Chapter Six
In the end, Thranduil got his fair share of the lonely mountain and Legolas got to kill his fair share of orcs and wargs. Legolas returned to Rivendell the next summer and the summers following as Manwathiel slowly grew up. She hit puberty at 60 and became moody and shy. Legolas arrived the summer she was sixty-three to find her waiting dutifully for him in the courtyard.
"Hello." She said shyly, as he disembarked. She could barely look at him let alone greet him as she usually did with a hug and a kiss.
"Hello." He said, trying and failing to meet her eyes. "No lessons today?"
"Father instructed me to wait for you." She replied still not looking at him. "Everyone –" she faltered, blushing. "Everyone is inside if you want to say hello."
"Lead the way." He said, off-kilter by her odd greeting.
She turned and walked into the house, with Legolas following a step behind. "How has the healing been going?" he asked as they entered.
"I wrote to you two weeks ago." She said as they entered the great hall. Legolas looked at her in alarm. Normally he couldn't stop her from talking. Who was this elf and what had happened to Manwathiel? They walked in to find Elrond and Elladan meeting with advisors.
"Oh, hello Legolas!" Elladan said, greeting him much more warmly than Manwathiel had.
"How was your journey?" Elrond asked, smiling at him.
"Fine. Fine. I hope I'm not interrupting?" he said.
"No not at all. Actually, you might find this interesting." Elrond said, beckoning him forward.
"Can I go to my room now?" Manwathiel asked abruptly.
Elrond raised an eyebrow. Legolas just stared at her. "Watch your tone." Elrond said.
Manwathiel sighed. "Fine, can I please go to my room now?"
"Go. I expect you to have a better attitude at dinner tonight." Elrond said, looking at her severely.
She nodded and turned and left. Legolas looked at Elrond and Elladan in bewilderment. "What did I miss?" he asked. "Did I do something? Did something happen?"
He noticed her letters had become a little dutiful and stilted but he did not know this sullen, surly elf.
Elladan laughed. "She's in her sixties. It's something every day. She cried for three hours yesterday because Amara beat her in a horse race."
"I apologize, Legolas. This may not be a pleasant visit. She has been challenging lately." Elrond sighed. Legolas remembered his sixties and seventies. There had been a lot of slammed doors and raised voices. His father was not a patient man so there had been a lot of conflict. Legolas was not looking forward to the next twenty years.
"We all go through it." Legolas said with a shrug.
"She'll grow up someday." Elrond promised. "Until then just try to get through it. That's what we're doing. Here take a look at this." He held up a map that he had tried to show Legolas earlier. Legolas walked over and spent the rest of the afternoon with Elrond and his people.
He went to her room before dinner as he had every night of her life that he was around. He knocked.
"Yes?" she called.
Legolas opened the door and popped his head in. "Can I come in?" he asked. She shrugged. He came in and sat down.
"How have you been?" he asked after a moment.
She shrugged again. "Ok I guess. I lost again to Amara yesterday."
"It's hard to lose." Legolas said. "But it's how we get better." He was trying to find his footing with this new strange person.
"Well I don't seem to be getting better. I seem to just keep losing." She said bitterly.
"I didn't even know you liked riding." He said.
"I like it fine. It's Amara I want to beat. She's better at everything than me. Everyone likes her best." Manwathiel admitted. "I bet even you." She said sadly looking at her hands.
Legolas actually laughed. He couldn't help it but he immediately wished he could take it back. This was clearly very serious to her. "I do not like Amara better than you. I only ever think of Amara when you say or write her name." he said. Amara was one of Manwathiel's peers at Rivendell. Legolas found her to be an utterly unremarkable child in every way. "As for her being better at you at everything I highly doubt that. Is she a healer? Can she write music like you do? Can she shoot an arrow as well as you can?"
"No one cares about that stuff. Except maybe the arrows." She insisted. "She's always beating me in our lessons. She's a faster rider and swimmer and everyone always goes along with what she says. We always do what she wants to do." She complained.
"Hmm." He considered this. The reality was that Amara couldn't matter less and all of this was ridiculous but she was in real pain over it. "Sometimes people hold sway over a crowd. It's called charisma. It doesn't mean they are better than us. I can help you with riding and swimming but at the end of the day you may need to accept the situation. That doesn't mean you have to like it but you will feel better."
"Just accept it." She said skeptically.
"Yes, let's accept the premise, which I don't but we will for the sake of this exercise, that she is better at everything than you. Ok so what?"
"What do you mean so what?" she asked. "So that's means I'm worse at everything!" she cried.
"Yeah and? Does it change that you're a granddaughter of Galadriel? Does it change your relationships with your family? With me? With your friends?"
"No, it just means that I'm objectively worse in every way." She said miserably.
"But so what? What does Amara daughter of Arad gain by being better than you? How are your futures changed?" Legolas countered.
"Well she's better so she'll have a better future." Manwathiel insisted.
Legolas laughed. That was not how things worked. "No you are a daughter of Elrond and a gifted healer. Your future has nothing at all to do with Amara. I was at your foretelling. I know. In fact, I bet in a hundred years we'll laugh at this." He said confidently.
"Will you come every summer forever?" she asked suddenly.
He hesitated unsure how to answer this without lying. In a hundred years he would not be visiting Rivendell every summer because he'd be living with Manwathiel at Mirkwood but if he said no she might think he was going to disappear. "I'll visit Rivendell as long as I'm invited." He settled on.
She nodded accepting this answer. "We're late for dinner." Manwathiel said getting up.
"Try not to let Amara get you down." He said, putting a friendly hand on her shoulder. She went rigid at his touch. He noticed and made note, quickly removing his hand. The days of easy affection were gone now that adolescence was here.
"You're late." Elrond said when they arrived a few minutes later.
"I'm sorry Elrond. The fault was mine. We were talking and I lost track of time." Legolas said quickly. "Hello Arwen, Elrohir, Nessa, Morwen." He waved and sat down.
Manwathiel sat at table and ate in complete silence as everyone else talked. Legolas glanced at her periodically but she was very interested in the walls and the ceiling. As soon as they were finished eating Manwathiel went back to her room. Legolas stayed to drink and catch up with Arwen.
"So." Arwen said. "I see you've seen the new Manwathiel." She said with a small smile.
Legolas nodded. "Oh yes, we were getting acquainted before dinner. This Amara situation is very serious."
Arwen laughed. "Oh the drama of it all. Yesterday I was with her for hours. Amara is just a little more developed than the others and a natural leader. They have shifting alliances and all sorts of intrigue. Manwathiel was the only one not invited to Solstice by someone else, which it turns out is appropriate," she nodded to Legolas, "But she doesn't know that obviously. She was very hurt."
"She's pretty. Why wasn't she asked?" Legolas asked, surprised. He assumed one of the issues he'd have to deal with was elves trying to court her.
"She's a daughter of Elrond. Who at Rivendell would dare? But she took it very personally. She thinks she's hideous." Arwen said, laughing. Manwathiel was going through a bit of an awkward phase but she was far from hideous.
Legolas laughed and shook his head. "It's going to be quite a summer. I can barely get her to look at me."
"I think she's very confused about you." Arwen admitted, pouring them more wine.
"Confused? In what way?" Legolas asked, bewildered. "I have always been very direct and reassuring with her."
Arwen gave him a look. "Legolas she's not a little girl anymore. I know she still looks it but she's growing up. She has very strong feelings for you."
"Are they romantic?" he asked, alarmed. She was still very much a child to him.
Arwen frowned. "No, I don't think so. I don't think she's there yet. But she's aware that there's something different about your relationship."
He nodded. "She asked me tonight how long I would come to visit." He said.
"What did you say?" Arwen asked.
"That I would visit as long as I was invited." He said.
"Smooth." She replied admiringly.
"I had to think fast. Any advice for me?" he asked.
"Just try to be patient." She said. "She will grow out of this."
"Is Aragorn in the north?" Legolas asked, changing the subject.
"Yes." She said her voice heavy with melancholy. They stayed up for much of the night talking.
Manwathiel spent a lot of time with her friends or in her room. Legolas kept himself busy with her siblings, riding out often with her brothers. He gave her space but tried to make himself available to her. It was difficult. Her moods were unpredictable and she was quick to cry or anger. He spent a considerable amount of time consoling or calming her. One day he was shooting arrows in the meadow when he heard her approach. He kept shooting until she reached him.
"Hello." He said pleasantly and restrung his bow. The arrow sang as he released it.
"Hello." She said, twisting her hands. She sat down next to his bag and sat quietly as he shot. "Father's angry with me." She said in a small voice after a silence. "I was late to my lessons again."
"You've got to stop that." He said, turning to face her. "I know school is tedious but it's important." He suddenly stopped. He recognized this moment. He had seen it at the mirror at the foretelling. He felt excited and uneasy as he had every time he recognized a moment. It had happened a dozen times over the years.
Manwathiel was oblivious to Legolas' change in demeanor. "I know, I'm sorry. I can never get my hair right and then I show up and it looks all wrong anyway."
"Your hair is not more important than your education." He said firmly.
"I know. I'm sorry." She said, looking at him with genuine remorse. He softened.
"It's ok, Manwathiel. Just try to be on time." He said reassuringly. "Do you want a turn?" he held the bow out of her.
She shook her head. "I'll just watch." She said. "Are you angry with me?"
He looked at her in surprise. "No? Why do I seem angry with you?"
"Everyone is always angry with me." She sighed.
"Well you don't always use the nicest tone." He said gently. She was very sensitive to criticism.
"I know." She admitted with a sigh. "I don't mean to. I just get so overwhelmed and then I do everything all wrong."
He sighed and sat down next to her. "You don't do everything wrong. You don't do everything right. Eventually you'll get more things right than wrong."
"You think?" she asked hopefully.
"I know. I've been there."
"I seriously doubt that." Manwathiel said skeptically. Legolas could do no wrong.
"I was sixty-two once. I was worse than you are. One time I yelled at my father in front of all his guests, stomped up the stairs and slammed the door. He followed me up and everyone heard us yelling at each other."
"He yelled at you?" she asked, amazed. Her father was frequently angry and disappointed with her but he never yelled at her.
"He still yells at me sometimes." Legolas laughed. "You know father, he's temperamental."
"I don't know how you can laugh about it. I would hate it if father yelled at me." Manwathiel said, shaking her head.
"Well it's been over a millennia so it doesn't really bother me anymore." Legolas said laughing.
"You're so much older than I am." Manwathiel said bleakly. He could tell this bothered her.
"Yes." Legolas agreed.
"Why do you want to be my friend?" she asked. "Don't you want friends your age?"
Legolas laughed although he was keenly aware they were entering dangerous territory. "Well you're older than all my human friends. You're older than Aragorn, for example. However it is true that you are my youngest elven friend but I think it's good to have mix. Different perspectives." He side stepped her question because of course she was right. His interest in her was unusual but he couldn't think of a good explanation. "Do you not want to be friends?" he asked, trying to figure out where this was going.
She flushed. "No, I do. I was just wondering." She mumbled. He wished he could put his arm around her and reassure her but knew that wouldn't go over well.
"I like being friends." Legolas said. "You're one of my favorite people."
She gifted him with a rare, genuine smile that reached her eyes but was too shy to say anything.
"We should probably head back." Legolas said after a moment. "It's dinner time."
She nodded and got up silently. "I'm glad you come every summer." She said in almost a whisper as they walked back.
"Me too." Legolas said and suppressed the urge to take her hand. "Where are you going?" he asked as she walked towards her bedroom and away from the great hall.
"My room. Father sent me there." She said, biting her lip.
Legolas jaw dropped. "Were you supposed to be in there this whole time?" he asked.
She nodded looking both smug and ashamed. "I wanted to see you."
Legolas threw his hands in the air. "Manwathiel you can't do that. If your father punishes you you have to take the punishment."
"Sorry." She said but didn't look it. She disappeared to her room.
"Legolas." Elrond called out to him as he walked towards dinner. Legolas turned and walked into Elrond's study. "I went to Manwathiel's room to see if she was willing to come to dinner with a better attitude and found her missing."
Legolas sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "She was with me but I didn't know until just now that she had been sent to her room."
"Children can be manipulative. I need you to help me enforce the rules, not undermine me."
"I agree completely, Elrond." Legolas said raising his hands. "I told her she did the wrong thing."
"Ok. I would hate to have you stay away for a few years which we'll have to do if she can't behave." Elrond said.
"Hopefully it doesn't come to that." Legolas said, shaking his head. It was always something with her these days.
The summer Manwathiel was seventy Aragorn came into town. Arwen was radiantly happy.
"Let's go for a ride." Aragorn suggested one morning to Legolas, Manwathiel, Elladan and Arwen. They all readily agreed. Manwathiel decided to ride with Legolas since she was the slowest rider. It took only moments for Arwen to outpace them all as she raced through the fields. They rode for hours into changing countryside before finally Elladan stopped suddenly. Everyone circled back to him.
"Orcs and wargs northwest." He said nodding. Aragorn, Arwen and Legolas followed his gaze.
"Can we outrun them?" Arwen asked.
Aragorn shook his head. "If I can see them they can see us. We could outrun the orcs but not the wargs. How many do you see."
"Twenty." Legolas said, counting quickly. "Five wargs." He reached for his bow, keenly aware that Manwathiel was with him. For the first time he was afraid of orcs.
"Is everyone armed?" Elladan asked, reaching for his sword.
"I'm not." Manwathiel said. "I forgot my bow." She was afraid.
"You're fine you're with Legolas." He said. He hadn't expected his little sister to be much help anyway. Arwen on the other hand could handle herself. Her sword was already out.
The orcs had sighted them and were heading straight for them.
"Stay close to me and try to hold as still as possible." Legolas said in her ear. As the Wargs got in range he started shooting arrows. He took down two wargs before the third charged at Aragorn. Aragorn swung his sword at it at a gallop delivering a deadly blow. Elladan took down the fourth warg before Legolas killed the last one with an arrow to the head. Aragorn and Arwen charged into the orcs, felling them as they rode past. An orc lunged at Arwen but Legolas shot it at the last second and fell, dead, to the ground. Elladan jumped off his horse gracefully and took on the orcs on foot. One by one he tore through them.
"Legolas!" Manwathiel cried out as an orc charged at them from behind. Legolas spun around and shot it in the head.
As Elladan fought his way on the ground, an orc surged toward him and plunged its axe into Elladan's shoulder. Legolas shot the orc but Elladan fell to the ground. Manwathiel jumped down before Legolas was even aware it was happening.
"Help me!" she cried, trying to remove the axe. Aragorn was at her side immediately. He ripped the axe out and blood poured everywhere. Elladan cried out.
"It will be ok." Manwathiel said, soothingly. She kneeled down and put her hands on the wound. Around her Aragorn and Legolas were killing the remaining orcs. She was vaguely aware of an arrow flying by her head. She bowed her head and chanted as white light poured out of her hands. She focused all her energy on her brother. It took several minutes but the bleeding stopped and eventually Elladan stopped moaning. A few minutes later he sat up. "You'll be tired for awhile. You lost a lot of blood." She said, looking down at her now blood-soaked dress.
"Thank you." He said, moving his arm in amazement.
Legolas had seen her heal wounds before but never under pressure. He was impressed. He jumped off his horse but when he walked to her he realized she was shaking.
"Come on." He said, helping her up. "Let's burn the bodies and go." He said to Aragorn.
"Agreed." Aragorn said and began stacking bodies. Legolas put Manwathiel back on the horse and went to help Aragorn as Arwen helped Elladan onto his horse.
"Lucky Manwathiel was here." Elladan said as he settled into the saddle.
"Lucky indeed. That was beyond my skill." Arwen said, shaking her head. "We have to start reminding her to carry her bow though."
"Yeah she forgets all the time. It's got to stop." Elladan agreed. Manwathiel had elvish hearing and heard her older siblings. She rolled her eyes. She could save their lives and they'd still find something to nag her about. Some things would never change. It was hard to be the youngest.
The ride back seemed very long. It was dark when they got back and Manwathiel, covered in blood, just wanted a bath and to go to bed. She started to leave the stall in the stables when Legolas reached for her hand and stopped her. "Wait." He said and pulled her back to him. "I'm so glad nothing happened to you today." He had been afraid.
She shrugged. "What could have happened? I was with you." She said simply. He was taken back by her complete trust in him. He smiled back at her and opened his mouth to respond.
"Ahem." Elladan cleared his throat. Legolas dropped her hand and she stepped back, embarrassed. "Sorry, father wants to see us." Elladan said.
"Right, be right there." Manwathiel said, not looking at either of them in the eye.
"Legolas too." Elladan said. Legolas nodded at him. Reluctantly they headed inside the house.
"Are you hurt?" Elrond asked when he saw Manwathiel enter with blood all over her dress.
"No, I just healed Elladan."
"You're hurt?" he asked, spinning to his son.
"Not anymore. Manwathiel really knows what she's doing." Elladan said. Elrond walked to him.
"Let me see, where was the injury?" he started to inspect his son.
"Here." Elladan said pointing to his shoulder. "An orc got me with an axe."
Elrond put a hand over the injury and muttered to himself. Elladan felt some light tingling. "It was a good heal. You left some bruising though. We've talked about this. You have to be thorough." Elrond said over his shoulder to Manwathiel.
"It was battle conditions, Elrond." Legolas said. "She did well under pressure."
"She can always do better." Elrond said. He forced his attention to Arwen. "You two look fine." He said to Aragorn and Arwen.
"We are fine." Arwen said. Manwathiel had healed the cut on her cheek hours earlier.
"How did this happen?" he asked.
"We were riding and we ran into them." Elladan said with a shrug. "They're everywhere lately."
"Stay closer to home." Elrond said. "At the very least don't take your sisters that far out with you. You two should know better." He said turning to Aragorn and Legolas.
"We rode out too far." Aragorn agreed. "It was my idea and it was a bad one."
"Just be more careful." Elrond said, dismissing them with a tired wave of his hand.
They dispersed and headed back for the night.
"Are you alright?" Legolas asked as they reached Manwathiel's room.
She nodded shyly, her confidence from the stables gone. "Maybe next time we can go swimming?" She said.
He smiled at her. "Sure. Sleep well." She slipped into her room. When she closed the door she aware that her heart was beating very hard.
A few weeks later Legolas left for Mirkwood. She watched him go feeling a sadness she could not explain. His last words to her had been to remind her to go to class and it had hurt her. She could see what a child she was to him. She felt hopeless. He was 1500 years older than her. No matter how old she was she would always be a child to him. She wasn't even sure why it bothered her so much but it did. As fall slid into winter she found herself wondering things about him that had never occurred to her before. Was he courting someone? Surely she would know if he were betrothed. But then again he didn't discuss such things with her. It occurred to her there was probably huge parts of his life she knew nothing about. She felt very small, uninteresting and unimportant. Every time he wrote her she wondered why.
One night she sought Arwen out. She was alone, reading. Aragorn had been in the north for months but their relationship was an open secret. Manwathiel knew that Aragorn had spoken to their father and he knew her father had set some conditions but she didn't know what or why.
"Arwen, can I talk to you?" Manwathiel asked, standing in the doorway nervously.
Arwen looked up from her chaise lounge and sat up. "Come in. Close the door."
Manwathiel closed the door and sat on the bed opposite her sister. Manwathiel sat quietly for a moment before deciding to just come out with it. "Is Legolas courting someone or betrothed?" she blurted out.
Arwen's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She considered how to answer this. "No." she said finally and it had the benefit of being the truth.
Manwathiel looked visibly relieved. "I thought if he were he probably wouldn't tell me anyway." She said.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Legolas tells you a lot." Arwen said, frowning trying to figure out where this was coming from.
Manwathiel shook her head and pursed her lips. "He sees me as a child." She said, looking at her hands.
"Oh." Arwen breathed in, understanding. Did she have a crush? This was delicate. She was still too young but she didn't want to discourage her permanently. "He sees you as a child now but that won't always be true." She said gently.
"He's so much older than me. Won't I always be a child to him?" Manwathiel asked sadly.
Arwen laughed and shook her head. "Aragorn is not a child to me. Believe me when you grow up he will notice." She said confidently.
Manwathiel looked up hopefully. "Do you think?" she asked.
"I know." Arwen said.
Manwathiel managed a smile. "I hope you're right. You won't tell him I said anything will you? Or father? I would die."
"This stays between us." Arwen promised. Manwathiel went to bed that night hoping Arwen was right.