower and vegetable garden, with one rose bush off to the side, and Legolas found that it was actually quite well tended. It could use some help of the kind only an Elf could give, however, and after a moment's hesitation, Legolas set about giving that help.
So Ranora found Legolas an hour later, happily working away in her garden, singing softly to himself - and the plants - while he worked. She smiled slightly, and then left him to it, going back into the kitchen to make breakfast. Faldor rose shortly after his wife, and upon entering the kitchen and spotting Legolas working in the garden through one of the kitchen windows, stopped and stared in shock.
"He came in with Eli last night. You remember I told you that she'd come for a visit?" Ranora told her husband.
"Right." Faldor said after a moment, tearing his gaze away from the Elven Prince and looking at his wife.
"Breakfast's almost ready, if you'll sit down." Ranora said, and Faldor, still in slight shock, seated himself at the small table in the kitchen, his gaze occasionally flitting back to the window. Then Ranora decided it was finally time to disturb Legolas, and left the kitchen to do so.
"Good morning!" she said in greeting, entering the garden. Legolas looked up and smiled.
"Manë arin! [Good Morning!]" he said cheerily. Ranora arched an eyebrow, not understanding any form of Elvish, and assumed he said good morning.
"Would you like to eat now, or when Elisandra rises?" she asked. As an answer, Legolas rose, dusting off his hands and trousers.
"Now is as good a time as any!" he said, and then added dryly, "Especially since, if Elisandra is anything like my friend Gimli, I could be waiting until noon if I waited to eat with her." Ranora chuckled.
"That you could." she said. "Well, come in and meet my husband, and then we'll have breakfast." Legolas followed Ranora back into the house, and was introduced to Faldor. Ranora's husband was polite, but seemed a bit overwhelmed at sharing breakfast with an Elf Prince, even after Legolas told the two to just call him Legolas. So Faldor ate quickly, and then excused himself to go to work - half an hour early, as Ranora revealed once he was gone.
"I should probably go find a city guard and tell them to get the message to Aragorn that Elisandra is safe." Legolas mused once Faldor was gone.
"That would be a good idea, I think. Faldor said that there was quite the uproar going on at the palace last night when he came home." Ranora said.
"Then I shall go before they start searching the city." Legolas said dryly, and with a wave, disappeared out the door. He ended out having to go all the way to the gate between the third and fourth ring of the city to find a guard, and then he had to pull rank to get the guard to leave his post and run his message. Apparently they were very short on guards. Which could mean one of many things - but the most likely reason was that Aragorn had already gathered all the spare guards he could to mount a search for his foster daughter. Legolas sped back to Ranora's as fast as he could without attracting attention.
Inside, he found Elisandra awake - or at least, he thought she was awake; maybe she was asleep in her chair - with a cup of Ranora's medicinal tea in front of her. Ranora was washing the morning's dishes, watching Elisandra with amusement. Then, as Legolas came into Elisandra' field of vision, her head snapped in his direction and she scowled.
"I am going to shoot you!" she declared, then added with a wry smile, "As soon as I learn how to use a bow."
"Then I shall not hold my breath in fear while waiting." Legolas said with an impish grin as he took a seat at the table across from Elisandra, keeping well out of hitting and kicking distance. "And in that waiting period, may I remind you it was your idea to enter the tavern? And you were the one who wanted ale? And you were the one that kept count of how many times the Barkeep refilled our ales?" Elisandra snorted.
"It makes no difference." she said. "You're the one with normal sight, you should have been able to keep track if I could."
"Except you were trying to - and succeeding in - distracting me from keeping track." Legolas retorted. Elisandra opened her mouth to reply, and then paused.
"I was?" she asked after a moments thought, and Legolas nodded.
"You were." he replied.
"I'm almost afraid to ask HOW I did that." Elisandra said with a sigh and a half-cringe, and Legolas thought for a moment, considering whether to tease her or not. She shot him a warning look, however, and he opted for the truth.
"I believe it was in lecturing me about how plants could not survive with only starlight." he said. "I can not exactly remember, myself. I had the same amount of ale as you."
"I thought Elves were supposed to have superior constitutions then Humans?" Elisandra asked.
"We do. You, however, have an abnormally good constitution for a human." Legolas replied. "So by the time you were drunk enough for me to notice, I was rather drunk myself."
"Ah." Elisandra replied, and then frowned down at her tea thoughtfully.
"Father will be worried." she said after a moment.
"I sent a guard to tell him you were safe." Legolas replied. Ranora, at this time, finished the last of the dishes and disappeared from the kitchen.
"That won't be enough for him. He worries about me almost as much as my handmaidens, sometimes, though he does not treat me as such an imbecile as they do." Elisandra said, and Legolas frowned slightly. Elisandra glanced up at his, and smiled slightly. "They all worry about me. It gets tiring sometimes."
"Sometimes it can be a good thing to have people worrying about you." Legolas said.
"Yes, but not an entire palace, all the time, even when they know you're perfectly safe standing right in front of them." Elisandra said in annoyance. "For Eru's sake, ELDARION has more freedom then I!"
"Perhaps you should ask them to stop worrying so much." Legolas said.
"I have, and they just worry all the more because of it!" Elisandra snapped, and then sighed. "I'm sorry, Legolas, I didn't mean to snap. It's just - I get sick of people worrying about me. That's one of the reasons I find being around you refreshing. You don't worry about me. You accept my sight and act as if it was normal, guiding me when I need it and letting me be when you know I can handle myself. Everyone else just skips the letting me be part completely."
"I have a feeling it comes from spending too much of my life fighting." Legolas said dryly. "When fighting, you expect your companions to deal with what they can handle, and do not worry about them, because if you do, you will die."
"If that is the case, then Father should be the same." Elisandra said. "But he is not, I can assure you."
"He has raised you since you were a child. I should think that would be a valid excuse to be over protective." Legolas said.
"Nothing is a valid excuse to be over protective." Elisandra muttered.
"But there are many good reasons to be over protective." Legolas countered. Elisandra looked at him for a moment, and then reluctantly nodded.
"I suppose there are. But I still don't like it." she said.
"No one has said you have to!" Legolas replied cheerfully, and Elisandra smiled slightly.
"Ah, but it was implied." she said.
"No, it was only implied that you accept it, not that you like it." Legolas insisted. Elisandra thought for a moment, and Legolas smirked. "I win." he said.
"Damn 3,000 years worth of experience." Elisandra mumbled, then added emphatically, "I blame your age, you crotchety old elf!" Legolas's jaw dropped open in shock.
"I am not crotchety, nor old!" he replied after getting over his shock. "You want to see crotchety and old, go find a Human grandfather!"
"Oh, so Elves can't be crotchety and old?" Elisandra asked with a challenging look.
"No, we are immortal, thus, we never become crotchety or old." Legolas replied.
"Ah, but what of Elros? He became crotchety and old." Elisandra said.
"He was Half-Elven, and chose the race of Men. He forsook his Elven heritage long before he became crotchety or old. And if stories are to be believed, he died long before he became truly crotchety, anyways." Legolas retorted.
"But it doesn't matter if he forsook his Elvish heritage before he became crotchety and old. The blood was still in him!" Elisandra said, and at this point, Ranora re-entered the kitchen. Upon hearing Elisandra's statement, she arched an eyebrow.
"What ARE you discussing?" she asked.
"Whether or not Elves can become crotchety and old." Elisandra replied promptly.
"Which they can not." Legolas said.
"Elros did!" Elisandra insisted.
"He was not an Elf when he became crotchety and old, and as I said, the stories claim he never even became crotchety!" Legolas replied. Ranora shook her head and smiled.
"I shall leave you two to it, then." she said, and left the kitchen again. Legolas and Elisandra, now completely absorbed in a discussion about whether or not the stories about Elros not becoming crotchety before he died could be believed, didn't even notice Ranora leave.
---
The guards jumped to attention as Aragorn passed, eyeing him nervously, but he went straight past them, scowling as he went. He stalked into the chamber and turned to face the young gate guard that was standing there.
"Well?" he barked. "I was told you had an urgent message!"
"Y-yes, Your Majesty." the guard stuttered, eyes wide with fear.
"Out with it, then!" Aragorn snapped. He knew he shouldn't be so curt with the guard, but he had had a rather trying evening and morning. He had been in the middle of preparing a group of guards to go search the city for his still-missing foster daughter when one of his pages had come and told him that there was a city guard there with an urgent message.
"H-his highness, Prince Legolas, said to-to tell you th-thatLadyElisandraissafe." The guard blurted out the last part so quickly, Aragorn had to think it over for a minute before understanding. And then his face, if possible, darkened even more.
"Was there anything else?" he asked. The guard mutely shook his head. Aragorn snarled.
"I am going to shoot him, Elvish Prince or not!" he snapped at nobody in particular, whirling on his heel and stalking out of the room. This time, as he passed, the guards not only jumped to attention, but jumped a good foot away from him at the same time. Aragorn, in no mood to be amused by their antics, snarled at them as he continued. He continued stalking through the corridors, letting the servants and Lords and Ladies jump out of his way rather then change his course, until he reached his and Arwen's chambers.
When he entered, he saw Arwen crouched in front of one of Elisandra's handmaidens, apparently trying to comfort her. Whatever Arwen had managed to accomplish, however, was instantly reversed when the handmaiden saw Aragorn's face. She cringed back in her seat and started crying softly. Arwen gave Aragorn a reproving look, then stood and walked over to him.
"What is it?" she asked softly.
"Prince Legolas sends word that Lady Elisandra is 'safe'." Aragorn snarled, then collapsed into a nearby chair, scowling. Arwen looked at her husband in shock, and the handmaiden stopped crying in surprise, also staring at the King.
"Well, that is good news." Arwen said smoothly, recovering.
"Only partly." Aragorn said darkly. "'Safe' can mean many things. That he is sending the message also raises questions as to how he knows of her whereabouts in the first place."
"Geona, would you please leave us?" Arwen said calmly. The handmaiden nodded, rising and curtseying hastily before rushing out the door. She, apparently, had no more desire then the guards to be near Aragorn in his current mood. When she was gone, Arwen turned to her husband.
"Legolas is your friend and mine. He would do nothing to harm Elisandra. You know this. Why do you question his message that she is safe?" she asked sharply.
"I am not worried that he would harm her." Aragorn said with a sigh. "Quite the opposite, in fact." There was a pause as Arwen figured out what Aragorn meant, and when she did, she sighed.
"She is and adult, as is he, Aragorn." Arwen said.
"She is essentially my daughter, and he is one of my best friends, almost like a brother to me!" Aragorn snapped in reply.
"Yet she is not your daughter, nor mine, and he is not your brother." Arwen said calmly. "If they choose to link themselves in that manner, then there is nothing you nor I can do. However, we are not even sure that is what has happened. They could have spent the night far away from each other and only met up this morning." Aragorn snorted, but the fire of his anger was gone.
"I just do not want her to get hurt." he said softly, closing his eyes and resting his head in his hands.
"I know, Aragorn, neither do I." Arwen replied just as softly, walking over to her husband and sitting on the arm of the chair. Without warning, Aragorn swept her into his lap and held her there, holding onto her and drawing comfort from her strength. It was sometime later when Arwen heard him laugh suddenly from where his face was buried in her neck, and she looked down at him curiously just as he lifted his head to look at her. She was relieved to see amusement sparkling in his eyes, but was curious as to what caused it. Before she could ask him, however, he supplied the answer.
"It is a fine thing when the father is more upset over the loss of a child then the mother." he said with a laugh.
"That is what comes from worrying too much!" Arwen replied promptly.
"Ah, but worrying can sometimes save you." Aragorn said.
"Or annoy those around you." a new voice said. Arwen turned her head with a slight smile to see the voices owner, but Aragorn did not move.
"I am going to shoot you, you know." he commented calmly.
"Get in line." Elisandra said with a snort. "I'm first."
"And what if I do not wish to be a target?" Legolas replied with a slight pout.
"Then we'll tie you down and use you as a target anyways!" Elisandra replied cheerfully. Legolas mumbled something along the lines of not being appreciated, and Elisandra laughed. That caused Aragorn to finally look at the two, and though he looked at them intently, he could not tell if what he had worried had happened during the night had happened.
"Where did you two disappear to?" he asked finally.
"Um, we wandered down to the fourth ring of the city and found my old foster family." Elisandra said, squirming slightly as she felt her father's attention on her. "We talked late into the night, and by the time we were finished, it was so late that Ranora invited us to stay the night."
"Really now." Arwen said flatly, and Aragorn looked at his wife. She had sounded, and looked, as if she hadn't believed a word Elisandra said. Looking back to Elisandra and Legolas, Aragorn saw the two glance at each other. Their looks seemed to both say 'I'm not telling them!' Aragorn narrowed his eyes at them, and Legolas shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"You're the Elf who cam talk fancy, you tell him." Elisandra mumbled to Legolas, low enough that Aragorn would not have been able to tell what she said if it wasn't for his little-known ability to read lips. "I can't even remember most of it, anyways." Legolas seemed almost ready to argue, and then sighed.
"We did end up go down to the fourth ring of the city, and we did visit with Elisandra's foster family. But we visited this morning. Last night...well, we walked around the fourth ring of the city for awhile, until Elisandra suggested we find someplace to sit down for awhile, so we went to a tavern and - uh - had a few ales." Legolas said, looking about as nervous as an Elf could get. Aragorn arched an eyebrow. That was hardly anything to be nervous about telling him, and why would Elisandra not remember most of it? Arwen, however, it seemed, was quicker to catch on then Aragorn.
"How many ales, exactly?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. Elisandra and Legolas looked at each other.
"Eight." they replied as one.
"Each?" Arwen asked, and Elisandra and Legolas nodded. Aragorn starred at them. Eight ales was more then enough to put himself out of action. Legolas and Elisandra shifted uncomfortably under the twin gazes of Aragorn and Arwen.
"So you both snuck out of the palace and got drunk before visiting Elisandra's old foster family?" Aragorn asked after a long silence.
"Uhm, well, Elisandra's old foster brother found us, first, and then offered to take us home to his mother for some tea to lessen the effects of the alcohol before coming back to the palace." Legolas replied. "Then Ranora kindly offered to let us stay the night, and we were both dead tired, so we agreed."
"You mean Elisandra was still walking after having that many drinks?" Arwen asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Barely, yes." Legolas replied. Arwen and Aragorn looked at each other.
"I would have passed out at about six or seven." Aragorn whispered to Arwen, who nodded slightly, glancing towards Elisandra.
"I think it is more then time to find out the identity of Elisandra's father." Arwen whispered back.
"Well, at least something was accomplished last night." Aragorn said in his normal voice, to Legolas and Elisandra. "We needed to find Ranora soon, anyways."
"Why?" Elisandra asked with curiosity.
"Because it is time to find out who your father is, Eli." Aragorn replied calmly.
\/---Review pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!---\/
Authors Note: Hm, it occurred to me during the typing of this chapter that, since Wood Elves are sometimes called Sindarin Elves, and Legolas is a Wood Elf, he should be speaking Sindarin, not Quenya...oops. I shall be setting out soon to find myself a Sindarin dictionary. Until then, The little Elvish words sprinkled throughout the fic are Quenya...my apologies to all those that care.
And because it was so popular last chapter, cybercookies go to: silver swan, MaverickGirl, bratprincess, Duke Storm, Girl X, and Aislin for reviewing. SplendiferGoddess gets a two cybercookies for beta-reading.
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-No Eyes Needed-
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-Chapter XI-
-Discussions-
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Legolas woke the next morning happily aware that whatever Ranora's tea had had in it, it had eliminated whatever hangover he normally would have had. He was the first to rise in the house, needing less sleep then the humans, and went out to the small garden behind the house to look around. It was a small flower and vegetable garden, with one rose bush off to the side, and Legolas found that it was actually quite well tended. It could use some help of the kind only an Elf could give, however, and after a moment's hesitation, Legolas set about giving that help.
So Ranora found Legolas an hour later, happily working away in her garden, singing softly to himself - and the plants - while he worked. She smiled slightly, and then left him to it, going back into the kitchen to make breakfast. Faldor rose shortly after his wife, and upon entering the kitchen and spotting Legolas working in the garden through one of the kitchen windows, stopped and stared in shock.
"He came in with Eli last night. You remember I told you that she'd come for a visit?" Ranora told her husband.
"Right." Faldor said after a moment, tearing his gaze away from the Elven Prince and looking at his wife.
"Breakfast's almost ready, if you'll sit down." Ranora said, and Faldor, still in slight shock, seated himself at the small table in the kitchen, his gaze occasionally flitting back to the window. Then Ranora decided it was finally time to disturb Legolas, and left the kitchen to do so.
"Good morning!" she said in greeting, entering the garden. Legolas looked up and smiled.
"Manë arin! [Good Morning!]" he said cheerily. Ranora arched an eyebrow, not understanding any form of Elvish, and assumed he said good morning.
"Would you like to eat now, or when Elisandra rises?" she asked. As an answer, Legolas rose, dusting off his hands and trousers.
"Now is as good a time as any!" he said, and then added dryly, "Especially since, if Elisandra is anything like my friend Gimli, I could be waiting until noon if I waited to eat with her." Ranora chuckled.
"That you could." she said. "Well, come in and meet my husband, and then we'll have breakfast." Legolas followed Ranora back into the house, and was introduced to Faldor. Ranora's husband was polite, but seemed a bit overwhelmed at sharing breakfast with an Elf Prince, even after Legolas told the two to just call him Legolas. So Faldor ate quickly, and then excused himself to go to work - half an hour early, as Ranora revealed once he was gone.
"I should probably go find a city guard and tell them to get the message to Aragorn that Elisandra is safe." Legolas mused once Faldor was gone.
"That would be a good idea, I think. Faldor said that there was quite the uproar going on at the palace last night when he came home." Ranora said.
"Then I shall go before they start searching the city." Legolas said dryly, and with a wave, disappeared out the door. He ended out having to go all the way to the gate between the third and fourth ring of the city to find a guard, and then he had to pull rank to get the guard to leave his post and run his message. Apparently they were very short on guards. Which could mean one of many things - but the most likely reason was that Aragorn had already gathered all the spare guards he could to mount a search for his foster daughter. Legolas sped back to Ranora's as fast as he could without attracting attention.
Inside, he found Elisandra awake - or at least, he thought she was awake; maybe she was asleep in her chair - with a cup of Ranora's medicinal tea in front of her. Ranora was washing the morning's dishes, watching Elisandra with amusement. Then, as Legolas came into Elisandra' field of vision, her head snapped in his direction and she scowled.
"I am going to shoot you!" she declared, then added with a wry smile, "As soon as I learn how to use a bow."
"Then I shall not hold my breath in fear while waiting." Legolas said with an impish grin as he took a seat at the table across from Elisandra, keeping well out of hitting and kicking distance. "And in that waiting period, may I remind you it was your idea to enter the tavern? And you were the one who wanted ale? And you were the one that kept count of how many times the Barkeep refilled our ales?" Elisandra snorted.
"It makes no difference." she said. "You're the one with normal sight, you should have been able to keep track if I could."
"Except you were trying to - and succeeding in - distracting me from keeping track." Legolas retorted. Elisandra opened her mouth to reply, and then paused.
"I was?" she asked after a moments thought, and Legolas nodded.
"You were." he replied.
"I'm almost afraid to ask HOW I did that." Elisandra said with a sigh and a half-cringe, and Legolas thought for a moment, considering whether to tease her or not. She shot him a warning look, however, and he opted for the truth.
"I believe it was in lecturing me about how plants could not survive with only starlight." he said. "I can not exactly remember, myself. I had the same amount of ale as you."
"I thought Elves were supposed to have superior constitutions then Humans?" Elisandra asked.
"We do. You, however, have an abnormally good constitution for a human." Legolas replied. "So by the time you were drunk enough for me to notice, I was rather drunk myself."
"Ah." Elisandra replied, and then frowned down at her tea thoughtfully.
"Father will be worried." she said after a moment.
"I sent a guard to tell him you were safe." Legolas replied. Ranora, at this time, finished the last of the dishes and disappeared from the kitchen.
"That won't be enough for him. He worries about me almost as much as my handmaidens, sometimes, though he does not treat me as such an imbecile as they do." Elisandra said, and Legolas frowned slightly. Elisandra glanced up at his, and smiled slightly. "They all worry about me. It gets tiring sometimes."
"Sometimes it can be a good thing to have people worrying about you." Legolas said.
"Yes, but not an entire palace, all the time, even when they know you're perfectly safe standing right in front of them." Elisandra said in annoyance. "For Eru's sake, ELDARION has more freedom then I!"
"Perhaps you should ask them to stop worrying so much." Legolas said.
"I have, and they just worry all the more because of it!" Elisandra snapped, and then sighed. "I'm sorry, Legolas, I didn't mean to snap. It's just - I get sick of people worrying about me. That's one of the reasons I find being around you refreshing. You don't worry about me. You accept my sight and act as if it was normal, guiding me when I need it and letting me be when you know I can handle myself. Everyone else just skips the letting me be part completely."
"I have a feeling it comes from spending too much of my life fighting." Legolas said dryly. "When fighting, you expect your companions to deal with what they can handle, and do not worry about them, because if you do, you will die."
"If that is the case, then Father should be the same." Elisandra said. "But he is not, I can assure you."
"He has raised you since you were a child. I should think that would be a valid excuse to be over protective." Legolas said.
"Nothing is a valid excuse to be over protective." Elisandra muttered.
"But there are many good reasons to be over protective." Legolas countered. Elisandra looked at him for a moment, and then reluctantly nodded.
"I suppose there are. But I still don't like it." she said.
"No one has said you have to!" Legolas replied cheerfully, and Elisandra smiled slightly.
"Ah, but it was implied." she said.
"No, it was only implied that you accept it, not that you like it." Legolas insisted. Elisandra thought for a moment, and Legolas smirked. "I win." he said.
"Damn 3,000 years worth of experience." Elisandra mumbled, then added emphatically, "I blame your age, you crotchety old elf!" Legolas's jaw dropped open in shock.
"I am not crotchety, nor old!" he replied after getting over his shock. "You want to see crotchety and old, go find a Human grandfather!"
"Oh, so Elves can't be crotchety and old?" Elisandra asked with a challenging look.
"No, we are immortal, thus, we never become crotchety or old." Legolas replied.
"Ah, but what of Elros? He became crotchety and old." Elisandra said.
"He was Half-Elven, and chose the race of Men. He forsook his Elven heritage long before he became crotchety or old. And if stories are to be believed, he died long before he became truly crotchety, anyways." Legolas retorted.
"But it doesn't matter if he forsook his Elvish heritage before he became crotchety and old. The blood was still in him!" Elisandra said, and at this point, Ranora re-entered the kitchen. Upon hearing Elisandra's statement, she arched an eyebrow.
"What ARE you discussing?" she asked.
"Whether or not Elves can become crotchety and old." Elisandra replied promptly.
"Which they can not." Legolas said.
"Elros did!" Elisandra insisted.
"He was not an Elf when he became crotchety and old, and as I said, the stories claim he never even became crotchety!" Legolas replied. Ranora shook her head and smiled.
"I shall leave you two to it, then." she said, and left the kitchen again. Legolas and Elisandra, now completely absorbed in a discussion about whether or not the stories about Elros not becoming crotchety before he died could be believed, didn't even notice Ranora leave.
---
The guards jumped to attention as Aragorn passed, eyeing him nervously, but he went straight past them, scowling as he went. He stalked into the chamber and turned to face the young gate guard that was standing there.
"Well?" he barked. "I was told you had an urgent message!"
"Y-yes, Your Majesty." the guard stuttered, eyes wide with fear.
"Out with it, then!" Aragorn snapped. He knew he shouldn't be so curt with the guard, but he had had a rather trying evening and morning. He had been in the middle of preparing a group of guards to go search the city for his still-missing foster daughter when one of his pages had come and told him that there was a city guard there with an urgent message.
"H-his highness, Prince Legolas, said to-to tell you th-thatLadyElisandraissafe." The guard blurted out the last part so quickly, Aragorn had to think it over for a minute before understanding. And then his face, if possible, darkened even more.
"Was there anything else?" he asked. The guard mutely shook his head. Aragorn snarled.
"I am going to shoot him, Elvish Prince or not!" he snapped at nobody in particular, whirling on his heel and stalking out of the room. This time, as he passed, the guards not only jumped to attention, but jumped a good foot away from him at the same time. Aragorn, in no mood to be amused by their antics, snarled at them as he continued. He continued stalking through the corridors, letting the servants and Lords and Ladies jump out of his way rather then change his course, until he reached his and Arwen's chambers.
When he entered, he saw Arwen crouched in front of one of Elisandra's handmaidens, apparently trying to comfort her. Whatever Arwen had managed to accomplish, however, was instantly reversed when the handmaiden saw Aragorn's face. She cringed back in her seat and started crying softly. Arwen gave Aragorn a reproving look, then stood and walked over to him.
"What is it?" she asked softly.
"Prince Legolas sends word that Lady Elisandra is 'safe'." Aragorn snarled, then collapsed into a nearby chair, scowling. Arwen looked at her husband in shock, and the handmaiden stopped crying in surprise, also staring at the King.
"Well, that is good news." Arwen said smoothly, recovering.
"Only partly." Aragorn said darkly. "'Safe' can mean many things. That he is sending the message also raises questions as to how he knows of her whereabouts in the first place."
"Geona, would you please leave us?" Arwen said calmly. The handmaiden nodded, rising and curtseying hastily before rushing out the door. She, apparently, had no more desire then the guards to be near Aragorn in his current mood. When she was gone, Arwen turned to her husband.
"Legolas is your friend and mine. He would do nothing to harm Elisandra. You know this. Why do you question his message that she is safe?" she asked sharply.
"I am not worried that he would harm her." Aragorn said with a sigh. "Quite the opposite, in fact." There was a pause as Arwen figured out what Aragorn meant, and when she did, she sighed.
"She is and adult, as is he, Aragorn." Arwen said.
"She is essentially my daughter, and he is one of my best friends, almost like a brother to me!" Aragorn snapped in reply.
"Yet she is not your daughter, nor mine, and he is not your brother." Arwen said calmly. "If they choose to link themselves in that manner, then there is nothing you nor I can do. However, we are not even sure that is what has happened. They could have spent the night far away from each other and only met up this morning." Aragorn snorted, but the fire of his anger was gone.
"I just do not want her to get hurt." he said softly, closing his eyes and resting his head in his hands.
"I know, Aragorn, neither do I." Arwen replied just as softly, walking over to her husband and sitting on the arm of the chair. Without warning, Aragorn swept her into his lap and held her there, holding onto her and drawing comfort from her strength. It was sometime later when Arwen heard him laugh suddenly from where his face was buried in her neck, and she looked down at him curiously just as he lifted his head to look at her. She was relieved to see amusement sparkling in his eyes, but was curious as to what caused it. Before she could ask him, however, he supplied the answer.
"It is a fine thing when the father is more upset over the loss of a child then the mother." he said with a laugh.
"That is what comes from worrying too much!" Arwen replied promptly.
"Ah, but worrying can sometimes save you." Aragorn said.
"Or annoy those around you." a new voice said. Arwen turned her head with a slight smile to see the voices owner, but Aragorn did not move.
"I am going to shoot you, you know." he commented calmly.
"Get in line." Elisandra said with a snort. "I'm first."
"And what if I do not wish to be a target?" Legolas replied with a slight pout.
"Then we'll tie you down and use you as a target anyways!" Elisandra replied cheerfully. Legolas mumbled something along the lines of not being appreciated, and Elisandra laughed. That caused Aragorn to finally look at the two, and though he looked at them intently, he could not tell if what he had worried had happened during the night had happened.
"Where did you two disappear to?" he asked finally.
"Um, we wandered down to the fourth ring of the city and found my old foster family." Elisandra said, squirming slightly as she felt her father's attention on her. "We talked late into the night, and by the time we were finished, it was so late that Ranora invited us to stay the night."
"Really now." Arwen said flatly, and Aragorn looked at his wife. She had sounded, and looked, as if she hadn't believed a word Elisandra said. Looking back to Elisandra and Legolas, Aragorn saw the two glance at each other. Their looks seemed to both say 'I'm not telling them!' Aragorn narrowed his eyes at them, and Legolas shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"You're the Elf who cam talk fancy, you tell him." Elisandra mumbled to Legolas, low enough that Aragorn would not have been able to tell what she said if it wasn't for his little-known ability to read lips. "I can't even remember most of it, anyways." Legolas seemed almost ready to argue, and then sighed.
"We did end up go down to the fourth ring of the city, and we did visit with Elisandra's foster family. But we visited this morning. Last night...well, we walked around the fourth ring of the city for awhile, until Elisandra suggested we find someplace to sit down for awhile, so we went to a tavern and - uh - had a few ales." Legolas said, looking about as nervous as an Elf could get. Aragorn arched an eyebrow. That was hardly anything to be nervous about telling him, and why would Elisandra not remember most of it? Arwen, however, it seemed, was quicker to catch on then Aragorn.
"How many ales, exactly?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. Elisandra and Legolas looked at each other.
"Eight." they replied as one.
"Each?" Arwen asked, and Elisandra and Legolas nodded. Aragorn starred at them. Eight ales was more then enough to put himself out of action. Legolas and Elisandra shifted uncomfortably under the twin gazes of Aragorn and Arwen.
"So you both snuck out of the palace and got drunk before visiting Elisandra's old foster family?" Aragorn asked after a long silence.
"Uhm, well, Elisandra's old foster brother found us, first, and then offered to take us home to his mother for some tea to lessen the effects of the alcohol before coming back to the palace." Legolas replied. "Then Ranora kindly offered to let us stay the night, and we were both dead tired, so we agreed."
"You mean Elisandra was still walking after having that many drinks?" Arwen asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Barely, yes." Legolas replied. Arwen and Aragorn looked at each other.
"I would have passed out at about six or seven." Aragorn whispered to Arwen, who nodded slightly, glancing towards Elisandra.
"I think it is more then time to find out the identity of Elisandra's father." Arwen whispered back.
"Well, at least something was accomplished last night." Aragorn said in his normal voice, to Legolas and Elisandra. "We needed to find Ranora soon, anyways."
"Why?" Elisandra asked with curiosity.
"Because it is time to find out who your father is, Eli." Aragorn replied calmly.
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