-THE GAMES OF THE GODS-
-Disclaimer:-
Gil-Galad: *brushing snow out of his hair* You know, it wasn't so much the snow that I minded, it was the fact that Elrond and Glorfindel both found it so amusing to team up and bury me in it.
Rúmil: *standing by a fire trying to dry off* Well, what did you expect? You were their commander, leige lord, and king, for what, 3000 years? They were bound to want some payback. And anyways, you hit them with snow first.
Gil-Galad: Only to prove to them the dangers of standing with ones mouth open.
Rúmil: See, things like that are exactly why they would want some payback.
Gil-Galad: Hmm...I suppose you have a point.
Rúmil: Really? *looks surprised* Can you tell Haldir that? He doesn't believe I can make sense...
Haldir: *appearing* That's because you don't. Most of the time. And the times you do make sense, it's usually because you're forgetting something important.
Rúmil: No it isn't! I'm not forgetting anything important now!
Haldir: Yes, you are.
Rúmil: No I'm not! Tell him, Gil-Galad!
Gil-Galad: Actually, he's right. You are forgetting something.
Rúmil: *blink* Oh. What?
Haldir: The disclaimer.
Rúmil: *smacks head against wall* Doh. *shakes head and looks dizzy for a moment, due to the rather hard hit his head just took*
Haldir: *quietly* And that is why he either forgets things or makes no sense....
Gil-Galad: *trying not to laugh* CS owns nothing.
Haldir: Especially not the recognizable characters in this story.
Gil-Galad: As evidenced by the fact that we last left her burried to her neck in snow, with Galadriel, Celeborn and Glorfindel happily shaping the snow around her into a rather acurate - at least according to them - sculpture of Morgoth's body.
-54: Meleth-
As it turned out, even the fact that I had gotten up and danced wasn't stopping my Rúmil and Orophin from continuing to try and get me drunk. As soon as I wandered away from Glorfindel - who had been cornered by some boring old elf-lord - I myself was cornered, and once again I found myself with a drink in my hand. It was, however, the Dorwinnian Wine from Glorfindel's glass that truly did me in - it had tipped me enough over the edge that I didn't even notice I was getting drunk anymore. Fortunately, Kari noticed my dilemma when she went to find Haldir and found him laughing his arse off at my antics. (Stupid elf)
Anyways. Kari didn't even try and stop Rúmil and Orophin, instead going right to Glorfindel and innocently making some suggestions about certain people needing to leave. Glorfindel quickly located me, took one look at my inebriated state, and thumped both Rúmil - the one currently giving me drinks - and Haldir before pulling me out of the main feast area. He didn't get much further, however, because outside of the ring of light, I couldn't see anything, and promptly fell flat on my face. So Glorfindel ended up carrying me to my flet, I making dirty suggestions the entire way.
And no, I don't remember any of this. I got it all out of Glorfindel the next morning, after I woke up in my underdress, with Glorfindel beside me in nothing. Period. This, understandably, worried me, but the explanation proved to be that once Glorfindel had gotten me up to my flet, I'd - oh so romantically - thrown up on him. He'd put me in bed - hence how I was only wearing an underdress - taken a bath, then intended to go back to his flet, but before he could even get his mostly clean breeches on to head over there, drunken me, who had pulled herself out of bed, latched onto him and dragged him back to bed. Due to my drunken shiftings and my freakishly (his own word) strong grip, his towel came off at some point and he was unable to put it - or his trousers - back on. Hence Glorfindel's lack of clothing.
"I WILL kill someone for this." I muttered when Glorfindel finished his account.
"I am sure you will." Glorfindel said with amusement. "But now, since you are awake and it is morning, perhaps YOU could go to my flet and get me a clean set of clothes?" He arched an eyebrow at me.
"I could." I said, and then grinned evilly. "Or I could just keep you here for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and -" I was interrupted with a kiss. This, unfortunately, was in turn interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Who the bloody hell is it?!" I called out in annoyance, breaking away from Glorfindel.
"Your partner in crime!" Kari called back.
"Go away!" I replied.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"Ha!"
"Dammit!" Kari exclaimed.
"Elves don't get hangovers! You can't trick me that way anymore!" I said, sticking my tongue out in the direction of the outside door, even though she couldn't see it. "Now go away!"
"But everybody else is sleeping and I'm booooored!" Kari whined.
"Go wake up Haldir then!" I said.
"Uh, he went off with Valinlot last night." Kari replied. "They looked frisky."
"Go bug Galadriel or Celeborn then!" I exclaimed.
"Already did. Galadriel threatened to make me think I was a frog for a few hundred years if I didn't go away..." Kari said.
"Rachel, just go get me some trousers and talk to her." Glorfindel said in exasperation.
"No." I said stubbornly. Glorfindel arched an eyebrow in warning, and I sighed, crawling out of bed and stalking out of the bedroom and off to the door.
"Ah!" Kari exclaimed happily when I opened the door, and then immediately turned fearful as she saw my look.
"I have Glorfindel in my bed naked. Go away." I growled. Kari squeaked and dashed off. I nodded in satisfaction and then went back into the bedroom.
"You NEVER do as you are told, do you?" Glorfindel asked with amusement.
"Nope. It's a disease the doctors were trying to cure me of when I left Earth." I replied, flopping back down onto the bed. Glorfindel sighed.
"A pity you did not stay around for them to actually cure it." he said.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you're not enjoying this." I retorted. Glorfindel looked me up and down for a moment, then down at himself.
"Actually, I would not say I am." he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, then abruptly rolled so he was on top of me - with the sheet wrapping around him at around stomach level - and kissed me quite thoroughly. I had slowly become acclimated to Elven kisses, so I didn't quite lose ALL coherence now, and was able to decide after a short time that this was the absolute best way EVER to wake up. Bar the annoying friend butting in.
The kissing continued for quite some time, and seemed liable to turn into something more, when Glorfindel abruptly broke away and simply let his head drop down over my shoulder onto the pillow. I was panting somewhat - and I could hear him doing the same - and merely eyed the golden hair that represented his head out of the corner of my eye for a few moments before speaking.
"Glorfindel?" I asked. There was no response, so I poked him and repeated myself. This time I got a response, as he raised himself up on his elbows and looked down at me with an almost frighteningly intense gaze. I looked back at him curiously.
"I love you, Rachel." he said softly. I blinked up at him, and then the words sunk in. I tilted my head to one side, looking up at him with a carefully blank expression. Inside, his words were running on repeat in the background while I thought furiously. Glorfindel and I had been playing around for the past two weeks, yes, and we'd jokingly called it 'active courting', with all that that implied. But this was the first time anything had truly gone in that implied direction, and the first time he'd seriously spoken of love. And he was as serious as he could get right now - I was sure of that.
The question was, how was I going to respond? I know only a month or so ago I would have run away screaming. But this was not a month ago. Nor even a few weeks ago, when we had been trapped in those ruins during the snowstorm and I had realized that I could come to love Glorfindel. It was now, and I needed to know if I was in love with him or not - or at least respond to him in some way. He was still looking at me with that intense gaze, but he could probably keep it on his face and be panicking under the surface - Glorfindel was rather handy at hiding his true emotions when he wanted to.
I was getting distracted. I needed to respond in some way, not just lie there like an idiot. So, I did a quick inventory of my feelings, mentally asked myself a few questions, answered them (also mentally), and came up with a response.
"And I you." I said, pulling myself up to brush a light, tender kiss over his lips. The poor elf practically sagged against me with relief, and I couldn't help but smile. "Really Glorfindel, you're the only one I've been involved with for the past 800 years, and I agreed to the term 'actively courting'. You know as well as I what that implies. And if you asked Kari, you'd find out that I never fooled around much on Earth."
"Nerves are nerves." Glorfindel mumbled into my hair, where he'd buried his face.
"Indeed they are." I said, still smiling. There was a short silence.
"I would really like some trousers." Glorfindel commented, face still buried in my hair, and I burst out laughing.
"If only all men had your restraint, Glorfindel!" I giggled, pushing him off me so he was on his back on the other side of the bed. "I'll go get you some trousers." I hopped up off the bed, found a casual dress, and threw it on.
"Thanks!" Glorfindel called out after me. I chuckled and headed over to Glorfindel's flet to get him his trousers - and a tunic, though he hadn't asked for it. Arriving back at my flet, I threw Glorfindel's clothes to him, then grabbed some cleaner clothes of my own and disappeared into the bathroom. When I finally emerged some time later - nice and sparkly clean after my bath - I found that Glorfindel's dirty clothes had disappeared, and Glorfindel himself was sitting in my main room, draped over a chair and reading a book.
I grinned as I saw how he was sitting in the chair - it was something that he'd picked up from Kari and me. We were always sitting in chairs in odd ways - whatever way was comfortable, really - and after the first week, I started to find him also sitting in weird positions in chairs. Questioning had resulted in a shrug and the comment that it was comfortable. And so we proved that Elvish grace could be corrupted. Not that he didn't still look graceful draped across a chair, but usually getting into such a position, or out of it, required acrobatics that weren't always the most graceful - or safe. One time I whacked my head into a wall getting out of a chair I'd draped myself across. (That was the wall's fault, though...)
"What book are you reading?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder. Over the last two weeks, books had started gravitating from the Caras Galadhon library to my room. I suspected this was because my flet had become the most common place to find either Kari, Glorfindel or I - and as all three of us liked reading (well, Glorfindel sort of put up with it as a time filler), books just tended to end up here, even if I wasn't reading them.
"Something on flowers of the forest, I think." Glorfindel answered, looking as if he didn't know whether to be horrified, amused, or disgusted.
"You think?" I asked, arched an eyebrow.
"Whoever wrote this was rather scatterbrained." Glorfindel replied, closing the book with a snap, turning his attention to me. "I feel like escaping for the day. How about we go find our horses and explore some of Lothlórien?"
"As long as it includes a picnic, I'm all for it!" I said cheerfully.
"Done." Glorfindel said, putting the book on a nearby table, and then pausing as he tried to figure out how to get out of the chair safely. In the end, it required a little roll and some quick grabbing of nearby furniture to keep him from falling over. Not the most graceful. I snickered, and Glorfindel arched an eyebrow at me. I shot him an innocent look, and then gave him a peck on the cheek before grabbing his hand and pulling him out of my flet and down to the kitchens.
Miraculously, we ran into no one who wanted to speak with Glorfindel, and we put in our order to the slightly tired-looking cooks for a picnic quickly and scampered off to find the horses. Glorfindel, it appeared, knew exactly where the horses were being kept - and claimed that I should, too, since he'd shown me on the tour. A quick duck followed my response that I'd long since forgotten everything from the tour, and so Glorfindel's attempt to thwap me failed.
Aratelpe and Asfaloth were quite happy to see us - well, once they got over being mad at us for deserting them for two weeks. But Glorfindel and I had grabbed carrots while we were in the kitchens, so soon we were once again in our horses' good graces. We decided that, since we were going to be taking a picnic with us, we'd bridle and saddle both the horses, and did so before Glorfindel headed back to the kitchens to pick up our picnic. When he returned, we arranged the two baskets - the cooks had split it from one big basket when Glorfindel had told them we were going out on horses - on the back of the horses, and then mounted up and headed out.
Galadriel, of course, appeared just as we were leaving Caras Galadhon.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Out." I replied with a roll of my eyes.
"And have you informed anyone of this?" she asked, ignoring my insolence. Glorfindel and I glanced at each other.
"No, but Kari will figure it out." I said, smirking, as I looked back as Galadriel. Galadriel sighed.
"Even Lothlórien has become perilous. Do not stray near the edges of the wood." she said, and then glided off.
"Yes, Mother." I grumbled, glaring after her. From the way Galadriel stiffened almost imperceptibly, I knew she heard me.
"Do you enjoy antagonizing one of the most powerful Elven rulers in Middle-Earth?" Glorfindel asked with amusement as we finally left Caras Galadhon.
"I can't help it; she just rubs me the wrong way." I said with a shrug. "She does, in a way, remind me of my mother, but she's also always acting so all-knowing, and it gets on my nerves. Gandalf gets on my nerves for the same reason. Probably the only one who wouldn't get on my nerves for being all-knowing would be Eru."
"What about the Valar?" Glorfindel asked, arching an eyebrow.
"They would annoy me, too. Because I know they're not all-knowing. The only one who's all-knowing is someone who has created the universe and knows in exactly what direction it's going to go, what people are going to make what choices, and so on and so forth." I replied promptly. "The Valar are each all-knowing in their own particular areas, but neither of them, from what I understand, know much about another's domain. Therefore, they are not all-knowing." Glorfindel chuckled.
"You have a point." he said.
"Course I have a point. I always have a point. Even if it's just that Elvish stomachs are susceptible to the same weaknesses as human ones when exposed to too much alcohol." I replied with a grin, and this time Glorfindel outright laughed. I loved to make him do that - he had a wonderful laugh. It wasn't musical or light like you'd think an elf would laugh, but full of life and joy, as if it came from a child just starting to explore the world. I sound like a lovesick fool, I know - but even Kari had commented that Glorfindel had a different sort of laugh than most Elves. I put it down to his death and return... (But then, I blamed a lot of things on that, including his indescribable sexiness.)
We continued on into the forest, and though we kept in mind Galadriel's warning not to go to close to the edges of Lothlórien and never came too close to the border guard, we still made our way as far from Caras Galadhon as we could, forgetting it and everything else in the outside world. Today was just about us - and though we didn't consciously think about it, it was about our newly discovered love.
----To be continued...with *drumroll* the Fellowship of the Ring!----
(Yep, they've finally made it to Lothlorien!)
-Authors Note:-
I found a wonderful explanation for Glorfindel's absence from the LotR movies the other day. He's so pretty no actor pretty enough to play him could be found. Frankly - I agree. Though Theban Band did a pretty good job of finding someone pretty enough...but then, they do photo manips, so whoever they got to use for Glorfindel (I found out who, but I forget now) might be prettied up beyond what is physically and humanly possible...
Anyways, happy Valentines Day to all my reviewers! *hands out some cyber chocolate chip cookies* Hope you have a wonderful day, and I'll see you all again on Tuesday!
~Crimson Starlight
-Disclaimer:-
Gil-Galad: *brushing snow out of his hair* You know, it wasn't so much the snow that I minded, it was the fact that Elrond and Glorfindel both found it so amusing to team up and bury me in it.
Rúmil: *standing by a fire trying to dry off* Well, what did you expect? You were their commander, leige lord, and king, for what, 3000 years? They were bound to want some payback. And anyways, you hit them with snow first.
Gil-Galad: Only to prove to them the dangers of standing with ones mouth open.
Rúmil: See, things like that are exactly why they would want some payback.
Gil-Galad: Hmm...I suppose you have a point.
Rúmil: Really? *looks surprised* Can you tell Haldir that? He doesn't believe I can make sense...
Haldir: *appearing* That's because you don't. Most of the time. And the times you do make sense, it's usually because you're forgetting something important.
Rúmil: No it isn't! I'm not forgetting anything important now!
Haldir: Yes, you are.
Rúmil: No I'm not! Tell him, Gil-Galad!
Gil-Galad: Actually, he's right. You are forgetting something.
Rúmil: *blink* Oh. What?
Haldir: The disclaimer.
Rúmil: *smacks head against wall* Doh. *shakes head and looks dizzy for a moment, due to the rather hard hit his head just took*
Haldir: *quietly* And that is why he either forgets things or makes no sense....
Gil-Galad: *trying not to laugh* CS owns nothing.
Haldir: Especially not the recognizable characters in this story.
Gil-Galad: As evidenced by the fact that we last left her burried to her neck in snow, with Galadriel, Celeborn and Glorfindel happily shaping the snow around her into a rather acurate - at least according to them - sculpture of Morgoth's body.
-54: Meleth-
As it turned out, even the fact that I had gotten up and danced wasn't stopping my Rúmil and Orophin from continuing to try and get me drunk. As soon as I wandered away from Glorfindel - who had been cornered by some boring old elf-lord - I myself was cornered, and once again I found myself with a drink in my hand. It was, however, the Dorwinnian Wine from Glorfindel's glass that truly did me in - it had tipped me enough over the edge that I didn't even notice I was getting drunk anymore. Fortunately, Kari noticed my dilemma when she went to find Haldir and found him laughing his arse off at my antics. (Stupid elf)
Anyways. Kari didn't even try and stop Rúmil and Orophin, instead going right to Glorfindel and innocently making some suggestions about certain people needing to leave. Glorfindel quickly located me, took one look at my inebriated state, and thumped both Rúmil - the one currently giving me drinks - and Haldir before pulling me out of the main feast area. He didn't get much further, however, because outside of the ring of light, I couldn't see anything, and promptly fell flat on my face. So Glorfindel ended up carrying me to my flet, I making dirty suggestions the entire way.
And no, I don't remember any of this. I got it all out of Glorfindel the next morning, after I woke up in my underdress, with Glorfindel beside me in nothing. Period. This, understandably, worried me, but the explanation proved to be that once Glorfindel had gotten me up to my flet, I'd - oh so romantically - thrown up on him. He'd put me in bed - hence how I was only wearing an underdress - taken a bath, then intended to go back to his flet, but before he could even get his mostly clean breeches on to head over there, drunken me, who had pulled herself out of bed, latched onto him and dragged him back to bed. Due to my drunken shiftings and my freakishly (his own word) strong grip, his towel came off at some point and he was unable to put it - or his trousers - back on. Hence Glorfindel's lack of clothing.
"I WILL kill someone for this." I muttered when Glorfindel finished his account.
"I am sure you will." Glorfindel said with amusement. "But now, since you are awake and it is morning, perhaps YOU could go to my flet and get me a clean set of clothes?" He arched an eyebrow at me.
"I could." I said, and then grinned evilly. "Or I could just keep you here for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and -" I was interrupted with a kiss. This, unfortunately, was in turn interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Who the bloody hell is it?!" I called out in annoyance, breaking away from Glorfindel.
"Your partner in crime!" Kari called back.
"Go away!" I replied.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"Ha!"
"Dammit!" Kari exclaimed.
"Elves don't get hangovers! You can't trick me that way anymore!" I said, sticking my tongue out in the direction of the outside door, even though she couldn't see it. "Now go away!"
"But everybody else is sleeping and I'm booooored!" Kari whined.
"Go wake up Haldir then!" I said.
"Uh, he went off with Valinlot last night." Kari replied. "They looked frisky."
"Go bug Galadriel or Celeborn then!" I exclaimed.
"Already did. Galadriel threatened to make me think I was a frog for a few hundred years if I didn't go away..." Kari said.
"Rachel, just go get me some trousers and talk to her." Glorfindel said in exasperation.
"No." I said stubbornly. Glorfindel arched an eyebrow in warning, and I sighed, crawling out of bed and stalking out of the bedroom and off to the door.
"Ah!" Kari exclaimed happily when I opened the door, and then immediately turned fearful as she saw my look.
"I have Glorfindel in my bed naked. Go away." I growled. Kari squeaked and dashed off. I nodded in satisfaction and then went back into the bedroom.
"You NEVER do as you are told, do you?" Glorfindel asked with amusement.
"Nope. It's a disease the doctors were trying to cure me of when I left Earth." I replied, flopping back down onto the bed. Glorfindel sighed.
"A pity you did not stay around for them to actually cure it." he said.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you're not enjoying this." I retorted. Glorfindel looked me up and down for a moment, then down at himself.
"Actually, I would not say I am." he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, then abruptly rolled so he was on top of me - with the sheet wrapping around him at around stomach level - and kissed me quite thoroughly. I had slowly become acclimated to Elven kisses, so I didn't quite lose ALL coherence now, and was able to decide after a short time that this was the absolute best way EVER to wake up. Bar the annoying friend butting in.
The kissing continued for quite some time, and seemed liable to turn into something more, when Glorfindel abruptly broke away and simply let his head drop down over my shoulder onto the pillow. I was panting somewhat - and I could hear him doing the same - and merely eyed the golden hair that represented his head out of the corner of my eye for a few moments before speaking.
"Glorfindel?" I asked. There was no response, so I poked him and repeated myself. This time I got a response, as he raised himself up on his elbows and looked down at me with an almost frighteningly intense gaze. I looked back at him curiously.
"I love you, Rachel." he said softly. I blinked up at him, and then the words sunk in. I tilted my head to one side, looking up at him with a carefully blank expression. Inside, his words were running on repeat in the background while I thought furiously. Glorfindel and I had been playing around for the past two weeks, yes, and we'd jokingly called it 'active courting', with all that that implied. But this was the first time anything had truly gone in that implied direction, and the first time he'd seriously spoken of love. And he was as serious as he could get right now - I was sure of that.
The question was, how was I going to respond? I know only a month or so ago I would have run away screaming. But this was not a month ago. Nor even a few weeks ago, when we had been trapped in those ruins during the snowstorm and I had realized that I could come to love Glorfindel. It was now, and I needed to know if I was in love with him or not - or at least respond to him in some way. He was still looking at me with that intense gaze, but he could probably keep it on his face and be panicking under the surface - Glorfindel was rather handy at hiding his true emotions when he wanted to.
I was getting distracted. I needed to respond in some way, not just lie there like an idiot. So, I did a quick inventory of my feelings, mentally asked myself a few questions, answered them (also mentally), and came up with a response.
"And I you." I said, pulling myself up to brush a light, tender kiss over his lips. The poor elf practically sagged against me with relief, and I couldn't help but smile. "Really Glorfindel, you're the only one I've been involved with for the past 800 years, and I agreed to the term 'actively courting'. You know as well as I what that implies. And if you asked Kari, you'd find out that I never fooled around much on Earth."
"Nerves are nerves." Glorfindel mumbled into my hair, where he'd buried his face.
"Indeed they are." I said, still smiling. There was a short silence.
"I would really like some trousers." Glorfindel commented, face still buried in my hair, and I burst out laughing.
"If only all men had your restraint, Glorfindel!" I giggled, pushing him off me so he was on his back on the other side of the bed. "I'll go get you some trousers." I hopped up off the bed, found a casual dress, and threw it on.
"Thanks!" Glorfindel called out after me. I chuckled and headed over to Glorfindel's flet to get him his trousers - and a tunic, though he hadn't asked for it. Arriving back at my flet, I threw Glorfindel's clothes to him, then grabbed some cleaner clothes of my own and disappeared into the bathroom. When I finally emerged some time later - nice and sparkly clean after my bath - I found that Glorfindel's dirty clothes had disappeared, and Glorfindel himself was sitting in my main room, draped over a chair and reading a book.
I grinned as I saw how he was sitting in the chair - it was something that he'd picked up from Kari and me. We were always sitting in chairs in odd ways - whatever way was comfortable, really - and after the first week, I started to find him also sitting in weird positions in chairs. Questioning had resulted in a shrug and the comment that it was comfortable. And so we proved that Elvish grace could be corrupted. Not that he didn't still look graceful draped across a chair, but usually getting into such a position, or out of it, required acrobatics that weren't always the most graceful - or safe. One time I whacked my head into a wall getting out of a chair I'd draped myself across. (That was the wall's fault, though...)
"What book are you reading?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder. Over the last two weeks, books had started gravitating from the Caras Galadhon library to my room. I suspected this was because my flet had become the most common place to find either Kari, Glorfindel or I - and as all three of us liked reading (well, Glorfindel sort of put up with it as a time filler), books just tended to end up here, even if I wasn't reading them.
"Something on flowers of the forest, I think." Glorfindel answered, looking as if he didn't know whether to be horrified, amused, or disgusted.
"You think?" I asked, arched an eyebrow.
"Whoever wrote this was rather scatterbrained." Glorfindel replied, closing the book with a snap, turning his attention to me. "I feel like escaping for the day. How about we go find our horses and explore some of Lothlórien?"
"As long as it includes a picnic, I'm all for it!" I said cheerfully.
"Done." Glorfindel said, putting the book on a nearby table, and then pausing as he tried to figure out how to get out of the chair safely. In the end, it required a little roll and some quick grabbing of nearby furniture to keep him from falling over. Not the most graceful. I snickered, and Glorfindel arched an eyebrow at me. I shot him an innocent look, and then gave him a peck on the cheek before grabbing his hand and pulling him out of my flet and down to the kitchens.
Miraculously, we ran into no one who wanted to speak with Glorfindel, and we put in our order to the slightly tired-looking cooks for a picnic quickly and scampered off to find the horses. Glorfindel, it appeared, knew exactly where the horses were being kept - and claimed that I should, too, since he'd shown me on the tour. A quick duck followed my response that I'd long since forgotten everything from the tour, and so Glorfindel's attempt to thwap me failed.
Aratelpe and Asfaloth were quite happy to see us - well, once they got over being mad at us for deserting them for two weeks. But Glorfindel and I had grabbed carrots while we were in the kitchens, so soon we were once again in our horses' good graces. We decided that, since we were going to be taking a picnic with us, we'd bridle and saddle both the horses, and did so before Glorfindel headed back to the kitchens to pick up our picnic. When he returned, we arranged the two baskets - the cooks had split it from one big basket when Glorfindel had told them we were going out on horses - on the back of the horses, and then mounted up and headed out.
Galadriel, of course, appeared just as we were leaving Caras Galadhon.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Out." I replied with a roll of my eyes.
"And have you informed anyone of this?" she asked, ignoring my insolence. Glorfindel and I glanced at each other.
"No, but Kari will figure it out." I said, smirking, as I looked back as Galadriel. Galadriel sighed.
"Even Lothlórien has become perilous. Do not stray near the edges of the wood." she said, and then glided off.
"Yes, Mother." I grumbled, glaring after her. From the way Galadriel stiffened almost imperceptibly, I knew she heard me.
"Do you enjoy antagonizing one of the most powerful Elven rulers in Middle-Earth?" Glorfindel asked with amusement as we finally left Caras Galadhon.
"I can't help it; she just rubs me the wrong way." I said with a shrug. "She does, in a way, remind me of my mother, but she's also always acting so all-knowing, and it gets on my nerves. Gandalf gets on my nerves for the same reason. Probably the only one who wouldn't get on my nerves for being all-knowing would be Eru."
"What about the Valar?" Glorfindel asked, arching an eyebrow.
"They would annoy me, too. Because I know they're not all-knowing. The only one who's all-knowing is someone who has created the universe and knows in exactly what direction it's going to go, what people are going to make what choices, and so on and so forth." I replied promptly. "The Valar are each all-knowing in their own particular areas, but neither of them, from what I understand, know much about another's domain. Therefore, they are not all-knowing." Glorfindel chuckled.
"You have a point." he said.
"Course I have a point. I always have a point. Even if it's just that Elvish stomachs are susceptible to the same weaknesses as human ones when exposed to too much alcohol." I replied with a grin, and this time Glorfindel outright laughed. I loved to make him do that - he had a wonderful laugh. It wasn't musical or light like you'd think an elf would laugh, but full of life and joy, as if it came from a child just starting to explore the world. I sound like a lovesick fool, I know - but even Kari had commented that Glorfindel had a different sort of laugh than most Elves. I put it down to his death and return... (But then, I blamed a lot of things on that, including his indescribable sexiness.)
We continued on into the forest, and though we kept in mind Galadriel's warning not to go to close to the edges of Lothlórien and never came too close to the border guard, we still made our way as far from Caras Galadhon as we could, forgetting it and everything else in the outside world. Today was just about us - and though we didn't consciously think about it, it was about our newly discovered love.
----To be continued...with *drumroll* the Fellowship of the Ring!----
(Yep, they've finally made it to Lothlorien!)
-Authors Note:-
I found a wonderful explanation for Glorfindel's absence from the LotR movies the other day. He's so pretty no actor pretty enough to play him could be found. Frankly - I agree. Though Theban Band did a pretty good job of finding someone pretty enough...but then, they do photo manips, so whoever they got to use for Glorfindel (I found out who, but I forget now) might be prettied up beyond what is physically and humanly possible...
Anyways, happy Valentines Day to all my reviewers! *hands out some cyber chocolate chip cookies* Hope you have a wonderful day, and I'll see you all again on Tuesday!
~Crimson Starlight