Chapter 3
The next day dawned bright and early, like the last. I woke up this time, however, without anything to do. For everybody else in Mirkwood, today was just an average day, with school or work or whatever the people of this realm did all day. But for me, I had nothing to do, nowhere to be, no school, no work, no nothing. I didn't want Legolas to halt everything in his life to entertain me just because he happened to be the one unfortunate enough to find me in the woods the other day.
It was almost eight o'clock and I had just showered when someone knocked on the door. It was Legolas.
"Sleeping beauty, are you up yet?" he hollered through the door.
I yanked the door open and shouted, "What does it look like, ya moe-ron?" Hey, I never said I was a morning person either!
He gave me a quizzical look. "Moe-ron?"
I grinned sheepishly. "It's a southern thing. Sorry. I get kind of grumpy in the mornings."
"I never would have guessed. Listen, I've got some things to do today, so you can either explore and do what you like, or I think Father has something he might like you to do."
"Okay. I'll do anything he wants me to as long as I'm not just sitting around. I have to do something!"
He laughed. "I know what you mean. When you do what I do, there are days that you never get a break, and then there are days where there's nothing at all to do."
"What do you do, anyway?"
"I'm a prince, remember? It just depends on what is going on at the time. For instance, today my father and I have a series of meetings with some advisors and other people about some potentially threatening political unrest in a town just outside the forest borders." He rolled his eyes. "And those meetings get boring, let me assure you. By the way, they start just after breakfast, so you'd better talk to my father about what he wants you to do. That is, if you want to. Knowing my father, if you agree to work, you'll be working until you go home, whenever that is."
"That's okay. I want to make myself productive. At least it's not school." The way Legolas laughed at that made me guess that school was about the same here as it is back home.
We both headed out, and we parted ways when he found someone to talk to along the way. I ate my meal in silence, and when I was through, I headed on to the throne room.
As I timidly made my way toward the king, he noticed me and motioned me to come to him. "I suppose Legolas told you I had something for you to do, if you don't mind?"
"Yessir."
"One of my main messengers is out due to some physical ailments and I'm in desperate need of someone to replace him. Can you ride a horse?"
"Yessir." That was one of the things I was actually good at back home.
"I'm going to warn you, sometimes it can be dangerous, what with highwaymen and bandits, but I doubt you'll have any problems. However," he cleared his throat, "you may want to wear that sword that was given to you, just as a precaution. You seem like the kind that can handle herself."
I nodded, more than happy to finally be doing something, then grinned. "When do I start?"
Within the hour, I had learned more of Mirkwood than I had expected to learn in a month. The king had had another of his messengers take me to a huge room with nothing but maps. The other messenger had showed me all the routes from here to the Lonely Mountain, which was a good month's journey from here. When we were done there, he gave me another hour's worth of sword training, just the very basic stuff like balance. When I felt like I was good enough to keep myself alive when threatened, the elf that had been teaching me took his leave and I rushed up to my room to get ready.
Going through all the elf had said to me about defending myself in my head, I reached in the armoire for the belt with the sword. I strapped it on, then slowly, reverently pulled out the sword (and it made the most beautiful noise shing as it came out) and admired its beautiful silver blade before sliding it back in. Then I draped the forest-green cloak about my shoulders and took a long look at myself in the full-length mirror on the inside of the door of the armoire. Truly, aside from my dark brown hair that hung braided down my back, I looked the part of a great elf warrior. I was wearing a light green cloth shirt underneath everything, brown pants, a brown leather vest, and tall brown boots. The belt, hung comfortably about my waist, fit as if it had been made for me. On the right was, of course, the magnificent blade, and on the left a small dagger. On top of everything, the rich green cloak, pinned with a beautiful gold chain, completed the look. Yes, I thought, I can do this.
Then I remembered the king was waiting for me.
All the dignity and poise I had just a split second earlier departed as quickly as I could blink. Tripping over myself, tangling in the cloak, and trying to avoid stabbing myself with the sheath of my sword, I hurried to the door and burst out of it. As I rushed to the throne room, I tried to regain my self-control and appear as composed as I could before appearing in front of the king.
All in vain.
"I'm ready, my lord," I gasped, trying very hard to catch my breath after my ungainly flight down the stairs.
He merely chuckled. "Are you indeed? Well then. I am in a hurry to get to my next meeting, so you'll need to go across the main hall on the third door to your right. It has a sign that says "communications" at the door. They will tell you what to do in there." He got up, and merely said, "Good luck!" Then he walked away.
Trying to remember which room he had told me to go into, I walked down the hall. "Was it left or right?" I muttered.
"You look lost," a voice said behind me, making me jump. I turned around to see Legolas standing there, grinning.
"Okay, so I am. Which room"
"That one." He pointed, and I laughed out loud. There, clearly on a gold plate in the wall, it said, "Communications."
He turned to go, but just before he did, he grabbed my by the arm and winked. "Good luck."
I nodded my thanks, but the elf had already gone on.
I took a breath, though hardly nervous, and pushed open the door. There were three elves standing around a table, one of which was the elf that had worked with me earlier. The tallest of the three spoke. "You're the stand-in for Dalamein, aren't you?"
I nodded, and he began to speak rapidly. "You're about four hours late. Usually we start before breakfast, but this'll do for today. The king told me not to give you too hard or too long a journey on your first day. Here's how things work. The king and other officials occasionally have messages that they have to get to elves in other parts of Mirkwood, especially in times of negotiation such as these. For your first day, you'll be given two. One goes about ten miles down the main road from the palace, the other to go about five miles from that. The round trip should have you back home before dinner."
He filled me in on the specifics of where I would be going, and thanks to my briefing in the map room earlier, I knew exactly where to go. He handed me a pack, with some food for lunch and some water in it. Then he handed me the two messages.
One of the other elves, not the one I knew from earlier but the other one, spoke up to tell me I was ready. "The horse you are to ride will be in the palace stables, the seventh stall on the left. A black horse is waiting for you. His name is Hwesta, which means "breeze" in the High Speech." He paused, and just before I walked out, he said, "Oh, and, compliments of the Lord Thranduil…he's yours."
I walked out with a smile on my face, wondering how I was ever going to thank the king for all his hospitality. I arrived at the stables and was stunned at the beauty of the horse that was in the stall. I checked the name on the stall, and sure enough, engraved on a gold plate, was the beautiful curvy elvish script, and under it, in a translation to the common tongue, it read, "Hwesta."
I opened the door to the stall, and stroked the beautiful black horse. "Well, I guess we're gonna be a team now, aren't we?" I said to him. "You'll help me, won't you? Help me make it here in these strange lands…" I trailed off. Then, deciding it was past time to go, I walked my silent companion out of the stables and onto the road departing from Mirkwood. Eager to begin my new duties, I expertly leaped onto Hwesta's back and nudged him into an easy trot. I knew I should be hurrying if I was to get back before dinner, because it was only nearing eleven, but the road was so beautiful that I wanted to take my time. After about fifteen minutes, I urged Hwesta into a full gallop, and the scenery flew by. Astonished by the speed of the horse, I relaxed, knowing I didn't have to worry about the time.
Within the hour, I reached my destination, which was nothing more than a party of about five or six elves gathered around a fire just off the main road. I delivered the message, and as it was a little after noon, they offered me to sit down and eat lunch with them. I complied, and took my time with it. After I had rested and talked with the elves for about an hour, I decided I needed to be off. I thanked them for their hospitality, mounted Hwesta, and rode on.
At first the road was as easy as it had been all morning, mostly wide and flat. But after about an hour of a nearly steady gallop, I began to see why the elf had said it would be dinnertime before I got home. The path narrowed and became winding and rocky, and Hwesta had to pick his way along. Soon I had to get off his back and walk him, and it was a painstaking process. We stopped frequently, and didn't get to our destination, a camp of about twenty elves up in the hills, until almost three.
When I got to the location where the camp should have been, however, I didn't see any camp. All I saw were trees on the top of the wooded hill. Figuring they were somewhere in the forest, I tied Hwesta to a small tree, and wandered a little off the path.
I sensed something was amiss. I drew my sword, just as a precaution, and began looking behind trees for the elves.
Suddenly, I felt something tickling my neck. I looked back, and in my face was an elven arrow, trained just below my ear! Moving only my eyeballs, I looked from the arrow that was now in between my eyes, to the finely crafted bow, to the arm holding it taut…to the face of one very angry elf!
"Drop the sword." Simply. Firmly. In the Common Speech. I did the only thing I knew to do. I complied.
Daring to speak, I merely squeaked out, "I don't mean any harm!"
The elf sighed and lowered the arrow, though I saw that there were many others trained on me, and likely more that I couldn't see. "You come into our camp unlooked for, uninvited, sword drawn. You are not an elf, yet you are wearing our clothes, wielding our weapon, riding our horse. Despite all this, you say you mean no harm! I believe an explanation is in order." He relaxed expectantly, and I took this as my cue to begin speaking, and fast.
"I am delivering a message from the king of Mirkwood. I am riding in the place of the one called, er, Dalamein. Here." With trembling fingers, I pulled the last message out of my belt and thrust it into the hands of the not-so-amused elf.
He broke the seal and looked at it. His expression softened. "I apologize, and I can say the same for my comrades," here he looked at them and they all lowered their bows. "You must forgive me. But you can understand how we would want to be cautious," he said, then smiled amiably. Then he bent down and picked up my sword, laying on the ground. He spun it up in the air, then caught it and handed it to me, hilt first. "I thank you for your service to the king, but I will not keep you at your inconvenience any longer, for the shadows grow long and you must be in a hurry to get going."
I looked at the sky, and it looked to be about a quarter after three. Which wasn't too late, but I did need to be heading back to the palace if I was to make it before dinner. I sheathed my sword, thanked them, and took my leave.
As I made my way down the mountain, leading my new friend Hwesta, I thought about how this day had had more excitement and adventure than I had in the fifteen years of my life back home.
Yes, I thought, looking out at the beautiful mountainous landscape before me, I could get used to this.
