Still don't own any of Tolkien's works. I hope you're all enjoying this!
He was not sure how long it had been when he woke up again. As he tried to recall what had happened, he remembered the fight, the roar and growl, and the beautiful idiot. The last clear memory he had was of her yanking the arrow out.
After that was just a blur of delirium and fever. He remembered raging thirst and feeling as though he would die. He tried to sit up and almost passed out. How long had it been for him to feel this weak?! His stomach took that moment to tell him that however long it had been, it was extremely empty.
He also noticed a few other sensations he'd never felt before. Looking at his surrounding more closely, he found he was in a cave with a few small holes higher in the ceiling letting in some light. He supposed he should be grateful for them, because he could not see any other form of lighting nearby.
In fact, there was nothing nearby at all. Just the soft furs he was apparently sleeping on and using for bedding. Which brought him back to the strange feeling...he lifted the furs covering him and felt his eyes bug out. Where were his clothes? Or at least, some clothes? He was wearing nothing but bandages, not even smallclothes...he let the furs fall.
He really hoped there was someone here besides just that girl. He really, really did. As he lay back, his sharp senses caught the sound of movement nearby. He was startled by the girl's appearance. She looked rather tired and pale, and her eyes were dull from hunger, if he was any judge.
Yet she was still beautiful. As her eyes met his, she seemed to change right before his eyes. Her eyes regained their sparkle, her pale cheeks flushed a delicate pink, and her smile could have lit the darkest night.
"Oh, you're finally awake! I was afraid for a while there that you weren't going to make it. That would have been worse than the time the squirrel with the broken leg died!"
His thoughts screeched to a halt. Did she just compare him to a squirrel? As she bounced over with what appeared to be a cup made out of stone, he was once again reminded that this girl was probably an idiot.
As she lifted his head to bring the cup of water to his lips, he was a little surprised by her strength. She was also rather practiced at this. He wondered again how long he'd been out. His stomach took that moment to remind him that it had been too long, however long it had been. It roared almost as loudly as whatever creature had chased off the orcs. He flushed a bit when he met her eyes. All he saw there was sympathy.
"Yes, I imagine you are hungry. I haven't been able to get you to eat anything for two weeks! Well, wait here and I'll get something."
With that she breezed out quickly. He expected her to get something from her larder and return quickly, and was thus surprised when she was gone for quite a bit longer than he thought it would take. If he was surprised at the time it took, he was shocked when she came back with blood on her face carrying the bloody haunch of some unfortunate beast.
From the jagged marks, she wasn't very good with her knife, either. She tossed it down in front of him, looking pleased with herself. With dawning horror, he realized she considered this sufficient dinner preparations...which led him to believe he didn't want to know what she usually ate.
How could she live like this? Was she raised by orcs? As the pleased look on her face gradually faded to puzzled offense at the look of horrified shock on his face, he felt his manners kick in.
"Um, thank you. That's a lovely bit of meat, to be sure. Very thoughtful of you. Do you perhaps have some way to cook it?"
He normally didn't even eat meat except on special occasions, and then it was usually fish, but if he was going to eat it there was no way he was going to eat it raw. Not even to please his host, who seemed to have saved his life. The look on her face confirmed his suspicions, and he groaned on the inside.
"Cook? Why would it need to cook?"
As the days went by, he found that his first impression of the young woman was quite wrong. She wasn't an idiot. In fact, she was incredibly intelligent, and a very quick and avid learner. She was just extremely ignorant on almost every facet of life as an elf.
He was still half convinced she'd been raised by orcs. The only thing that disabused him of this notion was how fluent she was in both quenyan and sindarin, and the fact that she could read and write both as well. He didn't think any orc would take the time for such.
Also, she was woefully unskilled with any form of weaponry. It made him wonder how she'd managed to hunt and survive so long. As he gradually got her story from her, he was even more baffled. What kind of elves would treat their child this way?
It sounded as if her father was hugely absent in her life from the beginning, and her mother had been mostly absent for several years. He felt a burn in his heart every time he thought of how they'd treated her. Children were a precious gift, and should be treated as such!
Not that she was a child anymore. There had been an incident or two where he'd found she had no compunction about disrobing in front of him. After a long and awkward conversation, where he'd found himself having to give her the 'Talk' her mother should have years ago, he'd found that she hadn't even realized he was male!
That had been an embarrassing conversation, and a bit of a blow to his male ego. Still, she was learning quickly, and he found himself more drawn to her every day. He tried not to be, of course. He was afraid that she would be drawn to him simply because he was the only male not her father she'd ever known. She was so young!
He amended his thoughts about that a week or two later. He had discovered that she was actually about his age. It was just while he had been born in Valinor to noble elves, she had apparently been born in middle earth to Avari elves and then neglected horribly.
He came to the decision that he would do his best to convince her to come back to Gondolin with him. At first he told himself he was only going to do this for her own good, but as the weeks turned into months he found he had to be honest with himself.
He had been enchanted by her since the first time their eyes met, and the more he got to know her the more attached he became. He had fallen in love without even meaning to.