For all of you who have been jonesing for Legolas, here he is…enjoy!
Carrie had no trouble finding the hall. All she had to do was follow the noise. Apparently here, as in her world, it took men less time to clean up and get ready than it took women. So the men were already a few rounds ahead by the time Carrie got there. She stood in the doorway, looking around nervously for Eowyn. Walking into a room full of strange men was not her idea of fun, nor was it probably a good idea. However, before she had time to react, one of the men saw her, put a drink in her hands and pulled her into the hall.
"You're Lady Carrie, are you not?" the man asked.
"Yes." Carrie answered hesitantly. "And you are?"
"Grimbold, milady." He smiled at her. "I see your companions are not here. Come join us at our table."
Carrie smiled at him and followed him to the table. Grimbold sat down to her left and introduced her around. She didn't remember the mens' names, for they went by fast and there were about ten of them, but they all seemed to know who she was. And they all made sure that her cup never stayed empty for too long. Carrie was glad to find that the ale they drank was similar to the beer she was used to at home.
She was halfway through her fourth drink when the talk suddenly turned to elves. The men obviously took a little while, and a little ale, to feel comfortable enough around her to venture to this subject. But after a while their curiosity overcame them.
"So," began Grimbold, "you rode to Helms Deep from Rivendell, correct, milady?"
"Yes." Carrie was uncertain where this change of the conversation was headed.
"And you are friends with that elf that travels with Lord Aragorn?" Carrie looked across the table to the man who spoke.
"Sure." She was becoming more nervous as this went on. Was she wrong to have confided in Eowyn?
"Is it true," Grimbold continued in a conspirational whisper, "that elves have super-human strength."
"Well," Carrie regarded him for a moment, grateful that the topic had turned more general again, but still confused as to where the conversation was headed; "they are very strong."
The man to her right tapped her on the shoulder. "I heard that they can read minds and put their thoughts into your head. Is that true?"
"I...uh..." Carrie faltered, completely taken aback by the man's question. As she hesitated, the floodgates opened, each man voicing the rumors he had heard and feelings he had about the elves.
"I heard that they can seduce women by just looking in their eyes."
"I heard that they sneak into our homes at night, seduce our women, and then cast a spell on them so that they don't remember."
"I heard that they are related to Orcs."
"Oh and I heard they are able to speak to animals, and lure them away from their rightful masters."
"I heard they can tell the future."
"I heard that they have enchanted the very earth so that when they have all crossed the sea, every living thing will wither and die."
"And they are so superior. They act like they are better than everyone else."
"They just make me uncomfortable."
"I heard that they..." The man to Carrie's right began again but was interrupted by a newcomer to the conversation, standing behind Carrie.
"I heard that it is extraordinarily rude to insult the Eldar. Especially since one of them just risked his immortal life defending our people." Carrie turned around in her chair to see Eomer. She stood up and sat back down quickly as the room spun in front of her. Eomer held out his hand to help her up.
"Eomer!" Once she was up and steady Carrie threw her arms around him. Ok, maybe the ales here were a little stronger than the beer back home.
"Lady Carrie." Eomer hugged her briefly, not knowing what else to do and then released her.
"Oh, just call me Carrie."
"If that is your wish. I see you've been enjoying some of our ale." He smiled at her and his eyes twinkled. Something Eomer had just said registered with Carrie and she turned to him, confused.
"Did you just say, 'one of the Elves' risked his life?"
Eomer frowned at her, not understanding the intent of her question. "Yes. Surely you must know that. You were there."
Carrie continued to regard him curiously. "Didn't a whole elf army come and help?"
Eomer smiled at her indulgently. "Milady, how much of our ale did you have? The only elf in the battle was your friend, the one that travels with Lord Aragorn."
Carrie's eyes widened. What had happened to the elf army? Not wanting to think about that, Carrie's mind drifted elsewhere. She wondered where her friends were.
"Eomer, where are my friends?" She looked up at him expectantly.
"They are stabling their horses and cleaning up after the journey. They should be in here shortly. I was just passing through when I caught wind of the conversation at this table." He glanced back at the men who hung their heads contritely. He led Carrie away from the table. "Don't mind them. They're good men. They are just afraid of what they don't know." He glanced back at them and then to Carrie. "I will stay with you until your friends arrive."
Carrie smiled at him gratefully. She had just finished her ale when she saw her friends across the hall. She said goodbye to Eomer and carefully walked over to them.
"Hellooooo." Carrie slurred. She attempted a curtsey, feeling that it was appropriate in her womanly attire, and almost fell to the ground. She recovered as gracefully as she possibly could and smiled at them. "Have you tried the ale? It's very good."
Aragorn smiled at her. "We shall have some in a while. How was your journey from Helms Deep?"
Carrie glared briefly at Legolas who eyed her curiously at her apparent displeasure with him. She looked back to Aragorn. "Uneventful." And then she saw who could only be Merry and Pippin. She gasped and grabbed Aragorn's arm. "Aragorn! Hobbits!"
Aragorn laughed at her surprise and her obvious drunkenness. "Yes, Carrie." Aragorn said. "This is Merriadoc Brandybuck, or Merry, and Peregrin Took or Pippin."
They two Hobbits both bowed to Carrie who attempted to curtsey again. She would have fallen this time if Aragorn hadn't grabbed her arm to steady her. Carrie regained her balance, if not her dignity, and Aragorn excused himself to go and talk to Gandalf. Merry and Pippin went to get some ale, leaving Gimli, Legolas and Carrie standing together.
They stood in silence for a moment before Carrie turned and spoke sweetly to Gimli. "So, Gimli, tell me." He looked at her uneasily. "Was Eomer an indispensable asset to your Isengard venture?"
Gimli didn't answer her but looked uncomfortably at Legolas, who was doing a good job of ignoring their conversation. So Carrie pressed further.
"Gimli? Was he? Ok. I'll ask Legolas." Carrie turned to Legolas and smiled sweetly. "Legolas. Same question. Was Eomer an indispensable asset..."
She didn't get a chance to finish when Legolas grabbed her arms and pulled her in front of him. His eyes were hard as nails and his voice was steel. "Carrie, you have had too much ale and it is impairing your judgement. I suggest you stop this."
Carrie pulled angrily out of his grasp and childishly mumbled, "You stop this." She was sure he heard, but he ignored her. Determined not to let his apparently foul mood interfere with her good spirits she turned her back to him and faced the rest of the hall. She felt him grab her arm again from behind her and she began to struggle against it. Suddenly the hall quieted and all who were seated at tables stood and turned towards the king, who had ascended the stairs to the throne. Carrie stopped her struggle. She saw Eomer standing off to the side of the king and caught his gaze briefly before Theoden began to speak.
"Tonight we remember those who gave their blood to defend this country." He raised his goblet. "Hail the victorious dead."
"Hail!" the rest of the hall shouted back, toasting their fallen comrades.
After that the celebrating started up, more fervent than it had been before. Carrie stood there, watching, aware of Legolas' strong grip on her arm, but also aware that she would not be able to loosen it by struggle. She finally spotted Eowyn and watched as she approached Aragorn with a drink for him. She watched their exchange intently and then saw Aragorn walk away from her, replaced by the King. She once again felt bad for Eowyn, and the known outcome of her relationship, or non-relationship, with Aragorn.
Before Carrie could give it much more thought she saw Merry and Pippin get up on a table and start singing some drinking song and dancing around. She started laughing and clapping along with them, as best she could with her one arm impaired by Legolas' grasp and her other hand holding a mug of ale. As he felt her relax and begin to enjoy herself, and not act in a way that could cause herself future embarrassment; he released his grip on her arm. When the hobbits' song ended, she turned to face Legolas and Gimli.
"I'm going to get another drink." Before they could protest she was there and back, with a mug of ale for herself and an extra one that she gave to Gimli, who accepted it hesitantly. She looked up at Legolas. He looked back at her.
"I'm sorry. I would have gotten you an ale, but I didn't think it would be 'in your nature' to drink it." She smirked at him and took a big drink of her ale. Legolas just raised an eyebrow at her, but Gimli put the hand that was not holding his drink on his hip and glared at her.
"Now look here, Carrie," he started. "I don't know what this 'in your nature' business is, but you should have at least asked him."
"Ooh...I'm sorry – but it's obviously not in my nature to be polite." Gimli gave up, realizing that there was apparently an undercurrent to this conversation that he was missing. Carrie turned to Legolas. "And it's apparently not in your nature to answer a simple question as to whether or not it was absolutely vital to ask Eomer to come with you to Isengard." Carrie saw Gimli slowly making his way away from them.
"Please lower your voice." Legolas had no expression on his face or in his tone.
Carrie took another few big gulps of her ale, finishing it. She put the mug down on a nearby table and turned back to Legolas. "Maybe it's not 'in my nature' to be quiet." At that, Legolas grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out to the terrace. Once they were outside he turned to her.
"What has caused you to be so agitated?"
Carrie stood there and pouted. "I want to go back inside."
"You were drawing too much attention." Legolas did not let go of her wrist.
Carrie tried to pull away to no avail. She glared back at him. "I want another ale."
Legolas regarded her for a minute. "Answer my question first."
Carrie, emboldened by the alcohol turned and faced him square on. "You, ok. You agitate me. You infuriate me!" Everything that Eowyn told her, everything Carrie felt earlier about elves had gone out the window with her sobriety. "You stand there and tell me it's not in your nature to be jealous, and then you go and tell Eomer to come with you to Isengard so that I can't ride with him."
"You are upset because you wanted to ride with Eomer?" Legolas calmly asked her.
"No!" Carrie shouted at him. "I'm not upset because I wanted to ride with Eomer. I couldn't care if I rode with him or not. But that's not the point!" She glowered at him. "The point is that...is that...." Carrie lurched and if Legolas hadn't caught her she would have fallen. "Whoa." She let him lower her so that they were both sitting on the stones. "Just wait 'til the world stops spinning." She waved a finger at him. "Then I will tell you what my point is." She closed her eyes and leaned against him. That only made it worse, so she opened her eyes, but made no move away from him.
Legolas stroked her hair that had fallen out of her clip. "I assure you, it was not my idea to ask Eomer to come." Carrie looked up at him and tipped backwards. He steadied her and then continued. "Gimli, when he found out that Eomer asked you to ride with him, insisted we ask him to come to Isengard." He apparently didn't notice Carrie stiffen against him. "He was in such a state I did not trust him to be courteous or discreet when bringing it up to Eomer, so I did."
Carrie pushed herself away from him and stood up with great effort. She stared down at him. "Gimli's idea?" She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring.
"Yes." Legolas looked up at her. "You are bothered by that?"
"Nope." Carrie moved towards the door back inside. Legolas was immediately up, blocking her way.
"Where are you going?"
Carrie sneered at him. "Well I now know that it's Gimli who gets jealous when another man pays attention to me, and Gimli who obviously cares about me, and Gimli who I should have been kissing and such all this time. So I'm going to fix that." She tried to get past him but he would not get out of her way. She tried to push him out of her way, which was a mistake because she only succeeded in landing herself back on the ground.
She sat there, making no move to get up so Legolas sat down next to her and took her hands in his. He looked at her intently but spoke gently. "Why do you equate jealousy with caring?"
She looked into his eyes. She sat there looking into his eyes, tilting her head all the way to the left and all then back all the way to the right. She did this for a good minute before he interrupted her.
"What are you doing?"
She grinned drunkenly at him. "You're weird." He raised an eyebrow at her. "No. No I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just that when I look at you, you look like you're my age. But when I look in your eyes, it's just, you're so not my age. You're like, way old and smart and stuff." He smiled at her indulgently. She blinked a few times and smiled back at him. "I think I'm drunk." He laughed at her admission. It was a beautiful sound. She sat there, smiling for a moment until what he had said registered to her.
"So....are you saying you care about me?" she looked expectantly at him. He nodded at her. "Even though you were not jealous?" Again, he nodded at her. Carrie couldn't do anything but shake her head. "I've never met anyone like you before, Legolas." He smiled at her.
She stood back up and held her hands out to him to help him up. He wisely stood up on his own and then took her hands. "I'm ok now," she said and smiled at him. "Let's go back into the hall."
nap-003 - I'm glad you loved the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed this one since Legolas is back.
Jack-Sparrow-Lover - Aww, I'm sorry you missed the story. Hopefully there won't be another break like that until it's done, but I don't know. There are a few holes that need to be filled near the end, and I'm not being inspired. I need my muse to come home.
BtchieChrissy - So happy you're loving this! Begging helps sometimes, but I'm trying to get these out as quick as I can without compromising quality.
Kurams-san7767 - Hi, welcome to my story. I'm glad you think it's good "for a beginner".
PsychoPixie - I'm glad you liked the chapter. Yeah, Eowyn's a little suspicious. But who wouldn't be? She's introduced as being from Rivendell and then says that she's not from there. She's supposedly a messenger of the elves, and then asks for information on them…pretty shady…we'll see what happens.
Shameless Plug:
Check out my one-shot story Captain of the Guard. It's about Legolas! No, it's not a romance, but it's still about Legolas! Oh, and don't forget to review! We likes the reviews, we needs them, precious...