The Moon Druid of Arcedia; And the One Ring to Rule Them All

~09 The Chocolate Theif~

~The Chocolate Theif~

After more unnecessarily long communications the council had finally adjourned. Boromir had desired to speak with Ahshala after the council meeting; however, she was too busy conversing excitedly with a white-haired dwarf. As soon as her quick conversation finished he was occupied, swept up in a gentle conversation with Lord Elrond. He envied the elven princeling who she had ecstatically greeted earlier as he followed her down the steps and toward the garden.

Legolas looked godly in the sunlight like a handsome man of platinum and silver so perfect and elegant as no mere man could be. Even his movements were precise and it all seemed to taunt the human male.

That's what Boromir was, a human. No human glowed like precious metal under the morning sun or midnight moons. Legolas would always shine brighter than he, and Boromir did not like it.

The two elven archers walked side by side, their long strides striking the marble floor with a harmonious rhythm. Nothing was said for a moment, conversation was not needed to break an uncomfortable silence as there was none. It was a comfortable sport of silence, filled only by the druids humming an elven hymn.

Legolas knew the song, known by his people as 'the sun that wept on the mallos flower.' Legolas' father had sung him that song only a few times on the anniversary of his mother's passing but it always held grief and pain. When the words softly escaped Ahshala's blush lips the sound filled him with warmth, as if the sun's light fell upon him just as it did the golden flowers.

"It is nice to see that you have hardly changed," he smiled as he spoke to her admiring the life in her pear eyes.

"Really?" She asked as she turned his way letting her bristly braids bounce on her shoulders, "I think I have changed a fair amount."

"Your manner of speech has changed," he agreed, "although I'm sure your words will be thicker when you are near dwarves once more." Ahshala chuckled, a soft warm chuckle that flooded the prince's keen ears like a warm river on a summer's day, "I can not say time has changed you more than this." He smiled, "You are ever the same woman I knew then."

"I'm glad," she mused with a mischievous smile, "it seems time has not beaten you up either."

Their smile was shared and after a few steps in comfortable silence, Ahshala issued another apology to the elf for her behavior in the council chambers. He only laughed gently as he assured her he was quite alright, a little shocked, but otherwise perfectly content.

"I missed you, I thought of you often" she confessed with each excited step, a small shiver ran down Legolas' spine at her elvish. It was like a warm summer breeze, soft and gentle, unlike her Common which was rather crude and harsh like the rough bark of an oak tree.

He turned his head to meet her gaze and carefully studied her soft features. Her peach lips were pulled tight against her rosy cheeks that were as speckled as the foxglove flower. The elves of Mirkwood had frowned at the marks that marred her skin, but Legolas felt that each speckle danced across her skin like the stars in the heavens. Against the smooth white stone of Rivendell, her dark skin seemed to glow as copper under a summer sun as a testament to her divinity as the sun's creation. The light wind ruffled her bright carrot curls that the elven maids of Rivendell had tamed into silky spirals that cascaded down her slim shoulders. Despite their efforts to style it in the typical elvish manner, Ahshsla had tied it back in a more familiar manner. Two braids above her ears and two tied back to keep the front pieces from falling in her green eyes.

Her eyes.

In them, Legolas saw the life of the wild. Dark forests, floral meadows, and rolling hills shifted in the sunny, green expanse under her thin auburn brow. A warm summery smile etched its way onto her lively features as she stared into his blue eyes. He could feel his breath leave him as he surrendered to the warmth of her presence.