The Fairy of Middle Earth

Chapter 146: Tea and Cakes

Juniper awoke with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. Pushing to her knees she knelt in the middle of the bed and looked around her. This was Drannor's normal room, not the flashy den of depravity she had been in the night before. It had felt real, perhaps a bit too real, but her body was not sore from it like one would expect if all that had really happened.

Slowly her eyes swept over the room to Minogos, who looked rather disheveled. He was sleeping, which was odd, but he did look like his night was a rough one, too. Finally, she crawled to the edge of the bed and slid from it. She was hungry and there was food on a table waiting for her. She settled in a chair and started to eat. That strange feeling remained. She ended up gorging herself on meat. At least, Morgoth's Kingdom wasn't vegetarian and the food was good, not rotted and filled with taint.

Minogos began to stir and groan. She peered over and watched, as he began to wiggle around and stretch. She was slipping a sausage past her lips as he sat up and eyed her. "Morning," he said a bit gruffly, ran his hand over his face and pushed his dark mane back. It looked rather unkempt and to see him in such a state made her think.

"Morning," she said softly and kept her suspicions to herself.

"Can I get some of that? He forgot to slop me this morning," he moved, as if he were stiff and sore, to lean his back against the wall and watch her. She then lifted the large platter of sausages and eggs and slid down to the floor, walking over. He was looking rather famished by the time, she stopped just out of his reach. Her eyes narrowed and he sighed, waving her closer. "Really, I am starving. Don't torture a starving man."

She sighed, moved closer, lowered down beside him with the platter and placed it down between them. "You will share with me." There were two forks and she took one and began to spear her meal onto it. Minogos shrugged, took up the other fork and immediately went for the meat.

"Juniper, we need to talk about this." She frowned, looked off and he sighed softly, "Juniper, don't you understand why I am so concerned? You could ..."

She growled in frustration and speared another sausage hard. "Listen to me," she said sharply. "Do you have any idea how this feels right now? I have a constant knot in my stomach, that makes me want to wretch. My beloved died, my dearest friend is gone and the moon says I need to mate and that mating will happen in Morgoth's Lair?" She looked him deeply in the eyes then and he could see her emotions playing out in those purple pools. Then he felt them and he was forced to look away. "My choices are gone. I do not wish to mate right now. I want to get this awful fucking mess done. I want to go home to my remaining love and our children. I need my family, but I am here, in this shit hole and the fucking moon is telling me I need to jump on the nearest cock. I am understanding why my people wanted to leave." She shoved the sausage past her lips and chewed angrily.

He was left staring at her. His fork, filled with eggs, just hovered there in the air. He has actually paused and listened to her, felt her frustration, sadness and anger. Finally he lowered his fork and looked down. He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry, I should have considered that a bit more. I just thought, you were always prepared or something."

She just shook her head and dropped her fork. Before he knew it she was on her feet. "How do you prepare to be shoved into the middle of a war you have nothing to do with in truth and have your heart murdered before you? How does one seamlessly prepare for that? Then jump into the arms of someone else a few days later? Tell me!" She hissed and glared at him. He knew, he had put his foot in his mouth, "Juniper, please ..."

She was done, walked to the door without a word and simply left. In the hall she turned to go towards the darkened cavern. The walk was a long one and she hoped by the time she got there her mood improved. She strolled along the corridors and was ignored by the Orcs. The village was quiet that day and there was no market open. With a shrug she continued on her way, soon finding herself in that long hall way with little light.