The Passing

Everything you are

The Requisite for Love

Thornton Wilder

Without your wounds where would your power be? The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken in the wheels of living. In love's service, only the wounded soldiers can serve.

The wind howled outside the outpost, and Kohana lay bundled in her cot near the hearth. Her face was lit by the dying ambers, and she stared at the glowing flames as her mind thought of other things.

It was early morning, before sunrise, and the dark Mirkwood Forest stirred under the make-shift dwelling as neither girl or elf slept.

Kohana turned her head to find the ethereal glowing Prince reclining in his cot. The dark around him was overtaken by the golden aura that radiated from his body, which contently made a makeshift night light for her. Because his eyes were open and his body still, Kohana could not tell if the elf was awake or resting.

Laying her head back down, she once again found herself gazing into the fire and wondering through memories of her past. Every now and again she would sigh or adjust her position on the cot as her mind wondered.

Legolas observed Kohana from his cot on the other side of the room. This was their third morning in the outpost, and the prince feared he would never get used to sharing a dwelling with this girl.

She was the only maiden he had ever come in close contact with. At court he mainly avoided the elf maidens and kept near the King and other members of the royal counsel. When approached by one such elf maiden; he would respectively bow; inquire to their health, the weather, and their family relations. He left the act of pursuing young maidens to his younger sibling. Amroth loved maidens just as much as they loved him. The younger prince was always found on a stroll or picnicking with some beautiful damsel. He was never serious with the maidens, but rather he enjoyed genteel company. As the ways of the elves- courting was a serious and long process which began with great ceremony and ended in marriage. Therefore, entertaining maidens was not lightly considered- especially if you were royalty such as the Princes.

In fact- Amroth was still considered to young for marriage, while Legolas was of the prime age to shop for a mate. Of course all of the Mirkwood maidens sought after the older Prince- with his handsome but shy manner and all the benefits of someday being queen at his side.

Legolas longed for a wife when he lay alone in the darkness of his chamber. He found life in court dull and petty, but at the same time the maidens of court fascinating and mysterious all in one. He longed to touch their faces and gaze into their beautiful eyes and caress their delicate features, but scared at their opposite way of life. He knew strategies of war and how to notch a bow, while maidens knew of the healing arts and nurturing elflings.

Legolas knew how to create chaos and destruction, while elf maidens knew how to heal it and protect it. They created life, and he vanquished it like flame under a bowl.

Were could they met in the middle?

Legolas found the he felt most comfortable among the trees of the surrounding forests, and in the company of his men. Someday he would marry, but for now he had hundreds of years to concentrate on running his country.

His stab wound was healing nicely, although not enough for him to walk yet. Legolas sat up in his cot, and begun to unravel his bandages. Kohana stirred as well, bringing more kindling to feed the dying fire, and gathering pressed cloth for the elf's wound.

"Here, let me help you."

Kohana finished unraveling the torn cloth that acted as a bandage for Legolas's wound. She cleaned the discharge that had excreted from the wound during the night, and dressed it with fresh clothe.

Legolas looked at Kohana as she worked.

"By the mastery of your healing knowledge I would expect you to be half- elven, My Lady."

Kohana smiled sweetly and looked up at the prince while she pulled up her hair with a stray piece of cloth. It was nice to be respected by one who had loathed her for so long.

"You flatter me, Prince, but it is not needed." She cocked her head slightly as memories of home came to her. "Where I am from, the art of healing is so great that people live to be in their nineties and beyond. I only act on what is common knowledge to my people."

Legolas hung on her every word, for curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"Where do you hail from, Kohana?"

Kohana locked eyes with the prince, but after a few seconds she looked away with no expression on her face.

"I am not at liberty to say, but I will tell you this much" She paused and let out a sigh, "My land is so vast in distance from here, and so foreign to your own- the only way I may return is by the help of Gandalf . . ." She sighed again, "although I doubt even he can help me now." She added in a whisper that only an elf could pick up, "Alas- I am all alone in his world."

Legolas concentrated on the sullen girl before him. Her blond hair was loose along her shoulders and back as she continued to play with the extra clothe twisting between her two palms. Her oval face was tilted downward in thought, and her rounded nose held tension in the strain of her physically trying to hold back tears.

As Legolas, in concern, put his hand over her idle ones, Kohana's eyes met his own in confusion, green meeting blue- one under furrowed brow, the other in a lucid calm. Legolas gave the girl a reassuring grin.

"How emotional the race of man."

Kohana looked up at the Prince with newly formed anger apparent on her features. She snatched away her hands and stood up.

He new nothing of her situation! And she was not EMOTIONAL! She was just grieving for her family and home she would never see again.

He knew nothing of those things.

"What would you know of man." She said with rage. "Do not speak of things you do not know."

Legolas stared at her with no expression for some time. He had tried to be kind to her, and this is the way she treated him?

"You forget your place, child." He warned.

Kohana huffed.

Waving her arms around her head she yelled, "If you haven't noticed- we are not in a castle and you are not a Prince here! No one is around- it is just you and me, elf-"

She paused and grinned. Coming closer to the Prince she bent her head slightly.

She folded her arms. "I may be a young child in your eyes, but I still demand respect as the girl that rescued you. I have said it before and I will say it again- You may be a Prince but you are not my Prince."

'Stupid, rude, pretty boy!' she thought. He may have been a glowing piece of hotness- but Good Lord- Kohana despised him at that moment!

Legolas was stupefied. He folded his hands and pondered the girl's reaction while she covalently opened her journal and begun to write furiously by the hearth. As the way of the elves, he had never meant to offend her, but she must have taken it a wrong way. Never the less- before he could apologize- Kohana climbed out of the outpost to the wilderness below.

The sun had begun to rise but only a dull light filled the outpost due to the gloom of the forest. A constant chill invaded every inch of uncovered skin, and both human and elf sat huddled in musty blankets throughout the remainder of the day.

Kohana thought of home, Legolas thought of her.

He realized that the entire time they had dwelt in the outpost; he had still thought the girl below him. I mean, she was just an insignificant girl, why should he feel guilty that now she maintained a sullen silence as she gazed into the fire?

He had a lot of learning to do when it came to Kohana.

Late into the afternoon Kohana felt her belly rumble and started to prepare a meager stew. She glanced at the glowing bundle of blankets to check if Legolas needed anything, but he seemed to be resting so she kept her distance.

After a walk to the stream to collect water, and much thinking by the hearth, Kohana sighed. She regretted yelling at the Prince the way she did.

'Poor thing looked like a deer caught in the headlights.' She grinned.

She poured him a bowl of the stew and left it by his bed, preferring the solitude of the hearth by herself. The elf (of course) heard Kohana leave his dinner near him and soon begun to help himself to the stew.

Soon the candles were lit and another somber day had pasted in the outpost. Legolas could feel his strength returning and planned for them to travel for home in a few days if the weather allowed. He wondered what was to become of Kohana at court. She was not in fact a she-witch; but on the other hand, Legolas was the only soul in Mirkwood that would know that small fact.

"Lady Kohana?"

"Ummmm?" She responded while concentrating on her knitting. She had almost finished the Prince's tunic and was already cutting thread for some mittens.

"I wanted to sincerely apologize for this morning. I am most regretful."

Kohana glanced over from her perch near the fire to the earnest looking Legolas. Although he was rolled up like a burrito in his blankets, the glow that he gave off shone through; making his head look especially bright.

Kohana smiled. 'He looks like a giant glowing burrito.'

Legolas smiled back at the girl. She obviously found something very amusing, because her eyes sparkled with mirth he had not seen before. In fact, this new 'Happy Kohana' was a nice change from the sullen one. Her pretty smile and dancing eyes made Legolas chuckle a bit.

"Lady, pray tell me what you find so amusing- I fear I am at a loss!" He grinned in his own amusement from his burro of blankets.

Kohana found it hard replying to the Prince. In fact, she found it hard to breath at all with the beauty of his smile entrancing her. His smile was perhaps one of the most beautiful things she would ever see in her lifetime.

'Ahhhh- Elves . . .' her heart sighed.

Legolas continued to wait for Kohana's response as she walked over to his cot knitting in hand. She grabbed another blanket with the absence of the hearth to warm her.

"You look strange with all of those blankets."

"You are not used to an elf lacking in his grace and pose." Legolas responded politely.

"I suppose." Kohana looked away. "Although it is nice to see an elf without the formality."

Legolas nodded.

"I wish I could be at ease more often."

"I suppose it must be hard when you are royalty."

"Aye."

Legolas paused as if to consider something. His eyes intensely met Kohana's as he straightened himself on the cot.

"Lady Kohana. Can you truly tell me nothing of yourself?"

She looked down to play with the corner of her blanket.

"Ask me a specific question and I will tell you."

Legolas nodded and concentrated for a moment.

"Are you royalty?"

Kohana laughed and fiercely shook her head.

"No, Master Elf, I am not." Containing herself a little more she elaborated. "I do come from a very wealthy family, though. My parents traveled all over the world making business deals, leaving my two sisters and myself alone a lot." Kohana sighed. "I received the best education at the finest schools . . ." She thought of Berkley, and the sorrow of not being able to be a lawyer, and go through the normal 'college experience'.

Legolas followed as well as he could. The girl's language was close to Westron, but held some foreign differences. He looked at her as she was lost in her thoughts again, until she met his gaze.

"I was supposed to finish my education, but now that is not possible due to the circumstances."

"What have you been taught?"

Kohana bit her lip. How could she explain some of her subjects where Legolas would understand what they were?

"I learned reading and writing in two languages, Spanish and French. . ."

'Think, think . . .' Kohana pondered, 'What would math be called to an elf?'

"I learned Arithmetic and History . . . Dance and . . ."

'Hummm what would political science be?'

"War tactics and how kingdoms work . . . I learned about nature and the art of song . . . I believe that's it."

Legolas was impressed with Kohana's knowledge.

"I have never heard of Spanish and French."

Kohana grinned.

"Mi llamo es Kohana. Su pantalones son mi comida."

Legolas just stared in amusement.

"Or perhaps In French? . . . Tu me peles le jonc."

Legolas smiled at the beautiful languages.

"What did it mean?"

Kohana grinned. "I said 'hello, you look well today. My I buy some fruit?'"

"It was very beautiful."

Kohana nodded. Both sat in silence a moment until Kohana raised her head.

"Prince?"

"Yes, My Lady?"

"May I ask you a question?"

"Certainly." Legolas answered.

Kohana sat looking at her hands a moment longer before she final asked her question.

"Do you enjoy being a prince?"

Legolas strained a grin.

"It is a very serious thing- being a Prince. I do not think that I enjoy it, but I respect it." He looked at Kohana intently. "It is rather lonely at times, but helping run a kingdom keeps me busy."

"And some day you will be King." Kohana added.

She could not believe that she was having a conversation with a member of the fellowship. And it was the elf, none the less!

Sure, the first time Kohana saw the elf in the movies she thought he was Zack, from 'Saved by the Bell', but alas- no. It was some British actor she had never heard of. In the flesh, the real elf looked quite different from the actor in the movies (obviously).

He had the same chiseled bone structure that all the male elves seemed to have, but it was his eyes and hair that seemed the most different. Both seemed to change in the light. Legolas's eyes were a piercing blue at times, and a placid gray at others. His silvery hair also appeared almost a honey color at times, too. And at night, his hair glowed the most in the dark. Kohana thought all the Prince's prettiness and ethereal glowing would make him seem more of a pansy, but no, no, no. It just made him hotter. Mostly, she thought, it was because; while he had beauty, he also had strength.

If you had ever seen that elf shoot one of his arrows . . .or fight . .or breath . . .

Talking to the real elf was mind-blowing. Kohana continued to politely grin as the Prince described his kingdom, and how the palace was organized into responsibilities.

"So you have mostly agriculture as your biggest commodity?"

Legolas was very impressed with his ability to converse with Kohana. The two had talked of his home and how it was organized. The Lady was very inquisitive and asked many questions. Then she talked of her kingdom, and how it was run, which was very intriguing in its own right.

The two continued to talk into the wee hours of the night. They were able to get to know each other better, sharing in stories of their families and of their schooling.

Both politely would grin or laugh when needed, making the conversation amusing.

Kohana was floating on cloud nine.

Legolas was just happy to have someone to talk to.

The trees rustled outside, the animals and giant spiders went about their business. All the while a prince, and a girl that should have never existed in his world, began to change the future for both.

And if the trees could, they would have grinned.

Notes:

Su pantelones son mi comida- your pants are my food.

Tu me peles le jonc- you get on my nerves.