Chapter Nine
Daralis work once more in her guest bed in late afternoon. As the room came into focus- from light, to light and shadows, and then the shapes of the furniture and windows, the balcony and her view of Imladris.
Almost as if on cue, Legolas knocked quickly and entered.
Daralis moaned at the resonating sound.
She lay back on her bed, squinting to look at her father.
"What's wrong with me now?" She croaked.
"You, Miire-nin, have an alcohol-induced headache, magnified by the fact that you did not rest when I told you to yesterday."
"Ah, shit." She took a deep breath, and braced herself for the admonition.
"'Shit' is right, Dara. You cannot continue this self-destructive behavior."
"Continue? What do you mean, continue? I have never behaved this way, and everything I've done was somehow connected to something you've told me about my sovereignty, or stupid impressions and proper behavior!" Daralis retorted.
Legolas continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.
"Half-Elven you are, yes, but you hare also half human, and that must not be ignored!" There was a pause, in which Daralis closed her eyes in annoyance and pain.
"Elladan seemed quite worried about you." At these words, Daralis' eyes opened quickly and she looked at Legolas.
"What do you mean? What did he say?"
"I am quite sure that you would like to know," Legolas replied teasingly from his stance at the balcony, his back to her.
Daralis wasn't in the mood, you might say.
"Oh, Atar, I'm sorry! I seem to have given you the impression that I'm in the mood for your fucking mind games!" Legolas turned to her and advanced quickly.
"You listen to me, Daralis Isolde, and listen well. I have taken it once, but make no mistake that I am deathly serious when I tell you that I shall not be spoken to that way by anyone, especially not my own daughter. You will apologize this instant." As much as she hated to admit it about or to anyone, she was intimidated.
Besides that, she loved her father, and she respected him as well. Apology would be the obvious next words out of her mouth.
Which is why it came as a shock to both of them when she crossed her arms, looked him straight in the eye, and said,
"I'll do no such thing. Tell me what he said, or I'll find out for myself."
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Elladan was leaving the Healing Houses and walking through the halls when he bumped into a billowy white satin cloud. Rather, he was bumped into. Elves generally do not bump.
Nor do they squeak, as this cloud did when she hit the marble floor. Elladan helped to right her, and when the hair was cleared out of the face, he realized that it was Legolas' daughter he was resting his hands on.
On the hips and the small of her back, to be specific.
While she was in her sheer night gown and thin robe, if everything was really and truly detailed.
He froze for a moment, and then jumped back as if she were red-hot. Recognition dawned in her eyes and in her smile. She reached out for his arm.
"Elladan! You have to help me! I'm running from my father." Elladan's eyebrow raised.
"Oh, go on then, Elladan, help me hide!" Her blue eyes were bright and her dark hair was mussed, her cheeks were flushed from the run she'd had. She was gazing at him with such expectations, and he never wanted to let her down.
Unfortunately for the both of them, that was exactly what he had to do in this case.
"I do not think that that is a very good idea, Princess." She looked at him strangely as he gently pulled himself out of her grasp.
"Since when am I 'Princess'?" She sounded almost.. hurt. Besides the hangover, even.
"Since-" Elladan began, but was interrupted.
"Never mind that now, you've obviously had a run-in with my father, and I'm running out of time since you won't help me hide.
"What did you say about me to my father last night?" Elladan's heart beat a bit quicker.
"I asked only your name, Princess." The title stung her like a curse.
"Please, Elladan, please call me Dara. I beg of you. Please." That desperate look in her eye was making it harder and harder or him to push her away and be completely impartial.
"Dara!" Legolas was heard from and seen at the end of the expansive hallway. She looked back to Elladan again.
"Are you sure, Elladan, that it was only my name?"
"That I am, Prin-"
"Daralis. But I'll ask you again to please call me Dara." She turned to view Legolas' position to them, saw his purposeful stride as he came nearer.
"I've got to go now. Thank you for the talk, Elladan." She turned and walked past her father without a word. Legolas stopped and looked into Elladan's eyes for a few moments, then quickly turned, and followed his daughter again.
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Daralis continued to ignore her father the entire day, mainly because she knew she should have apologized.
She had never really been good at that sort of thing.
She sulked in her room the complete day, thinking about their argument, with both anger and regret, and then the short conversation she and Elladan had had with dismay.
She had truly been hoping to form at the least a real friendship in this place with Elladan, someone other than the three she had- her father, her grandfather, and her handmaiden.
"This is pathetic," she mumbled to herself, climbing out of the hot bath when darkness had fallen after four hours. "If I wanted to have a party, who would I invite?"
Images of a party in which one person appeared filled her mind as she put on one of her nightgowns, a lilac satin one that flowed to her feet, with lace straps and edges . She was pulling back her hair at the vanity when a knock resounded at the door.
"Finally, you come to see how I'm doing," she muttered as she went to the door.
She hated to admit it, but she had been surprised, and then worried that Legolas hadn't come to see about her all day.
But when she opened the door, it was Elladan, not Legolas, who stood there.
"Elladan!" She smiled, but was a bit wary because of the scene from that morning.
"Dara, I know you must be slightly upset with me," Elladan spoke quickly, nearly reading her thoughts, "But please understand that I could not very well hide the Princess of Mirkwood from her father." Daralis' face took on a sheepish grin.
"Yes, well, that makes sense, I suppose. Come in, won't you?" He smiled down at her.
"I really should go-" He began in protest, but was cut off quickly.
"Oh, come on, just for a few minutes, so we can talk some more!" Elladan stepped into the room and had turned around, looking at it, before he realized that she was, again, in her nightgown.
"Oh! Oh, my! Well, I uh, um" His hand was over his eyes and he was standing perfectly still.
Daralis, who hadn't ever heard an Elf stutter, turned to him in surprise.
"What's wrong, Elladan?"
"Well, Dara, I mean, Princess- I mean, Dara, yes, that, Dara well, er, it- well, it is just that You are in your nightgown." Daralis looked down at herself and back up at his covered face. He could feel her eyes on him.
"So what?"
"Well, erm, typically, it is not polite occurrence for a male Elf to see a female Elf in such a state unless, of course, they are being intimate-oh! Elbereth, uume amin quetyana"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Don't curse me in Elvish or anything I'll go and put on a robe, and give you some time to calm down."
After rummaging in her armoire and finding the robe that went with that particular gown, she reemerged, to find Elladan in the exact same spot he'd been in when she left.
"Elladan, please, make yourself comfortable!" She went and sat on her bed. "Pull up one of those chairs there, yeah, those." Elladan pulled the chair up to the side of the bed so he could sit comfortably. They were across from each other.
"Elladan, when you asked my father about my name why was that?" The question he'd been expecting, and at the same time dreading with all of his heart, had finally come.
"I cannot explain it, Dara. The night we met was one of the most fun times I have ever had and without food, drink, raucous company those who know me well know that that is most irregular." She smiled at him, and he smiled back while reaching to sweep back her unfinished bun from her face. He rested his palm on her cheek and she leaned into it, at the same time leaning forward to kiss him. He met her halfway, whispering her name before their lips touched. The robe was quickly discarded.
The kiss deepened, and he leaned between her legs on the bed, trailing kisses across her jawbone, down to her neck. She was whispering his name to him over and over again in his ear, when all of a sudden, a loud knock sounded at the door.
"Dara, I wish to speak with you," declared Legolas' voice from the other side of the door.
Daralis sat up so quickly, eyes wide, that she and Elladan bumped heads. "Ouch!"
"Dara? What is the matter?" Legolas sounded worried.
"Nothing, Atar," she shooed Elladan into the bathroom, but there was no place to hide just in case Legolas went in there, so she tried the armoire, but he was cramped, so finally, she pushed him under the bed, but that didn't work either- an Elven foot was clearly visible. Finally Elladan stood and dashed, completely silently, to the balcony doors.
"Dara? What is going on in there?" Legolas' voice was becoming even more worried, if it were possible, at this point. She rushed to open the balcony doors and let out the warmth that had filled the room, all the while rubbing her forehead where it smarted from their collision.
"Nothing, Atar, but don't open the door I'm only in my nightgown!" Elladan exited to the balcony, turned and kissed her once more, and left again, and Daralis pulled the velvet drapes.
"Oh, well yes, of course," Legolas replied.
"I'm just looking for my robe, Atar!"
"Alright, but hurry, Dara." She scooped up the pile of fabric that was her robe from the side of the bed, and as quickly as possible put it on, rushing to the door.
She opened it to see her father in formal dinner attire and looking down at her with a mixed emotion of worry and regret on his face.
"I'm so glad you came to see me, Atar. I was really getting worried about you!"
"Worried?"
"Yes, worried, you hadn't come to see me all day! I wanted to to say that.. to say that I'm soo- I'm sorr- I can't believe this.. I, Daralis Isolde, am very sa- saha- sahahar- I'm sooorrrrry. There. I did it! I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I spoke to you that way, it was wrong of me and I knew it."
"Apology accepted, Miire-nin. I was worried about you, as well. You did not appear for any of the meals, and otherwise, noone else had seen you, either."
"I'm sorry about that too."
"Yes, well, I think that we are both sorry. I should not have teased you so." Daralis gave him a small smile, and he smiled back, before looking around curiously.
"Dara, it is quite warm in here. I shall open the balcony curtains."
"NO!" Legolas jumped slightly, and looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
"What is the problem, Daralis?"
"Nothing, there's no problem at all! I was just- it's just that, um, that I am very comfortable like this, and I don't think you should."
"The doors are already open, Dara."
"Well, yes, but I mean, I like it like this."
"Alright, but I find it unbearable. I'll just open the one what is that?"
"Hmm? What's what?"
"That, that mark on your neck." Her hand flew to the developing love bite left by Elladan, mind racing.
"Oh, well, yeah, I um, I scratched myself today in the bath while I was washing my hair," Legolas looked at her strangely, but seemed to accept this answer, and went to the balcony doors. He pulled open the curtain, and stepped outside.
Dara, cringing in bed and waiting for the yelling, was immensely surprised when she heard Legolas clearly say, "Quel undome, Elladan! Saesa omentien lle! Sut naa lle umien?"
And then heard Elladan clearly reply, "Quel undome Legolas. Quel, diola lle."
And then heard her father say, " Sut naa Elrohir?."
Once more, Elladan spoke. "Elrohir tyava quel."
Finally, Legolas said, " Ai, ta anwa quel. Amin wanya. Tenna' ento lye omenta, Elladan. Quel esta."
And Elladan replied, "Quel esta, Legolas."
Legolas walked back in, describing the "amazing night" to her, and the excused himself and left. She sat there in immense confusion, heart still pounding, and got out of her bed and rushed outside.
There on the balcony of the adjoining room stood Elladan, plain as day. Daralis looked over the space between their balconies that he must have jumped, and back at him in surprise and amusement. He smiled at her and walked to the farthest left end of his balcony, while she went to the farthest right she could go, and they kissed over the gap.
"I was terrified, Elladan." He grinned widely at her.
"I thought you might be, yes." She swatted at him and turned to go into her chambers, some how comforted that Elladan was right next door.
Elvish Translation
Elbereth, uume amin quetyana - God, I can't believe I said that
Quel undome, Elladan! Saesa omentien lle! Sut naa lle umien?-Good evening, Elladan! Pleasure meeting you! How are you doing?
Quel undome, Legolas. Quel, diola lle. - Good evening, Legolas. I am fine, thank you.
Sut naa Elrohir? - How is Elrohir?
Elrohir tyava quel. - Elrohir is feeling fine.
Ai, ta anwa quel. Amin wanya. Tenna' ento lye omenta, Elladan. Quel esta. -. Alas, I must go now. Until next we meet, Elladan. Rest well.
Quel esta, Legolas. - Rest well, Legolas.
Hehe you likey? You no likey? Either way.. REVIEW!
Okay. Spring Break is coming up, and instead of staying home and writing for you fine folks like I usually do, I'm going to SPAIN!!! Oh wow. I'm very, very, very excited. And so because I won't be here and I feel bad for not updating in such a long time, I'm giving you all two chapters, which are also mega-long for my usual amount! YAY!
P.S. I am writing more chapters to the story. I like to have a few done in advance so I can review them and edit them and sort of be my own beta. So don't worry about that.
P.P.S. I wrote the thing about Spain the night before I left- April 1st. I got back last night. If you care to visit the FF.net home page, you will see that ff.net was DOWN on April 1st! And now I'm putting the two chapters up closely together, but not at once.