Chapter Two- Friends and Enemies

I spit out a mouthful of water, gasped for breath and stared at the thick canopy of branches and leaves above my head, feeling slightly disoriented and very lost. My head ached, my shoulders ached, my back ached, my knees ached- in fact, so much of me ached I couldn't tell where the aches began and ended.

Vaguely, I remembered a duck attacking me. I also remembered hitting the water and clutching my saddlebags to my chest as I was thrown about, crashing into one boulder after another. As waterlogged as I felt, I was sure I'd spent half the night going down the river underwater, and somewhere my cloak and most of my fruit had been lost.

So much for the apples.

A warm sensation on my shoulder startled me fully to consciousness, and I looked up to see the familiar warm chocolate brown eyes of Li'er as she gently nudged me with her nose in an attempt to get me off the ground.

I smiled grimly. How the mare had managed to follow me and find me, I would never know, but the gratitude I felt towards Li'er was overwhelming for both the company and the ride.

Wincing and cursing, with both my elbows and knees feeling as if they'd been shredded with a giant cheese grater, I stiffly stood up and after several tries, mounted Li'er. The mare slowly began walking- where I had no idea, but I gladly let her take the lead for the time being while I sorrowfully assessed all of my injuries and losses.

By nightfall, my aches and pains had nearly diminished, and I was in fact feeling quite good about myself. For I had managed to escape from Ky and Tairon, maybe a little more painfully than I had initially planned, but still, I had escaped and that was the important part.

And for the moment, I'd neither seen nor heard anything from either of them. That had been my biggest relief after I'd realized that I wasn't dead, and that I still had my saddlebags. For in my saddlebags I carried my most precious possessions- a small ancient compass with silver ornament and beautiful emerald-green jade case, and a slim silver-feathered arrow. Both items had belonged to my great-grandfather, who my dad had often described as a legendary First Age hero. I treasured them both dearly, the compass and arrow, and I knew how upset I would have been had I lost either.

The remainder of my saddlebags were stuffed with an old blanket, my other tunic, some socks, string, my dagger, my matching short swords, and a small pouch of poisonous plants (which could be used for all manner of things, such giving someone the flu, or diarrhea, or chickenpox, or something equally as pleasant.)

Despite the sun having already set, Li'er and I continued down the path. I remembered Ky and Tairon saying that the capital was two days from home, and well, this was the end of the second day. The boys would be arriving at the city anytime now.

Then I paused.

"Li'er," I said to the mare, encouraged when her ears tilted back to catch my words. "Do you think we should wait til tomorrow? Cause if Ky and Tairon are just getting into the city, won't there be a chance that they'll see us?"

Li'er whinned, but otherwise gave me no response.

"Maybe we should camp out here tonight," I suggested. "Ok?"

By then, Li'er was too busy eating grass to listen to anything I had to say. I took that as her agreement and dismounted to build a campfire.

The road we were camped by lay on the edge of a cliff, where thousands of tiny golden stars in the valley sat within my view.

It was the capital city, Silvandon- the stronghold of the Woodland Realm, the center of trade and civilization in Mirkwood, the heart of Silvan life and custom, and the home base of the army- nestled in a wide valley against the jagged northern cliffs and the surrounding forest.

The valley was illuminated with light, streaming from windows and doors, and faintly, I could hear the faraway sound of music and laughter. I smiled softly, in awe at the immense dimensions of the capital city, filling the entire valley.

I settled down comfortably for night, at peace with myself and the world, regardless of the fact that I'd just run away and lost myself in a river.

OoOoOo

By dawn, I was awake. I rolled up my blanket, patched up my brown tunic with care to look exactly like a farmer's son whose clothes had been carefully handsewn by a farmer's wife, mounted Li'er, and we rode in silent awe down the remainder of the road to the city, eating the last two apples from the first day of the trip.

It was a few hours after dawn when we rode through the city gates. People were milling around everywhere and I dismounted from Li'er to easier navigate my way up the streets. Children were playing in a large grassy square, and the women were all sitting around a large fountain in the square washing clothes and gossipping.

I noticed as I walked on, leading Li'er, that the homes grew larger, the lawns and gardens more beautiful, the shops fancier, and the people better dressed. Before I forgot my mission here, I began looking around for what could be a recruiting office. I saw nothing after walking several more blocks and was beginning to grow discouraged, when I noticed a line of elves in front of a wooden table under an awning in front of a small but welcoming shop that appeared to be a sort of cafe.

I made a mental note to visit the cafe at a later date, and quickly crossed the street.

I brushed past a well-dressed guy and his friends who were loudly discussing something about a party, and joined the line. It was slow moving, and I was beginning to grow impatient when a sudden enraged cry came from behind me, and I whirled around to see the richly dressed guy that I'd passed earlier now yelling and hopping around on one foot.

"Stupid animal!" He shouted in disgust, shaking his boot vigorously.

Immediately, I recognized the problem. Li'er had apparently grown as impatient as I had, and had left a nice pile of manure on the young lord's expensive boot. His enraged features and face purple from yelling I found oddly funny and I couldn't restrain myself from erupting into laughter. Several elves from the quickly growing crowd joined in my laughter without hesitation.

This however seemed to make the elf even angrier, and he marched up to me.

"You!" he snarled, pointing a slender hand with a large silver ring in my face. "You and this disgusting beast-"

"Calm yourself mister," I told him, pushing his hand away from me. "If my horse had to do her business, there's nothing nobody could've done to stop her."

"You dare talk back to me!" he lunged forward, jerking the neckline of my tunic and yanking me closer to him. "Apologize! Now!"

"No." I looked directly at the elf, daring him to raise his hand again.

"Now!"

"No."

What I hadn't been expecting was that he would accept the challenge and before I could react, he slapped the palm of his hand across my cheek. My cheek burned with a fiery sting and I narrowed my eyes at him, suddenly angry. He had crossed the line now.

I dropped my saddlebags, swung my arm back and returned it in a fist, nailing him squarely in the nose. A sickening crack silenced the nearby crowd and seconds later, blood dribbled down the elf's lip. His eyes widened in surprise, and now I could see the rare beauty of such a combination of amber and gold. Startled by the bright beauty of his eyes, I dropped my hand and stood back a step or two. He had deserved everything I'd given him, but I still couldn't stand the look in his eyes, as if I was the bad guy now.

Another elf who had been standing in the group of the rich lord's friends pulled him away from me with a scolding.

"Anthelon! Control yourself!"

Lord Anthelon's face twisted in anger at the humiliation he'd received, glaring at me with those beautiful eyes, before marching away, pursued by his remaining friends, one trying to wipe the blood from Anthelon's face and clothes.

The dark-haired elf who'd broken up the fight bent over and picked my saddlebags up from the cobblestone, shrugging his shoulders and smiling. His eyes were a swirl of dark golden brown like coffee- warm and welcoming with a dash of chocolate and caramel. He handed me the saddlebags and I blinked several times, trying to avoid looking at his eyes.

"Uh, thanks," I said, swinging the saddlebags over my shoulder and picking up Li'er's reins.

"Anytime. I've got to go now. Maybe i'll see you around." The elf vanished into the drifting crowd in the direction Lord Anthelon had gone, and I stared after him, waiting until his dark head disappeared.

I felt myself frowning that I'd not gotten his name. Oh well.

I straightened my tunic and approached the recruiting table. The people in front of me had already gone through and the elf at the table now sat there waiting expectantly for me.

"I would like to sign up."

The short thin elf in white robes nodded and pulled a blank paper from a file beside him. "Alright. Firstly, what is your name, boy?"

"Arien."

"Arion. Good." The elf wrote quickly on the paper with his quill pen, and I watched the black marks appear on the paper in awe.

"Age?"

I hesitated. What if they won't let a seventeen year old join the army? Maybe I should pick eighteen, just in case. "I'm eighteen."

The elf nodded. "That should be fine. Where are you from?"

"Mirkwood Mountains. Redback Ridge."

"Family?"

I hesitated again. Perhaps I should play an orphan. That way they'll think no one will care if I get killed. "I have no family. My parents died when I was a baby."

"Ok…"

The quill pen went on, moving with grace and ease across the page.

"Qualifications?"

"I'm smart, healthy, strong, and I can adapt easily to any situation."

"Good."

The elf wrote on a little longer and then laid down his pen, the ink-stained tip up on a small wooden block. He folded the paper neatly and laid it on a stack of other other papers and handed me a little square of paper with some more writing on it.

"Take this and go to the palace. Make sure you enter by the servant's gate. Go straight ahead and there will be a building on your left, go in there and give this to the red-haired lady. Tell her Malthan sent you. She will tell you what to do."

"Thank you!" I beamed in gratitude and relief that I had apparently passed, carefully sliding Malthan's paper into the safety of my belt. I had officially joined the army! I gathered up Li'er's reins once again and hurried up the street towards the palace, glowing with ambition.

I found a pair of large stables on opposite sides of the street from each other not too far from the lower palace, both looking strangely quiet. After a moment's hesitation, I picked the smaller, less fancy of the two, and took Li'er inside to an empty stall. Once I'd brought some water and scooped a fair amount of hay into the stall, I said farewell to Li'er and went out the back of the stable by the open doors. As I'd guessed, the stable hands were outside in the grassy corral. Four were inside the fenced enclosure with six or eight foals, and a fifth elf leaned against the corral rail, watching.

I joined him, propping my right foot up on the lowest rail of the fence. "What are they doing?" I asked after a moment of watching. One of the elves had just finished leading one of the horses through a sort of small obstacle course, and was now feeding it a carrot and praising it.

"Dressage." The elf beside me pointed at the obstacle course. "We are currently training the one-year-olds with the bit and getting them used to leading. The yearlings are ready for dressage now, which is to strengthen and supple them, and within the next few months we will be breaking them in."

"That one is pretty," I said, pointing at a smaller white and gray filly that was currently nudging a small ball around.

"Ah, that's Fairy. She belongs to Prince Legolas. He found her wild, injured and wandering alone in the forest, so he brought her home. No one knows what happened to her dam (*mother horse)."

As if recognizing her name, the white filly's head turned toward the fence, and slowly with a graceful, dancing gait, she approached us. I supposed that was where her name had come from. Fairy stopped a few feet away from me, watching us with curious blue eyes. Then without warning, she turned and bolted across the corral, stopping only when she reached the far opposite side.

I blinked in confusion. "What's wrong with her?"

"We still aren't really sure. Everyone who's tried to get close to her, she's shied away and tried to escape. Even Prince Legolas had everything he could do to bring her home, even with her injury." The elf shook his head, a loose strand of blonde hair falling over his shoulder. Suddenly he blinked and looked at me. "By the way… who are you, exactly?"

I faced him, my foot still on the fence rail, and sized up his slender physique, blue-green eyes and braided white-blonde hair. He seemed pretty friendly, and he couldn't have been older than twenty, so I assumed he wouldn't have much of a right to scold me for anything. "I'm Arion," I replied assertively. "Or just plain Ari. I just joined the king's army. I brought my mare to stable, but no one was around. So I followed the noise."

"Ah! Well you came to the right place then. The stable across the street is pretty snobby. Owned by one of the nobles. But forget about them." He smiled brightly, a dimple appearing in his left cheek, his eyes sparkling. "I'm Estar. My grandfather is the owner of this place- Blue Moon Meadows. Is there anything I can help you with? You need a stall, right?"

So apparently he was as friendly as he looked. "No, I'm all good. I stabled her. I'm used to caring for my horse myself anyways."

Seeing Estar's smile widen, I suddenly realized that his opinion of me had improved infinitely when I'd said that.

"Just about the payment," I continued, more at ease. "Would it be possible for me to come back in a week or so and pay? I'm kind of short of money right now."

Estar nodded, leaning his back against the corral gate, and propped one elbow up on the top rail. "Yes, of course. Grandpa is very reasonable with payments, as long as there is enough to cover the expenses."

I let out a sigh of relief and stood up from my inclining position against the fence. "My horse, she is called Li'er. The brown mare with the white star. I have to go, but I'll be around in a couple days or so."

"Alright, then. See you around!"

"Thanks, Estar!"

Satisfied with everything concerning Li'er's board and feed, confident now that I'd just met the owner's grandson, I slung my saddlebags over my shoulder and headed back through the stable and up the street to the palace.

After several inquiries, I found the servants gate that Malthan had mentioned, and minutes later, I was handing the paper to a red-haired lady at a desk in the building on the left.

"The elf told me to tell you Mal-mal- somebody sent me."

"Malthan?" The lady took the paper, read it and nodded. "Great! I am Miss Dalarë. We are in need of more scribes. How fast can you write?"

I stared blankly at the elf, utterly confused. To the best of my knowledge, you didn't have to know how to write in order to join the army. "Huh?"

"How fast can you write?"

I frowned. What is a scribe?

"I can't write, miss," I said after a moment's hesitation.

It was Dalarë's turn to stare. "What? Why did you sign up at the literary table then?"

"I'm- I'm sorry, miss. I thought I was signing up for something else."

"Hm." The lady flipped through an open ledger sitting in front of her. "Let me see if we have any other openings… Here! An opening for a chef. Can you cook?"

I stared in dismay at Dalarë. The last time I tried to cook, I nearly burned down the entire cabin. "No, miss." What in Arda did I really sign up for? I wondered. Wasn't that a registration table for the army? I sighed inwardly, my heart sinking. Maybe I should carefully let her know that I am a warrior, and she will hopefully send me to the army! "I can fight, miss. I'm an exceptional archer and swordsman. I can beat anyone with my fists, and I excel in martial arts."

Dalarë's head shot up and she stared at me. "Did you say martial arts?"

"Yes, miss. I'm very good at it."

The lady's face broke into a dazzling smile and she closed the ledger. "Wonderful!"

I watched her curiously, wondering if the lady would send me to the army now.

Dalarë, however, had no such intentions, as I later realized. She stood up and came around the desk to stand in front of me. She looked me up and down for a minute or two until I was nearly squirming in my boots in discomfort.

"You are a little short, but you look strong, capable, healthy, and you have decent enough manners for a boy your age." She bit her lip, and appeared to be thinking very carefully about something. She began to pace up and down the small building, now chewing her lip. Finally, she stopped in front of me once again.

"What is your name?"

I remembered how Malthan had pronounced it when I signed up in the street, and how I had introduced myself to Estar at the stable. "Arion, miss."

"Rare name." Dalarë stated, and I wondered if that was a good or bad thing. "Would you have a nickname?"

"People call me Ari."

"Very good. How old are you?"

"Eighteen?"

"Excellent!" The lady beamed.

I stared at her, baffled, beginning to wonder if Dalarë had something wrong with her head. Why in Arda is she asking me these questions? Why doesn't she just send me to the warrior recruiting?

Dalarë grabbed my forearms suddenly in a firm grasp with her slender hands. "Kid, I have the perfect job for you. It'll be temporary, but if you are good, perhaps permanent. You will be the new bodyguard of the Fourth Prince."

My jaw dropped and I stared at Dalarë.

"What??"

The lady grinned in a very unladylike manner. "I know it's shocking and wonderful news. You will be the new bodyguard of Prince Saeros, the Fourth Prince. You may start immediately. Congratulations, Ari, on your new job."

And I could only stare.

OoOoOo

Lindon hummed softly to himself as he moved about Prince Saeros' study, cleaning and tidying up.

Somehow, he actually enjoyed the long quiet afternoons in the palace, the windows open, and the warm breezes and faint pleasant rustling of leaves contributing to the peaceful atmosphere. Anywhere that Prince Saeros was not, was usually a calm and tranquil place to be, and that was where Lindon preferred to be.

It wasn't that Lindon didn't like the Fourth Prince- he really did enjoy Saeros' sense of humor and his friendly disposition. But Lindon was just more inclined to a few hours of peace and relaxation alone where there was no shouting and teasing and pranking going on.

Of course at home, with his sister Leswyn around, there was never a quiet moment, but Lindon had always had free time alone. After all, his adopted father was a wealthy merchant and they could afford servants of their own. That and studies usually kept Leswyn occupied for most of the time until she snuck out again.

He sighed at the thought of the tall, blonde girl. She really was a troublemaker- always running away from her studies and tutoring, stealing anything she could get her hands on, gambling with the pirates at the docks and taking every dare that was thrown her way. Lindon knew she had to be disciplined, but with their dad always gone, and him across the continent, and the twins nearly as bad as Leswyn, what could be done?

He missed home- but at least he had something to look forward to returning to.

He smiled faintly and moved from the desk to the shelves, putting away the prince's history books where they had been left laying out.