Avadis - A legolas story (slow moving!)

Chapter 51 - Preparing

"I wish I could come with you Avadis" Eowyn sighed as she leaned against a windowsill looking down to the remains of the battlefield beneath them. Her hair fell loosely down her back, catching the sunlight, turning it into a kind of glimmering waterfall. 

Avadis smiled at her, "you need to rest Eowyn." She scanned Eowyn's arms with her eyes, both still carefully wrapped with white linen where the scars of her battle with the Witch King had crept up from her hands. It was a miracle she was alive at all. 

"The thought of you all going off on this adventure while I sit here and wait for news only fills me with more dread." Eowyn frowned and turned back to look at Avadis sternly. "If anything goes wrong, even in the slightest, you will come back and tell me won't you? Don't leave me waiting here for a horse and his rider, you have wings." 

Avadis smiled and shuffled slightly in her seat, "of course I will." 

The pair fell into silence as Eowyn went back to staring out of her balcony. Avadis noticed how she fidgeted with the ends of her bandages in her hands, her eyes constantly darting around her with worry. It seemed it was not possible for her to rest in the slightest, even when she is confined to the healing houses. Suddenly a thought came to Avadis' mind and she reached down into her bag beside her. 

"Eowyn come, let me show you something." Avadis brought out her notebook and paints that she had kept stored neatly away. Eowyn pushed herself from the wall and came and sat against the edge of her bed, looking curiously at what Avadis was holding. 

"You paint?" Eowyn raised an eyebrow with surprise. Avadis opened the pages of her book slowly, stopping at a painting she had made of the horses at the stables of Rohan. 

"They are beautiful! I could almost smell they hay." Eowyn remarked, running her hands over the paper which had crinkled slightly from the dried watercoloured paints. 

Avadis laughed, "thank you, but it is a hobby and nothing more. I could not bare living in the forest for all those hundred of years without something to keep my mind busy. Its been a while now since I have finished one at all."

"It must have been torture, not being able to leave such a dark place for so long." 

"Dark? No, not dark. Only mysterious. I like it like that, it suits me nicely." Avadis smiled and handed the book over to Eowyn with a blank page. "Here, try paint something."

Eowyn shook her head immediately, "no! No I couldn't. I would ruin this entire book I am sure." But Avadis did not take no for an answer, filling up a glass with water and carefully mixing the damp brush in with a bright blue colour. "Here, take this. Make the sky." 

Eowyn glanced at her reluctantly before realising she was serious and carefully taking the brush, painting a blue streak across the top of the page, carefully and slowly. "Good! Now try adding a darker grey, make some rolling clouds like you see outside like this." Avadis carefully added small clumps of grey into the sky with the lightest touch of the brush, creating a whisp of cloud in the middle of Eowyn's sky. 

"I don't think I can" Eowyn laughed in concentration as she tried to gently dap the brush against the painting, instead making a large droplet of the watery paint form on the page and slowly drip down to the bottom. "Oh no! I have ruined it! I told you, I cannot paint. I do not have the eye that you do for it." 

Avadis laughed, "no you haven't! Here let us turn it into something else! Perhaps it can be the top on a large mountain?" 

Eowyn squinted her eyes and stuck her tongue out slightly, her hand carefully taking the paint droplet and forming it into a large triangular mountain that reached up into the blue sky. Then she leant back slightly with a look of satisfaction on her face. "You know, from back here if I squint my eyes and tilt my head slightly it almost looks like it is meant to be something!" Eowyn laughed as she tried to tilt the paper up in the light, dripping more paint down onto her dress. 

Avadis giggled and mopped up the paint droplets from the edge of the page with her sleeve. "You are an artist in the making I am sure. If I am honest, I am jealous of your view here from your room. It would be just wonderful to paint."

Eowyn glanced back out of her window again, this time not in the stressed manor that she had been the last few weeks. She began to notice the colours and shapes of things that she had not even realised were there. "I suppose you are right."

Avadis placed the paint palet carefully on the bedside table. "Would you mind if I left these here with you? I do not particularly want to take them into battle with me, I fear they would be broken." In truth she could just as easily have left them in her room for someone to find when she was gone, but she saw now that her friend was needing the same escape that she had needed when she was alone in her foresty home. 

"Of course! I will do my best to keep them safe." Eowyn delicately put the paints in a drawer and closed it carefully. "I'll try and and savour whatever I can from that painting as well before you come back, but I make no promises." 

Avadis laughed, "Leave it in the sunlight to dry and you can paint over any mistakes you make, I have done that many times."

There was a soft knock at the door. "Come in!" Eowyn called out. A tall, blonde haired man walked into the room, also wrapped in bandages. He stood awkwardly in the doorway, his eyes darting between Eowyn and Avadis. 

"So sorry, I did not mean to interupt" he said politely with a small smile to Avadis. 

"No do not be silly! Come in and meet my friend. Avadis, this is Faramir, Captain of the White Tower and son of the late Steward. He has been keeping my company while we both stay in this horrid place together."

"A pleasure to meet you Faramir" Avadis stood with a small smile and shook his hand, quickly sizing him up with Gandalf's words in her mind. Tall, broad shoulders, strong stance, polite and regal. She quickly glanced over at Eowyn behind her with raised eyebrows, a look that certainly didn't go unnoticed by her friend. 

"The pleasure is all mine, I have heard much of you from many people the last few days. I would have liked to have met you sooner had I not been here with Eowyn." His gaze quickly left Avadis and went on to Eowyn, causing her to quickly look the other way with a smile. Avadis grinned at the ground but quickly composed herself for the sake of not embarrasing her friend.  

"I was just about to take my leave, I believe the uh hobbits need help organising for tomorrow" Avadis fumbled with her words slightly and smiled at Eowyn who only rolled her eyes in return. Eowyn stood and walked over to her, taking Avadis' hands in her own. 

"You will be safe, won't you? And make sure everyone else is safe as well." 

Avadis smiled and squeezed her hands softly, "all will be well. Spend less time worrying and more time resting and perhaps you can come and visit us when we return." She had to swallow an "if" so as to not make her friend more concerned. She looked over to Faramir, "you will make sure she rests, won't you?"

"Indeed I will" he smiled, "come on, sit down and share a drink with me." Eowyn hugged Avadis tightly before taking a seat at the table with a cup of tea. 

"So long" Avadis said with a smile, turning to take her leave of them. As she closed the door, she smiled at the image of the two of them sitting in the silhouette of the windowsill. It wasn't until the door clicked shut that her smile fell and the feeling of dread once again took hold of her deep in her stomach. 

That would be the last time she would see her friend. How was her friend going to react when she sees the armies returning to Gondor and looks to the skies to see nothing. No, don't think of these things. Avadis caught herself before she spiralled into her sorrows and instead fixed her shoulders and put the smile back on her face before turning away from the door, walking away without any thought of looking back.

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Hey everyone! It's been a while, now it's a brand new year! 

I have to admit my enthusiasm for this story dropped away for a while, but I'm determined to at least finish this storyline how I planned it out to be when I started. But I do love these characters, and I really hope that you do as well. Let me know if you are enjoying it, I think it would help me to write more! 

Stay safe and have a good morning/afternoon/evening!

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