Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Authors Note: Entire cybercakes go to all my reviewers 'cuz I hit 100 reviews! WOOT!
Anyways, you should all enjoy this chapter, especially the end. It should put to rest any suspicions that I might pull a really odd, screwed-up plot twist and make Legolas Elisandra's father...that's just too much oddness and angst, even for me. This chapter has also finished setting the stage for the action. You thought things were slowing down, Lady of Middle Earth? Trust me, it's just the calm before the storm...The questions have been asked, the stage has been set, and the answers are going to start coming very very soon...and the rating might possibly go up. ;)
------------------------------
-No Eyes Needed-
------------------------------
-Chapter XIII-
-Revelations-
------------------------------
With no little amount of nervousness, Ranora approached the palace for the third time in her life. Under her arm, she carried the small, faded portrait of her friend and Elisandra's mother that she had long had hidden in her attic. She had planned on giving it to Elisandra when she was older, but then Elisandra had become sick and lost her sight and Ranora had seen no use in giving it to Elisandra and had forgotten about it until this business about finding Elisandra's father came up. So now, she walked up to the palace, in her best dress, and feeling very self-conscious about the portrait wrapped in old brown paper under her arm.
"Halt and declare yourself and your business!" the guard at the entrance ordered when Ranora approached the gate, and Ranora paused. She had not had to declare herself to the guards on both of her previous visits, and was not quite sure what to do. Thankfully, the guard seemed to understand this.
"Name?" he asked, his voice gentler, and Ranora promptly answered.
"Ranora Merel." she said, and the guard smiled instantly.
"Ah! The one the captain said to look out for." he said. "Come with me, I'm to escort you to the receiving room." Then, with a wave to his fellow guardsman, the guard turned and entered the palace, and Ranora followed.
"What's that you're carrying?" the guard asked conversationally as they walked, and Ranora shifted the package under her arm.
"A portrait." she answered.
"Of who?" The guard asked.
"Lady Elisandra's mother." Ranora answered, and the guard arched an eyebrow, but said no more. The rest of the journey through the many halls and corridors was silent, until they stopped before a door.
"Their Majesties Elessar and Arwen, His Highness Prince Legolas and Lady Elisandra are all waiting for you." He told Ranora in low a voice, and then he straightened, seemingly preparing himself, looking more nervous then Ranora. Deciding himself ready, he knocked briskly, and there came a polite 'Enter!' He opened the door wide and stepped in and to the side so that Ranora could enter behind him, then announced in a steady voice,
"Ranora Merel, Your Majesties, Highness, Lady." Then he saluted, even as Ranora curtseyed deeply.
"Thank you, you may return to your post." the King Elessar told the guard. The guard saluted again, and left, closing the door behind him.
"Rise, there is no need for that." the queen told Ranora. Ranora rose nervously and took the seat that the queen motioned to.
"Tea?" the queen offered, motioning to a servant, and Ranora accepted politely. They sat in relative silence for awhile, all five of them, sipping their tea, until finally Prince Legolas spoke up.
"What is this that you have brought with you?" he asked, and Ranora smiled slightly as she set down her tea and picked up the portrait from where she had set it next to the chair.
"It's a portrait of Elisandra's mother, Highness. It was done several years before Elisandra was born, and was not of the best workmanship, so it's become rather faded, but it still shows what she looks like." Ranora said, carefully unwrapping the portrait and pretending not to hear Elisandra's indrawn breath. Now, more then ever, she pitied the girl's lack of sight.
"I see that Elisandra's beauty might not have come as much from her father's side as we thought." the king said with amusement as Ranora showed the portrait to the three that could see. And as Ranora looked at the portrait again, she smiled, agreeing with the king.
"Indeed, Your Majesty, Eneira was beautiful in her own right, and had many men seeking her hand." Ranora said fondly. It was an understatement, really. Elisandra's mother had been one of the most beautiful women in Minas Tirith when she'd been alive, with long, black hair and deep green eyes, skin of the right shade to compliment it, and a slender, graceful build. Even more amazing was that she had a beautiful personality to match it, something so few human beauties had nowadays. The only thing anyone could ever fault her with was having too strong a sense of wanderlust, and no concept of danger to go with it.
"Eneira?" Elisandra's voice was soft, and Ranora looked from the portrait to Elisandra and nodded, before remembering she couldn't see such a gesture.
"Yes, that was your mother's name." Ranora said kindly, and Elisandra bit her lower lip, seeming to be thinking.
"Did she have a family name?" Prince Legolas asked, though he glanced at Elisandra with concern.
"None that she told me, Highness." Ranora replied. "She arrived in Minas Tirith when she was just barely twenty, with no one but a few hired guards, and told no one of her past. Even I, who was her best friend, earned only a vague tale about her parents dieing. The only clue to her past that there ever was was the fact that she seemed to have almost unlimited amounts of money."
"Strange." the king said with a light frown, and Ranora nodded slightly.
"It was indeed, Your Majesty." she said. "All thought that her parents must have been rich nobles who died, for there was no way that any parent would let their young - and beautiful - daughter wander around the countryside as she did."
"So she traveled much?" Prince Legolas asked, and Ranora nodded vigorously.
"Of the ten years she had a house in Minas Tirith, she was home for perhaps three of those years." Ranora said. "She was always traveling here and there, and constantly bringing back stories and odds and ends from different kingdoms and places. I remember someone commenting once that only a warrior or Istari would ever be more traveled then her." Out of the corner of her eye, Ranora saw a ghost of smile flit across Elisandra's face, and she suddenly wondered if Elisandra might not have turned out more like her mother in the traveling regards if it hadn't been for her sight.
"Did she tell you where she traveled before she returned to Minas Tirith carrying Elisandra?" the queen asked, and Ranora paused. This was the heart of the matter that she had been asked here to talk about, and now she felt that the little information she had was woefully small and incomplete.
"Eneira - well, she was rather spontaneous in her travels. But when she set out that last time, she said she was going to head north, most likely following the Anduin. She said she wished to return by boat, so she could see the Argonath." Ranora said carefully. "She was going to be gone for the summer to make the journey, but near the end of the season, a messenger came to say that she'd decided to stay longer. Stay where, the message did not say, and nor could the origin of the message be traced by the origin of the messenger, for Eneira had had the message sent by relay to get there faster." the four other occupants of the room looked at each other in dismay at this news. The Anduin was long, and it would take a very long time to search it all. But Ranora was not done.
"Eneira told no one of where she had traveled, and refused to tell anyone who the father of her child was. But there was something - it wasn't much, but it was the most I'd ever heard tell of where she traveled." she said softly. "When Eneira was sick, I took her to the Houses of Healing, and one day when I visited her I found her out in the garden. She was sitting on the lowest branch of the largest tree in the gardens, having convinced someone to boost her up there, and she was staring almost longingly up into the trees branches, as if she wished to climb higher. She was so intent on the upper branches of the tree that she did not notice me as I approached, and before I could make myself known, she spoke. But she was speaking only to herself, as if thinking out loud." Ranora paused, trying to remember Eneira's words, and then continued. "She talked of how she wished for the days when a tree of that size was considered naught but a sapling, and she had her love to help her climb it and it's elders."
"Was this the large oak that still stands in the Houses of Healings gardens?" the king asked intently, and Ranora nodded.
"It was smaller, by perhaps the height of a man, then, but it is the same tree." she said. The king frowned slightly, and looked to his queen.
"That tree is tall - I know of only two places trees grow to such a height that that tree would be considered a sapling, and none live in Fangorn." she said calmly, and the king nodded.
"So." he said quietly. "Eneira was with her love in Lothlorien." Silence fell on the group, as each absorbed this information. After a moment of her own thought, and shock, Ranora looked at the other four occupants of the room to see their reactions, and found them quite varied. The queen was thoughtful, the king seemed to be almost brooding, Prince Legolas seemed to have an almost triumphant smile on his face, and Elisandra looked as if she didn't know quite what to think of this news.
"It will be much harder, then, to find Elisandra's father than we thought." the queen said finally, frowning lightly. "Many of the Galadhrim have crossed to Valinor since grandmother left. Most of those that have stayed on these shores are now in Rivendell, with my brothers. Lothlorien is almost empty."
"Then perhaps Rivendell is the place to search." Prince Legolas said, and Ranora saw that Elisandra lit up at that prospect.
"Perhaps it is." the king said. "But that would better be decided at a different time. For now, is there anything else you can tell us, Ranora?" Ranora shook her head.
"That is all I know of where she might have traveled, Your Majesty." she said, and the king nodded.
"Very well then, I have duties I must attend to now." he said, rising, and everyone else in the room also stood. "We shall talk of this later." he said to everyone but Ranora, then said a polite goodbye to Ranora herself before leaving. Elisandra, glancing between the queen and Prince Legolas, seemed to see something, and approached Ranora with a smile.
"Come, walk with me and tell me more about my mother." she said cheerily, and with a quick - and mainly unnoticed - curtsey to the queen, the two left the room. The rest of the afternoon, for Ranora, was spent wandering through the palace with Elisandra, speaking of her friend, Eneira. She got home late in the evening, only moments after her husband arrived, but he did not complain as to the lateness of supper that night, having known where she had been.
---
Legolas turned his horse around the way it had come before easing it to a stop. Looking out over the horses head, he saw the city of Minas Tirith, glowing with the golden light of the setting sun. He watched for awhile, content to view the beauty of nature instead of doing what he came out here to do - think. Gradually, however, the glow on the city dimmed and then disappeared entirely as the sun set. Then there was only the light of the stars sparkling off the buildings. Legolas smiled at the sight. Let Men say what they would, to him there was nothing more beautiful then star light.
*Isn't there?* his mind whispered to him, and Legolas frowned. That little voice was what had driven him away from Minas Tirith for the night. It was telling him strange things, and he wished to be alone with nature, to think, and he could not do that in the palace, or indeed, in all of Minas Tirith. There was always someone nearby to interrupt, and it was irritating to have someone trying to talk to you while you were thinking. He could only ignore someone so long, and the various Ladies at the palace had learned that, realizing that they had only to be persistent and he would stop ignoring them.
Legolas scowled at that. That was just about the only thing that could make him scowl since the War of the Ring - human women fawning over him. It was irritating beyond belief. No matter how many times he put them off, they never seemed to get the hint that it would take something drastic indeed to make him even consider taking a human as a lover. Not that he had anything against humans, it was just too much heart ache for him to wish upon himself, or anyone else.
Legolas' horse snorted impatiently at that moment, and Legolas pulled himself from his thoughts to slide off the horses back. He let the horse go, then, and lay on the ground, staring up at the sky. It was an elvish horse, it would know not to wander too far and come when he called in the morning. But for now, he let the horse go where it would, and watched the stars and thought.
Things had been building up in his mind ever since he'd come to Minas Tirith, and despite all the time he'd had on his hands, everything seemed to have rushed by him. It seemed like only a day or two ago that he arrived, but it was actually two entire weeks. And in that time, he'd managed to set Aragorn and Arwen on a search for their foster daughter's father - something they might well have never done if he'd not caused events to unfold the way they had.
*You're avoiding the subject.* Legolas' mind whispered to him again, and he frowned lightly, wondering when his mind had decided it had its own voice and needed to speak up. Absently he wondered if it was a sign of going crazy, and continued along that train of thought until a sudden image shoved all thoughts to the back of his mind. The image was a simple one - nothing extraordinary, and certainly not one of the most beautiful images in the world. At least, not to anyone else.
But for some reason, to him, it was the most extraordinary and beautiful image imaginable - and that was what troubled him. For the image was nothing other then one of Elisandra, when she had determinedly tried to walk outside of the tavern, despite the drink making her wobble unsteadily. She had a strange look of determination on her face, outshining even the silly grins and facial expressions that the drink had caused. The light spilling out from the still-open tavern door was barely touching her, and instead the simple, white light of the stars shone down on her, lighting her features just enough to be seen, and seeming to make her glow as if she were an Elf. It was then, Legolas realized, that he'd realized that she had to have an Elf in her background.
And it was also then when something he'd previously held back suddenly started to grow again, though he had not noticed. Truth to tell, he probably would have never noticed until it was too strong to ignore and shoved itself in his face, except for that afternoon, before they met with Ranora. It had surprised him immensely when Elisandra had so easily and lightly reminded him that he was wearing naught but his trousers. That simple act made him realize that something had changed. No female but his lovers had ever seen him in such a state of undress - he had a habit of at least keeping his tunic and trousers on, no matter where he was or what he was doing. Unlike many of the other male Elves, he didn't like to show off - and Eru knew, he didn't need to. He was almost as popular among the Elven ladies as he was among the human ones.
Yet he had so easily forgotten, and not remembered until being reminded, when it was Elisandra he was talking to. All during his hasty dressing, the meeting with Ranora, and the conversation with Arwen afterwards about whom in Lothlorien was left on these shores that might know of Elisandra's father or mother, he had tried to convince himself that he had been so casual just because Elisandra was blind, and she was such a good friend. But he knew it wasn't true - he knew she could see him perfectly well, she'd told him, and after all, how does one remind another that they're tunicless if they can't SEE if they're tunicless? And he knew what a good friend was - Gimli was one, as was Aragorn. And neither crowded Legolas' thoughts as much as Elisandra - something that had only gotten worse since Ranora's revelations from that afternoon began leading to the conclusion that it was more and more likely that Elisandra could be as much as Half-Elven.
Legolas sighed, and realized he had to admit it to himself, if to no one else. He was, slowly but surely, falling for Elisandra - and it scared him. Because it was like nothing he'd ever felt before in all his thousands of years.
\/---Reviews are greatly appreciated, yes they are. So please, be a nice reader and write a review...---\/
Authors Note: Entire cybercakes go to all my reviewers 'cuz I hit 100 reviews! WOOT!
Anyways, you should all enjoy this chapter, especially the end. It should put to rest any suspicions that I might pull a really odd, screwed-up plot twist and make Legolas Elisandra's father...that's just too much oddness and angst, even for me. This chapter has also finished setting the stage for the action. You thought things were slowing down, Lady of Middle Earth? Trust me, it's just the calm before the storm...The questions have been asked, the stage has been set, and the answers are going to start coming very very soon...and the rating might possibly go up. ;)
------------------------------
-No Eyes Needed-
------------------------------
-Chapter XIII-
-Revelations-
------------------------------
With no little amount of nervousness, Ranora approached the palace for the third time in her life. Under her arm, she carried the small, faded portrait of her friend and Elisandra's mother that she had long had hidden in her attic. She had planned on giving it to Elisandra when she was older, but then Elisandra had become sick and lost her sight and Ranora had seen no use in giving it to Elisandra and had forgotten about it until this business about finding Elisandra's father came up. So now, she walked up to the palace, in her best dress, and feeling very self-conscious about the portrait wrapped in old brown paper under her arm.
"Halt and declare yourself and your business!" the guard at the entrance ordered when Ranora approached the gate, and Ranora paused. She had not had to declare herself to the guards on both of her previous visits, and was not quite sure what to do. Thankfully, the guard seemed to understand this.
"Name?" he asked, his voice gentler, and Ranora promptly answered.
"Ranora Merel." she said, and the guard smiled instantly.
"Ah! The one the captain said to look out for." he said. "Come with me, I'm to escort you to the receiving room." Then, with a wave to his fellow guardsman, the guard turned and entered the palace, and Ranora followed.
"What's that you're carrying?" the guard asked conversationally as they walked, and Ranora shifted the package under her arm.
"A portrait." she answered.
"Of who?" The guard asked.
"Lady Elisandra's mother." Ranora answered, and the guard arched an eyebrow, but said no more. The rest of the journey through the many halls and corridors was silent, until they stopped before a door.
"Their Majesties Elessar and Arwen, His Highness Prince Legolas and Lady Elisandra are all waiting for you." He told Ranora in low a voice, and then he straightened, seemingly preparing himself, looking more nervous then Ranora. Deciding himself ready, he knocked briskly, and there came a polite 'Enter!' He opened the door wide and stepped in and to the side so that Ranora could enter behind him, then announced in a steady voice,
"Ranora Merel, Your Majesties, Highness, Lady." Then he saluted, even as Ranora curtseyed deeply.
"Thank you, you may return to your post." the King Elessar told the guard. The guard saluted again, and left, closing the door behind him.
"Rise, there is no need for that." the queen told Ranora. Ranora rose nervously and took the seat that the queen motioned to.
"Tea?" the queen offered, motioning to a servant, and Ranora accepted politely. They sat in relative silence for awhile, all five of them, sipping their tea, until finally Prince Legolas spoke up.
"What is this that you have brought with you?" he asked, and Ranora smiled slightly as she set down her tea and picked up the portrait from where she had set it next to the chair.
"It's a portrait of Elisandra's mother, Highness. It was done several years before Elisandra was born, and was not of the best workmanship, so it's become rather faded, but it still shows what she looks like." Ranora said, carefully unwrapping the portrait and pretending not to hear Elisandra's indrawn breath. Now, more then ever, she pitied the girl's lack of sight.
"I see that Elisandra's beauty might not have come as much from her father's side as we thought." the king said with amusement as Ranora showed the portrait to the three that could see. And as Ranora looked at the portrait again, she smiled, agreeing with the king.
"Indeed, Your Majesty, Eneira was beautiful in her own right, and had many men seeking her hand." Ranora said fondly. It was an understatement, really. Elisandra's mother had been one of the most beautiful women in Minas Tirith when she'd been alive, with long, black hair and deep green eyes, skin of the right shade to compliment it, and a slender, graceful build. Even more amazing was that she had a beautiful personality to match it, something so few human beauties had nowadays. The only thing anyone could ever fault her with was having too strong a sense of wanderlust, and no concept of danger to go with it.
"Eneira?" Elisandra's voice was soft, and Ranora looked from the portrait to Elisandra and nodded, before remembering she couldn't see such a gesture.
"Yes, that was your mother's name." Ranora said kindly, and Elisandra bit her lower lip, seeming to be thinking.
"Did she have a family name?" Prince Legolas asked, though he glanced at Elisandra with concern.
"None that she told me, Highness." Ranora replied. "She arrived in Minas Tirith when she was just barely twenty, with no one but a few hired guards, and told no one of her past. Even I, who was her best friend, earned only a vague tale about her parents dieing. The only clue to her past that there ever was was the fact that she seemed to have almost unlimited amounts of money."
"Strange." the king said with a light frown, and Ranora nodded slightly.
"It was indeed, Your Majesty." she said. "All thought that her parents must have been rich nobles who died, for there was no way that any parent would let their young - and beautiful - daughter wander around the countryside as she did."
"So she traveled much?" Prince Legolas asked, and Ranora nodded vigorously.
"Of the ten years she had a house in Minas Tirith, she was home for perhaps three of those years." Ranora said. "She was always traveling here and there, and constantly bringing back stories and odds and ends from different kingdoms and places. I remember someone commenting once that only a warrior or Istari would ever be more traveled then her." Out of the corner of her eye, Ranora saw a ghost of smile flit across Elisandra's face, and she suddenly wondered if Elisandra might not have turned out more like her mother in the traveling regards if it hadn't been for her sight.
"Did she tell you where she traveled before she returned to Minas Tirith carrying Elisandra?" the queen asked, and Ranora paused. This was the heart of the matter that she had been asked here to talk about, and now she felt that the little information she had was woefully small and incomplete.
"Eneira - well, she was rather spontaneous in her travels. But when she set out that last time, she said she was going to head north, most likely following the Anduin. She said she wished to return by boat, so she could see the Argonath." Ranora said carefully. "She was going to be gone for the summer to make the journey, but near the end of the season, a messenger came to say that she'd decided to stay longer. Stay where, the message did not say, and nor could the origin of the message be traced by the origin of the messenger, for Eneira had had the message sent by relay to get there faster." the four other occupants of the room looked at each other in dismay at this news. The Anduin was long, and it would take a very long time to search it all. But Ranora was not done.
"Eneira told no one of where she had traveled, and refused to tell anyone who the father of her child was. But there was something - it wasn't much, but it was the most I'd ever heard tell of where she traveled." she said softly. "When Eneira was sick, I took her to the Houses of Healing, and one day when I visited her I found her out in the garden. She was sitting on the lowest branch of the largest tree in the gardens, having convinced someone to boost her up there, and she was staring almost longingly up into the trees branches, as if she wished to climb higher. She was so intent on the upper branches of the tree that she did not notice me as I approached, and before I could make myself known, she spoke. But she was speaking only to herself, as if thinking out loud." Ranora paused, trying to remember Eneira's words, and then continued. "She talked of how she wished for the days when a tree of that size was considered naught but a sapling, and she had her love to help her climb it and it's elders."
"Was this the large oak that still stands in the Houses of Healings gardens?" the king asked intently, and Ranora nodded.
"It was smaller, by perhaps the height of a man, then, but it is the same tree." she said. The king frowned slightly, and looked to his queen.
"That tree is tall - I know of only two places trees grow to such a height that that tree would be considered a sapling, and none live in Fangorn." she said calmly, and the king nodded.
"So." he said quietly. "Eneira was with her love in Lothlorien." Silence fell on the group, as each absorbed this information. After a moment of her own thought, and shock, Ranora looked at the other four occupants of the room to see their reactions, and found them quite varied. The queen was thoughtful, the king seemed to be almost brooding, Prince Legolas seemed to have an almost triumphant smile on his face, and Elisandra looked as if she didn't know quite what to think of this news.
"It will be much harder, then, to find Elisandra's father than we thought." the queen said finally, frowning lightly. "Many of the Galadhrim have crossed to Valinor since grandmother left. Most of those that have stayed on these shores are now in Rivendell, with my brothers. Lothlorien is almost empty."
"Then perhaps Rivendell is the place to search." Prince Legolas said, and Ranora saw that Elisandra lit up at that prospect.
"Perhaps it is." the king said. "But that would better be decided at a different time. For now, is there anything else you can tell us, Ranora?" Ranora shook her head.
"That is all I know of where she might have traveled, Your Majesty." she said, and the king nodded.
"Very well then, I have duties I must attend to now." he said, rising, and everyone else in the room also stood. "We shall talk of this later." he said to everyone but Ranora, then said a polite goodbye to Ranora herself before leaving. Elisandra, glancing between the queen and Prince Legolas, seemed to see something, and approached Ranora with a smile.
"Come, walk with me and tell me more about my mother." she said cheerily, and with a quick - and mainly unnoticed - curtsey to the queen, the two left the room. The rest of the afternoon, for Ranora, was spent wandering through the palace with Elisandra, speaking of her friend, Eneira. She got home late in the evening, only moments after her husband arrived, but he did not complain as to the lateness of supper that night, having known where she had been.
---
Legolas turned his horse around the way it had come before easing it to a stop. Looking out over the horses head, he saw the city of Minas Tirith, glowing with the golden light of the setting sun. He watched for awhile, content to view the beauty of nature instead of doing what he came out here to do - think. Gradually, however, the glow on the city dimmed and then disappeared entirely as the sun set. Then there was only the light of the stars sparkling off the buildings. Legolas smiled at the sight. Let Men say what they would, to him there was nothing more beautiful then star light.
*Isn't there?* his mind whispered to him, and Legolas frowned. That little voice was what had driven him away from Minas Tirith for the night. It was telling him strange things, and he wished to be alone with nature, to think, and he could not do that in the palace, or indeed, in all of Minas Tirith. There was always someone nearby to interrupt, and it was irritating to have someone trying to talk to you while you were thinking. He could only ignore someone so long, and the various Ladies at the palace had learned that, realizing that they had only to be persistent and he would stop ignoring them.
Legolas scowled at that. That was just about the only thing that could make him scowl since the War of the Ring - human women fawning over him. It was irritating beyond belief. No matter how many times he put them off, they never seemed to get the hint that it would take something drastic indeed to make him even consider taking a human as a lover. Not that he had anything against humans, it was just too much heart ache for him to wish upon himself, or anyone else.
Legolas' horse snorted impatiently at that moment, and Legolas pulled himself from his thoughts to slide off the horses back. He let the horse go, then, and lay on the ground, staring up at the sky. It was an elvish horse, it would know not to wander too far and come when he called in the morning. But for now, he let the horse go where it would, and watched the stars and thought.
Things had been building up in his mind ever since he'd come to Minas Tirith, and despite all the time he'd had on his hands, everything seemed to have rushed by him. It seemed like only a day or two ago that he arrived, but it was actually two entire weeks. And in that time, he'd managed to set Aragorn and Arwen on a search for their foster daughter's father - something they might well have never done if he'd not caused events to unfold the way they had.
*You're avoiding the subject.* Legolas' mind whispered to him again, and he frowned lightly, wondering when his mind had decided it had its own voice and needed to speak up. Absently he wondered if it was a sign of going crazy, and continued along that train of thought until a sudden image shoved all thoughts to the back of his mind. The image was a simple one - nothing extraordinary, and certainly not one of the most beautiful images in the world. At least, not to anyone else.
But for some reason, to him, it was the most extraordinary and beautiful image imaginable - and that was what troubled him. For the image was nothing other then one of Elisandra, when she had determinedly tried to walk outside of the tavern, despite the drink making her wobble unsteadily. She had a strange look of determination on her face, outshining even the silly grins and facial expressions that the drink had caused. The light spilling out from the still-open tavern door was barely touching her, and instead the simple, white light of the stars shone down on her, lighting her features just enough to be seen, and seeming to make her glow as if she were an Elf. It was then, Legolas realized, that he'd realized that she had to have an Elf in her background.
And it was also then when something he'd previously held back suddenly started to grow again, though he had not noticed. Truth to tell, he probably would have never noticed until it was too strong to ignore and shoved itself in his face, except for that afternoon, before they met with Ranora. It had surprised him immensely when Elisandra had so easily and lightly reminded him that he was wearing naught but his trousers. That simple act made him realize that something had changed. No female but his lovers had ever seen him in such a state of undress - he had a habit of at least keeping his tunic and trousers on, no matter where he was or what he was doing. Unlike many of the other male Elves, he didn't like to show off - and Eru knew, he didn't need to. He was almost as popular among the Elven ladies as he was among the human ones.
Yet he had so easily forgotten, and not remembered until being reminded, when it was Elisandra he was talking to. All during his hasty dressing, the meeting with Ranora, and the conversation with Arwen afterwards about whom in Lothlorien was left on these shores that might know of Elisandra's father or mother, he had tried to convince himself that he had been so casual just because Elisandra was blind, and she was such a good friend. But he knew it wasn't true - he knew she could see him perfectly well, she'd told him, and after all, how does one remind another that they're tunicless if they can't SEE if they're tunicless? And he knew what a good friend was - Gimli was one, as was Aragorn. And neither crowded Legolas' thoughts as much as Elisandra - something that had only gotten worse since Ranora's revelations from that afternoon began leading to the conclusion that it was more and more likely that Elisandra could be as much as Half-Elven.
Legolas sighed, and realized he had to admit it to himself, if to no one else. He was, slowly but surely, falling for Elisandra - and it scared him. Because it was like nothing he'd ever felt before in all his thousands of years.
\/---Reviews are greatly appreciated, yes they are. So please, be a nice reader and write a review...---\/