Part 2: Of Blue and Light

Chapter 27: Peace or War

Ancient power flooded her veins as the branches crushed down on the orcs.

The golden melody of Lothlórien sang through her body, a stream of consciousness connecting the source of such music to her soul. With every beat of her heart, she felt the life force of Lothlórien coursing through her like a river of liquid light—a potent blend of strength and serenity.

Like wings, the trees followed her command, pumping power as they slammed against the foul creatures, sending them into panic and despair.

"Dîn goll a o!" (Aid has come!) cried the warriors with happiness, followed by the horn of Lothlórien vibrating through the air.

Shimmering golden armors clashed against muddy black ones as the elves reclaimed the land where the orcs were being tortured by the trees.

"You're amazing!" Oropher yelled, throwing his arms around Ra'evani.

"Fabulous!" Rumil pushed his brother away to hug her.

"Extraordinary!" Oropher argued, kicking Rumil lightly in the shin.

"Phenomenal!" Rumil punched him in the arm.

"Mind-blowing!" Oropher made a face.

"Now, now, we all know our sister is legendary. Would you two please burn the bodies and pick out the metals?" Haldir said impatiently. "And Rae, you can go back."

"What? Why are we working?" Rumil exclaimed.

"Yeah, we wanna rest!" Oropher protested.

Haldir groaned. "You can rest if you happen to be an elleth. Now get to work before I double your patrol hours."

Turning around, Rae blew them a kiss as the two glared at Haldir.

Rae would have loved to stay with her brothers in the field if not for Haldir's orders, which were not to be defied when he was at work. So, back in their cozy talan, the three thought of all kinds of ways to get back at the grump. Tying his braids to the chair, adding spice and salt to his tea, spraying itchy powder or stinky gas on his tunic—anything one could name.

With adrenaline still pumping through her veins even though the battle had ended, Rae headed to the archery field.

Arrow after arrow, her aim was true. Not bad, she thought, for someone not choosing the bow as her first choice. She had always been one of the snipers hidden in the shades during battle if there were no knives, as she could never shoot fast enough.

A twig snapped behind her.

Rae spun around, arrow tensed on the string, pointing at the bush. "Whoever that is, get out before I shoot you."

No answer.

Then Legolas walked out, holding up both hands as his weapons were all sheathed.

"What are you doing there? Stalking people?" Rae demanded, lowering her bow just an inch.

"I mean no harm, milady, and it is not my intention to stalk you," the elf said, almost sounding apologetic.

"You've done quite the opposite impact of your intentions, milord," she taunted, returning her gaze to the target.

"I mean no harm," he repeated.

Rae continued to shoot, ignoring the elf as her arrows hit the center over and over again. She tried to shoot as fast as possible, but only to find the aim not true enough. Only after what seemed like half an hour did she finally halt to retrieve the water-skin she left under the tree, and found the elf in the same spot she had discovered him.

"Well? Why are you still here? Did you lose the ability to walk?" she snapped.

"Admiring the precision of a great archer," Legolas replied, not taking his eyes off her.

She huffed. "Flattery will get you nowhere. What do you want?"

The elf fell silent, then, as if with great effort, he opened his mouth. "I come here to apologize."

"What!?" Rae almost dropped her bow.

"I come here to apologize for putting you into the dungeon in Mirkwood and invading your peace back in Rivendell," he said simply.

She stared at him, not believing what she had just heard. Growing up in a Na'vi warrior family where almost all her friends were soldiers, she had known people to be quite blunt. But none was as blunt as the elf was right now. "I won't apologize for slapping you. You deserved it," Rae said, believing it was some kind of trick.

Yet, he bowed. "Aye, I deserved such treatment, for I have dishonored your people, milady."

"Don't expect me to believe a word you're saying, princeling," Rae said dryly.

"My apologies are sincere, milady."

"And it is up to me whether you are forgiven or not."

The elf's eyes widened. "Aye."

Rae turned away from him, focusing once more on shooting with precision but failing to keep up with speed.

"Try not to blink every time you release," the elf advised from behind her.

It seemed like he was not going to give up until she forgave him.

Rae slept in later than usual the day after the battle. She and the brothers had to scrub their armors twice to get rid of the foul smell—trolls were much stinkier than orcs. They had gone to bed without dinner, too tired to cook or go to the market for food. She was still in bed by the time the sun had long risen, and judging by the quietness of their talan, Haldir was probably up ten minutes ago. The fizzling of bacon and baked breads seeped through the door crack.

"Rae, you have a visitor,"Haldir called.

Throwing off the covers, she didn't bother to change out of her nightclothes when an over-zealous Oropher barged inside. "You have an admirer, now fix your hair and wear a dress."

"Don't keep him waiting!"Rumil sing-sang, waltzing into her room.

"Who is that visitor?"Rae asked, splashing cold water on her face.

"A handsome, well-rounded ellon that would make any elleth fall head-over-heels for him,"Oropher described.

"Name?"

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun."Oropher sighed dramatically, reaching for his sister's hand and kissing it lightly.

"It is my lady. O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were!"Rumil sang, edging closer to peck her on the cheek.

"What are you two doing?"Haldir yelled.

The two gave a curtsey, lifting invisible gowns. "The art of drama and poetry, of course, my dear."

"Where did you get the Romeo and Juliet script?"Rae wondered. "That's an old human book."

"It is our courageous and mighty Lizard, of course. He acted the entire script by himself,"Rumil chanted.

"Yeah, and he probably added himself as the great knight Romeo who saved his princess Juliet,"Rae muttered.

"Precisely! He calls it 'fanfiction,'and even added us as his honored 'oc'!"Oropher chirped.

"Rumil the drop-dead-gorgeous, Oropher the drop-dead,"his brother snickered.

"Ouch! Fine, Oropher the less-drop-dead-gorgeous."

"And Haldir the smelly grump."Both of them smirked.

Haldir gritted his teeth. "Well, you should head down quickly, Rae. And you two, cease this nonsense."

Picking up a plate of breakfast and the majestic bowl for Lizard's grapes, Rae leaped down. When she saw Legolas leaning against a tree beside the talan, she scowled. "You're not going to stop stalking me, are you?"

The elf smirked. "No, milady, I'm not a stalker, but a rightful visitor to your talan."

"Well, I'm going to feed Lizard right now,"Rae said, not looking back to check if he was following her.

He did. "Who is Lizard?"

She ignored him, squeezing her eyes shut once they arrived at a small clearing to send a message to Lizard.

"About time you woke up!"The Ikran's response was immediate, bolting from the sky with the thundering sound of a rumbling stomach.

"What have you been teaching Oropher and Rumil?"she asked, setting the bowl of grapes on the soft grass.

Digging into the bowl, Lizard replied, "Well, a bit of Harry Potter. We're on The Cursed Child. A bit of Mr. Bean videos I found on the computers of the human station."

"And Shakespeare,"Rae finished for him.

"Yeah, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream,"he said without looking up from the food.

"I didn't know you were a classic literature person?"

"I'm not. I just got a crush on modern fandoms, so many 'ocs.'And go have a chat with your date, not me. You need a boyfriend, not gut-buster brothers plus a grump,"Lizard said dreamily and shoved her toward Legolas.

"So, he is yours? I met him before the borders yesterday,"the elf asked.

"Yes."

"What's his name? Surely an animal of yours would be named."

"Lizard."

"Why do you name him that? Is it for his climbing skills?"

"Color."

"How old is he? I have not seen such a creature before, so pray tell me, milady."

"Fourteen."

Lizard nudged her. "Now you're the one being rude. The poor elf is trying to make conversation!"

"And I'm trying to eat breakfast!"Rae exclaimed, not realizing she said that aloud.

The expression on the elf's face was priceless. "Apologies, milady. I did not realize I was interrupting your meal. I will make leave hastily."

"Why are you here in the first place? Aside from muttering apologies. I swear I'll have your head if you say that word one more time,"Rae asked impatiently, shoving bread into her mouth.

Again, the elf fell silent. "I come to know you better."

"And why do you suddenly feel the need to know me better? Or the better question is: why do you think I would ever want to know anything about you, aside from the fact that you're an arrogant princeling? Do not feed me with lies. I've had enough of those yesterday."

"I fear we have had a bad start, and I wish to start over—"

"Liar."Rae picked up her bacon.

A trace of annoyance flashed across the elf's face but was covered as soon as it appeared. "I saw an excellent demonstration of a fierce warrior yesterday and wish to exchange skills."

"More lies, princeling,"she said, chewing the berries.

"I saw you commanding the trees and would like to see it again!"the elf said through gritted teeth, his patience snapping.

Now, this is the princeling she knew.

The elf was not what she had expected.

Yes, he was still the most notoriously arrogant prince with the largest ego ever. Yes, he was still the one who could easily be angered by one simple remark. Yes, he was still the elf Rae would not hesitate to slap or shout at. Though he kept everything under the face of politeness, he was quick to anger and easily annoyed.

By the end of the week, she was able to see more of the elf.

She was surprised that he knew how to communicate with the trees even by himself. After explaining to him the use of her neural queue and that "commanding" was not the word when it came to interacting with nature, she said, "Your consciousness connects with the trees while their energy flows to you, princeling."

"I've always thought of it as a process of giving and taking," the elf mumbled.

"That is true also. The way of nature never ends or begins; all is enclosed. Giving and taking is only part of the circle that happens simultaneously. Not that your ego will ever leave any room for your brain to understand that," she answered, connecting her queue to the bark of the tree. It reached down and smeared mud on his forehead before the elf could even open his mouth to curse venomously.

"Whaa—did you just paint mud on my face?" the elf asked incredulously, too shocked to be angry.

"Yes, what are you going to do about that? Call your precious guards or summon that planet-sized ego?" Rae smirked, leaning against the trunk.

He stared at her for a moment. "That calls for war, milady."

"Oh, a war? Ahhh—"

The elf had placed his hand on the bark and closed his blue orbs. A wet smack landed on Rae's left cheek seconds later.

Barely containing a smirk, she willed more branches to join the fight, and soon the elf had mud smeared all over his head.

"That's not fair, milady!" he protested, spitting mud on the ground as another branch shoved a handful into his gaping mouth.

This time, the princeling did manage to smack a pud of mud on Rae's chin.

"What's not fair?" came Lizard's voice through their bond. She turned so quickly that she accidentally lost control over the branches, and an entire bucket of mud was dumped on the Ikran's head.

Staring at both of them with eyes as large as plates, Lizard declared, "Well, that calls for a splish-splash." He leaped into the river beside them, wings unfolded.

With a loud "splash," its entire body pounded against the surface, setting up a gigantic wall of water that fell before any of the two could run.

They stared at each other, soaking wet.

"Well, that calls an end to our mud war, princeling," Rae mumbled.

"Would you like to try the elvish way of communicating with trees, milady? It helps warm the body," Legolas suggested, extending an arm.

Unlike the Na'vi way, the elvish ways were more like meditating. The elf quickly explained how she should first offer a song for the trees, then take energy from them. The circle of taking and giving almost never happened at the same time, thus a conversation or bond such as hers and Lizard's were never possible through the act.

"It's like trading, the reason woodland elves have longer resilience in a forest," he said.

"But I thought elves communicated with animals? How pathetic like yourself," Rae asked.

"Yes, only because most animals understand the language of Eldars. It's getting late, we should go back before the others start to worry, milady," the elf advised.

"Sure, or else Oropher and Rumil will be driving Haldir mad. Goodnight, princeling." Rae muttered, turning away.

"Goodnight, milady. I suggest you call me by my first name, Legolas, rather than my title." He smiled, radiant under the pale moon that made Rae almost stop in her tracks.

She didn't answer.