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Disclaimer: I do not own "The Hobbit."
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Chapter 13: How I Met Your Mother
"Tell me about my mother," Sarah said in a quiet voice as she finished eating and set aside her tray. Thranduil looked at her, sorrow in his eyes.
"That is a painful topic," he said, "and not one I wish to discuss."
"Please?" Sarah pleaded. "I hardly know anything about her. I will never personally get to know my mother. I can only ask questions to those who did. Legolas doesn't talk about her, Tauriel didn't know her, Gandalf didn't stick around for very long, and I barely speak to anyone else. You're the only other person I can go to.
"And yet you have been avoiding me all this time."
"That," Sarah said with a frown, "is a completely different story."
Thranduil thought about her words for a few minutes, then gave her a small smile.
"What would you like to know?" he asked. Sarah smiled back.
"What was she like? How did you two meet? How did you fall in love? What did she use her magic for?"
Thranduil looked deep into the fire for several minutes as his mind replayed memories of his wife, memories he had tried to block out for many years now. Sarah waited patiently for him to speak, but, as the minutes passed, she was afraid that he wouldn't speak at all. She was about to say something when Thranduil finally spoke.
"I had gone out riding on my own," he began, "even though I was not supposed to. The horse that I had chosen to ride was not fully trained, and he ended up throwing me after a bird had flown past his nose and spooked him. He ran off after that, leaving me lying on the ground. After waiting a few moments for the pain to pass while mentally kicking myself for being so stupid, I stood up and started in the direction my horse had gone.
"I had only taken a few steps when my horse came running up to me. And riding him was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen: blond hair that was windswept from riding, eyes the color of the sky on a clear day, and the most radiant smile that made her face glow as bright as the sun. I fell in love with Meldamiriel the moment I saw her."
Unbeknownst to Thranduil, a smile had slowly been creeping onto his face as he spoke with a faraway look in his eyes. Sarah smiled as she could see her father's love for her mother quite visible on his face.
"She was unaware of who I was," Thranduil continued, "and so she lectured me about riding alone on an untrained colt. She was smiling the entire time she said it, so I was not even slightly angry with her, as I would have been had she been anyone else. She told me that I was lucky she had been in the area, otherwise things would not have ended well for me. She asked me who I was, where I was from, and why I was such a bad rider.
"There was about half a minute of silence when she realized that I had not spoken a single word to her. She repeated her questions, but all I could do was stare at her with my mouth hanging open. At this point she was no longer smiling, but was looking at me with a curious look on her face. She then asked me if I was mute. When I again made no response, she handed me the reins and began to walk away, calling a warning over her shoulder to be more careful next time.
"I hadn't even realized I had said anything until she stopped, turned back around with a hint of disbelief mixed in with the curiosity, and asked me to repeat it. Apparently I had told her that she was beautiful. Not knowing what I had said, I asked her what she thought I had said. I am quite certain I turned as red as a tomato when she told me." Sarah laughed, imagining her father's face red with embarrassment.
"It was then that my father and a company of guards rode up to us. He checked me over to make sure I was not hurt, lecturing me the entire time and basically saying the same things that Meldamiriel had said to me. After he had exhausted all he could think of to say, and reassured himself that I was unharmed, he turned to the woman standing there and started asking her questions, though I cannot recall any of them.
"Instantly recognizing my father, and realizing who I must have been, her face turned pink with embarrassment and she apologized for having inconvenienced me in any way. Recalling the story with her years later, she told me that she was absolutely humiliated at the thought that she had just been lecturing the king's son."
"From what you've already told me," Sarah said, "it sounds like you deserved the lecture."
"That I did," Thranduil said with a small laugh before continuing. "She explained that she had found my horse wandering, saddled and without a rider, and had followed his trail back to me. My father thanked her for her help and offered to have one of his soldiers take her home. She politely refused and watched as I rode away with my father and his guards. I stared back at her, never taking my eyes off of her for a moment, until she disappeared from my view. It was only when we reached the palace that I realized I had not asked for her name.
"It would be several weeks before I would see her again. My father was holding a ball and had invited the leaders of all the villages in the forest and their families. After walking around the room for a while, I saw her standing by the wall, a glass of wine in one hand and staring at the dancers with a bored expression. I walked right up to her and asked why a beautiful woman such as herself was not out on the dance floor. Recognizing me, she once again turned pink and stuttered, attempting a response to my question. Luckily for her, and for me, the last dance had just ended and a new one was beginning. Without asking for permission, I took her hand and led her out and into the midst of the dancers.
"Several songs played as we twirled and spun around each other, gazing into each other's eyes and not saying a single word. She was very tense in the beginning, but began to relax as time went on. Sometime during the second song, she began to smile. By the end of our dancing session, her smile was as big and bright as it had been when I first saw her riding my horse over to me. Needless to say, I was also smiling.
"We finally left the dance floor, exhausted, and met my father and her parents. They had been watching us the entire time. My father recognized her, asked her name, which I realized then that I had once again forgotten to do so myself, and thanked her again for her help that day I had gone riding. Her parents looked at him with confusion and asked him what he was referring to, obviously not having heard the story from their daughter. He related to them the same story that Meldamiriel had told him. When he got to the part about her finding the horse and following his trail back to me, they started laughing.
"Her parents then told my father and me that their daughter had always had a special way with animals, that she talked to them and held conversations with them as easily as they themselves were conversing. They said that she had most likely asked the horse where he came from and how to get back to his abandoned rider. They said it all in a joking manner, as if they saw it as a funny story that you tell people to make them laugh. They obviously saw their daughter's power as something that was not to be taken seriously.
"My father then turned to their daughter and asked if it was true. She told him that it was. When he asked her why she had changed her story, she replied that she had often been ridiculed for her strong and deep connection with animals and that she tried as often as she could to hide her true power. She kept glancing over to her parents as she spoke, and I got the impression that they were the ones who did most of the ridiculing and had convinced their daughter to lie about her power so that they themselves would not be ridiculed for having such a strange child.
"They dragged her away from my father and me after that, apologizing for their daughter's foolishness. I followed them for a while and overheard them lecturing her, berating her for humiliating them in front of their king. When I saw the tears fall from her eyes, I had to resist the urge to beat her parents to a bloody pulp for making her cry. I did not see her for the rest of the night.
"The ball ended, and Meldamiriel left for her village with her parents. I was incredibly saddened by her absence, and angry with myself for not having intervened when they were hurting her. My inaction bothered me for several days. Luckily, not long after the ball, my father decided to take a tour of all the villages within his kingdom to see how they were faring and if there was anything that needed improvement. I accompanied him, using the excuse that this tour would help me know my people and kingdom better. Honestly, I just wanted to see that beautiful woman again." Sarah laughed.
"Her village was one of the last ones we visited. We stayed with her parents while we were there, and so I was able to spend a great deal of time with her. We were a bit awkward around each other near the beginning, both remembering how we had first met, but we eventually relaxed enough to be comfortable around each other. Her parents were quite pleased with the situation, and they avoided bringing up the subject of her magic again. I think they were just pleased that a man was showing any interest in her at all. I learned that because of her parents' criticisms towards her power, no man in the village wanted anything to do with her."
"What a bunch of jerks," Sarah said with a scowl. Thranduil raised one eyebrow at her language, but continued.
"On the day we were meant to leave, my father's horse fell ill. They could not determine what was wrong with him, having asked everyone who was in charge of the stables of anything they noticed that could have caused it. Also, not knowing what the cause of the illness was, they could not determine how to heal the horse. Finally, my father remembered what Meldamiriel's parents had said about her being able to speak to animals, and so he asked her if she would be willing to talk to his horse in order to determine what was wrong. Her parents objected, saying, in a very condescending tone, that her supposed power was nothing more than an overactive imagination.
"My father did not listen to them, and again asked Meldamiriel if she would talk to his horse. She agreed, and learned of a plant that the horse had eaten that he had never tried before. Inquiring further, she was able to extract from him the location of the plant and directed us to it. The plant turned out to be one that is poisonous to horses. It was ripped out immediately, and an antidote was given to the horse now that they knew the cause of the illness and how to cure it. My father was impressed with her power, and offered her a position in the palace working with the animals there.
"At this point, her parents began praising her and speaking flattering words about her power, encouraging her to take the position. Everyone there could tell that their change of opinion concerning her power was only due to the fact that my father was taking her seriously and making her an offer."
"Gold-diggers," Sarah said under her breath. Thranduil heard her and smiled.
"Gold-diggers indeed," he said. "When Meldamiriel accepted the offer, her parents were absolutely ecstatic. They began to discuss what they would take with them when they moved into the palace and who would be chosen as the new village leader since they would be leaving. My father stopped them there and told them that his offer was only for Meldamiriel. They would not be accompanying her. They tried to object, saying that she was still young and still needed her parents. He silenced them by observing that they did not truly appreciate their daughter's gifts, and so they did not deserve to benefit from them. I do not know who was happier when we finally left the village: Meldamiriel because she was finally away from her critical and restrictive parents, or me because the woman I loved was now going to be so close to me.
"I began to officially court her not long after she started working in the palace. While she had been quite open with me when we were in her parents' village, it was as if she had been chained up and had suddenly been set free. It was eventually discovered that her gift with animals was really wild magic, and she was very pleased to finally have an explanation. The more I learned about her and the longer I knew her, the more I loved her. My father was only too happy to give his blessing when we revealed our desire to marry. An announcement of the marriage was sent to her parents, but they were not invited to the wedding. I was not going to allow them to spoil what was going to be a very happy day for the both of us."
Sarah smiled as her father told his story. She hadn't noticed it, but she had slowly been inching towards Thranduil as he was speaking. At this point, she was sitting right next to him. Feeling drowsy all of a sudden, not fully recovered from her magical healing, she rested her head on his shoulder. Surprised at her actions at first, Thranduil relaxed and wrapped one arm around her. They sat like that in silence for a while, staring into the flames while Thranduil was lost in his memories and Sarah was playing his story over in her head.
"I wish I could have known her," Sarah finally said in a low voice. Thranduil hugged her close.
"I wish she was here, also," he said.
Sarah drifted off to sleep in her father's embrace, not noticing the tear that fell from his eye.
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It took me so long to write this chapter. It's one of my longer ones, too. I wanted to get the entire story in rather than cutting it off and continuing it in another chapter.
We finally learn a bit about Meldamiriel. Does anyone else totally hate her parents? More information about her in the future.
A cute father-daughter bonding moment. Also more of that in the future.
My apologies. I know this chapter is a day late. I was on vacation and didn't have access to my laptop with all my work on it. Next chapter will still be posted on Friday.
For now, please review.