Chapter 17: Lusus Naturae
The sudden drop ended just as quickly as it started and Tauriel disentagled herself from her king, embarassed about her clinginess. What had gotten into her taking every opportunity for physical touch, solicited or otherwise. They were in darkness, but the uniform and balanced motion of the wagon told her they were still on the tracks as planned and not derailed. On instint, she reached into her side pouch that was attached to her belt for the brimstone to make light, but as soon as she started fumbling, she found Thranduil's long fingers stilling hers and keeping her motionless as he encircled her this time and reached round. Tauriel held her breath and tensed, she could feel his muscles coiling at the ready if needed. The warrior elleth responded correspondingly at whatever perceived threat he was acting on, mentally rehearsing the probable location of every item in the wagon that could be used as a weapon. Thranduil didn't let her move however, his breath stroking her hair and slowly migrating towards her ear. In the general rattle of the wheels, she wasn't even sure he had said something, but she had the impression it sounded like 'grab a shell when you can'.
Their travel contrivance was still going fast thanks to the momentum of the previous sudden desent, but as it was slowing. Tauriel became aware of periodic, still quite distant flashes of light making it possible to sometimes see the route ahead. Either that, or her eyes were getting used to the darkness, perhaps both. They were coming to a turn. If at all possible, Thranduil seemed to stiffen some more and the redhead wished the light was enough to see his face and maybe at least give her some sort of indication of what was coming.
And then she forgot all about it. She forgot about everything in fact, including everyone's advice not to raise up above the rim of the wooden side of the wagon even. Or she would've, if she would've not currently been in the king's arms and under his bodily protection. A sudden and threateningly close, white hot streak of what would seem like ignited gas passed just above them, dangerously close, and yet Tauriel did not give it much consideration. Cause the very flame illuminated the entrance of the underground hall their tracks were taking them through, a large cavern higher than allowing her to see its ceiling, with lots of recesses, openings and levels, nooks of which were largely occupied by nesting dragons, groups of eggs and offspring of all colours and sizes, the smallest being no bigger than a dwarf, some flapping wings, some playing in the stream, cosying up to their mothers or trying out how firebreathing went, providing enough light for outstanding visibility, which would include the sight of the two newcomers rolling in.
"Shells." Thranduil breathed into her ear once more, proving that her senses were right and there was virtually no sound, only the movement of the air tickling while touching her earlobes and suggesting the word. At once it became clear what he had meant. On her side of the tracks, pieces of discarded eggshells lay in sticky piles everywhere, all she had to do was hold a hand out and some would end up in her grasp. Able to follow Thranduil's gaze now that she could see, she grabbed for the biggest piece she could reach that he had his eyes on and bit her lips to hold in the sound of a grunt as she realised how heavy it really was. The king acted quickly noticing her struggles and together they hauled the item in, tilting it in the process, and ending up with being covered in a slimy goo that poured from the bottom of the shell. Tauriel had to assume it was the intended purpose, as Thranduil immediately started to spread the disgusting substance over her arms and up to her neck, while the shell covered the bottom part of their bodies. The elleth frowned, weary, but only one dragon turned in their direction at the movement, gave it one sniff and finding all in order, turned back to licking her little one's scales. The elves could spectate unhindered in the passing, a world of caring and domestic dragons so fantastical and unnreal to experince that Tauriel double checked she had her eyes open. With time, they relaxed into viewing only and when all the tension went out of Thranduil's body, she knew there will be no more dragons by the end of the next turn.
"We are going to stick together if we don't pull apart shortly," the king warned and tried to disentangle, part of their clothes ripping slightly already when giving way as it turned out that the glaire and secretions from the egg could be very effective as glue indeed.
Tauriel tugged at the fabric and frowned, wishing it wasn't attached to her skin and hair and was somewhat relieved they were more or less sunken in complete darkness once more and the king would not see the state of her. "You can light the torch now," he commanded right then, "it would be good to determine if the underground river is still nearby."
The younger elf didn't hesitate at the order, but it took her a while to manage to kindle a fire using an arrow and an arrowhead till it gave a spark in the moving vehicle and then it didn't catch, even though she had smeared more brimstone onto the torch. "Maybe if I added some of your homebrew, it would catch easier," she commented. Tauriel couldn't see him, but she could sense him. She would've bet her life on a smile tugging at his lips at the moment, amusement he did not have to hide out of sight for once.
Her suspicions became more founded when he reached round her again and leaned close to whisper in her ear like before, "all you need is heat." And heat is what she had when his fingers travelled down her still sticky arms slowly, not minding the filth, his body pressing against hers. She wondered again why he wanted light so badly. Darkness was their companion, their friend, her salvation, providing circumstances where she could lean her head towards him, close her eyes and enjoy an elvenking's touch. Her breathing deepened and hitched repeatedly, regardless that maybe all he was doing was finding a trail to the instruments of making fire. Yet when he reached the implements, he didn't take them from her. At the one hand it would've surprised her if he did. Lighting a fire was no task fit for a king, but having her in his arms and in between himself and the arrowhead and shaft was no efficient way of lighting one.
Thranduil slid his hands under the heels of hers and took hold of them firmly there, then started a vigorous shaking and vibrating motion that effectively rubbed the two items in her hands together. His arms were strong and steady for the moment, no trace of his lately often present frailty or tremor, though their force was conveyed with a careful grip. They moved together, panting and intent, her back to his belly, his lips by her ear. Tauriel realised she needed to be held. At this moment in time, heart beating fast with exertion and excitement, it felt like she could've in fact collapse in weakness. She always knew there was something between them, some static energy that could not be explained, a play of twisting magnets that sometimes pulled together, sometimes pushed apart. All those looks, that special attention from him that propelled a flower of the forest to enter and advance in the guard, it would make sense if there was more to it than the commonplace relations between master and servant. It manifested in the physical, she felt it with every fibre of her being and there was no doubt about what that hardening pole was either that pressed into her hip, but that vibrating energy could only manifest physically because it went way beyond that, to a connection that had always made it possible to speak her mind with him and treat him more as an equal, rather than a ruler.
The realization scared her. It scared her immensely. An elf she knew practically all her life, since she was found in the forest as a young orphan, an elf she had always felt strongly about, to protect, to hate, to prove herself to, to challenge. Like an other half that made her strive for doing good, fulfilling a purpose, dispute their morality. Which is what a soulmate would do, which is what a soulmate would feel like. She shook her head, panicking, and attepted to still the motions and when he continued she felt the need to withdraw her hands with force, turn and push him away as much as the limited space allowed. Their last effort was fruitful however, a spark did materialise and the torch was made flammable enough previously for just the one small, fiery scrap of ignition to do its job. They found themselves looking into each other's startled eyes where the flames reflected, Thranduil grabbing for her on instinct once more to stop her from getting too far and in the way of the everdangerous ceiling. His touch was firm and grounding, his gaze calming and reassuring, with an insecure and unusual blink Tauriel didn't know where to put. She didn't know where to put a lot of things lately.
Thranduil looked around their surroundings, "we'll deal with this later," he assured, though he did not specify what that 'this' was. Did he have similar thoughts to hers or did he just get into her mind? The king was all action however. He pulled the lever hard enough to bring it to a halt fairly abruptly, then grabbed the torch and jumped out the waggon. "This way," he ducked under an arch to follow the sound of water, now more noticeable without the rattling of the wheels.
Tauriel found it a little hard to keep up with him, only hoping they wouldn't venture far enough not to find their way back and rushed to catch up without looking much. When she reached the cavern Thranduil had disappeared into, he was already lighting up other torches set round the walls. "Who's inhabited territory are we in now?" She wondered out loud, glossing over and starting to get used to the fact that the king was yet again engaged in such mundane tasks.
"The Fay," Thranduil provided confidently. "But I doubt anybody used this place regularly since the First Age," he provided and started undressing without care, dropping his clothes behind him.
"It looks ice cold," Tauriel warned. The body of water in front of them moved slowly, barely, the underground river obviously coming to some sort of impasse that made it gather into a dark pool.
"I might need cold at this moment in time," Thranduil disclosed mysteriously, but lowered himself slowly, as if not sure himself, while the redhead froze on spot for a moment before turning and trying to get her mind to unsee the lean and illuminatingly white and perfect body she had just seen half disappearing under the water line. She took a strenghtening breath and opened her eyes to stare at the walls, but all her mind's eye could see was his manhood straining for attention, still half erect from their previous undertakings. "Are you...are you covered?" She panted.
"I was hoping this would be one of the places the hot springs filter in," he established, disregarding her question, "it cannot be far, as all in all, it's quite pleasant in here. Join me Tauriel," he demanded.
Tbc