THE FORGOTTEN
Hídad Ellen
Strange Happening
Author's note: The chapter in which – Everyone meets up in the kitchen and Lothril has a bad dinner.
The days following the hunting trip and the feast fell into a very pleasant and quiet kind of normalcy. Rumor of her saving the prince had spread like wildfire after the feast, of course, from the servants up through whatever nobility were still lingering around the palace, and in veins of rumor through the various different towns and villages. A funny hallmark of the conversations surrounding the news though, was that everyone agreed the king really ought to do something to show his gratitude, but then inevitably someone would ask what and everyone would be stumped. She was already considered a member of the royal family, she was already betrothed to the prince, and she was already being dressed in the finest dresses and jewels. There were a few who said they would consider abandoning tradition entirely and let them wed whenever they wished, but then someone in the know or someone who knew someone who was in the know would say they could marry as soon as three days past Midsummer next year, but they wanted to wed in autumn. So that was out. So what does one do for the elleth that already has it all?
This was the very question Thranduil kept pondering. It would have been much easier if she were not so ridiculously content and happy. She desired nothing, she wanted nothing, and she had not been there long enough yet to cultivate any interests he could indulge her in more so than he already was. He knew she loved poetry but before they went hunting he already had opened up his library to her.
It was maddening. Usually he was very good at reading people and what sorts of things they would like to get, but he had trouble with her. Eventually he gave up and asked Legolas.
"Legolas, I want to do or give something to Lothril in gratitude for her saving you, but I can think of nothing worthy enough to give her that is not hers already. What do you think she would like?" Thranduil asked one night after Lothril had retired early.
Legolas thought a moment then said, "If you are looking for something grand to give her, good luck. You could hand her the Nauglamír and she would appreciate it as much as if you handed her a carved walking stick."
"Surely you exaggerate," Thranduil said. "I have seen the Nauglamír, remember?"
"A little," Legolas admitted with a smile. "With her it is not the richness of the object given that she loves, but the thoughtfulness of it. I learned very quickly she does not care if the gift is expensive and luxurious or simple and free, it is the thought behind it that she loves. One of her favorite things I have given her yet is a sketch book with sketches I made for her and her betrothal ring. She gratefully accepted the rest of it, and she has told me she genuinely likes many of the things I bought for her, but the ones that make her smile most are the sketches and her ring," he answered.
"Then I shall have to think about what to give her a little more carefully," Thranduil said.
"Ada, if you really want my advice – do not worry about giving her an object as a thank you or even doing her a grand favor," Legolas said.
"I must do something though, if for no other reason than she saved my son and heir and it looks like I am ungrateful as king and father if I do nothing."
"This is true," Legolas said thoughtfully. "Then give her an heirloom from Nana-ada or Nane. That is something she will appreciate and it will be recognized as a token of your gratitude. Oh, and give it to her before we start celebrating Turuhalmë. There was a holiday she was very fond of back home around the same time of year and one of their traditions was gift giving. She knows we do not traditionally give gifts for Turuhalmë but I think she would appreciate getting one around then anyway."
Thranduil nodded. "I will do that. But tell me about this holiday – is it something we could celebrate here amongst ourselves?"
Legolas shook his head. "Not very well. We could borrow some of their traditions like giving gifts and certain decorations, but the reason she celebrated it would be lost on us entirely."
"But it would not be lost on her," Thranduil countered.
"True, but it was a sacred holiday and I think our celebrating it would be imprudent. I read her sacred book and I know why they celebrate it, but as elves and in this world, I think we would be amiss to do so," Legolas said. "They do not have Valar there and the Name was a bit more direct in dealing with Men and that holiday is about a very joyous time He was very directly involved."
Thranduil looked almost shocked at that. "Then we shall not. I shall give her an heirloom and have her wear it for Turuhalmë. I would however like to do something privately for her."
"If you wish to do some little thing that she will love, just make her desserts every so often. It will tickle her to no end if you do," Legolas said.
"I will, but I hardly think the odd pie or turnover quite matches saving your life," Thranduil said with a raised brow.
"No, but the only thing that she is truly wanting is family, and I think the two of you are already well on your way to viewing each other as such," Legolas replied.
Thranduil smiled. "I do consider her family, and if I ever doubted it, when she told me how it was she healed you I realized she endangered herself to do it and I was as concerned for her as I was for you."
"Have you told her as much?" Legolas asked.
"Not in so many words, but she is still keeping me at a little bit at a distance," Thranduil answered. "We have had a couple more personal conversations, but I still think she still wants to keep some distance between us."
"Nay, that she has had personal conversations with you is proof she is welcoming you in. She keeps herself very guarded even with some of her own friends and natural kin. She told me in brief about one of your conversations and I can tell you with certainty – that she was willing to discuss with you any of that is as close as you will get to her openly declaring her feelings without you sayings something first. That is not the sort of thing she discusses readily," Legolas replied.
Thranduil rubbed his chin for a moment as he thought then said, "Then I shall say something directly and let her do whatever she wills with it."
"I will say this, Ada, I was not there when Elrond named her his daughter so I cannot say how she reacted to it in the moment, but I do know when she told me later she did not let on what her feelings were whatsoever. In fact, it took me weeks to realize she truly loved him and regarded him as a father and he her. Perhaps she showed him her feelings right away, I cannot say, but do not be surprised if her words are less than her feelings. Or perhaps she will be very open. She was very open with me when I first told her how I feel about her, but that was a different thing altogether. Just know she does have a habit of saying and showing less than she feels at times," Legolas said.
Thranduil got a crooked half smile and said, "Somehow that does not surprise me in the slightest. But while we are on the subject of showing gratitude, I assume you are showing her yours for saving your life."
Legolas grinned wide. "Of course, Ada. Every chance I get. She certainly demands a new level of creativity though. She does not like it if I try to thank her outright too much and starts going on about how she was acting out of pure selfishness, but I have discovered a couple things she enjoys to no end and will not refuse no matter what she thinks my motivation is for doing them."
Thranduil smiled. That elleth… "Good! Are you going to say goodnight to her before you go to bed?"
"Only if she is still awake. She has been doing certain exercises related to her ósanwe abilities and they tend to make her tired. That is why she retired early this evening. She is doing those and then sleeping," he answered.
"She is not overextending herself again, is she?" Thranduil asked with concern.
"No, no. Her hröa a fëa are not wearied by it. Just her mind. You notice she has been able to keep up with her riding lessons and sparring and everything else without a problem and she has been doing this since shortly after she was introduced to court," Legolas answered.
"Oh, I had no idea. Her abilities really are astounding," Thranduil commented with a slow shake of his head.
Legolas nodded. "We have been using ósanwe with each other regularly for at least a year now and I am still overwhelmed sometimes when I realize how vast her mind and abilities are. I know my skills with it have improved, but I still feel with many things I am leaning almost wholly on her strength and abilities to share things like certain kinds of memories or even just thoughts over any sort of distance."
"Certain kinds of memories?" Thranduil asked.
"I am now at a point where I can share images without feeling like I am leaning on her strength to do it, and I feel like I am leaning on her partially to share memories of sounds, but when it comes to sharing memories of smells I am leaning wholly on her, even though those memories can be some of the strongest, I find they are hardest for me to share because I keep wanting to sort of explain it as I would aloud. It makes me think about it too much and then I cannot share it properly. It almost seems like she helps me by holding back that curtain of conscious thought and thus allowing that sort of memory to flow without being obstructed. It is very odd trying to explain," Legolas answered.
"I really must have her teach me these things. I know she can share memories of every sense because she did with me when showing me memories of holidays. I could smell the air, I could taste the food, I could hear voices and see images through her eyes. I know I cannot share those things in return though," Thranduil said.
"Oh, if you truly wanted to try sharing something with her, I have no doubt she could bridge the span between her mind and your memories for you. And I am sure she could help you learn to do it on your own if you wish. She is teaching me, after all," Legolas said. "And she is threatening once I have sharing memories mastered to any degree she is going to teach me how to share my imaginings with her. She has done so with me and it is… it is astounding. She has shared memories of her past imaginings, but a week or so ago she tried sharing something as she was imagining it without being asleep. For she has shared dreams with me before as she dreamt them, but this was different. There was a greater level of consciousness to it and it was far more vivid and she kept letting me influence what she imagined and changed things accordingly. I have never experienced the like before," Legolas said.
"That betrothed of yours could destroy kingdoms if she had a mind. Fortunately for us all she seems more inclined to helping others," Thranduil said.
"She destroyed Minas Morgul, you know," Legolas said quietly with a certain level of seriousness to his voice.
Thranduil's eyes grew wide and he paled slightly. "She went to that evil place?"
"She would not tell me much about it. We rode past it on the way to the Black Gate from Minas Tirith and cast a spell upon it and cast down the bridge to dust. As we rode back past it afterwards we turned aside with many men to see if any evil was still afoot and we found it to be a pile of dust and small rubble. We all began to wonder if somehow it collapsed with the fall of Sauron, but then Gandalf remembered an errand Lothril hurried off on after the battle ended and asked her about it and all she confessed it was her doing after the battle but would say no more. When I asked her about it later she said there was nothing to tell save that she was charged with helping to end Sauron and pulling down evil places and that is what she did. But I do know that Gandalf was with us the entire time after saving Frodo and Sam and there is no skill or art of Men that could pull down such a place to such thorough ruin, therefore, it was all done by her power and skill," Legolas replied.
"If she can bring such ruin, I wonder what she can build up?" Thranduil mused.
"I have wondered the same. I imagine I will find out when we go to Ithilien," he said.
"Maybe we should give her a garden come spring and see what she makes of it. There is that horribly overgrown thicket on the far side of yours we could clear out if she is interested," Thranduil said.
"You may ask her. I truly have no idea if she has any interest in gardening or not," Legolas replied.
"If she wants to practice reclaiming evil places, we could take her to where the spiders used to nest. The scouts keep reporting there is no sign of them anymore, but it is still far from healthy," Thranduil said.
Legolas mulled it over. "That certainly is a thought. I will mention it near spring."
Lothril had, in fact, gone through her mental exercises and went to bed right after, but as her mind was strengthening, it was less tired after doing those drills, and so it was she went to bed early and then woke up sometime in the late night and well before dawn. Now that she was an elleth of leisure, she honestly didn't care if she woke up in the middle of the night or not and when she did, she would stir up her fire, light a lamp and read or play a little music or do whatever she wished until she either got tired again and went back to sleep or else the sun rose. Tonight though, she was looking to read and she had exhausted her library's collection of nature poetry.
As Thranduil had said she was welcome to raid his library whenever she liked, she put on a robe and slippers, grabbed a lamp, and went into his suite of rooms. Just in case the king of the realm was still asleep, she made sure she was silent and that her presence wouldn't be noticed by anyone or anything. She ghosted into his suite of rooms, and silently opened and closed doors without so much as the snick of a falling latch.
Once in the library she carefully looked through the shelves to find his poetry section. The elf was organized, she had to give him that. It only took her a few seconds to find what she was looking for and she carefully and quietly slipped the second book in a collection of nature poetry off the shelf. She went over to the nearest chair and set her lamp down on the table beside it and silently opened up the book and read the first page to make sure this was the next volume and not one she had read before. After a quick skim through the first page she realized this was a new one for her. As she went to shut the book though, the word "painting" caught her attention.
Painting… those paintings upstairs had been haunting the corners of her thoughts for a while now. Lauríel had poured so much into those paintings… that brief look she got hadn't been enough. She hadn't just painted a picture, she had put her heart on canvas to try to show whoever looked at it what she saw when she looked at her husband and her son. Even her landscapes seemed to hold a measure of heart and what she loved about whatever she was looking at. She wondered if he would mind… Well, she wasn't looking to touch any of his instruments and he had basically said the room with her paintings was as good as storage and that these were paintings he would hang around and rotate… it wasn't like she was going to be rifling through his desk or sneaking into his bedroom…
She set the book down on the table and grabbed the lamp and headed up the stairs as silently as she could manage. Nothing was locked and she was able to ghost into the painting room without so much as creaking a hinge. She perused the portraits again until she found the one of Legolas and then another one of him that looked a little more contemplative. She set them next to each other and held her lamp so she could see them both.
For a long while she looked at both paintings and tried so hard to shake off her own perspective on Legolas and see him as his mother did. She just… something about how Lauríel saw him was just different and, she almost hated to think it, but lacking in an incomplete sort of way. Not that her painting itself was, but that something in her portrayal of her son was… The longer she looked the more convinced she became that was it.
"You did not need to sneak up here like a thief. If you wanted to come up here again and look at these, you could have simply asked," Thranduil said from the doorway, holding a candle himself.
Lothril gave a start but managed to keep her reaction to a sharp gasp and low jump. "Good grief, Thranduil! You scared me! I did not wake you, did I?"
Thranduil gave a soft chuckle, "No, you did not. As I told you before, I am often awake at this hour. This time though, I was in my study and as I was heading back to bed I saw the book sitting out and the door to the stair open and decided to see if it was you or Legolas up here."
"Does he come in here often?" she asked.
"Sometimes," Thranduil answered with a soft smile. "I take it after your mental exercises you could not sleep?"
"No, I slept, but I am almost ready to start a new set and so I was not as tired from them and wound up waking up and wanted a book. But how did you know about that? Legolas?"
Thranduil nodded as he came into the room to see which pictures she was staring at. "How else? If you want, you could take these and hang them in your bedroom."
Lothril got a very funny look on her face. "Thanks, but I will pass on the offer."
"Alright then, what brings you up here and back to these two paintings?" Thranduil asked, his curiosity blatant for once.
She frowned a little and her brow furrowed. "Well… There's something about them that bothers me a little and I am trying to sort out what. Take that portrait of you," she said, pointing to the one of Thranduil that was next to the two portraits she was looking at. "That one seems right, complete. There is nothing missing from it. These though… they just seem incomplete somehow and I cannot reckon it."
Thranduil looked at the pictures for only a moment before he smiled and said, "Can you not? You, pen mell (dear one) are missing from these paintings. I told you for a while I wondered if Legolas had perhaps chosen to be single, but Lauríel never did. She always knew he would find you one day. These paintings are very accurate. That is how Legolas looked to me every day until you came into his life. You complete him, Lothril. His character has never been lacking, but he was incomplete even if he was otherwise content. You are bringing to fruition all the potential his mother saw in him."
Lothril smiled. "I suppose I ought to have known at that. He did tell me once that he… well, that falling in love with me had rendered a great change in him. I guess I just never expected it to be visible, is all," she answered.
"I know that mortals think we are changeless because to their eyes we do not age, but in truth, we do. We bear the events of our lives and our long years in our eyes and in our fëar. As a mortal, I doubt greatly you could have perceived the change as you do now, but you are now edhel and you begin to see these things."
She nodded slightly. "It is stuff like this that makes me feel like such an elfling. Things that I am sure you never even thought about as an elfling are some of the hardest and most foreign things for me to see and understand."
"Like what?" asked Adar Thranduil.
"Well, shortly after Frodo and Sam destroyed the Ring, we were camping in Ithilien and I asked Elladan and Elrohir whether or not they ever have bad dreams and we realized I actually had no idea how to dream as an elf and I did not actually understand how we sleep," Lothril answered with a shamefaced little grin. "And I still cannot tell the difference between married and unmarried elves."
"You are mostly right – I never thought about dreaming or sleeping as an elfling, it was purely instinctual and understood. I was though probably close to twenty before I could tell at a glance or a word whether an elf was married or not, but it was something I simply noticed one day. You have not been living as an elf for even a year yet. One day you will see it and it will be as plain to you as the rest of us. I think though noticing the difference between my son in this painting and my son now though is a step in that direction," Thranduil said.
"Thanks for saying that," Lothril said sincerely. She fidgeted a little and asked, "Would you mind if I gave you a hug?"
"Of course not!" Thranduil answered with a warm smile, setting his candle down on a table. She set her lamp down tentatively gave him a hug until he wrapped her in a big hug. "I think of you as a daughter already, you know," he said. "And I love you as my own child."
Lothril felt that choked up feeling in her throat and the tell-tale sting of tears behind her eyes, but she swallowed it down and tried to say something in return but couldn't quite find the words she wanted.
He felt her arms tighten around him a little when he said that and though she didn't say anything except a very muffled 'thank you' (which was understandable given her chin didn't clear his shoulder).
He let go of her and said, "What do you say we go downstairs and have something sweet and apple filled and perhaps something to drink?"
"That sounds nice," she replied with a little smile.
He held out his hand to her and took up his candle with the other and they went downstairs together hand in hand.
They reached the smaller kitchen nearer their rooms and Thranduil let go of her hand and went directly to a particular pantry and opened it, revealing in the dim light multiple baked goods covered in tea towels. Thranduil peeked under a couple until he pulled out a small platter covered in a white and green striped cloth and then led her over to a prep table that had a couple of tall barstools pushed in under it.
"Here we are," he said as he set down the platter and gingerly folded back the cloth.
"What are these?" Lothril asked as she plucked one off the plate.
"They are an easy little dessert I like to make time to time. Essentially it is pie crust dough filled with whatever sweet thing I feel like. These particular ones are filled with apple slices and apple butter. Would you like tea or hot cider?"
"I will have whatever you are having," Lothril answered.
Thranduil nodded and went to another pantry and pulled out a jug of cider and poured some into a small pot and set to stoking up the cooking fire from the hot embers.
"Would you like a little help getting that going?" Lothril asked.
"It should only take me a moment," he replied over his shoulder. A few seconds later a little flame sprang up which quickly turned into a small and hot little fire beneath a tall trivet. He set on the pot and it didn't take very long before Lothril could see steam curling up and it was not much longer after that before Thranduil was setting a mug of hot cider down in front of her.
"Thank you," she said as she wrapped her hands around the mug and took a sniff of the steam.
"You are welcome," he replied before blowing on his a little and taking a small sip.
They chit chatted a little about the cider and the dessert until there was a slight lull in the conversation which ended when Lothril said, "You know, the more I get to know you, the more I marvel that you only had one child. You seem like the sort that would enjoy three or four."
Thranduil got a funny little grin and said, "In truth I had little or no opinion about if or how many children we had when Lauríel and I got married. I had no objection to them, but I had no deep desire for them either. Legolas only came about because Lauríel decided the time was right and that she wished to have one, so I happily obliged. We had Legolas, coincidentally, around the same time as most of our family and friends did. The whole lot of them were always playing with each other. It often felt like we had had seven or eight elflings at once for how often they were around. By the time Legolas was grown and all our kith and kin's elflings had grown a couple hundred years had passed and we decided we were in no rush. Not long after that things began to happen and we decided the timing was less than ideal and – we simply never got around to it. Perhaps after you and Legolas are married and we are all in the Blessed Realm we will have a couple more."
Lothril nodded thoughtfully. "Will it sound strange if I say it is reassuring hearing you were ambivalent about having elflings?"
"Not at all. Legolas knows this already, but I will tell you directly – you two are free to arrange your house however you see fit. If that means elflings immediately, waiting five hundred years, or none at all it is completely up to you and you shall get no interference from me," Thranduil said. "And if I may proffer a bit of unsolicited advice?"
"Please do."
He reached across the table and took her hand. "Give yourself a century or two before you even think again about having elflings. Most of us are at least a hundred, if not older, by the time we wed. You have only been at this life for a year, and considering what this past year has been, I am going to say you have only truly been at it since we returned here. Give yourself time. You have plenty to spare."
"I suppose I do at that," she said with a half grin before emptying her mug.
"Would you like some more?" Thranduil offered.
"If you do not mind," Lothril said, sliding her empty mug towards him.
"Not at all, pen mell nin (my dear one)," Thranduil said as he took up both their mugs and returned to the still steaming pot. He emptied it into her mug and then filled it again to warm some more for himself. The cider was warming and Thranduil stirring it absentmindedly when they heard the kitchen door open and both of them turned to look. "Legolas, ion nin! Tolo, govado ven! (Legolas, my son! Come, join us!)"
"And here I expected to find an empty kitchen," Legolas said with a slight smile as came over next to Lothril. He pulled out a barstool and sat down beside her and gave her a kiss on the temple. Lothril smiled reflexively as he did and slid him the platter of desserts.
Without even asking, Thranduil added a little more cider to the pot he was warming up and pulled down another mug from the cupboard.
"I am surprised you are up," Legolas said as he took one of the little apple pockets. "I thought you would be asleep until dawn."
"I think I am almost ready for the next set of exercises," she answered.
He nodded then asked with ósanwe, "Does that mean you will be able to share those memories with me soon?"
"Soon enough, but probably after I master the next set. I will try soon though with you with some innocuous memories to test my progress," she answered in kind.
"I can feel a difference you know. Your mind feels even larger and more imposing than before."
"Does it?" her brows knit in concentration for a moment. "How about now?"
"Surprisingly less so," he answered.
"Here you are," Thranduil said as he slid a mug of hot cider to Legolas, unaware they had been using ósanwe at all thanks to the dim light.
"Thank you, Ada," Legolas replied with a small smile.
"You are welcome," Thranduil said as he settled back onto his barstool.
"So, come here often?" Lothril said in an overtly flirty voice as she leaned in a little towards Legolas.
Legolas laughed and Thranduil even allowed a chuckle.
"Whenever I want to sneak dessert," he answered with a lingering chuckle in his voice before taking a large bite.
"So frequently," she teased.
He wiggled his eye brows as he quickly chewed then swallowed. "I shall never tell," he quipped. "But what brings you two here?"
"Dessert and cider, of course," Thranduil answered.
"Ah, so you have taken up kitchen raiding?" Legolas asked Lothril.
"Only upon invitation," Lothril answered.
"Oh?"
"Your father caught me up in that one room looking at paintings. Your mother is very talented," Lothril said.
Legolas smiled warmly. "I have always thought so. She is the one who taught me how to draw."
"And now you are teaching me," Lothril replied with a little lopsided smile of her own.
"Is he now?" Thranduil asked, looking almost proud of his son.
"Yes, but I am afraid I am not very good yet. I think I have gone from dreadful to just bad," Lothril answered.
"You are too hard on yourself, meleth nin. You have progressed quite a bit for how little a time you have been working on it," Legolas encouraged.
"Well whenever you manage to draw something you think worth looking at, I would love to see it," Thranduil said. "And I will be an easy judge because I am not very good myself."
"I hope you are patient then, because it may be a while," Lothril replied.
Thranduil smirked. "Perhaps, but I think my idea of 'a while' is a bit longer than yours. I do have a few years on you."
Lothril chuckled, "I suppose you do at that!"
For about an hour the three of them drank cider, ate apple turnovers, and talked about nothing in particular, and it was nice. For a little while Thranduil and Legolas were talking about Oropher's fishing lures and Thranduil was trying to remember what exactly his father said he did to get it to spin a certain way to attract trout. Lothril, who had very little interest in the subject, sat quietly half listening and sipping her cider and thinking about how nice this was. The three of them sitting in the warm, dimly lit kitchen drinking something hot and chatting… a couple waves of sweet melancholy washed over her as she sat there. She missed the loud kitchen conversations with her family at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and by her reckoning Thanksgiving would have been that coming Thursday if the holiday had existed there at all. But it didn't. She also missed some of those quiet conversations she had had with Elrond and the twins in both Rivendell and Minas Tirith. At the same time though, she was very much starting to fall in love with these middle of the night conversations with Thranduil and having Legolas join them this time was – well, it was enough to turn her wandering thoughts back to the dimly lit kitchen that smelled of apple cider and a small cooking fire and the warmth of her beloved beside her.
She slid her arm under his and he reflexively adjusted to allow her more room as she sort of hugged his arm and laid her head on his shoulder even as she reached her hand across the table. Thranduil was talking and noticed her hand and looked at it with a brief flicker of surprise before he took it as he kept talking. There was a happy and content look on her face, not quite a smile, but like it could break into a smile but just hadn't yet.
After a little while Thranduil declared that he had been heading back to bed when he ran into Lothril and that it was high time he made it there. He kissed them both goodnight and left the kitchen.
"I reckon we ought to head back to bed ourselves," Lothril said before finishing off the last mouthful of cider in her mug.
"Would you like me to join you for the latter half of the night?" Legolas asked, trying to keep his tone neutral.
"I would, but Estelneth will be there in the morning. I guess Rinion has the afternoon off and she wants to be off with him," Lothril answered.
"Then I shall take you back to your room but not stay," Legolas replied.
The next morning Lothril woke up to find Estelneth in the room busy as she always was on the mornings she worked.
"Good morning, milady," she said as Lothril sat up.
"Morning Estelneth," Lothril replied and thought she heard voices from the antechamber and looked and saw the door to it cracked open. "Is there something going on in the antechamber I should know about?"
"It is soap day, milady," Estelneth said with a smile.
"Soap day?"
"Of course!"
"What on earth is soap day?" Lothril asked.
"The day you pick out what soaps you want," Estelneth answered as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Ah, I see," Lothril said with a nod. She had questions. Lots of questions. The biggest one being why Estelneth seemed so enthusiastic, at least for her, about picking out soaps. The next biggest one being why this was being presented to her like it was a thing and such an obvious thing and if it was, how she missed it hearing about one for a whole year."
Lothril slid out from under her blankets and Estelneth helped her dress and then Lothril went into the anteroom to see the table out there covered in soaps, bath salts, oils, and powders. In fact another table had been brought in to accommodate them all. Wide eyed Lothril surveyed the tables. "Oh my word!"
Just then Legolas came in, took one look at the tables of soap and said cheerily, "Oh, soap day!"
"What the heck is soap day?!" Lothril burst.
Legolas chuckled. "You are over thinking this, meleth. It is just this," he said and gestured to all the soaps. "Instead of going to the store to pick out what soaps and bath oils and things that you want, everything is brought to you and you pick what you like and the rest is taken away."
"But everyone is acting like this is a holiday on the calendar I should know about," Lothril replied.
"Hardly, but it is usually fairly obvious when one is coming given your bars of soap start to disappear. However, you did not know anything about this, so this one was understandably not very obvious to you, but the next one will not surprise you in the slightest. And Estelneth with always arrange them for you when she notes that your soaps are almost gone," Legolas said.
"Alright, but why is everyone so excited about it? Even you looked a bit excited when you saw it," she asked.
Legolas raised a brow. "I beg your pardon, but who was it that got nearly giddy that one day when your mother took you to that one store full of nothing but soaps and lotions?"
"Oh… well… that's true," Lothril said with an embarrassed laugh. "I guess that is about the same thing."
He kissed her cheek. "The very same thing except that it comes to you and these smell much better."
She laughed. "Are you sure that is not your bias showing?"
"Not at all," he smiled and he plucked the nearest bar of soap off the table and offered it to her. "Tell me that is not nicer."
Lothril raised a brow and took a sniff. "Oooh! That is nice!"
"See? And after breakfast I shall return you here and let you sort through everything and pick what you want," he said. "But we ought to get going. I am sure breakfast is laid out already."
"Oh, yes we should at that," Lothril said.
They arrived at breakfast to a Thranduil who was looking as relaxed and regal as ever, reclining ever so slightly in his chair sipping tea while reading a letter.
"Good morning, Ada," Legolas greeted with a smile and his customary kiss on the cheek. "What do you have there?"
"Good morning, ion nin (my son). This is a letter from your Ada-na saying they are packing up the house and intend to move here come spring as soon as I tell them when the best chance of missing the spring rains will be," Thranduil replied with a smile. "And good morning, pen mell nin (my dear one)," he added to Lothril who was standing yet next to Legolas.
"Good morning," she greeted cheerily and leaned down and gave him a kiss on the cheek too then sat down with that small little happy smile of hers.
Thranduil had been a little surprised by it but mostly pleased. He was glad he decided to say something last night. They helped themselves to breakfast and in the general flow of morning conversation he asked, "What do you two have planned for today?"
"It is Lothril's first soap day here," Legolas answered with a grin.
"Is it? What fun!" Thranduil grinned.
"So I have been told," Lothril commented with an amused half smile.
"Did you not have soap days back home?" Thranduil asked.
"No, we would just go to a shop when we needed more soap. And a lot of times we folded it in with other errands," she answered.
Thranduil nodded. "In Doriath in the little village where I grew up it was more that way, save it was dependent on the days the soap makers would be at market, so you tried very hard to time running out with their day at the market."
"I guess that would be a bit of a consideration, wouldn't it," Lothril commented.
"It was, to be sure," Thranduil replied with a grin. "But that was long ago and this is now – I will be curious to hear your thoughts later on our offerings here verses where you are from. I am also curious to see what you will pick. Most of what you will be selecting from will be made in our realm, but there are a few imports in the lot and some of our own craftsmen import their supplies from as close as Dale to as far away as Belfalas."
Lothril got that funny little I'm-trying-not-to-smile look on her face as she looked at Legolas and said, "Okay, now I am a little excited."
After breakfast Legolas went with Lothril so far as her room door and said, "I think I shall leave you to enjoy your soap day alone; at least for a little while."
"Oh? And why is that?" Lothril asked. "I supposed you would be carefully watching my every choice and taking notes."
"As it just so happens, my anteroom looks almost exactly like yours right now, otherwise I would," he answered. "However, I shall learn what you choose in any event because I will smell it on you."
Lothril thrilled a little when he said that. That had been happening more and more lately over all kinds of little things. Part of her always felt a little silly about it and part of her kind of loved it. However, she didn't dwell on this more than a second before an idea came to mind. "I just had a thought… and it is a bit silly but-"
"All the better! What is your idea?"
"Well…it… I pick out one of each thing for you and you do the same for me and we swap and see if we actually like what the other picked," Lothril answered with a flash of wishing she hadn't said anything. It was a bit of a silly idea…
Legolas' face lit up with a smile and he said, "That is not silly at all! I love it! It is more sweet and adorably romantic than it is silly. How many more such ideas are locked in your head and waiting to come out?"
"None, I am sure. I am not very good at this romantic stuff."
He studied her a moment with that appraising instructor look of his before he said, "Nay, I think you are, or rather would be, very good at this if you would simply admit it to yourself. You may have everyone else in your life fooled, but you, oh Lothril, are a secret romantic." He ended that sentence with a kiss then quickly added, "Now melethril, I leave you to go pick out whatever soaps you want and I shall find you a little later."
He left her with that before she could get a word in edgewise. Oh, that elf! She huffed quietly through her nose and went inside her room. It rapidly became one of those moments when she felt like an uncultured hick when she realized she didn't actually know what some of these things were or what the point of them was. Soap bars were soap bars, that was easy enough; but why bath salts? What did they do? And what was the purpose of bath oil? Didn't that seem counter -productive? She hadn't had an elaborate bath and beauty regimen back home as a human, and though Estelneth treated her to what felt like a mini spa-day every time she wasn't in a rush to bathe, it didn't mean she had figured out any of this yet. It also seemed a bit superfluous to be terribly worried about skin care as an elf. Goodness knows she had neglected the entire notion of it while traveling and when she did find a mirror again, she thought she looked just fine and not weather worn or rough at all.
Well, Estelneth knew she was new…
"Estelneth!" Lothril called and the elf appeared but a moment later. "Estelneth, I have a few questions about all these things."
She plied Estelneth with a series of questions about what these things were used for, why one might use one thing over another (scent notwithstanding) and so forth. Estelneth, as always, proved to be very knowledgeable and easily answered all her questions. After that Lothril asked the odd but they otherwise chatted idly about this and that. At length Lothril decided she wanted to play around with salts and oils a bit, so anything she liked at all she decided to keep, but it seemed a bit silly to pick a dozen different bars of soap, so she tried to keep that to more of a minimum.
She surveyed what she was keeping and what was left and had half a notion to take a bath she didn't need in the middle of the morning so she could play with some of her new salts and oils but Legolas showed up before she could make up her mind on whether or not she had any patience to wait until later to bathe.
"How goes your soap day?" Legolas asked with a teasing little grin.
"I decided to go a little crazy," Lothril answered and pointed to a close bunch of soaps, salts, and oils off on the edge of one of the tables.
"Hmm, if that is your idea of going a little crazy then I shudder to think what you see how much I keep," he teased.
"I would tease you for being vain, but whatever you are doing works and I like it, so I will not say a word," she replied with a tiny flirty little smile. "So, what did you pick out for me?"
He cleared a little corner of the table and pulled the things out of a pocket and set them down in front of her. "I chose these."
"Nice, I chose these," she said and pushed towards him her picks. She picked up the soap and gave it a sniff. It was one of the ones she had almost picked but ultimately had decided against. She really liked it though. It was almost like patchouli, but a little more woodsy with a hint of something more floral.
"Just so you know, the things I picked can work well enough by themselves but I chose them to be used together," Legolas said, watching her face carefully as she sniffed the soap bar. "And I also had a thought after I left your room of picking a mix of oils to be used at once, but as you said one of each, I stayed within that."
"Oh? What other oils would you have picked?" Lothril asked as she picked up the bath oil. She could definitely see how it was complimentary to the soap.
He glanced over her table and picked out three more bottles. "These," he said as she placed them in front of her. She unstopped all the bottles and tried to get a whiff of them all at once. "Oooh! I like that. I really like that!" She replaced the stoppers and slid them all over to her keep pile. "Thank you, dearest!" She leaned up and put a kiss on his cheek. "Now what do you think of yours?" she asked eagerly.
"I love what you picked. In fact, I have already picked the soap for myself, but I very much like the oil you picked also, especially with the soap and the salts," he answered.
"I had a bit of the same idea you did, but with only one oil because that concept is still new to me," she replied.
"What concept?"
"Bath oil."
"Ah, yes, I did notice it at one of the… what did you call it? Ah, yes, I noticed it at one of the 'spendier' shops in that mall, but only as we went past, and nowhere you or your family was shopping, so I understand why it is a bit of a new concept for you," Legolas said. "Oh, and so you know – some oils come in solids. None today are though."
"Good to know." She paused and looked down at the table with a little smile on her face. "You know, I am actually sort of excited about my bath tonight."
He leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "Just wait until baths when we are married."
Dinner that night was with the family and it was Linnrien's birthday therefore, she had been allowed to pick what they had that night. As it turned out, she was particularly fond of ham and bean soup as well as stuffed chicken breast, herb bread, roasted vegetables, and her uncle's pumpkin pie. Soup came first and Lothril was only a couple bites in when she set down her spoon with a funny look on her face. One of the servers noted this and immediately came over and asked if anything was amiss.
"Well, I cannot say for sure, but I think some of the beans in this are undercooked," she said. "They were just a little crunchy."
The server looked mortified.
Legolas and Thranduil both heard this conversation and immediately paid attention, even though they were keeping their voices low.
"Milady, I shall remove this right away, but I suggest you return to your room and summon a healer right away," the server said quietly.
"I think I shall," Lothril said and excused herself from the table. As soon as the servant had said that, she recalled something Elrond had mentioned about foods that were both edible and poisonous and something about beans, but she couldn't remember what exactly. Clearly though, if the servant knew, the healers probably would and she could brace herself or counter it accordingly.
It did not take long for the healer to appear once summoned and Lothril what happened. The healer frowned and said, "I am sorry to tell you this, milady, but you are in for a rough few hours. The symptoms will show up in one to three hours and then last three to four hours and there is little that can be done about it. You will be perfectly fine afterwards, but it will be miserable for a while."
"Oh dear… well, do you mind staying around and at least keeping the time for me?" Lothril asked.
"Not at all. We will help you as best as we can. And it is good that the servant told you to summon us right away. That gives us a little time to prepare," the healer said before she went to the bell to summon a second.
Six hours later, Lothril felt shaky, sweaty, and almost hollow and wanted to collapse, bathe, and eat all at once. She had experienced some pretty wicked stomach bugs before, but this was probably the worst, or at least most intense stomach thing she had ever had to deal with. Now that it was over though, she felt fine, just weak and disgusting.
The healers helped her clean up and got her into a bath loaded with a mix of things that they said would help her feel more herself by the end of the bath and they ordered a second dinner for her that had things that were safe raw or cooked and would be gentle on her stomach. As they put it, she was fine, but no sense in over doing it.
She was drawing towards the end of her second dinner and looking much better when Legolas requested to see her. The healers gave it their approval and as Lothril was feeling much improved, she told them to let him in.
He came in and joined her at the table. "How are you, Lothril?"
"Oh, I am fine now. Apparently food poisoning from undercooked beans hits hard and leaves quickly. That said, I never, but never want to endure that again. Uuugh!" she answered with a look of disgust.
Legolas gave an understanding nod. "I have had food poisoning a few times and it is never fun. I am glad it was over so quickly for you."
"Me too! That was vicious. Did anyone else get sick?" she asked.
Legolas shook his head. "No one. And several had eaten nearly half their bowl before you said anything."
Lothril paused smack in the middle of sopping up some hot broth with her bread and looked up at him with knit brows and pursed lips. "No one?"
"No one."
"That is strange…" she said and trailed off.
Legolas nodded in agreement. "It is. Especially as we have not ever had a problem like that with anything that has come from our kitchen. I have been told the kitchen itself is thoroughly looking into what could have possibly happened and Ada plans on talking to them tomorrow."
"That is good, I mean, you cannot have half cooked food going out. But still, it is really strange it was only my bowl. I mean, I suppose anything is possible… and this has been perfect!" Lothril said, sounding like she was talking out loud more than to Legolas.
"I am certain as soon as the healers sent for it the entire kitchen went over last bite three times," Legolas said with a half-smile.
Lothril gave a short chuckle. "I am sure they did." She paused then added, "It is very late you know. You did not need to stay up."
"But I did. My beloved was in distress! I would have stayed with you but the healers forbade it. As they put it – two are an aid, three are a nuisance," he replied.
"And there really was not anything you could have done," Lothril said. "One of them was there to help me if I needed it and the other acted as fetch and carry. Not much else to be done."
"Even so, I could not sleep until I knew you were well," Legolas said, giving her free hand a squeeze.
He stayed with her until she finished eating and then bade her goodnight and returned to his room. He changed for bed and then sat down on his couch in front of his fire and mulled things over. This was strange. Very, very strange. Their kitchen did not make mistakes. Not like this, and especially not for the king's table. The kitchen staff surely hadn't even seen her enough to form an opinion of her, let alone a negative one! And she was always highly complementary and telling the servers to pass along how much she enjoyed things. No, this simply could not be a deliberate sabotage from the kitchen. But then again, how does only one bowl out of nearly twenty accidentally have undercooked beans in it when everyone else's was perfectly fine?
Every instinct he had told him it was sabotage, deliberate and targeted. Now the only thing in his mind to double check was whether or not that bowl was meant for him, her, or his father? Suddenly a thought came to him… didn't his father order her room be inspected floor to chimney before he went to fetch her from her world? If the grate on the chimney was rusted through, that should have been caught right away and it should have been something that was checked right away what with the palace being in a hill, it was all too easy to have animals accidentally falling down into fireplaces. In fact, wasn't that something that was inspected regularly?
He didn't like this. Not one bit. He had half a mind to go sneak into her bedroom and stay with her that night but he reckoned she was probably asleep already and would not appreciate him stealing in without her knowing. Besides, she didn't seem too upset or disturbed and he did not want to alarm her with his suspicions until he had something more solid to present to her. In the meantime though, he resolved to be extra vigilant and decided he would have a private word with Estelneth tomorrow about keeping her eyes open to anything amiss.
Given what had happened the night before, Thranduil decided they would make their own breakfast the next day and after Lothril feeling so left out at breakfast before the enderi celebrations, he and Legolas invited her to help join them. She had seemed a little unsettled at first, but as a sense of normalcy set in with making breakfast, she seemed a little more at peace. Then Thranduil saw to it that it improved a little more by serving a specific tea blend that was very aromatic and generally helped with mood. Despite whatever suspicions he harbored, no one knew anything yet and after she had been sick doubtlessly late into the night, he reckoned she could use something to help her feel a little better. Breakfast was pleasant and both Thranduil and Legolas went out of their way to keep the tone of it light and peaceful.
After they were done eating, they sat around talked a little and Lothril began a second cup of tea.
"Lothril, pen mell (dear one), would you forgive me if I drew Legolas away for just a moment for a word?" Thranduil asked.
"Not at all. Is anything wrong?"
"Nothing you need worry about," Thranduil said reassuringly. "I merely want his opinion on some business and I wish to spare you the headache."
Lothril nodded and with a wry smile said, "I appreciate it."
"Come, Legolas," Thranduil said as he stood.
Thranduil led Legolas across the hall into his library and shut the door behind them.
"After hearing what the kitchen staff had to say last night, do you truly think that incident yesterday was an accident?" Thranduil asked pointedly.
Legolas' face hardened and his mouth set into a frown. "I cannot see how it could be an accident and only affect her bowl, but I also cannot fathom why anyone in the kitchen should wish to harm her so. As of now, I do not think anyone in the kitchen bears her ill will, but even so I think it deliberate."
"I am of the same mind," Thranduil replied with a frown of his own. "If we had human servants or even new ones I might have reckoned it a strange accident, but they have all been with us entirely too long and served impeccably the entire time. I suspect Celechon's quick response lessened the intended blow."
Legolas gave a short, brisk nod in agreement.
"Does she think it an accident?" Thranduil asked.
Legolas took a deep breath and answered, "She said it was an accident, but I think she doubts it and for reasons not terribly dissimilar to ours."
"She is a perceptive one," Thranduil commented. "Regardless, the kitchen is taking precautions and tightening up things so this will not happen again."
"The precautions are some comfort, but as we do not know how it happened in the first place, can we really be assured it cannot happen again?" Legolas asked, sounding a little upset.
"I believe we can take some assurance," Thranduil replied.
Legolas cursed in frustration. "This is our home, our kingdom! Our halls! The incident with Acharon was one thing – we all knew sooner or later he would do something irrevocably stupid, and it just happened to be her, but this! In OUR home! Under OUR roof! And this is the second attack!" Legolas said with some heat.
"Second?" Thranduil asked alarmed. "Why was I not told of the first?"
"At the time we thought it merely a silly incident. The day after the Hunter's Feast we were in her room and suddenly we heard scrambling and then a squirrel appeared out of her fireplace and leapt at her, covering her in soot. That is why we were late to supper that night. We were getting the soot off of her. Anyway, we were able to quickly shoo the squirrel out of a window and she had a good laugh over it and reckoned it just one of those odd things that just happens," Legolas answered. "Now I do not think it was. I think it was deliberate."
"Did you have the grate over her chimney repaired?" Thranduil asked.
"Right away," Legolas answered.
Thranduil nodded. "Then I shall need to find out who fixed it and see if it looked like it had rusted through or if it had been tampered with. It ought to have been inspected when we readied the room for her before you fetched her, but we shall see. If it was not, then perhaps it was merely a strange happening. If it was, then we will know it was deliberate and perhaps we shall learn some clue." He laid a hand on Legolas' shoulder and looked him square in the eyes and said, "Tell me truly – can you think of anyone who would wish to attack you or Lothril for any reason whatsoever?"
Legolas shook his head. "No one comes to mind save Acharon and Gormes, but I shall think it through."
"How do you think Lothril would react to a guard detail being assigned to her?"
Legolas hesitated then answered, "At this point, not particularly well. I think it would set her on edge rather than comfort her."
"Then I shall have the guards dress as servants and have Estelneth alerted and armed. If naught else, we can do that," Thranduil said.
Legolas nodded and then a small smile cracked his frown. "I completely forgot Estelneth used to guard. Do you suppose she practices with her weapons at all?"
"Who do you think keeps Rinion in shape?" Thranduil replied. "Now that we have reached some agreement on this, let us return to Lothril. We can speak of this more tomorrow."
Legolas nodded in agreement and began turning towards the door when Thranduil stopped his son with a hand on his arm and said, "Henceforth I want you armed yourself until this is resolved. As both of the attacks have been while you were present, we are unsure who exactly is the target, though your account of the incident with the squirrel makes me think it is Lothril. Regardless, I do not want you caught unarmed. So far they have been relatively harmless, but poisoning like that goes beyond a harmless prank like the squirrel in her room and there is no telling what will come next."
Legolas pulled a dagger out of seemingly nowhere.
"Good son!"
Shortly after breakfast, Thranduil made inquiries about who would have inspected her chimney grate and who repaired it and it proved to be the same maintenance worker, so Thranduil had him summoned to his office near the throne room.
"Were you the one who inspected it last year before Prince Legolas fetched Lady Lothril to our realm?" Thranduil asked, settling into his large chair behind his desk.
The maintenance worker sat down in one of the other chairs and replied, "I am, your majesty. It was suffering rust damage and so I replaced it before she arrived."
"And were you also the one who inspected and fixed it yesterday?" Thranduil asked, keeping his face neutral.
"I am, your majesty."
"How did it look to you?"
"It looked to me like someone had pried it off with a crowbar and then just haphazardly set it back on. I could see where the metal had scratches and was warped. There was damage to the brickwork also, so I brought out the mason to help replace the brick first," he answered.
"Then there is no chance that a creature did this?"
"None. Especially as I found this nearby," the maintenance worker said and pulled a scrap of fabric out of his pocket and set it on the table in front of the king.
"Thank you. Have discussed this anyone else?" Thranduil asked.
"No your highness. I found that fabric before the mason arrived and then we were too busy working. She did make the comment though that if this was done by a creature or the weather then she was a dwarf, but she said naught else."
Thranduil nodded. "Do not discuss with anyone else besides myself or the prince for the time being and thank you for your discretion and for giving me this fabric scrap. You are dismissed."
With that the maintenance worker stood, bowed, and left. Thranduil picked up the cloth and examined it. It wasn't much, but it was easy to see why the worker noticed it and picked it up – it was a purple lace. He stood and quickly made his way to Filegon's studio.
Filegon was busy sketching away with his back to the window while overseeing a few projects. The king entered unannounced but it only took a second for everyone to look up and immediately stop and bow before Thranduil told them to carry on. Filegon immediately closed his sketchbook and hurried over to the king and gave a quick bow before saying, "Your majesty, what brings you to us today?"
"A simple if not unusual query that demands your and your wife's level of expertise," Thranduil answered.
Filegon immediately waved over his wife who came up with a quick curtsy and said, "What may I do for you, your majesty?"
"What can you tell me about this?" Thranduil asked, producing the scrap of purple lace.
"It is one of my lace trims but from, oh, a hundred and fifty years ago or so. It was one that was popular with low level courtiers and some of the more successful merchants because it was the same design as one of my bigger laces, but as it was just trim, it was far more affordable, so they would buy it and add it to outfits peeping out of sleeves and necklines and hems. However, I do not recall being asked to dye it this color," Megorel answered.
Filegon examined it and said, "That is because this is not one of your dyes. Do you see this little bit here? After this amount of time, some fade from washing is to be expected, but you can tell this was not dyed as deeply or evenly in the first place. Nor is this how your purple fades out. You do much better work, my wife."
"Any ideas who might have bought or dyed this?" Thranduil asked.
"Impossible to say," Filegon answered. "It could be anyone."
"Do you get many courtiers or merchants coming to you to make repairs?" Thranduil asked.
"Generally, no. Unless it is something like a ripped seam during an official function, then I will have almost anyone come in desperate to return before it is noticed they are gone," Filegon answered.
"We might though with this," Megorel said. "This is not a common lace pattern so whoever this belongs to may come in seeing if I still have some or else ask me to make some. For a piece this small, I suppose anyone who bought it in the first place could afford to pay me to make a few inches of it."
"If anyone does come in looking for this particular lace or brings in a dress with lace this shade of purple, alert me right away," Thranduil commanded in a very neutral voice.
Filegon raised a brow. "Is there something I should know?"
"If there is, I will let you know. Oh, does your daughter ever take in laundry for other nobles or courtiers?" Thranduil asked.
"Not unless it is a particularly stubborn stain," Megorel answered. "Why?"
"Whoever tore this trim may also have some soot or grass stains to contend with, that is all," Thranduil answered.
"I assume you mean someone besides Prince Legolas and Lady Lothril?" Filegon asked.
"Indeed," Thranduil answered.
"We will certainly let you know and I will keep my ears open," Filegon pledged.
"Thank you," Thranduil said. "I will leave this with you, but please do not lose track of it."
With that the king left and Filegon immediately turned and went to his drawing table and opened up his sketchbook to a clean page and began drawing while calling out for someone to show him what they had in black, silver, and grey.
Megorel came up and looked over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Creating a court dress for Lady Lothril. The last time our king began running around asking strange questions Acharon wound up in the dungeons and milady was stuck looking like she was going to a picnic not a trial. Whatever is going on to get the king himself to be asking strange questions about purple lace and soot stains within just a couple weeks of the Prince and Lady both having strange soot stains on their clothing means something is going on, I will not let Lady Lothril go to court again without looking properly regal and somber. Meg, do me a favor – summon Gwedhedis. The more ears the better," Filegon said, not looking up from his drawing.
"You are certainly taking a keen interest in this," Megorel said with a raised brow, putting a hand on her husband's back and rubbing it reflexively.
"I like Lady Lothril," Filegon replied.
A/N: So, in case you were wondering – elves can't get sick like with a cold or the flu, but they can be poisoned, and as most ye olde poisons were plants, it is perfectly canonical for Lothril to get sick from undercooked kidney beans. Now, whether or not she could get salmonella from raw chicken is up for debate, but undercooked kidney beans contain a very specific acid that is in fact poisonous. If you do not cook raw/dried kidney beans for at least 10 minutes at 212F and then you eat even just four or five of them, you will get severely sick 1-3 hours after eating them and it will last 3-4 hours. Severe vomiting and diarrhea for a few hours and then it's done. I will say though… in spirit of utter transparency and my particular weirdness, I have generally avoided having foods exist in Middle-earth that are not native to Europe or Asia. I don't think even Tolkien was necessarily as strict on this point as I am being, but it's a creative decision I've made and it's been an interesting one to work around. That said, I am making an exception for the kidney bean. Kidney beans are actually native to South America and though pretty early on in New World exploration and trading they made their way to Africa and Europe, the fact remains they are South American in origin. However, there aren't a lot of other poisonous foods outside of mushrooms (which elves canonically do not eat) that are 1) in season in November 2) don't require several pounds to be consumed to hurt you 3) won't kill you if you eat only a little or 4) don't require very exact measurements and some apothecary/pharmacist skills to administer in a way that is neither inert or lethal. In other words, you can't accidentally get sick from arsenic poisoning from eating apple seeds unless you've already got high amounts of it in your system. So kidney beans it was as they are very easy to undercook, it only takes a couple, and the effects are nearly immediate but not terribly long lasting.
