THE FORGOTTEN

Limp Orf

Apple Wine

Author's note: The chapter in which – Lothril gets lost and then gets a tour. So, originally this was written as one huge monster chapter that went through what is now the next four chapters. However, I decided to break it up into smaller pieces and a very natural break resulted in having a Lothril and Thranduil fun chapter. And honestly, I've been sitting on the first half of it for over a year and just dying to get to it, so here it is! YAY!

She hadn't tried, or had a chance, to wander the lower levels by herself since Acharon had tried to hit her. However, right before lunch Legolas had been informed that they were expecting a hard frost that night so he took an early lunch and ran off to his garden to finish getting it ready for winter with the aid of a couple gardeners. This meant Lothril got a rare afternoon to herself and she decided to risk another venture down to the lower levels alone. Whenever she went with someone she got distracted, so the only way to really learn her way around was for her to walk by herself. Today's goal was a bottle of wine from the King's stash. He had an apple wine she thought might be very nice with an apple dumpling, and since the elves seemed to live by the motto, 'It's five o'clock somewhere' she decided a three in the afternoon wine and dumpling would be fine.

Getting down to the cellar was fine. She carefully retraced the path Thranduil and she had taken on their first day when he showed her around and smiled in relief when she saw she had made it. She opened the door to his private collection and lit the lights with the same word Thranduil used then made her way to the fruit wines. It only took her a moment to find what she wanted, she put out the lights, and then headed back towards the stairs. Only… Which stair did they take upstairs again? There were three and suddenly she couldn't remember which one she came down nor which one she and Thranduil went up, only that they had gone up a different one than they had come down and taken a more direct route back up.

She stood there for a few minutes trying to carefully remember everything both coming down and going up again, and with a feeling of relative certainty, she took the stairs on the right. To be fair, that was the correct staircase, and the first three splits in the passageway she chose the right direction, but then after a right, she forgot how many doors down it was before they took a right hand passage and then a door that led out into the main hallway where the dining room and other family rooms were.

For some reason, the last stretch of hallway seemed a bit different, but she couldn't put her finger on why. Then she saw a large curve with a right hand passage before it and reckoned that had to be it, right? She opened the door and frowned. Where on earth was she?

"Just set it on the table Galion," said a deep voice she recognized at once.

"Where on earth am I?"

Thranduil, who had been reading something very intently, suddenly looked up to see a very confused looking Lothril holding an unopened bottle of apple wine. "My private study," Thranduil answered.

"Which is where, exactly?" Lothril asked, trying to get her bearings and sort out where she had gone wrong.

"In my rooms. We are behind the library and across the hall from the room where we ate breakfast," he answered.

Understanding dawned in her eyes. "Oooh… Well, I got close anyway."

Thranduil leaned back in his chair and asked, "I gather you were trying to return to your rooms from the wine cellar?"

She nodded. "I made it down without incident, but in trying to retrace our steps from the tour you gave me, I guess I must have gone straight when I should have gone right."

"That may well be the case," Thranduil replied with a grin. This elleth was going to be a perpetual source of amusement, wasn't she?

"Well, you are clearly busy, so I will just move along," Lothril said, fidgeting a little and heading towards the door. It was obviously an accident, but she still felt bad about bumbling into his study like a clod.

"In truth, I could use a break. I have been reviewing council minutes for the last two hours," Thranduil replied.

"Sounds exciting," Lothril said flatly.

"Oh very. If you ever have trouble sleeping, just have a servant fetch some for you. I recommend annual reviews tariffs if you need something particularly riveting," Thranduil said congenially like he was recommending a wine and dessert pairing. "But let us return to that bottle of apple wine – do you have any particular plans for it?"

"I was actually hoping to find my way back to the bakery and ask them to send one of those apple dumplings up to my room," Lothril said.

"Apple dumplings? Oh that does sound good… Galion should be here in a moment, we can send him to fetch some. Unless of course you were hoping to be alone," Thranduil said.

"Not particularly, but as Legolas is busy in his garden, a little wandering, a little dessert, and a little wine and a book seemed like a good way to spend the afternoon," Lothril replied.

"Any particular book in mind?" Thranduil asked. "Come, sit down."

Lothril took a chair across from his desk and sat and answered, "No, no particular book. That library in my room seems to have a few interesting poetry volumes in it so I thought I might peruse one of those."

"You like poetry?"

"I do. I had a couple books of poetry back home and elven poetry was what I first started reading when I learned to read elvish," she answered.

"I am rather fond of it myself. If you exhaust what is in your room, I am happy to let you peruse my personal collection," Thranduil offered.

"Thank you," Lothril said.

Just then Galion came in and Thranduil told him to leave the book and asked him to fetch them apple dumplings.

As soon as Galion left, Thranduil said, "It has been since your introduction to court since we have had a chance to sit and talk a little. Tell me, how do you find living here now that things have settled down a little?"

"Honestly, it is different from what I am used to. I am still trying to figure out how I want to spend my days, though I have inadvertently found myself in a weird little gossip circle," she answered, looking both amused and confused at the fact.

"Oh?"

She nodded. "I overheard Lady Gormes and two of her friends gossiping about me at my introduction to court, so afterwards I told Legolas because some of the rumors were borderline absurd and kind of funny. Well, Estelneth heard me telling Legolas and she informed me her friend is a servant to Lady Gormes and she has been telling Estelneth all sorts of crazy stories that the lady has either heard or been cooking up about me. Nobody seems sure which it is, but some of them are flat out laughable – like the one where I am actually an orphaned Silvan elf that Legolas fell in love with ages ago and smuggled to Rivendell unbeknownst to you and somehow convinced Elrond to adopt me or say that he adopted me so you would approve the marriage."

"What?! Then how does she explain your appearance here last year?"

"According to her, that is someone else entirely. She speculates that that was a human girl from Dale or some such and that there was some scandal either with me personally or how my parents died or something, and you for whatever reason decided to pity me, out of the goodness of your heart, and cooked up this wild story in order to justify sending Legolas with me to Rivendell where I could get properly relocated with some human family by Elrond," Lothril answered. "I have actually heard three variations on that story."

Thranduil looked ill pleased. "I could have her jailed for slander against the royal house, if you want."

"Eh, I have already sent one noble to jail, I do not feel a particular need to send another," Lothril said dismissively. "Actually, I am finding it all fairly amusing. Oh, and our fair Lady Gormes is hosting a tea this afternoon with some of her most intimate friends and Estelneth has promised me a full report by tomorrow morning. Apparently her friend thinks about as much of our lady as I do."

"Out of curiosity, what do you plan on doing with all this information?" Thranduil asked.

"Do? Let her wallow in own misery for now. She is clearly a small and petty person who feels important by spreading idle gossip to her friends. If she decides she wants to start something, I will end her game immediately. The more I know, the easier it is to end and the easier it is to know who her minions are and end their little games too," she answered.

He studied her for a moment before saying, "She is not the first such person you have dealt with."

Lothril shook her head. "Not at all. I seem to be cursed with attracting manipulative petty little liars."

"Probably because you come across as so nice and vulnerable and innocent with your manner and those big brown eyes of yours," Thranduil commented. "But clearly you are not."

She gave a slight shrug and there was a knock at the servant's door and Thranduil bade the servant enter who came in with a small tray bearing two golden brown and steaming apple dumplings. Per instructions he set them down on Thranduil's desk and then left.

"Goodness, I think it's been years since I have had one of these! My mom would make them but rarely as she said they are a pain to make, and they are, I suppose, but oh so worth it!" Lothril said.

Thranduil smiled and opened the apple wine and poured them both a glass and they chatted for a little bit about this and that before she asked, "Is the next holiday Turuhalmë?"

"It is," he answered.

She nodded. "This is going to feel like quite the long stretch between enderi and Turuhalmë I think."

"Why is that?" he asked.

"I am used to having a holiday at the beginning of September, one at the end of October, another at the end of November, and then one at the end of the December and then our New Year on the first of January. It's just going to feel strange having nothing in November," she said.

"Who said we have nothing in November?" Thranduil asked, clearly amused. "In fact, we celebrate the last moon of autumn in November. We also have the last autumn hunts and a feast at the end of them. So there are a few things to look forward to, even if the next actual holiday is Turuhalmë."

"We do? Oh! That will be nice! When is the last hunt?"

"Two weeks from now," he answered. "Would you like to join us?"

"Hmm, I might at that. Besides hunting while traveling, I have only gone hunting once in Rivendell with a small party. Just a one or two day trip. Legolas used it as an excuse to get me to field dress a deer," she answered.

Thranduil chuckled. "Well, you shall certainly be under no compulsion to field dress what you catch on this party unless you want to. I will send word to Filegon to see to it you have proper clothes prepared for the hunt then."

"Thank you. So, what shall we be hunting?" she asked.

"There is a sounder of wild boar on the other side of the Enchanted River that is getting a bit large and aggressive and causing some havoc with the outlying houses and villages, so we are going to go thin that a little before winter. On this side of the river there is a large herd of deer that could suffer to be thinned a little too," Thranduil answered.

"So how long is hunting party going to be?"

"It shall depend on how successful we are and how many turn out. It is promising to be a larger party, so it may not take very long at all. In any event though, it shall not go longer than a week. And this time you shall assuredly have your own attendants and tent." He ended the sentence with a little bit of a smirk.

"What novelties," she commented with a hint of sarcasm.

Thranduil chuckled then took a bite and after a brief silence said, "I often wondered when Legolas was young what sort of elleth he would marry. How he is now is how he always was – patient, calm, considerate, content, laid back, serious, with an impish mischievous streak and a wonderful sense of humor and a penchant for befriending the oddest but best sorts of people – Elf or Man. The fact that he befriended the dwarf Gimli was not quite as shocking as you might be tempted to think. I always supposed if he spent enough time with them, he would find one to befriend. Anyway, I always tried to imagine who he would marry and I could never quite picture her. After a while when he never showed any particular interest in any elleth he met, and as prince he met many, I began to think perhaps he would not marry at all. Some of us do not marry, after all. Perhaps that was what he wanted. And then you showed up and from the moment I saw you following him into my throne room I had a feeling the fates of the two of you were bound together somehow. When he wrote and told me he loved you I was… I was not shocked. Slightly surprised he was already thinking of marriage, but not shocked. Now that I have gotten to know you a little better, I can see why he fell for you so hard and so fast. I also cannot imagine anyone else being his wife. What is more, I like you quite a bit and I am very happy that you are going to be my daughter soon."

Lothril blushed and replied, "Well, thank you. And to be perfectly honest, I never imagined I would get along so well with my future father by marriage, so I am very glad I like you quite a bit too. Um, after we are married, do you want me to call you father or…?"

He smiled. "You may call me whatever you wish. I address Celebdir both by his name and father and Lauríel often called my father Oropher, so there is no particular expectation one way or the other."

She nodded then took a sip of wine. She honestly didn't envision herself being inclined to call him father, adar, or anything but Thranduil as she already had two fathers and her relationship with Thranduil was different from both of them.

The conversation drifted and once they had finished their dumplings, though Lothril still had some wine left, Thranduil asked, "As you are already in my study and I offered to give you a tour of my rooms, would you like to see them now?"

"Oh, yes I would, if you have the time."

"I have plenty. The council is off and the lords either back home or about to head that way until our new year. I do not hold court either unless something comes up during fading and winter, so my responsibilities are greatly reduced and I have a good deal of free time," Thranduil said.

"Nice."

"I always thought so," Thranduil grinned. "Shall we?"

They left the study and besides the servant's entrance the only other one led to his library which was lined floor to ceiling with books, had a large hearth, and some of the most comfortable, soft, and plush looking chairs and couches she had seen in Middle-earth. It was pretty easy to imagine Thranduil stretched out on the couch with a book and a glass of wine doing some leisure reading in here. He showed her his poetry collection and made a few recommendations that she could ask for whenever she wished before leading her through one of two other doors in the library which went up a set of stairs to a very large and fairly open second floor. The half they were in almost looked like a music store as it was lined with a variety of instruments.

"How many of these do you play?" she asked.

"All of them to one degree or another," Thranduil answered.

She looked around then asked, "What's through there?"

"It is Lauríel's study," Thranduil said. "Or was. After she sailed Legolas and I split up her books between ourselves and put the rest in the main library. Same with many of her other things. Now I more or less use it for storage of her artwork and rotate things in and out. You can go look though, if you like."

Lothril said she would and went through a cozy little lounge and into the study which looked very much like a crowded art gallery. Every inch of wall space was covered in paintings and there were even a few easels set up displaying some and a few sculptures dotting the room. It was dark as the curtains were drawn, but Thranduil opened them so she could get a good look at everything. The sculptures were either stone or wood and were either animals or elven figures in various dance like poses. The paintings were a mix of landscape, still life, and elves, one of her favorite elven subjects being Thranduil and one of the others being Legolas. They weren't quite as photographically realistic as Celebdir's, though Lothril suspected she could have done it if she wished. They were slightly more stylized, like she was trying to capture her feelings or thoughts along with their looks and expressions.

For being someone who generally didn't sit and stare at paintings in museums, she found herself sitting and staring at those portraits for a while, trying to decipher what the queen was trying to convey. It was a glimpse into Legolas' mother's mind and it was all she was likely to get for about a century and some change and she found herself eager to know her a little. There was one of Legolas and it seemed so full of love… like she had tried to put down everything she loved about her son onto a canvas. His eyes were so bright and his smile easy and vibrant. She could almost see a world of potential in his eyes but there was something missing. That wasn't how he looked to her, no how he looked at her. She got a really weird feeling she was missing from the painting… Oh, how vain was she? She was being ridiculous.

She turned her attention to a neighboring portrait of Thranduil. It was, in a word, intense. In the painting he was staring straight at the viewer and his gaze was intensely keen… and soft… and loving… and Lothril started to get a funny feeling she understood that look even though she couldn't put a word to it… the portrait was more or less a headshot, but she could just see his neck and the curve of it before the frame. His hair was clearly in front of his shoulders and suddenly she got a funny feeling that he wasn't wearing a tunic in the picture, and then she realized there was something about the lights and shadows that was unusual and she tried to imagine the angle the light would have to be coming from to create those shadows. Was he looking down?

"Those were two of her favorite portraits of us," Thranduil commented. "She liked them so much she made small copies of them so she could take them with her when she traveled. She sailed with them."

Lothril smiled. That was a very sweet sentiment. Suddenly a thought struck her; the angle of Thranduil's picture was him next to above the viewer, looking down at an angle. She had seen Legolas from that angle when he was lying beside her and propped himself up and looked down at her. But in her memories, that angle you would see a shirt collar, be it tunic or t-shirt which meant… "I can see why. She is very talented."

"Indeed she is. I can draw and paint some, but not nearly so well as her. Legolas gets all his talent from her," Thranduil said. "Have you ever seen any of his drawings?"

"Yes, he made several drawings for me before I left to go back and then while we were there he made drawings of my family and friends," she answered.

Thranduil smiled proudly. "Shall we go downstairs now and continue the tour, or would you like to spend a little more time up here?"

"We can continue on," Lothril answered and gave a parting glance at the portrait of Legolas. He really did look at her differently than how he did in the painting.

Thranduil led her back into the library and out into the small hallway. To the right was the door to the antechamber, dead ahead was the door to the breakfast nook dining room she knew so well, which meant to the left was most likely his bedroom. He opened the door and there it was.

And boy, there it was! There was a narrow, wide butler looking table to the immediate left with a silver box on it and a pair of decorative lamps. Past that in the corner was a large carved fireplace and a painting hung above it nearly as wide that was a landscape of the river opening onto Lake Long. In front of it were a very soft and comfortable looking pair of wingback chairs and to the right was a richly carved pair of double doors and just past the corner of it another set. The room was all polished stone and a large elaborate carpet covered the middle of the floor, but that wasn't what made her gasp. What made her gasp the chandelier wrought of silver and bedecked in white gems hanging down and throwing light and rainbows around the room and the absolutely massive bed that was centered against the opposite wall. It was carved, polished, canopied, and gilded and roughly the size of her parent's living room.

Thranduil saw her wide eyes and gaping mouth and laughed. "It leaves an impression does it not?"

"Yeah, that it's good to be king," Lothril replied as she stepped a little closer to the bed the size of a bouncy castle. A bouncy castle… now there was a comparison…

"You could have gotten yourself a chandelier like this," Thranduil said half teasing.

"The chandelier… That bed!"

"What about it?" he asked, sounding perfectly innocent and looking borderline mischievous.

"Besides the fact I have seen smaller barns? It's gorgeous! I is not quite my taste with all that gold, but it is so very you," she replied.

Thranduil laughed, "As it is my bed, I suppose it is fitting it is very me, though Lauríel certainly had her hand in it."

"You said you are thinking of sailing when we do, did you not?" Lothril asked.

He nodded.

"I am SO curious to meet Lauríel and see you two together," she said.

Thranduil laughed again and said, "Then I will have you know, this bed was a joint effort between the two of us, but the bathroom was all her." With that he went over to the double doors that seemed to have a waterfall motif in the carvings and threw both doors open for her.

The first thing that met her vision was a waterfall. A sunlit waterfall that was about two feet wide and splashing musically into a pool below and then flowed into an underground stream that dropped off into what basically looked like a natural tunnel where the wall and floor met. Above it was a skylight and the shape was a little irregular so Lothril figured it had to be a natural air shaft they just worked in. There was very large tub off to one side that looked like it was a silver tub set in carved and polished stone, and of course a sink and everything else, all of it stone from the palace and silver and all of it carved and polished. Yet, for all of it being carved and polished, it still looked like it all formed there naturally and someone just polished it where it stood. There was a certain air of natural and wild to all of it… and she loved it.

"I like her tastes," Lothril said, looking around. "I really like her tastes. This is gorgeous! And that waterfall!"

"For what it is worth, I think Lauríel would like what you have done with your rooms. The furniture you picked has the same sort of vine and branch motif she always gravitates towards. She always said she liked things that looked they were grown, not built," Thranduil said.

"I think I am really going to like her," Lothril said. "I hope she likes me."

"She will," he replied confidently. "She will like you for yourself, and even more so when she sees how Legolas loves you."