Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Random cute Elves to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Keep 'em on a tight leash, folks, or they might disapear on you...
Authors Note: Seeing one of the movies or having no FanFictions to read seems to do wonders for my productivity...and so we continue with the story that is, I am sorry to say, slowly but surely drawing to a close. I will be slightly surprised if it passes 'Sightseeing in Middle-Earth' in number of chapters, and absolutely amazed if it reaches 30...but then, I still have a whole whack of stuff to resolve. Aragorn's reaction to Legolas and Elisandra, everybodies reaction to Haldir's relationship to Elisandra, what Celeborn did to the twins...We shall see.
As a side note, I stole one of the ideas for one of the scenes in here between Elisandra and Legolas from somewhere...I can't remember where. But I know I've seen or read something like it before...
And as one last note for this chapter, I realized as I was finishing writing it that if you exclude Legolas and Aragorn's Evlish (though not translated into such) conversation a few chapters back, I believe I've doubled my total Elvish usage in this story with this chapter. Maybe I should actually learn Sindarin or Quenya, hm? Also, my apologies to anyone who can speak Elvish if I've managed to horribly mangle Sindarin grammar rules with my one Elvish sentence...which I probably have, knowing me and grammar (we don't get along...)
------------------------------
-No Eyes Needed-
------------------------------
-Chapter XXV-
-Tales of Discovery-
------------------------------
After a quick, late lunch, Haldir and Elisandra returned to the gardens, walking where they would, talking occasionally, and generally enjoying each others company. They, much to their own surprises, took rather quickly to calling the other yendë [daughter] or atar [father]. Thinking on it in a moment of silence, Elisandra realized that it was probably due to them still reveling in their newfound knowledge of the other's relation to them. At least on her part, since Haldir had admitted that he'd known she was his daughter before she even set foot in Rivendell. Whatever the reason, they were content to simply walk through the gardens together, and so Legolas found them not long before supper.
"Elisandra! Here you are! You have been missed." he said pointedly as he came up.
"My apologies, I got distracted." Elisandra said with a smile, and Haldir watched with no little amusement as she unconsciously let go of his arm and latched onto Legolas'. And when Legolas looked at him over Elisandra's head, challenge written on his face, Haldir outright laughed. Elisandra looked over at Haldir curiously, wondering what had made him laugh, while Legolas was clearly confused.
"What ARE you laughing about?" Elisandra demanded when Haldir's laughter had abated somewhat.
"Nothing, yendë. I believe I shall go see if Lord Celeborn's wrath has subsided enough for me to return to my rooms, however." he said. "Namárië! [Farewell!]"
"Namárië, atar!" Elisandra replied, waving as Haldir headed off towards the house. It was only once Haldir was out of sight that Elisandra looked up to find Legolas staring down at her in shock. "What?" she asked when he continued to stare. "Legolas?" Legolas finally seemed to snap out of his shock, and shook his head slightly before looking down at Elisandra and arching an eyebrow.
"'Yendë'? 'Atar'? I take it this is what you had to tell me later?" Legolas asked. Elisandra blinked in surprise, and then chuckled.
"Yes, it was, actually. Though I had intended to tell you in a less shocking way. Atarinya [My father] apparently had other ideas, however." she said.
"No wonder you have spent the entire afternoon out talking with him." Legolas said with a smile. "And for that matter, no wonder you told Lord Celeborn you did not know where he was." Elisandra nodded, and then Legolas adopted a curious look. "So have you discovered more than just that he is your father?" Elisandra nodded once again.
"Yes, I have, and you were right to tell me to wait to judge my father until I had met him." she said with a smile.
"Ah, so I have some wisdom in me somewhere, despite what you and Gimli keep insisting!" Legolas said brightly.
"Yes, somewhere, though where it is I couldn't imagine..." Elisandra said, and then grinned mischievously. "Maybe in your cloak..." she then started prodding the cloak that was hanging down his back and generally acting as if she was searching for something in it.
"Elisandra," Legolas said with a chuckle, trying to pull her away from his cloak when it became obvious she wasn't going to let the joke fall.
"Nope, not there." Elisandra said after a short while of 'searching' in Legolas' cloak and avoiding his hands. "Maybe your sleeve?" As she attempted, her face a mask of concentration, to peer up Legolas' left sleeve - something nigh near impossible, since his tunic was rather form fitting - Legolas tried, and failed, to contain his laughter while getting Elisandra to stop searching for his 'wisdom'.
"Far nîn meleth! [Enough my love!]" Legolas said, laughing, as he finally managed to catch Elisandra's wrists when she went to inspect his right sleeve.
"But I haven't found where you're keeping your wisdom yet!" Elisandra said with a slight pout. Legolas chuckled again, then pulled Elisandra to him and kissed her lightly.
"It is well hidden so that it cannot be found and stolen." Legolas said with a small smile when he pulled away. Elisandra blinked up at him.
"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" she asked, her face a mask of complete confusion. Legolas laughed, then leaned down and kissed Elisandra again. It wasn't until sometime later that that kiss ended, and it only ended then because of the sound of a throat being cleared loudly. Both Elisandra and Legolas looked up towards the source of the noise somewhat guiltily and slightly fearfully in case it was Aragorn, Elrohir or Elladan, but they found its source to be only Celeborn, still with his sky-blue hair.
"Dinner is about to begin, and I believe your company would be sorely missed." Celeborn said, arching an eyebrow, and then disappeared in the direction of the house.
"He didn't even act surprised." Elisandra commented.
"He probably knew before we did." Legolas said with a slight roll of his eyes. Elisandra chuckled slightly, then took Legolas' arm as he offered it to her, and they headed off in the direction of the house. When they arrived at the hall for dinner, they found that they were actually rather early. Of the eight that would be sitting in the middle of the head table - Haldir, Celeborn, Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir, Gimli and themselves - only Celeborn had arrived before them, and the hall was barely half filled. Celeborn arched an eyebrow slightly when he saw them, his expression showing his surprise that they had come so quickly. They both decided to studiously ignore him after that, and took their seats and talked quietly with each other as the hall slowly started to fill.
Not long after Legolas and Elisandra entered, Gimli came in, looking slightly thoughtful, and he remained that way as he sat in his chair, breaking out of his thoughts only long enough to quickly greet Legolas and Elisandra. Not long after him, Aragorn entered, and took the seat three to the left of Elisandra - on the other side of Elladan and Elrohir's seats from Elisandra. He seemed to want to talk to Elisandra, but Celeborn caught the king's attention, and Aragorn soon found himself pulled into a conversation with the Elvish Lord while trying very hard not to laugh at said Elf Lord's blue hair.
The conversation ebbed somewhat, however, when Haldir entered. Celeborn glared slightly at his Marchwarden as he entered, and Haldir visibly winced, knowing that Celeborn's wrath had not subsided in the least over the course of the day. A light roll of laughter ran through the hall at his expression, but he bravely came and took his seat at the table, instead of dashing off like any sensible Elf would do when faced with Lord Celeborn's anger.
However, if the conversation had ebbed slightly when Haldir entered, it stopped completely when Elladan and Elrohir entered the hall. Most of Rivendell, by now, knew of the prank the twins had pulled with Haldir's help, and the majority also knew that Celeborn had caught up with the twins early in the afternoon. Now they were silent, trying to figure out what Celeborn had done to them once he'd caught them, something no one had heard even the slightest rumor about, as Celeborn had dragged them off to his chambers to mete out his punishment.
As the twins walked to their seats, however, it became apparent to the Elves that whatever Lord Celeborn had done would not be easily visible, and with an almost disappointed murmuring, the low chatter in the hall resumed. And so the majority of the Elves in the hall missed Elladan and Elrohir's winces as they sat down. Elisandra didn't miss the winces, however, nor the evil gleam in Celeborn's eyes when he saw the twins wince, and she grinned.
The food was served, then, and the center of the head table remained suspiciously quiet, as only Celeborn, Aragorn, Elisandra and Legolas seemed inclined to talk, and then it was only to the one sitting next to them, and quietly. The quiet at the head table was noticed by the Elves of Rivendell, and one wise Elf sitting near the back of the hall commented that it was like the calm before a storm - almost unnatural, and with an air of foreboding and danger. Due to the nature of Elves to pass on little bits of wisdom like that, by the next morning, all of Rivendell had heard of the unnatural quiet at the head table the night before, and all stepped lightly.
Which proved to be wise, as Elladan and Elrohir were both in foul tempers, as was Celeborn, who had been told late the night before for just how long his hair would be remaining blue. Haldir, for his part, could not be found, which left Aragorn, Legolas, Elisandra and Gimli to their own devices for the day. The morning they spent together, talking with each other of their journeys. Legolas, Elisandra and Gimli told their tale first - though leaving out Legolas' and Elisandra's relationship. Then it was Aragorn's turn to tell of his journey from Minas Tirith.
"One of the guards came galloping back not two weeks after you left, babbling on and on about Orcs and death and blood. It had been the poor boys first fight, and being hopelessly outnumbered hadn't helped him handle it at all." Aragorn began, "It took nearly an hour to calm him down enough to get the entire story out of him in any form of coherent order. I, of course, immediately wanted to set out with my best guards. Arwen delayed me, however, long enough to send a messenger to Ithilien and receive word back that Faramir would come to Minas Tirith. After that, however, I'm afraid I became a little impatient. I think I shall have many apologies to make when I get back to Minas Tirith." Aragorn smiled wryly before continuing.
"I left the morning after the messenger arrived back from Ithilien, with the guards you see with me, on the best horses to be found in Minas Tirith. We rode non-stop until we reached your ruined camp. It was a mess - the Orcs had looted, of course, and many of the bodies were gone - or worse - but we cleaned it up, burying the dead and marking their graves. We were heartened when we did not come across any of your bodies, and then Marsial - who had helped me get the story of your attack out of the young guard - remembered something that had been said about you taking a bath when the attack happened," Aragorn said, nodding his head in Elisandra's direction.
"That I was, and lucky because of it." Elisandra replied gravely.
"So I have heard." Aragorn said. "I remembered the pool we had passed a short ways back, and we went to it quickly. I was able to find signs of you being there, at least - mainly in the form of the bar of soap you left behind -"
"THAT'S where that went!" Elisandra exclaimed, and Aragorn and Legolas chuckled. Gimli just rolled his eyes.
"Yes, that is where it went." Aragorn said. "After finding that, we searched the area, but it had been far too long since you had been there, and Legolas leaves no tracks, like all his Elven kindred. The most that could be told was that two horses had been led away from the campsite to a clearing not far from the pool, and then ridden away from there, heading north, towards Rivendell. We could also tell that no Orc had been near the pool - none of the greenery showed scars of the destruction the Orcs would have caused. So we rode to Rivendell, following what we could of what I now know to be your tracks, hoping to perhaps catch up to you along the way. We didn't, obviously, and so we arrived in Rivendell, encountering you almost immediately upon our arrival."
"Did you find Orc tracks in your searching?" Legolas asked.
"Yes, heading north-west, towards Isengard." Aragorn replied. "How they may still manage to find refuge there with the Ents guarding it, I do not know, but that was the direction their tracks led."
"Perhaps they did not go all the way to Isengard, but stopped somewhere before." Elisandra said.
"That is most likely. There are many hidden valleys and caves that they could find refuge in around Isengard." Aragorn replied. Silence fell for a moment, as all thought over the tales they had heard, and then Elisandra spoke again.
"Now that we have heard of our journeys here, I have something to tell you of my stay in Rivendell so far." Elisandra said, a small smile forming on her lips as she thought of the news she had to tell.
"Oh? What is that?" Aragorn asked with curiosity.
"I have succeeded in what I set out from Minas Tirith to do." Elisandra replied, her smile breaking into a full-fledged grin. "I have found my father." Aragorn looked at Elisandra in surprise, and Gimli looked at her in shock, having been too wrapped up in his own thoughts the night before to have been told of Elisandra's discovery.
"So quickly?" Aragorn asked, and Elisandra nodded.
"It turned out it was a good idea to send a copy of that portrait of my mother ahead to Rivendell. Lord Celeborn recognized her, and showed the portrait to my father. It wasn't too long ago that he approached me and told me of my mother, and yesterday he told me outright that he was my father." Elisandra replied happily.
"And who is he?" Aragorn asked, a strange tinge to his voice. Elisandra didn't hear the tinge, however, and supplied the answer just as happily as she had been supplying all the answers.
"Haldir!" Elisandra smiled happily after her announcement, waiting for a reaction, but frowned slightly when, other then a grunt from Gimli, there was no reaction. Aragorn simply remained the way he had been before, smiling slightly at Elisandra's enthusiasm, but his eyes contained a vacant look that said he was deep in thought.
Elisandra's frown deepened when she noticed, and she went to close her eyes to see what she could read in Aragorn's fëa. Legolas, however, covered her eyes even as she closed them, so all she ended out seeing was his hand. She saw the warning glittering in Legolas' fëa, so she opened her eyes and pulled his hand away, shooting him a curious look. Before Legolas could give her any sort of reason, however, Aragorn pulled himself out of his thoughts and gave Elisandra a small smile.
"I am sorry, that is wonderful news, Elisandra." he said. Elisandra nodded, still frowning slightly with concern and curiosity. "Now, if you three would excuse me, the journey from Gondor appears to have tired me out more than I thought. I believe I shall go have a rest before lunch." And with that, Aragorn rose and left the room, leaving a surprised Elisandra behind.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"Elisandra, Aragorn has raised you as his own daughter for most of your life, and has come to love you as his daughter. If it wasn't for the questions about your racial background, he would have never even considered finding your real father." Legolas said with a sigh. "It will be hard for him to accept that you have found another father than him. That it is Haldir, a friend of his who he knows to have an upstanding character, does not help."
"Are you saying he's jealous?" Elisandra asked in surprise. Legolas smiled slightly at how easily Elisandra realized what he was trying to say, and nodded.
"Aye, he is." he said.
"Oh." was Elisandra's response as her brow furrowed in thought. Silence fell on the room as all its occupants fell into thought, and the next noise to be heard in the room was that of a servant informing them that lunch was to be served shortly.
\/---I'm running out of creative ways to ask for reviews - so please just review so I can save my creative juices for writing the next chapter!---\/
Random cute Elves to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Keep 'em on a tight leash, folks, or they might disapear on you...
Authors Note: Seeing one of the movies or having no FanFictions to read seems to do wonders for my productivity...and so we continue with the story that is, I am sorry to say, slowly but surely drawing to a close. I will be slightly surprised if it passes 'Sightseeing in Middle-Earth' in number of chapters, and absolutely amazed if it reaches 30...but then, I still have a whole whack of stuff to resolve. Aragorn's reaction to Legolas and Elisandra, everybodies reaction to Haldir's relationship to Elisandra, what Celeborn did to the twins...We shall see.
As a side note, I stole one of the ideas for one of the scenes in here between Elisandra and Legolas from somewhere...I can't remember where. But I know I've seen or read something like it before...
And as one last note for this chapter, I realized as I was finishing writing it that if you exclude Legolas and Aragorn's Evlish (though not translated into such) conversation a few chapters back, I believe I've doubled my total Elvish usage in this story with this chapter. Maybe I should actually learn Sindarin or Quenya, hm? Also, my apologies to anyone who can speak Elvish if I've managed to horribly mangle Sindarin grammar rules with my one Elvish sentence...which I probably have, knowing me and grammar (we don't get along...)
------------------------------
-No Eyes Needed-
------------------------------
-Chapter XXV-
-Tales of Discovery-
------------------------------
After a quick, late lunch, Haldir and Elisandra returned to the gardens, walking where they would, talking occasionally, and generally enjoying each others company. They, much to their own surprises, took rather quickly to calling the other yendë [daughter] or atar [father]. Thinking on it in a moment of silence, Elisandra realized that it was probably due to them still reveling in their newfound knowledge of the other's relation to them. At least on her part, since Haldir had admitted that he'd known she was his daughter before she even set foot in Rivendell. Whatever the reason, they were content to simply walk through the gardens together, and so Legolas found them not long before supper.
"Elisandra! Here you are! You have been missed." he said pointedly as he came up.
"My apologies, I got distracted." Elisandra said with a smile, and Haldir watched with no little amusement as she unconsciously let go of his arm and latched onto Legolas'. And when Legolas looked at him over Elisandra's head, challenge written on his face, Haldir outright laughed. Elisandra looked over at Haldir curiously, wondering what had made him laugh, while Legolas was clearly confused.
"What ARE you laughing about?" Elisandra demanded when Haldir's laughter had abated somewhat.
"Nothing, yendë. I believe I shall go see if Lord Celeborn's wrath has subsided enough for me to return to my rooms, however." he said. "Namárië! [Farewell!]"
"Namárië, atar!" Elisandra replied, waving as Haldir headed off towards the house. It was only once Haldir was out of sight that Elisandra looked up to find Legolas staring down at her in shock. "What?" she asked when he continued to stare. "Legolas?" Legolas finally seemed to snap out of his shock, and shook his head slightly before looking down at Elisandra and arching an eyebrow.
"'Yendë'? 'Atar'? I take it this is what you had to tell me later?" Legolas asked. Elisandra blinked in surprise, and then chuckled.
"Yes, it was, actually. Though I had intended to tell you in a less shocking way. Atarinya [My father] apparently had other ideas, however." she said.
"No wonder you have spent the entire afternoon out talking with him." Legolas said with a smile. "And for that matter, no wonder you told Lord Celeborn you did not know where he was." Elisandra nodded, and then Legolas adopted a curious look. "So have you discovered more than just that he is your father?" Elisandra nodded once again.
"Yes, I have, and you were right to tell me to wait to judge my father until I had met him." she said with a smile.
"Ah, so I have some wisdom in me somewhere, despite what you and Gimli keep insisting!" Legolas said brightly.
"Yes, somewhere, though where it is I couldn't imagine..." Elisandra said, and then grinned mischievously. "Maybe in your cloak..." she then started prodding the cloak that was hanging down his back and generally acting as if she was searching for something in it.
"Elisandra," Legolas said with a chuckle, trying to pull her away from his cloak when it became obvious she wasn't going to let the joke fall.
"Nope, not there." Elisandra said after a short while of 'searching' in Legolas' cloak and avoiding his hands. "Maybe your sleeve?" As she attempted, her face a mask of concentration, to peer up Legolas' left sleeve - something nigh near impossible, since his tunic was rather form fitting - Legolas tried, and failed, to contain his laughter while getting Elisandra to stop searching for his 'wisdom'.
"Far nîn meleth! [Enough my love!]" Legolas said, laughing, as he finally managed to catch Elisandra's wrists when she went to inspect his right sleeve.
"But I haven't found where you're keeping your wisdom yet!" Elisandra said with a slight pout. Legolas chuckled again, then pulled Elisandra to him and kissed her lightly.
"It is well hidden so that it cannot be found and stolen." Legolas said with a small smile when he pulled away. Elisandra blinked up at him.
"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" she asked, her face a mask of complete confusion. Legolas laughed, then leaned down and kissed Elisandra again. It wasn't until sometime later that that kiss ended, and it only ended then because of the sound of a throat being cleared loudly. Both Elisandra and Legolas looked up towards the source of the noise somewhat guiltily and slightly fearfully in case it was Aragorn, Elrohir or Elladan, but they found its source to be only Celeborn, still with his sky-blue hair.
"Dinner is about to begin, and I believe your company would be sorely missed." Celeborn said, arching an eyebrow, and then disappeared in the direction of the house.
"He didn't even act surprised." Elisandra commented.
"He probably knew before we did." Legolas said with a slight roll of his eyes. Elisandra chuckled slightly, then took Legolas' arm as he offered it to her, and they headed off in the direction of the house. When they arrived at the hall for dinner, they found that they were actually rather early. Of the eight that would be sitting in the middle of the head table - Haldir, Celeborn, Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir, Gimli and themselves - only Celeborn had arrived before them, and the hall was barely half filled. Celeborn arched an eyebrow slightly when he saw them, his expression showing his surprise that they had come so quickly. They both decided to studiously ignore him after that, and took their seats and talked quietly with each other as the hall slowly started to fill.
Not long after Legolas and Elisandra entered, Gimli came in, looking slightly thoughtful, and he remained that way as he sat in his chair, breaking out of his thoughts only long enough to quickly greet Legolas and Elisandra. Not long after him, Aragorn entered, and took the seat three to the left of Elisandra - on the other side of Elladan and Elrohir's seats from Elisandra. He seemed to want to talk to Elisandra, but Celeborn caught the king's attention, and Aragorn soon found himself pulled into a conversation with the Elvish Lord while trying very hard not to laugh at said Elf Lord's blue hair.
The conversation ebbed somewhat, however, when Haldir entered. Celeborn glared slightly at his Marchwarden as he entered, and Haldir visibly winced, knowing that Celeborn's wrath had not subsided in the least over the course of the day. A light roll of laughter ran through the hall at his expression, but he bravely came and took his seat at the table, instead of dashing off like any sensible Elf would do when faced with Lord Celeborn's anger.
However, if the conversation had ebbed slightly when Haldir entered, it stopped completely when Elladan and Elrohir entered the hall. Most of Rivendell, by now, knew of the prank the twins had pulled with Haldir's help, and the majority also knew that Celeborn had caught up with the twins early in the afternoon. Now they were silent, trying to figure out what Celeborn had done to them once he'd caught them, something no one had heard even the slightest rumor about, as Celeborn had dragged them off to his chambers to mete out his punishment.
As the twins walked to their seats, however, it became apparent to the Elves that whatever Lord Celeborn had done would not be easily visible, and with an almost disappointed murmuring, the low chatter in the hall resumed. And so the majority of the Elves in the hall missed Elladan and Elrohir's winces as they sat down. Elisandra didn't miss the winces, however, nor the evil gleam in Celeborn's eyes when he saw the twins wince, and she grinned.
The food was served, then, and the center of the head table remained suspiciously quiet, as only Celeborn, Aragorn, Elisandra and Legolas seemed inclined to talk, and then it was only to the one sitting next to them, and quietly. The quiet at the head table was noticed by the Elves of Rivendell, and one wise Elf sitting near the back of the hall commented that it was like the calm before a storm - almost unnatural, and with an air of foreboding and danger. Due to the nature of Elves to pass on little bits of wisdom like that, by the next morning, all of Rivendell had heard of the unnatural quiet at the head table the night before, and all stepped lightly.
Which proved to be wise, as Elladan and Elrohir were both in foul tempers, as was Celeborn, who had been told late the night before for just how long his hair would be remaining blue. Haldir, for his part, could not be found, which left Aragorn, Legolas, Elisandra and Gimli to their own devices for the day. The morning they spent together, talking with each other of their journeys. Legolas, Elisandra and Gimli told their tale first - though leaving out Legolas' and Elisandra's relationship. Then it was Aragorn's turn to tell of his journey from Minas Tirith.
"One of the guards came galloping back not two weeks after you left, babbling on and on about Orcs and death and blood. It had been the poor boys first fight, and being hopelessly outnumbered hadn't helped him handle it at all." Aragorn began, "It took nearly an hour to calm him down enough to get the entire story out of him in any form of coherent order. I, of course, immediately wanted to set out with my best guards. Arwen delayed me, however, long enough to send a messenger to Ithilien and receive word back that Faramir would come to Minas Tirith. After that, however, I'm afraid I became a little impatient. I think I shall have many apologies to make when I get back to Minas Tirith." Aragorn smiled wryly before continuing.
"I left the morning after the messenger arrived back from Ithilien, with the guards you see with me, on the best horses to be found in Minas Tirith. We rode non-stop until we reached your ruined camp. It was a mess - the Orcs had looted, of course, and many of the bodies were gone - or worse - but we cleaned it up, burying the dead and marking their graves. We were heartened when we did not come across any of your bodies, and then Marsial - who had helped me get the story of your attack out of the young guard - remembered something that had been said about you taking a bath when the attack happened," Aragorn said, nodding his head in Elisandra's direction.
"That I was, and lucky because of it." Elisandra replied gravely.
"So I have heard." Aragorn said. "I remembered the pool we had passed a short ways back, and we went to it quickly. I was able to find signs of you being there, at least - mainly in the form of the bar of soap you left behind -"
"THAT'S where that went!" Elisandra exclaimed, and Aragorn and Legolas chuckled. Gimli just rolled his eyes.
"Yes, that is where it went." Aragorn said. "After finding that, we searched the area, but it had been far too long since you had been there, and Legolas leaves no tracks, like all his Elven kindred. The most that could be told was that two horses had been led away from the campsite to a clearing not far from the pool, and then ridden away from there, heading north, towards Rivendell. We could also tell that no Orc had been near the pool - none of the greenery showed scars of the destruction the Orcs would have caused. So we rode to Rivendell, following what we could of what I now know to be your tracks, hoping to perhaps catch up to you along the way. We didn't, obviously, and so we arrived in Rivendell, encountering you almost immediately upon our arrival."
"Did you find Orc tracks in your searching?" Legolas asked.
"Yes, heading north-west, towards Isengard." Aragorn replied. "How they may still manage to find refuge there with the Ents guarding it, I do not know, but that was the direction their tracks led."
"Perhaps they did not go all the way to Isengard, but stopped somewhere before." Elisandra said.
"That is most likely. There are many hidden valleys and caves that they could find refuge in around Isengard." Aragorn replied. Silence fell for a moment, as all thought over the tales they had heard, and then Elisandra spoke again.
"Now that we have heard of our journeys here, I have something to tell you of my stay in Rivendell so far." Elisandra said, a small smile forming on her lips as she thought of the news she had to tell.
"Oh? What is that?" Aragorn asked with curiosity.
"I have succeeded in what I set out from Minas Tirith to do." Elisandra replied, her smile breaking into a full-fledged grin. "I have found my father." Aragorn looked at Elisandra in surprise, and Gimli looked at her in shock, having been too wrapped up in his own thoughts the night before to have been told of Elisandra's discovery.
"So quickly?" Aragorn asked, and Elisandra nodded.
"It turned out it was a good idea to send a copy of that portrait of my mother ahead to Rivendell. Lord Celeborn recognized her, and showed the portrait to my father. It wasn't too long ago that he approached me and told me of my mother, and yesterday he told me outright that he was my father." Elisandra replied happily.
"And who is he?" Aragorn asked, a strange tinge to his voice. Elisandra didn't hear the tinge, however, and supplied the answer just as happily as she had been supplying all the answers.
"Haldir!" Elisandra smiled happily after her announcement, waiting for a reaction, but frowned slightly when, other then a grunt from Gimli, there was no reaction. Aragorn simply remained the way he had been before, smiling slightly at Elisandra's enthusiasm, but his eyes contained a vacant look that said he was deep in thought.
Elisandra's frown deepened when she noticed, and she went to close her eyes to see what she could read in Aragorn's fëa. Legolas, however, covered her eyes even as she closed them, so all she ended out seeing was his hand. She saw the warning glittering in Legolas' fëa, so she opened her eyes and pulled his hand away, shooting him a curious look. Before Legolas could give her any sort of reason, however, Aragorn pulled himself out of his thoughts and gave Elisandra a small smile.
"I am sorry, that is wonderful news, Elisandra." he said. Elisandra nodded, still frowning slightly with concern and curiosity. "Now, if you three would excuse me, the journey from Gondor appears to have tired me out more than I thought. I believe I shall go have a rest before lunch." And with that, Aragorn rose and left the room, leaving a surprised Elisandra behind.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"Elisandra, Aragorn has raised you as his own daughter for most of your life, and has come to love you as his daughter. If it wasn't for the questions about your racial background, he would have never even considered finding your real father." Legolas said with a sigh. "It will be hard for him to accept that you have found another father than him. That it is Haldir, a friend of his who he knows to have an upstanding character, does not help."
"Are you saying he's jealous?" Elisandra asked in surprise. Legolas smiled slightly at how easily Elisandra realized what he was trying to say, and nodded.
"Aye, he is." he said.
"Oh." was Elisandra's response as her brow furrowed in thought. Silence fell on the room as all its occupants fell into thought, and the next noise to be heard in the room was that of a servant informing them that lunch was to be served shortly.
\/---I'm running out of creative ways to ask for reviews - so please just review so I can save my creative juices for writing the next chapter!---\/