Disclaimer: This story is not for profit, Tolkien owns everything.
Chapter 5
A strange thing happened as we traveled through lands that were both mysterious and familiar; I could actually feel myself growing up. Each new day of experience and hardship taught me more than a year of safety and ease. And although it was unpleasant to me physically and troubling to my mind during that time, later I thought that I was indeed the better for it.
I could not say for certain if the wonders of our travels affected Aeiliel in the same way that I was. When we had set off together I had wandered in my long hours in the saddle if she was as consumed with fear and wonder of the unknown as I was, or even more so, belonging to a more simple and uneducated people, but the more I came to know her the more I perceived that it was not so. To me, Aeiliel seemed like one of the few who are born wise, and there was nothing that this world could show her that she was incapable of understanding.
Her company meant the world to me. I remembered thinking once, as she stepped on a fish in a shallow stream with her boot to catch for our supper, that this one girl could probably solve all of the problems of the world.
We understood each other. Sometimes we would ride for hours in the saddle not exchanging a word with each other, and at other times we would speak for the entire day about things that were closest to our hearts.
She became my best friend. About a few days after we set out, I realized that she was my closest friend and she always would be, and that I was hers.
If I ever made it back to my family, and escaped the men who were hunting me, I knew that I would want to be her companion always. When I was married one day, hopefully to a man that I could love, I would want her to be there in our home, for her advice and company. I would want us to raise our children together, exchanging motherly concerns over our needlework. If my husband or family died, or my children left home, I hoped to have her there always.
As it was, I couldn't imagine having to travel without her company.
Especially not when it became clear that we were being followed.
….
It was a bright morning when we first saw the riders.
We were off the main road, instead traveling along the river and then southern coast to reach our destination of Calembel.
Without making any river crossings, which we would not be capable of doing by ourselves, we would have to stop at the port city of Lebennin, Linhir.
Our plan was to go through the city, hopefully unnoticed, and come out on the other side back to the southern coast, which we would follow until we came to the Ringlo river, and then the river Ciril where it split, which we would follow up to Calembel.
I pointed out that this would seem to be the long way, taking us miles around the bottom of Gondor until finally reaching Calembel. But, as she pointed out, this way we could be sure where we were, as long as we followed the rivers. Also, by following the rivers and coasts, we would have a constant source of water and food, not to mention that any one who was looking for us was probably taking the main road, and would not expect us to be going this way.
I did not rightly say to her that I agreed with her plan, so that in case it turned out to be a bad one I could later say that I had never agreed to it(although at the time it did seem to be a good plan so I went along with it).
This morning was a glorious one, a bright spring morning that is one of the best times of the year. The sound of the birds were sweeter than any music, and the soft wind gently rustling my dark braid and her short blond hair was nicer than any touch.
Small fishing villages decorated the countryside along the river, and the occasional fisherman in his wooden boat would give us a wave every now and then. We never hesitated to wave back, knowing that the country people were kind and honest hearted folk who meant us no harm. It was the ambition of the city people, of my people, which was the reason that we were in so much danger.
We were laughing, having just seen a fish jump out of the water to catch a bug, when we decided that we would have a rest at a one of the hills over looking a small village.
Aeiliel was sipping some of the wine from the leather canteen, while I was lying on the grass, looking up at the clouds go by in the bright blue sky. I was feeling so peaceful, enjoying the breeze, when Aeiliel said, "What's that?"
"What's what?" I said, still staring at the clouds, not wanting to get up just yet.
"That!" she said, not willing to explain to me.
I sat up, annoyed at the intrusion. Looking to where she was pointing, I saw, to my great astonishment, a small moving dark blur far off in the distance, that could only horseman traveling very swiftly.
"Hold on just a moment," I said as she, chewing on an apple she had swiped off a tree earlier that morning, kept her eye on the distant riders.
I fumbled in my bag for the spyglass, and finding it, came and sat back beside her and looked through it at the riders.
Unfortunately the spyglass could not magnify very closely, it being meant more for looking at surrounding landscapes for travel, so as to see which way to proceed, and not being meant for a spying out the details of would-be assailants.
I could make out that there were around three to four of them, and they were traveling coming from the East, in the same direction that we had just traveled.
Aeiliel, snatching the glass out of my hand, surprised me once again with her worldly knowledge.
"These are horseman from Rohan." She said peering with one eye closed to get a closer look.
"And how would you know such a thing?"
"My father is a stableman, Laurwen, and I know a thing or two about horses. Those are horses from Rohan; good ones meant for covering great distances quickly." I found it humorous that she had stopped calling me "lady" after our first argument, as if feeling that a lady was someone more intelligent than I.
"What does it mean?" I whispered coming close beside her.
She was still gazing closely at the riders, a concerned look on her face.
"Nothing good for us, I think."
With that we gathered up our things and saddled up Sunflower and Storm. We rode quickly away, faster than we had yet traveled, a sense of urgency and threat in our minds.
…
For the first time in a hundred years, Thranduil felt something akin to guilt.
The image of her red, tear filled eyes kept flashing in his mind, haunting him like some kind of curse.
He had forgotten how women could be. No, he knew that was wrong of him. He had forgotten how people who had just lost someone could be. The last loss he had had personally had been centuries ago, that feeling of pain lost but not forgotten.
Since then, not much tragedy had come to his people. There was a growing evil in the forest, he could refuse to acknowledge it by enclosing his people in this part of the forest and ignoring the world without, but he could not deny it to himself. Regardless of the growing shadow over his forest, the immortal elves of the Woodland Realm were safe within this realm, and not very often was someone killed or lost.
Hence his guilt over his insensitiveness towards her pain, not to mention pain that had been caused by a lie he had told.
Surely there must have been a better way to try to get some answers from her.
If she had wandered into Lorien or Rivendell, Elrond or Galadriel would have had the truth from her in the kindest and wisest way possible, as elves were wont to do.
Ah, but what was it that Thranduil's late wife had said once to him? It had been during one of their most heated arguments….
Oh, yes. She had told him that he wasn't like other elves, only she hadn't meant in the kind way.
Maybe it was true.
…..
I woke up early the next morning, having had a restless night as a result of the disastrous feast the evening before.
As I stumbled out of bed, I saw that there were now an assortment of clothes and shoes in my wardrobe.
I chose some high boots for walking, and some trousers and a shirt that could stand to get a little dirty, as I had hoped today to do a little exploring of my new, and hopefully temporary, home.
After getting permission from the guards, I went out of the halls into the crisp autumn air.
It was a strange feeling for me, having the first opportunity in more than a year to be out-of-doors and not be running from something. The beauty of the Elven realm, the sharp morning air and sound of running water reminded me how pleasing it was to take a stroll outside and just enjoy my surroundings. Whatever my feelings might be about their king, the elves' kingdom was a beautiful place. The trees in Mirkwood had grown to impossible heights, the likes of which I had never seen in my home in the South. And the colors here were so sharp. The greens and browns were stunning. And although the forest was very dark, I thought the darkness was almost worth it when, every now and then, there were breaks in the trees where bright streams of light shot through the forest like a waterfall of sunlight. The contrast between the darkness and these occasional patches of light made for a spectacular display.
I remembered the eerie quiet of the forest when I had entered Mirkwood originally, but the unnerving feeling that I had was less so here within the borders of the elves' land.
Company was sparse outside of the halls, but occasionally I saw and elllon or elleth going about their business.
A mile or so from the King's halls I spied some elves practicing archery in a nearby clearing. A little distance from that there were elves practicing their swordsmanship. In fact, I began to notice all sorts of training going on around me. I had appeared to have stumbled into the training grounds for the King's army.
I felt out of place here, thinking that I did not belong among a training ground for men and women who were learning to fight and train for battle, much less among a training ground for elves, who were known to be among the most skilled with a blade or a bow.
Feeling such I turned the other way, to continue my morning stroll in a place where I would not be bothering the elves that were practicing, when a voice called my name and I stopped in my path.
The elf who had called my name was a tall ellon carrying a bow and arrow. He came up to me and gave a little nod before introducing himself.
"I hope I am not disturbing your walk, my lady, but I noticed you observing some of the training, and I hoped to have a chance to speak with you now since I did not get one at dinner last night."
I recognized him then as one of the elves who had sat at the same table as the King and I at the feast yesterday evening. Most of the elves that had sat at the table and greeted me were kind, although not all of them were, I thought, remembering the tall light haired elf. But this elf had kind eyes.
"You are not disturbing my walk at all," I told the tall auburn haired elf, "indeed, I am afraid I am the one who is disturbing your practice."
"Not at all, my lady, we encourage any and all who wish to watch or participate to do so."
His mention of participating made my cheeks turn red. I had thought that I would be intruding if I stood and observed them, much less actually trying to participate. Although to be quite honest when I saw them practicing their archery and their skills with their swords, so talented, elegant and graceful, I had wanted nothing more than to join them. When I had left my father's home more than two years ago I had been an inexperienced girl who knew almost nothing about how to survive on her own. I had learned so much in my travels and from Aeiliel, but I still knew almost nothing about how to use a weapon, and although I did not think I would enjoy weaponry I could not help but think how useful it would be to know how to do such a thing, or how much easier my life would have been in the last two years if I had known how to use the dagger I had found in my saddle bag.
"Please, call me Laurwen, and I am afraid I know next to nothing about how to use a weapon, and I am afraid I would disturb your practice with my ignorance."
"You may call me Hatholben. And if you wish, I would be more than happy to show you some of what I know, if you wish to learn."
Needless to say, I was ecstatic to have a teacher. He first asked me what I would like to do first, and I at once said archery. I envied and admired the way the elves stretched their tall bowstrings back and fired their arrows to such great distances with such elegance and grace.
The elf called Hatholben brought me to the edge of the clearing where the archers were practicing. If I had been back home in the archery fields where the men practiced, I would have probably been met with hostile stares before I was told to leave.
But here I was met with many smiles and greetings by elves going back to fetch more arrows and retrieving the ones they had shot.
"They are all very friendly to a maiden as ignorant at their sport as I." I told him as he walked me to a target range.
"They are all charmed by you, Laurwen. They rarely see young mortal girls, and they are delighted to have one so pretty and willing to learn as you staying as a guest."
His words embarrassed me, but also brought me great peace. Pelargir had hosted many more dwarf visitors than elves, and many of them had spoken as if the elves thought lower of all mortal beings.
For an hour or so Hatholben just spent time showing me the different types of bows, telling me about them, firing some for me for example, and then showing me how to hold them.
While he stood behind me and pulled my arm back further to show me how to correctly shoot the bow, he told me more about himself.
He said that he was the acting captain of king's guard while the real captain was away.
"Away where?" said I, straining my muscles to hold the string back while keeping the arrow between my fingers.
"She is in Lorien this year and the last."
"She?" I asked him surprised. I was surprised that the King had made a woman the captain of his guards; although it appeared that among elves the men and women were on a more equal footing than they were in Gondor. I admired that about the elves immensely, and if I was to be honest with myself, I admired the king for giving an elf maiden the responsibility and honor of being the captain.
"Yes, her name is Tauriel. She is a young elf and she was invited by the King's son Legolas to accompany him to Lorien. Thick as thieves the two of them are."
The news that the king had a son came as a surprise to me, and even more to my shock, as an unpleasant surprise.
"I did not know the king had a child. I did not even know he was wedded." I said, trying not to sound upset.
"Well, prince Legolas is scarcely a child any longer, but a full grown ellon. And children he has. Legolas is away but the king has a younger son as well. His name is Coruven, you may have seen him at dinner last night. He was tall, and looked much like his father."
The memory of the tall blond elf who was the king's son sent a shiver down my spine.
"Yes, I remember."
We were silent for a while as Hatholben continued to show me how to use a bow and arrow.
After another hour he declared me ready to shoot. My target was drawn on a tree about twenty feet away.
I pulled the heavy string back, focused my eyes and arrow on the target, and let go.
And hit an elf in the leg about 15 yards to the left who was walking to retrieve his arrows.
As the elf went down, clutching their leg and doubled over in pain, I turned back to Hatholben.
"I think we're done here." I said.
…
Similar to the time when I was in my seventh year and I fell over the bridge and into the Great River in my formal gown, or the time that I announced at the high table to my mother during a feast that wine came from a grape cow like white milk came from a regular cow (something my brother had so kindly told young, susceptible me), this was the kind of embarrassment that would be sure to make me cringe whenever I remembered it for years to come.
The elf that I had hit, a youthful Silvan male, was fine. Luckily for him, I was not very strong and the wound was not very deep nor the arrow very sharp. Also, the elves seemed to heal quicker than we mortals did, and although he had been confined to one of the healing rooms for a week, it was not very serious.
That didn't make me feel any less awful about it, however. In fact, I had followed them as a group of elves carried him into his room, and then stayed for almost the entire day getting in everyone's way and trying to apologize and do anything that I could to help him. They had let me fetch some bandages and bring him some food, but eventually they had banned me from the healing rooms because they said, "my incessant apologizing was distracting the healers from their work."
After that I had confined myself to my room, feeling too miserable to do any more exploring for the day. I had also not touched any of the food they had brought to my room, feeling too unworthy of the scrumptious delights that they had sent from the kitchens.
It was now early into the night as I sat on my four-poster bed with my arms crossed over my shoulders and my bare feet hanging off the side of the tall bed. Elven nightgowns were one of their clothes I would permit myself to wear, although the thinness of the material made me feel somewhat exposed.
The sound of my door opening made me stop feeling sorry for myself for a moment as I turned and saw the King entering the room.
I almost forgot my anger towards him as I stared at him, awed by his regal presence and the impressive figure that he cut.
After a moment though, I remembered how he had treated me the night before at the feast so after I greeted him politely and nodded my head with the manners that belonged to the daughter of the governor of the largest city in the largest province of southern Gondor, I turned my head away from him.
I heard the sound of my door closing once again, although I could not see if the guards had just done so or if the King had signaled them to.
"Laurwen," he said firmly, thus forcing me to turn my head back to him, "I would speak with you for a moment."
I turned my head away from him once again.
"About what?" I said curtly.
There was a silence for a moment, and as I wondered why he was not answering me, my heart stopped in my chest and dropped into my stomach as I realized my mistake.
I turned my head back slowly to him, staring in wide-eyed horror at him. How could I have been so stupid? This was even worse than the mistake I had made last night.
He stared back at me with his cold blue eyes looking down from his great height.
As if reading my thoughts, he said, "Don't feel too distraught, anyone would forget themselves and answer to their own name. It's only natural."
His words were surprisingly kind, but they did not make me feel any better, since I now realized the great danger I was in.
"How did you know?"
"A few years ago, I received a letter from your cousin Baldrick,"
I couldn't help but wince at the name.
"saying that his young cousin Laurwen was missing and to send word if a girl fitting your description came through."
I closed my eyes.
My hatred for my cousin absolutely consumed me at that moment, and my anger towards the king was forgotten. How like Baldrick to do that. To hire men to hunt me down like an animal, to send word to all the rulers of Middle-Earth to take me into custody and return me to his evil claws the moment I stepped foot in another realm.
I felt weary, and so tired. But I was tired of running. I did not know if I could go any further, much less escape from the realm of King Thranduil if he chose to return me to Baldrick.
A single tear traveled down my face to my cheek, the first of many more to come I was sure, as I opened my eyes to look to the King, who had a strange expression on his face. It could almost be mistaken for compassion, although it seemed a little alien on him.
"What will you do?" said I, willing my voice and my will to be strong.
"Well," he said taking a small step closer, and shocking me by putting a hand on my shoulder, "far be it for me to send any helpless maiden back to a man who so clearly means her some kind of harm, or for me to ever do what someone commands me, as he did in his letter."
I felt as if the weight of two tons of fish had just been lifted off of my shoulders.
Seized with relief, I reached up with my opposite arm to reach up to where the king's hand was on my shoulder.
Covering his large hand with my smaller one, I gave it a quick squeeze and left it there for a moment. I whispered, "thank you" to him quietly, to not let him hear the emotion in my voice, and turned my head down, to hide the tears running down my face, that were now tears of relief.
"Yes." He said stiffly, yet somehow still tenderly, after removing his hand.
"I actually came to your room for another purpose, although I am pleased that this is out in the open now."
I wiped my face with the back of my silken sleeve before looking at him. "What is it?"
"I came to apologize for last night."
My shock must have shown on my face, because he quickly turned his own face to the side and said in a haughty tone, "Not for what I did, mind you, because you should have told me who you were immediately."
That was more like it.
He wasn't done though. "However, I am ashamed that my words distressed you so. That was not my intention."
"Thank you." I told the King for the second time that night.
If it was possible for the tall, stern king who was wearing a tall crown, a long golden robe, and a brooch shaped like a spider at his throat, to look uncomfortable, he did so at this moment.
"Well," he said, "I will leave you to get some rest. Perhaps you will now not be so afraid to be a guest at my table tomorrow night."
"Thank you, I would be honored."
As he turned and walked out of the room, I let out a deep sigh. This night had turned out better than I had expected.
I fell against my bed with my arms over my head, feeling utterly relieved. I was thinking about maybe having some of the food they had left for me after all, when the door opened again and the King stuck his head through.
"Also, you are banned from the archery fields."
