Adonnenniel relaxed on the bed in her and Legolas' master bedroom. It was one of those times where her 'dreaming state' meant that both her mind and body needed its well-earned rest. She looked over to the balcony and noticed that it was already morning as she heard the delicate birds chirping and distant chattering. Adonnenniel slowly sat up and stretched her long arms and legs to warm up her muscles.
She looked over to her right and noticed Legolas was lying down right next to her. Adonnenniel smiled as she noticed that this was the first time seeing him in his dream state. He was as still as the beautiful statues outside, never moving, with his eyes wide open. He must've sensed her staring at him, he blinked and his face came to life and full of energy.
"Good morning"
"Good morning"
"When did you come in?"
"When it was nearly dawn, you were so exhausted that you did not even stir when I came in"
"I really wish that I could have woken up when you came in" Adonnenniel blushed.
"It did not bother me, Adonnenniel"
"How was everything when I retired, Legolas?"
"The people were just about to send the vials off to different neighborhoods"
"Then I should get started on the other glasses" Adonnenniel moved to get out of the bed. "The more we have for the people, the better"
"Not today" Legolas reached out and grabbed her hand. "Adonnenniel, just stay here. You will tire yourself out"
"Why are you so worried?"
"I have already explained to you time and time before"
"I am the only Teleri here, Legolas"
"For now" Legolas finished. "Your brother will be here soon"
"It took us nearly two weeks to get here" Adonnenniel reasoned.
"Give your brother faith. You will see that he comes sooner than you expect" Legolas told her.
Adonnenniel dropped her head back down onto the silver satin pillowcase and tried to get comfortable in the bed again. She tried her best to not worry about the Ra'zacs, the Sindar Elves, or even the Teleri finding their way here, "Have we figured out who the shade is?"
"Not yet. It may be harder than you think to track whoever is creating the Ra'zacs" Legolas told her.
"Then how are we going to figure out who is creating them? Could it be somebody within these walls?" Adonnenniel panicked.
"I do not want to lie to you" Legolas told her. "It could be but the killings seem to be at random"
Adonnenniel nodded and burrowed her head further into the covers. Her first thought would no doubt be Hûredhiel, but even thinking that it is the old adviser seems to feel too wicked for the Sea Princess to think about it. One thing that could be comforting about this was that the Ra'zacs weren't close enough to make people wonder if a shade lived amongst them. She had heard of the dark magic's that happen in the forests but never thought that they could summon up the dead.
"Does anyone come to mind?" Adonnenniel suddenly asked.
"That that I know of, Adonnenniel"
"Then it must've been a wicked wizard that lost his way in the Mirkwood Forest"
"Now you are just overthinking it. There are only a selective handful of wizards, remember?" Legolas smiled at her.
"I am just trying to narrow down the list. What is the matter with that?" Adonnenniel mocked.
Legolas laughed and shook his head against the pillow as Adonnenniel laughed with him. The way the sun was shining onto her face seemed to make her skin glow even more. Almost like as if the sun was giving her some sort of energy to make her more beautiful. It was this reason in particular that Legolas did not want Adonnenniel involved in the Battle against the Ra'zacs.
"Perhaps. Maybe next time we should think more realistically, Adonnenniel" Legolas stroked her hair. "We will know what a shade looks like when we see it"
"What do they look like?"
"Like the walking dead" Legolas quoted his father. He had never heard of the legend before but that was because his mother had told Thranduil that it would be too frightening. Now he only wished that he could hear about the fairy tale to know what was going on. Everyone seemed to be on edge about the shade and more terrified to see who it might be possessing, "It should not be that hard to find"
"That simple, Legolas?" Adonnenniel questioned. "The being will reek of black magic"
"Which we can also sense"
"Black magic can mirror anyone's appearances" Adonnenniel said. "Do you not think that the shade would change its appearance to look like us?"
"That is true"
"So we have to be careful"
"We?"
"Everyone that is fighting" Adonnenniel said. "Including me"
"You cannot fight. You don't even know how to wield a sword"
"How would you know?"
"Your brother told me, Adonnenniel"
"He lies, Legolas" Adonnenniel scoffed and rolled off of the bed. "Legolas, I have practiced many times"
"Practice is not the same as experience. I will not have you have your first fight with a Ra'zac" Legolas told her.
"I can control the water" Adonnenniel pointed out.
"Adonnenniel, you can heal with the water also" Legolas told her. "We need that in case of injuries"
Adonnenniel tried to ignore him as she went over to her wardrobe to change. Erulassë changed it so that one part of her dresses would be of silver and on the other side were of green dresses. It came to her surprise that she honestly didn't know which one to pick. Adonnenniel then just skimmed her hand around before randomly picking a silver dress.
"I do not just want to be a healer" Adonnenniel said. "I want to be out in the battlefield. Fighting, defending, and being by your side"
"Adonnenniel, please" Legolas said tiredly.
Adonnenniel turned around and folded her arms over her chest and gave him a smile. "Then teach me, Legolas. You are one of the best are you not?"
"Now you are just sugar coating"
"You were in the Fellowship"
"Any Elf could have died during that time"
"But you didn't" Adonnenniel sat down on a bench and started brushing her hair.
"We have a lot to do, Adonnenniel, now is not the time to fool around" Legolas tried to sound like his own father. "Remember who we were talking about earlier?"
Adonnenniel knew that it was true, that she didn't know how to fight… or fight well at least. She was hoping that Legolas would be kind enough to at least show her some kind of self-defense skills and work from there.
"You honestly want to spend all day in a counsel room? Your father will summon you if they really do need you" Adonnenniel told him.
Legolas shook his head as he quickly braided his hair into his customs ways. He didn't want to spend his day in the counsel room like she said. He still hasn't gotten on the good side of some of his men. Legolas pulled back a few of the braids and finished his work on the braids as he thought of his answer.
"What do you want to learn" Legolas finally said.
Adonnenniel smiled and ran over to Legolas and took his hands, "Thank you! What do you think I should learn?"
"I guess we can start with archery. It is a technique that we use often in these woods" Legolas smiled down to her.
He was hoping that by telling her that she was to learn archery, Adonnenniel would try to think of something else. He didn't think that within that hour she was by the weaponry asking what bow best suit her. Legolas hoped and pleaded that this was just a façade and that she really didn't want to learn. But with each growing minute, Adonnenniel was more and more eager.
Legolas led her outside, but instead of going to the right where the garden was, he turned left. The shades of the trees made it appear that they were walking to the other side of the world by now. Adonnenniel noticed how cool it was in these parts and stayed close to her Prince. She felt a slight tug at her ankle and nearly tripped over a root but was caught by Legolas in one swift motion, almost like as if he was expecting her to fall.
Adonnenniel smiled nervously as her ears picked up swishing sounds in the distance. Legolas never let his arm leave her waist as he guided her through the trail and toward the sounds. When the sounds seemed to be directly in front of her, there was still no one there, almost like as if they were ghosts. She looked up and then noticed that the archers were in the trees, aiming at other branches and other far away targets.
"Legolas?"
"Up here" Legolas motioned to a tree. "Do you climb?"
"I have never needed to, Legolas"
"Well… Can you hold this?" Legolas handed her his bow.
Adonnenniel took his bow before gasping at Legolas suddenly picking her up off of the ground. Legolas jumped up with one fluid motion and continued to climb with grace with only one arm. Adonnenniel looked down and was surprised at how far they have already gone up before closing her eyes. It almost felt like they have been going for all of eternity before Legolas gently placed her down onto some sort of platform.
"Warn me next time"
"You would've ran" Legolas told her. "Plus, I enjoyed taking you by surprise"
"Why does everybody always think I am going to run? Who thought up of that?" Adonnenniel rolled her eyes.
She took a look around and nearly gawked at the view around her. Legolas had taken up to the highest platform of the tree which overlooked the tops of the trees and showed all of Mirkwood so far that that the Elvish eyes couldn't see the end. Adonnenniel smiled as she easily made out the tallest and widest tree as their home. She turned around and showed Legolas her bright smile as he watched her look around.
"Are you ready to begin?" Legolas asked.
"Teach me!" Adonnenniel beamed.
"Then let me guide you" Legolas said gently as he came behind her and helped her with her bow.
"Be kind to me. I am not a fast pace learner like you" Adonnenniel said as her heart started beating rapidly. "The councilmen are fine without us… they have your father! Let us just call this our own day off"
Poster! Hello everybody! Usually for my stories I tend to make a poster along with it and might have already noticed the image difference for this story! If you guys want to see how it actually looks then go to my homepage, copy, and paste the link on the bottom and you should be able to see it! Thanks for all of the support and help that people gave me throughout this story (you know who you guys are!) and continue to read this to the end! Phoebe!
