Eden pulled away from Legolas slowly (and reluctantly) and felt him release her gently, but his hand captured her own and pulled her along with the utmost care.
"Come," Legolas said, "We will go back and straighten everything out."
"Is that even possible?" she sniffed.
"Anything is possible," he muttered softly.
"Is he badly hurt?" she asked.
"I thought you didn't want to know," he looked back at her, an eyebrow raised.
"Morbid curiosity, I suppose," she looked out into the distance.
"We have good healers," he said, "You did not take too much skin off and it will probably heal with no scarring. You had to go for the face, didn't you?"
"With the way he was talking to me, it seemed like there really wasn't anything else to go for," Legolas laughed. She almost smiled, feeling slightly better until he said:
"I will tell my father not to be too harsh with you."
She stopped. Realizing this, he stopped and turned to her. "What?" Legolas asked, the smile wiped from his face, "Did you think you would get off with nothing when you did that to the only child of my aunt and uncle ?"
"He threatened me," she cried, her hope dwindling again. 'My parents....,' is all that was going through her head.
"There were five other witnesses including myself who saw nothing wrong," he said, calmly, taking her hand a bit rougher this time and pulling her along a lot less gently than before.
"Stop right now, I would like to replay the events," Eden said.
"No, I was there," said Legolas, "I already know the events."
"Just stop," said Eden," Please." They stopped. He turned to face her, an annoyed look on his face.
"Alright, so I am him and you are me," said Eden, positioning her and Legolas to be parallel. "So he started taunting me and then he said 'very well done, Goldenlight and then he did this.."
She pulled Legolas to her as Talad had done to her. His eyes widened a bit. "And then he said.....well, more like asked, 'What else can you do?' and I felt threatened and slapped.....well, more like sliced.....heh... his face."
Suddenly realizing their close proximity, she stepped back and said, "Well?"
Legolas stood there, looking dazed and then looked at her and said, "I am sorry, Lady Eden. I did not know it was as bad as that. I will tell my father immediately and your punishment will be diminished even more."
"WHAT?" A flock of birds suddenly flew away. The forest was quiet. "Do you SERIOUSLY mean to tell me that even after he did that to me, I STILL GET PUNISHED?!"
"Technically, he did nothing to you," said Legolas, "and I admit it was totally inappropriate for him to do what he did but he did not cause you any harm."
Eden looked down at the ground. 'Stupid arrogant asshole royal-pain-in-the-arse prince,' she thought bitterly, 'He's right.'
Eden nodded and he took her hand once more and led her onward towards the palace. As they passed through the halls, even the servants glared at her. Finally, they came to main hall and Legolas told her to sit on the bench and wait for him while he talked to the King.
She sat there, staring out at the beautiful forest. 'Oh Eden, Eden,' she thought to herself, 'What has happened to you? Your parents will be so upset and ashamed. They will never forgive you for this.'
The door opened and she was called inside. She walked inside to face cold blue glares all around the room. She bowed low and then stood back up.
"Ahh, Lady Eden Goldenlight," said King Thranduil. Legolas sat by his side, staring at her, his expression devoid of any emotion. "I have been hearing so much about you."
'Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact,' she willed herself as she looked down at the floor.
"I have heard of your....bad luck...and the law requires that I give you a punishment, but since your....ordeal....is different, I will take some things into consideration," the King continued. "It will be a light punishment and you will not suffer." He smiled warmly.
"Today, you will clean out all the rooms of the palace," announced King Thranduil, "And if you do not finish, you will stay until you do."
Eden's heart sank. 'It had to be cleaning,' she thought, 'It's always cleaning. There are about 1,000 rooms in this palace. It will take me so long! And I HATE cleaning!'
Seeing the anguished look on her face, King Thranduil continued, "But fret not my child, I will tell your parents of your whereabouts." Eden felt as if her heart was somewhere in her foot (great metaphor, eh? Eh?) . She looked up and smiled wryly and bowed to the king, thanking him quietly. She was then escorted to the servants quarters where she was given cleaning utensils and started immediately on the rooms of the servants (he said ALL the rooms, remember?). When night fell she had finished the servant quarters and had started on the library.
And fell asleep holding a book on the habits of the House of Eorl.
"Interesting reading?" asked Legolas and Eden woke with a start, throwing the book at him (which of course, he dodged easily) and then screamed, seeing who she threw the book at.
"I...I..," she stammered, embarrassed that she fell asleep. "I didn't mean...I accidentally...please excuse me..." She jumped up and continued cleaning.
"Eden," Legolas smiled and took the wash cloth out of her hand and drew her away from the book shelf. "It is long since the sun has set beyond the tree tops. You need rest. You can start again tomorrow."
Eden nodded and let him lead her. "You're quite a hard worker," he said.
"Yes, well, only 879 rooms to go!" she said, trying to sound cheerful. When they arrived at her room, she turned to him to thank him.
But was caught off-guard as his lips brushed her own. A slight shock ran through her body (ZAP! Just kidding! Ahem.....).
"Thank you," said Eden, "I mean...no not thank you...I mean...."
"Goodnight, Lady Goldenlight, rest well," he turned and left her standing in the dark.
She went inside her room and beat her head against the wall.
'THANK YOU?' she screamed at herself silently. 'You actually thanked him, you idiot?'
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A/N: Very short I know, but the next chapter should make up for it. As for the Legolas POV, majority rules (sorry!). Although, if I think the story REALLY needs it. I'll add a line of his thoughts, although I don't know what he's thinking...I dunno. Let's just take this one step at a time, shall we? The choose your own adventure fic website is slowly being created.
I want to thank everyone who has been with this story! I'm so glad people are liking it. This is my third lotr fic. I'm still being flamed and yelled at for my first lol and I probably should edit it, but....meh....too lazy. :-P
And yes, Legolas does have perfect looks, but I couldn't imagine his personality to be perfect, elf or not. In fact, I'd find it disgusting. I'd hate him! And I couldn't make a Legolas that I hated. Making him be naughty just makes him more attractive in my eyes. Sorry to all who disagree. Hope you find yourselves a fic where Legolas is Mr. sunshine perfection in all ways. :-)