Cassidy found that the King was indeed a proud and stubborn man for she saw no sign of him over the next two weeks. During that time, she occupied herself with sorting through the various notes of her field journal and organizing all the information that she had on Middle Earth. In truth, she was perfectly happy to be doing so and often found herself lost for hours at a time in her work for there were so many new and fascinating things for her to discover.
As for her companions, Gwedel was obviously annoyed with the small space and thus she allowed the horse to wander outside the bubble of her spell. For all the elves were, they seemed to be lovers of nature and thus didn't bother the proud mare as she roamed and nibbled on whatever vegetation she could find. Lucius was, as one might predict, not overly thrilled with the scenario. Cassidy did manage to question him several times and his answer, though mostly unhelpful, did at least give her a little insight into his travels in Middle Earth. It seemed that whatever occurred to sweep Cassidy into the strange world, also picked him up. They were merely deposited in different locations. Now Aragorn, that was man unused to sitting still. Every day he seemed to grow more agitated and continued to question Cassidy's choice to remain stubbornly camped in the woods. Each time she reminded him that he was under no obligation to stay, but stay he did.
For supplies, she wasn't too worried. Water was easy enough to acquire with the right spell and she had enough lembas to sustain her and the man for quite some time still. It was a bit annoying eating nothing but the same wafer every single day, but she had survived on worse before. Overall, she was rather content in her little camp. If the elvenking wanted to out wait her... he had something coming. She always got the answers that she wanted.
At the end of the first two weeks, the same blond haired elf approached and addressed Aragorn first.
"Estel, what are you doing here? Why do you remain with her?"
"I come on behalf of Gandalf, it is in important mission. And, she is a friend, Legolas... I truly think she means no harm."
"She is dangerous and holds the wizard captive. If you truly think her to be innocent, then the King shall decide. Have her surrender her weapon and we shall take both wizards before him."
"I'm not giving my wand to anyone," Cassidy jumped into their conversation, rolling her eyes in the process. "Also, did you happen to forget that I speak your language? Remember... elf friend?"
"You must allow us to bring you before the halls of the King," Legolas declared.
"Listen up Blondie," the shocked and affronted look that spluttered across the elf's face almost made Cassidy lose her train of thought. "I'm a witch... and witches don't just hand over their wands. Your King conspired with one of the worst dark wizards of my world, a man on the opposite side of the war that I've been fighting in for the past six years. I want and explanation and if your King doesn't want me in his home, then fine by me. But, he's going to talk to me."
The blond elf stormed off after that and Aragorn fixed Cassidy with a mildly displeased expression. She merely shrugged.
"He was asking for it."
After the incident with the pretty blond, it seemed that they pulled back most of the elves who surrounded their little camp. This soon proved to be a mild nuisance as Cassidy found herself for the first time encountering the giant spiders that Aragorn warned her about.
It was the middle of the night, the forest was pitch black and the only light around was in the form of the smoldering embers of the little camp fire. The woods were filled with all the usual sounds of a forest at night, owls, crickets, and some wolves howling in the distance. Cassidy was fast asleep when she heard a wild battle cry and felt something shift next to her. Acting on instincts that had been honed over the last few years, she too lept from her bedroll and had her wand held aloft, ready to battle whatever managed to brake through her spell.
What she found however, where what she would normally swear to be Acromantula circling the bubble of her charm. Aragorn had his sword aloft and was circling from the inside of the bubble, tense and ready for battle. Cassidy merely exhaled loudly and told the man to sit down. He turned and gave her a look that seemed to imply that she was mad, but she merely shook her head.
With a simple lumos she lit up the area and received her journal, once more taking notes on the giant spiders which surrounded her. The spiders didn't seem to appreciate her light too much and launched into an attack. Aragorn watched in shock as they threw themselves against the invisible walls fo Cassidy's charm, and were bounced back each time. They certainly were determined creatures however as they kept slamming themselves against the invisible barrier. Finally, Aragorn seemed to get the idea that the creatures couldn't harm them and he reluctantly sheathed his sword.
Cassidy, for her part, was fully engrossed in studying the creatures. She really wanted to examine one up close and perhaps collect a sample of their venom. This being so, she petrified one and brought it within the bounds of her charm. Of course, Aragorn didn't react all too well to this, especially when she had her hands awfully close to the creature's massive fangs. After a rather heated argument over scientific merit however, Aragorn was eventually appeased as she reluctantly allowed him to drive his sword through the creature's head.
At the very least, the dissections as fascinating and gave Cassidy something to do for the next week.
Cassidy was pretty sure that she saw Aragorn gagging when she pulled out the creature's silk glands.
After another week passed, Cassidy was running out of stuff to do. She had finished her dissection and tossed the corpse far enough away from her charm before hitting it with a blasting curse to get rid of the spider. The elves had seemed to abandon watching her and even the spiders were no longer approaching. I suppose that watching one of their companions get dissected can discourage visitations.
She had finished organizing her journals several times over and was starting to get bored. She was however... not one to give up from boredom and thus she remained determined to stay in place. That being said, she was used to a rather busy schedule and soon found herself practicing her more complex spell work, much to the annoyance of Aragorn who seemed rather distrusting of several of her attempts.
After enough time passed though, Cassidy's boredom spurred an idea that she was certain the Weasley twins would be proud of. Digging through her bag, she found the perfect item and, with the help of a muffliato charm she was able to set everything up with Aragorn none the wiser. Using a charm that Cassidy had learned from Dumbledoor several years ago, she set her plan into motion and sat back, a satisfied smirk on her face that Aragorn immediately noticed.
"What did you do?" He questioned suspiciously.
Lucius was glaring at her from where he was still bound and silenced, but Cassidy merely smirked at first him, then Aragorn.
"Oh... I'm sure we'll hear about it soon."
Aragorn chose to ignore those words and go back to sharpening his sword, but not without scanning his eyes cross the tree line. They remained in silence for several hours more, Aragorn sharpening his sword, Cassidy flipping through pages in one of her textbooks, Gwedel grazing, Aragorn's sack spitting the occasional curse, and Lucius glaring fiercely at them all. The peace was soon broken however when a party of elves came flying into the clearing, armed to the teeth and with their bows useless drawn and aimed at the small campsite.
"Foul Witch! What it the meaning-"
Cassidy held up one finger, abruptly cutting the spluttering elf off halfway through his words. She didn't even bother looking up as she was determined to finish reading that page that she was on before dealing with the rather indignant blond elf who, from the tone of his voice alone, Cassidy was pretty certain had steam pouring from his pointed ears. When she finished her page she slipped the bookmark in, closed the book, and placed it gently on her bedroll before turning to the fuming elf with a sweet smile on her face.
"Can I help you?" She asked calmly.
"What," he ground his words out in a voice far more strained from the usual sweet tones of the elves. "In Eru's name is this?!"
At those words he stilled that hand that he had previously been waving around to reveal a bright red envelop, clearly already opened. Cassidy's smile grew about a mile wide as she realized that her little prank did indeed work.
"Legolas, what is wrong?" Aragorn asked with concern shining in his eyes.
"What- what is wrong?" He roared with a note of panic and rage in his tone. "This... this foul witch sent forth a note that flew into the chambers of King Thranduil and screamed obscenities about him which I shall not repeat."
"Ya... well that's what happens when you refuse to open a howler," Cassidy shrugged lightly.
"The enchanted letter then opened and the witch's voice poured forth, screaming loudly and demanding an audience with the King."
"You obviously weren't passing on my messages... so I sent one myself."
"I should kill you for your words of insult to my King," he looked furious as he spoke.
"Hey, technically... the only stuff I said was the stuff in my voice. The other 'obscenities' where the howler's invention. It just screams insults until it's opened."
With that, the elf glared daggers at Cassidy before turning his back and leaping into the trees. The young witch took a moment to admire the elf's agility before sitting back down and returning to her book. She could feel the eyes of Aragorn on her and finally, she relented and looked up at him.
"What did you magic letter say?" He asked, something between concern and curiosity coloring his tone.
"My guess..." she smiled slightly at the thought, "probably something about a pointy-eared arrogant bastard. I don't choose the words... but it does feed on the sender's thoughts."
Aragorn's eyebrows rose in amusement and she chuckled before returning to her book.
Patience is a virtue... but sometimes it helps to nudge things alone a little.
After five weeks of camping in a woods filled with spider and elves... it seemed that the King's stubbornness finally wore off. Cassidy was in the middle of spelling her clothes clean and detangling her hair when she heard a hen blown in the distance.
"The King approaches," Aragorn said as he scrambled to his feet, quickly sheathing his sword and straightening his clothes.
Cassidy took that as a hint to quickly finish her grooming and grab Lucius who had given up on making a fuss several weeks ago. She whistled lightly and drew Gwedel back into her charm, re-affirming it just in case this elven king turned out to be less than pleasant. She checked a small hand mirror to ensure that she looked decently presentable before sitting calmly with her legs folded beneath her, waiting in the same way she always did at the dojos of Mahoutokoro. She had her wand held lightly in her hand and resting on her knee whilst Aragorn stood smartly to attention.
There was an easy confidence to the way she sat... neither submission nor pride. She was taught such as it revealed nothing to an opponent. It showed that she neither feared them, nor looked down on them as either could easily be used to ones own advantage. Instead, she was posted and ready, yet relaxed. Cassidy had learned a thing or two about how to face off against the powerful.
As usual, there was no rumble of a march, and yet elvish warriors appeared all around the camp, half in the trees and half on the ground. They all had arrows nocked, yet none were drawn back. Then, a troop of more warriors emerged and filled the clearing. These wore shining armor and held long, wicked looking swords and rounded shields which remained Cassidy of stories from history books. All the elves in armor wore helmets which obscured their expressions, though all were long of limb and had hair varying in shades of brown.
At the sound of a sharp whistle, the front lines all took a half step to each side to create a small gap where an elf- the one called Legolas who visited them so often, stepped forth. He was wearing far more armor than they were used to seeing him in. Cassidy couldn't help but find herself fascinated with the mail like leaf shaped scales of the armor which appeared to elegantly match the woods around them. The leather and steel were clearly of fine craft and far superior to the medieval armor that she was familiar with seeing on museum trips. Cassidy also couldn't help but notice that Legolas wasn't wearing a helmet, but instead a thing metal circlet.
Ah, he did always act important, she smirked as she realized that she had been sparring words with some sort of noble amount the elves.
"King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm approaches," he declared in a firm and official sounding voice.
Then, two banner carrying elves approached and stepped to either side, Legolas took a half step back, and Cassidy schooled her expression into neutrality as a massive elk stepped forward.
The creature was huge, as large as a Hippogriff and with the most impressive rack of antlers that Cassidy had ever seen. More amazing however, was the figure who sat astride the great beast. He was tall, long limbed and fair, white-blond hair spilled down his shoulders, and ice blue eyes glared down at where Cassidy sat in her feigned casualty. He wore a long, trailing cape that covered the back of the elk and a massive crown that appeared to be made of thorns with spring blossoms woven in sat atop his head.
Well this is certainly the King of the elves, thought Cassidy wryly.
Beside her, Aragorn bowed, but the only motion that Cassidy made was to tilt her head slightly to the side, watching the elf. She had said quite enough already. What Cassidy really wanted, was to hear him speak. He soon obliged.
"I do not appreciate being summoned to my own woods," his voice was smooth as silk yet hard as steel. "What business have you here in my realm?"
"Actually, your Majesty," she silently enjoyed the twitch of emotion she saw in his eyes as she spoke their language. "I have a few questions for you."