Chapter 48
Afterglow
Legolas watched Kaitlyn sleep. Her breathing was even and deep as she lay peacefully in his arms. Her dark hair was spread around her.
After their initial joining, their desire for one another built again like flame reborn from the ashes. The second joining was nearly as quick as the first but the third, fourth and fifth times were slow. They were full of exploration as he learned her body and the motions and touches that brought her great pleasure. Together they learned the same for him.
He smiled as he watched her sleep. He had become utterly obsessed with her. He loved every caress, every look between them. He understood why Elven couples were not seen for days after their wedding.
Now that he had been awakened to the pleasures of love making, he had to rein himself in. He finally had taken pity on her when he saw the exhaustion in her eyes after their fifth joining. Mortals did not have the same stamina as elves did and she needed sleep.
He watched his wife slumber, enraptured beyond reckoning. Her green eyes lit up when he had called her bereth nin earlier. (my wife.)
The hope had been taken from him one hundred and twenty years ago when Mithrandir and Ammora delivered the news of her passing. Today his life had changed irrevocably with the discovery of Kaitlyn being alive. Now they were bound in a way no one could take from them.
Whether the marriage was foreseen or not, he did not concern himself. They had made their own fate.
Part of him felt guilt that they had married without informing their friends of their intentions. He had told Gimli that he pledged himself to her, when the Dwarf saw the braid of Kaitlyn's hair, long ago.
It was a small part of him that felt guilt. A greater part of him knew they had waited long enough. They would celebrate with their friends in the coming days or weeks.
When he stepped onto the shores of Valinor this morning, he had no idea that before the day was done, he would be married and lying in bed with his beloved. He sighed at such an incredulous thought.
"What are you thinking about so deeply, hervenn?" (husband)
Her voice shattered his thoughts. His mouth tugged into a grin as he turned his head to look at her. Since he had told her the Sindarin words for husband and wife, she took great pleasure in using them.
"Bereth nin." (My wife) he told her warmly.
She grinned in return and reached up to caress his face. Legolas had to shift his weight to keep himself from growing aroused at merely the sight of her smile. He touched her hair to distract himself.
She sighed and lowered her hand from his face.
He frowned. "Man na neitha?" (What is wrong?)
"I don't wish to get out of bed but I need to feed my animals. Eventually I need to check my nets for fish." Kaitlyn told him with regret. The sun was growing lower in the sky. They had been in bed for hours.
"I have forgotten there is another world outside this bed." he stretched and glanced out the nearest window. The sun was indeed much lower in the sky.
She chuckled softly. "I hadn't noticed."
"I cannot help myself, " he told her honestly as he brushed her cheek with the tips of his fingers. " I have been separated from you for over a century." his tone was low and held some pain to it. "Now that we are together, I have no desire to be separated from you, ever again."
Her smile faded. "Goheno nin." (forgive me)
"There is nothing to forgive." He shook his head and peered into her green eyes. "You did nothing to cause our separation and you have responsibility here. Let us dress ourselves and I will help you with the chores. I wish to see the rest of the home you have built yourself."
"It's your home now, too." She paused and licked her voice became quiet. "That is if you want it to be. "
"Here is already where my heart desires to be. With you by the sea. I wish to see every inch of our home."
Her smile was so bright that it could have lit all of Valinor.
He leaned in closer to her. "You will have to forgive me if not much is accomplished in the next few days and I give into weakness. I can think of little else but ech mel an le" (making love with you ) he brushed her hair behind her shoulders.
She laughed and playfully smacked his shoulder and he fell back upon the pillows in mock defeat.
"You are insatiable!" Was this the same Legolas that had been such a gentleman in Rohan when they slept in the same bed together? It felt like another lifetime ago.
"I can help it not. You have awakened a fire within me. One that burns hot and fast. I can think of little else but joining with you over and over again." he told her, his voice low.
"I always wondered how it would feel." Her lips tugged into a slow smile as she lost herself in thought.
"What is that, bereth nin?" (my wife) He could feel warmth emanating from her. Not the warmth of skin, but of content thoughts.
"The afterglow. The amazingly pleasant feelings that overtake you after you have made love with the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with." She stroked his jaw with the backs of her fingers.
She looked him over. He lay back on the pillows of the bed, one arm behind his head. His blonde hair had fallen out of its braid from all their love making and it cascaded down his shoulders and chest like ribbons of pale silk. He wore not a stitch of clothing. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She could hardly believe he was hers and she was his for the rest of her life.
"If you continue looking at me as you are, I cannot promise we will leave the house swiftly." His voice was hoarse and low and his eyes were full of desire.
She laughed, feeling more happy than ever before in her life. "I can't believe you're here with me and we're married. It feels surreal," she told him honestly.
His long fingers combed through her dark tresses.
"I wonder how I have been so blessed by Eru. To have fallen in love with you so long ago and to have found that great love again when I thought it was lost forever."
Her heart hurt at the thought of him mourning her for over a century. It was unfathomable to her. Twelve years had been an eternity of waiting for him.
"We're lucky," she told him. That's what my father used to tell my mother. They were lucky to have found each other and love each other so much." She looked away for a moment; lost in thought. " I always wanted what they had. I needed to travel to another world to find meleth u-guil nin." (The love of my life)
Legolas leaned forward and kissed her. She returned his kiss, and they did not leave the house swiftly.
Half an hour later, they reluctantly dressed and Kaitlyn took him on a tour of his new home.
The house had several small rooms. There was the kitchen, which he had barely glanced at when he entered the home many hours before. There was a wood burning metal cooking stove of elven craftsmanship. Clay fired bowls filled with fresh vegetables and fruits lined several open wooden shelves. Woven baskets held hard crusted bread, onions and garlic. There was a wooden planked table with four chairs and a vase of flowers set in the center.
Legolas helped her retrieve the broken pottery from the floor from when she discovered him in her doorway hours before.
The library had several shelves of leather and paper bound books, a desk with parchments, paints, brushes, inks, feathered quills and one comfortable looking chair that faced the window to the sea. On one wall, hung paintings and drawings of horses and the ocean. Her artwork. On another wall hung his old Mirkwood bow, her sword and her dagger. He inhaled and exhaled sharply when he saw them. They brought back a rush of memories. Him gifting her with his bow in Lothlorien, her in Edoras freshly dressed after a bath, the bow and her sword on her back, the dagger at her waist after King Theoden said his men would ride to war in Gondor.
The bedroom he knew quite well with the bed, a small table beside it and a wooden clothing rack made of cut saplings from which her tunics, pants and dresses all hung. Her boots were lined up neatly beneath the rack.
There was a small washroom toward the front of the house with a large wooden barrel like tub.
The home had an amazing view of the ocean and there were trees on the western side to give privacy from the road forty yards away.
Legolas' horse nickered to him from where he had tied him at a wooden rail near the bottom of the stairs. The Elf felt great remorse for forgetting the stallion while he had been thinking of his own needs and wants. He had never expected to find Kaitlyn here.
Together he and Kaitlyn removed the cart from the bay horse and rolled it to the right of the bottom of the stairs. Kaitlyn led the horse into a small fenced field along the laneway, which she kept for visiting horses. Together they removed the harness and draped it over the fence railing. The horse gratefully began to chomp at the tall grass that grew in the paddock. A wooden trough was already full of clean water in the paddock.
The Elf and mortal women held hands as they walked beneath many of the ancient trees to a small clearing.
Kaitlyn proudly showed Legolas her garden. Carrots, potatoes, corn, celery, tomatoes, peas, beans, onions, herbs, melons and more were all planted in neat rows. Several fruit trees were plentiful some twenty feet away. She grew more than enough food for one woman.
She had a deep root cellar near the garden to store her excess food.
She showed him her chicken coop that Thunin's friend Lossen had built for her. She had a flock of hens and one rooster and she had learned how to raise chicks herself so that she always had eggs. She learned to butcher so that she had meat. She traded eggs, vegetables, fruits, meat and fish for milk, butter, bread, flour, sugar, clothes and other goods.
She fed the chickens some grains and vegetable scraps. Legolas helped her fetch the birds more water from a nearby stream.
She had a small stable with three horses. All were mares; a gray, and two bays that ate grass in a pasture beside the barn. Legolas helped her top the wooden water troughs while she gave the horses apples from the fruit trees as a treat.
She also had a herd to the north of horses. They were all ancestors to the Mearas known as the Ceffyln. Legolas had never seen any of these horses in all his long years because they only existed on Valinor. They were highly intelligent and lived as long as one hundred and fifty years old. They were taller and stronger than any of the horses on Middle Earth.
When Kaitlyn and Legolas arrived at the field the elf was surprised it had no fences.
"They come and go as they please. I call them mine but I don't own them. They are free beings that choose to share my land with me. I met Alagos when I first came to Valinor." Kaitlyn told Legolas pointing to a gray horse that had picked his head up from grazing to watch them intensely.
"Alagos? You have named him 'storm'? Legolas asked.
"Yes. His coat reminds me of storm clouds. When I made my home here, he became curious and started to visit everyday. He watched the progress of my house being built, the gardens being dug, the stable being built. We became friends."
She shook her head as a bad memory filled her mind. "He was missing for over a month and I was worried sick. He was off stealing a herd of mares from a rival stallion and he brought them to live here. They have been here ever since. The more primitive horses I have near the barn are what I ride into the city or use to pull my cart. They live separately from Alagos' herd. He's never been interested in them."
She stared out over the land, watching the gray stallion who observed them in return. "I've had a connection to horses that started with Hasufel. It's given me a lot of joy watching Alagos, his mares and offspring live here. "
She put two fingers into her mouth and whistled loudly.
The gray stallion reared up on his hind legs, pivoted, bucked and galloped to where they stood.
The stallion came to a sliding halt, grass and dirt flying out from beneath his hooves. He reared and struck out at the air with front hooves. He tossed his head, snorting loudly.
"You are such a show off." Kaitlyn laughed.
The stallion nickered, stepped forward and nuzzled the woman with affection. Then he sniffed at Legolas. The gray looked back at Kaitlyn.
"This is Legolas. Can you believe he's finally here?" She rubbed her face against the horse's cheek in joy and he huffed out a breath of warm air. She released him after a moment.
The stallion watched Legolas as if looking him over. Then after several minutes passed, he lowered his head and gently pushed Legolas' arm.
"He has accepted you." Kaitlyn smiled.
Legolas gently rubbed the stallion between his eyes where there was a white marking that looked similar to a crescent moon
"You told him about me?"
The horse nodded his head and snorted as if to say, 'Of course she did!'
Legolas laughed and watched as the horse moved back to Kaitlyn. She hugged his neck.
"I had to talk about you with someone. I only talked about you nearly everyday to him. I think he was sick of hearing about you after a while," she laughed.
Legolas gave her a lopsided grin. He felt the love she felt for this horse and his herd and for her home, but he also felt a wall blocking some of her feelings. He had not noticed it before. There was something that kept her from feeling complete joy.
The gray horse whinnied and distracted him from his thoughts.. She scratched Alagos' neck at his dark hairline and the stallion grunted softly in pleasure.
They spent a few more moments with the horses and then Kaitlyn led Legolas to the ocean. She wanted to show him the beach and check her nets.
The pale Elf stopped abruptly when they approached the sand.
"Man na neitha?" (What is wrong?) Kaitlyn asked when she saw him tense.
"Cenion gar-i faur…" (I have seen this beach.)
Kaitlyn's brows raised in surprise. "How can that be?"
Legolas glanced around. "I saw it in a dream. You were standing on the sand, your back turned to the land, you were facing the sea. You wore a lavender dress and your hair blew all around you in the wind. You raised your arms and the gulls flew into the sky. I heard their call and when I awakened I knew it was time to sail."
Kaitlyn's dark brows lowered over her green eyes. "How could you have seen that if you were on Middle Earth and I was here on Valinor? That was only four days ago. I had returned from the Elven city of Tirion in Eldamar. There had been a feast. Thunin and Elslyn invited me as their guests and gave me a beautiful lavender gown as a gift to wear. When I returned it was such a beautiful day. I needed the peace of the ocean, so I took off my shoes and walked onto the beach. I remember raising my hands to the sky as I felt the warmth of the sun. I heard the gulls cry as they flew. How could you have seen that?"
"I understand not how I saw you, but I did. Although it was not four days ago for me. It was nearly a year ago." He looked at her curiously. " It is though someone wanted me to see you. What better way to make sure I sailed than for me to see you and hear the call of the gulls?"
Kaitlyn frowned. "I've been here for twelve years and there is still so much I don't understand."
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I believe we are not meant to understand it all."
She brought him to the ocean, where she had nets tied to stakes into the ground on the beach. Together they pulled the nets ashore. Kaitlyn showed Legolas her holding tank for the fish, as she called it.
"Lossen helped me design it," she told Legolas. "He's very skilled with wood. We made a frame, attached netting to it and created a cover that closes and also has the netting. It holds all the fish I catch in it, so they can remain in the water until I need to scoop them out and deliver them. It floats with the water and tide and since it's in this area of the rocks where the water is calmer, it's protected from the larger waves. It's held down with ropes tied to rocks as weights.
She showed the Mirkwood Elf how the cover lifted and together they dumped the net they had pulled ashore into the tank and transferred the newly caught several dozen fish.
Legolas watched her in astonishment. "This is amazing, melethril." (beloved)
She stood with her hands on her hips, her pants rolled up to her knees, her braid flowing behind her. "I'm very proud of this. Lossen and I worked on it for a few weeks and after two failed attempts, this one worked amazingly well." she turned back to the tank, a grin on her face.
A frown slowly crept onto Legolas' face. He had missed so much of her life here. He felt he should have been here to help her. He felt as though he had been robbed of that right. Instead, other Elves had helped her settle in and build a life here.
He attempted to smile when she turned to look at him and he brushed some of the tendrils of hair behind her rounded ear that had come loose from her braid in the wind off the ocean.
To be continued…