Thranduil discovered Ailunai leaning on a balcony railing, staring out at the green trees of Mirkwood as the summer wind spun ripples onto the far glimpse of the river. As Thranduil stepped out beside her, she turned.

"It gets awfully lonely," Ailunai said. "I do not like flirting as much as the other girls."

"Come to the stables with me," Thranduil suggested. He smiled. "We can go for a ride."

"I used to ride around the vineyard with my father," Ailunai said. "Wait for me!"

She ran into the palace. Thranduil watched her blue dress swish around her slippers until she ducked around a corner. Thranduil clasped the books he held until she returned wearing a dark green wrap around her head and shoulders.

"Maybe I should disguise myself too," Thranduil mused.

Ailunai held up a second strip of black cloth. "I brought you one. I have to embroider flowers all along the edges of both these cloths, but they will do for now as they are."

Thranduil handed Ailunai the books and wrapped the cloth around his head. His blond hair out of sight, he took back the books and led the way to the stables. Jailil and Hyrondal received him in the shady glen between the eastern stable wall and the first trees. Hyrondal crawled off the wooden bench he lay on, directly opposite the narrow entrance between the stable wall and the forest line.

The grass in the glen was short and dark and Jailil sat with his back to the stable wall. Thranduil thrust the books into Jailil's arms. "These are the first three books in the Herbal Lore series," Thranduil said. He glanced at the rain barrel under the corner stable eaves. "You have to promise to treat them well."

Jailil gazed at the embossed trees and flowers on the books he held. He did not look up as he whispered, "I will."

"Now, I know you are both technically done for the day," Thranduil said. "But—"

"You want to take your lady friend for a ride," Hyrondal finished and winked.

"This is Ailunai," Thranduil introduced. "Hyrondal and Jailil."

"I will saddle my horse," Ailunai volunteered.

Hyrondal flopped back down onto the bench as Jailil carefully opened a book across his knees. As Thranduil and Ailunai left the glen, Hyrondal yelled, "Be back in time for practice!"

Thranduil secured permission from Geoda before he saddled a horse. In the wide center board walk between the two rows of horse stalls and with doors open at either end of the barn, the place smelled of hay. Atop his chosen bay mount, Thranduil joined Ailunai at the stable entrance. His horse swished its tail as Thranduil asked, "Where to?"

Ailunai waved her hand. "You lead the way. But let us stay away from the riding paths."

Thranduil paused to think before he clucked to his horse. As they trotted into the trees, Ailunai said, "It must be nice to have diverse friends."

Thranduil looked sideways at her. "Oropher does not approve of me keeping company with orphans and servants."

"No," Ailunai agreed. "But he has not forbidden it."

"I am trying hard to treat everyone with respect," Thranduil answered. "Even the people I do not like. After all, it is better to have friends then make enemies."

"I know what you mean," Ailunai said thoughtfully. "Sometimes I want to scream and pull out my hair in that ballroom."

Thranduil chuckled. The horses found a thin strip of dirt leading under the trees and followed it.

"A deer trail," Thranduil explained. "We may only run into hunters."

"I have always wanted to hunt," Ailunai said. "But I am told it will only ever be my place to be a pretty face for the huntsmen to come back to."

Thranduil wrinkled his nose. "It will be my place to hunt, but I will not hunt to show off to pretty faces."

"Not even if the face were mine?" Ailunai teased.

The horses poked their heads into an open meadow. Thranduil looked at Ailunai. "Race you!"

The horses jumped into a spring and stretched into a gallop. Thranduil shrieked as his hair covering came loose. Right behind him, Ailunai grabbed it before it blew away, and Thranduil's blond hair came free of its braid and streamed loose behind him. As they neared the tree line at the opposite end of the meadow, the horses slowed.

"I have to return to the stables to duel with Hyrondal," Thranduil apologized and turned his horse.

Ailunai trotted beside him. "I thought you took private lessons."

"I do," Thranduil answered. "But Hyrondal and I are working through A Warrior's Way. It teaches a different way to connect with the blade through the forest."

Ailunai brushed her fingers across a tree she passed. "I have always loved the forest. I stare at it and I can hear it whispering. If I stare long enough, sometimes I can even see things happening, like birds hatching or families picnicking."

"Mirkwood is not whispering to me well yet," Thranduil said ruefully. "I keep banging my knees and elbows."

"The forest whispers all the time," Ailunai said. "Most elves do not listen."

"How do you listen?" Thranduil asked.

"I used to sit out in the vineyard and close my eyes. Sometimes when I looked up the vines would offer me grapes."

The horses trotted under the trees and emerged near Hyrondal and Jailil's glen. Thranduil dismounted om the barn and untacked his horse. After brushing him down, he led him back into his stall and filled his water bucket.

Ailunai wrapped up her headcloth as she joined Thranduil in the barn. She handed him his cloth and he flung it over his shoulder.

"I have nothing else to do until high noon," Ailunai said. "Perhaps I can watch you and Hyrondal?"

Thranduil squinted at her. "Only if you promise not to be like Nimrethil and laugh at us."

Ailunai lifted her rounded nose into the air. "A lady does not ridicule her companions."

"Then why do I feel like I am being ridiculed right now?" Thranduil wondered.

"You are sensitive, my prince," Ailunai teased.

Jailil still sat with his back to the barn nibbling on a birch twig when Thranduil skipped into the glen but Hyrondal lowered his sword mid-swing. "You are late, Thranduil. And, since you have brought her, she can hold the book."

Ailunai spread Thranduil's black cloth on the ground and sat on it. Hyrondal thrust A Warrior's Way at her.

"It looks complicated," Ailunai observed, peeking at the sketches on the open page. She settled and held open the book. Hyrondal and Thranduil stood in front of her.

It was an elaborate and swift dance they danced, using their hands and feet and the ground until even Jailil looked up from his studying as if drawn to the invisible enemy Hyrondal and Thranduil faced. After handspringing over the bench, Hyrondal paused for breath and Thranduil followed suit.

Ailunai shut the book. "You should be on a tapestry."

"I doubt we could hold a pose long enough to be embroidered," Hyrondal replied. He attacked Thranduil. "Remember, we learned the counterstrike to today's move yesterday!"

As Thranduil ducked Hyrondal's sword and remembered to keep one hand folded behind his back he grinned. "You will not win today, Hyrondal!"

The elves went in circles around and over the bench until even Hyrondal's tight braid untied itself and the clack of their wooden swords faded with the pain in their chests from bending and swaying like willow branches avoiding the ground.

Hyrondal flung himself on the grass and draped his arm across his forehead. Jailil brought him and Thranduil mugs of cold water.

"I bruised my shoulder," Thranduil moaned as he lay on his back and dropped his wooden mug down beside him.

Hyrondal sat up and set down his empty mug. "Tumbling is not easy, is it? We should practice as we still have time."

So Thranduil rolled upright and followed Hyrondal's initiative into flips and rolls, going from standing to sitting to crouching to running in movements he knew were supposed to flow together but still looked like badly joined sticks.

Ailunai collected her wraps and handed A Warrior's Way to Hyrondal. "If I were you, I would wash off in that rain barrel."

"A lady's way of telling us we reek," Thranduil said, and bowed.

Hyrondal grinned. He poked Jailil with his toe. "I might go swimming."

The black wrap fluttering behind her and her own green one around her head and shoulders, Ailunai accompanied Thranduil into the palace kitchens. Thranduil stopped at Nimrethil's station, tried to steal a cookie, and giggled when she tried to whack him with her wooden spoon.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself trying to sabotage my work," Nimrethil scolded. "But, since I am oh, so nice, I made you a tea tray."

She thrust a tray outfitted with tea and scones into his hands. Thranduil offered a scone to Ailunai before she walked back to her chamber and Thranduil joined Harune with one less scone in the family room for tea.

I know I enjoy lighthearted mountain trail rides when I want some peace. Like Ailunai, I am not much of a flirter!

On a side note, we are finally blessed with some cooling rain and a respite from the heat. I do hope you are sitting somewhere cool and reading this.

Thanks so much for reading; you know I love hearing from you.

Next Chapter: Thranduil is given a weapon.