Wanderlust (Legolas LOTR)

Glad Tidings

Sunlight carved through the leaves, darkly green and verdant, as Belchuil took the elven road to the king's great palace in Mirkwood. He had been there only twice before, once in his youth and then recently again to negotiate his vineyard's addition to the king's royal vintners. Now both his young daughters, Thaliniel and Narylfiel, attended Thranduil's court as guests of Prince Legolas, and Belchuil marveled at how all this had come to pass while he had been away.

A slight breeze chorused through the canopy overhead, sending a glad hurrah of velvety purple butterflies down from the treetops, flitting through the bright shafts of sunlight beaming down through the branches. Belchuil watched all of this with a wondrous heart-he had never before seen the forest so bright, as if the whole of the woods rejoiced. Something uncommonly good must have happened in the halls of the king to bring such radiance to the forest beyond the elven gates.

Belchuil quickened his pace, his heart gladdened by the knowledge that his daughters should see the king's palace during such jubilance. Even more so, Belchuil was pleased at the thought of bringing his girls back home with him. He had missed them so! The manor was far too quiet without their infectious laughter.

When Belchuil finally reached the tall, imposing doors to the palace, he certainly was surprised to be greeted by the king's own chief of staff, and even more surprised to be escorted directly to the king's private study. Such things never happened to ordinary folk like him! But neither of these occurrences could even draw a shade's comparison to his astonishment at the news he would receive, imparted from the king himself.
. - . - . - . - . - . -
After a leisurely breakfast and even more leisurely bath, Legolas and Thaliniel had little desire to leave the warm sanctuary of the prince's chambers for the king's requested audience. Thaliniel caught Legolas' hand as he reached for the doorknob.

"Wait," she said, glancing behind her at the bed with its coverlet piled in a heap and the sheets hanging twistedly off the side. "Shouldn't we make the bed at least?"

Legolas grinned a little at the obvious disarray of his bedroom with the memory of how those linens had come to be so tangled still fresh in his mind. A second glance at Thaliniel, however, revealed that she was not quite so jovial as he in leaving his suite, and the prince's eyes softened immediately after watching her comb her fingers though her hair for perhaps the tenth time.

"You are nervous," he observed, but it was more of a question, one that he answered himself. "I am too."

She looked down and smoothed out a nonexistent wrinkle on her dress, a gossamer gown that had been delivered to the prince's room only a half hour earlier and was by far the most luxurious she had ever owned.

"It is just that I have never done anything like this," she confessed. "I always did what was expected of me, and now I don't-"

Legolas cut her off with a well-timed kiss to her lips, and when he pulled away, he smoothed her hair and opened the door to the hall. "You look beautiful," he told her. "My kingdom has only had a prince all these years, and a very lackluster one at that-they will love you."

Thaliniel rolled her eyes. "You are anything but lackluster," she told him appreciatively, for had she not been the sole beneficiary of his many talents and charm this very morning?

"I am glad to hear you think otherwise, because most of my father's court are convinced that I was the single most dull ellon this side of the Misty Mountains," Legolas quipped as he took her arm and drew her into the hall.

Thaliniel playfully punched his shoulder. "You may have them fooled, my prince, but I know better."

Legolas winked at her. "Yes, won't they be shocked today to discover that staid, reliable Legolas has set aside his books long enough to snare the prettiest maiden in the forest!"