ENDING #2: Chapter Forty-Three: Battles and Vows
A/N: WOW! What awesome reviews. Thanks to Lady Shinigami (sp??), oddjob, Daphne, Rayne Maker, Yavanna, Neanduryn, Lady Alarien, and Sierra. You guys rock! Oh, and to everybody else who I didn't mention (sorry!) and all of those people who leave anonymous reviews. You rock anyway! Okay, but I got one review that was totally awesome (Special thanks to Peridot Mist):
OHMIGOSH! THAT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER READ! I was going to cry for the first ending but now I am crying! That was so sweet! It's like the end of Christmas day and you want to unwrap more presents or something! I cannot wait to read more! This is my ultimate favorite story ever! On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest and best, this is a 999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999! I cannot believe how touching and amazing this is! I have to tell you that you are the most talented author ever! ACK! And now I've finished what you have so far!?!?!? Please continue if you can, or write another story or something! This is the best story I've ever read!
WELL THANKS! Yes, this story is going to continue on for quite a while. Enjoy it while you can: I won't be writing anymore stories soon. Too much to do! Too little brain power! AHH! I might be coming up with some more stories, but not any time soon, unless I get BAJILLIONS of reviews like that. Not that you guys' reviews suck … ahem (of course I'm just kidding). Okay, it kind of helped that I was sick on Tuesday to get this posted. I am so behind in writing this story! I finished my English paper. It's 10 freaking pages of absolute genius book analysis. Oh … who is the master? ME! ME! Yo soy la maestra! And I meant that in the "master" term, not in the "teacher" term. Boy, would I be an idiot, running around saying "I am the teacher! I am the teacher!" Not exactly something you brag about … ^_^
…
Aila turned over in her sleep, blinking light from her eyes as she struggled to fall back asleep. In a wash of joy, she remembered the events yesterday, remembered that she was in Middle Earth. That she loved Legolas, that he loved her. She rolled over again, smiling in her sleep.
"Aila?" a voice said from the side of her bed and she opened her eyes sleepily, blinking light and drowse from them.
"Legolas? What are you doing here? Didn't you sleep at all?"
"No," he responded, smiling slightly, pulling the chair closer to the bed. "I couldn't sleep at all, I kept thinking about yesterday …"
"Really?" she asked, sleepiness leaving her. She propped her head up on her hand. "I slept the best I'd ever slept in my life. Actually," she smiled, "I slept so well that I wondered if yesterday was a dream." Legolas smiled in turn.
"Thank the Valar it wasn't." Aila threw the covers back and practically jumped into his lap, pulling him into a hug, playing with his hair and smiling into his shoulder.
"I love you," she said simply. Legolas stood up, pulling her with him. The world passed in a swirl of colors and voices, but she only caught some of it, so entranced in Legolas' presence. The next thing she knew she was sitting in front of him on horseback, his arms wrapped lightly around her waist. Beside them traveled Aragorn, Arwen, Elrond, Thranduil, and many of the other elves from Rivendell and Mirkwood who had come with their dying Prince. Gimli rode with Gandalf, and the host of elves around them were singing and talking lightly. All around her, everyone was smiling, and casting happy glances toward them.
She desperately tried to remember what had taken place, but she realized how much she hadn't cared, as long as Legolas never left her side. Quickly, though, she pieced together that they were traveling to Mirkwood for their coming marriage. She blushed and bowed her head sheepishly, turning aside to face her shoulder, as she thought about how she was going to be married to Legolas. Until that moment, she had thought she was going to be single her entire life, and she accepted it, but now it still seemed like a dream, no matter how many times she pinched herself. Legolas kissed the back of her head and she leaned heavily backwards against him.
They crossed through the mountain pass in the days ensuing and were quickly coming to the fastnesses of Mirkwood in their long journey. The trees loomed closer than the horizon and they sprang their horses forward eagerly. Thranduil's golden hair flowed behind him as he raced his horse towards his familiar borders. Aila heard laughter in her ear and she felt Legolas' body tense as he saw his home. He urged his own horse faster, and surprisingly went just as lightly and speedily as the elven king's horse, even having two people on it.
It was lucky that Aila insisted on strapping the sword at her side, and that Legolas kept his bow and quiver about his shoulders at all times from habit, and also that Aila never parted with her own bow, unless it was only a few feet away. As the elven host raced towards the trees, a band of orcs sprang from them. They were of the lost Uruk-hai, a dispelled band that had gotten away from the Ents, and they had no leader anymore.
The orcs slashed at the horses, and several fell dead to the ground. Many elves sprang from their horses and pulled their weapons. Legolas pulled Arod to a stop so quickly that the horse reared backwards and Aila fell backwards into Legolas, her hands grasping at the reigns vainly. Legolas held for them both, however, and kept them from falling. Arod's hooves lashed out at the attacking orcs and took several to the head, but the thick-skulled orcs were only slightly stunned.
Jumping from the horse before Legolas could stop her, Aila's sword rang as she drew it from her sheath. A deep purple met her eyes and she gazed wonderingly at it. It was flecked with dark red and black, and hummed nastily. It began to move of its own accord once again and Aila found herself battling the orcs, but their desperate motives caused the orcs to fight will all skill and ferocity. Legolas sat upon the horse, helpless to stop Aila, and strung arrow upon arrow to his bowstring. He loosed all of his arrows in a matter of seconds, and he was out of them. Drawing his double elven blades that he also always kept close by, he leapt from the horse and landed cat-like on his feet next to Aila, who had not migrated far. The orcs attacked them several at once and they put their backs against each other and fought ferociously against the attacking orcs.
The rest of the elves were battling as well, but it seemed as if there were hundreds of orcs hiding in the Mirkwood trees, not only Uruk-hai, but also Sauron's orcs, who joined together in the demise of their leader.
Aila felt overpowered, attacked by all sides by multiple orcs waving their sharp, notched blades aloft as they charged and slashed viciously. It was not a short skirmish, by all means. The battle lasted for hours as it took the elves a long time to vanquish each of the orcs. To say that they made short work of them would be telling the truth, but one must consider that short work is defeating someone within the hour. In the Arthurian ages jousts lasted for hours, if the knights went past tilting and were each unhorsed, they drew their swords, and once Lancelot battled with one knight for four hours before beheading him.
She began to grow very tired and the sword became weighty in her bruised hand. Her fingers were white from clutching the pommel. Finally, the orcs thinned and each of the elves and Aila smote down the last of their enemy. Legolas turned around to Aila, sheathing his long knives as she put her sword into her scabbard, breathing deeply to call energy to her, but she found none coming. Allowing herself to collapse against Legolas, he pulled her to him and then to the ground as he sat, weariness taking him as well but not as much as Aila.
He wiped blood from his cheek where the multiple orc-blades had gotten the better of him and he surveyed Aila's tattered clothing, where her blade had failed to save her from slashes and attacks. She had a cut as well at her hairline, and the blood dripped down to her eyebrow, threatening to run over her eyelids, which were closed in weariness. Legolas kissed the top of her head and held her tightly against him, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the blood from her forehead.
The sun was setting against the sky, mournfully tripping upon the mountains that lay to the west of them. They camped there that night, nursing their cuts. Several elves had died in the battle and they buried them on the edge of the Mirkwood forest, mournfully and respectively. The dead orcs they piled and set fire to, turning their fair heads as the orc-bodies shriveled and burned in the blaze. After Aila had recovered slightly from her weariness, she stayed glued to Legolas' side, holding herself tightly against him or shadowing him as he tended to Arod and Geo. Aragorn and several of the healer elves had stopped the bleeding in her forehead and she only had a dull pain now.
…
Days later they reached the elven fortress of Mirkwood, and Aila was still trying to get used to the fact that Legolas loved her, it shocked her so much and it seemed so strange to love somebody the way she loved him.
Arrangements for the wedding began immediately, the immediate day that they arrived. The sudden change of surroundings for Aila surprised her and began to make her moody, but Legolas was constantly at her side, calmly squeezing her hand. She took a deep breath and continued like it was nothing at all. Whenever he could, Legolas would pull Aila away with him and show her around Mirkwood. She gazed in wonder at the strong gates of the frontal entrance, the half buried castle, the marvelously decorated rooms, the large vastness of the halls, the ornate columns, the carved ceilings, the wooden cabinets and desks. There were gardens within the castle walls and singularly they lacked the beauty of those of Rivendell, but they had a strange-ness that was new to her and she loved them dearly.
He brought her to the stream within the castle as well, and it seemed as if it were a vast city within the walls, and indeed it was. Legolas seemed not to just be prince of a castle, but of an entire elven empire. She also found that there was an entire wing of the castle that belonged to Legolas alone.
"What do you do with all of this room?" she asked, her eyes wide as she stared about the hall that led to so many rooms, all belonging solely to the prince. He smiled down at her, slipping his arm around her waist.
"Let me show you," he took her on a tour of his own quarters, and she saw that many of the rooms in his wing were bustling with people. "These rooms are supposed to be just for me," he said, "but what is one elf to do with an entire wing?" There was one indulgence he gave himself, however, and that was a personal archery range within one of the longest rooms. He had even rigged some moving targets. He then led her to his personal quarters, deep in the wing. His bed had a deep red velvet comforter, royal in every way, topped with the same hangings, the curtains thrust aside to let the light flow in. On his desk was placed various knives and daggers, some arrow heads and shafts, a few spare feathers, a quill, and a full bottle of ink, as well as scattered papers.
Also, in the bathroom that adjoined the bedroom was the most magnificent bath tub she had ever seen, and she knew that the porcelain tub was rare in Middle Earth and only for a prince. Finally, Legolas led her to a room at the end of the wing. He twisted the doorknob and Aila's stomach fluttered for some odd reason, but she found herself totally unprepared for what met her eyes. The room was entirely blank. It was well kept and clean, but totally bare, no furniture, or ornamentation in the room.
"This room," said Legolas, squeezing her a little tighter to him, "is one that I have never found a use for. I have thought for centuries, but I could find nothing to occupy this space. Now, I finally know. You can do whatever you want to this room, and have any others that you desire."
"Oh," she said, and pulled his head down and kissed him. His hand flew up and his fingers ran through her hair, and gently he stroked the top of her ear, blunt and unpointed, reminding his heart that she was not elven and bound to die. He couldn't stand the thought of being without her again and he released it from his thoughts and continued to kiss his fiancée.
"This can be a place where you keep all of the things from your world, and we will bring your mirror over from Rivendell and you can put it in here," Legolas suggested when they broke their kiss.
"You mean my time," she corrected him without thinking. He raised his eyebrows quizzically and Aila remembered that he had no idea what Gandalf had told her, and neither had anybody else. "I think Gandalf is the best to explain this …"
"Tell me," prompted Legolas, wanting to hear it straight from her mouth.
"Instead of being from another world," she began slowly, "I am from another time, more precisely the future. The mirror isn't a transport to another world, but a portal of time. And since I'm from that time, when I come to Middle Earth, or the past, I freeze along with my time. I'm allowed to breathe and live and stuff, but I don't change. And because I've spent so much time here, it doesn't matter how much I age in the future, I'll always be 18 right here in the past … present … whatever this is," she trailed, beginning to confuse herself. She had never been very good at time, and that's why she didn't major in history.
"I see …" said Legolas, slightly baffled as well, but he liked what he heard. It seemed to him that Aila was now immortal while she remained in Middle Earth.
…
The time passed swiftly until their wedding, just a month later. Aila had been quite surprised when Galadriel, Celeborn, and half of the Lorien elves showed up at Mirkwood as well, and Thranduil easily found them lodging. Just a month later, Aila found herself ready to walk down the aisle. Before her went a small elf girl who threw flowers across the floor, and then came Aragorn, his arm interlaced with Arwen. She was Aila's maid of honor. Aila's dress was the exact dress she had worn to the feast at which she had met Legolas for the first time, only to it was added a veil and a train. Galadriel and Celeborn went next, followed by several other high elven couples. Elrond escorted a young female elf who came from a hierarchy of elves in another realm. Finally, Aila was ready to begin to walk. She interlaced her arm with Haldir, who she had asked to escort her when he first showed up. Happily, he had agreed.
A hushed silence came over the gathering as the music began and she put her first foot toward Legolas. He turned around and beamed solemnly at her, Gimli at his side acting as best man. Legolas wore pure white leggings, and upon his breast was a magnificent coat of mithril, glittering in the torchlight that lit the hall. A golden star fell upon the upper center of the mail-coat, and his golden hair fell about his shoulders, well groomed and brushed, braids resting lightly upon his thin mane of hair. It seemed like eternity as she walked towards him and several times she felt Haldir pulling her back slightly, willing her to not go so fast. He finally let go of her arm and Aila took her place next to Legolas, in her deep blue gown that looked so fitting next to his golden and silvery grab.
Thranduil, who was marrying them, began the ceremonies, but Aila hardly paid attention, clasping her hands in front of her as she only half listened for her cue.
"Legolas Greenleaf," began his father, "if you would say a few words." Legolas nodded and turned to Aila, whose heart began to beat quickly in her chest and began to worry about remembering her vows, but as he began to speak, nothing mattered anymore except his voice and his face, which she could see palely through her veil.
…
A/N: Sorry, I just HAD to have that cliffhanger right there. The next chapter (obviously) will be the remainder of the wedding. That will be a REALLY short chapter, but I'll update soon after that. Ah, yes, you'll like that one. I'm missing rifle practice … because I'm sick. Oh the woes of the flu. Or whatever the hell I have …
Vegetarians rule. ^_^
A/N: WOW! What awesome reviews. Thanks to Lady Shinigami (sp??), oddjob, Daphne, Rayne Maker, Yavanna, Neanduryn, Lady Alarien, and Sierra. You guys rock! Oh, and to everybody else who I didn't mention (sorry!) and all of those people who leave anonymous reviews. You rock anyway! Okay, but I got one review that was totally awesome (Special thanks to Peridot Mist):
OHMIGOSH! THAT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER READ! I was going to cry for the first ending but now I am crying! That was so sweet! It's like the end of Christmas day and you want to unwrap more presents or something! I cannot wait to read more! This is my ultimate favorite story ever! On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest and best, this is a 999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999! I cannot believe how touching and amazing this is! I have to tell you that you are the most talented author ever! ACK! And now I've finished what you have so far!?!?!? Please continue if you can, or write another story or something! This is the best story I've ever read!
WELL THANKS! Yes, this story is going to continue on for quite a while. Enjoy it while you can: I won't be writing anymore stories soon. Too much to do! Too little brain power! AHH! I might be coming up with some more stories, but not any time soon, unless I get BAJILLIONS of reviews like that. Not that you guys' reviews suck … ahem (of course I'm just kidding). Okay, it kind of helped that I was sick on Tuesday to get this posted. I am so behind in writing this story! I finished my English paper. It's 10 freaking pages of absolute genius book analysis. Oh … who is the master? ME! ME! Yo soy la maestra! And I meant that in the "master" term, not in the "teacher" term. Boy, would I be an idiot, running around saying "I am the teacher! I am the teacher!" Not exactly something you brag about … ^_^
…
Aila turned over in her sleep, blinking light from her eyes as she struggled to fall back asleep. In a wash of joy, she remembered the events yesterday, remembered that she was in Middle Earth. That she loved Legolas, that he loved her. She rolled over again, smiling in her sleep.
"Aila?" a voice said from the side of her bed and she opened her eyes sleepily, blinking light and drowse from them.
"Legolas? What are you doing here? Didn't you sleep at all?"
"No," he responded, smiling slightly, pulling the chair closer to the bed. "I couldn't sleep at all, I kept thinking about yesterday …"
"Really?" she asked, sleepiness leaving her. She propped her head up on her hand. "I slept the best I'd ever slept in my life. Actually," she smiled, "I slept so well that I wondered if yesterday was a dream." Legolas smiled in turn.
"Thank the Valar it wasn't." Aila threw the covers back and practically jumped into his lap, pulling him into a hug, playing with his hair and smiling into his shoulder.
"I love you," she said simply. Legolas stood up, pulling her with him. The world passed in a swirl of colors and voices, but she only caught some of it, so entranced in Legolas' presence. The next thing she knew she was sitting in front of him on horseback, his arms wrapped lightly around her waist. Beside them traveled Aragorn, Arwen, Elrond, Thranduil, and many of the other elves from Rivendell and Mirkwood who had come with their dying Prince. Gimli rode with Gandalf, and the host of elves around them were singing and talking lightly. All around her, everyone was smiling, and casting happy glances toward them.
She desperately tried to remember what had taken place, but she realized how much she hadn't cared, as long as Legolas never left her side. Quickly, though, she pieced together that they were traveling to Mirkwood for their coming marriage. She blushed and bowed her head sheepishly, turning aside to face her shoulder, as she thought about how she was going to be married to Legolas. Until that moment, she had thought she was going to be single her entire life, and she accepted it, but now it still seemed like a dream, no matter how many times she pinched herself. Legolas kissed the back of her head and she leaned heavily backwards against him.
They crossed through the mountain pass in the days ensuing and were quickly coming to the fastnesses of Mirkwood in their long journey. The trees loomed closer than the horizon and they sprang their horses forward eagerly. Thranduil's golden hair flowed behind him as he raced his horse towards his familiar borders. Aila heard laughter in her ear and she felt Legolas' body tense as he saw his home. He urged his own horse faster, and surprisingly went just as lightly and speedily as the elven king's horse, even having two people on it.
It was lucky that Aila insisted on strapping the sword at her side, and that Legolas kept his bow and quiver about his shoulders at all times from habit, and also that Aila never parted with her own bow, unless it was only a few feet away. As the elven host raced towards the trees, a band of orcs sprang from them. They were of the lost Uruk-hai, a dispelled band that had gotten away from the Ents, and they had no leader anymore.
The orcs slashed at the horses, and several fell dead to the ground. Many elves sprang from their horses and pulled their weapons. Legolas pulled Arod to a stop so quickly that the horse reared backwards and Aila fell backwards into Legolas, her hands grasping at the reigns vainly. Legolas held for them both, however, and kept them from falling. Arod's hooves lashed out at the attacking orcs and took several to the head, but the thick-skulled orcs were only slightly stunned.
Jumping from the horse before Legolas could stop her, Aila's sword rang as she drew it from her sheath. A deep purple met her eyes and she gazed wonderingly at it. It was flecked with dark red and black, and hummed nastily. It began to move of its own accord once again and Aila found herself battling the orcs, but their desperate motives caused the orcs to fight will all skill and ferocity. Legolas sat upon the horse, helpless to stop Aila, and strung arrow upon arrow to his bowstring. He loosed all of his arrows in a matter of seconds, and he was out of them. Drawing his double elven blades that he also always kept close by, he leapt from the horse and landed cat-like on his feet next to Aila, who had not migrated far. The orcs attacked them several at once and they put their backs against each other and fought ferociously against the attacking orcs.
The rest of the elves were battling as well, but it seemed as if there were hundreds of orcs hiding in the Mirkwood trees, not only Uruk-hai, but also Sauron's orcs, who joined together in the demise of their leader.
Aila felt overpowered, attacked by all sides by multiple orcs waving their sharp, notched blades aloft as they charged and slashed viciously. It was not a short skirmish, by all means. The battle lasted for hours as it took the elves a long time to vanquish each of the orcs. To say that they made short work of them would be telling the truth, but one must consider that short work is defeating someone within the hour. In the Arthurian ages jousts lasted for hours, if the knights went past tilting and were each unhorsed, they drew their swords, and once Lancelot battled with one knight for four hours before beheading him.
She began to grow very tired and the sword became weighty in her bruised hand. Her fingers were white from clutching the pommel. Finally, the orcs thinned and each of the elves and Aila smote down the last of their enemy. Legolas turned around to Aila, sheathing his long knives as she put her sword into her scabbard, breathing deeply to call energy to her, but she found none coming. Allowing herself to collapse against Legolas, he pulled her to him and then to the ground as he sat, weariness taking him as well but not as much as Aila.
He wiped blood from his cheek where the multiple orc-blades had gotten the better of him and he surveyed Aila's tattered clothing, where her blade had failed to save her from slashes and attacks. She had a cut as well at her hairline, and the blood dripped down to her eyebrow, threatening to run over her eyelids, which were closed in weariness. Legolas kissed the top of her head and held her tightly against him, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the blood from her forehead.
The sun was setting against the sky, mournfully tripping upon the mountains that lay to the west of them. They camped there that night, nursing their cuts. Several elves had died in the battle and they buried them on the edge of the Mirkwood forest, mournfully and respectively. The dead orcs they piled and set fire to, turning their fair heads as the orc-bodies shriveled and burned in the blaze. After Aila had recovered slightly from her weariness, she stayed glued to Legolas' side, holding herself tightly against him or shadowing him as he tended to Arod and Geo. Aragorn and several of the healer elves had stopped the bleeding in her forehead and she only had a dull pain now.
…
Days later they reached the elven fortress of Mirkwood, and Aila was still trying to get used to the fact that Legolas loved her, it shocked her so much and it seemed so strange to love somebody the way she loved him.
Arrangements for the wedding began immediately, the immediate day that they arrived. The sudden change of surroundings for Aila surprised her and began to make her moody, but Legolas was constantly at her side, calmly squeezing her hand. She took a deep breath and continued like it was nothing at all. Whenever he could, Legolas would pull Aila away with him and show her around Mirkwood. She gazed in wonder at the strong gates of the frontal entrance, the half buried castle, the marvelously decorated rooms, the large vastness of the halls, the ornate columns, the carved ceilings, the wooden cabinets and desks. There were gardens within the castle walls and singularly they lacked the beauty of those of Rivendell, but they had a strange-ness that was new to her and she loved them dearly.
He brought her to the stream within the castle as well, and it seemed as if it were a vast city within the walls, and indeed it was. Legolas seemed not to just be prince of a castle, but of an entire elven empire. She also found that there was an entire wing of the castle that belonged to Legolas alone.
"What do you do with all of this room?" she asked, her eyes wide as she stared about the hall that led to so many rooms, all belonging solely to the prince. He smiled down at her, slipping his arm around her waist.
"Let me show you," he took her on a tour of his own quarters, and she saw that many of the rooms in his wing were bustling with people. "These rooms are supposed to be just for me," he said, "but what is one elf to do with an entire wing?" There was one indulgence he gave himself, however, and that was a personal archery range within one of the longest rooms. He had even rigged some moving targets. He then led her to his personal quarters, deep in the wing. His bed had a deep red velvet comforter, royal in every way, topped with the same hangings, the curtains thrust aside to let the light flow in. On his desk was placed various knives and daggers, some arrow heads and shafts, a few spare feathers, a quill, and a full bottle of ink, as well as scattered papers.
Also, in the bathroom that adjoined the bedroom was the most magnificent bath tub she had ever seen, and she knew that the porcelain tub was rare in Middle Earth and only for a prince. Finally, Legolas led her to a room at the end of the wing. He twisted the doorknob and Aila's stomach fluttered for some odd reason, but she found herself totally unprepared for what met her eyes. The room was entirely blank. It was well kept and clean, but totally bare, no furniture, or ornamentation in the room.
"This room," said Legolas, squeezing her a little tighter to him, "is one that I have never found a use for. I have thought for centuries, but I could find nothing to occupy this space. Now, I finally know. You can do whatever you want to this room, and have any others that you desire."
"Oh," she said, and pulled his head down and kissed him. His hand flew up and his fingers ran through her hair, and gently he stroked the top of her ear, blunt and unpointed, reminding his heart that she was not elven and bound to die. He couldn't stand the thought of being without her again and he released it from his thoughts and continued to kiss his fiancée.
"This can be a place where you keep all of the things from your world, and we will bring your mirror over from Rivendell and you can put it in here," Legolas suggested when they broke their kiss.
"You mean my time," she corrected him without thinking. He raised his eyebrows quizzically and Aila remembered that he had no idea what Gandalf had told her, and neither had anybody else. "I think Gandalf is the best to explain this …"
"Tell me," prompted Legolas, wanting to hear it straight from her mouth.
"Instead of being from another world," she began slowly, "I am from another time, more precisely the future. The mirror isn't a transport to another world, but a portal of time. And since I'm from that time, when I come to Middle Earth, or the past, I freeze along with my time. I'm allowed to breathe and live and stuff, but I don't change. And because I've spent so much time here, it doesn't matter how much I age in the future, I'll always be 18 right here in the past … present … whatever this is," she trailed, beginning to confuse herself. She had never been very good at time, and that's why she didn't major in history.
"I see …" said Legolas, slightly baffled as well, but he liked what he heard. It seemed to him that Aila was now immortal while she remained in Middle Earth.
…
The time passed swiftly until their wedding, just a month later. Aila had been quite surprised when Galadriel, Celeborn, and half of the Lorien elves showed up at Mirkwood as well, and Thranduil easily found them lodging. Just a month later, Aila found herself ready to walk down the aisle. Before her went a small elf girl who threw flowers across the floor, and then came Aragorn, his arm interlaced with Arwen. She was Aila's maid of honor. Aila's dress was the exact dress she had worn to the feast at which she had met Legolas for the first time, only to it was added a veil and a train. Galadriel and Celeborn went next, followed by several other high elven couples. Elrond escorted a young female elf who came from a hierarchy of elves in another realm. Finally, Aila was ready to begin to walk. She interlaced her arm with Haldir, who she had asked to escort her when he first showed up. Happily, he had agreed.
A hushed silence came over the gathering as the music began and she put her first foot toward Legolas. He turned around and beamed solemnly at her, Gimli at his side acting as best man. Legolas wore pure white leggings, and upon his breast was a magnificent coat of mithril, glittering in the torchlight that lit the hall. A golden star fell upon the upper center of the mail-coat, and his golden hair fell about his shoulders, well groomed and brushed, braids resting lightly upon his thin mane of hair. It seemed like eternity as she walked towards him and several times she felt Haldir pulling her back slightly, willing her to not go so fast. He finally let go of her arm and Aila took her place next to Legolas, in her deep blue gown that looked so fitting next to his golden and silvery grab.
Thranduil, who was marrying them, began the ceremonies, but Aila hardly paid attention, clasping her hands in front of her as she only half listened for her cue.
"Legolas Greenleaf," began his father, "if you would say a few words." Legolas nodded and turned to Aila, whose heart began to beat quickly in her chest and began to worry about remembering her vows, but as he began to speak, nothing mattered anymore except his voice and his face, which she could see palely through her veil.
…
A/N: Sorry, I just HAD to have that cliffhanger right there. The next chapter (obviously) will be the remainder of the wedding. That will be a REALLY short chapter, but I'll update soon after that. Ah, yes, you'll like that one. I'm missing rifle practice … because I'm sick. Oh the woes of the flu. Or whatever the hell I have …
Vegetarians rule. ^_^