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The room was dark except for patches of pale starlight, cloaking everything in shadows for the young woman who slipped silently in through the window she had carefully jimmied. She curled her lip in a sneer of disdain for the owner of the huge old place. No security system at all. She let her eyes adjust to the darker interior before padding quietly across the hardwood floor, staying close to the wall, knowing what she was here for. Her employer wanted a set of rings the owner of the house had in a private collection, and anything else she saw and could carry was hers, on top of her usual fee. Kystrel didn't ask why her employer was being generous - she needed to keep her skills sharp, and work had been thin lately.
She paused as she reached the doorway, pressing herself against the wall. She listened, wondering if perhaps the owner had security guards instead of a security system, but when several minutes yielded nothing but an eery silence, Kystrel moved, carefully peering out into the hall. No one. She let her lips curl up in a slight smile, before ghosting across the hall, and clinging to the shadows of the door well against the interior wall. Her mottled grey clothing blended neatly with the shadows, and she worked quickly to pick the lock.
Kystrel felt the lock click beneath her fingers at the same time an arrow thudded home in front of her face, almost nicking her nose as it passed by. The woman jumped, stifling a yelp as she spun. A man with blond hair, dressed in nothing more than a scrap of cloth wrapped around his privates, and holding a bow was standing just down the hall, another arrow knocked, and ready to loose. She froze, wondering how he'd managed to sneak up on her. She could have sworn she heard nothing to warn her of his coming.
"I would suggest you step away from the door, thief. What lies beyond it is not for you." His voice was a low and silky smooth baritone, and Kystrel suppressed a shiver. She'd never heard anything quite so lovely, or musical before, and it unnerved her. As did the choice of weapon and accuracy of the owner in using it. Her employer had said nothing about her being in danger of becoming a pincushion!
"I will only give you one last chance, thief." The man sounded sincere, and Kystrel forced herself to move, slowly emerging from the door well, keeping a wary eye on the bow. "Who are you, and who sent you?"
Kystrel remained silent, judging the distance between her and the door to the room she'd broken into. It was a leap, but she thought she could make it before he could fire that weapon again. He noted the brief flicker of her eyes, and drew the bow taut, his aim fixed for a point just left of the center of her chest.
"Do not try to run."
Kystrel narrowed her eyes, and made her choice, bolting for the room, praying she could make it to the window before he could get to the door. A cry of pain was drawn from her as she felt the arrow impact her right shoulder, and she stumbled, her left hand coming up to clench the wound. Focusing on the window, she tried to run, but slipped on the wooden floor, and fell, jarring her shoulder as she landed. Pain jolted through her, followed closely by a blackness that yawned up and swallowed her.
Haldir nocked another arrow as he padded to the door of the large, empty room he used to practice his archery and sword-fighting, ready to draw and fire again if the thief was still trying to run. He slowly let the tension out of the bow string when he saw him collapsed on the floor, and returned the arrow to the quiver he'd tossed over his shoulder before coming down. It hadn't been a noise that wakened the elf, but a sense of something wrong, which meant the thief this time was better.
He leaned the bow against the doorway before kneeling next to the thief, checking to see if he was conscious before he rolled him to look get a look at the face. He pulled off the cloth mask that had muffled the human's features, and blinked. It was a woman, and he shook his head. It had been some time since a female thief had broken into the house, and tried to get to the rings.
Picking her up, he carried her down the hall, and up a spiralling staircase to a small room he used when he had another 'unexpected guest'. He heard the deliberate rustle as one of the others who occupied the house from time to time came down the hall, Legolas looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Haldir settled the woman onto the small bed as the other elf came into the room.
"Another thief?" Legolas looked down at the woman, his eyes widening slightly. "A woman?"
Haldir shrugged, pulling a box with bandages and other items needed for healing over to him, setting out a thick towel under the thief's shoulder. "It has happened before," he replied, speaking in elvish, making Legolas color slightly. The younger elf often spoke in the common tongue now, since he was the one who dealt with the locals more often than Haldir. He wanted nothing but the solitude afforded by the large house and the woodlands that surrounded it.
"She was after the rings?" Legolas fell easily enough into the language of the all but forgotten past, leaning over to take a wad of bandaging that Haldir handed him. He pressed it to the wound as the other elf removed the arrow with a smooth pull, the woman moaning in pain as the leaf-bladed missile came free.
Haldir waited to reply until the bleeding had slowed, packing the wound with healing herbs and honey, wrapping it tightly. Legolas helped him to bind the woman's arm to her side so she would not move it, and break the wound open during those first few days of healing. "She was picking the lock to the inner rooms. I doubt she would be after much else. I will have to question her when she wakes up."
After cleaning up the small mess, and changing the woman into an over-sized shirt, the two elves left the room, locking it, and taking the woman's clothing with them. She would get them back once they removed any tools she might have placed in hidden pockets. And once they'd made sure she wasn't a danger to the rings they'd been guarding since the fall of Barad-dur.
When she woke up, it took several minutes for Kystrel to remember what had happened to her. She was in a small, unfamiliar room, and she was certainly not in her own clothing. She tried to sit up, and fell back against the pillow as a dull throbbing started up in her shoulder, reminding her that she'd been shot the night before. With an arrow, of all things. The thief groaned, the sound loud in the silence of the room. In fact, the house still sounded unnaturally quiet to her trained ears, without even sounds from the outside reaching her.
A second try to sit up yielded better results, and she turned her head, visually inspecting the room from where she sat. One door, and a skylight in the high ceiling with no way to reach it. The bed she was in, with a pillow, and blankets, and a chest that stood against the wall opposite the door. Frowning, she slid to let her feet touch the floor. The wood was warm under her feet, and she blinked, surprised. Standing, she wobbled slightly, before reaching out a hand to steady herself against the headboard. Experimentally, she leaned her weight against the bed, trying to shift the piece of furniture. It slid along the floor easily, and she smiled, trying to move swiftly.
She mentally cursed when she heard the door unlock, and it swung outward. Even if she had gotten the bed to the door, it would have done her no good with a door like that. And it also spoke of the room having been used to contain people before. Kystrel wondered about what kind of person had a room for prisoners in their house.
"You should not be trying to move heavy furniture with an injured shoulder." The man stepped into the room, and she noted he was more dressed than he had been the night before, glad that she didn't blush easily. She didn't need to look like a boiled lobster in front of him. "I have brought you some food, I suggest you eat." He set the tray he carried on the trunk, and Kystrel eyed the door. She jumped when another man appeared in the doorway, as silent as the first.
"Christ on a crutch!" The exclamation fell from her lips without conscious direction on her part, and she saw the one in the doorway smirk. She glowered, and turned, drawing back when she found the first man standing far closer to her than she'd expected. She yelped as she fell backwards, landing on her arse on the edge of the bed, the pain from her jolted shoulder bringing tears to her eyes. "Bloody hell, that hurt!"
"As one might expect an arrow wound to do when it is not yet healed." The man reached towards her, and Kystrel jerked back.
"Oh, no, buddy. You don't touch me."
A slight smile played on his lips, and he raised an eyebrow. "It would be most entertaining to see you try to change the bandage on your shoulder unaided."
Kystrel glared at him for a long moment before she relented, and shifted so the shirt that she was in could be moved away from the linen bandages over her shoulder. She frowned a moment later, her mind taking longer than it should have to process all the facts. "Wait a minute. You bandaged my shoulder up last night, right?" She watched him nod as he unwrapped the linen strips, apparently satisfied with the lack of fresh blood on them. "Which means you changed me into this shirt."
"Actually, he was cleaning up the healing supplies while I changed you into that shirt." The man standing near the door spoke, and Kystrel turned her head to glare at him, feeling her cheeks begin to flame.
Haldir remained impassive as he saw the woman's face darken with embarrassment, quickly checking the wound, resalving it, and changing the bandage before rewrapping it, and binding it tightly to her side once more. "It is looking fine. You should eat, and we will discuss what you were doing in my house last night later."
The woman looked up at him, glaring angrily. He met her gaze with a cold one of his own, turning to leave, and locking the door behind him. Legolas chuckled softly as they heard what was most likely the pillow hitting the other side of the door, and Haldir shook his head, heading down the hall. The younger elf followed, leaving the would-be thief to her breakfast while they patrolled the perimeter of the woodlands. Other than the woman, they found no signs of an actual intruder into their domain, though an uneasy feeling permeated the woods, as if an unwelcome presence watched them.
The two elves exchanged concerned looks as they returned to the house. Someone had been waiting for the woman to come out of the house, or had been watching to see if she returned. Neither prospect made the elves any more comfortable than the other.
"She was hired to break in." Legolas's voice was flat, and Haldir nodded. "They're back again."
"As always." Haldir was the first in the door, and he tilted his head, listening. There was a thump from upstairs, and he smirked, going up to see if the woman was willing to talk now. He blinked when he opened the door to the room. Glass was scattered over the floor, and the woman was nowhere to be seen. He stepped cautiously into the room, the glass crunching under his feet. He spun when he heard the slam of the door, cursing when he heard the bar thud into place.
Kystrel panted as she trapped the one man in the room she'd been in, the effort taking more out of her than she expected. She yelped as a strong arm wrapped around her, pinning her good arm to her side. She lashed out, slamming her head backwards, doing her best to stomp on his feet. She heard the crack of bone as her head connected with something, and there was a muffled grunt of pain, the grip of the man not loosening. The thief growled, unwilling to stay here, and fought harder, trying to free her right arm to help her defend herself.
"That would be a bad idea." His voice was quiet, and she snarled as he reached out with his free hand to remove the heavy bar of wood from the brackets that held it in place. "You are going to open the wound again if you continue to struggle."
Kystrel growled, her struggles stopping as the door opened to reveal the rather irate blond she'd shut inside. He glared at Kystrel a moment, then looked over her head to the man holding her, speaking in a language she didn't recognize, a smirk of amusement briefly crossing his face. His attention soon turned back to her.
"You are resourceful, thief..."
"Damn it, my name isn't thief! I'm Kystrel." She scowled, not sure which she liked less. Her blurting out her real name, or the man calling her thief. She wrinkled her nose at the smile that graced his face a moment.
"Kystrel. Seeing as you have just made a mess out of that room," he glanced over his shoulder, shaking his head, "we shall have to find you another, no?"
She glared at him in response, and he shrugged, taking her good arm in a firm grip, letting the other man step away, and go deal with his bloody and broken nose. "Do you have a name, or can I just call you 'bastard'?"
She got an annoyed look for that remark, though she did get a name out of him.
"Haldir."
Kystrel sighed, and kept her attention on where they were going, orienting herself in the house, hoping that he didn't have another room designed to keep prisoners. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a glimmer of metal, the gleam only briefly scene, but her mind latched onto it, analyzing that glimpse. Probably a weapon, a sword, she thought. That would fetch a nice price. Along with the fee, if she could get to those rings her employer wanted, and anything else she could carry out of here, she would be able to keep herself nicely for the next year or so.
"Why were you breaking into my house, Kystrel?"
His question made her whip her head around to glare at him, her eyes narrowing. "Client confidentiality, bucko."
"So you were hired." He sounded smug, and Kystrel cursed viciously in her mind. She was slipping. Perhaps it was time to retire. This wasn't the first slip up she'd had in the last two years.
"I never said I was hired," she snapped, her temper fraying. She had to get away from these maniacs, with their strange house, and their insistence on primitive weapons. "Look, you let me go, and I'll leave you be. It's not like I can't afford to pass up one hit."
Haldir raised an eyebrow at her wheedling tone. "How can one trust a thief?" He paused at another door, and Kystrel let out a sigh. That tactic didn't work. He ignored her lack of response, opening the door. The room beyond it was large, and held a large bed, a chest against the wall, and a table with a pair of chairs. There was also a fireplace, and the one wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling windows. She smirked. This wouldn't be too difficult to escape from.
He didn't stop in the room, though, leading her through to a large bathroom, with a massive skylight to let brilliant sunlight pour in over the wooden floors, and the gleaming, free-standing tub. Her brow wrinkled as he continued to a door across the room, opening it to reveal a small room, with no lock, or even doorknob visible on the inside.
"What the...?" She struggled to get away. "You are not closing me in there! It's dark in there, and I'll bet you don't have any lights in it!"
Haldir nodded curtly, pushing her inside with one hand, and using the other to slam the door in her face as soon as he'd pulled his hand back.
Haldir winced as he heard the pounding begin as soon as he'd closed the door to the linen closet. He looked around for something heavy to shove up against it, and settled on going back to his bedroom, and hauling the clothing chest in, the weighty piece of wood settling against the door with a thunk that momentarily silenced the pounding. He heard an angry curse from inside, and sighed, heading out of the room with the thief now contained.
Legolas looked up as he came down into the kitchen, the younger elf having managed to get his nose realigned, though it looked swollen and ridiculous. A smirk twitched at the edges of his lips, and Legolas scowled, glaring at the one-time Marchwarden. "Where did you put her?" he asked, trying to shift the attention off his nose.
"My linen closet." Haldir shrugged as he headed for the refrigerator to pull out food to cook. Legolas chuckled behind him, and the lorien elf looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. "Do you find it amusing, Legolas?"
"I doubted she liked that, especially after passing through your room with those lovely large windows." The mirkwood elf smirked, and Haldir shrugged.
"Judging by the pounding on the door after it closed, I'd say she was none too pleased."
Legolas chuckled again, amusement fading from his eyes all too soon, his tone serious when he spoke again. "Did you get any information from her?"
Haldir shook his head, as the smell of cooking food filled the room. "Other than a confirmation she was hired, no."
Legolas sighed. "Then I shall merely hope she doesn't cause any more trouble before we can question her properly."
Haldir nodded, his focus on the meal he was making. He, like the others who lived here, had been forced to learn how to cook, and well enough that he felt comfortable eating his own cooking.
"Good morning!" The chorus came from the front door, and Haldir heard Legolas thumping his head against the table behind him. The lorien elf chuckled, returning the greeting.
"Though I will not say it is a good morning, I will grant you it is morning."
Elrohir and Elledan poked their face around the doorway, sniffing the air. "Mmm. Food and..."
"...an intruder. Another thief break in..."
"...last night?"
Haldir nodded, keeping his attention on the food. "And she's certainly of better caliber than anyone who's tried to steal the rings before. She broke Legolas's nose."
"And locked Haldir in the prisoner's room." Legolas was not going to let the march-warden embaress him without returning the favor.
The twins looked at each other, than at the two blond elves before breaking out in peals of laughter. "Our brave march-warden..."
"...and the fair archer..."
"...bested by a mortal!"
"We have to see this woman...."
"NO!" Haldir and Legolas interrupted the twins in unison, glaring at the raven-haired elves, who pouted, but didn't press the issue, sitting down at either end of the table, launching into a description of their latest escapades.