It had been a little over five weeks since Estel had been turned into a woman. The ride back to Rivendell had been slow and quiet for the most part, until Legolas had finally gotten over whatever was bothering him, or so Estel thought. Once the two friends had reached Rivendell, Lord Elrond had explained to Estel what had happened to him and that it could indeed be reversed by finding an Istari to cast the appropriate spell. Estel thought back with little fondness had how his foster father had had to fight to stop himself from laughing at the predicament of his youngest son, daughter, whatever. Elrond had sent him and Legolas out to find Gandalf by leaving a note for him in Bree.
And now they were riding back towards home and the beautiful spring day was doing its humble best to cheer both travelers. It seemed to work on Legolas, who had returned almost to his usual self, but it had no effect on the Ranger. Estel was in point of fact in a terrible mood. There were a million little annoyances that were all adding together to make him miserable. First off he was exhausted far beyond what he should be. They had kept a relatively leisurely pace on the ride home and it was only early afternoon, but he still felt like he could barely keep his eyes opened. Next, it seemed that he had to pee constantly. And to add insult to injury peeing in the woods as a woman was nowhere near as easy as when he was a man. Finally, all of his sharpest knives seemed to have disappeared. He had intended to cut off his hair, but he only had one or two knives sharp enough for the job and both were missing. The soft spring breeze was blowing his hair around and it was tickling his ears and forehead. Finally, he had eaten like a horse for the last two days, but he was still starving and felt like he would give up his claim to the throne for and orange. But worst of all, his lower stomach kept cramping every so often in annoying little pains. He supposed that it must be the curses and every time he thought of it he wanted to cry. Was this his punishment for being too proud or something?
They rode like that for two or three more hours, Legolas trying to talk to the surly Ranger, while Estel alternated between snapping at his friend or outright ignoring him. By the time they stopped for camp, Legolas was more than willing to go off and hunt in return for letting Estel care for the horses and watch the camp. The elf thought that anything he shot would be better company than his friend. But he had to admit that he was a bit worried about Estel. It was not like him to be so short with people. He had also noticed the way the Ranger had kept rubbing at his lower back or wrapping his arm around his lower stomach. Legolas just hoped Estel was not getting sick or something. He didn't know if he could handle that out here all by himself. It only took him perhaps an hour to track a large rabbit and shoot it for dinner. He also found some wild yams to eat as well. Feeling quite pleased with his work he made his way back to camp and hoped that the goodies would cheer Estel, after all rabbit was his favourite.
Estel was happy to see Legolas go. He felt guilty for being so rude to the elf, which only made him feel worse. He made short work of setting up camp and caring for the horses. He had just finished setting up their fire pit when he stood up and the forest began to spin around him. The dizziness was quite intense, but soon over. "Guess I stood up too fast, just another weakness of this new body." Estel thought to himself as he started a large fire. He then crawled over to his sleeping roll and flopped down, wishing that he had one of Lord Elrond's heat compresses for his stomach and back. He fell asleep while trying to rub the insistent ache away, even though it was barely growing dark.
Legolas quietly made his way back to the camp and stumbled upon Estel fast asleep on his side clutching his stomach with knees pulled up to his chest. Legolas thought the human looked so beautiful that way, his face relaxed in sleep and his gorgeous hair streaming around his fair face. He pulled his cloak off and draped it over the sleeping form to ward off the coming chill. He then set about cooking the evening meal. He speared the potatoes with sticks and set them on the rocks directly, knowing they would take longer to cook than the rabbit itself. He then began to clean the skin from the bunny and hum a soft song.
Estel was not sure what had woken him up, but he wished he had not. He noticed that Legolas had given him his cloak, which meant that the elf was trying to take care of him again. That made anger flare in the Ranger and he sat up to tell the elf exactly how much he did not need to be babied, or at least that was what he had intended to do. But what actually happened was when he bolted up right to yell at the companion, another wave of dizziness hit him and he felt his stomach start to churn. He then made the ultimate mistake of looking to Legolas's hands where he was gleefully pulling the innards out of a half skinned rabbit. Then he heard the squishing and squelching noise the rabbit was making and it took approximately three seconds before the Ranger felt bile rise in the back of his throat as his stomach took a sickening turn. He barely managed to make it to the edge of the clearing before wretched onto the forest floor.
Once he had finished, Estel knelt for a moment on the soft pine needles trying to figure out what had just happened. Other than the small dizzy spell, he had felt fine before he fell asleep, and he felt almost back to normal now. He could not think that it was the sight of blood, fore it had never bothered him in the past, but what else could it be?
Legolas was not sure exactly what had just happened. He was singing softly to himself, then he heard Estel sit up. Legolas had looked at his friend and seen the glare on his face, just before it had turned three shades paler then to a strange almost greenish colour. It really was fascinating actually. Then he watched as his best friend quickly jumped up from his sleeping roll and bolted for the edge of the clearing. It did not take elf hearing to figure out that Estel was ill, but out of sympathy for the Ranger he pretended that he did not notice. He knew Estel would only get angry if he made a fuss, the man hated when people babied him.
Not long afterwards, Estel came shakily back to the campfire. Legolas offered his friend a water skin and tried not to watch the way the muscles in Estel's throat moved when he swallowed. Watching it made him want to kiss that long beautiful neck and he knew Estel would never stand for that. He let a respectable amount of time go by before he spoke to his friend. "Are you feeling better?"
"Actually yes. I am still tired as all hell, but other than that I feel fine now. I don't understand. I felt fine all day, I felt fine an hour ago, and I feel fine now. I guess it must have been something that I ate." Estel shrugged and smiled at Legolas. The elf was happy that he wore a long tunic when he noticed the way the fire light played off of Estel's grey eyes. "Would you take first watch so I can sleep for a while?"
"Of course, Rest as long as you need. Shall I wake you when dinner is finished?"
"No thanks, I am not really hungry right now, maybe later though." Estel laid back down on his sleeping roll and smiled his thanks at Legolas just as he cuddled under the elf's warm cloak. It did not take long before the human was again fast asleep.