A/N: I am so sorry about the long delay! Writer's block is both a curse and a blessing…
About two weeks had passed since Legolas had killed the spider and received the Stargazer's prediction. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred during that time except for the burning of the spider's corpse, which was more of a tradition than a ritual. That is, nothing out of the ordinary happened until the sixteenth day after the prediction was made…
"King Thranduil! Prince Legolas!" A young elf ran through the halls of the underground castle calling their names. "King Thranduil! There's something you need to see!"
"Tiraal?" Legolas stepped out from the library just as the elf ran past. "What is it, elfling?"
Normally, Tiraal would scowl at him but he was too full of excitement to care. "I cannot describe it to you because there are no words to describe what was brought into the castle. You must go to the throne room to see for yourself, my lord!" He ran off looking for Thranduil now that the Prince had received the message.
Curious, Legolas set down his book and made his way to the throne room. Many of the female elves looked excited and lively chatter grew steadily louder as he neared the room. He looked over the banister that hung over the lower floor and a shock of colour met his eyes.
Marvellous bolts of fantastically coloured fabric were laid side by side on the floor, each more beautiful than the last. The bright sunlight from the windows streamed in and danced across the fabrics like none other seen in Middle-Earth. Vibrant reds lay next to soft violets while luscious blues of every shade shared the floor with the rich greens that echoed the forests.
Breathless, Legolas went down to the lower floor without taking his eyes off of the fabrics. He bent down and picked up a bolt of the lightest blue he had ever seen and was rendered speechless by the softness and weightlessness of the material.
"Like touching a cloud," an elf, much older than he, said. His name was Elin and he had been travelling for some years, though nobody quite knew where. "My travelling party and I brought these fabrics back."
"They're so soft," Legolas whispered. He gently unravelled a rich, dark green scroll and watched intricate patterns of gold weaved into the fabric shimmer in the sun when he moved it. "Exquisite. You must have taken them from the Valar themselves. If not, the Fallen Maiar gave them to you and disaster will fall upon us."
"No, my lord," Elin laughed but his dark eyes softened a bit. "We had left the boundaries of Middle-Earth and something strange caught our eyes in the distance. When we came close, we saw that it was a destroyed carriage with these treasures inside. We searched for survivors but found none."
"None at all?"
He shook his head sadly. "These fabrics were carefully hidden so whatever attacked the carriage most likely looked them over and stole anything else of value."
"Or the attackers were looking for something else," Legolas suggested darkly. "These fabrics are like our silk but softer like elanor petals and lighter than the winds. They would hold incredible value in our lands."
He couldn't stop running his hands over the forest green silk inlaid with gold. It was unlike anything he had ever felt and he loved it. Elin noticed and gave him a smirk.
"I assume the royalty approves of our findings?"
Legolas looked at him like he was trying to figure out how he could know so quickly. Then, he looked at his hand, which was still stroking the delicate material, and understood. He broke out into a happy smile and nodded. "Very much so, Elin. I think I may be enjoying this silk too much."
"Well," he said slowly, "if it pleases you, the tailor can have that made into another shirt for you. I think he and his lovely assistants could even make another cloak for you with one of these silks as a lining."
"You are putting ideas into my head again," Legolas said with a laugh.
"This time, it is not as dangerous as my other ideas!"
As an elfling, Legolas would often use Elin's advice and listen to him over almost everyone else and it was because of Elin that Legolas often got into trouble but he developed a keen sense of incoming danger and quick thinking. As he grew older, he learned only to take Elin's advice in consideration and think before he acted upon it.
This time, however, he could see no harm in taking some fabric to be made into a few shirts.
He sat down on the ground, like many of his people at the time, and looked carefully at each bolt of silk. He called Elin to help him choose which ones to use.
He and Elin, along with a few others who had overheard and joined the discussion, had just decided on five different colours with different patterns and textures when Thranduil finally made his appearance.
"Oh my," he said with laughter when he saw the silks laid out in front of the throne. "I thought you were attempting to trick me when you said they were from heaven, Tiraal."
"No, sire," Tiraal laughed, "I would not dare to think of deceiving you, my King,"
"I could not mind it in the least," Thranduil called back to him as they walked down the stairs. "Just as long as it is all in good fun. Now, what are you doing with that, Legolas?"
"Ehh… er… keeping Elin out of trouble?" He had unravelled a long section of black silk and tightly wrapped it around Elin so he couldn't move without ripping the precious silk. "And, I shall have the tailor create some shirts with these silks for me."
"These?"
Thranduil knelt down and touched the five silks that were set aside from the rest. Along with the forest green and the black silk, there were a bolt of soft, light powder blue silk, another of a proud, rich red and a last roll was of a pure white, like the snow outside. Like his son, he lightly ran his hand over them and smiled.
Legolas nodded. "They are my favourites among all the fabrics."
The king got to his feet with the green silk in his arms. With a grin, he threw the bolt to his son. "You had better ask the tailor now before I take them as my own favourites."
"Yes, my lord!" He quickly untied Elin, asked some of the other Elves around him for help and, carrying the green cloth himself, rushed to the tailor.
When he got there, the tailor was ecstatic to be able to work with the versatile cloth. With his young elvish assistants, he unravelled the five rolls to decide which fabrics would be made into what. Legolas made it clear that he wanted one to be lining for a new cloak.
The tailor was giving him so many choices that he finally put his hands on the excited elf's shoulders with a quiet smile. "As long as the forest silk and the blue silk are made into shirts, I will be happy and I leave you with the decisions of the others. I know you and your apprentices will do a spectacular job."
Thanking him repeatedly, they took his measurements and set out to cut the fabrics from the templates, gently shooing Legolas out of their studio.
"Wait, Prince Legolas!" A she-elf picked up an amulet from the floor. "I believe you dropped this, my Prince." She put it in his hand and quickly rushed away to work with her colleagues.
Though confused, Legolas left with the small amulet in hand. He manoeuvred through the castle to a side exit and strolled outside in the snow. He kept close to his home since he was not carrying his weapons.
Out in the open, he opened his palm and examined the curious artefact. It was a single piece of stone tied to a long, red string similar to the silks inside. He turned it over in his hand and looked interestedly at the veins of green that flowed through the trinket. He had never seen a green stone quite like this before and the design it was carved in especially interested him.
It looked to be carved out of a single piece of stone with great skill and dexterity. It was a small, hollow green marble that was made like a twisting spherical cage. He looked closer and saw that it was just one line curving within itself and the clouds that were captured in the amulet. The delicate carvings rippled like scales of a snake over the continuous curves.
That's strange, he thought to himself. Serpents do not fly. Only birds, insects and dragons fly through the air by nature's hand. What sort of creature is this, one that can fly though the air without wings?
He held the amulet up by the ends of the frayed string and admired the workmanship of it. To be able to carve something so small out of such a stone with that level of detail on both the outside and inside was a skill that surpassed both the Elves and Dwarves. Even the intricate knot that held the amulet was something he had never seen before.
The clouds around the flying snake and the wing-like design of the knot reminded him very much of the winds but he couldn't quite understand why.
Somewhere in the trees in front of him, something moved through the branches. It was fast and silent, always merely heard and seen as a glimpse yet never actually heard or seen.
Legolas snapped to attention and scanned the forest with his keen eyes. It made him nervous to think that there was something so close to him that could move without a sound and being seen. He saw nothing and that proved nothing. He could feel someone, or something, watching him intently and it was in the forest in front of him.
It moves much like the wind, he thought and held the amulet tightly in his hand.
Remembering the Stargazer's prediction and fully knowing he was unarmed, he turned his back to the trees and whatever was in it and went back into the castle. He could feel the being in the forest watching him intensely even when he had long been inside the castle.
As he passed his people in his realm, he realized the danger of carrying a foreign object that came from a world that seemed to surpass the skills and techniques of their own. After all, the amulet once belonged to someone, as well as the enchanting bolts of silk that his kingdom had taken in. He could not explain it, but he sensed that the fabrics and the amulet he carried in his hand were part of something bigger.
He had walked himself right back into the castle's library as his mind pondered over the possible connections between the amulet and the fabrics. Briefly, he wondered what the hundreds of tomes and documents filled with knowledge and secrets could tell him about the amulet.
"I would not quite know where to begin searching," he said quietly to himself and rested in a chair by a tall window overlooking a reasonable area of the forest.
After making sure nobody was looking in his direction, Legolas lifted the green amulet into the sunlight to look at it again. The twisting pattern of the serpentine creature was absolutely mesmerizing. It never seemed to cease, like how a ring has no beginning or end, yet the head of the creature was clearly seen. Between clouds and the sky, it looked like it weaved its cage on the winds to protect something unseen and unknown yet clearly valuable enough for such a magnificent creature to guard over.
The sun drenched the green amulet in its clear winter brightness and the creature's delicate and intricately carved scales sparkled at him, making the illusion that it was alive in his hand.
"Caw! Caw!"
A large black raven sat at the top of a particularly tall elm tree. Clumps of snow drifted down to the ground below as it flared its dark wings at him.
"Caw! Caw!"
It was calling him.
With a mighty swoop of its wings, it took off from its lonely perch and flew away. It continued to call out with its haunting voice as its black outline glided and circled over the vast forest before drifting out of sight.
Somehow, it chilled Legolas when he saw the raven. He knew that it was calling him out of the castle into the trees and he knew that he would not be heeding its call this time.
A pair of she-elves had come into the library, still excited about the fabrics that were still in the throne room. When they ventured closer to him, Legolas hastily, discreetly, pocketed the amulet out of view.
"My lord," one asked, "did you no see what Lord Elin and his party have returned with? Many believe that they were given these gifts from the Valar themselves!"
"Yes, I did," he replied with a smile.
"Then the clothes that the tailor are making are yours, my lord?" the other asked excitedly. She flushed and said just as quickly but much more quietly, "If my lord would like to tell us, of course."
"I would not mind in the least! Those garments are indeed mine though I do not dare to think that my requests will be the only ones our tailors will have to take heed to."
"It would be quite foolish, my lord, if we may say so," the first said with a happy smile. She had also wanted to have a robe decorated with some of the fabrics but only wanted the material to do it herself.
Because he rarely exercised his power as Prince, Legolas found it easy to talk to his people. Yet at this time, he felt a little troubled in his conversation. In the back of his mind, he wondered how badly the mysterious raven and the unknown being in the forest were affecting him.
The two Elves bade him a good day to research something else of their common interest, leaving him alone once more.
He looked over his snow-covered forest kingdom in the sparkling sun. Everything seemed quite peaceful and showed no sign of any kind of threat to him or anybody else of his kingdom.
Then, he saw it.
In the very same tree that the raven had perched upon and called to him, the image of a cloaked, hooded figure was seen sitting upon the elm's high branches. It sat calmly on a branch very near to the top of the tree, near the raven's perch and completely at peace with the winds that had begun to blow around the treetops.
From the shadows of the hood, Legolas could sense the being looking at him, watching him. The memory of Elarian's prediction came sharply back into his mind once more.
He wondered as he looked back at the being, Was that raven calling me or was it warning me of what is to come?
