Kari held her breath as she walked down to the field where she had practiced archery countless times with Legolas. Only that day, elves from all over Middle Earth were assembled there, mostly males, practicing before the competition began.
"Miss, the spectator area is over there," a brown-haired elf said to her as he pointed to stands to her right.
"I am not a spectator, I am here to participate."
The young elf scoffed, "This is a serious competition," he said condescendingly to her.
"And I am quite serious," she retorted, looking at the elf straight in the eye.
"What is the problem?" Legolas asked sternly, approaching Kari and the elf.
Kari gasped when she saw him. He was wearing a silvery-blue tunic with intricate embroidery and grey leggings. A silver band stretched across his forehead, which indicated royalty. His stance was haughty and his eyes were quite cold as he looked at the elf who had been questioning Kari. She realized only then how regal he could be.
"Prince Legolas," the elf said respectfully while bowing. "This girl here says she's participating in the competition today."
"Yes, so what is the problem?" Legolas asked again.
"Your Highness, there must be a mistake. She is not old enough and she does not even look like an elf, though she does not look like a mortal either…"
"My father was an elf, my mother was a mortal woman. If you have any comments about my heritage, please direct them to me instead of Legolas," Kari snapped. She was easily insulted by what people had to say about her parents, both of whom she never met.
"You dare to address His Highness so casually?" the elf asked harshly.
Kari was about to snap at him again when Legolas said, "It is none of your concern. Come, Kari." He placed his hand on the small of Kari's back and led her away, leaving the elf in stunned silence.
Kari let out a small chuckle once they were out of earshot.
"What is it?" Legolas asked.
"His face was one of utter shock."
Legolas smiled, all remnants of arrogance and coldness gone. "It was quite entertaining," he conceded.
"I've never seen you dressed quite so formally," Kari commented. Even at the parties and festivals Legolas dressed more casually. She had to admit, at least to herself, that she very much enjoyed his appearance that day.
"I must appear as people expect royalty to appear. Of course I shall change for the actual competition," Legolas explained.
Kari nodded in understanding and they continued to walk around the field. Legolas told her who many of the archers were and introduced her to a few.
"Legolas!" someone called out.
Kari and Legolas turned to face the caller. Legolas' face lit up.
"Haldir! How are you?"
A tall blond elf approached the pair smiling.
"I am well, mellon. I have heard stories that you have been living here recently. Are they true?" Haldir asked.
"Yes, for the past nine years. I have been teaching Lord Elrond's charge archery. Kari, this is Haldir of Lothlorien, a good friend on mine. Haldir, this is Lord Elrond's charge, Kari. She also an apprentice to the Healer Hall," Legolas introduced.
Haldir nodded. "Have you come to watch your teacher try to defeat me in archery?" Haldir asked Kari with a warm smile.
Kari laughed. She liked Haldir already. "No, I have come to participate. Although I shall like to see you try to defeat Legolas."
Haldir chuckled as Legolas grinned widely at Kari. "She is loyal to you," Haldir commented to Legolas. "You are quite young, but if Legolas has trained you as well as he should have, you will do quite well," he said to Kari.
"Thank you, Haldir. I appreciate the support more than you know," Kari said.
Haldir smiled again. "We must speak again. Perhaps during my victory party?" Haldir asked Legolas.
"Perhaps during mine," Legolas countered.
The three laughed before Haldir left Legolas and Kari.
"I like him," Kari commented.
Legolas frowned. "He is a good person," he replied. "The competition is starting soon."
Legolas showed her were the participants were preparing for the competition before leaving briefly to change his clothing. As Kari warmed up, she wasn't deaf to the whispers about her. The only reason she was allowed to participate was because Lord Elrond was her guardian. The only reason why she was participating was because her teacher was the Prince of Mirkwood. She would undoubtedly fail miserably because of her youth and inexperience. Nor was she blind to the suspicious glances towards her, especially when Legolas returned to her side in his usual practice clothing of a brown tunic and green leggings. She tried her best to ignore all of it.
Initially, there were about two hundred and fifty participants. After four rounds, there were only sixteen participants remaining, two of them being Kari and Legolas. During the break, Kari sat down and drank some water. She was quite tired. Legolas sat next to her, took the water canteen from her hand and drank some of it himself.
"I thought elves do not get tired," she jested as he took another sip of the water. One of the mortal traits she had was that her endurance was not as strong as an elf's, though it was better than a man's.
"Elves tire, but we do not sweat, unless…never mind," Legolas said, realizing what he was going to mention was completely inappropriate for a fifteen year old girl to hear.
"Unless…?"
"I said never mind, Kari," Legolas warned.
She frowned but didn't argue with him. "Are you having fun?" she asked.
"Very much so. I have not seen some of these people from Mirkwood for nine years, it is good to see them again."
He was also grateful that Virania wasn't there. He wasn't sure if his heart was over her or not. Legolas had tried to preoccupy himself with teaching Kari and the affairs of Rivendell, so luckily thoughts of Virania only happened occasionally. He never mentioned her to Kari or anyone else for that matter.
"What is it, Legolas?"
"Nothing," he said quickly. "I am very proud of you, you have gone very far in the competition, farther than I thought you would have gone," he said as he reclined to a lying position next to Kari.
"I thought I might have gotten disqualified at the third round when I saw that the targets were those small disks swinging from the trees that you had to hit after tumbling. I think it was luck," Kari admitted.
"We had practiced a variation of that before, you are better trained than you give yourself credit for thanks to me," he quipped as he closed his eyes for a bit of rest.
Kari couldn't help but smile. "Apparently." She heard fragments of snide comments coming from the spectator stands and turned to see a few female elves staring at her in disgust. They would look at Legolas laying beside her sitting form on the field and back at her, shaking their head and whispering about her and what a pathetic-looking thing she was next to such a handsome elf. Kari shifted uneasily.
"Just ignore them, Kari," Legolas said without opening his eyes.
"Did you not hear what they said?" Kari said angrily.
"It is of no importance. Ignore them," Legolas said, sitting up and looking directly at her. Her pulse did the habitual quickening and Kari inhaled to try to calm her nerves. Legolas interpreted her inhale as trying to calm herself over what those she-elves were saying and placed his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. This only made Kari more uneasy, although she hid it better this time.
"I think the next round is starting," Kari said, getting up and letting Legolas' hand fall from her shoulder. Legolas sighed and followed her. He didn't want her life to be harder than it was by having to deal with some silly she-elves who insulted her.
For the fifth round, the participants stood on tree branches, flipped off onto the field, and aimed for a small moving target that was on the ground. The eight participants who did this the most accurately and quickly proceeded to the next round. Kari watched as Legolas gracefully leapt from the branch and hit the target so swiftly that she hadn't even seen him really aim. Kari was the last one. Already eight participants succeeded in hitting the target while the other seven were disqualified by missing the target.
Kari looked down at Legolas who was smiling confidently at her and flipped from the branch onto the ground. However, her ankle rolled out on a rock that had been covered with grass that she had not seen. Pain coursed though her body as she fell to the ground, but she nonetheless quickly pulled the arrow back across the bow and hit the target as she fell. She grimaced as she tried to assess the damage she had done to herself when Legolas ran up to her and kneeled on the ground. Arwen and Aragorn followed him to her.
"Kari, are you alright?" he asked worriedly. She saw him look genuinely scared for the first time in her entire life.
"Yes. I think it is just a sprain. I need to go to the Healer's Hall though," she said, trying to get up. Legolas helped her up, but when she tried to walk, she fell into his arms and cried out in pain.
"Here, I shall carry you," Legolas said as he grabbed her legs and her back gently with his arms.
He began walking when she said, "No, Legolas, you have to finish the competition."
"It is not important," he said dismissively.
"No, Legolas, I am fine, really, it just hurts a little. Let someone else take me to the Healer's Hall while you win this competition," she said.
"Kari, I do not care about the competition," he said forcefully. He was lying, he did care, but he cared about her more.
"Legolas, don't be stupid," she said sternly.
Legolas smiled. A century ago he would have never let anyone call him stupid, but Kari managed to change that.
"I can take her," Aragorn offered.
"You see, Aragorn shall take me. I am fine, I can take care of myself, Legolas," Kari said with unusual softness.
Legolas looked at Aragorn, knowing full well that Kari was safe with Aragorn and that she could take care of herself, but Legolas wanted to take care of her…forever. What astrange notion that was. Legolas nodded reluctantly, handed Kari over to Aragorn gently and gave her a small smile.
"You did well today. You made me so proud," he said.
Kari smiled really wide, "Thank you, Legolas. I shall take half the credit for it."
He smiled at her response and impulsively kissed her forehead. He stroked her hair lightly and walked away, back towards the competition.
Many hours later, Kari was still happy from the kiss and being in Legolas' arms. Though she knew he did not mean much by either gesture, it still made Kari quite giddy. She propped her back up on the bed and looked at her wrapped ankle. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't fallen on her ankle? She had come in ninth in that round and was disqualified, but she wouldn't have been able to finish the rounds even if she had come in eighth. The fact that Legolas wanted to forsake the competition to stay with her made her feel terribly special. But he had returned and the competition narrowed to Legolas and Haldir. Legolas had won, making her enormously proud of him. Rivendell had a celebration in his name filled with music, dancing and good food.
Arwen had told her all this when she had come into her room to give her some of the food. Arwen had made allusions to the fact that Legolas was enjoying himself and dancing with many different she-elves, inadvertently making Kari jealous. Arwen did not know about Kari's feelings towards Legolas - no one did. Kari just hoped that he wasn't dancing with any other those rude she-elves who were saying bad things about her, but she doubted he would.
She knew of his former life in Mirkwood consisted of many more parties, and he had had a much more carefree nature. Arwen had once told her that Legolas was a very popular elf with the females, but Arwen never told her why Legolas left that life for Rivendell. Kari tried asking Legolas once, but he refused to talk about it.
She heard a knock on her door. "Come in."
Legolas entered her bedroom and smiled. "I wanted to see how you were," he said quietly.
"I'm fine, but is there not a party going on in your name?" Kari asked as he sat on her bed and looked at her ankle.
"It is ending soon, and we did not have our last dance," Legolas said.
Kari smiled. "It's alright. You should go back and find some attractive she-elf to dance with. I cannot dance," she said, smiling. It hurt her to tell him to go away, but she couldn't dance on her ankle.
Legolas got up and went into Kari's adjoining room to open the main door, letting the music flood into her bedroom. He came back into her bedroom, placed both hands on the bed and bent down to look at her straight in the eye. "I do not want to find some attractive she-elf to dance with when I have someone infinitely better in front of me," he said seriously yet softly to her.
She broke the eye contact and blushed furiously. She was making a complete fool of herself. "You are quite the charmer, Legolas," she said, feigning annoyance.
She thought for a second that she saw hurt flash across his face, but it vanished as quickly as it was there, only to be replaced with a small smile. "I have never lied to you, Kari. I am not starting now," he said quietly.
She gulped. "Thank you," she whispered, looking at her bed sheets. Kari suddenly felt an arm slide under her knees, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around Legolas' neck. "But my ankle…"
"Do not worry about that," he said as he carried her into the adjoining room where there was more open space.
He began swaying slowly to the soft music coming into the room from the party as he held her. He danced in a circle and dipped her occasionally causing Kari to laugh. She held onto him tightly and he did not mind, in fact, he liked it a lot. He twirled her around in her room, making a complete fool of himself as he held her, just to see her smile. He felt her relax in his arms and rest her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and he continued to dance for them.
Author's Note: An particularly longer chapter due to future circumstances. I just wanted to say that I will be in Hawaii for 10 weeks doing research and I do not know when I will have a chance to update. I am taking the story with me, so I will work on it when I have free time, but I honestly do not know when that will be. I had hoped to get the story up before then, but packing for the trip and life in general didn't let me. I will update when I can and I promise on the hotness that is Legolas smiles that I will NOT abandon this story. So, if there is a long pause in updates, it is because I can't get internet access, not because I have forgotten about it or because I have forsaken you all. Kari will be 15 for I think another chapter (maybe 2 depending on how long I make them) and then she will be 18. Things get more…interesting…when she's 18. Thanks for the reviews, they mean so much. Take care and aloha!