Disclaimer: I do not own Hobbit, everything belongs to Tolkien, and this story is not for profit.
Author's Note: I would like to thank everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed the last chapter. It means so much! Especially, kristina44, FictionPanther, and jayjay0815. Thanks guys! I'm sorry about this chapter's delay!
Chapter 15
At the end of the following Summer, the thing I had long dreaded finally happened: Legolas returned from Lorien.
The worst part about the whole affair, however, was that everyone seemed to think that the King's oldest son was absolutely perfect. It didn't matter who I asked, from Esteldes to Hatholben, from Padhrion and even Ellis; they all assured me he was a kind, brave, and honest elf. No one had ever said such things about Coruven, which led me to believe that for the most part these rumors had some truth in them. And that only made it worse, because if I could not win the affection of the King's good son, then life would be truly miserable for me indeed.
It was impossible to not see that the King was excited about his son's return. He never said so, but someone looking closely would have noticed that he woke up a few minutes earlier than normal everyday, and that at dinner every night he ate less, as if he were distracted about something. I am ashamed to say that I was irritated by it.
"My King," I finally told him one evening, "please have some more wine. It's not like you to only have three glasses with your supper."
When he assured me that he was "quite fine", I was ready to burst.
"There's no reason to be so anxious!" I said rather loudly. "It's not as if your son won't be here to stay for always when he returns!" These last words I spoke a little too loudly. Most of the heads in the great hall turned to look at me with shocked faces, and even Carfon turned a little red in embarrassment.
Needless to say, the King was furious.
When he spoke to me it was through gritted teeth. "My Queen, you don't look well. Perhaps you should retire early tonight."
Too angry at the implication of him ordering me about like a child, I was unable even to reply. With a purposefully un-elflike gesture, I pushed my chair out so it scraped loudly across the floor and I stomped off to my room.
That evening I didn't let Galessel help me dress for bed and I made her promise to leave and not wait outside the door; I was afraid of what she might hear when the King came back from dinner. For a while I tried to go to bed, but I was not able to sleep and then I thought that it might look like I was afraid of a fight with my husband, and it may have taken me years to figure it out, but I knew that I was no coward. So instead, I sat in a chair by the fire, waiting for him to return.
He looked a little surprised when he came in that night, as if he couldn't believe that I was still awake. I made no move to take off his rings or his boots as I normally did for him, so he did all of those things himself in the uncomfortable silence of our bedchamber.
"Well?" He finally said, after he was dressed for bed.
"Well, what, your highness?"
"I just thought that you might apologize for the childish and foolish way you embarrassed yourself and me at dinner tonight."
At the word childish I jumped out of my chair. "Don't you dare call me 'childish!" I'm a grown, married woman, and I think I've proven that I can well take care of myself. If anyone was being childish it was you, sending me out of the room like a petty young girl."
"I really had no choice though, did I? Who knows how much damage you might have done had I not sent you away."
"You had no right to do so! I'm your wife and not one of your lowly subjects to order around as you wish."'
"You won't have my respect until you start earning it."
"As if I would want to earn the respect of a grouchy, pompous man like you. As if it were even possible!"
For a tense moment we just stared at each other, angry. He finally wiped a hand over his face, as if in exhaustion. In that moment, he suddenly looked old to me. Not technically, of course, since elves reach a certain point and then they don't age any longer, so outwardly the Kind still had long healthy blond hair and the skin on his pale face was smooth and unwrinkled, but just for a moment, there was something about the weary look in his eyes and the hard lines around his mouth that made him look like every bit of his who-knows-how-many-years old that he was. There must have been something strange he saw in my eyes as well, because suddenly his face softened and when he spoke it was in an uncharacteristically kind manner.
"Laurwen, there isn't a chance, you couldn't possible be…jealous?"
That was just too much for me.
Could this wise, old, King standing before me, really not have realized for a second before this very moment that I was jealous? His young, human wife who lived in the shadow of his graceful dead first wife and her two grown children who had had his love for years before I was even born? Could he really be so blind? Could he really be so blind to me? I had thought he had at least suspected that Coruven and I didn't get along, but the thought of how little he really knew me made me want to cry.
Of course I didn't do that. In this sort of case, there was only one thing to do. Fight some more.
"Jealous?!" I screeched. "You think that I'm jealous of Legolas? Of someone I've never even met? Who you rarely even speak of? I can't even believe this. For someone who is supposed to be so grand, you truly are blind."
My words had the desired affect. His face grew as red as an elf's face possible can. "Well, what was I supposed to believe? Jealousy was the only possible explanation for the unsophisticated way you acted. But now that I know it wasn't jealousy, I suppose the only thing left to blame is ill breeding."
For that I slapped him.
I covered my mouth in horror after I did so, scarcely believing what I had done, and he looked just as dumbstruck as I. I wondered if anyone had ever done so before.
I decided that this had gone far enough. I stood a step towards him, and raised my hand towards his face, wanting to touch the spot on his cheek that was now turning red and beg for his forgiveness, but with fire in his eyes he grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm away from him, probably thinking that I was going to hit him again.
He pushed me away when he left the room, and I could only hope that he had forgotten how strong he was, and that he hadn't meant to do it so hard.
….
The next morning I woke up to a message from one of the lackeys.
"The King, with some of his men, has left the palace. His intention is to clear up some ill activity to the north of the wood. He may be gone for several weeks.
…..
"I just can't believe he would leave right now." I told Hatholben, as we practiced our archery. I hadn't practiced with a bow and arrow for months, not since that first time when I had hit someone and the Kind had banned me from the archery fields. I had only returned now out of spite and anger.
"What do you mean?" Hatholben replied, hitting a target a few notches away from the bull's eye.
"His son is supposed to be returning any day now. Why would he leave so soon?"
He pulled another arrow out. "Didn't you hear? Legolas sent a letter and said that he would be longer than expected. It seems he and his friend Tauriel got into some trouble or waylaid or something. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I'm sure that Legolas will tell us when he returns."
"So when will he return to Mirkwood?"
"It didn't say. Just that it would be longer now." He paused, and watched me let the arrow go. "Nice job," he said. The arrow had hit the exact center of the target.
"My Queen, it is none of my business, but if you ever have anything that you feel you need to speak to me about, I am right here."
"Why do you say that?" I said, letting another arrow fly.
He didn't say anything, choosing instead to simply watch me shoot. I paused after the arrow hit the target again. "You heard what happened at dinner," I said. It wasn't a question.
"I'm afraid everyone has heard by now."
I sighed. That would explain the tense atmosphere surrounding me lately. For the first time since I had arrived in Mirkwood, I was dealing with the disapproval of elves besides Coruven. Most of my close friends had told me that they were sorry I had been upset and that I would feel better, but I could tell the elves that didn't know me quite as well were genuinely angry at me. Legolas was beloved, and I had implied that I didn't want him to return. It made me want to bang my head against the wall, because there was almost nothing that I could do to win back many of these elves' favor.
"Thank you for the offer, Hatholben," I finally said, "But I'm fine really."
"So have you been lying to me all this time?" He suddenly said.
I turned to him surprised. "How so?"
"Well, a few months ago you couldn't hardly even use a bow and arrow, and now you've just hit your tenth bull's eye, and you aren't standing very close to it, I might add."
"Hmmm. I suppose you're right. No, I haven't been lying, but apparently I seem to have a secret talent for it."
I didn't add that there was something my family had teased me about since I was a very young child; I did things better when I was angry.
When I was angry as a child I was undefeatable in a race or a swimming contest, even against my brothers. I always wrote my best music when I was angry, and even my playing was better. It appeared that the habit had not been broken.
Many of the elves might have still been upset with me for what I said at dinner, but several of them forgot it in the days that followed.
I was mad for several days after the King left, and suddenly I spent everyday in archery contests against the other elves.
Starting in the morning the very best archers would step forward and try to best me at the targets. Even by the fifth day no elf had managed to do so, and they were all baffled as to why. Human eyes were no match for elven ones, which made them much better at archery, and it was well known that when I had first arrived in Mirkwood I was so bad that I had accidently wounded some poor elf.
By the sixth day there was a huge crowd gathered around the archery fields, watching me and whoever I was up against compete. In the afternoon, just after lunch, I defeated an elf named Helanina, who was known for being especially skilled, for the fourth time.
After we shot and the crowd was done cheering (now they were rooting for me because I was such an anomaly), a voice above the crowd said, "I would like to try and best the queen."
I smiled, looking for the voice, and the crowd parted silently, a hush falling over them all as a young elf stepped forward.
The elf that had spoken was slender and blond, with exceptional form. He had a small, pleasant smile both on his face and in his eyes. Following closely behind him was a female elf with auburn hair, clearly Silvan.
There was something familiar about the elf. I was sure I must have seen him before, but I couldn't remember where.
"Be my guest." I told him, gesturing him to come stand beside me for the next match.
Since it was clear the handmade targets were far too easy for me now, we had started using natural goals.
"You pick the first target." I told him.
His blue eyes scanned quickly over the woods, before spying a something in the distance.
"Do you see that leaf on one of the trees, your highness? It has a gold-ish tinge that separates it from the other green ones?"
I looked for a minute, until I finally saw it. "Indeed I do. That's a good target. Would you care to go first?"
"No, I insist that you begin."
I almost smiled at the laugh in his voice as I raised my bow. After I was sure I had it, I let the arrow fly.
It pierced the leaf exactly.
Everyone cheered and clapped, but many were silent, eagerly waiting to see what this new elf would do.
Taking none of the time that it had taken me, he shot his arrow in the same leaf as well.
I smiled at him. "Finally a worthy opponent." I told the blond elf.
"I might say the same thing to you." He said, eliciting a laugh from me.
"Alright, well how about that mushroom way on the other side of the fallen tree?"
"I'm ready when you are." He said, and we started again.
Again, I shot perfectly, although this time, instead of merely hitting the mushroom as I had, he positioned his bow so that when he finally shot, his arrow directly split my arrow in half where it had landed, as if he were teasing me with his skill.
Half annoyed and half humored, we shot a new target, and again, he aimed for where my arrow had fallen.
The crowd was in the hundreds by now, cheering each time one of us shot.
Although, now, instead of merely shooting my arrow after I had shot, with an almost otherworldly ability, he would shoot less than a split second after me, his arrow flying right behind mine like lightning, splitting my arrows almost at the same time they landed on their targets.
It didn't matter where I hit or how fast I managed to do so, he always did the same.
Now between shots I would laugh so hard I was practically crying, and every time his arrows split mine, the crowd would laugh as well.
For a moment, I forgot all my worries.
And, of course, this made my arrow fly so off target that it was comical. Everyone, including me laughed.
"I think we have a winner, and it isn't I." I told the elf, trying to breathe from laughing so much.
His eyes were also sparkling with humor. "Surely the last arrow was just a fluke mistake! There's no way that I can let that count. I insist you try again."
I did as the young elf said, but by this time I was not angry at all, and had completely forgotten about the King, so of course my arrow hit some someone standing in the crowd it was so off target.
Luckily this time it just pierced someone's sleeve instead of wounding them. I blushed with embarrassment, but people laughed and cheered, clearly happy that his young elf had won the contest.
Setting down my weapons, I curtseyed deeply to my opponent.
"A pleasure to meet you, oh-skilled-one." I said.
He bowed in return. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well, my Queen. My name is Legolas Greenleaf."
….
Having been in the midst of planning a grand feast for the prince's return, his unexpected arrival caused a minor panic for me, the cooks and the other officials who had known the King wanted a grand celebration to mark his son's return. The food was not ready nor the entertainers, and I had promised my husband that I would compose a special piece on the harp to play for Legolas and at the moment I was only half done with it.
Neither Carfon nor any of the other officials knew how to proceed, either. Exasperated, I finally just told Legolas that his father had wanted a party for his return and that I wasn't sure if we should wait until he returned with the others or if we should go ahead and have his party now.
When I told him this, Legolas surprisingly looked rather relieved. Seeing my confusion, he laughed.
"I enjoy festivals as much as anyone, but I really don't care very much to be at the center of them."
"You don't?" I asked. The way he spoke to me was so strange. So frank and honest, as if we had known each other for years and were the very best of friends.
"No. My father knows that, too. I suspect it's his idea of a jest."
"Oh, I don't think so. I think maybe he is just happy to have you home. He has missed you very much this last year and the months before."
"I've missed being home as well, to tell the truth. But it was nice to visit our folk in Lorien. It was a nice trip."
I was not sure if he realized it, but when he spoke his gaze almost magnetically went to the Silvan elf off to the side, talking to some of her kin. Tauriel, I think someone said her name was. Hadn't she went with him to Lorien? I wondered if they were just close friends or if it was something more.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that prince. But that doesn't resolve this delicate matter of your party."
"Wait for his father!" A voice shouted over at us. It was Tauriel. She was grinning from ear to ear. "We can't deprive his majesty of the joy of throwing a lavish party."
Legolas laughed, but there was panic behind his eyes. "I beg you don't listen to this upstart. Let's have the party now, half planned though it is. I shudder to wait and let my father make this into the spectacle he's been imagining it to be. You would be doing me a huge favor, your highness."
Warmth flooded over me. Almost all of my subjects had forgiven me for what I said to the King at dinner once they saw how well Legolas and I got along together, but it still seemed so rare when I got the chance nowadays to do something right or to make someone happy.
"I will do this for you, Legolas. But only on the condition that you not call me your highness."
"What should I call you then?"
"Laurwen is just fine."
…
"Auntie, this feast is magnificent."
I frowned at Legolas, sitting to my right. He had informed me immediately that 'Laurwen' was too boring of a title for someone who was now, after all, family, and he had settled on calling me by the ever more ridiculous 'Auntie." The name stressed how ridiculous the situation was, with me being so young but technically being his stepmother, so it annoyed me to no end. He seemed to take some sort of wicked satisfaction out of it.
"I don't believe that. The entire hall looks like a painting that someone started but forgot to finish."
There was food on the tables but no decorations. On the walls were glowing lanterns and crystal masks but the floor was conspicuously bare.
"I think it's rather nice." Tauriel said. "After seeing the perfection that is Lorien, it's pleasant to return to Mirkwood and remember that not everything elven is perfect."
Several others and myself laughed about this. It was well known that Mirkwood was different from the other elven kingdoms. Besides not quite living up to the beauty of the Rivendell or Lorien, Mirkwood was a dark and dangerous place, and the elves, although quite wise and tame by my human standards, were more reckless and lawless than the other elves of the world. And of course, there was the greatest anomaly of all; their rash and tempered king.
"So, what brought you two home so suddenly?" I asked Legolas.
"Did you mean to ask, did I come home because I heard my father remarried a young human girl and I had to come and try to stop him? Because the answer is no."
Half horrified though I was at his words, I couldn't surpass the relieved sigh that escaped my lips. "Grateful to here that." I muttered.
Tauriel seemed to notice that this was her cue to turn to the elf sitting beside her and leave Legolas and I alone.
"Listen," He said, leaning a little closer, "I don't understand everything that went on here, or is going on here. Yes, people in Lorien were talking about how the King of Mirkwood had surprised everyone by taking for his wife a young noble lady of one of the great families of Gondor. And yes, I was surprised by the news. But I came home because it was not only time for me to return home, but because when I heard my father had remarried, I had but one thought: There is a new member of my family, and I must go and greet them to Mirkwood. Of course, you were actually the one who greeted me to Mirkwood…" I tried not to smile but I wasn't able to help it. He reminded me so much of my older brother in that way. Fiske had always been able to make me smile, even when I had no wish to. I wondered if he was safe. I also wondered if my younger brothers would have had that same ability to force me to smile when they grew a little older, and I felt a surge of sorrow as I realized I would never know.
Had Lord Elrond been here, he probably would have sensed what was disturbing me, but Legolas misinterpreted my sadness. Taking my hand, he said, "I promise there is nothing for you to fear. Any disproval you feared from me, you must set your mind at ease immediately. I took an instant liking to you, and I can see why my father did as well."
"Well, your father-"
"-Is here not a moment too soon, I see."
Legolas and I both turned at the same moment to see King Thranduil. Simultaneously we greeted him with 'Father' and "Husband.' Legolas bowed and I curtseyed. Forgetting our last fight in the mist of seeing my husband again, I blushed and smiled. It seemed as if Thranduil had forgotten our fight as well, for he came towards me and pressed a light kiss to my cheek. "My wife." He greeted me. Legolas bowed to his father, and Thranduil went over to his son. "It is well to see you again, Legolas." He gently pressed his hand to his son's shoulder. "I am quite surprised at your sudden return, however, and also at this half-baked party."
Legolas laughed, we promised to tell our King all about it.
He joined the feast, sitting between the both of us, and we told him of how we had met and decided to go forward with party.
"I am surprised you let Legolas talk you out of my plans, wife." Thranduil said.
"Well, we both decided that the important thing was that the prince received a welcoming party when he came home, and that the quality of the party wasn't important."
Thranduil scowled.
Legolas went on to tell him about Lorien and the news from there. When Legolas asked where Coruven was, the King explained in a very vague manner that the younger prince had gone off to travel a little. Legolas had nodded, seemingly used to his younger brother's habit of going off for long periods without telling anyone where or why. Thranduil did ask his son about the trouble he had run into on the way to Mirkwood, the trouble that had caused his delay.
"Orcs, father. More orcs than I have yet seen at one time altogether. If Tauriel had not been there I don't know what I would have done."
Thranduil nodded; apparently not surprised his son's run in with the orcs. "Lord Elrond was here not very long ago, and he had some distressing news to tell me. It seems like we must get more and more used to fighting the foul creatures. I myself was just in the north woods dealing not only with orcs but a new nest of giant spiders. The only thing worse I could imagine would be dwarves."
I turned to my husband with my best shocked face, complete with wide eyes and open mouth. "Dwarves? I love dwarfs!"
There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment. I think I even heard a glass drop.
"Dwarves?" The King asked.
"Yes! They are so frank and open. Ill-mannered, yes, but very plump and jolly. I remember seeing a few when I was young and they came to visit, but it has been very long since I last saw one. I would like to see one again."
For a moment everyone just stared at me. Only Tauriel looked as though she was curious about them as well. After a moment the king finally put his glass down and said, "Well, my queen, I hereby make you this promise; the next dwarf that comes through Mirkwood, Legolas will catch and put it into my dungeons so that you may stare at it all day if you wish."
"It would be my honor, father." Legolas said.
All of the elves laughed in good-natured malice. On the other hand, I pouted for almost the rest of the evening until Legolas decided it was time to cheer me up.
"Father, I had no idea your new wife was as good a marksman as I."
I tried to motion Legolas to stop, but by then it was too late.
"Laurwen is not allowed at the target range."
There was an awkward silence, and Legolas looked sorry as he raised his hands as if to say to me "Well I didn't know!"
But I needn't have worried, because the King started laughing. "She is very stubborn, my new bride." He took my hand from under the table and gave it a squeeze. "It is one of the talents that I most admire in her. That and her skill with music."
"Music? In Mirkwood?" Legolas asked disbelievingly.
"Oh yes, she is quite the talent."
"Please, your highness, you are embarrassing me." I told my husband.
The King pretended not to hear. "In fact, I believe she planned to play a song for you, upon your return."
"But I never was able to finish it!" I said.
Legolas and his father both smiled. "Well," Legolas said, "This whole party is only half done. I don't see what the harm would be in listening to a half-finished song."
I obeyed begrudgingly, but soon I was able to lose myself in the music. Thranduil smiled, a secret smile only for me, as I went past the point where I had not been able to finish the song and made up an ending on the spot, as if he had known that I would be able to do so.
…..
That evening, after I had helped my husband out of his boots and cloak, I took him by the hand and kissed his palm.
"I am glad that you returned safely, my king." I hadn't realized how much I would miss him until he had actually left, and I hope he understood that I was also apologizing.
He gave me one of his rare smiles, and pushed the hair behind my face, making my face flush as he placed a cool hand against my bare neck.
"I have never cared for you more, than when I came home today and saw how you were welcoming my son." He pressed a cool kiss to my forehead, but I knew that no matter how pleased he was with me at the moment, he would not lay with me that night. But tonight I needed him to. Our first fight as a married couple had been hard on me, and I knew that it was important to make up after a fight, and not just with words.
Before he could turn, I pressed another kiss to his hand, this time taking longer and gently raising my eyes to meet his. He raised one of his eyebrows, but when he tried to take his hand back I resisted.
"Laurwen, it is late, and I must wake early in the morning."
"You're right," I sighed, pretending to be defeated. "I apologize. Let me help you finish undressing."
He seemed a little wary, but he nodded. My hands shaking a little, I reached up to undo the large golden buttons of his tunic. When I had bared his chest to the waist, I stepped forward, reaching my arms around him. I pressed my lips against his chest and sighed, and although he shuddered, and he pulled away saying, "I can do the rest myself."
I didn't argue. Instead, I told him I needed to wash before I came to bed.
He was already asleep when I came to bed, and I didn't wake him when I joined him. I waited for sleep to take me as well.
Early in the morning he woke me by gently nudging me awake. His hand was on my bare stomach, and I saw through the groggy veil of sleep surprise on his face. I had expected the surprise. Never before had I not worn a nightgown to bed before, and he was no doubt shocked to find his wife lying bare beside him. Trying to hide my smile from him, I quickly kissed him on the cheek and then yawned extra loudly and turned away from him. He was all over me then, kissing and touching. The rest of his clothes were off swiftly before he rolled over me and pulled our bodies close to meet each other's.
Later, when we were both gasping and panting for breath, I heard him growl through his teeth, "Don't ever do this again."
The corner of my mouth twitched. "Why ever not, my king? Some nights it's just too hot to wear my night clothes…" I hooked a leg over his waist and even he couldn't hold his laugh. He kissed me on the cheek and I knew that we weren't quite done yet for the morning.
