But One Star of All

Fifth Entry - Acquiescence

Over the next year I proceeded with all the caution that came with the knowledge that one was courting the crown prince of an entire realm. Thranduil rolled his eyes at me still when we sparred, and I raised an eyebrow back. Our ostentatious prince was permitting my space though, which I appreciated even as I simultaneously missed his company, and for the first time in the last couple years I was suddenly seeing him less over the course of the months that followed.

It wasn't until the following fall that I realized he was doing it specifically so I would begin to seek out his company instead of the other way around, which, I found, I had already begun to do. This gave me an excess of exasperation and he knew it, since I was not a subtle or a devious enough person to either try or succeed in hiding it. But we were better off when we understood each other. If he didn't come visit me after my lessons I nearly always came to him, curious to see how he spent his free time and interested in the work he did. Paperwork it may be, but he always had something interesting to show me.

"You need to add a legend to your map, Thranduil," I told him one afternoon as he was explaining a map with a multitude of different lines and symbols layered over it. I recognized the surrounding forest, lake, mountains and hillsides, but the squiggles held no meaning for me.

"Why should I bother when it is for my use and I know what they mean?"

"Because others may wish to use it someday and they cannot comprehend it."

His voice took on an amused lilt. "Shall I explain it to you, my dearest overachiever?"

"Yes, my dearest smug one, explain it to me. Rescue me from my ignorance or I fear I shall perish promptly."

He began running his fingertip over the many designs, explaining that the map primarily represented trade routes. The many arrows, lines and symbols represented various potential, threats, hazards and benefits of the involved geography and the peoples or creatures which inhabited it. He could have explained it in thirty seconds to an uninterested party, but I was extremely interested and he knew it, so he elucidated.

Finally I nudged his arm with my hip and he slid his chair back, making room for me to sit on his knee so he could continue his lesson without me having to hunch over him. I ignored his hand resting on my hip at first, but as the minutes and details passed I began to find that I rather liked it, and I liked sitting where my arm bumped his chest and his jaw occasionally brushed my shoulder as he spoke. I wouldn't admit this of course, but as perceptive as Thranduil could be in certain areas he would discover it on his own soon enough, I had no doubt.

"Well then," I said at the end of his explanation, and leaned back into him so I could open the narrow drawer at my stomach and find one of his elegant quills. My hair temporarily smothered his face and he made a sound of exasperation. I found a crimson quill I rather liked and shut the drawer, freeing him. "You ought to add that the road here frequently washes out in the spring when the snow melts, and a few leagues north of here there is a hill that washed out last decade and the mud has been creeping down this foothill each spring since. I'd estimate it will be only two or three more years before the spring deluge diffuses it to the road below it." I made the necessary adjustments to his map, fabricating a new symbol to represent the two seasonal water hazards.

"I cannot interpret your symbols," he complained.

I regarded him with a cool humor as I left his fancy quill in an empty well to drain. "That, my dear prince, is why you require a legend."

That winter, as I always did, I took frequent walks alone outside our small mountain to enjoy the frost that laced the trees and shone through the sky as the snow fell. I took my sword with me when I went further than the guards tended to patrol, but for the most part a dagger sufficed to defend against all but the rarest of predators in this area. If I could defeat a spider with a table knife a dagger would certainly suffice for anything else I was likely to come up against.