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5. Nice Wine
"Its unusually hot for this time of year." Gimli said with a grimace as he took the helm off his head and Legolas looked on in mild, if not evident, astonishment as a stream of what only could be Gimli's perspiration ran out of it. Even he was feeling a little warm Legolas thought as he looked ahead to where Mouse was skipping through the long grass, plucking hardy little pink wildflowers, and other plants every couple of steps. Her bright laughter had rung out all through the long late spring afternoon.
He idly scratched at the pointed tip of an ear as he considered the few facts Mouse had let slip or mentioned since joining them. She had been working in a stable, but he didn't know why she'd left. She could use a bow, but it was a horse bow and even though she'd said she'd had a horse, they hadn't seen it. He knew she was half-Elvinand even so she seemed to fall over her feet a lot. She liked bawdy songs, which made him smile. And she never, ever took off the headscarf that was wrapped tightly around her head.
Where had she been the last 50 years?
"Is it Lembas time?" Legolas heard Mouse's almost mournful questioning of Gimli who grunted sympathetically, even Legolas was getting a little jaded about the way-bread. He thought absently about some fresh greens and fruits. He blinked as he took another look at Gimli. The Dwarf had wildflowers woven into his beard and in his thick braids.
"That's very...attractive." He smiled and Gimli blushed
"Thank you lad. Mouse my lass, I think Legolas' hair could do with a little decoration as well, we wouldn't want him to feel left out."
"I don't..." Legolas started to back away and then rolled his eyes at the two challenging pair of eyes that watched him, "Alright." He acquiesced, thinking that neither of them would have asked if they knew anything about Elvish courship traditions, the three of them would be half way to betrothal if they weren't careful he thought in amusement.
"Sit!" Mouse ordered, Legolas didn't notice her charmed smile as he played with the tip of his left ear.
"Not too many of the orange ones, there not my colour."
"Not your colour?" Mouse giggled as she sat behind Legolas on small boulder started carefully weaving the delicate stems of some small nameless pure white wildflower into his hair, threading them through his complex braids. Legolas felt his body and mind relax, the rhythmic tug and smooth of Mouse's ministrations calming his thoughts as well, he thought fondly of his new home, and then his old home and his father. His thoughts drifted, touching lightly on the mystery of Mouse's actual existence and her mother and father.
He had at the time considered seeking out her family, but had reasoned that Halwyn had told him specifically to meet someone where the Ent had appeared, and his promise had only extended to making sure she was taken to Fangorn. Fifty years of man in the last age had been swift and filled with dire evil and danger and after finding that Luinëros had indeed left Erebor to seek the havens there was little that he could do, his father, angered a little by Legolas returning without a wife had kept him busy, one patrol after another, until he'd been glad to leave to go to Imladris once more, and from there to join the Fellowship. He had friends now he could never had imagined having previously, and the obvious contentment and love that was apparent when around King Elessar and Arwen had for the first time made Legolas contemplate his own future.
"Hey Legless are you going to feed us?" Mouse asked brightly from her perch on the handy boulder.
"Did you just call me 'Legless'?" Legolas looked at Mouse with an outraged expression, no one had dared to call him Legless for a very, very long time.
"It was just my accent." Mouse said airily, and hid a smile.
"Accent...ha!" Gimli chuckled and then laughed outright. Legolas looked down at his friend with one eyebrow arched menacingly and Gimli swallowed, somewhat unsuccessfully, his next chuckle. "Well she does have a wee smidgeon of an accent."
"Yes where does that come from?" Legolas asked mildly, he was actually holding his breath but managed to look casually interested. Mouse's eyes widened slightly and she took a small breath before answering.
"Calembel."
"Calembel?" Gimli voiced Legolas's surprise; the large town was in the southwest of Gondor, a not long way from where they were now. The yearly visits he and Gimli had made in the last three years to Fangorn and The Glittering Caves often found them exploring beyond their original route. He remembered Calembel well, "Nice wine." He murmured as he remembered.
. . He and Gimli had been sharing a drink in a local tavern with one of Faramir's many distant relations, Aladain, and the talk had moved on from the host of the Dead, who had been their companions the last time they had stopped in Calembel before the final Battle, to their journey tomorrow.
"So you're going to Edoras?" Alain asked, his words slightly slurred. The man's hand came down heavily on Legolas' shoulder and he steeled himself not to move away. That distraction is what he'd blamed not noticing what happened next. Highly uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space Legolas concentrated on what Aladain was saying about the path they would take westward the next day, maybe if he tried hard enough Aladain would let go he thought, at least lean away, at least. He reminded himself that humans were fond of physical contact. At times he could be too, but not with this rowdy, and drunk, group of fighting men.
Realising Aladain was just repeating himself Legolas concentrated on listening to the three musician's tucked into a tight dark corner of the tavern. The song had echoes, as did many, of some of the old songs of his people. Old words mixed with new as he followed the complex melody line an old man was playing on his obviously well loved stringed instrument. All around the musicians' people sang or tapped their hands or feet. Small children and adolescents hid in shadows and scuttled around preying on discarded tankards and plates. It was happening even before he could react.
There was a loud yell and one of the larger adolescent boys pushed a smaller youth into the table, knocking into Aladain and into Legolas. The resulting scuffle found Gimli and Legolas off to one side of the tavern while jugs and tankards flew around the room with similar regularity to the flying fists.
"Nice wine." Legolas commented just loudly enough for Gimli to hear him above the melee. His friend gave him a large smile before swatting a flying plate out of the air with his axe before it could make contact with Legolas' chest. "Thanks." He caught a mug before it smashed into Gimli's head. With a quick look at Gimli, he threw it back, making his small friend almost double over with laughter. Five minutes later and there was a fan of unconscious men around them and Gimli prodded one with his foot.
"Perhaps it's time we left?" Gimli suggested and Legolas started to nod when a large body cannoned into them. Gimli's snort of displeasure didn't auger well for the man who'd apparently managed to keep his mug full of ale up until that moment. Now the sour foaming stuff dripped down Gimli's helm and into his already soaked beard. The loud growl Gimli produced stopped all other noise and motion in the tavern, except for a small body quickly disappearing through the back door Legolas noticed with a small ripple of amusement.
"We should leave, we have a long ride tomorrow." He said blandly and the only response from the room was Aladain's grunt as he held a much larger man in a headlock, the sound of a plate falling into shards and the steady drip of spilled beverages.
"Nothing like a brawl to settle a body down for the night." Gimli said drily as they settled down to rest in their comfortable lodgings. Legolas's small chuckle was muffled by a loud crash from an alleyway across the cobbled road from their inn.
".You'll give it to me alright or I'll beat you so well this time you'll never try and stiff me again!" A gravelly voice was raised and Legolas' keen ears picked up the sound of something that sounded like a whip.
"No." The other voice was quiet, and something trickled down in the back of Legolas' memory like a quicksilver flash. He sat up slowly from his bed and walked to the window, looking out at the cobbled street below his eyes sought what couldn't be seen.
"I told you." The lower voice turned cold and there was another loud crash and then a hiss of pain. "I won't kill you, someone will pay for you even if I ruin your face... argh!" Legolas' hand stopped the arm as it fell to strike another blow on the small body trapped between two large crates full of garbage.
"You must stop this." Legolas said quietly.
"You son of a bilge whore, by the Eye who do you think you are? That's my slave and I'll do what I want." The tall thin and wiry man snarled as he tried to free himself.
"Go. But wait for me across the street." Legolas said calmly to the frozen figure as it crouched defensively. They didn't hesitate. Legolas heard light footsteps retreating down the street and then turned back to the man who's threats were growing ever more frantic and implausible. "The last I heard your King had outlawed slavery."
"*My* King" the man spat and Legolas just managed to dodge, "He doesn't give a rats ass what goes on down here, with him up there in that fancy city. Who're you that you love this King enough to risk your life fer 'im." The derision in the man's words made Legolas a little annoyed, so he dragged the man out into the street, making sure there was enough light from a lamp for the human man to see Legolas stared at him, watching as the unshaven and unattractive face paled. "You're that Elf that's visitin' with his Lordship."
"And the King's emissary. What was that you were saying about a slave?" Legolas' face was harsh in the flickering light.
"Slave? I didn't say slave, I don't see no slave." The man's thin crafty face split into a nasty grin and his voice rose as they both looked around the rapidly filling street. "I'm an honest businessman, trying to earn my keep and here I am detained...by of all things an Elf." The man spat the word out. And Legolas barely held back a snarl.
"Guards!" Legolas didn't let any of his anger seep into his voice as he called to the town guard, who had been hanging back, obviously unsure of what to do when presented with an Elf, who was a personal friend of the King, holding a man who seemed well known.
"That will teach you to go whoring when there's pretty lads about Keldo!" a snickering voice yelled from the crowd.
"How was I to know?" Keldo shrugged and then waved his free hand at Legolas, "All that blonde hair and blue eyes, a man could easily get confused in the dark."
"I'd have him! In the adrk or out've it Are you busy later love?" A woman's nasal voice asked from the crowd. Legolas bit down on his anger again and smiled.
"I'm afraid not m'lady, perhaps another time. This man was attacking, perhaps trying, very unsuccessfully to rob someone." This got him a general laugh and he let go of Keldo's arm when the two young men of the town guard took an arm each. The crowd cheered and Keldo sneered before leant quickly back towards Legolas and spoke so softly only Legolas could have heard it.
"You stupid pointy eared fool, don't you know that that rat you rescued has your purse and that poncey brooch you were wearin', now you'll never see it, because, slaves don't exist here! I'll hunt you down and make you pay for this be certain of that Elf." Keldo sniffed one more time before letting himself be led away. The crowd parted with alacrity when Legolas stepped forward and headed for his lodgings. As he reached the front door he hadn't used when leaping from the first story window earlier, Gimli's grunt said more than he could have with a lot of words.
"I tried to stop the other one but the little scamp obviously has all the escape routes of this place well in hand." Gimli muttered as they settled back down to rest, turning over on his cot he looked at his tall friend and asked. "What did that thief say to you before he let them lead him away. Idle threats?"
"Of sorts." Legolas answered softly and then sighed silently. Keldo had been right; as soon as he'd said it he'd known it was true. The person he'd 'saved' had been the same one who'd bumped into him in the tavern and crawled out the back door later. The gold mattered very little to him, but the brooch... with a heavy heart Legolas rested for the first time knowing he was wasn't wearing the fellowship brooch from Lothlorien.
The next day Aladain had promised to scour the town for it but Legolas had shaken his head and left. With Gimli and his quiver at his back he'd urged Arod towards Fangorn.
.
The memory was sharp, she'd followed them that day, thinking back he'd known it already, but hadn't allowed it to shadow his thoughts, Legolas looked down at the grass at his feet before looking up at Mouse and smiling, hoping his eyes didn't reveal what he knew. "You don't happen to be hiding any of Calembel wine under all those clothes do you? Someone comes..." The sound of approaching horses made Legolas turn and a broad smile brightened his face as the horses were brought to a stop.
"Legolas!" A bright voice exclaimed, "And Gimli! Fancy Meeting you here."
Thanks for reading, keep reviewing:)
5. Nice Wine
"Its unusually hot for this time of year." Gimli said with a grimace as he took the helm off his head and Legolas looked on in mild, if not evident, astonishment as a stream of what only could be Gimli's perspiration ran out of it. Even he was feeling a little warm Legolas thought as he looked ahead to where Mouse was skipping through the long grass, plucking hardy little pink wildflowers, and other plants every couple of steps. Her bright laughter had rung out all through the long late spring afternoon.
He idly scratched at the pointed tip of an ear as he considered the few facts Mouse had let slip or mentioned since joining them. She had been working in a stable, but he didn't know why she'd left. She could use a bow, but it was a horse bow and even though she'd said she'd had a horse, they hadn't seen it. He knew she was half-Elvinand even so she seemed to fall over her feet a lot. She liked bawdy songs, which made him smile. And she never, ever took off the headscarf that was wrapped tightly around her head.
Where had she been the last 50 years?
"Is it Lembas time?" Legolas heard Mouse's almost mournful questioning of Gimli who grunted sympathetically, even Legolas was getting a little jaded about the way-bread. He thought absently about some fresh greens and fruits. He blinked as he took another look at Gimli. The Dwarf had wildflowers woven into his beard and in his thick braids.
"That's very...attractive." He smiled and Gimli blushed
"Thank you lad. Mouse my lass, I think Legolas' hair could do with a little decoration as well, we wouldn't want him to feel left out."
"I don't..." Legolas started to back away and then rolled his eyes at the two challenging pair of eyes that watched him, "Alright." He acquiesced, thinking that neither of them would have asked if they knew anything about Elvish courship traditions, the three of them would be half way to betrothal if they weren't careful he thought in amusement.
"Sit!" Mouse ordered, Legolas didn't notice her charmed smile as he played with the tip of his left ear.
"Not too many of the orange ones, there not my colour."
"Not your colour?" Mouse giggled as she sat behind Legolas on small boulder started carefully weaving the delicate stems of some small nameless pure white wildflower into his hair, threading them through his complex braids. Legolas felt his body and mind relax, the rhythmic tug and smooth of Mouse's ministrations calming his thoughts as well, he thought fondly of his new home, and then his old home and his father. His thoughts drifted, touching lightly on the mystery of Mouse's actual existence and her mother and father.
He had at the time considered seeking out her family, but had reasoned that Halwyn had told him specifically to meet someone where the Ent had appeared, and his promise had only extended to making sure she was taken to Fangorn. Fifty years of man in the last age had been swift and filled with dire evil and danger and after finding that Luinëros had indeed left Erebor to seek the havens there was little that he could do, his father, angered a little by Legolas returning without a wife had kept him busy, one patrol after another, until he'd been glad to leave to go to Imladris once more, and from there to join the Fellowship. He had friends now he could never had imagined having previously, and the obvious contentment and love that was apparent when around King Elessar and Arwen had for the first time made Legolas contemplate his own future.
"Hey Legless are you going to feed us?" Mouse asked brightly from her perch on the handy boulder.
"Did you just call me 'Legless'?" Legolas looked at Mouse with an outraged expression, no one had dared to call him Legless for a very, very long time.
"It was just my accent." Mouse said airily, and hid a smile.
"Accent...ha!" Gimli chuckled and then laughed outright. Legolas looked down at his friend with one eyebrow arched menacingly and Gimli swallowed, somewhat unsuccessfully, his next chuckle. "Well she does have a wee smidgeon of an accent."
"Yes where does that come from?" Legolas asked mildly, he was actually holding his breath but managed to look casually interested. Mouse's eyes widened slightly and she took a small breath before answering.
"Calembel."
"Calembel?" Gimli voiced Legolas's surprise; the large town was in the southwest of Gondor, a not long way from where they were now. The yearly visits he and Gimli had made in the last three years to Fangorn and The Glittering Caves often found them exploring beyond their original route. He remembered Calembel well, "Nice wine." He murmured as he remembered.
. . He and Gimli had been sharing a drink in a local tavern with one of Faramir's many distant relations, Aladain, and the talk had moved on from the host of the Dead, who had been their companions the last time they had stopped in Calembel before the final Battle, to their journey tomorrow.
"So you're going to Edoras?" Alain asked, his words slightly slurred. The man's hand came down heavily on Legolas' shoulder and he steeled himself not to move away. That distraction is what he'd blamed not noticing what happened next. Highly uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space Legolas concentrated on what Aladain was saying about the path they would take westward the next day, maybe if he tried hard enough Aladain would let go he thought, at least lean away, at least. He reminded himself that humans were fond of physical contact. At times he could be too, but not with this rowdy, and drunk, group of fighting men.
Realising Aladain was just repeating himself Legolas concentrated on listening to the three musician's tucked into a tight dark corner of the tavern. The song had echoes, as did many, of some of the old songs of his people. Old words mixed with new as he followed the complex melody line an old man was playing on his obviously well loved stringed instrument. All around the musicians' people sang or tapped their hands or feet. Small children and adolescents hid in shadows and scuttled around preying on discarded tankards and plates. It was happening even before he could react.
There was a loud yell and one of the larger adolescent boys pushed a smaller youth into the table, knocking into Aladain and into Legolas. The resulting scuffle found Gimli and Legolas off to one side of the tavern while jugs and tankards flew around the room with similar regularity to the flying fists.
"Nice wine." Legolas commented just loudly enough for Gimli to hear him above the melee. His friend gave him a large smile before swatting a flying plate out of the air with his axe before it could make contact with Legolas' chest. "Thanks." He caught a mug before it smashed into Gimli's head. With a quick look at Gimli, he threw it back, making his small friend almost double over with laughter. Five minutes later and there was a fan of unconscious men around them and Gimli prodded one with his foot.
"Perhaps it's time we left?" Gimli suggested and Legolas started to nod when a large body cannoned into them. Gimli's snort of displeasure didn't auger well for the man who'd apparently managed to keep his mug full of ale up until that moment. Now the sour foaming stuff dripped down Gimli's helm and into his already soaked beard. The loud growl Gimli produced stopped all other noise and motion in the tavern, except for a small body quickly disappearing through the back door Legolas noticed with a small ripple of amusement.
"We should leave, we have a long ride tomorrow." He said blandly and the only response from the room was Aladain's grunt as he held a much larger man in a headlock, the sound of a plate falling into shards and the steady drip of spilled beverages.
"Nothing like a brawl to settle a body down for the night." Gimli said drily as they settled down to rest in their comfortable lodgings. Legolas's small chuckle was muffled by a loud crash from an alleyway across the cobbled road from their inn.
".You'll give it to me alright or I'll beat you so well this time you'll never try and stiff me again!" A gravelly voice was raised and Legolas' keen ears picked up the sound of something that sounded like a whip.
"No." The other voice was quiet, and something trickled down in the back of Legolas' memory like a quicksilver flash. He sat up slowly from his bed and walked to the window, looking out at the cobbled street below his eyes sought what couldn't be seen.
"I told you." The lower voice turned cold and there was another loud crash and then a hiss of pain. "I won't kill you, someone will pay for you even if I ruin your face... argh!" Legolas' hand stopped the arm as it fell to strike another blow on the small body trapped between two large crates full of garbage.
"You must stop this." Legolas said quietly.
"You son of a bilge whore, by the Eye who do you think you are? That's my slave and I'll do what I want." The tall thin and wiry man snarled as he tried to free himself.
"Go. But wait for me across the street." Legolas said calmly to the frozen figure as it crouched defensively. They didn't hesitate. Legolas heard light footsteps retreating down the street and then turned back to the man who's threats were growing ever more frantic and implausible. "The last I heard your King had outlawed slavery."
"*My* King" the man spat and Legolas just managed to dodge, "He doesn't give a rats ass what goes on down here, with him up there in that fancy city. Who're you that you love this King enough to risk your life fer 'im." The derision in the man's words made Legolas a little annoyed, so he dragged the man out into the street, making sure there was enough light from a lamp for the human man to see Legolas stared at him, watching as the unshaven and unattractive face paled. "You're that Elf that's visitin' with his Lordship."
"And the King's emissary. What was that you were saying about a slave?" Legolas' face was harsh in the flickering light.
"Slave? I didn't say slave, I don't see no slave." The man's thin crafty face split into a nasty grin and his voice rose as they both looked around the rapidly filling street. "I'm an honest businessman, trying to earn my keep and here I am detained...by of all things an Elf." The man spat the word out. And Legolas barely held back a snarl.
"Guards!" Legolas didn't let any of his anger seep into his voice as he called to the town guard, who had been hanging back, obviously unsure of what to do when presented with an Elf, who was a personal friend of the King, holding a man who seemed well known.
"That will teach you to go whoring when there's pretty lads about Keldo!" a snickering voice yelled from the crowd.
"How was I to know?" Keldo shrugged and then waved his free hand at Legolas, "All that blonde hair and blue eyes, a man could easily get confused in the dark."
"I'd have him! In the adrk or out've it Are you busy later love?" A woman's nasal voice asked from the crowd. Legolas bit down on his anger again and smiled.
"I'm afraid not m'lady, perhaps another time. This man was attacking, perhaps trying, very unsuccessfully to rob someone." This got him a general laugh and he let go of Keldo's arm when the two young men of the town guard took an arm each. The crowd cheered and Keldo sneered before leant quickly back towards Legolas and spoke so softly only Legolas could have heard it.
"You stupid pointy eared fool, don't you know that that rat you rescued has your purse and that poncey brooch you were wearin', now you'll never see it, because, slaves don't exist here! I'll hunt you down and make you pay for this be certain of that Elf." Keldo sniffed one more time before letting himself be led away. The crowd parted with alacrity when Legolas stepped forward and headed for his lodgings. As he reached the front door he hadn't used when leaping from the first story window earlier, Gimli's grunt said more than he could have with a lot of words.
"I tried to stop the other one but the little scamp obviously has all the escape routes of this place well in hand." Gimli muttered as they settled back down to rest, turning over on his cot he looked at his tall friend and asked. "What did that thief say to you before he let them lead him away. Idle threats?"
"Of sorts." Legolas answered softly and then sighed silently. Keldo had been right; as soon as he'd said it he'd known it was true. The person he'd 'saved' had been the same one who'd bumped into him in the tavern and crawled out the back door later. The gold mattered very little to him, but the brooch... with a heavy heart Legolas rested for the first time knowing he was wasn't wearing the fellowship brooch from Lothlorien.
The next day Aladain had promised to scour the town for it but Legolas had shaken his head and left. With Gimli and his quiver at his back he'd urged Arod towards Fangorn.
.
The memory was sharp, she'd followed them that day, thinking back he'd known it already, but hadn't allowed it to shadow his thoughts, Legolas looked down at the grass at his feet before looking up at Mouse and smiling, hoping his eyes didn't reveal what he knew. "You don't happen to be hiding any of Calembel wine under all those clothes do you? Someone comes..." The sound of approaching horses made Legolas turn and a broad smile brightened his face as the horses were brought to a stop.
"Legolas!" A bright voice exclaimed, "And Gimli! Fancy Meeting you here."