Author's note: Fanfiction won't allow me to use doublespacing for some reason, which is really frustrating. I want nice paragraphs for the Lenya's & Legolas P.O.V's - in my opinion that makes it just more readable. After a lot of frustration, I decided to use dots instead to get the same result. So, if you find floating dots everywhere - you know why. Also, I'd like to thank those who took the time to read my story and those who left a review!

Chapter 3, Mysteries, mysteries.
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Lenya's Point of view

I played with the red feathers of the pen I held in my hands. Gorgeous. I still couldn't believe someone would give a gift like this to a stranger they had never met. I would have never accepted it, if this person hadn't insisted that I took it. After I found the gift last time I had instantly decided that I couldn't take it. I had left a note to tell him that it was very kind and generous of him, but that I couldn't accept a gift this expensive from a stranger. I had spent the rest of the day wondering who this person was and in the evening I couldn't help myself and went back to the forest. To my surprise there was a new letter for me waiting there. I didn't expect any reply at all anymore, especially not the same day!

I smiled and re-read his letter that was lying on the desk in front of me.

He wrote,

"Dear stranger,

I understand your hesitation, but I can assure you that I have no use for it myself and I don't know who else I could give it to.

If the 'stranger' part is what worries you - I'd be happy to give it to you in person.

I'll be looking forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Linnod"

The thought of meeting him scared me. Even though this person seemed very kind, you never knew what could happen. He was a stranger after all... I had decided that it would be best to just take the gift then. If he had absolutely no use for it, I couldn't just pass on something like that, right...?

There was something about the way that he wrote to me that intrigued me. I wanted to know more about this mystrery person. I wanted to know what he liked, if he wrote songs or poems as well. I wanted to know who he was. And clearly, he wanted to know more about me as well.

I had already asked around if anyone knew someone name 'Linnod' in town. To my dissapointment no one did so I figured that if he didn't live in this part of town, he must live near the castle, or even in it. The expensiveness of his gift matched with that picture. This worried me a bit. Was he one of those rich and snobby guys? In the letters he seemed kind and generous, but was he really?

I thought about it for a second and considered asking Lira for help. She knew everything about everyone. Especially when they were male and lived in the castle. She would surely be able to help me.

Or... wait. No. Asking Lira for help? Who was I fooling? She'd probably charge me and find a way to blackmail me with it. No, not Lira.

Maybe Ellan then, I knew I could trust him. But how was I going to ask him without making him too curious? If I asked him this, I'd have to explain everything. He'd instantly get the wrong ideas...

I sighed. Well, I knew one thing - I wasn't going to find out more about him by just sitting here. I wanted to know more about him, but I was going to be careful about it. I was going to use an alias.

I grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and got to work.

'Dear Linnod...'

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Legolas' Point of view

'Nanriël. Do I know anyone by the name of Nanriël?' I pondered and stared at the ceiling. I found myself doing that a lot lately.

Atleast I knew she was a 'she' now. And that her name was Nanriël.

The box with the gift had been gone when I went to the forest to see if someone had answered my letter this morning. And she had. And she had been fast too! I had only put my letter there yesterday afternoon.

I smiled happily. Even though there were many questions in my mind about this girl, this had become a good distraction of my 'daily chores'. Luriel and Rae were starting to make fun of me everytime I sneaked away to my 'quiet-place' in the forest. They knew exactly that I didn't go there for 'peace' and 'quietness' anymore.

They had decided among themselves that my writer was female. When I had asked them why they had assumed that, Rae's answer had been 'because it was far more fun that way'.

They had even made it into a game to guess who this person was and made a list of girls around the castle that liked to write. So far there were seven girls that made the list, but now that I knew her name I knew it wasn't one of them.

Something I found a little less amusing was that they got my father involved in all of this. During dinner the other night Rae had 'accidently' asked me in front of everyone, if 'she liked my gift'. He bloody well knew that she hadn't accepted it yet and that I was still waiting for a reply at the time. There had been at least ten curious female faces on me when he asked that. I could've sworn there was dissapointment on some of them. Ugh. It had been highly embarassing. My father also instantly assumed that I had been writing love letters to a girl and seemed way too pleased about that idea. I made an attempt to explain, but had quickly given up when I realised that it was no use. All he answered was that he was pleased that I had 'followed his advice' on finding myself a companion.

I tried to avoid him as much as I could now, which wasn't exactly easy with him being the king and my father and all, but he was only hearing what he wanted to hear and I didn't feel like listening to more of the 'finding a companion' talk.

Because of this 'incident' the rumor that 'the prince was in love' and 'the prince was looking for a companion' started going around. I was still undecided on what my revenge on Rae was going to be. I smirked evilly. I knew one thing for sure: he would suffer.

My thoughts drifted back to Nanriël. Nanriël wasn't a common name around here. What if she was using fake name? I couldn't blame her if she had – Linnod wasn't my name after all either.

I had felt a bit bad about it at first, as if I was misleading her, but I couldn't just sign with my own name. I was happy that I hadn't, especially now that I knew that she was a girl. She would instantly know who I was and if she was anything like the other girls I knew, she'd treat me differently. She would agree with everything I said, like everything I did and never say 'no' to me. She wouldn't tell me the truth and follow me like a puppy. No, I wasn't looking for another one of those.

With her being unaware of my true identity, everything she would write to me would be honest and truthful. At least… I hoped it would be.

I thought about the girls on the list again. If she indeed had used a fake name, that would mean it could be one of them after all. But would a girl living here decline a gift like that? I didn't know anyone around here that would think twice about accepting something expensive.

What kind of girl would? What kind of girl was she?

What were her likes, her dislikes?

I pondered a while longer and then finally decided to just write back. There was only one way to get an answer to my questions.

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Lenya's Point of view

It was late afternoon and it was getting dark outside. Instead of sitting in front of the fireplace reading a good book, like I would usually do around this time, I was on my way to town to find Lira.

Mother was worried because she hadn't got home yet. Sadly she hadn't agreed with me when I had suggested that we should just lock her out for a night and as a punishment for making a comment like that about my sister, she had sent me to go and find her. I probably shouldn't have mumbled 'good riddance' either. I wondered how Lira always managed to get me intro trouble, even if she wasn't around.

Needless to say, this whole thing had made me quite moody, to put it mildly. I was outside, it was cold, it was dark and I had to go look for my stupid little sister that was probably flirting with the next random elf she had ran into.

I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings at all, like I probably should have. I was so caught up in my own thoughts and moodyness that I didn't realise that I was walking on the road and too late I noticed the rider that was approaching me at high speed.

I only noticed him when he was right in front of me and even though I knew I had to move out of the way instantly, I stood frozen in shock.

When the rider realised that I wasn't going to move aside in time, he quickly yanked the reins backwards. His horse, not expecting this reaction, reared up as a result – almost throwing the rider off. He quickly managed to control the horse, dodging me by only a few inches.

First there was silence. Next there was swearing.

I blinked a few times. Did I just almost got ran over by a horse…?

"Do you have a death wish, girl?" The rider, who was now unmounted and standing in front of me, angrily yelled.

Still a bit dazed, I slowly looked up to him. And then, as a slap in the face, I noticed who he was. I started to feel a bit nauseous. The prince himself was staring at me in anger, obviously still expecting an answer.

"Well?" He insisted impatiently.

"Well what?" I snapped back at him. I felt angry all of the sudden. Out of all people, why him? Darn snobby prince. Was he expecting me to bow for him or something? Fall to my knees and beg him for forgiveness?

He snorted in disbelief. "Stupid farm girl." Leaving me with that, he mounted his horse and rode away.

With my mouth wide open, I stared at his back as he disappeared into the distance.

That snobbish, arrogant, spoiled jerk! Whát had he just called me?