'The sky is darkening like a stain
Something is going to fall like rain
And it won't be flowers"
W.H. Auden - The Two
Chapter 6. Rush
"...So we were having a quiet afternoon collecting carrots and..."
"It wasn't exactly 'collecting' Pip," Merry interrupted his curly haired friend, giving Mouse a conspiratorial wink. The Hobbits jostled each other companionably, then started digging into their packs; Pippin let out a large sigh as he unearthed a long-stemmed pipe and a bag of what Mouse correctly guessed was pipe weed.
"Well, borrowing then. So a quiet afternoon borrowing carrots and cabbages became a quest to destroy the Ring. It was very alarming..." Pippin said, making large eyes at Mouse and then smiled at Gimli's loud grunt. "And exciting," Merry added, "we all almost died." He gave a theatrical little shiver and then got down to the business of lighting his own pipe. He silently offered Mouse another Pipe but she shook her head with a sheepish smile. She looked across at Legolas who mimicked drinking wine. 'Come to think of it, a little wine would have been pleasant', she thought and then remembered to look suitably awed as she swallowed a laugh and looked across at the hobbits from the log she was sitting on. "Almost died," Mouse repeated, *and* managed to look suitably awed, the two hobbits had joined them a day ago. Their ponies had made traveling a lot quicker; with Mouse and Gimli riding with each of the Hobbits and Legolas running along side. Their bright conversation was just as welcome to Mouse as was their additional food, including robust bread rolls and fruit.
"I remember Legolas, Aragorn and myself doing a lot of running," Gimli grumbled and then clapped Merry companionably on the arm. "At least you didn't have Orcs threatening to make a meal of you," Merry replied. He waved his pipe around expressively, managing to convey a hoard of orcs with a sweep of the clay bowl. "But thanks for that anyway." he chuckled. Although he was laughing, Mouse could see he was genuinely thankful for Gimli and Legolas' attempt at rescuing them. The story was almost unbelievable, but it made more sense as she observed, for lack of a better description, the love that bound the men together.
"You wouldn't have been very appetizing; by then you overly large hobbits would have been getting stringy from all the walking," Legolas said quietly. Mouse was the first to laugh, almost as much at the stunned expressions on the hobbits faces as the dry humor Legolas had been revealing more and more of as they went along. The hobbits' arrival had seemed to relax the elf a little, Mouse noticed. He scratched at his ears a lot less often, but then again maybe she hadn't been watching him as much. Her eyes had been on the tall mountains to their right and frequently she'd had trouble walking as she laughed at something the hobbits had said. When she did look at Legolas, it was just because she wasn't looking at where she was going, Mouse reasoned.
The landscape had changed to gently rolling hills; some were burned yellow by the heat of the sun and in some deep valleys, green still held sway. The dark blue of the Misty Mountains rose majestically towards the pale blue sky. At dusk the dry grass turned gold and the sunset flared fierily off the exposed rock and the many sheer cliffs. Mouse turned to see the sun starting to wane and so the small company stopped to make camp next to a small stream that seemed to meander aimlessly between low hillocks.
"I have some tomatoes!" Pippin announced suddenly and they all looked at him. His small face turned a little red and he shrugged, "I forgot I was carrying them, they're a might squashed but they'll be good with some bacon." "Hmm crispy bacon," Merry said and smiled as he rustled around for a pot. "You know I wish Sam were here, I'd never tell him, but his cooking is exquisite."
"Oh really? 'Exquisite' Merry?" Pippin asked facetiously and his friend shared his grin. "I think you've been spending too much time in court. Not enough time in the Shire."
"Maybe, but you have to agree that Sam's cooking is some of the best, plus he always had those smashin' pots and pans stashed away in his bag."
"Oh yes, you know one day you should visit the Shire Mouse, we have the most beautiful trees and fields, and these little rivers..." Pippin spoke earnestly, his eyes and voiced filled with memories and Mouse could almost see lush fields filled with small happily people working the earth and just feeling at home, like they belonged. "It sounds beautiful," she said softly.
"It sounds fantastic," Gimli agreed, "In fact one of my relatives..."
Mouse missed the rest of Gimli's story, luckily it was one she'd heard before, because she felt Legolas' intent stare. Taking a deep breath she looked up, wondering when it had become so hard to look at him. He was toying with the tip of his right ear, but stopped when she looked directly at him. He quickly masked his expression but Mouse was pretty sure what she'd seen was surprise, recognition and most disturbing of all: fear. He gave her a bright smile and then looked down at his bow, checking for some non-existent imperfection. Fear?
Mouse looked away when Merry called for her preferences when it came to bacon. She felt rather than saw Legolas get up and walk over to the top of a small rise. Once again she was hit by how beautiful he was, his long blonde hair moving gently in the slight breeze, his face burnished to pale bronze by the fading sunlight, and his lithe strong body; the memory of him plucking her off the path in Fangorn made her remember just how warm and hard his body had been.
It was a little disturbing Mouse realized, just how much she'd been thinking about him, and touching him, running her hands through his hair, smoothing the odd little frown from his forehead that he seemed to get when she caught him watching her. Disturbing because she'd never once had her heart race like that before, except when she'd been running from someone. She'd been scared enough to get sweaty palms like that a few times as well, but he didn't really scare her, not like that at least; she wouldn't really want to get close to something that scared her, would she? In fact she'd never even thought about any male in the way she was thinking about Legolas. Mouse crossed her arms over her chest and leaned in closer to the fire.
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Legolas watched Mouse out of the corner of his eye, seeing the way she hugged herself tightly. She looked so alone even laughing at the Hobbits stories and jokes; she was still holding herself slightly apart from them all. He didn't blame her really, she had so many secrets, a few of which he was sure even she didn't know she had. They had reached the caves, but decided to take rest before going any further. The smallish cave he and Gimli had discovered three years ago had a small mouth that opened out onto a small ledge that overlooked the plains. Legolas took one last look around at the darkness outside the lip of the cave and focused on a large silent owl tracking prey so small even he had trouble seeing it. He looked up at the bright stars as he realized what it was. A mouse. Taking a deep breath he turned back to the fire and walked over to sit next to Mouse, sitting close enough but not so close that he would scare her.
"I think that perhaps Merry and Pippin would enjoy your Fallen Elf song Mouse," he said and nudged her with a gentle elbow. Her eyes slowly focused on him and he wondered what she'd been thinking about to bring the slight flush to her cheeks. She flinched slightly as he lifted his hand and brushed her cheek. "You had ash," he explained as he let his hand fall back to the log they were sitting on. He knew he should look away as Mouse's eyes started to turn a little smoky but he didn't.
"Fallen Elf?" Merry asked, breaking the spell, his bright eyes shining at them from across the fire as they both looked over, "I think I know that one. Does it go..." Merry started singing and Pippin joined in. The words were similar but different, enough to have Mouse giggling.
When the song had ended, Pippin started telling another story. Legolas kept half an ear on the story and the other on the caves around them; something was stirring, but not close by and he couldn't tell whether it was a danger to them or not. He was surprised to feel something drop heavily onto his shoulder. Looking down he saw that Mouse had fallen asleep, her head was resting precariously on the edge of his shoulder, at least it was until she shifted slightly and her nose pressed into his neck. The others were still talking quietly and smoking their pipes, apparently unaware of Mouse and Legolas' silence until Merry caught his eye and winked. Anyone one else would have thought it was a casual gesture but Legolas carefully stood and picked Mouse up in arms, noting how little she weighed again; her thinness was a concern, but it could be rectified, eventually. For now it seemed there was business to take care of and he wondered which King it was who had sent the Hobbits out to find them.
He used his own cloak to wrap her in and cushioned her head on her bag. It was tempting to take the opportunity to remove her headgear to see what exactly was under there, but he didn't even though his fingers were itching as much as his ears. He knew he shouldn't, for many reasons, not the least that she was a child, a stranger and a thief, but he gently ran his finger down her cheek, whispering, "Nae saian luume' Cormamin lindua ele lle. Quel kaima."
Mouse made a small noise and smiled before rolling over, deeper into the cloak and into sleep. Legolas took one more look over his shoulder as he walked to the cave mouth; she was so small in the flickering light of the fire. Once again something small was about to change his life forever. He'd known it fifty years ago, now he just wanted it to hurry up, or maybe he wanted it not to happen, maybe he wished he'd be able to control what was about to happen, maybe he didn't really know what he wanted, which was disturbing for an elf who'd been alive for around three thousand years. Then he realized suddenly what Aragorn had meant once when he'd called him "sheltered".
Legolas was already frowning as he faced his friends, but he stopped fidgeting with his abused ear-tip as the Hobbits started to speak.
"Aragorn wanted us to catch you before you got to Edoras." Legolas felt a strange sense of foreboding as Merry carefully snuffed his pipe and knocked it out on the rocks. The deliberate movements of the usually bright hobbit added gravity to what he was about to reveal. Even Pippin was looking subdued. "It seems one of Eomer's cousins has gone missing."
"One of his prettier, just about to be betrothed cousins." Pippin added with a swift lift of his eyebrows, but he settled back down when Merry gave him a sideways glance. Legolas felt a small smile as he watched his small young friends; they were so different from when they'd first met as strangers in Rivendell. Danger and sadness had left its mark, but a conversation with Merry never seemed quite complete without Pippin and vice versa though.
"Just about to be betrothed?" Legolas asked, the human custom of betrothal was a little alien to him, and also a little repulsive, the way parents and relatives colluded to make a 'Best Match' for their children, with seemingly little input from their children. The thought of his father actually choosing and presenting him with a life-mate was almost obscene. "To Eomer?"
"Eomer?" Pippin laughed heartily and then looked over at Mouse's still form before shaking his head and lowering his voice. "No, I think he's finding the constant stream of beautiful and intelligent women Eowyn keeps sending to visit a bit of a deterrent, who was that last one, with the brown hair who kept bumping into walls because her nose was constantly in a book Merry?"
"That was Reega, but shut up Pip, I'm trying to pass on the message."
"Sorry."
"Nose in a book you say?" Gimli murmured and Pippin shot him a grateful grin. "But what of this 'Almost betrothed' young lady Master Meriadoc?"
"Well her mother went to wake her to go shopping, for dresses dowry, things, found her bed empty."
"Better than overfull eh?" Gimli nudged Legolas who raised a considering eyebrow before looking back at Merry. The hobbit was getting a little hot under the collar, as Sam would say. Sadly Legolas had an idea where this was leading, and it didn't bode well.
"She did not wish to be betrothed?" He asked what Merry was obviously expecting.
"That's the thing these two were a love match. They'd been mooning over each other for so long that their parents realized there was nothing to do about it but marry them off, thankfully to each other." Merry made a face, and Legolas remembered how cloyingly annoying a love struck pair could be, luckily for humans it usually didn't last for centuries. "When she still hadn't returned by sundown a search was ordered, and still we couldn't find her. A couple of the street urchins started offering information for coin and their information turned out to be fairly accurate.
"After a bit of cajoling," at Merry's expression Legolas guessed that Eomer's cajoling involved the use of his fists, "One of the tavern owners near the gate 'remembered' a group of men, strangers, who'd been staying in his best rooms for a week. Foreigners he called them, but their gold was good, even if it was unstamped."
"Unstamped gold?" Gimli asked, and he looked affronted, "That's no way to treat gold coin."
"But it's a good way of hiding where you've been isn't it?" Pippin asked.
"That it is." Legolas said slowly, his mind was on the small form behind them in the cave and the altercation in Calembel with Keldo. "So what was The Elessar's message?"
"Well he gave us this, and said to tread like sunlight on fallen leaves, if that means anything." Pippin said with a shrug as he handed Legolas a small tightly wound scroll. "Funny thing is the innkeeper said something about the men sounding like Rangers. Made me think of the first time we met Strider it did." Legolas moved back out of the cloud of pipeweed smoke and carefully broke the seal.
Rangers. Legolas' sense of foreboding deepened and he looked at the scroll in held loosely in his hand blindly. Around him the sounds and scents of the night were drawing in, there was the sense that the world was switching from night to morning, with the sun seemingly just out of sight. Hours earlier Merry, Gimli and Pippin had rolled themselves into their cloaks and drifted to sleep; Gimli having given Legolas the unnecessary advice of keeping his eyes open first. His mind drifted, thinking back to a time when his greatest concern had been how to keep a troop of Orcs out of his part of the forest, now he had a delicate diplomatic, which had never been one of his strong suits anyway, mission of sorts with a man whose volatile nature was both completely different and too similar to his own to make the conversation they had to have in any way less uncomfortable than it was going to be.
A gang of Rangers kidnapping a young woman from Edoras? The implausibility of a "group" of Rangers normally would have made Legolas dismiss any such rumour, but apparently Aragorn had been hearing similar reports from across his kingdom and beyond. Legolas focused on the neatly written Elvish words again,
'I ask of you my friend, even though I have no right or favor that I could redeem for this, so I ask humbly for your assistance. I have outline briefly the matter that concerns me, but I feel I need to speak with you in all haste. But first I need for you and your companions to make your stop at Edoras to find out what you can from Lord Eomer and then make your way here with what news and tidings he has. Thank you my friend, I look forward to seeing you again, as does my wife, who requests that you be nice to your mouse. I must say that I'm surprised you have gotten yourself a pet, isn't the dwarf enough? Nay, give my regards to our stalwart friend and tell the hobbits to save me some of their pipe weed. Until next we meet May thy paths be green and the breeze on thy back.'
Smiling at the last old phrase Legolas carefully wound the scroll and tucked it into a hidden pocket of his jerkin. So Arwen knew already, he wasn't surprised his antics of the night before would have alerted anyone 'looking' his way, as no doubt Aragorn had asked her to do, to the fact that Mouse had been his focus of attention. Looking out he could see the faintest hint of light lighting the sky. Soon he'd have to wake the hobbits up, and the loudly snoring Gimli, who wasn't going to be pleased when he found out their trip through the glittering caves, was to be curtailed.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Mouse's soft voice made Legolas turn, and he had to admit she was right. The pale sunlight made her skin glow like distant stars. He felt a surge of the quicksilver in his veins before he dampened it down and gave her a small smile.
"Daybreak men call it, like the sun has broken the darkness with her light." He said quietly, trying hard to keep the stillness within himself still. She looked even younger with sleep still softening her face, but the strange light of the pre dawn also shadowed her face to give him a glimpse of what she would look like far into the future. She would be beautiful.
"You think?" Mouse tilted her head to look up at Legolas as she settled herself beside him on the ledge.
"I think what..?" Legolas asked slowly, pulling himself out of his thoughts.
"That the sun breaks the sky?" Mouse looked up at him and Legolas gave into the urge to push the wrappings on her head back a fraction, he noticed Mouse start to flinch before her eyes cleared and she made no further move to retreat. Her clear green eyes watched him closely and Legolas knew he should stop, that he should withdraw. His fingertip traced the arch of her eyebrow and he absorbed the way her eyelids drifted shut. He wondered, as his fingertip brushed gently across the delicate skin of her cheek, if she knew anything about Elves. The latent invitation of his being, the mortals he knew described it as both his body and soul, was something he could normally control, and now would have to control if he didn't want to give her a rude awakening to the world of Elf sex.
A certain uncomfortable conversation with his father sprung to his mind, a conversation that had been almost wholly unnecessary for the youngest of five males, except for the part that didn't involve the mechanics of the act. He could hear his father speak the words even now.
"You will find yourself drawn to someone, a potential..." his normally eloquent father had seemed lost for words for a moment and a much younger Legolas had felt a sense of relief common to many who had escaped from something of a similarly uncomfortable nature, that was until Thranduil continued. "Well I'm sure my son that your brothers have covered the actual act itself, but there is more."
"More?" Legolas had felt his heart sink.
"Yes. You are young, no more than seventy in the years of men," With a small sigh his father ran his hand across Legolas' hair in a way he hadn't done for many years. "You can feel the heat inside you? That which keeps you warm, which in future will keep you hale and well with your heart. It is this that you will need to consider when you decide to find your mate. Much as you can feel your world with your keen senses, so too can you be felt. If you focus your attentions on one being they will feel your intention, and react to it. Like an animal that will know of your approach no matter how silent you are. An Elf-maid will feel and respond, whether she'll run or stay to be caught is another matter and her choice. But always consider, that until a maid passes fully through to her adulthood, she will not know what it is you offer, her body will respond and her mind will be clouded by it, but it is your responsibility to not take advantage of it."
"So you are saying stay away from Nimwys?" even Legolas heard the petulance in his own voice. The young elf-maid was one of a very few who was close to his own age, with long golden hair and eyes like sapphires, but she was still in the midst of a turbulent pass to adulthood. At times still like a child and at others she seemed as grown up as his aunts. It was a little bit embarrassing to think his father was aware of their experimentation. But when you could hear another's thoughts and when they forgot to shield themselves it wasn't hard to eavesdrop.
"No, my young son, I'm saying wait. There is no rush."
"There is no rush." Legolas watched as his unplanned whisper reached Mouse's ears and she slowly opened her eyes.
"No rush?" Mouse repeated, sounding a little dazed, and looking even more so. Her lips looked soft and her breathing was slow; a reaction to Legolas' presence he knew. He scanned her face, storing away the image of sunlight glowing through her lashes and painting her cheek. He chose not to think about why, down that slippery slope lay danger, not for him, but for the young woman who was perilously close to kissing him.
"Yes, no rush for breakfast for me, tell the others I will be back in less than an hour." Legolas ran his finger down the slope of Mouse's nose and she blinked, he knew the spell was broken when she started looking at him, the green of her eyes slightly clouded in confusion as he put some distance between them by getting up and walking towards the back of the cave, "accidentally" jostling the hobbits and Gimli awake with an unnecessarily circuitous route to the opening to the rest of the caves. Stepping into the darkness beyond he stopped and took a deep breath, and then another. "There is no rush." He repeated softly to himself and then went to scout ahead.
*"(It has been too long) (My heart sings to see thee). (Sleep well)"
And it won't be flowers"
W.H. Auden - The Two
Chapter 6. Rush
"...So we were having a quiet afternoon collecting carrots and..."
"It wasn't exactly 'collecting' Pip," Merry interrupted his curly haired friend, giving Mouse a conspiratorial wink. The Hobbits jostled each other companionably, then started digging into their packs; Pippin let out a large sigh as he unearthed a long-stemmed pipe and a bag of what Mouse correctly guessed was pipe weed.
"Well, borrowing then. So a quiet afternoon borrowing carrots and cabbages became a quest to destroy the Ring. It was very alarming..." Pippin said, making large eyes at Mouse and then smiled at Gimli's loud grunt. "And exciting," Merry added, "we all almost died." He gave a theatrical little shiver and then got down to the business of lighting his own pipe. He silently offered Mouse another Pipe but she shook her head with a sheepish smile. She looked across at Legolas who mimicked drinking wine. 'Come to think of it, a little wine would have been pleasant', she thought and then remembered to look suitably awed as she swallowed a laugh and looked across at the hobbits from the log she was sitting on. "Almost died," Mouse repeated, *and* managed to look suitably awed, the two hobbits had joined them a day ago. Their ponies had made traveling a lot quicker; with Mouse and Gimli riding with each of the Hobbits and Legolas running along side. Their bright conversation was just as welcome to Mouse as was their additional food, including robust bread rolls and fruit.
"I remember Legolas, Aragorn and myself doing a lot of running," Gimli grumbled and then clapped Merry companionably on the arm. "At least you didn't have Orcs threatening to make a meal of you," Merry replied. He waved his pipe around expressively, managing to convey a hoard of orcs with a sweep of the clay bowl. "But thanks for that anyway." he chuckled. Although he was laughing, Mouse could see he was genuinely thankful for Gimli and Legolas' attempt at rescuing them. The story was almost unbelievable, but it made more sense as she observed, for lack of a better description, the love that bound the men together.
"You wouldn't have been very appetizing; by then you overly large hobbits would have been getting stringy from all the walking," Legolas said quietly. Mouse was the first to laugh, almost as much at the stunned expressions on the hobbits faces as the dry humor Legolas had been revealing more and more of as they went along. The hobbits' arrival had seemed to relax the elf a little, Mouse noticed. He scratched at his ears a lot less often, but then again maybe she hadn't been watching him as much. Her eyes had been on the tall mountains to their right and frequently she'd had trouble walking as she laughed at something the hobbits had said. When she did look at Legolas, it was just because she wasn't looking at where she was going, Mouse reasoned.
The landscape had changed to gently rolling hills; some were burned yellow by the heat of the sun and in some deep valleys, green still held sway. The dark blue of the Misty Mountains rose majestically towards the pale blue sky. At dusk the dry grass turned gold and the sunset flared fierily off the exposed rock and the many sheer cliffs. Mouse turned to see the sun starting to wane and so the small company stopped to make camp next to a small stream that seemed to meander aimlessly between low hillocks.
"I have some tomatoes!" Pippin announced suddenly and they all looked at him. His small face turned a little red and he shrugged, "I forgot I was carrying them, they're a might squashed but they'll be good with some bacon." "Hmm crispy bacon," Merry said and smiled as he rustled around for a pot. "You know I wish Sam were here, I'd never tell him, but his cooking is exquisite."
"Oh really? 'Exquisite' Merry?" Pippin asked facetiously and his friend shared his grin. "I think you've been spending too much time in court. Not enough time in the Shire."
"Maybe, but you have to agree that Sam's cooking is some of the best, plus he always had those smashin' pots and pans stashed away in his bag."
"Oh yes, you know one day you should visit the Shire Mouse, we have the most beautiful trees and fields, and these little rivers..." Pippin spoke earnestly, his eyes and voiced filled with memories and Mouse could almost see lush fields filled with small happily people working the earth and just feeling at home, like they belonged. "It sounds beautiful," she said softly.
"It sounds fantastic," Gimli agreed, "In fact one of my relatives..."
Mouse missed the rest of Gimli's story, luckily it was one she'd heard before, because she felt Legolas' intent stare. Taking a deep breath she looked up, wondering when it had become so hard to look at him. He was toying with the tip of his right ear, but stopped when she looked directly at him. He quickly masked his expression but Mouse was pretty sure what she'd seen was surprise, recognition and most disturbing of all: fear. He gave her a bright smile and then looked down at his bow, checking for some non-existent imperfection. Fear?
Mouse looked away when Merry called for her preferences when it came to bacon. She felt rather than saw Legolas get up and walk over to the top of a small rise. Once again she was hit by how beautiful he was, his long blonde hair moving gently in the slight breeze, his face burnished to pale bronze by the fading sunlight, and his lithe strong body; the memory of him plucking her off the path in Fangorn made her remember just how warm and hard his body had been.
It was a little disturbing Mouse realized, just how much she'd been thinking about him, and touching him, running her hands through his hair, smoothing the odd little frown from his forehead that he seemed to get when she caught him watching her. Disturbing because she'd never once had her heart race like that before, except when she'd been running from someone. She'd been scared enough to get sweaty palms like that a few times as well, but he didn't really scare her, not like that at least; she wouldn't really want to get close to something that scared her, would she? In fact she'd never even thought about any male in the way she was thinking about Legolas. Mouse crossed her arms over her chest and leaned in closer to the fire.
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Legolas watched Mouse out of the corner of his eye, seeing the way she hugged herself tightly. She looked so alone even laughing at the Hobbits stories and jokes; she was still holding herself slightly apart from them all. He didn't blame her really, she had so many secrets, a few of which he was sure even she didn't know she had. They had reached the caves, but decided to take rest before going any further. The smallish cave he and Gimli had discovered three years ago had a small mouth that opened out onto a small ledge that overlooked the plains. Legolas took one last look around at the darkness outside the lip of the cave and focused on a large silent owl tracking prey so small even he had trouble seeing it. He looked up at the bright stars as he realized what it was. A mouse. Taking a deep breath he turned back to the fire and walked over to sit next to Mouse, sitting close enough but not so close that he would scare her.
"I think that perhaps Merry and Pippin would enjoy your Fallen Elf song Mouse," he said and nudged her with a gentle elbow. Her eyes slowly focused on him and he wondered what she'd been thinking about to bring the slight flush to her cheeks. She flinched slightly as he lifted his hand and brushed her cheek. "You had ash," he explained as he let his hand fall back to the log they were sitting on. He knew he should look away as Mouse's eyes started to turn a little smoky but he didn't.
"Fallen Elf?" Merry asked, breaking the spell, his bright eyes shining at them from across the fire as they both looked over, "I think I know that one. Does it go..." Merry started singing and Pippin joined in. The words were similar but different, enough to have Mouse giggling.
When the song had ended, Pippin started telling another story. Legolas kept half an ear on the story and the other on the caves around them; something was stirring, but not close by and he couldn't tell whether it was a danger to them or not. He was surprised to feel something drop heavily onto his shoulder. Looking down he saw that Mouse had fallen asleep, her head was resting precariously on the edge of his shoulder, at least it was until she shifted slightly and her nose pressed into his neck. The others were still talking quietly and smoking their pipes, apparently unaware of Mouse and Legolas' silence until Merry caught his eye and winked. Anyone one else would have thought it was a casual gesture but Legolas carefully stood and picked Mouse up in arms, noting how little she weighed again; her thinness was a concern, but it could be rectified, eventually. For now it seemed there was business to take care of and he wondered which King it was who had sent the Hobbits out to find them.
He used his own cloak to wrap her in and cushioned her head on her bag. It was tempting to take the opportunity to remove her headgear to see what exactly was under there, but he didn't even though his fingers were itching as much as his ears. He knew he shouldn't, for many reasons, not the least that she was a child, a stranger and a thief, but he gently ran his finger down her cheek, whispering, "Nae saian luume' Cormamin lindua ele lle. Quel kaima."
Mouse made a small noise and smiled before rolling over, deeper into the cloak and into sleep. Legolas took one more look over his shoulder as he walked to the cave mouth; she was so small in the flickering light of the fire. Once again something small was about to change his life forever. He'd known it fifty years ago, now he just wanted it to hurry up, or maybe he wanted it not to happen, maybe he wished he'd be able to control what was about to happen, maybe he didn't really know what he wanted, which was disturbing for an elf who'd been alive for around three thousand years. Then he realized suddenly what Aragorn had meant once when he'd called him "sheltered".
Legolas was already frowning as he faced his friends, but he stopped fidgeting with his abused ear-tip as the Hobbits started to speak.
"Aragorn wanted us to catch you before you got to Edoras." Legolas felt a strange sense of foreboding as Merry carefully snuffed his pipe and knocked it out on the rocks. The deliberate movements of the usually bright hobbit added gravity to what he was about to reveal. Even Pippin was looking subdued. "It seems one of Eomer's cousins has gone missing."
"One of his prettier, just about to be betrothed cousins." Pippin added with a swift lift of his eyebrows, but he settled back down when Merry gave him a sideways glance. Legolas felt a small smile as he watched his small young friends; they were so different from when they'd first met as strangers in Rivendell. Danger and sadness had left its mark, but a conversation with Merry never seemed quite complete without Pippin and vice versa though.
"Just about to be betrothed?" Legolas asked, the human custom of betrothal was a little alien to him, and also a little repulsive, the way parents and relatives colluded to make a 'Best Match' for their children, with seemingly little input from their children. The thought of his father actually choosing and presenting him with a life-mate was almost obscene. "To Eomer?"
"Eomer?" Pippin laughed heartily and then looked over at Mouse's still form before shaking his head and lowering his voice. "No, I think he's finding the constant stream of beautiful and intelligent women Eowyn keeps sending to visit a bit of a deterrent, who was that last one, with the brown hair who kept bumping into walls because her nose was constantly in a book Merry?"
"That was Reega, but shut up Pip, I'm trying to pass on the message."
"Sorry."
"Nose in a book you say?" Gimli murmured and Pippin shot him a grateful grin. "But what of this 'Almost betrothed' young lady Master Meriadoc?"
"Well her mother went to wake her to go shopping, for dresses dowry, things, found her bed empty."
"Better than overfull eh?" Gimli nudged Legolas who raised a considering eyebrow before looking back at Merry. The hobbit was getting a little hot under the collar, as Sam would say. Sadly Legolas had an idea where this was leading, and it didn't bode well.
"She did not wish to be betrothed?" He asked what Merry was obviously expecting.
"That's the thing these two were a love match. They'd been mooning over each other for so long that their parents realized there was nothing to do about it but marry them off, thankfully to each other." Merry made a face, and Legolas remembered how cloyingly annoying a love struck pair could be, luckily for humans it usually didn't last for centuries. "When she still hadn't returned by sundown a search was ordered, and still we couldn't find her. A couple of the street urchins started offering information for coin and their information turned out to be fairly accurate.
"After a bit of cajoling," at Merry's expression Legolas guessed that Eomer's cajoling involved the use of his fists, "One of the tavern owners near the gate 'remembered' a group of men, strangers, who'd been staying in his best rooms for a week. Foreigners he called them, but their gold was good, even if it was unstamped."
"Unstamped gold?" Gimli asked, and he looked affronted, "That's no way to treat gold coin."
"But it's a good way of hiding where you've been isn't it?" Pippin asked.
"That it is." Legolas said slowly, his mind was on the small form behind them in the cave and the altercation in Calembel with Keldo. "So what was The Elessar's message?"
"Well he gave us this, and said to tread like sunlight on fallen leaves, if that means anything." Pippin said with a shrug as he handed Legolas a small tightly wound scroll. "Funny thing is the innkeeper said something about the men sounding like Rangers. Made me think of the first time we met Strider it did." Legolas moved back out of the cloud of pipeweed smoke and carefully broke the seal.
Rangers. Legolas' sense of foreboding deepened and he looked at the scroll in held loosely in his hand blindly. Around him the sounds and scents of the night were drawing in, there was the sense that the world was switching from night to morning, with the sun seemingly just out of sight. Hours earlier Merry, Gimli and Pippin had rolled themselves into their cloaks and drifted to sleep; Gimli having given Legolas the unnecessary advice of keeping his eyes open first. His mind drifted, thinking back to a time when his greatest concern had been how to keep a troop of Orcs out of his part of the forest, now he had a delicate diplomatic, which had never been one of his strong suits anyway, mission of sorts with a man whose volatile nature was both completely different and too similar to his own to make the conversation they had to have in any way less uncomfortable than it was going to be.
A gang of Rangers kidnapping a young woman from Edoras? The implausibility of a "group" of Rangers normally would have made Legolas dismiss any such rumour, but apparently Aragorn had been hearing similar reports from across his kingdom and beyond. Legolas focused on the neatly written Elvish words again,
'I ask of you my friend, even though I have no right or favor that I could redeem for this, so I ask humbly for your assistance. I have outline briefly the matter that concerns me, but I feel I need to speak with you in all haste. But first I need for you and your companions to make your stop at Edoras to find out what you can from Lord Eomer and then make your way here with what news and tidings he has. Thank you my friend, I look forward to seeing you again, as does my wife, who requests that you be nice to your mouse. I must say that I'm surprised you have gotten yourself a pet, isn't the dwarf enough? Nay, give my regards to our stalwart friend and tell the hobbits to save me some of their pipe weed. Until next we meet May thy paths be green and the breeze on thy back.'
Smiling at the last old phrase Legolas carefully wound the scroll and tucked it into a hidden pocket of his jerkin. So Arwen knew already, he wasn't surprised his antics of the night before would have alerted anyone 'looking' his way, as no doubt Aragorn had asked her to do, to the fact that Mouse had been his focus of attention. Looking out he could see the faintest hint of light lighting the sky. Soon he'd have to wake the hobbits up, and the loudly snoring Gimli, who wasn't going to be pleased when he found out their trip through the glittering caves, was to be curtailed.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Mouse's soft voice made Legolas turn, and he had to admit she was right. The pale sunlight made her skin glow like distant stars. He felt a surge of the quicksilver in his veins before he dampened it down and gave her a small smile.
"Daybreak men call it, like the sun has broken the darkness with her light." He said quietly, trying hard to keep the stillness within himself still. She looked even younger with sleep still softening her face, but the strange light of the pre dawn also shadowed her face to give him a glimpse of what she would look like far into the future. She would be beautiful.
"You think?" Mouse tilted her head to look up at Legolas as she settled herself beside him on the ledge.
"I think what..?" Legolas asked slowly, pulling himself out of his thoughts.
"That the sun breaks the sky?" Mouse looked up at him and Legolas gave into the urge to push the wrappings on her head back a fraction, he noticed Mouse start to flinch before her eyes cleared and she made no further move to retreat. Her clear green eyes watched him closely and Legolas knew he should stop, that he should withdraw. His fingertip traced the arch of her eyebrow and he absorbed the way her eyelids drifted shut. He wondered, as his fingertip brushed gently across the delicate skin of her cheek, if she knew anything about Elves. The latent invitation of his being, the mortals he knew described it as both his body and soul, was something he could normally control, and now would have to control if he didn't want to give her a rude awakening to the world of Elf sex.
A certain uncomfortable conversation with his father sprung to his mind, a conversation that had been almost wholly unnecessary for the youngest of five males, except for the part that didn't involve the mechanics of the act. He could hear his father speak the words even now.
"You will find yourself drawn to someone, a potential..." his normally eloquent father had seemed lost for words for a moment and a much younger Legolas had felt a sense of relief common to many who had escaped from something of a similarly uncomfortable nature, that was until Thranduil continued. "Well I'm sure my son that your brothers have covered the actual act itself, but there is more."
"More?" Legolas had felt his heart sink.
"Yes. You are young, no more than seventy in the years of men," With a small sigh his father ran his hand across Legolas' hair in a way he hadn't done for many years. "You can feel the heat inside you? That which keeps you warm, which in future will keep you hale and well with your heart. It is this that you will need to consider when you decide to find your mate. Much as you can feel your world with your keen senses, so too can you be felt. If you focus your attentions on one being they will feel your intention, and react to it. Like an animal that will know of your approach no matter how silent you are. An Elf-maid will feel and respond, whether she'll run or stay to be caught is another matter and her choice. But always consider, that until a maid passes fully through to her adulthood, she will not know what it is you offer, her body will respond and her mind will be clouded by it, but it is your responsibility to not take advantage of it."
"So you are saying stay away from Nimwys?" even Legolas heard the petulance in his own voice. The young elf-maid was one of a very few who was close to his own age, with long golden hair and eyes like sapphires, but she was still in the midst of a turbulent pass to adulthood. At times still like a child and at others she seemed as grown up as his aunts. It was a little bit embarrassing to think his father was aware of their experimentation. But when you could hear another's thoughts and when they forgot to shield themselves it wasn't hard to eavesdrop.
"No, my young son, I'm saying wait. There is no rush."
"There is no rush." Legolas watched as his unplanned whisper reached Mouse's ears and she slowly opened her eyes.
"No rush?" Mouse repeated, sounding a little dazed, and looking even more so. Her lips looked soft and her breathing was slow; a reaction to Legolas' presence he knew. He scanned her face, storing away the image of sunlight glowing through her lashes and painting her cheek. He chose not to think about why, down that slippery slope lay danger, not for him, but for the young woman who was perilously close to kissing him.
"Yes, no rush for breakfast for me, tell the others I will be back in less than an hour." Legolas ran his finger down the slope of Mouse's nose and she blinked, he knew the spell was broken when she started looking at him, the green of her eyes slightly clouded in confusion as he put some distance between them by getting up and walking towards the back of the cave, "accidentally" jostling the hobbits and Gimli awake with an unnecessarily circuitous route to the opening to the rest of the caves. Stepping into the darkness beyond he stopped and took a deep breath, and then another. "There is no rush." He repeated softly to himself and then went to scout ahead.
*"(It has been too long) (My heart sings to see thee). (Sleep well)"